CIVIL GOVERNMENT

Excerpted from HOLDING FAST OUR CONFESSION : McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Amazon.com.au: Books                                                     

                                                        CIVIL GOVERNMENT 

WCF CHAPTER 23, Sections 1-4. Of the Civil Magistrate.

I. God, the Supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people, for his own glory and the publick good; and to this end, hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defence and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil-doers.

II. It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a magistrate when called thereunto; in the managing whereof, as they ought especially to maintain piety, justice, and peace, according to the wholesome laws of each commonwealth, so, for that end, they may lawfully, now under the New Testament, wage war upon just and necessary occasions.

III. The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven: yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed. For the better effecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God.[1]

IV. It is the duty of the people to pray for magistrates, to honour their persons, to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience’ sake. Infidelity, or difference in religion, doth not make void the magistrate’s just and legal authority, nor free the people from their obedience to him: from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted; much less hath the Pope any power or jurisdiction over them in their dominions, or over any of their people; and least of all to deprive them of their dominions or lives, if he shall judge them to be hereticks, or upon any other pretence whatsoever.

Introduction

Surely all Christians are familiar with the evangelical mission instituted by Jesus Christ? Surely every Christian worth his salt wilfully engages in – and delights in – what has become known as the “Great Commission.” The Great Commission, among other things, has a great deal to do with Christians being the “salt of the earth and the light of the world”, which is to say that the Great Commission has to do with bringing the Gospel to bear upon all nations. At the heart of the Great Commission is the message of redemption through Christ’s cross. It is this message of salvation that is for the healing or transformation of the nations.

When considered in terms of ‘salt’ and ‘light’, and ‘healing of the nations’, it is easy to see that the Great Commission degenerates into an exercise in the promotion of an otherworldly pietism if it is separated from the Cultural Mandate of Genesis. There is nothing wrong with being pious, for being pious is simply being Godly. However, being pietistic is another matter – don’t confuse pietism with godliness. For Pietism regards the earth and its inhabitants as the realm of the devil. If you detach the Great Commission of Matthew 28:16-20 from the Cultural Mandate, given by God to man in Genesis 1:26-28, you end up with Pietism. But the Great Commission is about the redemption of all the nations. However, the pietist reduces that redemption to individual souls; and may even go as far as to exclude the physical bodies of these individuals.

Pietism sees the Kingdom of Heaven as something that retreats and withdraws itself from the world, rather than the power that heals, renews, and transforms the world. Think about it, God gave the Cultural Mandate to mankind before the Fall. In the Cultural Mandate mankind was commissioned to have dominion over all earthly creatures and subdue the earth to the glory of God. In other words, the Cultural Mandate was God’s command to man to spread His Kingdom of Heaven throughout all the earth.

The Garden of Eden was the Kingdom of Heaven’s geographic and spiritual centre. When man fell the Cultural Mandate wasn’t revoked. It still remained. However, God added a new aspect to it when the household of Noah with the birds and animals exited the ark after the global flood. It’s important that you see this. Otherwise, you may end up with a Pietistic view of the world. You may end up thinking of governments as evil institutions. To be sure, like everything else in a fallen world, governments will have their share of corruption. However, their right to rule, as we’ll see shortly, has been divinely instituted.

Reason for Civil Government

Civil government has been divinely instituted. For God, the supreme Lord and King of the whole world, has appointed civil rulers or authorities to be under Him over the people for His own glory and the public good. It’s important that you see that civil government is much more than just some necessary evil that we must bear with in a fallen world.

Keep in mind that Adam before the fall was commissioned by God to tend and to keep the Garden of Eden. The Hebrew word translated ‘keep’ has to do with guarding or policing. Therefore, Adam was commissioned by God to protect God’s creation, which included also his wife, Eve, and his children when they arrived.

           Now, it’s not hard to see that order would need to be kept when mankind began to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth while subduing it. Therefore, civil government is part of the natural growth of humanity. Families would naturally form into states and nations. And, just as families have the ruling structure of parents, so civil governments would be needed to rule in states and nations. Therefore, the Cultural Mandate has a definable order to it. It’s not every man for himself!

God, being the God of order, all things, including being fruitful, multiplying, filling the earth and subduing it and having dominion, must be done decently and in order. When Noah came out of the ark, which was, of course, after the fall, the same Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1: 26-28 was reissued.

We see in Genesis 9:5-7 civil government being given the “power of the sword”. For the LORD says, “Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. ‘Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.’”

So, we see then that God seeks to protect the public good by having murderers punished. The punishment as laid out in Genesis 9:5-6 is death, i.e., capital punishment. The authority for meting out capital punishment is not given to the family or the church. Rather it is given only to the civil government of the State. And, just as we have noted the connection between the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1:26-28 and repeated with the capital punishment amendment in Genesis 9:1-7, so we need to see the connection between Genesis 9:1-7 and Romans 13:1-7. For in Romans 13:1-7 we see that the civil government or the civil authority is God’s minister. Romans 13:1b says that ‘…the authorities that exist are appointed by God.’ And then in Romans 13:4 we are told, ‘For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.’

Pre-Fall the Cultural Mandate was issued under the terms of the Covenant of Works, whereby unfallen man would ‘surely die’ (Gen. 2:17) by the hand of God should he sin (Rom. 6:23a). After the Fall, and under the Covenant of Grace, should man be guilty of a capital offence, “…by man his blood shall be shed…” Thus, the civil authority “…is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” The death-penalty threatened pre-Fall has become a present reality.

So, we see then that civil governments are divinely appointed. They have a divine purpose. They are to promote good works and prohibit and punish evil deeds. In a word, the civil government is to be about the business of serving God by promoting and rewarding public good while it protects the public from evildoers. Thus, the civil government is about guarding or policing, i.e., protecting the innocent.

We hear an echo of the task of pre-Fall civil government in Romans 13:3, “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.” So, the civil magistrate or civil government is to praise good. Therefore, civil government is not only about punishing evildoers. It is also about giving praise to doers of good – just as would have been the case in an unfallen world. So, we see in light of this that Christians may lawfully accept and carry out the functions of civil rulers. There is nothing unlawful about the office of civil government. Indeed, as we’ve seen, civil government has been instituted by God for the good of the public. Therefore, we ought to keep in mind that the general public would benefit greatly from having Godly Christians in government when called to it.

Now, the spread of the Kingdom of Heaven is greatly enhanced when the Great Commission is viewed atop the pedestal of the Cultural Mandate. Nay, both are part of the same sculpture of God. For Civil Government plays a key role in spreading the teachings of Christ amongst the municipality, state or nation under its lawful authority.

As Jesus says in the Great Commission passage: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them [i.e., all the nations] in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them [i.e., all the nations] to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So, we see clearly then that the civil government has been given its authority by Jesus Christ who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. And we see clearly that the reason the civil government exists is to assist in teaching the nations to observe or obey all those things Jesus has commanded. The civil government has been given authority to also use the sword to teach the nations.

Rights of Civil Government

Civil government has certain God-given rights. As we’ve seen, it has the right to promote good deeds, and it has the right to punish evildoers. Indeed, civil governments have the right to wage war on lawful and just occasions. For not only does the civil government have the right to punish evildoers who commit capital offences with capital force within its nation, but it also has the right to repel with force other nations attempting to invade. If Adolf Hitler and his nation are trying to invade your island-state, then you must bear arms to repel him. For a war to be just and lawful it needs to be a defensive war. It needs to be a war of protection, rather than aggression. To be sure when the bullets start flying it all can become a bit of a grey area!

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Now, the civil government doesn’t have the right to interfere in every aspect of society. For instance, the civil government is overstepping its authority and jurisdiction if it tries to take to itself the power of God’s Word and Sacraments. For this authority has been given only to the Lord’s Church. The civil government has the power of the sword. But the church has the power of the keys, i.e., the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

The church doesn’t have the authority to administer capital punishment. And the civil government doesn’t have the authority to administer church discipline or the Sacraments. Civil government must not interfere in the spiritual government of the church. However, because the civil government is to promote public good and deter public evil, it does have authority and is obliged to ensure that unity and peace are preserved in the church.

And the civil government is to ensure that the truth of God is kept pure and complete. In the Bible there is no hint that any civil government is supposed to be or to remain secular, i.e., nonreligious. To be sure the civil government at the time of Christ and the Apostle Paul was pagan. However, who would conclude that because the civil government at the time of Christ was pagan, that we today ought to ensure that all civil government be or remain non-Christian? And yet the Pietists today believe in secular government!

The Pietist confuses the separation of state and church with separation between state and religion. Therefore, it’s far better to speak of the distinction between church and state, rather than any separation. The church and the state are two distinct spheres in Christ’s Kingdom. However, the Pietist is guilty of compartmentalizing life into the dualistic sacred and secular. He sees church activities as sacred, and every other activity outside the church as secular. Thus, the Pietist has given the realm outside the church to the devil. He’s forgotten that the Cultural Mandate is as spiritual as the Great Commission! Indeed, the Great Commission is the Cultural Mandate obeyed in the power of the Spirit! For, it is the Holy Spirit who appoints civil authority as well as ecclesiastical authority. And because the civil ruler is God’s minister, the work he does is a spiritual work.

Therefore, both state and church are spiritual institutions ordained by God. And as such, the church ought to assist the state to promote the spiritual wellbeing of its citizens. And likewise, the State ought to assist the church to promote the spiritual wellbeing of its members. However, this is a far cry from saying that each has the right to interfere in the jurisdiction of the other.

But the state ought to promote unity and peace in the church and seek to ensure that the truth of God is kept pure and entire. For how else is the Civil Government supposed to lawfully keep order in society if people in the church are able to murder each other without the civil government punishing the evildoers? Yet the pietist believes that the church is to remain separate from the state, i.e., out of the jurisdiction of civil government. It reeks of pagan and Romish ‘Sanctuary’!

It is the truth of God that gives the civil government its authority. Therefore, it would do well to ensure that the truth of God is kept pure and complete. Therefore, the civil government ought to involve itself in the suppression of blasphemy and heresy. Just think of the blasphemy on the street, on TV and in the movies today. Do you think there ought to be a law deterring and even preventing the blasphemy of God? Well, if you do, and so you ought, how do you think this kind of thing should be policed? Is public censorship the realm of the church or the civil government?

It’s the same with all public obscenity, isn’t it? The civil government has the authority to promote good and deter evil. Heresy is teaching things contrary to the truth of God. To be sure, the civil government would do well to promote the truth of God. For that way its citizens would know more exactly what is good and what is evil.

Now, perhaps the idea of the civil government trying to suppress heresy conjures up a picture in your mind of Gestapo-like police bursting down doors to enter private residences. Perhaps you think that this encroaches on the citizen’s rights of freedom of speech. Well, how is the civil government’s attempting to suppress blasphemy any different to its attempting to suppress heresy? If civil government can pass laws against blasphemy, then it can pass laws to stem heresy.

Now, what exactly do we mean by heresy? A Scottish Christian in the early 1800s by the affectionate nickname of ‘Rabbi’ Duncan poured oil on the troubled waters of heresy when he reportedly said,

It is a monstrous thing that that horrible word ‘heresy’ is now used on all occasions so freely and applied so recklessly to all error. All error is not heresy… Heresy is a work of the flesh and no man can be charged with it, even on a fundamental, till, after faithful admonishment, he persists in it, knowing that he does so.[2]

The church doesn’t run around disciplining every person holding erroneous views of Scriptural doctrines. Neither does the civil government. It’s only when the unity and peace of the church is in a turmoil by a known heretic persisting after faithful church admonition that the civil government should consider acting. And when and if the civil government does decide to act on a case of heresy, it must always remember justice tempered with mercy – lest it inflame the situation.

So, not only does the civil government have authority to promote unity and peace in the church, which includes suppressing blasphemy and heresy, but it also ought to try to ensure that all corruptions and abuses of worship and discipline are prevented and reformed.

And not only that, the civil government has authority to ensure that all services or ordinances of God are duly established, administered and celebrated. In a word, the civil government has the authority to promote the wellbeing of the church. It is to try to ensure that the church functions as the church.

To be sure the civil government may not usurp the authority of the church. However, as Rowland Ward says, “In a somewhat similar way, the state encourages the arts and sciences, but does not presume to determine authoritatively matters discussed by these disciplines.”[3]

In order to carry out its duty the civil government has the authority to call and be present at church meetings. This, of course, would seem like the obvious thing for the civil government to do were the church extremely disorganised and corrupt. But it is the duty of God’s civil ministers to strive to see that whatever is transacted at these meetings (should they be called) is in accordance with the truth of God.

We see an example of a civil ruler call a meeting with the church authorities in 2 Chronicles 19:8f. “Moreover in Jerusalem, for the judgment of the LORD and for controversies, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites and priests, and some of the chief fathers of Israel, when they returned to Jerusalem.” And we see King Herod do likewise in Matthew 2:4, “And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.” To be sure, Herod had evil in mind when he called that meeting. But nevertheless, Herod was God’s appointed authority.

We noted above that we are following the original text of Chapter 23.3. The American church changed that text possibly leading to the marginalisation of Christ’s Church in the West. Usually, Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists is cited for the idea of the separation of Church and State, which, in time, became in the eyes of the Secularists, the separation of God and State. Jefferson wrote, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” RC Sproul comments on some of the differences between the American version and the original text (which we favour). While quoting the beginning of the American version, Sproul says,

    Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and the sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; or, in the least, interfere in matters of faith. [Thus the first few lines of the American version]. We are not examining the Constitution of the United States of America, but a theological confession concerning the proper relationship between the state and the church. Nevertheless, section 3 of chapter 23 is an American revision of the original confessional text. The words quoted here follow the original version in substance from “Civil magistrates may not assume” to “the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” After that, the American text goes on to set forth a theory of church-state relations substantially different from that of the seventeenth-century British Reformers. In their view, it was the responsibility of the state to suppress heresy, to prevent or reform corrupt worship, and so forth. The idea of an institutional church-state separation developed later in the American context.[4]

Respect for Civil Government

The Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, teaches us to pray for all who are in authority. For he says in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”

Notice the reasons Paul gives for praying for all who are in authority: “…that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life…” We pray for the civil government so that we can live quiet or tranquil and peaceable or undisturbed lives. But notice what kind of quiet and peaceable life we are to lead. “…that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”

The word ‘godliness’ speaks of piety – not to be confused with pietism. Piety has to do with right thinking and right living. And the word ‘reverence’ speaks of honesty. So, we are to pray that we will be able to live tranquil, undisturbed, pious, and honest lives. And we see clearly that the civil government has a major role in ensuring that we live this kind of life. Therefore, we need to respect the civil government, which is to say that we mustn’t view the civil government as a necessary evil. Nor ought we to view the civil government as belonging to the realm of the devil. No, they are ministers of God. They wield the sword of justice!

The Pietist views the civil government as belonging to the devil. Therefore, he views the civil authorities with contempt. But the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2:13-14, “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.”

So, we are to pray for the civil government. We are to honour it. We are to pay it taxes and other dues because they are God’s ministers, (Romans 13:6-7). We are to obey their lawful commands for the sake of a clear conscience (Rom. 13:5).

Now, we need to keep in mind that the civil authority is not made void because the person is not a Christian. Jesus taught that we are to render unto Caesar the things that are (even pagan) Caesar’s. Therefore, even if the whole government comprises of unbelievers we are to obey all its lawful commands. “[N]othing that is contrary to the Law of God can be lawful, nor may it be so regarded by those that fear God.”[5]

Therefore, we mustn’t pietistically think we are exempt from obeying the civil authorities just because we are Christians. No religious leaders are exempt from this. Church ministers and elders need to pay their speeding fines like everyone else! All of us must respect the authorities God has put in place.

Conclusion

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       Having noted that Civil Government exists by divine appointment, and does not therefore belong to the devil, but rather God, we are now able to see where the State fits into the Great Commission. The Church and the Civil Government are two distinct entities operating in one nation. Both are to operate according to God’s Moral Law as it applies to each of these distinct spheres.

Now, even were the civil government not to acknowledge that it is God’s minister for good, doesn’t change the fact that it is God’s minister. Therefore, because the civil government is God’s minister we can see that God has placed it there for a very good reason. The reason in terms of the Cultural Mandate is to assist the nation to be obedient to God’s command to spread the Kingdom of Heaven. On account of sin, the Kingdom of Heaven this side of the Fall, is spread by the nation becoming obedient to everything Christ has commanded. Thus, the Cultural Mandate has become empowered by the Holy Spirit who has been poured out on all nations.

This is what the Great Commission is all about. It’s not about rescuing people from nations about to be destroyed because they belong to the devil. Rather it’s about healing – healing the nations from the misery of sin and death. The Great Commission is about Jesus Christ setting the nations free from their bondage to sin. We’ve seen that the Civil Government has a very important role to play in this healing.

Psalm 67 is a helpful prayer and summary of what we’ve looked at: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the people praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.”

---

[1] WCF Section 3 here follows the original text.

[2] Iain D. Campbell, Heroes & Heretics, Pivotal Moments in 20 Centuries of the Church, (Christian Focus, Fearn, Ross-shire, 2004), Endnote 21, 198.

[3] Rowland S. Ward, The Westminster Confession of Faith for the Church Today, A modernised text and commentary commemorating the 350^th Anniversary of the Westminster Assembly 1643-49, (Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia, Wantirna, Victoria, 1992), 165.

[4] R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess, A Layman’s Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith, Volume Three, The State, The Family, The Church, and Last Things, (P & R Publishing, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 2007), 17-18.

[5] Johannes G Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary, 349.

See also: Revisionist Confessional History - Presbycast Pravda

THE ADVENTURES OF RODERICK RANDOM

The Adventures of Roderick Random is a great read! Written in the mid-1700s by a man from the same town in Scotland in which I grew up (Vale of Leven). 

Smollett has a beautifully descriptive and poetic turn of phrase, is witty, and has an acute eye for human foibles and our fallen disposition. 

This is Stevenson's Treasure Island and Scott's Rob Roy rolled into one! 

This novel is surprisingly modern, not in language (which nevertheless is exquisite), but in its vivid description of human nature when faced with feast or famine. Loved it!

WRITERS' BLOCK

                                                                WRITERS’ BLOCK

We've started a wee Christian writers’ group called WRITERS’ BLOCK. We meet once on month at The Park, Oasis Church, Bray Park. I usually start us off with prayer and a reminder from God’s Word what we’re up to, then read a short but relevant message to hopefully help inspire our discussions.

The Word of Words

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        “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). “God … has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2 abbr.). “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” (Rev. 22:13). “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.’” (Matt. 12:35-37).

Jesus is God’s first Word and He is God’s last Word to human beings. He is the beginning and the end of the alphabet. Therefore, not only is Jesus the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, He is also the Word of words. Thus, every word and ever letter of every word used by humans somehow points to Jesus. Let us, therefore, as Christian writers, use our every word to His praise.

Get the Point

“And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh” (Eccl. 12:9-12).

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Though Solomon here has preachers and preaching in mind, there is much we, as Christian writers, regardless of writing genre, can learn from these verses. The general principle for preaching and/or writing is that we ought to use pithy, short sentences punctuated by well-chosen words. Why? So “that good matter might not be spoiled by bad style” Matthew Henry.

We keep the reader’s interest if they get the point(s) (i.e., the goads) we are trying to convey (i.e., the well-driven nails). Between the Internet and a well-stocked library, we have many resources available. Though it can be “wearisome,” e.g., before attempting to write a novel, books by popular novelists can be consulted, paying close attention to writing style, use of words, sentence structure and length, paragraph lengths etc. However, the idea is not simply to emulate others but to utilise the personal gifts God, (i.e., the “one Shepherd”) has bestowed on us for His glory.

Audiovisual

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 In the old days movies had no sound. They were purely visual. Actors had to overdramatise to help get the message across. Films became more realistic with the arrival of the “Talkies.” Thus, the audiovisual was born. Though not a perfect analogy, we see something of this where king Belshazzar saw the dramatic writing on the wall. Visual. Daniel supplied the audio when he verbalised the visual, saying to Belshazzar, “[God] sent the hand that wrote the inscription” (Dan. 5:24).               

Without the audio, though the visual may be dramatic, such as a detached hand that was writing on a wall, its meaning is left to the viewer’s imagination. For example, take creation. The sun, the moon, and the stars in a clear night sky. Silent but dramatic! “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them” (Psa. 19:1-3). Without the audio, i.e., the Bible, creation’s meaning gets distorted in the eye of the beholder. However, as with audiovisual, i.e., creation with the Bible, creation’s true meaning is clear: God’s glory!

Hearing the Gospel proclaimed is the audio. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the Gospel visualised, i.e., audiovisualised.

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When we write novels or screenplays, we are supplying audio to the visual. Whether describing something abstract, such as a floating hand that writes on walls, or describing something more concrete, like a starry night sky, we are painting pictures with our words. Whether describing something we have seen or creating something out of our own imagination, writers are doing audiovisual. Sculptors and painters say things visually by their art. Visual. Writers verbalise the visual. Whereas the focus of screenplay writers is more about visualising the verbal, novelists are about the business of verbalising the visual. Thus, both operate in the sphere of audiovisual.

Just as the Creator created creation for His own glory, we Christian writers “create” our novels and screenplays for God’s glory too. 

PETS

                                                                            Pets

One I snapped in Springsure, Queensland

        Anyone who has gone through the trauma of losing a family pet knows how attached we become to them. Maybe your pet has been accidently run over by a car. Or worse, maybe someone has killed it intentionally. There are times when we have had to have an elderly pet put down. The death of a pet bird, cat, dog, or even a goldfish, can bring on grief. It can leave us heartbroken. We can fall in love with our pets and mourn their loss.

There is a well-known nursery rhyme called “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” One can picture the lamb following Mary everywhere she went. There is also a Bible story about a poor family that owned a pet lamb, their only lamb. Its death was used to tug the tender heartstrings of the famous harp player and songwriter, David, the shepherd king, after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. It was designed to bring about his repentance and for him to seek God’s mercy.

“The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, ‘There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. ‘Now a traveller came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.’ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’ (2 Sam. 12:1-6).

Could you imagine how the family that had their pet lamb stolen, slain, and then eaten by someone would have felt? How would you feel? Would you feel like David did? He burned with anger towards him. Why? “Because he did such a thing and had no pity.” It was then that Nathan sprung his trap by saying to David, “You are the man!”

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        The Bible speaks of Jesus as, “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8b). This means that God always had it in mind to have His incarnate Son killed by wicked human beings. “This Man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). Are we reminded of the Lord’s messenger Nathan’s parable here? Nathan, by saying to David, “You are the man!” made the message personal. In so doing, as the Spirit enabled, he showed up David’s sins of adultery, murder, theft, covetousness, etc. By illustrating that David was the man that killed the lamb, he brought about David’s conviction.

Have you recognised that this is what God is doing with His Gospel whenever you hear it? The heart of the Gospel is about the death of His only begotten Son, i.e., “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29b). A line in the hymn, How Deep the Father’s Love, captures the idea, “It was my sin that held Him there, Until it was accomplished, His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.” Can you see that you are the one that killed the Lamb? Has God confronted you and convicted you of your sins yet? And have you, like David, begged for His forgiveness?

TRUMP 2.0

Excerpted from my SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall. See, eg, Amazon AU for a copy: SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall : McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Amazon.com.au: Books

Trump 2.0

The Gospel sets us free. And we must stand firm in that freedom. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage’ (Galatians 5:1).

At its founding, the USA got the Gospel right, and God blessed America. To be sure, the founders ought to have mentioned Jesus in their 1776 Declaration of Independence and their 1789 Constitution. But the “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” line stirs complacent and even recalcitrant hearts to take notice.

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Could you imagine what it would be like to leave a country where there is no freedom of speech? We take all the freedom we have for granted. Well, some countries shoot people for complaining about government policy. It must have been great being a refugee from one of these countries, sailing into New York for instance. There’s the Statue of Liberty up ahead. You’re on a boat full of people fleeing the bondage of persecution. Then someone on the boat tells you about this great statue you see growing taller as you grow closer. They quote to you some of the words written on it:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

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         Alas! America opened her borders to the world from 2021-2025. Along with those “yearning to breathe free” came sex and child-traffickers, thieves, rapists, murderers, who robbed, raped, pillaged and murdered their way across the USA. Obviously, these were not exercising the freedom that comes from the Gospel but were clearly illustrating by their actions that they were still in bondage to sin. There was an unforgettable scene at the end of the first Planet of the Apes movie. Charleton Heston (who played Moses in The Ten Commandments) is walking along a sandy beach. He sees the neck and shoulders of a great object jutting out of the sand. It’s the Statue of Liberty half-submerged. Enter Donald J. Trump.

            Trump “lost” the 2020 election which took place during the fog and smog of the COVID-19 pandemic. We all went to bed with Trump well in the lead while the vote-counting continued, only rise in the morning to hear about truckloads of postal votes that had swayed the election against him. Mollie Hemmingway wrote a book about this weird event titled, RIGGED How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections. With eighty-four pages of endnotes, she accurately details how the 2020 US election was rigged. She writes, “This book rose out of a desire to do what the media failed to do: investigate how the election was handled in a year when states, counties, and cities rapidly changed their election procedures with minimal oversight.”[1] Hemmingway also wrote,

            The 2020 election is just the tip of the iceberg. The left’s vehement anti-Trumpism – and willingness to lie, contort reality, and ruin Trump’s supporters to advance its agenda – has undermined half the country’s faith in America’s most vaunted institutions. Restoring that trust will take a gargantuan effort. And regrettably, it does not look like anyone in the political and cultural establishment is willing to do the work required to do so.[2]

Then followed the four years of open borders, multiple fake Trump impeachment trials, from lunatic “Russian Collusion” nonsense to fake rape accusations. Trump spent months attending a New York court defending his good name. This was “lawfare” on steroids! Despite the very pits of hell being arrayed against him, the voters voted in the “too big to rig” 2024 election. The 45^th president became 47^th.

Trump switched from Twitter to his own Truth Social social media outlet. Twitter was bought over by Elon Musk and shifted from being a Leftist propaganda platform to being more of a “free speech” platform. Having learned from his first term as president, this time round, because he could clearly see during the interim four years all those who were the furtive players, from dodgy army generals to backstabbing politicians, Trump was able to drain “the swamp” even more. Because of their ungodly and demonic smear campaigns, the Democrats were confident that Trump had no chance of ever winning again. They thought their trumped-up charges applied by activist judges would ensure that the bad “orange man” would be wearing an orange jumpsuit in some prison. But alas! the forces of neo-Marxism were slowed down if not halted in the USA – for now.

The Democrat Party has been taken hostage by the extreme left of its party. It is no longer the party of JFK. Now it is all about same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and locking up anyone who disagrees with abortion, even late term abortion, state education policies, open borders, illegal immigration, etc. In other words, it demonises and shouts down and tries to shut up and even lock up any who disagree with its politics.

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            Even here in Australia I have personally witnessed what has become known as Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). This phrase was initially coined by the late Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) to refer to vitriolic responses and reactions to George W Bush when he was president. Regarding President Trump, I have witnessed people go into “meltdown” at the mere mention of Trump’s name! They have become something resembling a toxic bubbling and smouldering heap of sulphuric acid such as may happen when a car battery is dropped on concrete.

Not the most reliable go-to source for accurate information, Wikipedia says that “Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) is a pejorative term used to describe negative reactions to U.S. president Donald Trump that are characterized as irrational and disconnected from Trump’s actual policy positions.” Another word for TDS is pure hatred of a man, which, as Wikipedia surprisingly accurately states, is “irrational and disconnected.” Someone needs to write a doctoral dissertation on TDS. TDS is sin! And, as my old theological professor would say, “Often we cannot figure out sin, because sin is irrational.”

Why does the mention of President Trump create such a negative reaction in some people even here in Australia? A lot of this can be traced back and attributed to Saul Alinski’s Rules for Radicals approach of demonising your political opponents, “by calling them names – Racist, fascist, misogynist, Islamophobe, homophobe, transphobe, bigot etc., etc. Thus, like acid being thrown in a person’s face, or turning a blowtorch on him/her, your opponent is inundated and blasted with vitriolic hate and hatred. Make no mistake, to demonize your opponent is to spread hate. We now can see the success of using this method for extending the Socialist’s cause. Exhibit A: TDS.

            One is reminded of Saul who, after his conversion to Christianity, became the Apostle Paul. Speaking of before his conversion, when he used to persecute the Church, we are given a picture of Saul's heart where it says, “Saul, [was] still breathing threats of murder…” (Acts 9:1a). Now, it is argued by some, that because Donald Trump has not understood that the way of salvation is through faith, not of works (Eph. 2:8-9), he cannot possibly be a Christian. That being understood, Scripture says, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding n him” (1 John 3:15). The general principle here is that, just as a man lusting after a woman who is not his wife has committed adultery with her in his heart has broken God’s 7^th Commandment (Matt. 5:28; Exod. 20:14), so hating someone in your heart is breaking the 6^th Commandment (Exod. 20:13; Matt. 5:21-22; Rom. 13:9). Disagreeing with someone’s politics is one thing, but fuelling hatred is another.

Socialism is a worldview. In other words, Socialism is a religion. Some Christians have been fooled into thinking that Socialism is a form of Christianity endorsed by the Bible. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Neo-Marxism is its most militant form of expression. Though Socialism poses as a movement about loving your neighbour, like Islam, it has been exposed as a religion of hate. Trump 2.0 has been used by God to warn Christians to shun it.   

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[1] Mollie Hemingway, RIGGED How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, (Regnery, Washington DC, 2021), 333.

[2] Ibid., 330.