HEAVENLY JUDGMENT
Where do Christian moral standards come from? We have the Ten Commandments and something that Jesus said was a more fundamental and all-embracing law: to love your neighbour as yourself. I don’t think anyone would quibble about the Ten Commandments. But the rest of the Jewish law books, the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, they are heavy going. There are hundreds of rules and regulations. But let’s be clear: for Jews, unlike Christian fundamentalists, they are a living text. The meaning is not fixed. The Torah is constantly being interpreted by Jewish scholars in the context of contemporary living.
A special church obsession at present is sexual orientation. The seventh commandment in the Deuteronomy version of the Ten Commandments (5:6-21) says we must not commit adultery, which presumably includes fornication; and sodomy is a form of fornication. For modern Jews, however, homosexual orientation seems to be a grey area. The famous London Rabbi, Lionel Blue, freely admits he is gay, and it doesn’t seem to dent his reputation as a wise and articulate ambassador for Judaism. Of course, as always in the Jewish community, there is rich diversity of opinion.
I wish we were focussed on more important things than this issue, but it has been made so central recently. So how do we Christians shape our moral judgments about sexual orientation? Is there a standard Christian set of rules? In spite of the fundamentalists, I think the answer is ‘no’. The Anglican Church authorities have agreed on a moratorium on gay weddings and said that the consecration of an openly gay bishop was insensitive and divisive, but there is no consensus regarding sexual orientation in itself. The Archbishop of Canterbury personally takes a liberal view, but hard-line fundamentalists insist that homosexuality is an abomination to the LORD and the Archbishop loyally supports the bishop’s majority opinion about gay weddings.
Jesus said something about judging other people that he says three times altogether. He said it to Peter after he had declared his belief that Jesus was the Son of God: “I will give you the keys of heaven: what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16:19) Then, again in Matthew’s Gospel (18:19), he said the same thing to the disciples as a group. Finally, he said similar words to some disciples when he bestowed on them the Holy Spirit on the evening of his resurrection: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23)
This was revolutionary. No longer were people to be bound by a book of rules and have to offer expensive sin offerings from which the priests and moneychangers made a comfortable profit. People were to depend upon the Holy Spirit on a case-by-case basis. What a responsibility! No book of immutable rules but dependence, to some extent at least, on fallible human feelings and human reason.
I began by referring to the present obsession in church circles with sexual orientation. If you really feel the need to form a judgment about that, the guiding example should come from Jesus. Jesus never referred to homosexuals and, maybe, that is in itself an example for us. Twentieth century studies showed that sexual orientation varies a lot between individuals (homosexuals being about 7% of the population) and that was unlikely to be much different in Jesus’ time. In the New Testament homosexuality is only mentioned by Paul and that was in relation to the appalling promiscuity of the Roman upper classes
With homosexuality, we are not dealing with a matter of conscientious choice; we are dealing with a deep-seated and involuntary psychological condition, and with people who are trying to make the best of the cards they have been dealt. They may make good decisions or bad decisions, but we should not be over-hasty in judging what is a good or bad decision for someone else. For most of us no judgment on the matter is necessary: another person’s sexuality is none of our business; it is the way people live and the way they love and serve the community that matters.
There are much more important issues to address. What should we be doing about Muslim terrorists? Al Qaeda and the Taliban sincerely believe that Western society is decadent and immoral and that we are spoiling the world, physically and morally. Can we say that there is not a trace of justification for that? I’m not sure we can. All orthodox Moslems believe that Islam offers a better basis for world government than Christianity. That is a valid opinion but not if it means the punitive, violent and sexist kind of religion that is enforced by the Taliban. Moderate Islam, as it is more generally understood, is another matter; I can happily live alongside that. However, we are entitled to defend ourselves against violent fundamentalists. The consensus of ‘Christian’ nations is that the radical pacifism of Jesus is not really an option.
What about the environment? Surely there are moral issues there. Is our materialistic, money-obsessed, indulgent, lazy, ignorant, careless, individualistic and selfish society spoiling the world physically? The evidence is very strong indeed that we are doing a lot of harm, and public opinion is coming round to this view. More people are beginning to take their responsibilities seriously and do what little bit they can as individuals to lessen the damage we are doing. Even governments and big businesses are moving in response to the prophetic voice of science and the pressure of popular opinion. A picture of right and wrong in this area is rapidly taking shape, and I believe the Holy Spirit is behind this.
And what about birth control, abortion, genetic engineering, euthanasia, drug addiction, global poverty? New moral issues are emerging.
Jesus’ revolutionary shift of attention from scriptural statutes to a contextual morality of the conscience, both individual and social, applies not only to Christians; it applies to everyone, religious or not. Public attitudes determine the way the world is moving – towards perfection or perdition, and our secular legal system is not adequate as it stands. The law needs to be constantly reviewed, debated and improved. Ancient and venerated scriptures are not sufficient either unless they are sensibly interpreted for the times.
You might like to:
Ask the Holy Spirit to grant you greater wisdom in making judgments about some of the most pressing contemporary issues today.
Posted: September 10th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 3
Comments
Pingback from Christian ethics redux « Behold the man
Time: September 13, 2008, 5:21 pm
[...] Christian ethics redux An interesting piece by Brother William SSF: Heavenly Judgement [...]
Comment from Tracy Fox
Time: September 14, 2008, 1:49 pm
This is a curious philosophy you have since the bible repeatedly contradicts that notion. Christ himself clearly states in Mathew 5, without the possibility of misunderstanding the following: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
If you have the strength and the courage you will read the following biblical reference and ask yourself what the real motivation is behind this philosophy you have adopted.
Biblical Reference
1 John 2
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for[a] the sins of the whole world.
3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love[b] is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.
8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him[c] to make him stumble.
11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
12I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
14I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
Do Not Love the World
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Warning Against Antichrists
18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
[d] 21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
22Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.
23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.
25And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.
26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
Children of God
28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Mathew 5:17-20; Jesus Speaks on the Fulfillment of the Law
17″Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Comment from John Tracey
Time: September 20, 2008, 6:57 pm
A different understanding of the law
http://unlearningtheproblem.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/babylon-and-the-christian-church-in-australia/
The law that Jesus fulfilled by extinguishing the temple law was the covenant of Abraham, a law that preceded Moses Law and exists for ever, or as long as the men are circumcised, no matter what happens to the law of Moses.
The circumcision and the Sabbath laws, the manifestation of indigenous sovereignty to land, were either banned or corrupted by various invading and colonising forces leading up to the Roman occupation of Judea in the New Testament.
After God was put into a temple by Solomon, the law of Moses fell apart, beginning with the building of temple for other Gods and eventually resulting in Israel being divided into two kingdoms, Judea and Samaria, all descendents of David who is Buried in Jerusalem. The conflict between the Judeans and the Samaritans was twofold, 1/ The Samaritans held their rituals in the mountains whereas Judeans insisted that God should be worshipped in the temple where Solomon put him and 2/ The gentiles, the migrant multinational melting pot of a trade route society (like non-Aboriginal Australians), were being circumcised but they were not of the seed of Abraham, creating a considerable controversy, perhaps the most divisive of the new testament stories.
Also, the indigenous Samaritans had already been punished for the Sins of the offspring of Solomon, the lost ten tribes who God were given a new King and Covenant to establish the opposition Kingdom of Israel, but they stuffed that up to.
Jesus bloodline as outlined in Mathew, was protected from the same punishments that the other Children of David suffered for as long as they maintained the law in and of the temple where God still lived. However the corruption of the temple to Caesar and the culture of the Gentiles meant that the protection of God’s favour with David was broken, the bloodline of Jesus could no longer claim protection from Gods wrath and therefore its king had to die, to pay the price, the sacrificial lamb, for the unpunished sins of Solomon and his line.
When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, and the issue of worshipping in the mountains or temple is discussed, Jesus says the time will come when neither Samaria or Judea will have a temple to worship in. This prophecy came true in 70 AD when the temple story but I believe it happened before that, when God ripped the temple curtain during the crucifixion and left the box that Solomon put him in “I’m outa here”, just as John the Baptist did by doing business with God in the Jordan River not the temple.
The paying of the sin sacrifice for the desecration of the temple was the final release from temple law, the contract had ended with all debts, including the remaining unpaid sins of David’s line in Judea. The people were free to start again, just as every generation in the bible is given that offer.
To put this in a historical context, Jesus and John the Baptist ended the corrupted temple law, thus making the two kingdoms of David one, not by a united king as with David and Solomon but by the kingdom of God - an anarchist guerilla movement based in the wilderness in resistance to the structures of state, the Gentile Gods, governers and laws, just like Abraham did. The contract of circumcision, the covenant between God and Abrahams descendents was not extinguished, it was fulfilled by the extinguishment of the corrupted temple law.
As Brother William says in the post, the problem with new testament homosexuality is not because it is an abomination to Moses’s law but because it is an identifiable cultural trait of the Roman ruling class, the gentiles, who themselves were an abomination because of their desecration of Abraham’s law, David’s grave and Solomon’s temple.
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