Compassion and Righteousness in the Twenty First Century

The Christian Church is greatly divided by the political persuasions of her adherents. Popular political ideologies can be classified into two main categories: Right and Left. This is ironic, since even baboons can count to more than two. They can distinguish between one, two or many.

The present state of affairs can be traced back at least to the Enlightenment if not earlier. For hundreds of years the establishment, consisting of church and king/emperor, made the laws while the vast majority of citizens held little political power. Out of the latter group emerged "intellectuals" who agitated for a fairer distribution of power and wealth. In France a big clash occurred - their revolution in which the social order was radically amended. A similar pattern played out in Russia about a century later. Today the governance of church and aristocrats has been replaced by a state which wields enormous power over its citizens.

Christians have always been involved in politics. The laws of the Roman Empire and its successor, the Holy Roman Empire, were vastly shaped by Christian values. A century ago these laws were pretty much still applied in Western Society. But today there is universal suffrage, no-fault divorce and women in all spheres of influence. None of this was possible in the early twentieth century. Furthermore adultery and homosexuality are no more agains the law and in South Africa one cannot be jailed for bad debt. Whether any or all of these changes in law are good or bad is debatable, but two things have to be kept in mind in the debates: 1. Should the state legislate on all these issues?, and 2. Which ethical code must be used to draft the laws?

Lawmakers often invoke Judaeo-Christian values to justify their position but they normally do so by a one-sided emphasis of some passage in the Bible. They become driven by ideology rather than truth. In two-party systems the voting public is confronted by uncomfortable choices. For instance, if you vote against state sponsored abortions, you could find yourself voting for uncontrolled damage to the natural environment. It is important to note that the sanctity of life and the protection of the environment are both Judaeo-Christian values. Thus Christians are pitted against Christians in these debates.

In Europe the Reformation preceded the Enlightenment. The reformers fought, and some died, in their quest for personal freedoms. Two hundred and seventy one years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg the French revolutionaries were agitating under the banner of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. They had taken these values out of the original context of the Reformation and were applying them to all affairs of state. Today the meaning of Equality is the root of destructive disputes between "right" and "left". For Bible believing Christians Fraternity has little meaning apart from the fraternity of believers. How Liberty is to be pursued is also the topic of vicious debates.

Since the era of the early church Christians have cared for the vulnerable in society while the state has mostly ignored them. Some of the adherents of ideologies born of the Enlightenment like to claim that many of today's state sponsored benefits were pioneered by "enlightened" individuals. History proves that the initiatives were almost exclusively driven by Christians. Of course the laws could only be passed with majority vote. Many legislators were in agreement with laws that were more humane than the previous ones, even if they were not of the Christian persuasion. But today Christians are a minority in most Western legislatures. The values Liberty, Equality, Fraternity have been extended to areas most Christians cannot support. Radical lawmakers continually press for laws that "normalise" deviant behaviour, maybe because many of them have succumbed to depravity.

In the twentieth century Christians have been at the forefront of the rehabilitation of alcoholics, drug addicts and people with behaviours traditionally frowned on. The dilemma facing the Western Church today is the political pressure exerted on her to conform to values accepted by modern society but which clash with sound doctrine. We must be compassionate to the wayward but maintain doctrinal integrity. This pressure has caused many pastors to endorse one or other political party. There is no precedent for it in the New Testament. However, pastors are obliged to teach Biblical ethics, clearly spelling out what God regards as right and wrong.

The miracle of eternal life

 After Adam and Eve lost their first two sons, to murder and to exile respectively, they had another. Seth was born "in the image and likeness" of his father Adam (Genesis 5:3). Noah was a descendant of Seth, and everyone on earth today is a descendant of Noah. It follows that each man on earth is an image of an image of ... an image of Noah.

After humans had attempted and failed, for about 4000 years, to live the way our Creator had intended, Jesus was sent into the world. Eve had been promised that someone of her "seed" would come to crush the head of the snake who had deceived her (Genesis 3:15). The images of Adam in all the men had become too corrupt to produce a new kind of human. Therefore Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the "Most High" (Luke 1:35). Paul called Jesus the "second Adam" which is also the "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).

Jesus is therefore both human and divine. Most of the non-Jewish Christians of the first few centuries came from a Hellenistic (Greek) culture. They struggled with the idea that a divine being could live in a material body, since they regarded matter as inherently evil and spirit as good. The early church debated the issue for centuries and drafted creeds to differentiate between catholic (general/orthodox) faith and heresy. If Jesus was not divine, it would be idolatry to worship him. That is why today Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims and Jews accuse Christians of idolatry. To make sure the flock understood the official position of the Church, the Nicene Creed (AD 325) states among others that Jesus was "begotten, not made, of the same essence as the Father". The Creed of Chalcedon (AD 451) went further and officially declared the Virgin Mary to be "Theotokos", the Greek word for "God-bearer" which some translate as Mother of God. Not all modern day followers of Jesus approve of this designation.

Because "all have sinned", we all deserve to die (Romans 3:23). This is according to the announcement of the Lord (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4). Jesus never sinned but he identified with sinners, even to the extent that he was baptised. John baptised people who confessed that they were sinners (Mark 1:4). Jesus was baptised by John "to fulfil all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). This means that he was going to die like a sinner and make it possible for those who believed in him to be regarded as righteous (Galatians 2:16). By faith in Jesus we become new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are the new humanity of which Jesus, the second Adam, was the first. His claim to this title was confirmed by his resurrection from the dead.

The miracle of life

 I recently had a scare. My blood pressure soared and I had chest pains. It got me to think of the function of my heart. It is a pump that has not stopped working for more than 78 years. It is the engine that moves blood to every part of my body. If any part of my body is deprived of blood for a period, irreversible damage is incurred. The period depends on the body part; for the brain it is minutes, for muscles a few hours. Christian and Judaic doctrine states that the life is in the blood. That was why Noah, and by implication all mankind, was forbidden to eat blood (Genesis 9:4).

My mind went to how my life had originated. A little cell in my mother came into the environment where it was susceptible to unite with one of the thousands of cells of my father. Each cell was a little factory with a very specific instruction set in its DNA. After the cells had combined into one, the new little factory started to make more cells, acting on the information contained in the DNA of the merged cell. That was the beginning of what was to become a fully functional human being. If you'll excuse my satire, when I think of this process, I want to exclaim "Evolution is very clever!"

Where does the human soul come into this? Both the Hebrew and Greek words for "soul" are words also used for "life". Who knows when consciousness dawns on the new baby? What is important is that there is life in each human, life which he/she inherits from the first human (Acts 17:26). That means we each have a "spark" of the Divine, each being an image of God, although a distorted image.

The process of restoration of God's image in each person begins when the person is "born from above" (John 3:3). This means one has to be willing to "live by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). But whoever desires to live by the Spirit has to forsake love of the "fleshly life" (John 12:24-25). Jesus did not only set the example, he made it possible (Ephesians 2:1-5).