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The Judgements of God | ||||
ABOUT THIS BOOK The judgements of God, (in particular the judgement of God against the totality of deprivation, evil and injustice) are the scourge of healing for man, and the spring of his total reorientation: Primarily this is because it is where we meet God in his unyielding opposition to wickedness, and discover him faithful and true in a world of raging contradiction. Also, but in no secondary sense, it is only in the severity and unflinching action of God's judgement that we see and know the insistence of his goodness; and the rehabilitation of true love. From ancient times until the present, the idea of God's judgements has been mocked. Australians are no exception. With our harsh, angry and often cruel beginnings as a nation., we switch off to the sound of judgement. Knowing this, and wanting to have the approval of our culture, Christians have grown squeamish about a God who judges, and who will judge. Rationalisations have formed, such as: it is 'Old Testament' to speak of judgement because the 'New Testament' is about a God' of love. This diversion ignores the fact that both testaments of the Bible are one whole, that the God and Father of Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and that judgement is no less an emphasis in the New Testament than in the Old. It is true that some preachers have violently punished their hearers with a harsh, damning God of judgement. Yet it is doubtful if these preachers actually know the God of judgement. The preaching of judgement, which is divorced from the gospel of grace, is a disgraceful caricature, depicting a god other than he whose revelation is recorded in the Bible. This too is a veiled way of hiding from judgement. Australians are a very religious people. In rejecting the truth of God and denying his justice and judgement we have formed a culture thoroughly preoccupied with judgement. The demand to have justice done is the demand for judgement. Our chief protest comes when the disorder and violence of the world touches our own lives. Then the call for judgement becomes a shriek, which may determine to impose judgement unilaterally by whatever means. The cry often has a religious, a mythological, or an ideological basis. For example, politics becomes the new sacred. The nation today has become the criterion of good and evil. Science, in driving back the myths of religion, has created the environment for new myths with their own irrationality and presumed ability to explain everything. In the consideration of judgement the fact is that religion, stirred by an explosive faith, always produces violence. Are we ready to face the judgements of God? In our evil belligerence, and a condemning conscience, not one of us can bear to face God's judgements. This is true of the present, as well as in the final judgement where all is assessed, weighed and sentence given. We will see that it is only in Jesus Christ that we can face the God of judgement. This is the God who showed himself to Abraham, who, upon this knowledge could say, 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' (Genesis 18:25). |
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