Understanding SSM, Transgenderism, Identity Obsession and the Gospel

'Identity Politics'.

'Gender Identity'.

Have you noticed that the 21st Century world is obsessed with the issue of identity.

I have written before on this issue. ( eg here) But it's getting to the stage of eliminating the very thing people are so desperate to find.

Even the secular media is expressing concern at where this is taking us as human beings.

So how is a Christian to understand this current 'identity' obsession? 

Is there some biblical direction for the Christian on the matter?

If you look up 'identity' in the concordance at the back of your English Bible, you won't find it listed.

However, the concept is very much there and one of the places it is prominent is Galatians 3:28: 

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, 

neither slave nor free, 

nor is there male and female, 

for you are all one in Christ Jesus"

This is a verse all about identity options (6 of them in fact- Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male, female) and how we are meant to see ourselves and not see ourselves.

As we look at our world, we are seeing the result of a lost identity and a desperate search to find it again. 

Sin separated us from God. We lost our primary identity (our self-worth) of 'belonging to him', in the fullest sense.  Yes, it is all tied up in that ever-present issue of worth, - of honour. Our identity is essentially the honour of who we are - our person-ness, our value, and our place and purpose for living.

Our modern world which doesn't even want to believe in God, is not going to acknowledge we were originally designed to 'belong to God' and find our identity in Him, nor is it going to acknowledge that identity in Him has been lost. 

Thus, sadly the search for identity has not become a search of how to get back to God, but how to create our own identiy without God.

But that little verse in Galatians which tells the Christian their new identity is in Christ, also tells us about the way in which our identity is in Christ. Therefore, if it tells us what we can find in Christ, it is telling us also the kind of identity we have lost and are really looking for. 

This is very revealing because it tells us what is happening in our world and why it is happening, and why the gospel is the only answer for these issues. It helps to diagnose the disease of our society. And the disease is not simply a warped view of marriage, or even destruction of the family, or even push-back against Christians. It reminds us that what is happening in our world is no shock or surprise to God. We can be assured He already knows what we are searching for, because of how He describes what He gives us through our idenity in Christ.

We see the issues of our world which are disturbing and destructive, but there is a deeper issue. The good news is that there is also a divine solution!

Our world is desperately seeking the honour of identity without partiality. 

We want an identity marker without differentiation, or without what our world calls 'discrimination'.  We want identity in the context of equality - an equality that is based on the most foundational essense and worth of who we are - at our very soul, or what our world is calling our 'true self' - that part of us no-one else sees. 

At our very core, we sense we are meant to be defined, approved of and accepted beyond the terms of anything that makes one person externally preferred (by performance, status or appearance) over another. But instead of receiving a new identity in Christ that over-rides and surpasses our earthly identities, the world is trying to re-form and re-make 'soul' identities out of earthly forms of identity.  

Our world is seeking a barrier free 'soul' identity outside of the only One who can give it!

However, working through this verse in Galatians and thinking about our world, was very helpful and revealing for me, and I thought it might be helpful for me to share some of my thoughts -

Issue 1

All one in Christ Jesus:

Equality: In Christ we are all equally one - no superiority or inferiority of position.

Christ brings the concept of true equality to a world filled with people all seeking their own honour at the expense of others.  

The world likes the idea and benefits of equality. At some level we each want to feel equal, and be treated equal to one another without others having preference over us.  While some of this is related to our own pride of not wanting to be lower than others, there is a sense in which we are seeking what we were made for. We desire an identity that incorporates a sense of equality.  We want a sense  of 'one-ness' and we think we can achieve it outside of the Creator's plan.

Did you notice when the same-sex-marriage bill was passed through Australian Parliament recently that the song which erupted from the balcony and to which the majority of MPs joined in singing was 'we are one, we are many,…..we are Australian'. Though the passing of the bill was a sad moment in many ways for Australia, the singing of that song was very revealing as to the real heart-yearnings that Australians 'think' that SSM will solve!

In our sinfulness, the desire for equality lacks the light of truth and wisdom. We get our definition and understanding of equality wrong, and how to achieve it all wrong too. 

However, if we look carefully there are three main ways our world wants to eliminate the areas they see as barriers to equality - ways that, though warped, still reflect the fact that God knows the three ways in which we as human beings can feel prevented from a sense of equality, ways that Christ gives answers to, while the world still searches for them.

Issue 2

Neither Jew nor Greek

Equality through elimination of ethnic barriers or status

Our world has fought hard to strive for inter-racial harmony. Not only this but there has been a desire for removal of racial, ethnic and even national distinctions.  Globalisation, dual citizenships, the EU and all other nudges in that direction are not necesarily all bad, but they reflect our human desire to be 'humans' together on this planet and not have things that prevent free and 'equal' co-existence.

 (see previous blog about this issue)

Without realising it, the world is seeking a reversal of the Tower of Babel and the elimination of ethinic divisions in our world. The world is seeking a one-ness of God's created human beings that was lost in Eden and can only be re-gained in Christ. Searching for it in our broken world is a fruitless, hopelesss search.

Issue 3

Neither slave nor free

Equality through elimination of social status

Although it was Christians who strived to rid the world of the slave trade, it is a legacy which has given society a taste for acceptance and worth without regard for social status.  Where society once had no regard for abuse of children in child labour and no regard for orphans either, it was Christians who set up orphanages to care for children disgarded by society.  It's the Christians who desired to educate children, provide literacy for even the poor and demonstrate that social status should not determine one's destiny, duties or 'rights'. And although society now expects government to care for the downtrodden, it is still, to a great degree, the churches and church charities which are being funded and co-opted by government to carry out the care of those who would be otherwise neglected. It is still the Salvation Army who is dealing with the 'bottom of the bottom' of the neglected in society, those who even fall through the government social services cracks.

Again the world has tasted this over the past couple of centuries and likes what the benefits are, but doesn't understand the motives or reasons behind it. The Christians didn't do it to benefit themselves, but to glorify God.  The world thinks it can copy the actions, ignore the motives and get the same results.  But it isn't possible.

However, the effort is still there in all its worldly and selfish wisdom, to 'get equality'.  Without God's wisdom and godly motives it will only reap destruction, as the meaning of 'equality' and how to reach it becomes something far from God's definition and means.

Our world has become so confused in its own wisdom on this, that a few decades back there was a push to remove the 'privilege' status of marriage or being married over those who wanted to 'live together' (which of course is sexual immorality, but just bear with me on this).  Society didn't want preference shown to the married or to have any greater importance or preference to marriage encouraged, and so in Australia the category of 'defacto relationship' was introduced to give equal benefits to those who lived together but didn't get married.  Now we have almost done a flip, and society was angry that same-sex partners didn't have the privelege of marriage and being able to have the status of being married.  One minute we want to remove any elevation of marriage as important and the next minute we want to promote marriage as important. 

It is all just evidence that we are wandering around in the dark, trying hopelessly to find equality of social status that can only be found in Christ.

Issue 4

Neither male nor female

Equality through the elimination of gender status

Not only have we wanted to try to make the genders equal in function as well as role, and are destorying ourselves in the process (see previous blogs on headship and honour of women),  but we are now going to the extreme of the trying to remove any differentiation of uniqueness of biology of gender.

Not only have we prohibited the use of words such as 'chairman' and replaced it with 'chairperson' (which for the record - the 'man' in chairman has nothing to do with gender but to do with a Latin root of 'manus' meaning the 'hand', implying that the chairman has the hand of leadership, direction and rule in such a situation), but now I am not surprised to read that it is being debated in the UK whether we can say pregnant woman, since some transgender 'men' (who were born biologically women and have kept all their female anatomy) have got pregnant. Supposedly we should be saying 'pregnant people' and it is a crime to say a man cannot get pregnant!  Rightly so, some are raising concern about such dangerous stupidity!

But there is no excaping the fact that the transgender issue is the 'current' issue. Even here in Botswana there has just been a case granted in the courts for a transgender person who wanted their gender marker changed on their  National ID card because 'her birth assigned gender does not correspond with her internal and individual experience of gender'.

The transgender issue is one that is horrendously sad and bad, but not just because of the destructive symptoms, but because it reveals how lost and confused and deluded our world has become.  When a man who takes hormones to become a 'woman' (at least look like and slightly sound like a woman) then marries a woman who takes hormones to look and sound like a 'man' and then they want to have children so they have sex according to their birth sex organs and the 'man' stops having his hormones so he can revert to the woman she has always been and always will be and becomes pregnant and gives birth (and they do this not once but twice to have their two boys), we have seriously become horrendously confused. They may say they are just living out their identity as their 'true self' (which is a self-made assessment made entirely on a choice based on feelings), but what about the identity of those two boys when they grow up to discover that mummy is really daddy and daddy is really mummy?

We have moved from 'living according to God's will', to following evolution's logical outcome of 'living according to nature and biology without reference to morals'. But we have gone even further to 'live according to illusionary feelings even if they are in direct opposition to evident biology'.  We are medicating people to allow them to live according to how they feel.  If a little boy believes he is superman we say he is delusionary, but if he says he believes he is a girl, we encourage him and give him hormones to prevent him becoming a man! This can really turn problematic if he later changes his mind! (check out these links here, here and here if you want to learn more about those who 'de-transition')

Saying we can 'switch' gender is a destructive lie of Satan in order to offer barrier free identity apart from Christ.  Once again Satan gets us to confuse the honour of equality of our God given roles and personhood, with our outward function. So without knowing our created status and role, we want to merge our function with our role and personhood, in an effort to find an identity that isn't dictated by our function.  In the process we are eliminating and destroying the very roles, biology and value of our foundational human-ness. 

We are not being 'true to self', we are 'destroying ourselves'.

Having said this, we must seek to be careful in how we respond and I would highly recommend this article.  We should make godly observation but respond with love, truth, care, help, concern and the gospel. We shouldn't be judgemental and harsh, but sad and compassionate - not compassionate about sinful behaviour, but compassionate because those struggling or caught in such situations are caught in a lie and are looking at life in the wrong way and searching in all the wrong places for answers. I also want to make it clear here that in speaking of transgender I am not referring in any way to the various forms of 'intersex' which are the biological medical issues existing from birth when the reproductive or physical sexual anatomy/genetics of a person doesn't seem to entirely fit the typical definitions of female or male. (see here and here for more information on this)

A Gospel Response

Whatever ways we search for identity in this world which rest on any aspect of race, status or gender will fail to satisfy. They will leave us hungry and thirsty for something more, because our soul will not find rest outside of the One who said 'Come unto me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest', and we will not find peace outside of the Prince of Peace.

In Christ we have true identity free of being defined by function, but rather based on equally important but differing roles, as equally valued created human beings and members in the body of Christ.  And we will never find that outside of Christ.

Christ is the answer for those in our modern world who are so desperately trying to find an identity that the world can never give.

I'm guessing you would never think to use that little verse in Galatians as a springboard for gospel conversation with your non-Christian neighbour! But what if you asked your neighbour if they would like a world with no racial, status or gender barriers and why?

Rather than point the finger at other's actions or sit down in despair as we watch our world, let us kneel down in prayer and rise up in godly wisdom to take the good news of the gospel to those who so desperately need it in ways that will truly connect with the deep core issues and searchings of their hearts - hearts that don't even fully understand what they are searching for.

PS. Here is another article about the Identity Politics issue which includes titles of a couple of interesting related books
And I would recommend watching these Youtube videos here and here and here and here 

Daniel's Deliverance and Stephen's Stoning - The Prosperity Gospel in Africa and God's Sovereignty in Suffering

We all like to hear stories with 'happy' endings.

When sin came into the world, it destroyed the happy ending.  On an earth level there is no happy ending anymore.

Yet we still desire it.  We know that the damage sin causes isn't 'right' or 'good'.  We long for something more.....and we give eternal praise to our loving Creator who made a way for a 'happy ending' to be returned.  But its not the happy ending of an 'earthly' definition and level - its one far greater and one that enables us to get through the story until then.  

One day there will be a 'happy ending' to surpass all happy endings when our sorrows and suffering will be replaced by joy and peace in the presence of our Saviour in the house of our Father.

But until then, happy endings on an earthly scale are not promised to us.  This earth is under the curse of the fall.  Our world is not perfect.

Unfortunately many churches like to promote the idea that if you come to Christ, everything will go well from then on - no sickness, disability, suffering, poverty etc etc.  Across Africa the Prosperity Gospel has promoted the idea that Christians get immunity not only from eternal suffering, but from present suffering.

But even if we are not part of a Prosperity Gospel context, it is easy to still focus on God's power as being primarily related to our physical life and positive outcomes on this earth.  We 'rejoice' when a disabled child 'beats the odds' and God intervenes in such a way that all the doctor's predictions of disaster don't come to pass. - a Daniel-type Deliverance.  We rejoice when a person gets the news that their cancer is in remission. We rejoice when a long awaited baby is born.  And there is nothing wrong with rejoicing in these circumstances - there would be something wrong if we didn't.

But we have to also be careful that we don't give the impression that God is good and God is answering prayer more when we get 'Daniel Deliverances' than when we see Stephen Stonings.  

We must not simply equate God with the circumstances we see.  

God can use circumstances we see to show His goodness, but God's goodness is far greater than the circumstances we see.  

As human beings living in the circumstances, this is very hard for us to take in at times.  

Circumstances can seem overwhelming.  

But if we focus on what we determine in our wisdom is a 'good' outcome, we run the danger of not doing 'good' to those God wants His 'goodness' to be shared with.  We can overlook those who are discouraged and suffering who need to be reminded and encouraged with the goodness of God's eternal loving purposes even though they are not seeing any 'Daniel Deliverances' in their life.

A few years back a 'Daniel Deliverance' situation occurred in the church we attended - a baby was born and the birth was a 'mess' to say the least.  It would be a miracle if the baby survived but the prognosis wasn't good.  He lived.  Not only did he live but apart from needing spectacles early on, there is hardly anything to suggest he had such a traumatic start to life.  Everyone rejoiced. His mum wrote a book sharing how good God was as He answered their prayers.

Yes God did deliver Daniel from the mouths of lions, but then Scripture also records Stephen's stoning. There was no deliverance.  He died from those stones.  God didn't divert them or paralyse the hands that tried to throw them or enable Stephen's body to remain undamaged by them.

I have just read a blog about another Mum who's son was also born with a bad prognosis.  She prayed and believed God could heal and enable her son to 'beat the odds'.  But years later he still hasn't beaten any odds.  We have dear friends who had two sons and both developed a genetic degenerative condition and died before they reached 25 - they didn't 'beat the odds'.  Another friend has a son with cerebral palsy and is still changing his nappies/diapers in his 20s - he hasn't 'beaten the odds'.

As I write this blog from my horizontal position while others enjoy the freedom of walking around at the shops or taking a walk through the bush, I am reminded that God was no less God at Stephen's stoning than He was at Daniel's Deliverance.  He was still working His purposes.

As my doctor starts asking me questions about menopause and has never had the need to ask me questions yet about how a pregnancy is progressing, I am reminded that God is still God whatever His purposes are.  Circumstances might not be my choosing but God isn't limited by what humans determine are good 'outcomes'.

Instead, God is working for His great eternal outcomes.  

He is working for the healing of souls from sin, not just the healing of bodies from disease and disability.  

He knows that a soul that trusts Christ in this life is saved from sin and thus automatically rescued from physical suffering in eternity.  But a body that is rescued from physical suffering in this life is not automatically saved from sin and death eternally. He doesn't enjoy seeing His creation suffer, and Jesus spent much of His earthly years healing people's bodies, but God has a higher priority than the temporal.

We need to be very careful when we rejoice with those who thank God for relief from physical suffering, that we explain the 'full story' in the process of preaching and discipleship .  

We need to make sure we focus on more than the 'physical' needs of people in our praise and in our prayer.

Some of you are probably familiar with the movie 'Facing the Giants'  - its a great movie in many ways, but while I rejoice for the many women who praise the Lord for answered prayer for a child, I feel for the many women who, like myself,  know that the gift of a child is not simply a result of our 'prayer', because they have prayed many prayers and still there is no child. 

Prayer is dependancy on God no matter what the outcomes, not manipulation of God to achieve our outcomes.  

So many around us here in Africa are yet to understand that.  

Prayer is not a ritual with magic powers.  Prayer is resting in the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of Kings.

In prayer and praise let's be sure to rejoice in God's purposes even when circumstances 'go wrong'.

Let's teach people in word and example to pray, trust, rejoice and rest in God's sovereignty no matter what the circumstances.

Both Daniel and Stephen entrusted themselves in prayer to their Creator for His purposes.  Their earthly circumstance 'outcomes' people saw, were different at the time.  But their eternal outcomes were the same.....they both died physically (Daniel still died at a later date) and they both live eternally.....and I look forward to meeting both of them in the resurrection!

And as a PS...we might think a Stoning is not deliverance, or a child that 'doesn't beat the odds' isn't deliverance, or infertility is not deliverance, but ultimately as Christians we are part of the greatest deliverance of history - Christ died for us.  

He brought eternal deliverance!  And the ability this gives us to rejoice in Christ's work and the Father's purposes no matter what the circumstances, is a greater deliverance. 

We are delivered from being defined and directed by our circumstances.  

We are part of a greater story than just what we see during our small window of time on this earth.

As the Mum in the blog mentioned above, said " Deliverance hasn't come from our circumstances.  But God doesn't need Calvin [her son's name] to beat the odds in order to prove his goodness, faithfulness, power and salvation. Our weakness is precisely what he is using to show his power and presence."

The "Mary" Honour Blessing that Prosperity Churches Don’t Want

Christmas has just passed and many of us will have heard the Christmas story read in our churches from chapter 1 of Luke or Matthew

In these passages we read about how the Angel Gabriel brought news of pregnancy both to Elizabeth and her young cousin Mary. Both refer to the messages as evidence of God showing them His favour. 

Two Women, Two Miracles

The news to Elizabeth brought a removal of her shame: 

Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people

Some translations use the word 'disgrace' instead of 'reproach', but both mean shame.  The New Living Translation, instead of saying 'among people' gives cultural meaning to the words by saying 'disgrace of having no children'.  In other words the blessing was that God removed her cultural and earthly shame of infertility.

The news to Mary, however, which was almost identical in that it was an announcement that she was to have a baby, had a different immediate earthly outcome.  Both babies were unexpected miracles that seemed to be outside the realms of possibility (Elizabeth being humanly too old to conceive and Mary not having 'known' a man in a sexual way), and Mary's miracle is also described by the Angel as evidence of God's favour in Luke 1:28,30:

And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

 But the news to Mary didn't remove any public shame.  Instead it brought shame for Mary and for Joseph.  

Joseph, when he found out the news, wanted to divorce Mary quietly and 'privately' so as to avoid public shame and disgrace.  However, with God's intervention through the angel's visit to Joseph in a dream, he didn't divorce her. Instead he and Mary had to live with the rumours, stories and shame that went with a baby being concieved by Mary while they were still in the betrothal period.

So we have two women, two stories of good news of a baby, and two stories of favour from God, but one brought relief from earthly shame and one was the very means of bringing earthly shame.

Earthly Shame in Eternal Honour

This raises a significant issue that Prosperity churches, here in Africa especially, don't talk about.  

It's the issue that honour from God may equal shame on earth.

It's an issue I've spoken about before on this blog and an issue that needs to be re-calibrated for many Africans.

Culturally for Africans, earthly shame is the only shame to factor into life.  When a person becomes a Christian, they think that the type of honour God gives, is honour according to how they understand honour.  And so if Scripture says believers 'will not be put to shame' (eg Romans 9:33), it is understood Christians will never experience shame on earth if they are truly living in God's favour, blessing and honour.  It is believed that blessing from God always equals earthly shame removed.

But here, in Scripture, are two women, who God tells us in His word, were godly, blessed and favoured, but the outcome for one of them was only earthly shame compounded and heaped on.

Yet, did Mary seek God to remove her shame and seek a prophet for deliverance from such a curse, deciding it could not be of God because it brought shame to her and her husband? No. 

Mary recognised that God's honour can result in earthly shame, but God's honour always, always is supreme over any earthly shame.  

As we look at her praise song, often called the 'magnificat' (in Luke 1:46-55), she knew that God looks on the humble, and exalts the humble.  He feeds the poor and hungry and sends the rich away empty. God humbles the proud and brings them down.  God's accounting system of what is of high value honour status and what is of low value was the opposite of her culture's accounting system of honour and shame.

She knew that in God's system of things, honour and shame were not just about today and what people around might say today.  She didn't just live for today.  She was a woman who lived for God's eternal purposes.  She knew that a day would come when future generations would call her 'blessed' even if they didn't just now.  What God thought of her, and that God chose her, was of far, far greater value to her than what others around might say. 

In the events which spelt 'Earthly shame' for Mary, she described as her 'mighty' and 'holy' God doing 'great things' for her.

This is the message we have to preach, preach, preach, counsel, counsel, counsel, teach, teach, teach, live, live, live……especially here in Africa.  Because it is a message that is mis-understood - in endemic proportions!

Sadly its a message of truth that is not only opposite to cultural honour and shame values, but it is opposite to the teaching of a huge number of churches and TV preachers across this continent.

It's passages like the first chapter of Luke and Matthew that have to be looked at with non-Western eyes and seen for the rich truth they have to speak powerfully into honour/shame dominated hearts.

Be Willing for a "Mary" Plan 

Yes, we can be thankful when God's plan and favour include a removal of earthly shame, like for Elizabeth. 

But we need to help folk understand that instead of an 'Elizabeth plan', God might have a 'Mary plan'. ….a plan that from our temporary, 'now', earthly perspective looks shameful, but from an eternal, future and heavenly perspective is of great blessing. 

If God brought His greatest gift to the world through a 'Mary plan' of earthly shame (of which Jesus' conception was only the beginning of much earthly shame for him and his family), then why should we even begin to doubt that He can bring great blessing to us and the world through what seems to us as shameful means in the eyes of those around us?

Let us lift our eyes to heaven just as Mary did and praise and thank the Lord for whatever situations He chooses for us - whether honourable or shameful in the eyes of the culture around us - trusting that God sees more than we do, knows more than we do, has much bigger plans than we do and loves us more than we can imagine.  

The honour God wants us to enjoy is on a 'Mary' scale - He wants us to know the type of joy Mary had as she praised her Lord and Saviour for the great favour and honour He bestowed upon her even though it meant her life was about to be clouded in earthly shame.

Let's not choose joy and honour limited by worldly and cultural terms.  Let's choose joy and honour that supercedes earthly definitions!  Let's not just seek God for 'Elizabeth plans', but be eagerly willing and rejoice in 'Mary plans' too!

Terror or Error! - what might Culture, IS, and the Prosperity Gospel have in common?

'The war on terror'

How often have we heard that phrase in the last 14 years since '911'? .....and especially in the last week.

Yet while the world stage is consumed by 'combatting terrorism', the church needs to be busy combatting 'error-ism'.

Error is the greatest terror.  Why?  Because from error grows evil.  

Truth feeds righteousness but error (false teaching) breeds evil (sin).

Remember that Satan is called 'the father of lies'.  His mission is to promote error and have people believe it and act on it, to their own and others destruction.  He is out to destroy life.

The terror of terrorism that the world is experiencing stems not simply from 'evil hearts' but from mis-guided sincerity of people who have 'died to self' and believe they are 'living for God' to restore God's honour and God's people's honour. They are simply believing a lie and acting on it. To read more on this I highly recommend this blogpost over at honorshame.com

When my dad ended his days on this earth and went to be with Jesus some years ago, one of the legacies he left was his example of godliness and his faithful daily time with God and in His Word.  But the legacy was more than just an example as he also left behind his collection of old Scripture Union 'Daily Bread' notes from many years - in particular his ones from before 1970.  And in the course of things, I inherited them. They have been sitting on my shelf for a while, and I keep saying that one of these years I'll use them.  Back in those days they were these thin little booklets with tiny (but very clear) print, that are just the right size to tuck into my small bible.  So this year I started using them - well, what a gold-mine.  The richness and depth of these is something you rarely come across.  They are short and simple, yet profound and expository in style.

I have been wanting to put down some thoughts that stem from something in the booklet from some months back that looked at 2 Peter chapter 2. The notes -in part - had this to say:

"All down the ages the Christian Church has had to fight a war on two fronts.  It's first enemy is called "Error", and the name of the second is "Evil". (i)Error (vs 1.2). At the end of chapter 1 Peter spoke of true prophets, whom he described as 'holy men of God'.  Here he deals with 'false teachers' (v1) who twist the truth, and confuse and mislead their hearers.  What makes their heresies so dangerous and indeed 'damnable' is that they are sometimes disguised as Christian.  We must beware of any teaching which claims to be Christian, and yet undermines the deity or the authority of Christ."

This little paragraph so aptly sums up our world. 

Whether its abortion, same-sex marriage or IS beheading people and gunning down people at concerts and in restaurants,  our world is full of chaos and 'anti-life' activity built on believing lies....lies that ultimately oppose the authority of God and His word. In fact not only are the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage a matter of 'error', but as John MacArthur says these are also the greatest acts of terrorism.

But as Christians, we must not think that lies are 'out there' only, and not able to penetrate the church.  

In the church Satan is much more subtle.  In the church, one of the ways we 'get sucked in to error' is when we allow cultural thinking to guide our Christian thinking and we don't even realise - when we allow culture to have higher authority than Christ. When we put ourselves under the expectations of our traditions and cultural standards and/or rules for living as if they are God's standards, (no matter how noble they might appear), without carefully examining them to see if they are actually biblical, we are putting ourselves under bondage and bringing destruction to ourselves and to others, as well as disregarding God's truth.

................And there is one particular error which is alive and well in many churches, and in particular many churches in Africa.  

And that is when Scripture talks about believers not being 'put to shame'. It is understood by many that this means a believer should not ever be in a position of shame in the eyes of the community - that God's people are recipients of God's favour(honour) and so God will ensure they are not ever in a place of shame in the eyes of others.  

This has both cultural roots of avoiding shame and seeking honour, but also of mis-reading the context of the Old Testament, and prosperity gospel influences. ( I touched on this in a previous blog)

In the Old Testament the Jewish people were God's chosen nation among the nations of the earth - those selected by God through Abraham's family to show forth God's character and spread His truth and the honour of His name.  If they were shamed or did something that God said was shameful, God's name was shamed in the eyes of other nations. They were meant to show forth who God is to the nations around them, as they lived according to God's truth in the Law.

However, as New Testament Christians God has chosen us, not through an earthly nation but through the person of Christ. He perfectly revealed to the world who God is.  Yes we are part of His body, the church, to be the light to the dark world around us, but Christ has already conquered shame by enduring the cross and separation from His Father for us, and then rising from the dead and being now honoured at the right hand of His Father in heaven.  His honour is already secure eternally.  

Therefore, our being 'in Christ' ensures that though He endured shame on this earth and we will share in his sufferings in that way, ultimately in Him, we can never be in a place of ultimate or eternal shame.  

When it comes to Judgment Day, we have the assurance in Christ that we will have no shame of sin, rather we will have our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Not only is there a mis-placed understanding about earthly shame and eternal shame but inherent in this is also a mis-placed understanding about what defines shame in God's eyes.

Pentecostal Prosperity Gospel churches are increasing in number across this continent and 'Christian TV' which is full of such teaching is freely and widely accessible to a huge proportion of households. (I have even seen a mud hut with no running water or electricity having a TV satellite dish outside - the TV and dish are run off a 12V battery).  

People are told that God doesn't want them to be poor or sick.  That seems to be so logical and right to a mis-placed honour-shame culture person when culturally to be poor is less honourable than rich and to be sick or disabled is seen as something shameful to be hidden.  

The desire for honour and avoidance of shame is deeply ingrained and the dominant motivator of every aspect of life.

So they believe what they hear - and after all, who doesn't want to be rich and healthy especially if it gives you positive advantage in your community and relieves you of being 'looked down on' or avoided?  

But then if they don't get rich or do get a chronic illness or disability they believe God has stopped blessing them and they are essentially shamed even within the church!  They have not had their mis-placed cultural perspectives on shame re-defined and so they are imported sub-consciously into their Christian walk.  

That was the main reason a lady came to me for counselling after being diagnosed by her Psychologist as having 'religion induced depression'.  It was amazing how the depression just 'went away' once she understood the truth of God's word about His true blessing and that not being rich and not always healthy is not because God has withdrawn His favour..... 

She had accepted a false theology that was negatively directing her psychological state because cultural issues of shame had never been addressed with true biblical theology.

I have also sat with those who begin to explain their rationale for making this or that decision in life, only to discover that it is based around whether or not the choice would result in being in a position of shame.  They will say 'this option could not be what God wants because it would end up with me being in a position of shame in my family, and as the only Christian in my family, God would not want me to be shamed in their eyes.'

Instead of a biblical definition of sin before God's eyes defining what shame before God entails, 

shame before God has become defined by what is thought to bring shame on God's name in the eyes of people according to a cultural definition of shame.

Thus we see situations such as if a girl in the church is unmarried but gets pregnant, the sexual sin can remain entirely unaddressed but the church will put the girl through a 'shaming' process for the period of the pregnancy (ie the period of time where before the eyes of people the situation is obvious).

This is all done with the sincere belief that it is how God wants the situation handled.  A cultural life understanding of right and wrong is assumed as 'normal'.  If we just say to 'do right' and 'not do wrong' then the cultural definitions of 'right' and 'wrong' will be the filter through which that injunction is interpreted.  If 'right' is to 'not bring shame', then to 'do right' is thought to make every effort, by whatever means or manipulation, to not bring shame on God according to what they think that would be. 

- This is actually not so different in belief and sincerity as the IS terrorists who believe they should make every effort to remove shame from Allah's name.  It might not be comfortable to think about, but to use cultural definitions of right and wrong in the West, is no different from using cultural definitions of right and wrong in Africa and is no different from IS using cultural definitions of right and wrong, and then acting according to them with passion, self-lessness and sincerity. Though the styles and means may be different the underlying principles are the same.  Let us remember that the Apostle Paul, before his conversion to Christ, was not attacking Christians because he hated God but because he believed in all sincerity that he was defending and protecting God's name.

The more we dig on this issue of shame, the more we see how deeply the mis-placed shame/honour roots permeate our world, and instead of the church correcting them, most churches have left the entire topic unaddressed, and sadly the prosperity churches are actually fertilising the mis-placed shame concepts even further.

(and while we are thinking about this....this 'shame of the church in the eyes of the world' false perspective may be part of what is driving some churches to compromise on issues such as homosexuality - its erroneous view that the Western church  wants to be respected and doesn't want to stand 'shamed' or ridiculed in the eyes of their own Western world)

Western missionaries and the Western Church, in leaving the issue of shame unaddressed, have not created an empty space, but instead culture continues to define and direct that area of life....and when shame factors affect over two-thirds of life in Africa (according to the Culture Test results), then the reality is that culture not only still directs at least two-thirds of a person's life but it is fertile ground for false teaching that perports to be Christian, yet is just bringing another bondage and destruction.

We value your prayers for our part in helping Africans be free of this bondage and destruction that this and other error brings.

And...

Let's not forget to take a good hard look at our own lives, culture, church and thinking to see where we are living under the lies, bondage and destruction of mis-placed shame and mis-placed honour rather than the freedom and truth of our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Instead let us be extremists for good, for godliness and for God's true glory!

Honour and Shame and the Prosperity Gospel in Africa

The Prosperity Gospel has flooded Africa.

So much so that here in Botswana, a new law was passed to curb the proliferation of churches.  A reason given is that these 'new' churches are robbing the people with great promises of health, success and prosperity if they give great amounts to the church but the promises don't come through.  National leaders don't like it.

But why has the Prosperity Gospel engulfed this continent more than other places around the globe?  Are Africans more greedy than anyone else?  No I don't believe so.

It's all about worldview - an honour/shame worldview.

Gaining honour and avoiding shame are two partner goals of African culture, as I've said many times before.

The Prosperity Gospel offers wealth, health and success.  To be wealthy, healthy and successful is honourable in the society.  In other words the Prosperity Gospel offers what an African sees as honour.

WEALTH

The West looks at the apparent poverty of Africa and thinks that the offer of prosperity is something new and attractive.  Not so.  African's have not suddenly become eager for wealth.

As the West observed Africa, it saw what it thought was poverty and lack of wealth.....but that was according to the West's definition of wealth - big house, electricity, air-conditioning, plumbed hot water, flash car, Western Education, TV, DVD, computer, Cell phones, access to supermarkets etc etc.

What the West didn't think about was other forms of wealth....such as cows!  Yes cows.

Here in Botswana people don't live on their farm.  They don't live and have fields and graze their cows all in the one place.  They live in the village, with their fields further out from the village in another area and the cows are in a different place again - the cattle post where the men go.  You may look at a little hut in a yard and say they have very little.....but they may have 30 cows and fields under cultivation.  The number of cows you had was a main measure of your wealth.  Even now cows are valuable.  30 cows if they were sold could net at least P90000 - almost $10,000.  It's like saying a person doesn't have a TV but they have $10,000 in the bank, or they don't have running water but they have a nice car.  Of course traditionally the chief was the one with the most cows and the most land. Another traditional sign of wealth was the number of wives.  African's have always desired wealth. Wealth is honour and honour is power.

Urban Africans don't always have lots of cows (although many still have their cows and lands out at their home village) or lots of wives, but they do have the opportunity now days for lots of Western style wealth to show off.  Wealth still brings honour and honour still brings power.

The inverse is also true: Poverty is shame and shame is fear and insignificance.

Everyone wants to look the 'big man'!

HEALTH

Traditionally, sickness in Africa is seen as shameful, maybe the result of a curse and to be hidden.  Temporary illness is bad enough and traditional medicine is sought to reverse the curse. But Chronic illness or permanent disability that can't be reversed is perpetual shame and so the only way to overcome it is to hide it. The book 'Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana' talks about this very issue.  We have a friend doing post-graduate study here focusing on enabling the disabled, and I asked him how it was going.  His reply was that he faced a problem in that it was hard to find the disabled as they are hidden away.

As I think I have mentioned before, there is a widespread belief that when a person becomes a Christian, God has promised that they will no longer be put to shame (Romans 9:33).  Because the gospel has not been explained with any reference or teaching relating to shame, people bring in their cultural definitions and thus interpret that God is saying they will now not be ever having any shame in the eyes of other people.  This wrong understanding then leads to the view that whatever will alleviate shame before other people must be God's will, and whatever brings shame in the eyes of other people cannot possibly be God's will. 

Thus there is a belief that God would only want their physical healing.

This, combined with the widely held doctrinal belief that there is present healing in the atonement, not least through a mis-understanding of 'by his stripes we are healed' (Is 53), just fuels  and re-inforces the possibilities offered by the Prosperity Gospel.

SUCCESS

Thus success is seen as good health and great wealth - that is honourable.  Poverty in any form and illness/disability is seen as shameful.

So what we see is the Prosperity Gospel slotting in very nicely to traditional belief - a traditional belief that kept people trapped.  

People are busy trying to look rich in the eyes of others and look healthy in the eyes of others.  

People don't share their physical struggles - always everything is happy and fine!

People go into huge debt to 'look good'

People don't want to be seen going to 'cheap' shops or buying 'cheap' items,..... they want to be known to be wearing the latest clothes, and driving the latest car and smart phone. (the clothes might be on credit card, the car might have almost no fuel and not been taken to the mechanic for the proper tune-ups, the phone might have no call credit to be able to make calls, and there may be almost no food in the house but people don't see that.)

People don't save, because tomorrow and the future is not where Africans live - they live today and for what others see today.

Prophecies are attractive because a prophecy in itself brings a sense of honour in being 'chosen' to be 'blessed' and of course the 'blessing' in the prophecy is eagerly received as a promise of success and thus further honour.

The need for success isn't just personal either, because there is associated honour and associated shame.  Who a person is seen with affects how they are 'seen'.  So a person will want their family to be seen to also be successful.  

A Christian girl I mentored graduated from University.  Her mother (who also was a regular church attender) just happened to graduate from a Post Graduate degree at the same time and her mother decided to have a combined big graduation party.  The daughter had just finished doing a bible study on materialism and decided she didn't want to spend her entire bank account and more on the clothes she would wear on that night (under her graduation gown).  But her mother got very angry with her when she saw how simple and ordinary (though still elegant and new) the clothes were that her daughter was going to wear - 'what will all my friends think?' was the mother's cry.  She demanded her daughter wear something more expensive and glamorous.  It was a very difficult time and eventually there was a slight adjustment made but the mother still wasn't happy although she eventually accepted her daughter wasn't going to budge any further.  There was great pressure that she would bring shame on her mother by not dressing with the appearance of wealth and honour.

Replacing the Mis-placed

It saddens us greatly when we see the destructive twisted lies of the Devil still impacting people around us under the guise of Christianity.  But it reminds us again how vital it is that people hear the truth and let the truth set them free.  

Mis-placed cultural and Prosperity gospel beliefs need to be replaced with what God says about honour and shame.  This involves good Bible teaching and also teaching folk how to read and understand the text of their Bibles in context.  We are reminded that when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness he used Scripture out of context and made error sound believable and attractive.  

Not only do culturally mis-placed shame perspectives need to be replaced, so do religious ones.