Are We Letting Semantics Divide The Christian Vote?

Words are important.
Sometimes a single word can change our theology.
The addition of one Latin word: "Filioque" to the Nicene Creed (381AD) was one of the main contributory factors that split the early church into the Eastern Orthodox and Western Churches around 1054AD.

We can surf the net to find out more of the Filioque Controversy of whether the "Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father" (Orthodox view) or the "Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son" (Latin - Filioque / "and the Son" - Western View).

Even the placing of a comma or a full stop can change our theology and doctrine.

Proponents of opposite camps use different words (semantics) to describe what the pregnant woman is carrying.

The pro-abortion / pro-choice group will use words like "fetus" or "embryo" to describe what the pregnant woman is carrying.
What does these words do?
These words depersonalize and dehumanize "it" - making it sound like just a part of the woman's body and not yet human.
Making it sound like an inanimate object.
Therefore, just as one amputates a diseased flesh, they would abort the fetus.

Those who are pro-Life, uses words like "child" or "baby" to describe what the mother is carrying. It is human, it is a life.

Why all these reflection on semantics and words?

It is because this morning (Thurs), I heard a comment on radio regarding the Citizens Initiated Referendum we are having in New Zealand.

The citizens are asked to vote on this question with a simple "Yes" or "No".

"Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"

There are those who encourage people to vote "Yes" for the following reasons.

1. They Believe That Smacking Is VIOLENCE And It Is A Crime.

This group associates smacking with Abuse and Domestic Violence.
What kind of semantics / words do they use?
If you read some of their articles, you would find them using words like "hitting a child," "assaulting," "physical violence," "domestic violence," "a good hiding - with a stick, strap, bat, belt or hosepipe" and they want to "protect the smallest citizens."

2. Some believe that good parental correction should NOT involve smacking / spanking.

We all know that good parental correction should involve other processes first like:

a. INSTRUCTION (WHAT)
Lay down guidelines of acceptable behavior (the boundaries).
Set up House Rules.

b. EXPLANATION (WHY)
Explain why there are boundaries and why certain behaviors are not acceptable.

c. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT / REINFORCING GOOD BEHAVIOR
Encourage children whenever they behaved well.
Praise them and give positive comments and attention.
And it works for adults too as Mayo concluded in the Hawthorne Experiments.
Workers demonstrated an increased productivity first when lighting in the factory was increased but then productivity again increased when lighting was dimmed.
Mayo concluded that productivity increased because the workers were consulted and paid attention to before changes were made.

One can also Reward the children for certain good behaviors.
One can use Reward Charts whereby stickers are gained for good behavior until they attain a certain number of stickers after which they will be rewarded with an outing or something of their choice within a certain budget.

d. DISCIPLINE
di) Withholding privileges like watching TV, playing computer, if they so chose to misbehave.
dii) TIME-OUT - Make the child who committed naughty acts to sit out in one corner or in one location (naughty chair, room etc).

This "No Smacking" group, including some Christians, believes that if these processes are followed, it will provide a fail-safe methodology to raise up great kids who will exhibit good behaviors without the need to smack.
Hence, any form of smacking or "hitting" a child means that the parents have failed.

This group believes that good parental correction need not involve smacking.
And because good parental correction need not involve smacking, smacking should therefore be a criminal offence.

Let me counter these two arguments:

1. Failure To Differentiate Abuse / Violence From Discipline
One of the common perceptual problems is that of a "Weld" - a mistaken "Association" or a "Mis-association" of two close concepts.
Some of us wrongly associate or equate one idea with another.

e.g. We mistakenly associate "Firmness" as "Hard-hearted."
We mistake "Submission" for "Subjugation."
"Wives submit to husbands" does not mean they are subjugated to / subservient to their husbands.

Likewise some mistakenly associate and fail to differentiate abuse from discipline.
At certain point, the discipline will cross to abuse.
It is clear for instance if one use a belt or hard pipe to whack a child - it will be abuse.

2. God Himself Smacked and Disciplined His People
As for the second group, they miss the point on two counts.
a. The thrust of the question in the referendum is not whether smacking is good parental correction.
(Of course there are other processes to be followed first for good parental correction.)
The thrust of the question is whether smacking should be a criminal offence thus criminalizing any parent who smacks a child on the hand or the bottom.
Good parental correction would involve the processes above.
But what if the processes above fail?
Would discipline "d" above include (diii) smacking as the last resort and so used only infrequently when the above processes fail?

b. Turning to the Bible, God Himself disciplines even adults.
The heavenly Father disciplines His children.

Heb 12:6 the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.

After sending prophet after prophet to instruct, to explain, to warn Israel and Judah, and when they still disobeyed God, at the last resort He allowed Israel and then Judah to be conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians respectively. Many people from Israel and Judah were killed in the onslaught.

Even God's temple is not exempt from destruction - first Solomon's temple then the temple of Jesus' time was destroyed by the Romans in AD70.

I was reading this today:
2 Chron 7:19 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,
2Ch 7:20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name."

And the word of the Lord has this to say about the "rod" and the "rod of discipline."

Pr 13:24 He who spares the rod hates his son,
but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.

Pr 22:15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

Pr 23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
Pr 23:14 Punish him with the rod
and save his soul from death.

Ultimately at the bottom of it all, men and children all have a sinful nature.

Ge 8:21 The LORD ... said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.

Every inclination of our hearts are evil from childhood.

God has instructed us, explained to us His commands, loved us, warned us, struggled with us. But ultimately if we do not rein in our sinful nature and walk in His ways, God will discipline us because He loves us and wants us to draw to Him.

If God is so intelligent and such a great Father with the greatest parenting skills, can He not exercise good parental correction without having to resort to smacking us?

If God smacks us, there is something to it that is godly because God is both love and righteous.
Righteousness and love meet at the cross.
Righteousness and His love also meet at the smack.

Certainly vote "no" to the referendum - smacking should not be a criminal offence.
Otherwise we are saying that God is guilty of a criminal offence for disciplining us.

ARE WE STRUGGLING WITH GOD?

Gen 35:7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Sometimes in our darkest moments, like Jacob when he was fleeing from his brother Esau, God reveals Himself to us.
Treasure our darkest moments because God can speak to us.

Gen 35:9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
Gen 35:10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel. '” So he named him Israel.

Sometimes we need to change our name and personhood to lay hold of the blessing that God has in store for us.
“Jacob” means “he grasps the heel” and it means “a deceiver.”
What a name to have!!!
We don't want such a name because we don't want such an identity and character.
We want to be and believe that we are a different person - a different being.
“Israel” means “he struggles with God.”
At least, Israel has an encounter with God.
And oftentimes we are struggling with God.
And Israel did have huge struggles and disappointments with God even though he was promised this huge blessing in Gen 35:11-12.

Ge 35:11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.
Ge 35:12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.

Wow … Won't we feel very blessed if God were to promise us these blessings - the blessing of many descendants, nations, land and not only that, our descendants are kings.

This is a repeat and expansion of God's promise to Jacob / Israel when God first spoke to Jacob in a dream in Gen 28:13-15.

But Israel, as his name (“he struggles with God”) suggests, was to struggle with many huge disappointments - especially within his family - as the blessing unraveled.

1. CHEATED & DECEIVED
Jacob worked for 7 years to get Rachel - but got Leah instead.
He needed to work another 7 years to marry Rachel.
Laban deceived him just as Jacob deceived Isaac to receive Esau's birthright.

2. BARRENNESS
When Jacob finally married Rachel after working for 14 years, she was barren.
How can God's promise be fulfilled?
But God ultimately remembered (Gen 30:22) and Joseph was born in Jacob's old years (when he was 78-80 years old!!!).

3. RAPE
Jacob's daughter, Dinah was raped (Gen 34:2).
Imagine the immense pain Jacob and Leah and the rest of the family must have suffered.
What are our struggles compared to this struggle that Jacob faced?

4. REVENGE & MURDER
Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, then tricked the Shechemites into believing that Shechem could only marry Dinah if the villagers circumcised themselves (Gen 34:13, 25). Then when they were in pain recovering from the circumcision (Gen 34:25), Simeon and Levi murdered everyone in the village and looted it.

5. DEATH
Soon after the blessing was repeated in Gen 35:11-13, Israel's favorite wife, Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin (Gen 35:18).
What are our struggles compared to this?

6. CHILDREN PROBLEMS / RAPE? / ADULTERY
Reuben, the eldest son, slept with Israel's concubine (Gen 35:22).
Do we have to struggle with such travesty of morality in our family?

7. CHILDREN PROBLEMS / SIBLING RIVALRY & JEALOUSY / ATTEMPTED MURDER / MURDEROUS THOUGHTS / DECEPTION
Jacob's sons conspired to almost murder his favorite son, Joseph, and sold him as slave.
What are our children challenges compared to this?

Israel was promised a huge blessing by God with many descendants.
But ironically those descendants are causing huge problems and disappointments to him.
The immensity of his grief and disappointment is found in Gen 37:34-35.

Ge 37:34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.
Ge 37:35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him.

Israel didn't know that Joseph was alive until many, many years later
[some 23 years later since Joseph was 17 (Gen 37:2) when he was sold as slave, became prime minister of Egypt at 30 (Gen 41:46) and revealed himself to his brothers 2 years into the famine after 7 good years (Gen 45:6)].
All those lost years that he could spend with Joseph…

Imagine it took Jacob 23 years later to understand why God allowed what happened to Joseph and to see his son again.
How long has it been since we suffered a loss and have been struggling to understand God?

FOR REFLECTION

What blessings have God promised us?
Does this mean that there are no struggles and disappointments coming along the way?
What kind of struggles and disappointments are we facing now?
How can I, relying on God, handle those struggles and disappointments?

Are We A Convert, A Believer or A Disciple?

I was doing my quiet time reading Luke 5 about Jesus calling his first disciples.
And I was reading this passage just days after I had a chat about this with a badminton teammate playing in the Veterans (over 50 years old) Inter-Association / City / Club Badminton Tournament. It is as if there is a re-affirmation of the message.

I had played mixed doubles with this veteran kiwi lady earlier in May in Whangarei (North of Auckland). I remembered in that game I told her to cover the front of the court and exhorted her to run for one play. After the game back in Auckland, one of the organizers told me that the lady is 74 years old!!! Wow!!! isn't it amazing that this lady can still run and play badminton at this age. This challenges us to keep fit and get running even up to our 70's and beyond. After that revelation, I am now more careful in encouraging my partner to go for the shuttle.

We had another tournament just the previous weekend in Palmerston North (south of Auckland and nearer to Wellington) and I had the opportunity to chat with her.
I think she asked me what I was doing and I shared with her that I am a pastor.
Then the conversation led to her sharing with me that she is a protestant.
So I obviously will ask the next question: Which church do you attend?

She mentioned that she has not attended church since she migrated from Scotland years ago - having to take care of her children.

She asked "Must a Christian go to church?"
I asked her what is God's commission for all of us.
She pondered and waited for me to answer.
I shared with her the gist of Matt 28:19 - go and Make Disciples.

Did Jesus say "Go and make Converts?" or "Go and make Believers?"
No. Jesus said "Go and make Disciples."

So I asked her whether she wants to be a convert or a disciple.
She said "Disciple."
So I asked the next question - "What is a disciple?"
She knows it well - "A disciple is a follower."

Mt 28:19-20 gives us some pointers of what a disciple is like.
A disciple is a follower who is willing to be taught to obey everything Jesus have commanded us.

So coming back to her question, "Must a Christian attend church?"
What does the Bible say about this?
Today we think of church as a physical building.
But in the early days, Christians gathered together in houses.

The home gathering is the church.
e.g. 1Cor 16:19 The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.
e.g. Rom 16:5 Greet also the church that meets at their house.

So I mentioned to her that she could always a attend a home group if church (on Sundays) is inconvenient for her.
So I asked the lady, what does she want to be - a convert or a disciple?
She had earlier nodded that she wanted to be a disciple.
That gave her something to chew upon as she stood up and went on with her matters.
As she went, she said that I was a good pastor.

I was worried that I had offended her.
But with her parting words, I felt so privileged to be able to share this with her.
Sometimes we go on doing what we do but God has a purpose for us all to be at a certain place and a certain time.
God has placed us where we are for His divine purposes.

On this Badminton trip, I was privileged to be able to know another Laotian player who is not yet a believer. But whis son and daughter in law are Christian leaders in an Auckland church and had studied in a Bible college in Singapore. I look forward to sharing life together with him.

Coming back to Luke 5 and other verses like Matt 28:19-20, what are the marks of a disciple?

1. Willing to be taught - Teachable and humble (Mt 28:20)

2. Have a teacher (Mt 28:20)

3. Follower of Jesus and obey everything that He commands (Mt 28:20)

4. Prepared to leave everything to follow Jesus

This is repeated twice in Luke 5 and found only in Luke 5 - 5:11 and 5:28.
e.g. Luke 5:11 So they (Simon Peter, James and John) pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Are we prepared to leave everything to follow Jesus when called to do so?

5. Make disciples

Just as our spiritual father / leader make disciples of us, we continue the process of making disciples (Mt 28:19-20).

So looking at the marks of a disciple
- are we a convert, a believer or a disciple?