Swine Flu - Responding Biblically

Its all over the news, you can't escape images of people with masks over their faces, you can't turn your TV on without hearing 'The latest', we are being given constant updates on the WHO threat level. People have even been ringing into their doctors surgeries asking for Tamiflu as a precaution.

But how should we react? What is Biblical reaction? I guess some people would shrug their shoulders and say whatever will be will be. But that is not the full story.

It is interesting how the media coverage has sparked fears in young children. One of ours was sat on his bed crying, saying that he didn't want to die. All explanation of how unlikely he was to get it, how we hadn't been to Mexico etc... Did no good at all, he was still worried he was going to die. So what stopped him crying? It was when his mum said that if we live great God gives us time to enjoy the world he has put us in and learn more about him, but if we were to die then we get to be with Jesus for ever. His reaction - to stop crying get his school uniform on and start playing now totally reassured.

Sometimes our children's reactions have much to teach us. One of the issues that this potential pandemic is throwing up is people's fear of death. If this world is all you have to live for then rightly so, but if we know that we will only fall asleep in Jesus we need not panic.

So how should we respond as believers:

1. We ought not to worry instead we need to remind ourselves that our future is secure and it is (1 Peter1v5) kept in heaven for us.
2. We should pray, it is another part of the worlds groaning (Rom 8:22) as it waits eagerly for the new creation, another consequence of the fall.
3. Our hope should be obvious to others so much so that they ask us questions about it, and we must be ready to answer them (1 Pet 3:15-16).

Life is fragile, it has been ever since the fall, but the believer can have confidence because our future is secure. Only when we read again and study the words of the Bible and regain a correct view of heaven as our home and this world as the hotel room will we gain a Biblical perspective. We need to hear our Father's words and be comforted by them, be reassured about our real future and security and then live liberated for him.

The Shack some final thoughts

I finished reading The Shack last night, I'm going to try to give my thoughts on the book and why I think that way.

This book has generated a lot of heat (as ever) in Christian circles, by some it has been welcomed as having "the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his." Whilst others have labelled it heresy. So what are we to make of it.

I want to begin by giving a word of caution. This book is a work of fiction, it is a made up story and we need to read it as such. However, it is also a fictional story which is about things which we hold dear; the god head, atonement, Jesus Christ and salvation. As a story it engages us and weaves a tale in which we find ourselves eager to know more, yet at the same time it also challenges us and our beliefs, not just our assumptions. It is a book to be read with discernment because it does seek to teach us about God even if it does so through a fictional story.

The book does challenge our assumptions about God, some will never get past God the Father being portrayed as an African American Woman - indeed some have said this is akin to goddess worship - but as you read the book it is clear that God the Father is not a woman, he remains 'Papa' throughout and finally appears as a man at the end. It is a challenge to Mack's assumptions and ours of God as an elderly white bearded man. Similarly with the character Sarayu (wind) the Holy Spirit. Part of me thinks this was unnecessary but as a literary device it works - theological it is questionable.

The biggest challenge in the book is in the way you see the godhead relating - laughing, having fun, being moved, loving one another, knowing each other. It is an interesting thought which then impinges on how Mack is to relate to the godhead. Mack is anti-established church (a common emerging church trend) and very anti-religion, and God is the same the stress instead from the godhead is on relationship, though Jesus description of being in love with a woman - his people - is biblical and a good corrective. Such things we would do well to search the Bible for and rediscover ourselves, though we must ensure that we establish biblical principles behind relationship and a biblical view of church.

However, in the book holiness and awe are not sufficiently dealt with. Yes, Young contends that Jesus gives himself so that we can enter relationship with God and we want to live every day in the light of that truth, however there is also the issue of our response to a holy God which is not fully unpacked. In fact there seems to be little awe in the book which does not reflect the biblical emphases of both New and Old Testaments.

The Shack also seems to downplay the significance of the Bible whilst exalting the place of experience, yet the Bible is God's word given to us so that we might know him and where we stand in relation to him. Such a heavy emphasis on experience is dangerous, though many of us would do well to think biblically through the challenge to be less independent and listen more to what God says to us.

I also have one or two questions about the way the gospel is presented in the book. Young makes it very clear that it is only in Jesus Christ we can be reconciled to God by faith. He makes it clear that all religions are not the same, but that people from all backgrounds need to be saved by faith in Christ and I want to say Amen to that. However his view of sin is not biblical; describing sin as punishment enough in itself and questioning therefore whether God needs to punish it. Teachings which go against the Bibles teaching about a holy God and sin.

The biggest area of debate has been surrounding the portrayal of the Trinity, too much of what is in the book is speculation and blue sky thinking. The book does challenge us about our preconceptions of God, that we just make him in our image with our limitations and it challenges us to understand that God is inherently good. However there are large parts of the book which go against what the Bible teaches: Young teaches that there is no hierarchy in the Trinity and that all hierarchy is wrong, this is clearly not biblical.

He also teaches that God the Father ('Papa') is fully human in Jesus Christ incarnate, even going so far as to have the Father suffering the wounds in his hands and feet and saying that at no point did God leave or forsake Jesus even on the cross. He also makes other statements and suggestions about the Trinity which have no scriptural support and therefore are just conjecture. The Trinity is complex and Young does have God saying that man cannot understand it, but overall the books teaching on it leaves me concerned. If I want to know God and understand and be amazed at the nature of God and the godhead the Bible has to be the book that amazes, teaches me and draws me to my knees to praise so great a God.

However the book does grapple with the idea of God and suffering, it teaches that we have rejected God's rule and turned to independence and that we dragged the world with us. It challenges Mack's putting of God in the dock for what happened to his daughter, something which we so often do too.

So what to say in summary? This is not a brilliant piece of literature as writing goes, though it is a very emotive and engaging story, it will challenge our thinking and make us long to know God. But the big issue is will it make me long to know the God of the Bible? I my opinion this book is no Pilgrim's Progress. There are just too many areas of questionable theology, too much extra-biblical surmising. It is not a book I would recommend Christians to read to deepen their faith unless they were to exercise considerable discernment and read it with their bible open next to them or in a discussion group, though it has its uses when used like that - challenging our preconceptions and forcing us to check biblically our view of God, his word and salvation.

However, I do think The Shack has its uses: It shows us that there is a spiritual hunger in the world by the very fact that it has been in the best seller lists - there are those in our workplaces, at the school gates, in our neighbourhoods who will have read the book and been challenged about their view of God. We need to be ready to answer their questions about what God is like, about suffering, about Jesus and what he has done for us, about redemption and salvation not in terms of The Shack but in terms of the Bible - God's word.

Thinking Biblically about suicide

Suicide is a big issue in our society, in 2005 there were 5,671 suicides in adults aged 15 and over in the UK, three quarter's of which were among men. Apparently over the past four years more young men have died from suicide than any other cause. They are horrific statistics and show how hopeless many peoples lives are. But what is a Biblical and Christian response to such an issue?

Firstly we need to make sure that we have God and ourselves in perspective. God is infinite, sustains the universe without tiring, is glorious in his majesty and we are finite, need sleep, forget our anniversary and need to dress to impress, wear make up and do our hair. Yet the wonder is that God chooses to reveal himself to us and calls us to know him. Psalm 8 and Job 38-40 are good places to go to think about these things.

Having got our thinking straight what does the Bible have to teach us about suicide? Firstly the Bible doesn't hide from it, in 2 Sam 17 we see the frustrated Ahitophel take his own life and in Matthew 27 Judas does likewise. Secondly we see that sometimes God's people feel overwhelmed and unable to cope, in Numbers 11 we see that with Moses, in 1 Kings 19 with Elijah and with Jonah. Each asks God to take their life or expresses the sentiment that I'd be better off dead. Thirdly it is a sin to commit suicide, it is unlawful to murder (Ex 20:13) and only God has the right to take life (Jer 10:23, Ezekiel 18:4). Fourthly we need to realise that forgiveness for sins is through Christ alone (Acts 10:43), and fifthly that life here and now is an ongoing battle with sin.

Suicide is not the unforgivable sin. It is, however, a sin. It is swallowing Satan's lies that death must be better than this, that in the believers case you can't trust and rely on God as your rock. Suicide should make us feel compassion for our mixed up and hopeless world. The gospel, Jesus Christ saves from destruction and despair. The people of God must hold out the hope we have been given to the world.

We must also be engaged in the spiritual battle that is life here on earth, putting on the full armour of God as Paul exhorts the Ephesians to do. We must encourage those with depression and other problems to seek the relevant medical help and pray with them, love them and spur them on to put on that armour and live lives worthy of the gospel.