By Stephen Green
First Published in Christian Voice August 2011
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Last months’s Christian Voice newsletter carried an article about David Cameron’s party for gay activists in10 Downing Street. We also reproduced the full text of his speech.
Mr Cameron’s determination to force sodomy onAfricawas also printed in Pink News, which was understandably delighted, and in the London Evening Standard. The Press Association syndicated the story world-wide, so it hardly suffered from inadequate or biased reporting.
Whatever one’s view on the rights and wrongs of using foreign aid to co-erce the governments of poorer nations to legalise vice, or indeed to change policy in any direction, the bare facts were undeniable.
Mr Cameron’s declaration of intent has led us to call a meeting next month (6th September) at the Emmanuel Centre in Victoria, to record a video and post a petition, all with a hope that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the end of October will tell Mr Cameron that the white man does not know best and that his neo-colonialism is not acceptable in the modern world.
We circulated details of the video, petition and meeting by e-mail to our members and supporters and wider afield, in the hope that there would be an international reaction against what we see as David Cameron’s cultural imperialism.
One e-mail recipient, a member indeed of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, decided to complain closer to home, and e-mailed its leadership, hoping to elicit their support in bringing some prophetic witness to bear inside the Conservative Party itself. He received the most extraordinary response.
A spokesman from the Conservative Christian Fellowship replied:
‘Sadly the report you refer to is both sensational and unhelpful. As I understand it the British Government’s approach to supporting Human Rights inAfricahasn’t changed since the 1948 UN Declaration Human Rights. Something I am sure all Christians can comfortably sign up to.’
Our correspondent, taking this plain if ungrammatical denial on trust, then understandably berated Christian Voice:
‘Where did you get your information?’ he fumed. ‘If it was from the homosexuals, I would beware of listening to people who are against both the Gospel and the Conservative party.’
I dislike having to criticise fellow Christians in public, and would not do it at all without first having e‑mailed the CCF myself. Nevertheless, an organisation which its Patron, Gary Streeter MP, says has ‘made an impact’ and ‘stood up for Christian values’ and which claims to be ‘a vibrant Christian witness within the Conservative Party’, turns out to be less committed to Christian values and the cause of the Gospel than to the Conservative Party in whose headquarters it is based.
In point of fact, it is so dedicated to putting a brave face on the less-than-Christian antics of the Coalition Government that it is prepared to twist the truth. Fair enough, to describe a report as ‘sensational and unhelpful’ is not to say it is untrue. But to go on to say that British Government policy towards homosexuality has not changed in sixty-three years and that the Government is doing only that which Christians cannot fail to support is a barefaced, risible, outright lie.
True enough, we do not know what the leaders of the CCF have been saying privately to Mr Cameron. They may, for all we know, have been protesting with all their strength. But their public response hardly gives an inkling that they have any misgivings about his pro-gay foreign aid policy whatsoever. Denying it actually exists, following a well-publicised and undisputed speech from the Prime Minister himself is certainly not a promising start.
It may be that some aspiring young things see their membership of the CCF coupled with enthusiastic support of their party as a stepping-stone to eventual membership of the House of Commons. ‘When I get there, or when I become a minister, or when I become Prime Minister, then I’ll speak out and make a real difference,’ they might think.
But it doesn’t work like that:
Luke 16:10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
We are tested on our faith at every stage. By working hard to advance our employer’s or the party’s cause by honest means, by making ourselves useful, being diligent at every turn, we can certainly earn the right to be listened to. That is how we advance, not by defending the indefensible. By putting God first, seeking first his kingdom and righteousness, all else will be added (Matt6:33).
But when we put the demands of God, his kingdom and righteousness second, the problems start. Not only can we not serve God and another master at the same time, but the Apostle James points out:
Jas 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
And indeed, as James suggests, that kind of thinking, ‘Just wait till I get into power then I’ll show them,’ leaves out the power of God to raise up one and pull down another. It forgets his power to bestow favour in the eyes of men.
Joseph certainly did not think like the CCF appear to. He did not flinch when his boss’s wife tried to seduce him. Today that would be seen as a forgivable bit-on-the-side but the Godly men of old viewed adultery as a betrayal. For resisting wickedness Joseph was thrown into prison, and that might have been the end of him, had not the Lord granted him favour because of his faithfulness first with the prison governor and then with Pharaoh himself:
Gen 39:21 But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Acts 7:10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Joseph was not the last to be granted favour by God for his faithfulness to the Law of the Lord. Samuel was not afraid to tell Eli that the Lord’s judgment was to fall on his house. Despite this, or because the Lord knew what kind of fearless young man Samuel was to be, in the previous chapter we read:
1Sam 2:26 And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.
Daniel stood up for righteousness, refusing to eat meat dedicated to idols. He managed by diligence and study and willingness to learn to make himself useful in the service of the king, but without compromising his beliefs. So we read:
Dan 1:9 Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
God bestows favour on the faithful. Proverbs says:
Prov 12:2 A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.
And in the Gospels we read:
Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
Peter risked unpopularity by standing up on the Day of Pentecost and giving his great sermon with all its condemnation of those who crucified Jesus and encouragement to turn to the risen Jesus and be saved. It was straight-down-the-line no-holds-barred full-frontal evangelism. And it was honoured by God, in the numbers saved and bestowing of favour with men. The believers, we read, were:
Acts 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
When we look at the example of the prophets we see men, even men in the Court, who risked their lives by telling kings things they did not want to hear.
Nathan admonished David for his adultery and murder of Uriah: ‘Thou art the man’, he told him, chillingly (2Sam 12:7), in what I believe was a public rebuke, in the light of the public consequences which Nathan said would follow. It is certain that David’s sin was public knowledge and Nathan’s condemnation of it was more than a quiet word in private.
The prophet Isaiah did not shrink from public condemnation of national sins. Even as a young man, he was denouncing the princes in king Uzziah’s administration for taking bribes and perverting judgment (Isa1:23). And despite this (or because of it once again!) we see the Lord giving Isaiah a glittering career in the heart of government even under unrighteous king Ahaz (2Chr 28:1) and being unafraid to pronounce judgement on king Hezekiah for his stupidity in showing the Babylonian ambassador all his wealth (Isa 39:6).
Not all the prophets were as high up as Nathan and Isaiah, but not one of them flinched from his duty to tell it as God saw it. They were well-versed in the scriptures, meditating in the law of God (Josh 1:8, Psa 1:2, 119:15 &c) and through that knowing the mind of God. They were not men-pleasers but devoted to God. They and the Apostles set their sights, not on climbing the greasy pole of earthly preferment, but on what the Epistle to the Hebrews describes as ‘a better resurrection’ (Heb11:35) and Paul portrays as a ‘crown of righteousness’ (2Tim 4:8).
We cannot serve both two masters, and these events sadly show that when we try, truth falls alongside faithful witness. That ought to be a lesson to us all.
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