Truth Challenge
About Spencer Gear
About Truth Challenge
ARMINIANISM INDEX
Bible index
CALVINISM INDEX
CHURCH INDEX
COMMUNITY INDEX
COUNSELLING INDEX
CULTS AND HERESIES INDEX
DRUGS INDEX
ETHICS INDEX
GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT INDEX
GOD INDEX
GOVERNMENT INDEX
HELL AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT INDEX
HERMENEUTICS INDEX
HOLY SPIRIT INDEX
HOT TOPICS INDEX
JESUS CHRIST INDEX
LIBERALISM INDEX
LIFE AFTER DEATH INDEX
PHILOSOPHY INDEX
SALVATION INDEX
SERMONS INDEX
SIN INDEX
THEOLOGY INDEX
TRUTH INDEX
WOMEN IN MINISTRY INDEX
WORLD RELIGIONS INDEX
Category Archives: Cultural Apologetics
Scott Morrison needs to 'obey God's message'
2 Oct 2019, 5:35pm
ABC News, 2 October 2019, Photo: The family had been living in the central Queensland town of Biloela. (Supplied: @HometoBilo)
By Spencer D Gear PhD
This article was first published in On Line Opinion, 4 September 2019.
What will it take for ScoMo to practise what he preaches? I've seen the pictures of him with raised hands in worship in his church on Sunday. I applaud him for worshipping the Lord God Almighty and allowing the mass media cameras to see a demonstration of his faith.
His faith needs more than lifting hands in praise. Australians need to see him practise his Christian faith with Priya, her husband Nadesalingam (Nades), with daughters Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2.
They have become household names as they challenge the deportation orders to return them to Sri Lanka.
The small regional town of Biloela, Qld, wants them to stay. They have integrated well into that region and Nades has been employed in the meat works.
Morrison resists: 'I do understand the real feeling about this and the desire for there to be an exception but I know what the consequences are of allowing those exceptions' (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 2019). Based on the 10 Daily report in September 2019,
(Australian Border Force officials) have told the family they need to learn to adjust to what they're got on Christmas Island because they're not going to be brought back to the mainland," Tamil Refugee Council spokesman Aran Mylvaganam told AAP after speaking to the family….
"Priya, she is saying that she came from the war zone and regardless of how difficult it is, she's able to put up with it.
"But it's the children that she's worried about, who were born here"….
It's expected to be months before a trial decides whether Tharunicaa's (the youngest child) bid for a protection visa should be accepted by the Australian government. Her parents and sibling have already been denied refugee status (10 Daily).
This is not about 'real feeling' towards this family but about a demonstration of real Christianity by Morrison and his Christian colleagues in government.
Both Morrison and I are evangelical Christians. We have this divine responsibility,
'Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Help people who are in trouble. Stand up for what you know is right, and judge all people fairly. Protect the rights of the poor and those who need help' (Proverbs 31:8-9).
This is a special time when ScoMo can act for this family that does not have the political voice, clout or the emotional strength to stand up to the assertions of Peter Dutton that they are 'not owed protection' because they 'are not refugees'.
Morrison claimed 'they didn't come to the country in the appropriate way. They have not been found to have an asylum claim'.
Neither would I if I were fleeing persecution. It was reported in the Liverpool City Champion (Narellan, NSW) that 'Priya told AAP she saw her fiancé and five other men from her village burned alive before she fled. Her entire family now live as refugees in India'.
Prime Minister, it's time to step up and demonstrate your genuine Christian convictions.
'Someone might argue, "Some people have faith, and others have good works." My answer would be that you can't show me your faith if you don't do anything. But I will show you my faith by the good I do' (James 2:18).
Your Bible-based Christian faith will live up to this requirement, ''If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord—and he will repay you' (Proverbs 19:17).
Photo: The two girls were born in Australia but are not Australian citizens. (Supplied: Tamil Refugee Council)
Morrison's heartless comment was, 'They can return to Sri Lanka and they can make an application to come to Australia under the same processes as everyone else, anywhere else in the world. And I would hope they do. I would hope they do' (SMH).
Sending people on meagre wages back to Sri Lanka and hoping they'll make application to come to Australia as everyone else does is not practising Christianity's Golden Rule: 'In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you'.
Is that how you want to be treated, Mr Morrison? Do you want this harshness inflicted on you? 'The prime minister says he cannot "in good conscience" allow a Tamil couple and their Australian-born children facing deportation to stay in Australia'.
That's not a 'Christian conscience' based on the Golden Rule' and God's care for the needy.
Now Ray Hadley joins with the Honourable Peter Dutton, Minister for Home Affairs, in choofing the family back to Sri Lanka. Why?
"It's very simple… they lied," says Ray (on 2GB, 3 September 2019).
"The woman came from Chennai, which is in India. That's where she set sail from and she'd been living there for an extended period.
"The now-husband had travelled from Sri Lanka to the Middle East on three separate occasions and had returned on three separate occasions".
ABC News confirmed, 'He frequently travelled between Sri Lanka, Kuwait and Qatar between 2004 and 2010 for work, during the civil war that ended in 2009'.
Ray: Why was Niya in Chennai? She has made it clear her persecuted family in Sri Lanka had sought asylum in India. The Guardian reported, 'She initially fled to India, not a refugee convention country and which does not offer protection, with family members'.
Contrary to Ray Hadley's statement, she was not lying about her circumstances when she left the Indian city of Chennai to seek asylum in Australia. She had fled Sri Lanka's civil war in 2000 to India, which is not a signatory of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
The UNHCR stated although India was not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, India's national refugee protection framework 'continues to grant asylum to a large number of refugees from neighbouring States and respects UNHCR's mandate for other nationals'.
In 2018, Mr Dutton intervened to prevent two European nannies (au pairs) from being deported from Australia.
'"It's quite clear if you look at the ministerial intervention guidelines, this case [of the Tamil family] meets those guidelines more clearly than the two au pair cases in which the minister [Mr Dutton] acted within hours," said Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary of the Immigration Department' (ABC News).
Mr Rizvi was more compassionate towards this family than Morrison, Dutton or Hadley. He told the ABC, 'We have a clear contest between human decency and appropriate use of the ministerial intervention powers and the minister's ego'.
Some will be shouting: Keep religion out of politics. That's impossible to do because all people see life thorough their world views. A world view is like lenses through which we look at reality. Our beliefs about all aspects of life colour our perspective of what happens in the universe.
A Christian world view includes: 'We must obey God rather than human beings!' The Scriptures I've quoted in this essay demonstrate how the Christian ScoMo, as our national leader, ought to be treating this Tamil family. Instead, his government has put the family through 18 months of trauma, which is hardly a demonstration of Christian kindness.
Glen Campbell's song comes to mind as I consider what the Coalition government should be doing to the Tamil family,
If you see your brother standing by the road
With a heavy load from the seeds he's sowed
And if you see your sister falling by the way
Just stop and say, you're going the wrong way
You got to try a little kindness
Yes show a little kindness
Just shine your light for everyone to see
And if you try a little kindness
Then you'll overlook the blindness
Of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets
(composers: Curt Sapaugh and Bobby Austin)
This is what we need from the government led by a Christian Prime Minister.
The Tamil family is in our country so we can act christianly towards them. Prime Minister Morrison, you are a Christian. This is how you can demonstrate your Christianity to this family: 'God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So your new life should be like this: Show mercy to others. Be kind, humble, gentle, and patient' (Colossians 3:12).
Please intervene immediately. What could be more pointed than this call to you Mr Morrison?
'Do what God's teaching says; don't just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves…. But when you look into God's perfect law that sets people free, pay attention to it. If you do what it says, you will have God's blessing. Never just listen to his teaching and forget what you heard' (James 2:22, 25).
Copyright © 2020 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 19 January 2020.
This entry was posted in Community, Cultural Apologetics, Government and tagged Asylum seekers, Australian immigration, Tamily family on 19 January 2020 by spencer.
Have politics changed ScoMo's Christianity?
'I'm not running for Pope'
The Honourable Scott Morrison MP
30th Prime Minister of Australia
This article was first published by On Line Opinion, 6 November 2019.
What is Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, telling us about his Christianity with these statements?
Before becoming PM, he did not support same-sex marriage. What about now?
When interviewed by Leigh Sales, he had an opportunity to tell those watching what his views were on the existence and nature of God. He pushed that one aside with a 'love' view.
He's a Christian who doesn't mix religion and politics.
Which God is he serving? He and his family attend Horizon Church, Sutherland Shire, NSW, Australia. This is a Pentecostal congregation associated with the Australian Christian Churches, affiliated with the Assemblies of God worldwide.
He allowed the mass media into the worship service to see him with his wife at Easter Sunday service 2019. ScoMo was praising God with hand raised. This is a common practice in Pentecostal and other evangelical church worship, supported by Bible passages such as Psalm 63:4.
This article will examine how Morrison's Christianity integrates in public with his politics.
1. Prime Minister's moral views
When he was treasurer in 2016, he did not support change from traditional to same-sex marriage. This is in agreement with Jesus' endorsement of heterosexual relationships:
'''Haven't you read,' he replied, 'that at the beginning the Creator "made them male and female," and said, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh"? So they are no longer two, but one flesh' (Matthew 19:4-6).
What about abortion?
The context of the recent abortion debate in NSW was when the PM acknowledged it was a State issue where the MPs and MLCs were granted a conscience vote. He would not make it a Commonwealth issue but acknowledged
"I have what I would describe as conservative views on this issue as people know I have on other issues. That's really all I think I need to say".
That statement was made after he became PM.
2. When new moral views become law
Now that homosexual marriage has been legalised in Australia, what is Morrison's view? Notice how he dodges the journalist's questions:
Mr Morrison abstained from voting for marriage equality when it passed the House of Representatives in 2018, and he voted "no" in the national survey.
When asked if he is still personally opposed to same-sex marriage, the prime minister replied: "It's law. And I'm glad that the change has now been made and people can get on with their lives. That's what I'm happy about."
When pressed on whether his opinions have changed, he told reporters in Perth: "I always support the law of the country".
So, he supports Australian law but won't own up to his current personal beliefs about homosexuality. I wonder, as a Pentecostal Christian, whether he accepts the Bible's view on the topic.
OUTinPerth, an LGBTIQ+ news source, observed ScoMo's views on homosexuality when a journalist interviewed him in Perth. Now he was supportive of same-sex couples being allowed to 'get on with their lives' because he 'always supports the law of the country'.
ScoMo would not be drawn into a discussion on whether he believed 'gay people would be sent to hell' – referring to the Israel Folau controversy.
3. His views on God
Leigh Sales of ABC's 7.30 grilled him on this topic: 'I'm not running for Pope,' Mr Morrison shot back. "I'm running for Prime Minister. And the theological questions are not ones that are actually, I think, germane to the political debate in this country'.
Then he defined faith as loving others, 'which is what I've always believed'. His parents taught by example, serving in local youth organisations, boys and girls brigade for the youth in their community. 'They taught me a life of faith and service and that's what my faith means to me. It means service and caring for others'.
He had an ideal public opportunity to declare his belief in the Lord God Almighty and Jesus the Saviour who offers salvation to the world. He turned to the 'loving others' definition of who God is. In my view he dodged the issues regarding attributes of God for a Christian PM.
When will ScoMo have the courage to lead the country in repentance and prayer for rain? He stated when it rained in Albury: 'I do pray for that rain. And I'd encourage others who believe in the power of prayer to pray for that rain and to pray for our farmers. Please do that'.
We heard former PM, Malcolm Turnbull, state, 'We can't make it rain'. Step up to the mark ScoMo. You know the One who sends and withholds rain: God the Father 'lets the sun rise for all people, whether they are good or bad. He sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong'.
I'm waiting on Morrison's call to the nation to flood into churches, public halls and local parks to pray earnestly for rain. We can't force God to send the rain but he has told us to 'never stop praying' and wait for his sovereign action in sending the liquid gold to the parched regions of the nation.
It is time for this Christian PM to tell us who sends the rain. This view espoused by many that 'we can't make it rain' is true but it avoids announcing who sends rain and how we should respond to the drought.
4. Religion does not mix with politics
Morrison told a journalist, 'he doesn't "mix [his] religion with politics"'.
Regarding homosexuals and hell, he clarified his view before the 2019 election: 'No, I do not believe that', he told SBS News.
However, only a year prior he supported Israel Folau's 'strength of character in standing up for what he believes in and I think that's what this country is all about'. Folau believes sinners go to hell. Does he support Folau's 'strength of character' without affirming Folau's moral and theological beliefs?
Does he believe all sinners go to hell? I have not found his making a clear public statement about this.
However, The Horizon Church where he and his family attend, stated in its Doctrinal Basis (for Australian Christian Churches), 'We believe in the everlasting punishment of the wicked (in the sense of eternal torment) who wilfully reject and despise the love of God manifested in the great sacrifice of his only Son on the cross for their salvation' (Bible references provided).
If ScoMo is a member of that Church he would have to accept this teaching.
5. Which Bible does ScoMo read?
Twelve months ago when he was treasurer, Morrison's views on morality and a Christian world view do not match his philosophy with biblical teaching today. From what I've written above, alarm bells should be ringing of conflicts between his beliefs and actions.
The first alarm concerns how a person's world view affects life in the real world, including politics. All of us have a world view, a lens through which we look and interpret all of life.
The global warming world view uses a certain set of lenses. Left wing and right wing agitators also use different lenses. The Christian and atheistic world views see life through the theistic God's existence (Christian) and the lack of evidence for God (atheism).
For ScoMo to state he doesn't 'mix religion with politics', he violates a Christian fundamental belief: 'And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him' (Colossians 3:17).
So, ScoMo, as a biblical Christian, should live by the teaching: 'I must mix my Christianity with political thinking and actions. By this I give thanks to God the Father through Jesus'.
A second alarm deals with ScoMo's acceptance of moral issues after they become law, e.g. homosexual marriage and abortion. The biblical view is that promoted by Peter and the apostles when confronted with the Jewish high council (the Sanhedrin).
The high priest stated: 'We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood on us! But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than people" (Acts 5:28-29).
Should that be ScoMo's approach to legislation that clashes with Scripture?
6. Bible, homosexuality and abortion
First Corinthians 6:9-11 is clear. Wrong doers or the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. These include those who indulge in sexual sin, worship idols, commit adultery, are male prostitutes, practise homosexuality, are thieves, greedy, drunkards, abusive, or cheat people.
If they don't inherit the kingdom of God, where do they go at death? Jesus said regarding the last judgment: 'They [the unrighteous] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life' (Matthew 25:46).
Therefore, Izzy scored the try across the biblical line while ScoMo fumbled the biblical material and presented a view that is foreign to the text.
(aborted 22 weeks, Campaign Life Coalition)
As for God's view on abortion, is it more than ScoMo's 'conservative' view? Is the unborn a living human being (from God's perspective) whose right to live should be preserved? Or is the unborn child a lump of cells of no more value than a chicken fillet?
Scripture teaches that human life exists in the womb: 'You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb' (Psalm 139:13).
In the New Testament (NT), when Mary and Elizabeth met, both being pregnant, Elizabeth's baby (John the Baptist) 'leaped in her womb' in salutation of Mary's baby, Jesus. Of special significance in Luke's account is that he used the same word brephos (NT Greek) for an unborn child (1:41, 44), the new-born baby (2:12, 16) and the little ones brought to Jesus to bless (18:15).
Medical science agrees. Every human life begins at conception. The approximately 65,000 murdered in Australian abortions every year are pre-born children – human beings.
In 1970, in the midst of the United States' abortion debate (it was legalised in 1973), the editors of the journal California Medicine (the official journal of the California Medical Association), noticed 'a curious avoidance of thescientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra or extrauterine until death'.
Therefore, to kill an unborn infant is to murder a human being.
ScoMo's world view is not driven by biblical Christianity's, 'We must obey God rather than human beings'. When he reneges on what the Bible says about the destiny of all evil doers, including homosexuals, he has made a trade off to weaken what the Bible states.
To affirm that he is not running for Pope and serves a God of love avoids fuller explanation of who God is: All-powerful, one who knows all things, has wrath as well as love; he offers salvation to all who believe; we can know him truly, and he is eternal.
Could you imagine ScoMo taking a stand on the 7.30 program like this? 'As a Christian who believes in the inspiration of the Bible, I endorse the content of Israel Folau's Instagram post. As a Christian PM, everything I say and do will be under the scrutiny of the Bible'.
I appreciate that that kind of comment would lose some votes at the next election – while gaining others – and could be used by the opposition to denigrate his beliefs in a multicultural Australia. Nevertheless, the Australian Constitution has its foundation in the five states that joined together, 'humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God'.
All Christians are faced with the ScoMo challenge: 'Everything you say and everything you do should be done for Jesus your Lord'. Imagine the PM saying it like that to Leigh Sales!
In my view, the public life of politics has weakened ScoMo's overt Christianity.
ScoMo what will it be? Spiritual correctness or political correctness? Your future will depend on it.
Copyright © 2019 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 03 November 2019.
This entry was posted in Attributes, Cultural Apologetics, Government, Hell and Eternal Punishment, Homosexuality, Presuppositions and tagged abortion, compromise, God sends rain, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on 2 November 2019 by spencer.
Dams needed. Who sends the rain?
Deism damns how to fill dams
(Photo: Guyra's water reserves dried up earlier this year. (ABC News: Caitlyn Gribbin)
A friend copied me into his email to the Federal Treasurer of Australia, the Hon. Josh Frydenberg:[1]
Thankyou for your newsletter and for the concern you show for Dino the Stanthorpe Apple Grower suffering from the effects of drought. This concern is admirable but without action it is as meaningless as the Green's political party concern.
Dino is suffering because of a failure to supply Water. It is the responsibility of Government to ensure that sufficient water is stored to meet domestic, industrial, irrigation and environmental needs.
Unfortunately we have to go back to the 1960's Ord scheme to find evidence of Federal Government active intervention to supply water on a large scale. Tony Abbott talked a lot. ALP is only concerned with their voter base which no longer includes farmers.
Tino is suffering because past governments have failed to build dams not because it is not raining.
The 1940's and 1950's Bradfield scheme if implemented would have solved the problem. Vince Gair was advocating this scheme in 1950's and I personally heard Dr. Colin Clark praise the scheme.
As an absolute minimum to show true support for Dino please organise for a full investigation into the scheme with an undertaking to build if viable.
My reply was: There's no point in building dams unless the Lord God Almighty sends the rain.
We should have people in droves, who believe in the power of prayer, flooding our churches to pray for rain. Of course we need national repentance. See: Australia is in deep trouble: Droughts, floods and fires
His comeback was:
I am not on the same wavelength as Spencer's response to me.
I personally do not think God interferes with the running of his creation and I see our lack of rain as a natural part of that creation. Our failure to store it however is a failure by humans and has nothing to do with sin other than greed when allocating government resources.[2]
1. Which theology did he promote?
His was the God who created the world and left it running and did not involve himself in the creation any longer. The problem is a human one where not enough dams have been built and water stored.
He provided zero explanation for the lack of rain, except it was a natural part of what happens in our world.
Is this the God of the Bible in action or has he gone to sleep.
1.1 Deism damns how to fill dams
Who or what sends the rain so that we have water to store in dams?
Yours is the God of Deism. My understanding of creation is one where 'God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords' sustains the universe (1 Timothy 6:15). God the Son sustains 'all things by his powerful word' (Hebrews 1:3).
Why does the world continue to exist? It is not because he set it running and then doesn't interfere. Rather, Scripture is clear: 'For in him [Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together' (Colossians 1:16-17).
The Bible does not support your view that God does not interfere with the running of creation. Instead, God is active in holding all things together in creation, including the sending and withholding of rain.
For the Israelites under the Old Covenant, Amos 4:7 states: 'I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up'.
God is not the weak absentee landlord. He continues to be active in his creation. He is the God of action and not inaction when it comes to sending the rain: 'He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous' (Matthew 5:45).
1.2 Atrocious reasoning
What do you think his come back would be to my exposure of his Deism? It was simple: 'Thank you for your reply. I have removed you from my e-mail contacts. You should get nothing from me from now on'.[3]
Instead of dealing with the negatives and positives of his Deist beliefs, he resorted to removing me from his email list.
I thoughtfully replied:
So you are unprepared to deal with your unbiblical view of God. Instead of dealing with the issues with your Deism, you removed me from your mailing list. You have used an Appeal to Invincible Ignorance Logical Fallacy. It involves a situation where …
the person in question (you) simply refuses to believe the argument, ignoring any evidence given. It is not so much a fallacious tactic in argument as it is a refusal to argue in the proper sense of the word, the method instead being to make assertions with no consideration of objections.
Deleting me from your email list demonstrated your use of this fallacy.
I hope that one day you'll be able to man up to a critique of your Deism and see its distance from Christianity.
2. What are the beliefs of Deism?[4]
God made the world and does not interrupt its continuing with supernatural events. Thus, the statement by my friend, 'I personally do not think God interferes with the running of his creation and I see our lack of rain as a natural part of that creation'.
There are several forms of deism. Some of their basic beliefs include (Geisler 1999:190):
God is not interested in the world he created.
A second brand regards God as having a continuing interest in the universe but is not interested in whether people act morally or not.
A third view maintains God governs the universe and is interested in the moral actions of people, but nothing happens after death.
Fourthly, it understands God regulates the world, expects obedience to his moral law in nature with rewards and punishments for the wicked.
Deists object to orthodox Christianity over their views on:
God (the non-Trinitarian God of Deism);
Origin of the universe;
Relation of God to the universe;
Miracles;
Ethics;
Human destiny;
B A Robinson (1999-2018) of Religious Tolerance summarised the beliefs of Deism. They include:
It's a natural religion that believes in God's existence, purely on rational grounds.
It does not rely on revealed religion, religious authority or any holy texts.
So Deism is quite different from Judaism, Christianity and Islam because these 3 religions are 'based on revelations that Jews, Christians and Muslims believe mostly came from God to prophet(s) who then taught it to humans'.
It's a 'bottom-up' faith, which means it was created by humans about God. Deists regard revealed religions as 'top-down' for the reason 'their followers believe that they were created by God and delivered to humans'.
Faiths that are the opposite of Deism are Atheism because it does not believe in the existence of God or gods. Another opposite is Theism which is 'seen in the beliefs of most Theists who conceive of God as a deity who is all-present, all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing and has a personal interest and involvement in every human on Earth'. Robinson explained:
Many Deists reason that everything that exists has had a creator — from a wristwatch, to a television set, to the Internet itself. Thus it is logical that the universe itself must have been created by God:
2.1 Positive contributions of Deists
With such a low view of God and a perspective that is contrary to the Scriptures, how could I contemplate any positive benefits by Deists? Geisler (1999:191) states these three:
The importance of reason in considering matters of faith (cf. Isa 1:18; Acts 17:17; 1 Pet 3:15); claims made about miracles and supernatural relation need verification.
The existence of God is reflected in a Designer of the cosmos.
Exposing religious deception and superstition.
2.2 Critique of Deism
What are the major objections to this view of God and the universe?
2.2.1 Admit creation but refuse to accept lesser miracles
A being who could [as deists believe] bring the universe into existence from nothing could certainly perform lesser miracles if He chose to do so. A God who created water could part it or make it possible for a person to walk on it. The immediate multiplication of loaves of bread and fish would be no problem to a God who created matter and life in the first place. A virgin birth or even a physical resurrection from the dead would be minor miracles in comparison to the miracle of creating the universe from nothing [as deists believe]. It seems self-defeating to admit a great miracle like creation and then to deny the possibility of lesser miracles (Geisler 1999:191).
2.2.2 Scientists and natural law
Scientists' views on natural law have moved past the Deists' understandings. The Deist view is outdated as scientists regard the natural law as general today and not necessarily universal. Natural laws indicate how nature generally behaves but it is not fixated on that response.
If God created the universe for the good of his creatures, it seems that he would miraculously intervene in their lives if their good depended on it. Surely their all-good Creator would not abandon his creation. Instead it would seem that such a God would continue to exercise the love and concern for his creatures that prompted him to create them to begin with, even if it meant providing care through miraculous means (Geisler 1999:191).
The possibility of supernatural revelation through Scripture cannot be excluded if one admits to the possibility of miracles.
C S Lewis wrote: 'A naturalistic Christianity leaves out all that is specifically Christian' (Lewis 1947/2012:108).
2.2.3 Abuse is no excuse
Because some religious people have abused religious beliefs on miracles and other Christian beliefs does not make it legitimate to reject miracles. One bad tomato or even a bad bag of tomatoes does not stop people from eating tomatoes.
There have been abuses in science. See: Uses and Abuses of Tuskegee. That should not and has not prevented our engagement with the scientific disciplines.
An all-powerful, all-knowing God could conceivably overcome these problems. At least such problems should not rule out the possibility that God has revealed himself, either verbally or in written form. Again, the evidence should first be consulted….
The deists' case against Christianity and the Bible has been found wanting…. What anti-supernaturalist has adequately answered such Christian theists as J. Gresham Machen, and C. S. Lewis?… They have built an extensive and solid case from science, philosophy, and logic against the belief that miracle stories in the Bible are necessarily mythical….
For example, [Thomas] Paine's[5] belief that most of the books of the Bible were written by people other than the ones who claimed to write them and written very late is still proclaimed as indisputable fact by many critics. But there is not one credible shred of evidence that has not been rejected for good reason by archaeologists and biblical scholars. More than 25,000 finds have confirmed the picture of the ancient world given in the Bible …. There is sufficient evidence to support the authorship claims and early dates for most biblical books (Geisler 1999:192).
I found it interesting to have interaction with a friend whose belief is that of Deism. When I exposed that, he cut off communication with me.
In the above, I've discussed the positives and negatives of Deism when compared with biblical Christianity.
The foundation of a Deist world view is not based on Scripture and the God who intervenes with our world.
My view is that my friend's statement summarises the despair of a Deist world view: 'I personally do not think God interferes with the running of his creation and I see our lack of rain as a natural part of that creation'.
[1] It was dated 6 October 2019. Typographical errors have been corrected.
[2] Received 15 October 2019. Typographical errors were corrected.
[3] Email received 15 October 2019.
[4] Based on Geisler (1999:189-192).
[5] See Thomas Paine details at Thomas Paine 2019. Biography (online). Available at: https://www.biography.com/scholar/thomas-paine (Accessed 16 October 2019).
5. Works consulted
Geisler, N L 1999. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books.
Lewis, C S 1947/2012. Miracles: Do They Really Happen? London: William Collins (a division of Harper Collins).
Robinson, B A 1999-2018. Deism: A world religion. Religious Tolerance (online). Available at: http://www.religioustolerance.org/deism.htm (Accessed 15 October 2019).
[Photo: Farmers have never known Walcha, in regional NSW, to be so dry. (ABC News: Lucy Barbour)
Copyright © 2019 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 19 October 2019.
This entry was posted in Cultural Apologetics, Deism, Government and tagged dams, drought, Rain on 19 October 2019 by spencer.
This article was first published in On Line Opinion, an Australian e-journal, 4 September 2019)
What will it take for ScoMo, the nick-name for Australia's Prime Minister, to practise what he preaches? I've seen the pictures of him with raised hands in worship in his church on Sunday. I applaud him for worshipping the Lord God Almighty and allowing the mass media cameras to see a demonstration of his faith.
(Prime Minister Scott Morrison and wife Jenny sing during an Easter Sunday service at his Horizon Church at Sutherland in Sydney, Sunday, April 21, 2019.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas. Courtesy Eternity, 23 April 2019).[1]
Morrison resists: 'I do understand the real feeling about this and the desire for there to be an exception but I know what the consequences are of allowing those exceptions' (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 2019).
This is a special time when ScoMo can act for this family that does not have the political voice, clout or the emotional strength to stand up to the assertions of Peter Dutton that they are 'not owed protection' because they 'are not refugees'.
(Photo Nadesalingam [Nades] and Priya with their two children. Supplied: Tamil Refugee Council, courtesy ABC News Capricornia/Brisbane).
'Someone might argue, "Some people have faith, and others have good works." My answer would be that you can't show me your faith if you don't do anything. But I will show you my faith by the good I do' (James 2:18 ERV).
Your Bible-based Christian faith will live up to this requirement, 'If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord-and he will repay you' (Proverbs 19:17 NLT).
(Glen Campbell photo courtesy Cranach)
'Do what God's teaching says; don't just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves…. But when you look into God's perfect law that sets people free, pay attention to it. If you do what it says, you will have God's blessing. Never just listen to his teaching and forget what you heard' (James 2:22, 25 ERV).
[1] Kayley Payne 2019. Inviting the cameras into church. Eternity (online), 23 April. Available at: https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/inviting-the-cameras-into-church/ (Accessed 4 September 2019).
Copyright © 2019 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 04 September 2019.
This entry was posted in Cultural Apologetics, Government, Hot Topics and tagged Biloela Qld, Peter Dutton MP, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Tamil asylum seekers on 4 September 2019 by spencer.
They say one thing and do another: Politicians break promises
Religious freedom after 2019 Australian election
By Spencer Gear PhD
Why are religious freedom, free speech, freedom of conscience and association, and a free press so important to the Australian democracy? If these freedoms are restricted, democracy totters with the threat of collapsing.
Democracy means rule by the people. There are several guiding principles that act as the foundation of a democracy, such as rule of law, protected rights and freedoms, free and fair elections, and accountability and transparency of government officials. Citizens have a responsibility to uphold and support these principles.[1]
Since Truth Challenge is an evangelical Christian website, I need to ask: Is democratic government supported by Scripture? I have not seen any recommendation of democracy being the ideal or biblical form of government. However, Christianity and democracy are compatible, as has been demonstrated by the world democracies such as the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and France. However, a Christian world view does not make democracy a requirement.
Two fundamentals have been succinctly stated by Jonathan Leeman:
Broadly speaking, two basic kinds of government show up in the Bible: those who knew they were under God and those who thought they were God or were equal to God. The first kind protected God's people. The second kind attacked them. The first knew they were servants (Rom. 13). The second didn't and so acted like divine impostors and beasts (Ps. 2; Rev. 13, 17:1–6).[2]
While the Bible does not command, 'Thou shalt support democracy and oppose any government that is a dictatorship', it does provide guiding principles for the Judeo-Christian world view and government.
For the Old Testament Jews, the government was theocratic, where God himself directed the government through his servants the prophets who were submissive to the heavenly King until the Jews cried out for a human king to govern them (see 1 Samuel 8:6-9 NLT).
The theocracy began with the call of Abraham in Genesis 12-13.
Christians are to collaborate with governments, no matter what the variety, as God raises governments and causes them to fall (Romans 13:1-7 NLT).
However, if the laws of human government conflict with Scripture (see Acts 5:29 NLT), Christians must obey God rather than human laws. So there is a division between human government and a person's spiritual beliefs.
I recommend this short article, Is democracy a Christian form of government? (Got Questions).
This article focusses on religious freedom as it seems to be the one under most attack by the left-wing ideologues[3] in Australia.
A. What is freedom of religion?
I found this to be a concise description:
Religious freedom protects people's right to live, speak, and act according to their beliefs peacefully and publicly. It protects their ability to be themselves at work, in class, and at social activities. Religious freedom is more than the "freedom to worship" at a synagogue, church, or mosque. It makes sure they don't have to go against their core values and beliefs in order to conform to culture or government (What you need to know about religious freedom).[4]
As I write, these freedoms are under threat in Australia as we have seen in,
The professional rugby union player, Israel Folau's, Christian comments on his personal Instagram account that saw his $4 million contract terminated. See my assessment: Israel Folau: When diversity means censorship.
See the ABC News, Brisbane, Qld article, Anti-abortion activists lose High Court challenge to laws banning protests outside [abortion] clinics. 'The case involved Kathleen Clubb, who was convicted after trying to hand a pamphlet to a couple outside an east Melbourne clinic in 2016 and Graham Preston, who faced three charges for his protests in Hobart in 2014 and 2015'.
Voice for unborn: Graham Preston (photograph courtesy Catholic Leader).[5]
Graham, not known to me personally, would be one of the bravest and overt defenders of the life of the unborn.
Campbell Markham is pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, Hobart, Tasmania. In an Opinion piece for The Mercury (Hobart), he wrote:
LAST month [July 2017], the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner accepted a complaint made against my church.
The allegations included things that I wrote on my blog in 2011 in defence of marriage.
I bear no hard feelings whatsoever towards the complainant or the Commissioner.
The problem is the Act itself, which prohibits "any conduct which offends" another person on the basis of thirteen attributes.
There's no doubt that the Commission would have to call Jesus Christ himself to account, if he taught in our streets today.
Jesus did not hold back when it came to exposing human evil, and statements like the following would have exposed him to prosecution:
"From within, out of the heart of human beings, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Are Jesus' words provocative, are they upsetting?
Deliberately so. Are Jesus' words unkind?
Quite the opposite.
His tender love for lost and suffering humanity motivated every word.
"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."[6]
A complaint was made that Tasmanian Roman Catholic 'Archbishop Julian Porteous and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference be investigated over the booklet, Don't Mess With Marriage, which was distributed in June [2015]to about 12,000 Tasmanian families whose children attend Catholic schools'. Martine Delaney, a Greens'candidate for the federal seat of Franklin and homosexual marriage advocate (she calls it 'marriage equality'), delivered her complaint to the office of Tasmania's anti-discrimination commissioner.
She claimed: 'This booklet says same-sex partners don't deserve equal recognition, same-sex-attracted people are not 'whole' people and the children of same-sex partners are not 'healthy'. "By spreading this message, the church does immeasurable harm to the wellbeing of same-sex couples and their families across Tasmania and the nation."
In addition to the complaint against Campbell Markham at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, Hobart, there also has been a complaint against David Gee, an evangelist for Cornerstone who works a day a week for them and is funded for another one-and-a-half days by Operation 513, a street preaching group. He is a veterinarian.
Gee sets up a table in Hobart's street, making the Bibles available, and handing out tracts. The table often becomes a place for conversation. "He also does street preaching," says Markham. "That's what people don't like."
The complainant has been hanging around Gee's preaching places for years. "He is an atheist, who says he feels offended and insulted by what has been written and said."[7]
Independent and Roman Catholic Schools are uncertain of the government's intrusion into preventing hiring of teachers and enrolling students sympathetic to the school's values. Or, will government force independent and Catholic schools to hire people of any value system and enrol students who have values opposed to those promoted by these schools.
Israel Folau's clash with Rugby Australia 'over his fundamentalist religious social media posts' motivated 'nine prominent Christians to send letters about the protection of religious freedom to Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten'. These people included leaders from Presbyterian, Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist and Apostolic churches, as well as a number of religious school leaders.
The letters were worded differently for each political leader but both letters 'flagged a range of issues, with protection of religious belief and free speech at the forefront'.
Each letter began:
"In recent years the protections to be accorded to religious freedom, and the related freedoms of conscience, speech and association, have come under increasing focus within Australia."
"We write to invite you to provide clarification on a range of key issues that are important to the preservation of these freedoms in our country".
Reverend Dr Hedley Fihaki, a Uniting Church minister and the national chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations, said he was worried the Wallaby's case could set "a dangerous precedent".
"Scripture is the book the whole church is based on, so if we are not free to teach from that, not just in the private but particularly in the public domain, it is a dangerous precedent," Dr Fihaki told the ABC.
"From the Bible, from the holy scriptures, that's the Old and New Testament".[8]
Anna Patty, in writing for The Age, pointed out some of the apprehension of religious leaders:
The letter to Mr Shorten details concerns that Labor Party policies do not go far enough to protect religious freedom and have the potential to impact on the free expression of traditional views of sexuality and marriage. It asks Labor for an assurance that religious institutions will continue to be able to hold such views and defend them in public….
The Liberal Party has committed to introducing a Commonwealth Religious Discrimination Act, but the religious leaders asked the Prime Minister to go further by protecting believers in associations including churches, mosques, charities, schools and corporations.[9]
B. My assessment of some of the post-election Australian issues after the 18 May 2019 election
On 14 May 2019, before the Australian election on 18 May, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was reported as saying:
"There is no more fundamental right than the right to decide what you believe or do not believe. That means Australians of faith should be free to hold and practise that faith without fear of discrimination against them.… And that is why my government is committed to providing Australians of religious belief with protections equivalent to those guaranteed in relation to other protected attributes under Commonwealth anti-discrimination law (Christian leaders say religious freedom was among issues that influenced voters, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 May 2019).
"Graeme Irwin chair of the Australian Association of Christian Schools said governments needed to recognise there are "a lot of highly intelligent people of religious persuasion who believe there should be freedom in this area.
"They do not want to discriminate against other segments of the community but also do not want to be discriminated against for holding their beliefs", he said (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 May 2019).
Behind the scenes, some Coalition MPs are advocating "stronger religious freedom laws after the party received strong backing from religious voters at the election. Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is pushing for religious beliefs to be exempt from employment contracts, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald report" (SBS News, Religious discrimination laws get closer, 31 May 2019).
Before the election, "the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has also been tasked with examining five Ruddock review recommendations relating to discrimination against LGBT staff and students of religious schools" (The Guardian Australia, 1 June 2019). The Government announced this new ALRC review to include, 'an inquiry into the framework of religious exemptions in Commonwealth, State and Territory anti-discrimination legislation'.
The ALRC is due to report on its findings on 10 April 2020.
What were those Ruddock recommendations? See: Recommendations for further CONSULTATION AND LEGAL consideration.
Christians must not leave it to the post-election Coalition government to guarantee freedom of religion for students and staff in Christian schools and organisations. Evidence now comes to light of a softening of the preservation of religious freedom.
On 5 June 2019, The Guardian Australia reported Australian attorney-general, Christian Porter, stating that a basic bill will be brought to Parliament to prevent discrimination, rather than a broader bill that allows religious opinions to be expressed that may breach codes of conduct [thinking of the Israel Folau case].
This will dissatisfy backbench MPs who sought to protect religious freedom.
It satisfies a Liberal Party, homosexual MP, Tim Wilson who "backed the more limited form of a religious discrimination act which he said would not be 'overly controversial' but is 'quite different from a religious freedom act'" (Coalition to rule out conservative demands for 'religious freedom' law, The Guardian Australia, 5 June 2019).
There you have the current controversial problem for Christian schools, churches and organisations with this proposed Coalition government Law, RULED OUT … 'RELIGIOUS FREEDOM'.
Would the Coalition consider it satisfactory for people who vote for Labor or the Greens to work in their electorate offices and in the State and National Coalition headquarters without espousing Coalition values? Or, will the Coalition discriminate and choose only Liberal Party supporters? Will the Coalition government discriminate against Christian schools from employing Christian staff but NOT discriminate against the kind of staff employed by the Coalition?
The same applies to independent and Catholic schools and organisations. They need to employ staff members who agree with their values, just as the Labor, Greens, Coalition, Katter, and other parties do.
C. Conclusion
Immediately before the Australian election on 18 May 2019, the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, stated it was a fundamental right of Australians that they should be able to believe and practise those beliefs without fear of discrimination.
Now that commitment seems to be broken with the Attorney –General, Christian Porter, stating that the basic bill to be brought to Parliament will not be broad enough to allow religious opinions expressed that may breach codes of conduct.
Will this refusal to have a broad Bill mean that Catholic and independent schools will not be able to exclude teachers, staff and students who do not support the values of the schools?
Will this law extend to all political parties who will not be able to exclude staff who disagree with some of that party's policies? Will street preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ be closed down?
Seems to me we have another example of broken promises by the Coalition government.
I eagerly wait to see the Australian government's new legislation & law for religious freedom to determine if it broke its promises.
D. Notes
[1] Student Vote Ontario Activity Resource n.d. Lesson 4: Democratic Principles. Available at: http://civix.ca/resources/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ON-Secondary-Lesson-4.pdf (Accessed 8 June 2019).
[2] Jonathan Leeman 2018. The Two Kinds of Government That Show Up in the Bible. Christianity Today (online), 20 April. Available at: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/may/how-nations-rage-jonathan-leeman.html (Accessed 8 June 2019).
[3] 'Generally, the left-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as Liberty, equality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism", while the right-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as authority, hierarchy, order, duty, tradition, reaction and nationalism"' (Wikipedia 2019. Left-right political spectrum (online). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_spectrum#cite_ref-14. Accesses 8 June 2019).
[4] Heritage.org, 1 December 2019. Available at: https://www.heritage.org/what-you-need-know-about-religious-freedom/what-you-need-know-about-religious-freedom (Accessed 8 June 2019).
[5] 'Graham Preston facing arrest if he continues his pro-life activism for the unborn in Queensland', 21 November 2018. Available at: http://catholicleader.com.au/news/graham-preston-facing-arrest-if-he-continues-his-pro-life-activism-for-the-unborn-in-queensland (Accessed 7 June 2019).
[6] Campbell Markham 2017. We are all losers when the right to free expression is muzzled. The Mercury, 7 August. Available at: https://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/we-are-all-losers-when-the-right-to-free-expression-is-muzzled/news-story/da33da4483b51dfdebc3951a96196fd2 (Accessed 7 June 2019).
[7] John Sandeman 2017. Pastor, street preacher face Anti-Discrimination complaint. Eternity, 31 July. Available at: https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/pastor-street-preacher-face-anti-discrimination-complaint/ (Accessed 7 June 2019).
[8] ABC News, Brisbane, Qld 2019. Israel Folau's case prompts Australian religious leaders to pen letters to Scott Morrison, Bill Shorten (online), 11 May. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-11/israel-folau-religious-leaders-send-letter-to-shorten-morrison/11104094 (Accessed 8 June 2019).
[9] Anna Patty 2019. Christian leaders challenge major parties on commitment to religious freedom. The Age (online), 11 May. Available at: https://www.theage.com.au/federal-election-2019/christian-leaders-challenge-major-parties-on-commitment-to-religious-freedom-20190508-p51lgo.html (Accessed 8 June 2019).
Copyright © 2019 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 08 June 2019.
This entry was posted in Cultural Apologetics, Freedom of Religion, Government and tagged Broken promises, discrimination, free speech, freedom of religion, Politics on 8 June 2019 by spencer.
Australia is in deep trouble: Droughts, floods and fires
This title page points to five articles following that need to be read consecutively to see the message unfold.
1. Get to the heart of the BIG drought, fires and floods
(photo courtesy WordPress at The University of Melbourne)
"We can't make it rain. But we can ensure that farming families and their communities get all the support they need to get through the drought, recover and get back on their feet" the government said in a statement'.[1]
2. Pointing towards a solution: Australian disasters
"But there's not much we can do about it."
3. Connection between spiritual condition of the nation and disasters
(image courtesy Pinterest)
(image courtesy http://100abortionphotos.com/#64)
They are only examples of two bits and pieces (euthanasia, abortion) in Australia. The bigger picture is what Francis A Schaeffer described as the inevitable consequences that follow for any nation that follows this world view:
Those who hold the material-energy, chance concept of reality, whether they are Marxist or non-Marxist, not only do not know the truth of the final reality, God, they do not know who Man is. Their concept of Man is what Man is not, just as their concept of the final reality is what final reality is not. Since their concept of Man is mistaken, their concept of society and of law is mistaken, and they have no sufficient base for either society or law.
They have reduced Man to even less than his natural finiteness by seeing him only as a complex arrangement of molecules, made complex by blind chance. Instead of seeing him as something great who is significant even in his sinning, they see Man in his essence only as an intrinsically competitive animal, that has no other basic operating principle than natural selection brought about by the strongest, the fittest, ending on top. And they see Man as acting in this way both individually and collectively as society (Francis A Schaeffer 1981:25-26).[2]
4. This deep-seated problem brings ruin to the outback and to the Australian nation
(image courtesy Askideas.com)
The Australian Constitution of 1900 begins:
WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established.[3]
Where is God in the media, marketplace of ideas, government and education? Labelling Australia as a 'secular' (nonreligious) nation demonstrates how secularists don't understand the consequences of a secular-humanist world view. We see the consequences in Australia today.
5. The path Australia treads to ruin
(image courtesy www.afain.net)
[1] Stephanie Bedo 2018. Australia's crippling drought crisis: Overcoming past mistakes to save ourselves for the future. news.com.au (online), 6 August. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/australias-crippling-drought-crisis-overcoming-past-mistakes-to-save-ourselves-for-the-future/news-story/136436de96fee5f33809de8d607f413c (Accessed 7 January 2019).
[2] Francis A Schaeffer 1981. A Christian Manifesto. Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books. The chapter from which this citation is drawn, 'The Abolition of Truth and Morality' is available from The Highway at: https://www.the-highway.com/articleOct01.html (Accessed 28 May 2019).
[3] Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/Constitution/preamble (Accessed 6 November 2018).
Copyright © 2019 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 28 May 2019.
This entry was posted in Church, Cultural Apologetics, Freedom of Religion, Government, Moral absolutes, Moral relativism, Truth, Worldview and tagged Australia, droughts, ethical relativism, evil, fires, floods, worldview on 28 May 2019 by spencer.
Get to the heart of the BIG drought, fires and floods
Many farmers are struggling to find or buy feed to keep their stock alive in Australia (Photo supplied: Edwina Robertson)[1]
The big dry: See us, hear us, help us'
That was the headline of an ABC News: Rural (2018) article online.[2] But something was missing from that headline. I don't expect to get the missing link from ABC News or current affairs' programs these days. What is absent?
ABC Rural reported again:
Farmers across New South Wales and Queensland are calling it the worst drought in living memory. Many are facing ruin and say it is time for their city cousins to acknowledge the disaster (ABC News Rural: regional reporters 2018).
This story pointed to the situation as seen by the farmers:
I'd really like people in the city to remember us, see us, hear us, know that we're still here.
Thin cattle search for food near Coonabarabran in north-western New South Wales (ABC News: Rural, 2018: Luke Wong)[3]
In the Fairfax Brisbane Times, 14 August 2018, it was reported that Vaughan Johnson (resident of Longreach and former LNP politician) and Mark O'Brien, [as] newly appointed drought commissioners said 'the "critical" situation facing farmers is the worst that Johnson has seen in his 71 years.
The drought commissioners were appointed to advise the State government on the best way to spend the $9 million drought relief package that was fast-tracked in August 2018.
"I have never seen such a depressed economy, such depressed people as we are witnessing now," Johnson told ABC radio on 14 August 2018.[4] He said it was worse than critical as the feed situation in the central west was 'zilch' and they were now into the seventh year of drought. He 'urged anybody wanting to help to donate cash, or visit affected towns'".[5] (Flatley 2018).
1. Desperate help for farmers
I enthusiastically support the efforts of governments and people of Australia to help drought-stricken farmers outback in giving money, sending stock feed or visiting these outback towns and farms.
ABC News Rural covered this story and told of Genevieve Hawkins who runs a cattle station near Aramac, western Qld. There, '2017 was the driest year in 38 years of records'. Ms Hawkins appeal was: 'It's just relentless, you don't sleep because you can't stop thinking about it…. I'd really like people in the city to remember us, see us, hear us, know that we're still here' (ABC News: Rural, regional reporters 2018).
I consider there is a critical factor missing from this analysis. I don't expect the mass media to deal with it because it concerns values and goes against the grain of our secular society.
Peter Westmore[6] in News Weekly[7] (August 2018) raised the issue of one missing dynamic. He referred to farmers producing the wheat, wool, cotton and beef we eat who actually work for nothing. This would be 'utterly intolerable' in any other part of society. However, it is 'apparently acceptable for rural Australia.
Westmore's assessment is that it is not discussed in city media and rarely heard on country radio or TV programs. The media highlight the lower income levels in rural areas and high levels of psychiatric illness and suicides. However, 'the deeper causes are never examined', says Westmore.
What were the 'deeper causes' Westmore spoke about? He pointed to government financial support and helping strategies from the banking sector. He linked the financial pressure to psychiatric illnesses in farming families that no amount of money for counselling will solve (Westmore 2018).
I agree with these initiatives, but they still miss a strong factor linked to droughts and other disasters in Australia.
This is how the Darling Anabranch (lower Murray-Darling basin) in far western NSW looked from the air during the big drought in 2018.
(Courtesy ABC News: Rural)[8]
This is how it looked in flood in 2010:
(The Great Darling Anabranch in flood, December 2010, courtesy Wikipedia)[9]
2. One sheep farmer made a priceless observation
I'm not sure he knew he was so close to hitting the target of dealing with the grim need for farmers, their animals and produce during this ghastly drought.
ABC News: Rural reported this in an interview:
In the lower Darling region …,[10] [a] sheep farmer …[11] scratches his head when asked where he will get his next lot of feed.
"We've purchased about $100,000 worth of hay but I don't know if I can buy any more because it's too dear and it could be another $40,000 for freight on top of that," he said.
(Photo courtesy ABC News: Rural 2018)
The sheep farmer pointed to the needed solution, but his statement had one word too many. His words were as close as a cricket ball that nearly got the edge of the bat and a nick to the keeper or the slips. ABC News: Rural (2018) reported:
[This sheep farmer][12] has had to significantly de-stock, while watching ewes abandon lambs.
"The poor little fellas have been trampled," he says.
He says money for bores would be handy, as the wait for rain and for the Darling River to fill drags on.
3. "But there's not much we can do about it."[13]
Really? In my view, there is one word too many in that statement. Which single word needs to be removed?
Get rid of 'not'. There IS something we can do if we are God-fearing people. There is MUCH, MUCH more that can be done.
4. Something fundamental is missing in the mass media and Australian government analyses!
What should we add to the excellent ABC News: Rural (2018) headline?
The big dry: 'See us, hear us, help us'
That's a cry for city cousins to dig deep to help people during the big drought. I'm 100% behind that cry for help and have given to the drought appeal. But there's an essential component absent from that plea.
I ask some essential questions that I hope will open you to what we Australians can do about the drought, floods and fires. I'm not talking only of food and water for the animals and financial and mental health support for the farmers and their families.
I warn you. What I'm about to say is not politically correct news and there could be journalists in the mass media who will scoff at my analysis of the cause and solution of the drought crisis.
One drought-stricken farmer said,
'I'm sick of this damn drought'
(ABC News: Rural 2018).
Note: This is a 5-part series of which this is the 1st part. It is connected to the next article: This deep-seated problem brings ruin to the outback and to the Australian nation
[1] Shared on Facebook by Edwina Robertson, in Rachel Carbonell 2018. Drought relief: The dos and don'ts of helping Australian farmers and rural communities with donations. ABC News Rural, Brisbane Qld (online), 1 August. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-08-01/drought-dos-and-donts-of-donations/10057862 (Accessed 14 March 2019).
[2] ABC News: Rural, regional reporters 2018. The big dry: 'See us, hear us, help us', 30 July. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-07-29/the-big-dry-see-us-hear-us-help-us/10030010 (Accessed 2 August 2018).
[4] The original said, 'Tuesday'.
[5] Christine Flatley 2018. Queensland drought 'critical': commissioner. Jimboomba Times (online), 14 August. Available at: https://www.jimboombatimes.com.au/story/5586112/qld-drought-critical-commissioner/ (Accessed 14 August 2018). Jimboomba is located in Logan City, S.E. Qld., Australia.
[6] Peter Westmore 2018. Current policies leave farmers high and dry in drought. News Weekly, 25 August. Available at: http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=58208 (Accessed 18 August 2018).
[7] 'News Weekly has been published continuously by the National Civic Council since 1941, and was originally called Freedom. The National Civic Council (NCC) is an organisation which seeks to shape public policy on cultural, family, social, political, economic and international issues of concern to Australia'. Available at: http://newsweekly.com.au/about.php (Accessed 1 October 2018).
[8] ABC Rural Reporters 2018, op. cit.
[9] Wikipedia 2017. Great Darling Anabranch (online). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Darling_Anabranch (Accessed 14 August 2018).
[10] The original stated, 'near Pooncarie'.
[11] The original included his name as Phil Wakefield.
[12] The original stated, 'Mr Wakefield'.
[13] ABC News: Rural (2018).
This entry was posted in Cultural Apologetics, Justice, Moral relativism, Truth, Worldview and tagged Australia is morally bankrupt, Australian drought, fires, floods, God's punishment on 28 May 2019 by spencer.
This deep-seated problem brings ruin to the outback and to the Australian nation
If this is not fixed, the rot will continue to infest Australia. The politically correct, left-wing agitators will blame it on 'climate change'. Insurance Business Australia had this headline on its website:
Climate change-driven flood risk could make Townsville homes "uninsurable"[1]
The reasons for the disasters in Australia are much more detailed than that.
The late Francis Schaeffer, evangelical theologian, philosopher and pastor who founded the L'Abri Community in Switzerland, warned of the 'spiritual collapse of the West'.[2]
Is Australia on a national 'Airbus' path to destruction?
(The Airbus A380, photo courtesy Wikipedia)[3]
(Aeroméxico Connect Embraer 190AR plane crash Durango, Mexico, 31 July, 2018, photo courtesy 1001crash.com)[4]
The following are only a few examples that point to where Australia is heading.
1. The diseases in the churches of Australia
You heard me correctly. This nation's problems, including the droughts, fires and floods, will not be rectified until the churches – the Christians – are brought back to health. Healing for this land will start with the churches returning to their first love.
National repentance begins with God's people who have sinned. How do I know? The Scriptures teach us. There is a direct link between the health of the people of God
and the shape of a nation's culture.
'If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land' (2 Chron 7:14 NLT).
While this is an OT passage dealing with God's people among the Israelites, the principle can be applied to any nation: If any nation is going to be restored from whatever is afflicting it (e.g. drought and floods in Australia in 2019), God's people must humbly seek God in prayer AND turn from their wicked ways.
This OT message of the need for God's people to repent is found in the NT at 1 Peter 4:14-17 (NIRV),
14 Suppose people say bad things about you because you believe in Christ. Then you are blessed, because God's Spirit rests on you. He is the Spirit of glory. 15 If you suffer, it shouldn't be because you are a murderer. It shouldn't be because you are a thief or someone who does evil things. It shouldn't be because you interfere with other people's business. 16 But suppose you suffer for being a Christian. Then don't be ashamed. Instead, praise God because you are known by the name of Christ. 17
IT IS TIME FOR JUDGMENT TO BEGIN WITH THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD. AND SINCE IT BEGINS WITH US, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T OBEY GOD'S GOOD NEWS?
Which wicked ways are in the churches?
Do I need to remind you of the child sexual abuse in churches and church institutions uncovered in the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse report of 2017? Don't forget some of the church cover-ups. This was atrocious behaviour. See:
The Report into Anglican Diocese of Newcastle released, 7 December 2017[5]
The Report into Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne released, 5 December 2017[6]
I know of one evangelical Christian church that has had 3 pastors who committed adultery. In 2 other churches I know of adultery happening – a pastor's adultery with a church member.
As a long-term family counsellor, I know from clients that adultery is almost always accompanied by lies and deceit, all of which break God's laws.
We could go down the list of the other commands in the 10 commandments and New Testament and find sinful violations in churches.
What about denominations[7] and churches[8] that now ordain homosexuals and marry homosexuals when Scriptures clearly proclaim heterosexuality in both OT (Gen 2:24) and in the words of Jesus, 'a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' (Matt 19:5).
I haven't dealt with some churches' support of euthanasia, murder of children in the womb through abortion, claiming that miracles cannot take place, and challenging the authority of Scripture, concluding it cannot be trusted as a book of truthful documents.
Jesus' warning: ''Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act….' (Matt 7:15-16a).
I'm thinking of other teachings like the prosperity 'gospel' and the preachers who claim there is no hell.
Gossip in the churches. Prov 20:19 (NLT) states: 'A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don't hang around with chatterers'.
A return to ministry to the orphans, widows, elderly, homeless, the poor and other needy people. All denominations need to do it. I thank God for the Salvos, but ALL churches need to minister to those in need. Some do it through the social services division of the denomination. What about the local church taking this need on board? I know of some local churches that distribute food hampers to the needy, including children who go to school having had no breakfast.
The local church should be a defender and provider of hope for the hopeless and needy.
Where are the local churches that stand against the immorality flooding the nation? Our voices must not be silenced.
James 1:27: 'Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you'.
Prov 14:31: 'Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but helping the poor honors him'.
But there's more and this has to do with what is preached from the pulpit. There are preachers who don't believe the Bible and its miracles. They destroy the biblical message with their historical-critical methods.
They deny the virgin birth of Jesus, redefine his bodily resurrection to make an apparition or fable, and reject literal interpretation and replace with modernist and postmodernist interpretations. If you want to see which churches are preaching these kinds of doctrines, go along to your local mainline church that has dwindling numbers of older people.
For the ruin of Australia to be stopped in its tracks, the solution starts with the churches and individuals in the churches repenting of their sins and returning to their first love of God.
2. This is the call to Australia as a nation.
"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Prov 14:34 NASB). To put it another way,
'Righteousness raises a people to greatness; to pursue wrong degrades a nation' (REB). Or,
'Doing what is right lifts people up. But sin brings judgment to any nation' (NIRV).
'Doing what is right makes a nation great. But sin will bring disgrace to any people' (IEB).[9]
'Doing what is right' does not refer to what people think is right, but to God's standard of right, called righteousness and justice.
This verse does NOT state, 'Righteousness exalts the Israelite nation, but sin is a disgrace to the Jews'. It is a proverb of God's will for ALL nations, without exception. Israel is not excluded, but neither is Australia.
In measuring the greatness of Australia, we can be tempted to consider the area of land in the country, the population of 25 million, whether it has a strong defence force, democracy, the intellectual vigour of the culture, how civilised the nation is, its wealth, natural resources, technology and history.[10]
God has a very different set of standards. This is what represents true greatness for any country. The most important criterion is its relationship to God. Are Australian laws and the people's actions directed by God's will?
This is God's standard: His righteousness, his justice.
Where do we find that standard? It's in the book of Scripture!
2.1 Laws and practices that are righteous
This is the most searching test for all policies legislated at federal, state, territory and local government levels that will lead to success by the Australian people.
What righteousness will exalt Australia? The proverb is not addressing material things that will make any nation great, but it is language of morality as the rest of the verse indicates with its converse, 'Sin is a disgrace to any people'.
A similar message for any nation is given in Proverbs 16:12b, 'a throne [of a king] is established through righteousness' (NIV).
What ethical legislation will make Australia great? These are but a few examples:
Human beings are made in God's image (Gen 1:27), so they must not be treated like animals.
Are we caring for the persecuted, widows, orphans, poor and homeless people among us and overseas?
Respect life from conception to natural death. Leave conception to God and the union of two people (that can include IVF) and do not end life prematurely.
The human family consists of mother, father and children. Let all legislation pursue this end.
Do not murder children in the womb or murder for any other reason through euthanasia and assisted suicide.
We must address sexuality issues from God's standards about marriage, divorce, defacto relationships, promiscuity, homosexuality, etc.
2.1.1 Wait a minute!
You might say, 'That's a terribly narrow view of society and culture. That's Christian indoctrination to say following God's law makes a nation great'.
How does the Australian Constitution of 1900 begin?
(image Constitution of Australia Coat of Arms, courtesy of KissPNG)
WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established.[11]
So, calling on the Almighty God of the Judeo-Christian world view is relying on the foundation of our nation.
Is following human-created laws regarding life and death, democracy, law and order, crime and punishment preferred to God's ways?
All of us support one-way principles in many areas of life.
In Australia, we drive one-way on one-side of the road (unless otherwise indicated). Driving on the left-hand side of the road is a one-way example.
When we use the Google search engine on the Internet, we are narrow-minded. We accept the one-way Google algorithm that makes it such a powerful search engine.
Hit a cricket ball into the air or kick a football into the air. It doesn't keep going and going into space. It comes back to earth because of the one-way pressure on it called gravity. That's gravity that God has created on earth.
God's one way is for all people to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen so both people and plants can coexist. It is God's one-way principle for survival on the earth.
The Muslims do it in praying 5 times a day to Allah and facing Mecca and these are the 5 Pillars of Islam for a follower of Islam.
See Exclusivity Claims of Major World Religions (Christian Apologetics Alliance)
See Point of Exclusion (Ravi Zacharias)
What will put Australia on a pedestal? It will not come from secular, government legislation. It will be when it legislates holistically according to God's standards of justice and righteousness.
What will devastate Australia? Proverbs 14:34 gives the second part what wrecks any nation.
2.2 'Sin is a disgrace to any people'
What sins have been legislated by Australia to make them LEGAL for people to practise? What sins are legal in Australia that the Scriptures call a 'disgrace' and sins against God?
The KJV and NKJV translate 'disgrace' as 'a wicked thing'. Remember these wicked things are sins – immoral actions by people against God – and all approved by the Australian nation, i.e. the parliaments and councils.
Which Australian legislation is against God's laws?
We should not commit fornication / sexual immorality (1 Cor 10:8) – but we call it prostitution, defacto relationships, and sex outside of marriage;
We murder unborn babies in the name of abortion. God says 'You shall not murder' (Ex 20:13; Matt 5:21).
In the three decades from 1984-2014, when abortion was illegal in Queensland, Medicare statistics reported that there were 388,220 alleged 'legal' abortions in this State[12] (Johnston 2015). When we consider the number of abortions across Australia in the last century, that makes Hitler's massacre of 10 million Jews and other persecuted people in the World War 2 look like a blip on the radar.
Reporting for abortions is incomplete; reported abortions include only Medicare abortions, and these figures are incomplete for 2010-2011. Abortion figures are for calendar years, some figures are interpolated from fiscal year figures (Johnston 2015).
What would the number of abortions be in Queensland in a given year if 100% of them were statistically recorded?
There is no gentle way to describe what is happening in Queensland than to say we already have a catastrophic, destructive, devastating annihilation of human life in the womb. In defiance of the law, abortions continued to take place before abortion was decriminalised, with federal government financial assistance through Medicare.
'Abortion [was] legalised in Queensland after historic vote in Parliament', 18 October 2018.[13]
Murdering adult human beings through euthanasia and assisted suicide in Victoria (Ex 20:13; Matt 5:21) and having inquiries into similar legislation in Queensland and Western Australia;
No fault, easy divorce (endorsing adultery in many cases) – Ex 20:14; Matt 5:27;
God's standard, according to both OT and Jesus, is: 'A man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh' (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:5; Eph 5:31). What has Australia done? It legalised same-sex marriage, a sin which is 'a disgrace to any people' and 1 Cor 6:9-11 (NIV) puts it among the sins that prevent people from entering the kingdom of God.
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[14] nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And THAT IS WHAT SOME OF YOU WERE. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Note that God does not speak of a sexual orientation of homosexuality caused by genetics but of sexual behaviour (wrongdoers): sexual immorality, adulterers, and homosexual men. This behaviour is included among other 'wrongdoers' such as: idolaters, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers.
God's view is that 'some of you were' idolaters, thieves and adulterers, but change is possible through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
There is a resistance to this teaching in secular Australia. I refer you to the article, '"Treatments" as torture: gay conversion therapy's deep roots in Australia', The Conversation, 3 May 2018.[15] This article also appeared on ABC News, Brisbane Qld.[16]
There is another issue that has to be addressed with God's standards in Australia and that is freedom of religion. Will ALL Australians be able to meet openly and preach from the Bible, Qur'an, Hindu Bhagavad Gita and Agamas, Humanist Manifesto, or will there be censorship of some topics?
There must not be discrimination against certain people, including God's people. God says, 'If you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law' (James 2:9).
They are only a few examples of the immoral decisions Australian governments have made that bring disgrace on the nation.
Note: This is a 5-part series of which this is the 2nd part. It is connected to the next article: Pointing Towards a Solution
[1] Mina Martin 2019. Insurance Business Australia (online). Climate change-driven flood risk could make Townsville homes "uninsurable", 21 February. Available at: https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/au/news/breaking-news/climate-changedriven-flood-risk-could-make-townsville-homes-uninsurable-159513.aspx (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[2] In Charles Colson with Ellen Santilli Vaughn 1999, Against the Night. London: Hodder & Stoughton [Servant Publications, USA], p. 10.
[3] Photo courtesy Wikipedia (2019. s.v. Airbus). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus (Accessed 8 January 2019).
[4] Available at: https://www.1001crash.com/index-page-description-accident-Aeromexico_ERJ190-lg-2-crash-398-aeromexico-connect-embraer-190ar-mexico-durango.html (Accessed 8 January 2019).
[5] Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 2017. Available at: https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-releases/report-anglican-diocese-newcastle-released (Accessed 15 August 2018).
[6] Ibid. Available at: https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-releases/report-catholic-archdiocese-melbourne-released (Accessed 15 August 2018).
[7] 'Same-sex couples will be allowed to get married in the Uniting Church of Australia after the denomination's national body agreed to now wording.
'The church agreed to adopt an additional belief statement on marriage on Friday night [13 July 2018] at Box Hill Town Hall in Melbourne's southeast during a seven-day triennial assembly.
'"Marriage for Christians is the freely given consent and commitment in public and before God of two people to live together for life," the new additional statement reads.
'Ministers will be able to conduct same-sex marriages in the coming months if they wish, but individual ministers can also refuse to do so, the assembly ruled (Sunday Mail, 15 July 2018, p. 27). Similar information is available from The Uniting Church in Australia Assembly at: https://assembly.uca.org.au/news/item/2852-pastoral-letter-from-the-president-on-marriage-and-same-gender-relationships (Accessed 15 August 2018).
[8] 'Anglicans in Perth have voted to have same-sex relationships recognised … by a two-thirds majority [of the synod]' (ABC News Brisbane, Qld), 7 October 2013. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-07/anglicans-in-perth-vote-to-recognise-same-sex-marriages/5002762 (Accessed 18 August 2018).
ABC Gippsland (Victoria, Australia) reported: 'The Anglican Bishop of Gippsland has defended his decision to appoint an openly gay priest to a local parish, saying he has acted appropriately.
'Bishop John McIntyre, says his decision to appoint Reverend David Head, who formerly held a position within a Melbourne parish, to the parish of Heyfield is in line with the policy of his diocese', 27 February 2012, Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/02/27/3440628.htm?site=gippsland (Accessed 18 August 2018).
[9] IEB = The International English Bible 2014-2015, Proverbs. Available at: https://www.iebible.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/20-Proverbs-demo.pdf (Accessed 14 August 2018).
[10] Some suggestions by C F Keil & E Delitzsch n d: Commentary on the Old Testament: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, vol 6. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (vol 6, p. 314).
[11] Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/Constitution/preamble (Accessed 6 November 2018).
[12] These are my calculations from the data available from Johnston, W R 2015. Historical abortion statistics, Queensland (Australia) [online]. Available at: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/australia/ab-aust-qld.html (Accessed 29 August 2018).
[13] Allyson Horn 2018. Abortion legalised in Queensland after historic vote in Parliament. ABC News, Brisbane Qld, 18 October. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-17/abortion-legal-in-queensland-after-historic-vote/10382538 (Accessed 7 January 2019).
[14] The NIV footnote is: 'The words men who have sex with men translate two Greek words that refer to the passive and active participants in homosexual acts'.
[15] Marguerite Johnson & James Bennett 2018. 'Treatments' as torture: gay conversion therapy's deep roots in Australia. The Conversation (online), 3 May. Available at: https://theconversation.com/treatments-as-torture-gay-conversion-therapys-deep-roots-in-australia-95588 (Accessed 2 October 2018).
[16] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-03/gay-conversion-therapy-australia-exorcism-lgbtiq-bible/9721992 (Accessed 2 October 2018).
This entry was posted in Cultural Apologetics, Freedom of Religion, Government, Moral relativism, Wrath of God and tagged Australian disasters, drought, sick churches on 27 May 2019 by spencer.
Pointing Towards a Solution
Australia's droughts, floods & fires
(photo NSW drought, courtesy The Land)
1. "But there's not much we can do about it."[1]
Get rid of 'not'. There IS something we can do if we are God-fearing people.
One drought-stricken farmer said, 'I'm sick of this damn drought' (ABC News: Rural 2018).
That comment leads …
2.1 Towards a solution: Who or what sends and stops the rain?
(Kenthurst Rotary fundraiser helping Aussie farmers, photo courtesy galstoncommunity.com.au)
Is the rain generated by some NASA space agency lab? Can we create rain to meet the needs in Aramac and Charleville in Qld and Broken Hill and Nyngan in NSW? Will cloud seeding do it when there are few clouds?
Is it global warming that stops the rain from falling in outback Australia and causes the regular droughts?
That misses the point: Who creates the clouds and blue skies in the first place and who continues to keep them going day after day?
The gifts of clouds and rain are made for the benefit of good and bad people. Water is essential to all of life. This view of the origin of rain comes from the Judeo-Christian world view on which the Australian nation was built from 1788 onwards..
It is a clear sign of God's mercy when he sends rain. He and He alone sends the rain. Damning the drought is really damning God for not doing what we damned well want him to do. We don't like settling for what God wants.
But wait a minute!
(image courtesy Pinterest)[2]
This is how Jesus Christ put it:
'Then you will be children of your Father who is in heaven. He causes his sun to shine on evil people and good people. He sends rain on those who do right and those who don't (Matthew 5:45 NIRV).
I smiled when I read how Baron Charles Bowen, a British judge of the 19th century, put it:
The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just's umbrella.[3]
God Almighty sends the sun and the rain – and so the drought and the flood – on BOTH moral and immoral people – those who do right and those who don't.. Where is God in what has become a secular Australian society? Secular means non-religious and worldly. In Australia, it tends towards meaning godless.[4]
How long is it since you fell to your knees and confessed that you have sinned against God in so many ways, one of which is your failure to seek him diligently every day to send rain? Have you pleaded for God's forgiveness for all of Australia's wrongs committed?
This is not a word only for those suffering drought in the outback. It is for the whole nation.
Where are the prayer meetings in towns or suburbs to cry out to God for rain? Are you praying in your homes daily for God to open the skies with drought-breaking rain?
I haven't heard the current Prime Minister call for a day or week of Prayer and Repentance for Australia.
Where are these kinds of mass media headlines?
"Drought brings farmers to their knees"
"The call to Australians to pray for the drought to break"
"Australia must repent of its moral depravity"
"Godliness exalts a nation"
"Drought and Australia's spiritual condition"
On 6 September 2018, The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
"It's great to see it raining here in Albury today," [Prime Minister Scott Morrison] said, roaming the stage with a hand-held microphone.
"I pray for that rain everywhere else around the country. And I do pray for that rain.
"And I'd encourage others who believe in the power of prayer to pray for that rain and to pray for our farmers. Please do that."
And in case there were those in the audience who weren't God-fearing, Morrison included them, too.
"It all starts with the individual. I love Australia. Who loves Australia? Everyone. We all love Australia … Do we love all Australians? We've got to," said Scott Morrison in his first major address as prime minister.
"And everyone else who doesn't like to do that, you just say, 'Good on you, guys. You go well'. Think good thoughts for them. Or whatever you do".[5]
The Sydney Morning Herald's article title was:
'Scott Morrison's Sermon on the Murray. Love: It's for Australians'
Our PM encouraged those who believed in the power of prayer to PRAY for rain for the farmers. For others, 'Good on you, guys. You go well'. Think good thoughts for them. Or whatever you do".[6]
Then came this Opinion piece from ABC Religion & Ethics by Byron Smith (14 September 2018).[7]
'Faith without works: Why the Prime Minister's call to pray for rain is offensive'
Why is the call to prayer for rain 'offensive'? Byron Smith gave 3 reasons:
Firstly: Atheists. It's an offensive gesture from national leader because it's talking to the 'sky fairy, embracing and promoting irrational superstition'. Some responded with 'angry mockery'.
Secondly, 'As a Christian', Byron Smith found the comment offensive because of 'the profound disconnect between his professed prayers and the pro-coal – and thus anti-farmer – agenda of his government'.
Thirdly, 'When the government Morrison leads has spent many years doing little or nothing about the root causes of the warming that is worsening such extreme weather, then inviting the nation to pray in response is somewhat galling. The Coalition does not have a climate policy'.
Dr Byron Smith is currently Assistant Pastor at St. George's Anglican Church, Paddington NSW in the Evangelical Anglican Diocese of Sydney.
Let's not kid ourselves about the 'root causes' of the drought. It's beyond the global warming issues to something more profound. Bryson Smith should know this as he's a minister in the evangelical Anglican diocese of Sydney NSW.
How many of you can remember as far back as April 2007?
There you might have seen this headline in The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 April 2007:
'Pray for rain, urges [John] Howard'
(John Howard photo, courtesy pinterest)[9]
2.1.1 'Pray for rain'[8]
This article reported:
Prime Minister John Howard has urged Australians to pray for rain as hard-hit agricultural regions face zero water allocations due to drought.
Mr Howard warned last week that farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin faced having no water for the coming irrigation year unless heavy rain fell in the next six to eight weeks.
On Sunday he said he intended to meet irrigators over coming weeks to discuss the grim situation.
Meanwhile, he encouraged people to seek divine intervention.
"It's very serious, it's unprecedented in my lifetime and I really feel very deeply for the people affected," Mr Howard told ABC Television.
"So we should all, literally and without any irony, pray for rain over the next six to eight weeks."
Why isn't Scott Morrison calling on local ministers' associations across the nation to organise churches in every suburb and town to pray for drought-breaking rain?
2.1.2 South African political response to drought
Colin Newman[10] of South Africa recalled that after his Christian conversion in 1977, South Africa experienced severe drought. The President called for a National Day of repentance and humiliation before God.
As a new Christian he was impressed with the masses of people who poured from workplaces to fill churches during lunch hours. Churches overflowed with people, praying for God to break the drought. However, these people poured out their prayers to God for repentance. When the rains came a few days later he was awestruck by God's response to these prayers.
In 2012, Newman said since that time there have been serious droughts over 15 years but none of the previous three Presidents of South Africa called the people to prayer and repentance (Newman 2012).
Note: This is a 5-part series of which this is the 3rd part. It is connected to the next article: 'Connection between spiritual condition of the nation and disasters'
[1] ABC News: Rural (2018).
[2] Available at: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/381680137141097167 (Accessed 8 January 2019).
[3] In Brandreth, G 2013. Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations. Oxford University Press, p. 314. This citation is available HERE.
[4] Oxford Dictionaries Online (2019. s.v. secular) gives the meaning as, 'Not connected with religious or spiritual matters'. Collins Dictionary (2019. s.v. secular) provides the meaning 'to describe things that have no connection with religion'. To gain an understanding of how some secular Australians think and the values they esteem, see the policies and aims of The Secular Party of Australia at: https://www.secular.org.au/ (Accessed 8 January 2019).
[5] Tony Wright 2018. Scott Morrison's Sermon on the Murray. Love: it's for Australians. WA Today (online), 6 September. Available at: https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/scott-morrison-s-sermon-on-the-murray-love-it-s-for-australians-20180906-p5026m.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed (Accessed 27 February 2019).
[7] Byron Smith 2018. Faith without works: Why the Prime Minister's call to pray for rain is offensive. ABC Religion & Ethics (online, 14 September. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/religion/why-it-was-offensive-for-the-prime-minister-to-call-for-prayer/10245992 (Accessed 2 November 2018).
[8] The Sydney Morning Herald 2007. Pray for rain, urges Howard (online), 22 April. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/national/pray-for-rain-urges-howard-20070422-gdpyx1.html (Accessed 6 January 2019).
[10] Colin Newman 2012. Droughts, Tsunami's and God. Frontline Fellowship (online), 29 May. Available at: http://www.frontline.org.za/index.php?option=com_multicategories&view=article&id=910:droughts-tsunamis-and-god&catid=24:political-social-issues-cat (Accessed 18 August 2018).
This entry was posted in Cultural Apologetics, Government, Moral relativism, Truth, Worldview and tagged Australia immorality, drought, fire, floods on 27 May 2019 by spencer.
Connection between spiritual condition of the nation and disasters
Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie
Category 4 severe tropical cyclone (Aus scale)
Category 4 tropical cyclone (SSHWS)
(Debbie shortly after peak intensity approaching Queensland, Australia on 28 March 2017, image courtesy Wikipedia)
"I kept the rain from falling when your crops needed it the most.
I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another. Rain fell on one field, while another field withered away.
People staggered from town to town looking for water, but there was never enough.
But still you would not return to me, says the Lord".
Could there be a link between a nation's disasters and its spiritual condition before the Lord God Almighty?
Here are a few examples from Scripture that demonstrate the pattern:
1. Amos 4:6-9, 12 (NLT)
"I [the Sovereign Lord] brought hunger to every city
and famine to every town.
But still you would not return to me,"
says the LORD.
7 "I kept the rain from falling
when your crops needed it the most.
I sent rain on one town
but withheld it from another.
Rain fell on one field,
while another field withered away.
8 People staggered from town to town looking for water,
but there was never enough.
9 "I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured all your fig and olive trees.
12 "Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced.
Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!"
That was an instance from another nation of the core of the problem – the link between a nation's spiritual condition and God's sending drought. There IS A SOLUTION. Repent of our sins against God, Australia, and return to Him in confession and repentance.
The prophet Joel provided another case in point:
2. Joel 2:11-13
There is 'a time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance' (Eccl 3:4). I hope you have been doing lots of crying and grieving over the state of Australia and for God to open the heavens and send rain. Please grieve with the farming families in drought.
But here is another statement about the core problem …
… The day of the LORD is an awesome, terrible thing.
Who can possibly survive?
12 That is why the LORD says,
"Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13 Don't tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead."
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He is eager to relent and not punish.
Originally, this was a warning to Israel, but the same principle applies to Australia. The day of the Lord's punishment is terrible. Droughts, cyclones, bush fires, earthquakes (remember Newcastle NSW, 28 December1989 and the earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale)[1] and tsunamis are devastating in their impacts.
Through Joel the prophet, the message to Israel and by inference to Australia to stop this drought is that no human being can break it by causing the rain to fall. Only the Lord God Almighty can do that. He shouts to all Aussies:
'TURN TO ME NOW WHILE THERE IS TIME. GIVE ME YOUR HEARTS. COME WITH FASTING, WEEPING, AND MOURNING.… RETURN TO THE LORD YOUR GOD FOR HE IS MERCIFUL AND COMPASSIONATE'.
3. We have the same kind of message from Jesus
Every catastrophe is the Holy God's merciful call to people to repent of their sinful ways. The Gospel of Luke records:
About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. "Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?" Jesus asked. "Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God (Luke 13:1-3 NLT).
In verses 4-5 of Luke 13 we read: 'And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that UNLESS YOU REPENT, YOU WILL PERISH TOO'.
4. Does this sound like Australia in the twenty-first century?
The Scriptures are adamant:
You should know … that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.
3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.
5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NLT).
There is a direct connection between Australia's moral and spiritual condition and disasters – the drought, floods, fires and other catastrophes. I do NOT equate one disaster with one type of moral disaster from God. That's God's business to do the connecting. I know clearly from Scripture that there is an association between the nation's spiritual conditions and disasters that come (see the above examples.
5. More disasters
(a) The Townsville floods 2019
A general view of the flooded Townsville suburb of Idalia. Photograph: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images[2]
GOOD CAUSE: Sunshine Coast residents have donated to Townsville flood victims in the throes of cleaning up. AAP/DAN PELED[3]
(1) How much rain was received?
According to Higgins' Storm Chasing, 'Townsville has broken its 6 day, 7 day, 8 day, 9 day, 10 day, 11 day and 12 day accumulative records from this event. A final 12 day total of 1391.4mm has been observed [in February 2019]'.[4]
The Bureau of Meteorology made this statement about the Townsville flood on 15 February 2019 (reported by ABC News, Brisbane, Qld):
It is difficult to oversell the amount of rain that has fallen in north Queensland. Places like Paluma, Woolshed, and Upper Bluewater got over two metres of rain in 12 days.[5]
(2) Estimated cost of Townsville flood damage.
Qld Premier, Ms Annastasia Palaszczuk, said … 'the state budget is estimated to take a hit of at least $1.5 billion after catastrophic bushfires and floods ravaged Queensland over the last three months'.[6]
(b) North-West Queensland: From drought to flooding and cattle disaster
Rachael Anderson of Eddington station[7] says she has lost about 2,000 cattle, roughly half the herd. Photograph: Rachael Anderson[8]
Grazier David Batt and volunteer Ash Travers line up carcasses for a mass burial. Supplied: Max Batt.[9]
(1) According to ABC News, Brisbane, Qld, 'An estimate is that the floods have 'killed as many as 500,000 animals across Queensland's north and central-west'.[10]
(c) Fires in Victoria
In February 2019, Victorian fire authorities were bracing for hot and windy weather on Sunday [10 Feb] as they continue to fight fires which are threatening lives and properties in parts of the state.
ABC News, Brisbane, Qld provided this Victorian fire photo on 1 and 2 February 2019:
Photo: The bushfire was burning in a westerly direction towards Moe-Walhalla Road. Photo supplied: Jimmy Lia, 1 February 2019[11]
6. I must give two warnings.
6.1 First warning
Don't bother coming to the Trinitarian, Lord God Almighty in prayer if you don't believe He exists. If you are an atheist, agnostic, humanist, sceptic, or secular person, you are wasting your time seeking help from the God in whom you do not believe.
How do I know? Scripture says: 'It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him' (Hebrews 11:6).
If you don't believe in the existence of God, it would be like going to McDonald's to buy a hammer and shovel. Don't waste your time in praying to the God you don't believe in.
If you are struggling with knowing if God exists, see these articles online:
Evidence for the existence of God
God reveals Himself in nature to everyone
Does God send cyclones?
6.2 Second warning
Forget about praying for rain if you want what God does not want for you. Scripture places this boundary around our praying: 'Here is what we can be sure of when we come to God in prayer. If we ask anything in keeping with what he wants, he hears us. If we know that God hears what we ask for, we know that we have it (1 John 5:14-15).
If it is God's will to send rain to the outback NOW, He will send it when we pray. He may have a greater lesson to teach us. Have Australian people repented of the sins of the nation and changed its immoral laws to agree with God's laws? Have individuals repented and sought God's forgiveness.
If God doesn't send rain, what could be other blockages in Australia that are causing God to say, 'No, not yet'?
If God sends a deluge of rain that we rightly label as disaster, God's ways are the same. He will not tolerate Australia's wicked ways. What I'm saying applies across this sinful world and to all countries. I'm focussing on Australia because we live here.
Note: This is a 5-part series of which this is the 4th part. It is connected to the next article: The path Australia treads to ruin
[1] See Emily Verdouw 2013. On this day: Newcastle earthquake strikes. Australian Geographic (online), 7 November. Available at: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2013/11/on-this-day-newcastle-earthquake-strikes/ (Accessed 7 January 2019).
[2] The Guardian Australia 2019. Flood waters inundate Townsville homes as army called in – in pictures (online), 5 February. Photograph: Andrew Rankin/AAP. .Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/feb/05/floodwaters-inundate-townsville-homes-as-army-called-in-in-pictures (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[3] Chloe Lyons 2019. Donations pile up for Townsville flood appeal. Sunshine Coast Daily (online), 11 February. Available at: https://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/donations-pile-up-for-townsville-flood-appeal/3644239/ (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[4] Higgins Storm Chasing 2019. Ridiculous Rainfall Accumulations Up To Day 12 Of The Townsville Floods (online). Available at: https://higginsstormchasing.com/ridiculous-rainfall-accumulations-up-to-day-12-of-the-townsville-floods/ (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[5] ABC Weather by Kate Doyle 2019. North Queensland rains trigger BOM special climate statement (online), 15 February 2019. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-15/queensland-floods-special-climate-statement/10816184 (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[6] Talissa Siganto and staff 2019. ABC News, Brisbane, Qld. 'Summer of disasters' reveals the cost of climate change for Queensland taxpayers (online), 19 February. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-19/climate-change-and-the-cost-of-qlds-summer-of-disasters/10826122 (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[7] Eddington station is located 20km west of Julia Creek in outback NW Qld, Australia. See: https://www.jimpolamarketing.com.au/blog/eddington-station-20km-west-of-julia-creek (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[8] Ben Smee 2019. Up to 500,000 drought-stressed cattle killed in Queensland floods. The Guardian Australia(online), 11 February. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/11/up-to-500000-drought-stressed-cattle-killed-in-queensland-floods (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[9] ABC News, Brisbane, Qld 2019. Burying cattle killed in the Queensland floods (online), 21 February. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-21/burying-cattle-killed-in-the-queensland-floods/10834282 (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[10] Steven Schubert and Ben Deacon 2019. ABC News, Brisbane, Qld, (online), Drought-hit Channel Country cattle producers welcome floodwater from weather system that devastated neighbours, 23 February. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-23/cattle-producers-welcome-floodwater-that-devastated-neighbours/10843080 (Accessed 23 February 2019).
[11] ABC News, Brisbane Qld 2019. Tanjil South bushfire, 1 February. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-01/tanjil-south-bushfire-1/10772776 (Accessed 27 March 2019). The entry on 2 February 2019 was from ABC News, Brisbane. Watch and Act warning issued for Grantville fire as authorities prepare for worsening conditions (online). Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-02/fires-continue-to-burn-in-victoria-as-conditions-set-to-worsen/10773678 (Accessed 27 March 2019).
This entry was posted in Climate Change, Cultural Apologetics, Freedom of Religion, Government, Moral relativism, Problem of evil, Sovereignty of God, Worldview, Wrath of God and tagged cultural apologets, God, judgment, moral relativism, nations on 27 May 2019 by spencer.
Angelology (2)
Bias/Neutrality (1)
Church & apologetics (5)
Cultural Apologetics (22)
Natural theology (1)
Presuppositions (6)
Problem of evil (19)
Thoughtful Christianity (11)
Worldview (27)
1 & 2 Corinthians (4)
1 & 2 Thessalonians (2)
1 & 2 Timothy (3)
Book of Revelation (2)
Dating books of Bible (1)
Gospel of John (10)
John 3:16 (1)
Gospel of Matthew (4)
Gospel of Thomas (1)
Historical criticism (5)
John's Epistles (1)
King James Version (6)
Old Testament (4)
Pentateuch (2)
Scripture alone (1)
The Flood (Noah) (3)
The Gospel (3)
Anglican (2)
House church (3)
Organic Church (2)
Pentecostal Churches (6)
SDA (2)
Seeker-Sensitive (5)
The contemporary church (6)
Counselling (49)
Alternate therapies (1)
Christian counselling (4)
Drugs – illicit (3)
Marriage & the Family (22)
Masturbation (1)
Cults & Heresies (16)
Christadelphians (1)
Deism (1)
Gnosticism (1)
Jehovah's Witnesses (2)
Prosperity Gospel (1)
Seventh Day Adventist (4)
Unitarianism (1)
Seminaries (1)
Sexual Abuse (1)
Homosexual marriage (3)
Exposition of Scriptures (7)
Gifts of the Spirit (17)
Cessationism (6)
Continuationism (1)
Absolutes (3)
Moral absolutes (2)
Holiness of God (2)
Omnipotence (2)
Omniscience (1)
Open Theism (1)
Panentheism (1)
Righteousness (1)
Sovereignty of (3)
Sovereignty of God (6)
Submission to God (2)
Unity of God (3)
Wrath of God (13)
Anti-discrimination (1)
Liberal Democrats (1)
The Nationals (1)
Hell and Eternal Punishment (25)
Historical Jesus (2)
C H Spurgeon (1)
Homiletics (1)
Deity of Christ (1)
Eternal security (11)
Once-saved-always-saved (OSAS) (2)
Heresies (13)
Propitiation (2)
Bodily Resurrection (2)
Logical fallacies (14)
Labor Party (3)
Reader-Response Methods (3)
Evolution vs Creationism (5)
False teaching (3)
Paedophilia (1)
Anthropology (nature of human beings) (3)
Arminianism (58)
Bibliology (9)
Canonicity (1)
Inerrancy (2)
Downgrade/False teaching (5)
Tribulation (2)
Free grace theology (1)
Grace of God (3)
Hermeneutics (12)
Allegorical Interpretation (1)
Literal Interpretation (2)
Baptism with the Holy Spirit (4)
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (1)
Gifts of the Holy Spirit (6)
Tongues (5)
Pelagian, semi-Pelagian (1)
Roman Catholicism (4)
Perpetual virginity of Mary (1)
Sunday worship (1)
The Sabbath (2)
Total Depravity (3)
Unorthodox (3)
Women in Ministry (13)
Word of faith (2)
Hinduism & Buddhism (3)
Youth suicide (2)
Matthew 12:24: Was Jonah in the belly of a whale?
Dr Albert Mohler asked: Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?[1]
Evidence for the afterlife
Controversies from conception to crucifixion