SOCK IT TO 'EM LIKE PAUL
SOCK IT TO ‘EM LIKE PAUL
Just imagine. A brought-back-to-life Apostle Paul comes to New Zealand and preaches in the streets “Jesus and the resurrection” and a soon coming “day of judgement” (Acts 17:18 and 31). For upsetting the “woke” watchdogs he is summoned to Parliament to explain why he is demanding this country cease idolatrous worship of “other gods”.
Why, the MPs ask, is the apostle urging New Zealand them to drop its tolerance to all forms of belief and instead uphold only the gospel, “good news”, from the One True God, the exalted, all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ.
It would never happen, you say. Well, never say never because it might; there’s a resurrection coming. Back in 52 AD the Apostle Paul stood on Mars Hill in Athens, the cultural and governmental centre of pagan Greek culture, and there and then “preached Jesus unto them and the resurrection”. And in the name of God Almighty he commanded them to “repent” of their idolatry and turn to the living God [who was and still is Jesus, the “one true God” (John 17:3, 1 John 5:20)]. They must, he said, abandon their idol statues made of gold, silver or stone (Acts 17:22-34).
Were Paul to visit us today wouldn’t he also call on New Zealand, once a definitely Christian nation, to repent of idolatry and return to the “living God who created all things and in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:24, 28)? Response to such a call might oblige Government to recognise the gospel of Jesus Christ as our national faith, as indeed it effectually was in the early to mid-1800s.
Back then, in just 30 years, between 1820 and 1850, more than half of the then mainly Maori population of 180,000 could be found worshipping God on Sunday and eagerly attending weekly Bible studies. This huge turning to God and change of heart ended the savage inter-tribal war and cannibalism that had prevailed for centuries.
Sadly, in later years the Christian message has been largely set aside in New Zealand, its prominence replaced by publicly applauded anti-biblical pagan festivals such as Diwali, and blatant gay parades.
Imagine Paul now demanding New Zealand’s political leaders likewise “repent” and in doing so repudiate any allegiance to any other religion other than Christianity. Boy, would that put the cat among the pigeons. Shrieks of outrage would be heard from one of the land to the other.
This much has been said to help us understand the huge affront Paul’s challenge posed to the Greeks back in 62AD. His call to repent if heeded meant tearing up most of what they believed. You see, back then Mars Hill was studded with the statues of many gods. And topping the hill, still crowned today by the stunning Parthenon temple, was the Areopagus, home to the great Greek thinkers and politicians of the day.
Now, if Paul back then was like most Christian leaders of today he would have presented the Christian message as just one option pagan people could add to their list of many gods, that is to say, just one among others. But he didn’t. He bluntly asserted there was no living God other than “the man (God) hath ordained to judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17: 31). What’s more he warned of the great day of judgement “that man”, Jesus, would enact. That it would be a judgement to put things right rather than condemn the world to punishment was made clear by Paul’s statement that God would “judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31).
But don’t miss the essential point about Paul’s Mars Hill message. It took immense courage to stand before the world’s most erudite and powerful intellectual leaders and urge them to repent of all idolatry and turn to the living and only true God. To be told all their gods were impotent and the product of their ignorance (Acts 17:30) was a real kick in the guts.
But let’s ask: Where in today’s non-Christian secular world can we find a champion like Paul to stand up for the truth and call out our pagan, secular society for what it is? Where is the man who will publicly demand God-belittling nations like New Zealand turn from idols to the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ? Where is the man of God brave enough to “sock it to ‘em” like Paul?
The question arises: What gave Paul the courage to make his stand? The answer is that he was charged by God to proclaim God’s latest good news to the world, the gospel that:
He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He raised from the dead (Acts 17:31).
And when God commands the publication of his latest “news”, He pours out his power on those who proclaim it. This is why in 2 Tim. 4:1 Paul before his imminent death hands on the torch to Timothy saying:
I charge thee therefore before God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
What was the word Timothy was to preach? What was the doctrine Timothy was to use to reprove and rebuke those turning from the truth? Come to that just what is that truth? Surely the answer is the great and good news that the Lord Jesus will appear to “judge the quick and the dead” and bring in “his kingdom”, that is, take over government of the world and put everything on earth right.
Why, you might ask, did Paul not preach John 3:16 or Romans 10:9? Answer: Because although both these verses remain true, they are not the latest words from God - 2 Tim. 4:1, Titus 2:13 and 1 Tim. 6:14-16 the verses that speak of Christ appearing in glory and saving the world (not just a few) are.
That is the “gospel”, the “good news” that Timothy is to proclaim in the face of fierce opposition and to keep on proclaiming.
Sadly, this great message of hope to the world at large went down like a lead balloon among those who had followed Paul hitherto. As he tells Timothy elsewhere in this letter: “All those that be in Asia be turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15).
And today it is no better. God’s breaking news that He has appointed the very “day” – an era lasting maybe a thousand years – in which Christ will rule over everything, turn mankind back to Himself as God and restore the earth and heavens to their original creation glory, is ignored not just by the world but also by Christendom.
Taught by men ignorant of God’s truth most believers look not to the Lord’s appearing as Paul urges us to do (Titus 2:13) but to the so-called “rapture” and “second coming” neither of which phrases are found in the Bible. True, there will be “the Lord’s day” in which Christ in flaming will take vengeance on the enemies who wilfully reject the blessing He showers on all men during the “Day of Christ”, his rule from heaven over earth but it is his appearing that comes long before then. That is what we should be anticipating now:
Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13)
And while looking for his day we should be following Paul and Timothy in “socking it to ‘em” while there still is time.
John Dudley Aldworth
You’re welcome to contact me at the email address below.
Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com
Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com/rss/all.xml