18 Then they
called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the
name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right
in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As
for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Acts
4:18-20
The elite religious leaders of the time were gathered
together and threatened Peter and John. They used their position in power to stop God’s
works. Earlier, Peter and John performed
a miracle. They healed a lame man in the
name of Jesus Christ. And every day they
came to the temple to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ’ salvation to the
people. Many believed. But the religious leaders did not like what
they saw. After all, they were the ones
conspiring to murder Jesus through the hands of the Gentiles. They were the ones refusing to believe in the
word of Jesus Christ. But Peter and John
received a vivid command from their Master.
And they intended to keep the command and obediently making sure that
his command was followed every step of the way.
So when the religious leaders, scary and intimidating they were, made a
serious threat to them, Peter and John spoke boldly and they stood their ground
saying: “Which is right in God’s eyes: to
listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we
cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
The answer to Peter and John’s
rhetorical question can only be: “To listen to God.” There are two contradictory commands. One came from God. The other came from the religious leaders. The one from God ordered Peter and John to
proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. The
one from the religious leaders forbade the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The dilemma was which one to
choose. The religious leaders made their
argument long ago based on the safety and security of the nation. Just right after Jesus’ miracle of
resurrecting Lazarus, the religious leaders met and decided what to do with
Jesus. John 11:45-53 records:
45 Therefore
many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did,
believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and
told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and
the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they
asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let
him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will
come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
49 Then one
of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know
nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you
that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not
say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus
would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that
nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and
make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his
life.
The
religious leaders’ concern was not whether they followed God’s will or
not. But they were only concerned for
their own life. They worried if the
crowd did not accept them. They worried
if the higher authority would make their life difficult. But they never considered how to please
God. In the same token, when they
witnessed the marvelous work of God through Peter and John, the disciples of Jesus
whom they crucified, they refused to humble their hearts. They refused to listen to God. They preferred to air their own opinion. Thus with their authority they acted as if
they were God and ordered the apostles to stop speaking God’s word.
The Modus Operandi (MO) of the world
hasn’t changed a bit. They did that to
Peter and John 2,000 years ago. They do
the same thing today. The world never
concerns itself on pleasing God. They
never listen to God. They prefer airing
their own opinion. They also label
Christians as being intolerant.
Listening to God’s word is not considered as wise. So they push their agenda by inserting their
own words into the mix and confuse many children of God. The push is increasingly getting stronger
nowadays in such a way that the voice from the pulpit is being threatened. In our era today, the voice from the pulpit
is being pressured by the world not to speak the truth when the truth might be
offensive to some people. If the
preacher faithfully speaks the word of God that is not pleasant to the people’s
ears, then the preacher will be threatened either by direct or indirect
intimidation. This trend is similar to
the way the religious leaders threatened Peter and John. One most common issue continues to surface in
our era today, which is the issue of homosexual practice. The world keeps pushing and pressuring the
church to accept the idea that homosexual tendency is normal and thus its
practice should be accepted as an alternative lifestyle. Speaking from the pulpit that homosexual
practice is wrong is now under fire.
Those who faithfully declare the truth from the Scripture that
homosexual tendency and practice is sinful is considered intolerant and
discriminating. So many preachers are
being threatened today, be it indirect or direct intimidation, to not preach
the word of God related to the homosexuality issue. Theologians are being challenged to change
their theology on homosexuality.
Churches are being pressured to allow gay marriage and embrace gay
practice.
The world is riding on the momentum
gained from the decision by the US Supreme Court of June 26 2013 on the issue
of gay marriage. The US Supreme Court
decision to get rid of the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) and thereby legalized
gay marriage, has become the cornerstone of the gay rights movement. The movement seeks to obliterate anything
that stands in the way. They argue that
homosexual practice is normal, as normal as the heterosexual practice. So anybody who says that homosexual practice is
wrong is considered abusive and stereotyped as persecutors. Granted that what the society did and what
many people in the church did in the past in their treatment of those with
homosexual tendency was not right. Their
treatment was harsh, abusive, unjust, and dishonoring. They treated the homosexuals as less than
humans and did whatever they wanted to them.
The Scripture speaks clearly that the homosexual practice is wrong. But that doesn’t warrant abusive and cruel
treatment of the homosexuals. So the
wrong must be named accordingly.
However, the momentum of the gay rights movement has forced for the
pendulum to swing to the other extreme, that is the push to allow homosexual
practice and accept it as normal. Such
push is a lie. Admitting that what was
done in the past as wrong does not warrant admittance that homosexual practice
is thus right and normal. We do have to
stop the abusive treatment toward homosexuals.
But at the same time we have the obligation to name wrong as wrong. We have the duty to speak the truth of the
word of God.
Unfortunately, even Christians, big
name Christians, were among those deceived by the gay movement wave. Desmond Tutu for example. He is highly respected in what he did to the
reconciliation in South Africa. But his
position and remarks regarding homosexuality is a cunning deception that hides
behind smart play of words. He said that
he will not worship a God who is homophobic.
And he added that if God is homophobic, then he wouldn’t want to live in
heaven. He would rather live in hell
rather than to live with a homophobic God.
His statement gained great support from the people who support gay
rights movement. Tutu got the glory of
siding with the victimized homosexuals through his bold statement. Tutu, in this case, has chosen to listen to
the world over the word of God. His smart
language play got a lot of simple people confused. The term “homophobic” is a trap word. The term is used cleverly so as to force
whoever is at the verge of being labeled thus to answer “No.” For sure those who can’t accept homosexual
practice are not afraid of the homosexuals.
Disapproving homosexual practice does not equate phobia of the
homosexuals or homosexual practice. But
the term “homophobia” will always generate a “No” answer. With “No” as the answer, the next pressure
would be: “Then why are you not allowing the homosexuals to practice it? Especially when there is nothing wrong with
it.” At this point, people got so
confused that they would just agree to allow homosexual practice. How much more if such argument is added with
the argument of love and the like. Which
Christians would want to say no to “loving our neighbors”? Now, with that under his belt, Tutu pushed
further by bringing God into the equation.
Instead of just stopping at assigning the label “homophobic” to those
who disapprove homosexual practice, he became bolder to use the label on
God. His tactic was to generate a
response that would confirm that God is indeed not a homophobic. In this strategy then he would force the
people who disapprove to approve, because if God is not homophobic, why then
his followers are? Aren’t his followers
supposed to reflect God? And in this
case, his not homophobic ness. This is a
cunning strategy using word play at a very high and sophisticated level. Attempt to assign homophobic term to God in
order to generate a no answer is an unfair strategy. It is an unfair question just like the
question: “Do you know that you are stupid?”
The question: “Do you…? begs a “Yes” or “No” answer. But either answer is tainted with a cunning
tactic to humiliate the person to whom the question is addressed. Answering “Yes” would acknowledge that he/she
knows his/her being stupid. This is
perfect to humiliate him/her. To answer
“No” also has the same effect. So
whatever proper answer given leads to humiliation and trap. In the same way, Tutu’s cunning word play is
a trap, designed purposefully to corner those who disapprove homosexual
practice. If Tutu insists on using the
same word, then using his own strategy we can also label whoever is pushing for
gay rights movement with “VERITAS-phobic.”
This term challenges Tutu and his followers to acknowledge their allergy
of acknowledging the truth as declared in the Scripture about homosexuality.
The voice of the pulpit should not
be reduced to the opinion of man. The
pressure of the world should not restrict the proclamation of the truth from
the pulpit. Homosexual issue is similar
to the other sins in terms of human’s inability and unwillingness to let go of
the sinful act and tendency. The push to
say that homosexual practice should be permitted because it is considered as
normal due to the genetic constitution is a lie, just like it is also a lie to
say that the cultural practice of the Chinese people to worship their ancestors
is normal as an act of honoring our parents, elders, and so on. So many Chinese people do not wish to let go
of this ancestor worship practice simply because they consider such practice as
natural. They grow up with such practice
that has been perpetuated for 2,500 years, besides all they can see is the high
moral ethical conduct emanating from such practice. So why would they throw away such highly
ethical practice when they become believers in Jesus? It doesn’t make sense for them to throw away
a very highly ethical practice as they embrace Christianity, which is also
known as a religion that upholds high ethical value and practice. Some churches gave in and thus allowed the
Chinese people to get their way, the way that they considered as natural for
them, and mixed the Christian practice with the Chinese way of life. Once that gate was opened, the whole
floodgate rushed in with it. So cultural
practices such as going to soothsayers asking for future, fortune, and so on cramped
into the church. What shall we say then?
Just allow what people consider as natural
and normal to be practiced and accepted regardless of what the Bible say? In the West it is easy to dismiss the ridiculous
Chinese cultural practice of ancestor worship and say that the Bible forbids such
thing. Because the Chinese ancestor worship
is foreign to them. People are unfair in
this sector. They accept what does not cost
them anything. But they refuse things that
cost them dearly. People prefer to ignore
God’s word and keep their own way of life for the sake of convenience. It is rare to see people changing their way of
life for the sake of God’s word.
In light of this, the world forces the
church to change the theology and the pulpit proclamation of the truth simply because
God’s truth is in conflict with the way of the world. The church is under fire now. The pulpit is being challenged. The demand of the world is to take over the pulpit
and thus control it for their desire. Many
preachers are being threatened and intimidated, be it indirectly or directly. Many have given in to the demand of the world.
Slowly they change their theology and slowly
they are being recruited by the world. And
very soon, many preachers no longer preach the word of God. They no longer become God’s servant. Very soon they will become the world’s servant
who perpetuates sin. Peter and John understood
this challenge and the cunning deception by the world, and the great mastermind
of deception, the Devil. So they put a stop
on it. Thus they asked the Sanhedrin: “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to
you, or to him? You be the judges!” Peter
and John made the final decision that, 20 As
for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Now, this challenge has come to us. Would we take the same stand Peter and John took
2,000 years ago, that is to listen to God and to be obedient to him forever? As for me, I stand my ground and cannot help speaking
about what I have been taught through the word of God – the teaching of my Lord
Jesus Christ.
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