Bulletin Article

We are living in strange times. There is an election scheduled to happen in about six months. Donald Trump is up for reelection, which for his more enthusiastic supporters, can’t happen soon enough, while his biggest detractors are sure he is the embodiment of all that is wrong in the country. The Democrats have a presumptive candidate to challenge Trump, but many are sure he can’t possibly become the next president. 

The ongoing “Covid-19” pandemic is dominating the news, and has the country, the world, divided over how it should be handled. Do we keep businesses closed to slow the spread? Does that reduce the number of Covid deaths, but increase suffering because of unemployment, or exacerbate problems (and deaths) from drugs, alcohol, depression, suicide, etc.? What is the solution to all these problems?

Christians will generally see the problems of the country as the product of great sin within the nation, and the world. We want the problem resolved. Government proves itself unable to solve the problems, even making them worse. So, we look to God as the source of that resolution. What do we see in God's dealing with the problem of sin?

When Adam and Eve were in the garden, it was paradise. Evidently there was no pain, no suffering, no conflict. Then the serpent convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, Adam followed her lead, and suddenly the father and mother of us all were homeless, and that paradise was lost. That was in Genesis chapter 3. By chapter 6 things were as bad as they could get. Verse 5 says “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Noah was the exception. Reading on into chapters 7 & 8, God destroyed all mankind by the flood of all floods, except for Noah and his family, who were spared in the ark. The world had become utterly corrupt, and God brought utter calamity to sweep the problem away. Problem solved… but it wasn't. In 8:21 God said “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.” 

Notice the two statements. Because “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” God destroyed the world. And because “man’s heart is evil from his youth”, God said He will not do it again. The wording isn't identical, but as I read it, the reason God said He would not destroy the world a second time is virtually the same reason He did it in the first place. Destroying the worst of the sinners did not solve the problem. The problem of sin was – and is – still there.

Soon after the flood, we read that God called Abraham away from his kin, sending him to Canaan. God promised that his descendants would eventually be given the land of Canaan, and that they would be a mighty nation and a blessing to the entire world. We know how the story ends: the blessing to the world came through Jesus, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

In the course of time Moses led Israel out of Egyptian captivity, gave them the Law, and sealed them in a covenant relationship with God. There was the Ten Commandments, and the rest of the Law of Moses. The people were promised that if they kept the Law, they would live long in the land, and receive God's rich blessings. They were warned that if they rebelled, they would suffer greatly. They promised to obey, and promptly rebelled. They occupied the land of Canaan, as God promised. Eventually they were removed from that land, and taken into captivity, as God had warned.

In the further course of time, Jesus came into the world, and was crucified as the sin sacrifice, the raised on the third day. The church initially was made up entirely of Jews, who came to Jesus in baptism, but as God had always planned, the gospel message was later extended to the Gentiles, beginning with Cornelius. As the number of Gentiles coming into the church grew, so did cultural and ethnic tensions. Acts 15 tells about the “Jerusalem council”, as it is often called. In verse 5 we read that “some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.’” The “them” was the Gentile converts. In verse 10, Peter responded, “why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” The yoke in question was the Law of Moses, including its requirement of circumcision. It was a yoke, which their own history proved, the Jews had never been able to bear; nor would the Gentiles be able to bear it.

There it is again! God gave Israel the Law, and now through Peter, God is saying the Law can't really be kept; it won't solve the sin problem. Why? He destroyed the world by flooding, and it was shown to be futile at solving sin. He gave Israel the Law, and it too was futile. Why did God do all of that? Why didn't He know it was all futile?

I suggest He knew it all along, but we need to be able to see it was futile. God flooded the world to show us that punishment won't eradicate sin. He gave the law to show legislation doesn't solve the problem either. We try to stop crime through punishment, and it fails. We try to eradicate crime with more laws, and crime continues. The one thing increasing legislation accomplishes is to create more possibilities to find ourselves falling foul of the law; crime grows, rather than declines. We want God to sort things out, but in the end, the only solution to the sin problem was for Jesus to take the punishment we deserve. Then we, who are incapable of eliminating sin in our own lives, are offered forgiveness, not on the basis of our own goodness, of being worthy, but because Jesus took our sins, and the punishment for those sins, on Himself. And that was the solution God planned to use all along.

As for politics, economics and pandemics, the best thing we can do is pray for wisdom for ourselves, and those in positions of responsibility.

R.C.