The Inhumanity of Man
The inhumanity of man has, in recent times, been graphically brought to our attention by press photographs of Iraqi prisoners in the act of being tortured by American interrogators. We do not know the identity of those who were interrogated nor how vital to the saving of soldiers’ lives the information sought for might have been. But the sight of human beings being treated in this manner, and those responsible – including at least one woman – gloating over the spectacle is something we instinctively desire to turn away from. The end never justifies the means. But a more awful spectacle was presented to a world-wide audience when a video recording was taken of the decapitation of an American civilian, while those responsible invoked the name of their god. If questioned, they would no doubt appeal to some verse in the Koran to justify their action. Their god is not our God.
Such barbarous behaviour is clear proof of what the Word of God teaches us in regard to fallen man, the depths to which he sinks when restraining grace is removed, and the desperate wickedness of the unrenewed human heart. Who indeed can know it? We have in 2004 an increase of sinful men. The presence of modern devices such as digital cameras and video recorders, where evil deeds are perpetrated, brings these matters more forcibly before our minds. We look at woodcuts and pen and ink drawings printed in history books to illustrate the records of the atrocities perpetrated by the Inquisition. The historian G P Fisher tells us that “in 1252 Pope Innocent IV sanctioned torture in the detection of heresy, and it became a fearful engine of cruelty in the hands of the Inquisition”. What is recorded of Tomas de Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisitor General might well be applied to Saddam Hussein: “He owes his reputation for cruelty to the harsh rules of procedure that he devised for the Inquisition and to the rigour with which he had them enforced”.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records fearful acts of cruelty and torture far surpassing what the American interrogators are alleged to be guilty of, and if we think of the instruments of torture which were used by the authorities in Scotland and elsewhere in the seventeenth century, we see a pattern of inhuman behaviour established. Space does not permit us to enlarge on the well-documented inhuman and barbarous behaviour observed within Nazi concentration camps in the twentieth century. We long for the coming of that day when our Saviour’s golden rule shall be universally observed: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets”. JM
The Passion of Christ
After an article in The Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland, April 2004, in which he gave a largely favourable review of Mel Gibson’s blasphemous attempt to portray the sufferings of the Saviour, the Editor proceeds in the May 2004 issue of his magazine to defend the idea that God can suffer. He strongly affirms that the Father suffered in giving His Son whom He loved, although there is no Scriptural support for this. He depends on humanly sentimental arguments such as: “If David felt love and grief at the death of his son Absalom, how much more did the Father feel grief and love at the death of the holy Son of God?” There is a failure to recognise that God’s making man in His image does not lead to the conclusion that God is in the image of man. Thankfully there is much about even perfect man which does not characterise God.
The Editor claims that, in the light of passages such as Galatians 2:20, Hebrews 4:14, 15, and Acts 3:15, “it is impossible to maintain the impassibility [inability to suffer] of God the Son at least”. From the rest of his article, it is clear that he means, by his confusing and unfounded equating of the suffering of God the Son with the suffering of God, that Jesus suffered “as God as well as man”. The passages cited do not carry the implications attributed to them.
It is not possible in a Note such as this to deal adequately with this error, which seems to be gaining popularity in Evangelical thinking, but we must point out one of the fundamental flaws in the Editor’s reasoning. He writes: “Did He suffer as man, but not as God? It is difficult to see how that could be. The incarnate Son of God is one person with two natures, divine and human. But a nature cannot suffer, only a person can. And Jesus is fundamentally a divine person.” Of course it was God the Son, Christ the Person, who “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). The apostle Paul could speak of “the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). The blood He shed derived its value from the fact that it was the blood of a divine person. He suffered and died, but it was in His humanity He did so – this being why He became incarnate. The mystery of godliness means that as the Son of God He lived through the death He died in our nature and continued in the bosom of the Father through all the humiliation and suffering endured in our nature. We can no more say that the divine nature suffered than we can say that the human nature was uncreated, infinite or omnipresent.
Our Westminster Standards summarise the Biblical position received in the Reformed Church. Christ “was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person for ever” (Shorter Catechism 21). “Two whole, perfect and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man. . . . Christ, in the work of mediation, acteth according to both natures; by each nature doing that which is proper to itself: yet, by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture attributed to the person denominated by the other nature” (Confession of Faith 8). It was being made like unto His brethren that gave the eternal and ever-blessed Son of God the capacity to make reconciliation for the sins of the people, to suffer being tempted and to succour them that are tempted (Heb 2:17,18).
It is important for the glory of God and of our divine Redeemer, for the maintenance of a Scriptural theology and Christology, and for the good of our own souls, that our thinking be controlled by the revelation God has given rather than by reasonings from human experiences and ideas of how things ought to be.
HMC
Tragedy in Glasgow
The dreadful explosion which reduced much of a Glasgow plastics factory to a heap of rubble and resulted in the death of 9 people and the injury of 40, 16 seriously, was the worst industrial accident in Scotland for many years. This sudden and tragic happening underlines once again the solemn truth, “Ye know not what shall be on the morrow” (Jas 4:14). Indeed, we cannot say, as we leave our homes in the morning, that we shall return in the evening.
As we sincerely and prayerfully sympathise with the many bereaved and injured we regard the tragic happening as a loud voice to ourselves. It calls us to be prepared for the moment of our own departure into the eternal world. The ungodly scoff at the Scripture exhortation, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12), but the godly believe and obey it. They alone have the essential preparation of possessing the righteousness which is by faith in Christ. “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him” (Is 3:10). NMR
Divorce in Scotland
The Scottish Executive has brought forward proposals to reduce the waiting time for an uncontested divorce from two years to one, and in contested cases from five years to two years. These proposals may not be implemented immediately, but it is obvious that every such step results in a further weakening of the institution of marriage.
Marriage breakdown can result in tremendous heartache for those involved. But how many marriages might have been saved if the door to divorce was less easily opened? Today’s society shows itself determined to turn its back on marriage and other God-given institutions. And sadly the authorities in both Westminster and Edinburgh seem determined to take the lead. When will we see a government which is prepared to promote true religion, and the morality which is part of it?
Christian(?) Aid
Our attention has been drawn to a recently-released report by Christian Aid about AIDS, entitled, “Dying to learn: Young People, HIV and the churches”, which appears on its website. It states the sobering fact that “42 million people worldwide are now living with HIV and AIDS. Every day another 8000 die, and 13 000 are infected. 95% of new infections and deaths are in developing countries, over half in Africa.”
However, the organisation advocates (on page 5 of its report) nothing less than a secular – indeed ungodly – approach to this serious problem. It recommends the use of contraceptives by unmarried young people, and dismisses the use of “abstinence-only” programmes. By its pursuit of this policy alone, Christian Aid forfeits the right to call itself Christian. Those who profess to be Christians belie their profession decidedly if they discard the biblical principle of chastity before marriage. NMR
Making Light of Eternity
The eleventh Duke of Devonshire died recently at the age of 84. His obituary records that he was not a religious man, and that he once made the shocking statement, “I can’t believe in another world, though I shall certainly go to hell if there is one”. Many such statements are made by those who take perverse pleasure in denying, or scoffing at, the reality of our continued existence after death, in either heaven or hell.
No one spoke so solemnly about the reality and awfulness of hell as did the incomparably-compassionate Saviour, Jesus Christ. He did so in order that sinners would believe that the punishment of hell is the just consequence of a life of sin – and that they would turn to Himself in faith to be saved from “the wrath to come”. He still says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). NMR