The New Zealand Herald ran an article yesterday entitled, “National MP won’t be drawn on Israel Folau debate”…
This came after the above-embedded interview of Alfred Ngaro by TVNZ’s Jack Tame on Q & A…
Scott Morrison, Australian Prime Minister and also Martin Iles, General Manager of the Australian Christian Lobby were also ‘put on the spot’ by Australian journalists asking the same ‘pointed’ question which Jack Tame was endeavouring to ‘draw’ Alfred Ngaro on…
What is the etymology of the word ‘drawn’?
Quoting from the Wikipedia entry at the above link,
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1352 a statutory penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). A convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered(chopped into four pieces). The traitor’s remains were often displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.
That is the underlying purpose of the journalists who have asked Scott Morrison, Martin Iles & Alfred Ngaro ‘that’ question…
What journalists who ask questions like that don’t understand is that in so doing they are weaponising their noble profession – which is meant to be to bring the truth to light in the public square – to incite the above-mentioned behaviour against those who hold differing views to their own in the public square – lynching in the court of public opinion…
How many journalists who behave this way believe that God created them (thus being their Designer who knows what’s best for them)?
How many journalists who behave this way believe that the scripture is the word of God (thus being God’s statement of authoritative, absolute and objective truth)?
How many journalists who behave this way believe that Jesus is the Word of God, God in human flesh, who lived, died and rose again so they could spend eternity with Him in the presence of His Love if they chose to believe in Him rather than eternity apart from Him in the presence of His wrath if they don’t want to give themselves to Him?
How many journalists who behave this way are genuinely interested in finding out more about the reality of the above truths, to search these matters out for themselves according to their noble profession until they find the truth and bring it to the public square?
If the journalists who have asked ‘that question’ (or will subsequently ask it) don’t believe in the above realities and are not seeking (with an open mind) to investigate the authenticity of them then why should we who know these realities and understand them experientially as the truth be beholden to their ‘weaponised’ line of questioning?
They have become a false authority…
Why do they believe they have the ‘upper hand’ and why do they endeavour (as if by right) to put us (who know these truths) ‘on the defensive’?
Shouldn’t it be our aspiration (if we are journalists) to champion freedom of expression and freedom of speech along with freedom of the press?
TVNZ, for example, is owned by the New Zealand Government and funded from the tax collected by the New Zealand Government from all the people of New Zealand – including those of us who know and believe the above truths…
What right do ‘weaponised’ journalists have to ‘sit in judgement’ on those of us who know and understand these truths when it is our tax dollars which are paying their salaries?
That doesn’t appear fair or just…
Father, in Jesus Name, I forgive all journalists everywhere who by their line of questioning and statements expose their bias (i.e. that they don’t report or support the truth but instead endeavour to ‘shut the mouths’ of those who speak the truth and suppress the truth from ‘public exposure’) and I pray that You would lead them to a knowledge of the truth in their own lives which would lead them (in love) to share that truth which they have now experienced ‘first hand’ with all those around them (lead them to repentance Lord)… 🙂
If there are any journalists out there presently who are genuinely curious as to what the answer to ‘that question’ might be, I have endeavoured to provide an answer below from scripture (in my usual long-winded way which wouldn’t fit into a ‘sound bite’ in a live interview)… 🙂
I believe the answer comes in an understanding of what being ‘born again’ really means…
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3:1-21 NASB)
Adam and Eve were created by God in His image, they were perfect and they had the right to choose whether they would obey God or disobey Him (i.e. decide that they knew better than God what was good for them and that they’d look after themselves)…
God warned them that on the day they decided to go their own way they would surely die (meaning that they would die on the inside and no longer have that choice between doing what was right and what was wrong) – that from then on they would only be able to do wrong…
Thus everyone born from Adam and Eve onwards (after they sinned) has been born ‘in sin’ (unable from their hearts to trust God and submit to Him in their lives, i.e. their hearts are spiritually dead towards God), God visits the sins of the fathers onto the children to the third and fourth generation…
When someone is ‘born again’ God gives them a new heart, a new spirit and a new soul which is made in His image (again like Adam and Eve were originally given) and alive towards God so that they can believe in Him and accept His Righteous Sacrifice of His Life in Jesus on the cross in their place to fully forgive and pardon them for all their sin…
That ‘born again’ person still has a lot of ‘sin within them’ (because it’s been practised for so long and for so many generations through their forebears and through themselves so the ‘born again’ part of the person never sins, it can’t sin and doesn’t want to sin and doesn’t sin – and that is what God views as them – and that is where the Holy Spirit of God lives within them…
On the other hand ‘sin within them’ continues to sin, so for example, a ‘born again’ person may still be committing (although their ‘born again’ real self doesn’t commit it, doesn’t agree with it, doesn’t like it and isn’t involved with it) any number of sins…
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32 NASB)
As the above scripture makes clear, homosexuality is one of those sins…
If someone has decided not to believe in Jesus (noting that scripture tells us that believing in Jesus’ Righteousness inputted to us is what makes us righteous in His sight), not to ask Jesus to save them from their sin, not to believe that they are sinners but instead has decided to live in homosexuality (for example – we could use any sin there) all their lives and they die in that place then scripture clearly tells us that they will not inherit the kingdom of God…
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NASB)
Which is the scripture Israel Folau paraphrased in his short Instagram post which Rugby Australia subsequently fired him for…
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:10-15 NASB)
So in summary, the sin which separates us from God for eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone is the sin of not believing in Jesus as our Substitute and not giving ourselves to Jesus to be our Lord and offering ourselves to Him to live through us enabling us to more and more and more live His way..
If we have done this, i.e. believed in Jesus, then we have been washed, sanctified and justified in Jesus’ name and God doesn’t see the ‘sin within us’ (which it might take a long time for Him to completely remove from us) but instead views us as perfect, accepted and blameless in His sight…
People’s lives who have never given themselves to Jesus will resemble 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 in their hearts all the time (from God’s perspective – who knows the heart), people’s lives who have given themselves to Jesus will resemble 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 less and less and less in their hearts from God’s perspective as they more and more and more live from their hearts the life of Jesus full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control…
This is why Israel Folau was compelled to warn us and he did so in love… 🙂
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31 NASB)
a house of prayer for the nations 