ADBC: 33 – God Alone Can Fix The Mess We’ve Made

Here’s the premise of the conversation.

Previously in the conversation: There are some things that people take for granted as the way of the world. My brother considered some of those things and ripped them to shreds concisely and clinically. The words spent on dismantling one particular area of normal life was a tremendous piece of writing that should get you thinking about why we accept some of these systems. Another admirable quality of my brother is that he will not make up things to take up space. If he is not sure in answering a question he will make that clear whilst still exploring elements of the issues around the question with great insight, which he did on the matter of the purpose of music. There is something about my brother’s recollection of his relationship with our Dad that made me once more salute the offspring my parents left the earth with. I don’t have to worry about the important character qualities of my siblings – my brother reflected those in a fair assessment. It’s another chapter in a great collection of wisdom and insight from my brother. It would do you good to check it out – feel free to do so here and share it with others, please.

The brother has gone on to ask three very challenging questions. Can I handle this with anything like the wisdom and insight of my brother? Here goes:

Q – Describe, in terms of morality, the western view of life in terms of farming fertilised human eggs (conception) and destroying the unwanted, the renting of the female womb for surrogacy, and buying and raising a child for and in a homosexual home.

Abortion. Surrogate babies for homosexual couples. These are part of the narrative that seeks to enforce and reinforce the liberal agenda. As well as the temerity of some in the western world to suggest that their values are better than others.

It is so difficult to ever morally justify how the natural order of procreation can be so twisted and contorted for unnecessary ends. When I say difficult – I mean impossible and undesirable. However, when the values of society are about a certain picture of the individual it really is permission for anything goes. Life has a tainted and twisted value that is not dependent on what makes us human, but on what makes humanity consumers – consumers of their lusts and desire for control on their own basis.

It comes as no surprise, though. The design by which new life is to emerge into the world can not be denied. The value of life might be argued as to when it begins but even that is not a matter of the value of the life, but the convenience of those who feel they have the power to determine what is done with that.

There is a claim about an order that is made by those who support such systems of what is done with life. The liberal agenda that supports abortion and surrogacy for homosexual couples raises the individual as the ultimate god. To do that, they have to ditch with the reality that it takes a man and a woman to conceive a child. To do that, they have to ditch the beauty and wonder of the responsibility of life being brought into the world to be nurtured in the complementary dynamic of the seed giver and the seed bearer. To do that, they have to come up with a completely fruitless. Death by abortion and death through the promotion of that which cannot produce life. It cannot sustain life, it cannot promote life and it cannot produce life. It can waste it with all its pomp and vanity. It goes to paint destruction as a choice open to people and then has the gall to suggest that other cultures are not as “progressive”. It is so utterly sickening to see this portrayal of the treatment of life as anything other than the tragic exercise of life.

A morality that doesn’t play fast and loose with convenient terms of life honours the way that life is conceived, honours the parameters in which life thrives and endeavours to preserve that life from unlawful usage and dismissal.

Q – “God and God alone!” What does this phrase mean to you? Give examples of arenas of life that this phrase applies to and in what way it applies.

This is one of the biggest questions you’ve ever asked me and I know that even in what I write here, I won’t do justice to the brilliance and greatness of the question. Nevertheless here’s a contribution. This question reminds me of a song that was about loving the Lord.

There is a song with the words of the statement sung by Steve Green as well as Daryl Coley. the sentiments ring true to me in terms of only God is worth the place of the Supreme Being above all. Majesty, rule, power, dominion and judgement belong to God alone. He gives whatever He wants to who He will because that’s His authority and power to exercise to that. It is the inherent failing in man to ignore that and seek to take all of that either for himself or apply it to that which is created and substantially insignificant and incapable to handle all of that which only God is worthy of.

There are elements of characteristics and attributes that only apply to God as well which makes Him who He is and why He’s worthy of praise, adoration, fear, dread, honour and worship.

For example, the two questions that surround this question are about relationships and life. Humans have taken it upon themselves to believe they’re in the best position to be arbiters of these matters. This is utter folly as I endeavour to point out. God and God alone is worthy of being the ultimate arbiter of these matters. We should be seeking His wisdom and counsel on these matters and following them. Just as we should follow Him and Him alone when it comes to defining what life is and what the world around us is for.

I think about the phrase and I think about the exploration that’s been taking up a lot of my thinking over the last few years. Who Rules? There is a responsibility we have on earth to exercise a degree of rulership. Really and truly though – and the mess we’ve made of the earth proves it – we need to go back to understanding that the real ruler of the universe is only fit for God.

The application of that can be seen in following the way that God has ordered life to be. Follow those instructions and submit to that rulership and we can genuinely experience the good life. Not the easy life or the life without hassle, but the truly good life – all because He and He alone rules.

When I think about the phrase, I consider God the epitome of wisdom. The awesome way in which He has crafted and created and done it in such a way that no other force or creature can ever begin to dream about it. God alone is the pinnacle of wisdom as reflected in His exclusive capacity to create.

He’s the Judge, He’s the King and He’s the Creator – all by Himself. Even those elements can be explored further and with greater application to how we need to submit to Him and learn what He instructs and follow that to truly experience how to live a wise life and one that is in line with the one who begins and ends all things.

It sounds big and wide as though it doesn’t have any application to what I do when I open my eyes to start the day or when I converse with loved ones or how I use whatever money comes my way or the best use of my time throughout the week. What I would say, however, is that the rule of God genuinely has a bearing on the way I endeavour to use the time, relationships and resources in my stewardship. There is a proverb that states that if I delight myself in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart. I’ve grown to understand that encouragement to be primarily about learning what it is to delight myself in the Lord. As I understand that, so I appreciate that whatever self-centred and self-absorbed appetites I might have entertained before the quest has to be kicked out so that I can develop an appetite for what it is to take delight in God. As I pursue that, so the desires of my heart is to observe His rule, appreciate His judgement, celebrate His Creator status and further take pleasure in what pleases Him. That has a bearing on why I enjoy football and music. That influences the opinions I express about trivial and essential matters. That shapes and directs even this exercise of engaging in conversation with you – all because of the wonder of what and who God and God alone is.

Q – “I can’t live if living is without you.” This is a lyric from a popular song. Is the modern male-female intimate relationship deformed or malformed? Are such comments of dependency healthy at all? To both questions, please furnish your answer with reasons. What is the status of a godless or God-less male-female intimate relationship?

Objectifying women. This is the accusation made of the portrayal of women and expectation of them by men to be little more than “eye candy”. It cheapens the woman as being nothing more than something to satisfy the sexual urges of the man. It’s decried by many with tones of how appalled they are. And as that is done the romanticised perspective of male and female relationships is still promoted and promulgated as though it’s all about “falling” in love and being “attracted” to the right person. The altar is built around the shrine that has been lovingly put together to this great god of what male-female relationships are supposed to be about. This is what promotes such a great dependency on the relationship and the other that lyrics like the ones you mention are not just sung but absorbed and embraced in people’s relationships. As ever detached from a godly basis of life, relationships are contorted and corrupted to make it seem as though that other person is to “complete” you. With all that talk about being “the other half” and how much life would be empty without the other.

Such a far trip away from a design for male and female relationships that were to be complimentary and purposed towards fulfilling what God had placed them on the earth to do. Not staring at each other and hoping that they would find someone to complete them. But actually looking together at the opportunities that present them to be fruitful, multiply, subdue and replenish the earth. What can they do together to be a benefit to the world around them? What they can do together to be a benefit to each other but based on a right understanding of God who structures these relationships to give more focus to dependence on God rather than any state of independence.

If we choose to walk away from the Creator who defines us and outlines how relationships can flourish and thrive then it is no wonder we’re left with hollow alternatives. Truly intimate relationships, ones that are built on trust and respect that offer safe places for vulnerability and mutual support are genuinely alien to modern western culture that is obsessed with selfish interests. And in pursuit of those selfish interests beautiful budding relationships become toxic in dependency and demand on the other and when that is not met all the clamour that comes with someone who is a victim, has not had their needs met and has been “victimised” by the other. All of these falsely frame the other and even more grotesquely objectify the other than the picture of the man objectifying the woman for his own sexual lusts. If only we could accept the mess we’ve made of these things. If only we could see the fundamental damage such attitudes have on relationships and the development of family and community. If only we could appreciate the ravages these expressions rage on us at all levels. I reckon we will see the consequences of such indulgences. We will reap what we have sown as a society in being so driven with such quests that do nothing to enrich life and does such a remarkably effective job in denigrating it so that we’re worse than the beasts in the field. We even have the gumption to do all that under the guise of freedom and liberty and are surprised that the liberty we produce leads to greater confusion, division and turmoil.

There is a place for the romantic appreciation of the other. There is a place for the sexual/erotic enjoyment of the other. There is a place for that – but that place is not on the throne of life and relationships. That place is not to swallow everything up in its wake so as to get people deluded and then disappointed when real life hits them and they discover that relationships are not based on demands and self-satisfaction.

I’m grateful to be exposed to expressions of relationships – godly relationships – that recognise that total dependence is on God. That as close as we get and are intertwined with the one we commit our lives to – that in itself will not define who we are. So that in the tragic and inevitable passing of life, the loss can be keenly felt, but it won’t mean the end of our lives. Our hearts don’t have to be lost if we place our trust on the God who never fails and who comforts us in times of loss as well as instructs us on the way of how to properly develop a state of interdependence that builds each other and acknowledges the strengths and abilities of the other, but never confuses that with that unhealthy dependence that certain cultural elements from songs and television programmes to educational advice and artistic expressions want to promote.

---

A man can learn by asking questions and then thinking through answers to questions asked. I find these conversations a great exercise for thinking because of the challenging questions you ask. Many thanks for that.

Here are some questions for you:

Q – Among the seven laws there’s one about Forbidden Sexual Partners – what does that cover and why? Is that incompatible with modern British society or could it still be instilled at a community level?

Q – Conspiracy theorists are scaremongers who increase the level of fear without giving reasons for hope and promise. What do you think about this view? Is there something about the quest for truth that should look to leave those pursuers looking at positive outcomes?

Q – Do you hold bitterness at the hypocrisies, niceties and statutory active devastations placed on your family? If not, what do you think justice looks like for the wrongs committed by statutory bodies to you and your family?

It is superb to engage in conversation with you, Hesediah. Thanks for your time.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden