THE MARCH FOR LIFE'S CHRISTIAN NAYSAYERS AND A TRUNCATED GOSPEL

I was surprised by many I thought would know better when it comes to the mission of God in the earth when they made statements to the effect that the church has no business marching for the right to life of the unborn and maintaining that marriage should continue be legally defined as heterosexual. Others even asked if Jesus would be part of the march if he were alive today. However, when one considers that God’s mission or purpose in creation was for humanity to lovingly obey God (worship – Genesis 2:16, 17), to love and care for each other (fellowship – Genesis 2:22-25), and to use and replenish the earth’s resources to glorify God (stewardship – Genesis 1:28-30), it becomes rather obvious that God’s mission/purpose is more than worship, least of all a worship that is restricted to “preaching” the Gospel. 

Why do I say that? When humanity disobeyed God and fell (Genesis 3), those three relationships – worship, fellowship, and stewardship – became affected by evil. Instead of worshiping God, humans worshiped the Satan (“prince of the power of the air” – Ephesians 2:1-3); instead of loving and caring for each other, fellowship soon disintegrated into the fratricide of Abel by Cain (Genesis 4); and, instead of replenishing the earth’s resources, humans are making life on earth unsustainable by their over-consumption and ecologically unfriendly ways of living. That’s the bad news. The good news, or the Gospel, is God’s restoration of these things in Christ Jesus who reverses the curse by his death on the cross and so begins to usher in the restoration of God’s reign in the earth which will climax in his second-coming and a new heaven and new earth (Colossians 1:19-23). In other words, the gospel has more than the God-ward call to worship God; rather, it extends to a restoration of fellowship amongst humans which will seek the thriving of all humanity. Of course, this also means that the gospel also extends to issues of the environment and work but that is for another post. 

Now this is where I see a truncated gospel in my brethren: They have limited the Gospel to just preaching the word of God (evangelism) so that the idea of the church seeking restored fellowship amongst humans by protecting the unborn and remaining true to God’s idea of heterosexual marriage is irrelevant or, at worst, heretical. The Gospel encompasses humanity’s social, cultural, and political aspects when seen in terms of restored fellowships. So not to send the message across to our MPs, who sooner or later will be debating such matters that will shape our nation for good or evil, would be to neglect our role as salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-15). 

Also to insinuate that Jesus or Paul would not have joined the March for Life is to misunderstand the subtle ways that they confronted the systems of oppression of their day. The fact that both of them did not directly confront oppression does not mean that they did not work within their systems to bring about change. Jesus, in a very male-dominated society that did not consider women as being worth much to the point of refusing legal tes 

timony from them in a court of law, sent Mary Magdalene as a witness to his disciples (read men) about the most important event in history, his resurrection (John 20:17-18). Paul could tell Philemon that he should consider Onesimus his real brother and not a mere slave, a very revolutionary approach for that time (Philemon 1:15-16). Both Jesus and Paul strived for fellowship and equality within their limiting contexts so much that I would say that they would have marched with us today in solidarity with those whose lives are cut-off in the womb and those who seek to maintain God’s purpose to replenishing and subduing the earth.

KINGDOM PRAYERS END THE WORLD!

‎When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Revelation 8:1-5, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version

The Sovereign Lord who needs nothing has freely chosen to use the prayers of His saints to be the catalyst that consummates His kingdom. No, He needs no one and nothing yet in His love and wisdom has chosen us puny sin-prone humans that don’t deserve His mercy to be co-workers with Him in ushering in His new age. This is very clear from John’s vision of the seventh seal where an angel offers incense with the prayers of the saints that bring about the Second Coming of Jesus.
Incense and prayer have a long history in the Bible. The psalmist prays “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:2). Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, encountered the angel who told him about his son’s birth while offering incense in the temple when “the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense” (Luke 1:10, emphasis mine).

The amazing thing though about this vision is that the incense and prayers become the catalyst for the Second Coming. The angel takes the golden censer with the incense, fills it with fire from the altar (where fire symbolizes the judgment of God), and throws it on the earth. When that happens, there are “peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake” (Revelation 8:5) the kind of things that signify a storm theophany (appearance of God like a storm). This is similar to the appearance of God at Mount Sinai where “on the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16). In Revelation, there are two other such storm theophanies both of which are a part of the seventh and final judgment of the trumpets (11:19) and of the bowls (16:18). The seventh of the seals, trumpets, and bowl judgments bring the world to the end in which God comes in power, the Second Coming.

Here is the amazing thing: God is using the kingdom prayers of the saints to bring about the end. Kingdom prayers are essentially those that are crying out, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). In other words, these are prayers of hastening the Second Coming of Jesus who will establish God’s kingdom in the earth at that time. And it is the saints who will bring this about not only by their prayers but also by their witness since “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). Wow!

We are not praying in vain, saints! God is using our prayers to hasten His kingdom. No wonder Satan hates it when we pray and places every obstacle in our efforts because he knows that his end will be nearer when we pray. May you return to that place of prayer in your life! May you remember that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). May your prayers be kingdom prayers that seek to expand the Gospel reach! May you start praying for the nations to hear the Gospel! May you support the sending of preachers to ends of the earth! Most of all, may you pray!

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WHAT KIND OF PRAYERS DO YOU PRAY?

‎1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.  ‎2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.  ‎3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, ‎4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Revelation 8:1-4

It has been loud in heaven. Very loud. The Lamb who was slain and who is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Jesus), has opened six of the seven seals of the scroll that contains God’s judgments on an evil and unrepentant world (Revelation 7:1-17). The first four seals unleashed four horsemen representing the love for conquest (white horse), war (red horse), famine (black horse), and death by pestilence (pale horse) who have already wreaked their havoc on the earth. Interestingly, these are not direct judgments from God per se. Rather, they are man’s propensity for evil turning upon itself so that the love for conquest births war which lead to famine and finally to death by pestilence. The fifth seal reveals a scene in heaven where the souls of the saints “who had slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” pray to God, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then the sixth seal is opened and there is a great earthquake and phenomena that attend the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament and the Second Coming of Jesus in the New Testament: blackened sun, blood-red moon, falling stars, a vanishing sky, and mountains and islands that disappear. The effect of these on “those that dwell on the earth” – Revelation’s code word for evil unrepentant people – is to seek a quick death to escape the wrath of God. Then, in typical apocalyptic fashion, John the Revelator shows us another scene before the throne of God where saints worship God. Very loud.

Then there is silence for half an hour in heaven. Why?  An angel is offering incense in a golden censer and a lot of incense is given to him to offer together with the prayers of the saints. But why the silence? It could be that there is anticipation as to what this seventh seal will bring about in terms of God’s judgment. It could also be that this is representative of the silent environment in which a priest operated when he offered incense in the Jerusalem temple. Whatever it the reason may be, the silence in heaven lasts for half an hour in which the angel offers incense mixed with the prayers of all the saints before the throne. Already the souls of the martyred saints have cried out to God seeking His judgment and vindication (Rev. 6:10). Here, “all the saints” include those that are still in the earth at this time.

Now my question is: what kind of prayers are these saints on earth praying? A new car? A promotion? A wife? A husband? A good grade in the past exam? More money? I don’t think so. These are prayers that are essentially saying “May Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven”, kingdom prayers that hasten the Second Coming of Jesus to restore God’s rule in the earth (Luke 11:2). The saints pray for the empowering of God’s people to be witnesses (Acts 1:8), for boldness in witnessing as God performs miracles through them in Jesus’ name (Acts 4:29-30), for bold preaching of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19), for the gospel of the kingdom to reach the ends of the earth so that Jesus would return to establish the kingdom (Matthew 24:14). The overriding principle is “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” where, in the context of that saying, “all these things” mean the needs of this world (Matthew 6:33).

Now my question to you: What kind of prayers to you pray? Do you pray kingdom prayers that aim to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus? Are your prayers about the gospel going to the ends of the earth? Are your prayers about being empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a bold witness? Are your prayers about asking God to miraculously move in your friends’ and family’s lives so they can enter into His kingdom? May you pray kingdom prayers. Amen.