20190413 – Saturday – Godphobia by Peter Schwartzkoppf

GODPHOBIA

It appears that many people in Australia have a condition called Godphobia. 

The recent furore that occurred concerning the Australian Rugby union champion, Israel Folau demonstrates the veracity of the claim.

Israel Folau wrote in a twitter: “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolators (sic)” will go to hell unless they repent. For those who are not familiar with the Bible It appears to be some sort of paraphrase of 1st Corinthians 6:9-10: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” 

Folau lists only six of the ten behaviours which the Apostle Paul (who is speaking on behalf of Jesus Christ) says will prevent believers from inheriting the Kingdom of God. So, in effect, 

Folau was quoting the Bible.

Now Folau changes the idea being presented in the Bible, but only slightly. He says people who do these behaviours will go to hell. A lot of people probably still think that hell refers to a place of punishment for sinners where the sinners are tormented. However, the true idea behind the word hell in the Bible is that it is simply the grave; a place where dead bodies are buried and decay back to dust. AS one TV commentator said this is an extensive list and covers many people on planet Earth. So it is. 

But in effect all that Mr Folau is saying is that unless they repent, they will go to the grave forever. Most of us would agree that we all die and most would agree that we rot away and cease to exist on earth. This has to be a true statement. Everyone one of us, whether regarded as nice or not so nice will go to hell. The grave awaits us all.

So, we now have the situation where a person who quotes ideas from the Bible becomes guilty of “hate speech” and he loses his job. A person who makes a statement which is demonstrably true is slammed by all in sundry: The ARU, radio announcers, ex-rugby players, even the NZ Prime minister. Truth is now subject to sanctions. It seems people cannot handle the truth.

Let’s face it religious freedom is dead in this country. Australia is heading towards some sort of hell of its own making, when its people cannot bear to hear any words coming from God. The truth is such people cannot stand God. Instead of “Godphobia” their condition is better described as “Godhatred”. They want to rid their world of God. He is very inconvenient to the way they want to live their life. God is aware that people who do not believe in him, hate the very idea of God. No wonder Paul says in Romans 8:7 – “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” 

That is, those who do not believe will be hostile toward God because they cannot allow themselves to obey God’s laws. They do not want to. Instead, they want to follow their own lusts.

It appears that all along the aim of the LGBT community has been to vanquish Christianity. That then frees them up to do whatever they want. Christians are like an annoying conscience that cramps their style. Whenever a Christian points out God’s standards of behaviour, people now scream back slogans like “It’s homophobia!”, and “It’s hate speech!” 

Channel 9 weather presenter, Gavin Morris, even went so far as to insult Israel Folau by saying, “I’m sorry but we’re not in a climate that’s prepared to tolerate religious nutters.” But the Christian’s words are neither. Christians do not hate homosexuals nor do they fear them. In the case of Mr Folau, he was simply speaking out of concern for their future well-being. Certainly, what Mr Folau said was unwelcome but that does not make it hate speech. Nowhere did he imply he hated homosexuals. Rather his message was the exact opposite.

In fact, he was showing love to them but of course they will not understand that point. Nor will they understand that a Christian is duty bound by God to warn people about their behaviour. The prophet Ezekiel was told by God:” Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.” 

Israel Folau was using this principle. He is also being brave in saying what he believes given the current intolerant climate. It is said that George Orwell once said, 

““During times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” We live in those times.