Antinomianism - the seduction of lawlessness

For the last several weeks, there was a permanent article in the Singapore Christian Post by the Rev. Kong Hee of City Harvest Church at Expo concerning "Antinomianism - the seduction of lawlessness" with a part 1 and a part 2. I know I should not be, but I am happy that Law is strongly preached in that church because they are setting the stage, the perfect storm of judgement. We have here a very great evangelist perhaps distracted by his "bathsheba" against a church at Suntec who preaches the grace of God in Christ Jesus.The Word of God is powerful, for good and for harm, ie if used wrongly it can caused great harm, just as if one would dare open the Ark of the Covenant.

Yes, the church have been seduced but not by lawlessness but by the religious self righteous legalist now championing the anti-gay movement at GAFCON and if they continue would bring down the spiritual and moral standing of the church. I have a worker whom after so much grace given to him (and he is a christian) still never changed and considers his actions and work as normal despite being extremely poor. He still considers himself doing well. Therefore, the "Law" or a list of explicit rules would be clearly handed down of things that must be done and the consequences of failure.

The reason for having the law is simple, not that it might or will likely stop his lawlessness, but so that we can have very specific and clear reasons or a basis to judge him guilty. His greatest failure was perhaps not realising the grace of God in His life, and taking it for granted by continuinally living in this life of "sin". The Law is not to make people law abiding but to penalize them and to justify that they are sinners and lawless. It is the grace of God, the understanding that the judgement is forgiven by so great a God that makes us realized what a sinner we are and to change our ways.

The church is under so much grace concerning how it had dealt badly against gays, but the time is coming when judgement comes and our lawlessness that was under grace will come to light for all to you and can no longer be hidden. We have continued to preach Law when it cannot change people inwardly (perhaps outwardly through penalties), and attracts only judgement. Some have argued that we will be in danger of antinomianism, where there is no need to follow strictly by the laws as a demand. In essence, we all live as though there is no law although outwardly clinging to the delusion that we are religious and law minded (John 7:19).

Jesus defines disobedience to the law as extending to the thoughts of the heart, truly condemning us as law breakers despite our self-righteous claim that we are able to abide by the law. We are no different than people who claimed that there is no need for the law, at least they are being honest and recognize that they are intrinsically lawless. Irrespective whether one claims the need for law or otherwise, we are all condemned as sinners in the sight of God (Rom 3:23). We could not save ourselves through the law because we are intrinsically unrighteous and produce sinful actions despite all our efforts. The Law just makes it clearly obvious and without doubt because it is so well defined. It is a very good teacher to lead us to frustration and see that we are sinners. Christianity is about Christ being our righteousness through His death and resurrection (Rom 1:17).

The Laws does not define us anymore. We naturally produce good works if we are indeed born of God. (Mat 5:13,14 NIV) "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. The bible reminds us in Mat 5:13,14, that the Christian Church is to show a much better lifestyle of humility, love, generosity and grace because of Jesus Christ as compared to the rest of the community. If there is no difference with the same self centered aspirations and even worst because they blame minority groups for the caused of their own failings, then what is the purpose of the Christian Church? What is it good for if it does not achieve its purpose and be a light of the world, the light to Christ, God's salvation to mankind. Indeed, when religious law so much expounded by the churches in Singapore controls us, we come into its curse and reveal our true nature of carnality. Instead of focusing on Christ and be renewed inwardly, we exhibit a lifestyle of sin though we deny it.

The Religious Fundamentalist are also keen to confuse with terms such as "antinomianism" claiming that this is the beliefs by those who consider themselves not under law and that this will lead to lawlessness. The truth however is that, antinomianism as practiced by the Gnostics in the first 500 years of Christendom was without Grace or truth concerning Jesus Christ. Antinomianism was a perversion in that despite not believing that Christ physically died and resurrected for our salvation, the Gnostics STILL claimed that they were not under the Mosaic Law. Jesus did not come to take away the legal demands of the law but to satisfy its requirements so that as Christians we are not bound by the condemnation of the law giving us the victory and strength to overcome our sin consciousness. We can only be truly free when we are changed inwardly by being conscious of God's grace and Mercy and be surrounded by His Love.

 The time of judgement is coming in Singapore for the Christian Church, not because we have continually refused to repent of our homophobia, discrimination, and persecution of the gay community but because we have been the stumbling block between Gays and their God who created them. Judgement would not have come, if we have sought out the grace of God, the covering of the blood of the lamb because Jesus would have bored the judgement due to us at the cross of calvary. However, we have sought the Law, and hence we will be judged by the Law, and our judgement would go far far beyond the Gay issue. We prophesied that there will be tribulation upon America because of the Christian Right in America (Bush elected and 11 states banned gay marriage) where Bush won the electing using the gay community as a scapegoat to galvanised the Christian Right Support. It has indeed beginning come:-

 a) After 4 years of a Bush initiated rule by the Christian Right, we have an Opinion Research Business (ORB) survey conducted August 12-19, 2007 estimated 1,220,580 violent deaths due to the Iraq War. The financial cost of the war has been more than £4.5 billion ($9 billion) to the UK, and over $845 billion to the U.S., with the total cost to the U.S. economy estimated at $3 trillion. No weapons of mass destruction have been found and the Iraq war has been used by the terrorist to fight against America using their proxies. As a result the economy of USA is weak and in large debts.

 b) Aftre 4 years of the support for big business and the Christian Right with their prosperity theology, the greed was personified in the sub prime saga. The subprime lending is lending at a higher rate than the prime rate to loans that do not meet credit status of the borrower. Beginning in late 2006, the U.S. subprime mortgage industry entered to a meltdown. A steep rise in the rate of subprime mortgage defaults and foreclosures has caused more than 100 subprime mortgage lenders to fail or file for bankruptcy causong prices in the $6.5 trillion mortgage backed securities market to collapse. As these loans are repackaged into attractive investments, all round the world, it has resulted in world wide exposure undermining the banking system even shaking the foundation of Fannie May and Freddia Mac, morgage giants which controls 50% of the US homeloans. .

 c) Oil prices has arisen from USD 40 in 2004 to USD 140 in July 2008, more than 300% increases caused by the fears of middle east conflicts fanned by the Iraq War. This is further caused by the linkage to the devaluation of the US currency as oil is traded in USD. The rise in Oil has a major impact causing inflation to rise significantly not only in America but in the rest of the world forcing many governments to reduce the oil subsidies causing widespread protests and large rises in food costs which impacts mostly the poor..

The above defines the Gospel of the Christian Right - the Gospel of wealth, power, and of the sword. As we live by the sword, scheming and planning eg in the Glenferry protocol to start war against the very small gay minorities through deception and fear, we may die by the sword but worst than death is to see the true Gospel message being scorned on our account. The churches will still be there, praises will heard, there will be great preaching, but the mighty move of the Holy Spirit may be seemingly absent and what we do each week at church may sound like a hollow gong long after gays are happily married and not surprisingly the straight marriages will not be impacted.. The greatest judgement is the silence of God and the lifting of His Grace and Mercy. We have made the grace of God so cheap and realised it not but instead boast of the Law. The Christian Right has the power and the money to go much unopposed to do what they liked but at the end, they have God to answer to. May God have mercy on us.

377a - silence from christians

Even a remote possibility of 377a being considered unconstitutional by the courts in Singapore, say, 5 years ago, would have caused a real storm, letters to the editors from christians, and complaints to the MPs and PMs. What a difference, 5 years have made from Oct 2007 when NMP Thio launched an attack in Parliament on gays with the moral support of the Anglican and mega churches who followed suit in their Sunday sermons.

 For many Christians, the line in the sand stops at keeping 377a lest Singapore falls into the downward slope of immorality (never mind adultery, abortions, immoral takeovers, making fun of other faiths, financial irregularities against charities act). Soon after, Singapore became the leader of the Anglican South a group of 70 million christians determined to enshrine their anti-gay aggenda in the Jerusalem Conference in June 2008.

They had reached Jerusalem the epi-center of the Christian Faith and put up their anti-gay rethoric at the gates of the city of God. Gays were to be shut out from Christendom. But I believe that God had other ideas. What happened thereafter was totally unscripted. In Singapore, the high mountain of Christian moral and righteous religious indignation was chipped away in large chunks by one major public and humiliating event after another. Gays were coming out of the closets becoming pink dot(s) linking them together in love with increasing support from the wider community.

In the US, gay marriages were starting to be mainstream in a wave of increasing support for basic gay rights in the western world.

 Year 1 June 2008 - Same-sex marriage starts in California. Sept 2008 - Rules changed on the speakers corner at Hong Lim Park allowing legal mass gatherings. Nov 2008 - S'pore DBS Bank's charity links to Focus on the Family, a Christian anti-gay organization in the States was exposed. FOTF was in the forefront of the anti-gay religious movement in the states which seeks to deny gays of any rights. Due to the outcry from gays and the general public threatening to withdraw their accounts, DBS have had to back down. The tide has started to turn.

 Year 2 Apr 2009 - Aware Saga - when anti-gay Christians from the Anglican/ Mega Churches tried to take over a secular organization in the guise of coming against homosexuality. Pastor Hong of Church of Our Saviour, a leader of the churches anti-gay movement was implicated. The general public and gays rallied to help the Old Guard of Aware and in a miracle, the churches were forced to back out for invading the secular space and playing gutter take over politics. April 2009 - same-sex marriage passes the US New Hampshire Senate. May 2009 - Pink Dot attended by 2,500. The headline reads "Singaporeans don pink to support gay rights". A new dawn emerges for the support of the general public for gays.

 Year 3 Feb 2010 - Pastor Rony Tan, of Lighthouse Evangelism, a strong anti-gay Christian preacher having to bow down to ask forgiveness in the traditional manner for mocking a major faith. March 2010 - Same-sex marriage starts in Washington, D.C in the US. May 2010 - City Harvest Church under investigation by Singapore's Commissioner of Charities (COC) and the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) May 2010 - Pink Dot attended by 4,000 June 2010 - Pastor Mark Ng of New Creation Church (a church that often joked about gays) had to apologize when they joked about the religious deities of the 7th month hungry ghost festival.

 Year 4 June 2011 - Pink Dot attended by 10,000 July 2011 - Same-sex marriages legalised in New York 2011 - City Harvest continued to be under scrunity with some pastors leaving.

 Year 5 Feb 2012 - Campus for Crusade in the National University drawn strong public condemnation for a seemingly innocent outreach poster for mission applicants to Thailand. It shows increasing antagonism against the churches activities whence once the general public had even supported their anti-gay push. The entire faith message was now impacted. May 2012 - President Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to support same-sex marriage. June 2012 - Pink Dot attended by 15,000 June 2012 - Senior leaders of City Harvest church, the largest mega churches were charged for mis-use of millions in church funds. It placed the moral and righteous standing of the entire Evangelical Christian faith to major exposure before the general public. Aug 2012 - The Festival of Praise, a mega gathering of Christians to listen to some of the most anti-gay pastors such as Pastor Mike Connell was cancelled due to the CHC issues. 

Therefore in just 5 years, the thumping support against gays by the religious Christian conservations has been replaced by the color of pink to support gay rights, the winds of change for gay rights coming in an increasingly faster pace in the US, and the major Christian leaders who could/would have come against any gay rights finding themselves in a morally exposed and isolated position. The blazing loudness of the Christian Right has been replaced by an odd silence.

It was a Moses like experience of God dispensing judgement after judgement on Pharoah to let my people go free. It can only be God causing a shaking, and opening the doors out of the closets for the GLBT community. The news in Singapore that the 377a court case is to go ahead has become a non-issue for gays have come out in the open to become real, whilst many Christian religious leaders who had wanted to jail all gays and throw the keys away from the jail closets finding themselves at risks of going into their own closets. It would be a non issue when they finally repeal 377a.

 Deut 27: 19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” Gal 3:10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”[

 The church had condemned gays under the works of the ancient Jewish religious laws, and had insisted on it to the full measure for gays even though the ancient context did not apply. At the end its not about 377a, it's about the church witholding justice against a defenceless group being brought down to their knees.

 When NMP Thio stood in Parliament in 2007 to insist that injustice be maintained through 377a, it became a curse on the church. When the church insisted that gays be denied of all rights, they were also under the curse of the law to be severely exposed if they were not 101% righteous and holy. The last 5 years has been a coming out for gays, but an unholy exposure/scrutiny for the churches forcing them to go into their own closets where even the biggest public praise festival/ evangelical outreach was cancelled.

 The curse of the 377a upon the church will continue on with an increasing severity if there is no repentance. The white washed tombs will be exposed of their skeletons. In 2003, a group of Christian leaders led by Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong decided on an anti-gay campaign or a "Gay backlash" in response to the hiring policies to include gays.

Not satisfied with keeping 377A, in Feb 2008, Pastor Yang preached on "The Sin of Sodom" and asked his Cornerstone church to stand firm against gays lest Singapore be destroyed like Sodom. Instead, 377A has become a slippery slope for the Antioch church, not Singapore. In 2012, for the majority, the sinful abomination of Sodom becomes the misappropriations of the millions of charity funds by the major church leaders.

 They didn't know what they had started in 2003 and the battle lines drawn on the ground would release judgement. For the curse was already in the ground, for the thousands of gays who died denied of the basic rights to live and to love. Their blood cries out for justice.... ... that was denied even when their freedom was enshrined in the constitution.