IT’S TRUE. IT’S GOOD. IT’S BEAUTIFUL.

Christianity is true, good, and beautiful. We can know that it’s true; experience that it’s good; and observe that it’s beautiful. We can do this because we have all been designed to seek truth and accept it. We have been created to be agents of good and to celebrate it when we are the recipients of it. We are made to admire the beautiful and to beautify. These statements are so because the world is the creation of the God who is true, good and beautiful and we are created in the image of this God. Yet there are now people who are now attacking Christianity as evil because they don’t like God or His Laws.

¶ Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8

IT’S TRUE.

There is no evidence that Goldilocks and the three bears ever existed. But if someone should claim that it was a true story we could apply certain truth-tests to its claims to conclude that it is a fictional fable. Do bears make porridge? Do bears build cabins in the woods? Do bears insist on sleeping on mattresses? The answers to these questions would lead us to the conclusion that the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears is simply a delightful children’s story that someone invented. 

¶ In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.
Luke 2:1-3

But the historical accounts of Jesus of Nazareth are completely different. In Luke’s Gospel he gives precise historical details such as the names of the particular Roman Emperors and officials who were reigning at the time. He gave even more verifiable historical details in his account of the early church, Acts. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in 54AD in which many scholars recognise that he quotes from Luke’s Gospel. This indicates that Luke’s Gospel account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was in circulation by 54AD which meant that if his historical accounts were false they could have been refuted by any number of his contemporaries.

¶ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
First Corinthians 15:1-8

The accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth are attested to by the sheer number of ancient manuscripts dating back to the first few centuries AD. Most recently a fragment of the Gospel of Mark was found in Egypt in what archaeologists describe as a first-century rubbish dump. It is a copy of a copy of a copy. (That demonstrates how widely the original copies were in wide circulation.) This Gospel fragment is conservatively dated to 150AD but some experts are dating it as early as 80AD [Source]. The significance of this fragment is enormous. It adds to the growing body of evidence that puts pay to the claim that the Gospels didn’t originate until the late second century and beyond. It also proves how reliable our modern manuscripts are compared with the oldest known manuscripts which confirms just how carefully the original copyists undertook their sacred task. 

The claims of Christianity centring on the historical truthfulness of the life, teaching, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth are verifiable and therefore valid. As sufficient as this is for religious conversion and devotion, it is not the only thing appealing about Christianity. Christianity is good.

IT’S GOOD.

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
First Corinthians 10:24

The impact for good of Christ and His followers on the world is virtually inestimable. This doesn’t just include the history of care for the ostracised and diseased, the education and housing relief for the poor and under-privileged, the establishment of refuges and orphanages, and the crisis relief agencies such as Red Cross and World Vision, it also includes the spontaneous acts of good that have gone on largely unnoticed. For the early Second Century, Christians were going into the town squares, forests, and by-ways where unwanted baby girls were dumped in the middle of the night to suffer the ravages of freezing nights (known as “exposure”) and ravenous wolves. These baby girls were raised by these Christian families as if they were their own children. Eventually their kindness toward these unwanted baby girls changed the Roman cultural view of the practice of exposure to regarding it as a Barbaric practice! 

¶ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Romans 12:9

Billy Graham asked Dawson Trotman to oversee the follow-up of new believers at his crusades

This tradition of Christian goodness still lives on today in both public and unnoticed ways. Following Christ has inspired some of the greatest acts of supererogatory behaviour the world has ever seen. If you have never heard of Dawson Trotman (who founded the Navigators) do yourself a favour and read a biography of his very short life and marvel at why it was so short. 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21

All of these supererogatory acts were inspired by the selfless goodness of Jesus the Christ. Of course there have been people who identified as Christians do some bad things, but in order to do so they had to violate the teaching and example of our Lord! Christianity is demonstrably good. But this is not the only appeal it has. It is also beautiful.

IT’S BEAUTIFUL.

In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Abolition of Man, he argues against those who claim that there is no such thing as beauty. A beautiful waterfall in a rainforest, he argues, is not merely a collection of hydrogen and oxygen molecules being subject to gravity. It actually is beautiful. Beauty evokes a sense of pleasure. It causes us to admire. We are created to find beauty appealing and satisfying. Things can be beautiful. People can be beautiful. Stories can be beautiful. Acts of sacrifice can be beautiful especially when motivated by selfless love – and there is no greater example of this than the story that lies at the heart of Christianity.

Liffey Falls, Tasmania. https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/about/insider-guides/waterfalls-of-tasmania

¶ One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in His temple.
Psalm 27:4

The word ‘beauty’ occurs 18 times in one of the most mysterious books of the Bible. In many respects, the story within The Song of Songs, is a microcosm of the Bible’s whole story. It is a love story. It commences with a beautiful garden scene of idyllic intimacy which is then interrupted by an unwelcome intruder who, in the absence of her protector-betrothed, enslaves her and takes her captive. What ensues is a selfless rescue plan which culminates in a glorious reunion and a magnificent marriage [watch]. This account is a shadow of the larger metanarrative in the Bible which describes the beautiful idyllic Garden of Eden setting where God, Adam and Eve, celebrated their mutual love. But then the Intruder came and drove a wedge between the lovers. The Bible then unfolds the patient rescue plan of God culminating in Him becoming a human who gave His life as a substitute for those condemned to death, climaxing in a magnificent reunion and marriage in an eternal paradise. It’s a beautiful story that lies at the heart of the Christian story.  

Because beauty is so integral to Christianity, traditional church buildings were built to be beautiful inside and out. Little wonder then that some of the world’s great art has been inspired by the beauty of the Christian story. But perhaps the most beautiful aspect of the Christian story is not merely in its telling, but in how magnificently it has transformed the lives of those whom Christ has rescued and redeemed. And I should know because I am one of them.

Pastor Andrew.

For Goodness Sake

There was a news report this week about the alarming increase in childhood obesity. It included an interview with a mother who told the reporter how food packaging was to blame. Each time she went shopping with her toddler he would see the culprit food and cry, “I want it!” The mother told how even when she said no, her child would throw a tantrum and scream until she gave in to him. “If the packaging wasn’t so attractive to children”, she reasoned, “they wouldn’t do that!” she told the reporter. After all, good mothers give their children what they want.

WHAT IS ‘GOOD’?

Whoever gives thought to the Word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
Proverbs 16:20

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked the young man. Good is one of those standards we all use to measure things, experiences, circumstances, and among other things, people. Unlike in the past, today we consider that good is in the eye of the beholder. Of course, if the Ancients held this new notion of goodness, the young man would have had no trouble immediately responding to Jesus with something like, “Good? I just reckon You are. It’s just my opinion.” But he didn’t, because the ancients didn’t view goodness as a matter of personal opinion. They regarded goodness as something independent of themselves and their opinions.

There are many things, such as giving into a screaming toddler in a supermarket, that are considered (at least by all screaming toddlers) as good – yet, experience tells us they are not. There are usually not that many toddlers in a supermarket at any one time, but if all two or three of them decide to throw an I-want-that-lolly-pop tantrum, they make more noise than the dozens of adult shoppers who are also in the store! I reckon if we took a vote of those shoppers at that moment around 72% of them would vote that it would be good for the frazzled mother to give-in immediately to the tantrum-throwing toddler. (This would really be a vote for peace and quiet!) But I also reckon that if you surveyed those same people under different circumstances (while not shopping or listening to screaming toddlers) 72% would vote that it would be good for the mother to stand her ground and not give-in to her tantrumming-toddler.

Life teaches us that there are many things which most of us think are not good for us, but are actually very good for us. This includes things like exercise, constructive criticism, rest, attending church, and practising. But it also includes giving noisy people what they demand – such as giving screaming toddlers the lollie-pops they demand, even though it can lead to tooth decay and even obesity. This is one of the ways we know that some of the things called good are not because the consequences are universally bad. We should all pursue the universal good. It ensures the best welfare for all – which is surely what we want – even though tantrum-throwing toddlers won’t like it one bit! 

There are three issues facing our society at the moment which are not good. The consequences of these issues are devastating and literally deadly. These issues are: (i) The sexual abuse of the vulnerable (particularly children and women); (ii) Fatherless children (40%of Australian children now grow up without a father; teen suicides are 5 times higher from fatherless homes; around 75% of prisoners come from fatherless homes; boys raised in fatherless homes are more likely to commit rape; fatherless children fare worse academically and have the worst employment prospects); (iii) Deteriorating rates of mental health (one in five Australians experience mental illness each year; mental illness now accounts for 27% of all work disability in Australia; 14% of Australians suffer from anxiety attacks).

For goodness sake Australia, we should do all we can to address each of these three issues, and simultaneously do all we can to stop doing those things which matters worse. This at least should include-

• Discouraging the sexualisation of women in the arts, advertising and media. It’s time now for us as a society to stop deluding ourselves that the public sexualising of women is morally neutral and confusing for most males.

• Encouraging the raising of children by their married biological parents and encouraging potential parents to prepare appropriately for marriage not just their wedding. The research is overwhelming that children fare best when raised by their own loving married biological parents and we need to stop kidding ourselves that children can be raised by any two people.

• Recognise that mental health outcomes and sexual morality are often connected. We should note which sector of society is more likely to suffer mental illness and its negative consequences (such as suicide), and find out what the common denominator is.

¶ Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
for His steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 106:1

Coming back to our original conversation between Jesus and the young man who called Him, “good”, the young man rightly assumed that Christ was good because of what he heard and saw. Amazingly, all religions and people acknowledge that everything Jesus taught about how to live was universally good. But at the same time, most religions and people don’t know what Jesus taught! I guess this is why we hear people say that Jesus said nothing about marriage, or nothing about sexuality, or nothing about mental health, or nothing about how men should view and treat women? 

Jesus shocked His original audience by declaring that a good life is not attained by obvious and external things, but by that which is invisible and internal, yet soon becomes apparent to all.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
Matthew 15:19

Each of the moral corruptions cited by Jesus are described in the Old Testament Law His audience was familiar with. This is why men like Rev. Sam Allberry, who has battled with same-sex attraction all his life, recognise that Christ taught that a person’s identity is not linked to their sexual attraction. Because of this, Sam acknowledges that Jesus, a man who never sex and never married, taught that sexual immorality would both immediately and eternally “defile” a person. This is why, he states, that he must battle with his same-sex attraction and live a celibate life, all for the sake of honouring his Lord and Saviour (watch). Before Sam, Dr. Henri Nouwen, a Catholic scholar who had come to the same conclusion as Sam, also prayerfully wrestled with his same-sex attraction because he too understood what Christ had taught about the matter. They battled for goodness sake. 

GO BACK TO GO FORWARD

I recently listened to Oxford Scholar, Os Guinness, describe how every major advance in culture, the Reformation – the Renaissance – the American Revolution –  involved “going back” in order to progress forward. Curiously today, those who identify themselves as ‘Progressives’ want to abandon the past and ‘move on’. Dr. Guinness showed how every culture that forgot the wisdom of the past was doomed to fail. For goodness sake, we in Australia need to remember that the things that do a society good are not always the things that tantrum-throwing toddlers demand – especially when, in those parts of the world where their demands have been met – those things which blight a society (abuse of children, sexual exploitation and abuse of women, increasing rates of suicide, deteriorating mental health outcomes) become even more widespread. 

¶ Thus says the LORD:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Jeremiah 6:16

Amen.

Pastor Andrew Corbett