By: Shafer Parker

Which is worse, killing a human being made in the image of God, or corrupting another human being’s soul? You know the answer, don’t you? Corrupting someone’s soul is far worse than merely taking a life. Jesus said it like this: “Offences will certainly come, but woe to the one they come through! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble” (Luke 17:1-2, where “little ones” means new believers). Now for a further question, what are you prepared to do to stop those who are causing Christ’s “little ones” to stumble? Because it seems to me that the time is long past for merely tsk-tsking when we hear bad people are doing bad things to Christ’s church.

Perhaps we should take inspiration from Phinehas’ actions as described in Numbers 25. You can look it up, of course, but here is a summary. Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for most of 40 years, and now they are camped just south of Moab, the last obstacle before the Promised Land. Naturally, Balak, the king of Moab, was frightened. Israel had already wiped out several kingdoms that stood in their way, and he was next. Hoping to stop their progress, Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel. But instead of cursing Israel, God caused Balaam to bless Israel, which, as you can imagine, left the king quite frustrated.

He needn’t have worried. Balaam had another trick up his sleeve. He suggested that Moab, in alignment with Midian, use the sexual allure of their women to draw Israel into the worship of the false god Baal, specifically, the Baal worshipped at Peor. It worked. “Israel aligned itself with Baal of Peor,” and, as a consequence, “the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.” God did two things. He sent a plague that caused many to die, and he commanded Moses to “take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight.” Moses gave the order, but apparently no one was willing to act. Quite the contrary, in the sight of all Israel, a man named Zimri was so ready to defy God that he openly brought a Midianite woman into the camp and began to have sex with her in his tent.

That’s when Phinehas, grandson of High Priest Aaron, had had all he could take. He took a spear, entered the man’s tent, and in one mighty thrust drove it through them both, killing the man and the woman and stopping the plague at the same time. God then told Moses that Phinehas’ precipitate action had “turned back My wrath,” and that his zeal for God’s righteousness had “made atonement for the Israelites.”

I was driven to think of this passage because some of my recent reading forcibly reminded me that the Canadian church—or should I just say the western church?—is, in a way much like the Israelites, betraying her responsibility to stand for God’s truth and God’s righteousness in our time. I’ll explain this further in a moment but first, let me say this; I’m not talking about standing for truth and righteousness in the public square. I’m talking about doing what is necessary to maintain the moral purity of the body of Christ.

Two recently published pieces have opened my eyes. First, I came across a review of Matt Walsh’s 2020 book, Church of Cowards, A Wake-up Call to Complacent Christians, that left me gasping at how accurately Walsh has read the core weakness of the 21st-century Bride of Christ. Then I found a recent blog by English pastor/lawyer John Stevens entitled “Homosexuality: To Affirm Is To Apostatize—The Bible Demands That We Treat Human Sexuality As a First Order Salvation Issue.” In it Stevens argues strongly for what is, admittedly, a very controversial point of view, but I think his point should not be rejected without careful thought. Maybe it should not be rejected at all.

As M. B. Mathews puts it in his review of Walsh’s book, “The Church in America must get aggressive about removing secularist practices.” What does he mean? That it is past time for all Christian churches to give God’s Word more than lip service and take seriously our responsibility to worship the God of heaven as if He really is THE GOD OF HEAVEN! As Walsh points out, this change in attitude and focus would affect everything, what is proclaimed, what is prayed and sung, the manner in which all of this is done, and, perhaps especially, who is allowed to be doing it. And if these things are done right, it will clearly demonstrate that the Church of Jesus Christ is not the weak, sin-accepting, culturally affirming, ersatz fellowship that prevails today. Here’s Walsh, as quoted by Mathews:

The modern churchgoing experience is marked by its lack of reverence. It does not give a hint of anything sacred or mystical. There is nothing that forces the reality and presence of God into your mind. Church has become an extension of secular culture rather than an antidote to it.

Mathews concludes:

To get those warm bodies into their doors, many heretical churches have sacrificed themselves on the fiery altar of culture and in the process have fed their hungry, worshipping victims secular venom. They are robbing generations of the satisfaction of personal responsibility, purity, and the joy of methodical accomplishment. . . . These churches are doing Christians no good and in fact may be veritably killing them with kindness. Jesus wept.

Nowhere does the “fiery altar of culture” burn hotter than in its insistence that Christians embrace homosexuality and its natural follow-on, the LGBTQ+ agenda. And English pastor/lawyer John Stevens, who also serves as National Director for the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches in Great Britain, puts his finger precisely on this sore spot. “There is no greater internal challenge facing the church in the UK,” he writes, “than the pressure to revise the orthodox historic teaching on human sexuality and accept and affirm same-sex relationships.” Please do not suggest that an article written about the UK has no relevance in Canada. Are Canadian churches standing for biblical sexual holiness? Or are we as compromised as any churches on earth? To ask the question is to answer it, don’t you think?

Read Stevens’ article to understand his argument, but for the sake of brevity, I will jump straight to his central idea. “I am increasingly convinced,” he writes, “that the affirmation of the biblical teaching on human sexuality is a primary issue, not a secondary issue over which honest Christians may disagree in interpretation and conscience.” Continuing, Stevens leaves no doubt as to what he means. He argues that the biblical denunciation of all sexual sin be maintained in this, our day, stating, “those who continue in homosexual sin should be excommunicated from the church.” Nor does he stop there. He further insists that “False teachers who argue for the acceptance of homosexual relationships should also be subject to church discipline.” Stevens takes the time to argue his point from Scripture, but I’m going to assume that if you don’t already know the biblical argument you can click on the link and read Stevens for yourself. In the meantime, here’s how he closes:

The purpose of this limited post has been to argue the case for one very simple point, namely that the Bible treats the issue of human sexuality as one of primary importance. It is a salvation issue. Those who practise, teach and encourage sexual sin of any kind without repentance are in great eternal danger. . . . If we are to stand firm for the truth of the gospel in our generation, we need to first recognize the nature of the issue at stake. We need to undertake theological triage and treat the issue of human sexuality with the seriousness that it deserves. We need to categorise the issue the way the Bible does.

In closing, let’s go back to the story of Phinehas. It is important for me to state as loudly as possible that we do not live in Phinehas’ day and that spiritual battles are not fought in the same way. In the New Testament era we do not kill the “enemies” of the church. Rather, we employ Phinehas’ ruthless approach to mortify sin in our personal lives and maintain the purity of the Church. Failing that, know that we will have failed our Lord. Isn’t this what Jesus had in mind when He wrote to the church in Pergamum?

“But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. . . . Therefore repent! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth. Anyone who has an ear should hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:14-17).

God help us to hear, and to do.

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