No, Jim Solouki, the crashing of QZ8501 is not God's punishment

2014 seems to have been a year of airplane disasters. After Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing, AirAsia Indonesia Flight QZ8501 has crashed en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. The AirAsia report as of 30 December 2014, 18:00 hours LT (GMT+7), reads:

AirAsia Indonesia regrets to inform that The National Search and Rescue Agency Republic of Indonesia (BASARNAS) today confirmed that the debris found earlier today is indeed from QZ8501, the flight that had lost contact with air traffic control on the morning of 28th December 2014.  

The debris of the aircraft was found in the Karimata Strait around 110 nautical miles south west from Pangkalan Bun. 

The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. There were 155 passengers on board, with 137 adults, 17 children and 1 infant. Also on board were 2 pilots, 4 cabin crews and one engineer.

 

Once again, as with MH370, the same misguided soul Jim Solouki has put up a post dated 28 December 2014, "AirAsia flight QZ8501. God’s true warning!":

Greetings True Christians! 

Did you know that God has made an Air Asia plane flying into Singapore disappear with 162 passengers on board as a punishment for their sinful behavior? That’s right boys and girls, much like the Malaysian Air disappearance and crash, God has made a plane filled with mostly Inonesian passengers disappear. Why are planes carrying Indonesians disappearing more than any other types of plane? The answer is simple! The Indonesian people are a heathen people! They failed to keep Christ in Christmas, and now Christ chose to not keep their airplane in the air! 

God is striking down planes from this region of the world because these people are unwilling to embrace the Truth of Christ! If they would just embrace Jesus, then God would stop taking their planes! These people are ungodly heathens who are either Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus. They worship in the jungle and reject Jesus! They are all going to burn in HELL unless they repent!

Unlike True Christian nations like America that never have planes disappear, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia have tons of planes disappear. WHy did this plane go down? The answer is simple. God is punishing the nation and the airline. The disappearance of this plane is a warning from God. If the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore do not repent, Jesus Christ and God the Father will continue to take airplanes from you.

Repent Malaysia! Repent Indonesia! Repent Singapore! Stop allowing prostitutes to run around on corners in your midst! Get rid of those heathen Hindus and Muslims! Reject Satan and embrace Jesus! Your ungodly sinful tolerance of homosexuality will get you nowhere. God will keep punishing you until you repent! 

The disappearance of this plane is another judgment from God issued against these heathens. How can they stop this from happening in the future? They must be Born Again in Christ! Reject Ramadan, reject Muhammad, reject Buddhism, reject stupid heathen ways and embrace Jesus. That is the only way to heaven and to safety. All of the passengers on that flight were probably non-Christian and are truly in Hell. 

Let us pray. Dear Lord Jesus, please continue to take planes from the heathen parts of Asia until those sinners repent. Punish them for tolerating the gays, the non-Christians, and the ways of the savage. Crush them until they reject prostitution and embrace your holy word. Please lead the heathens to the Father and away from sin. Until then, continue tor reap punishments upon them until their ungodly spirits are broken. Then they may be reborn as children of Christ. In this your name we pray. Amen. 

God hates AirAsia. God hates the heathens. And if you’re a heathen sympathizer, God hates YOU. Repent heathens, or further judgment awaits. 

I’m Jim Solouki, and I’m a True Christian.

It is remarkable how little Scripture he cites in support of his position. With writing and language like this, this post seems more like a parody or tasteless satire than anything else.

 

So, on pain of repeating myself, I shall address his points again.

 

"If they would just embrace Jesus, then God would stop taking their planes!"

As before, Solouki claims that "If they would just embrace Jesus, then God would stop taking their planes!"

A quick look at the New Testament shows that this is obviously wrong. Jesus Christ Himself, as well as the early church, all suffered in one way or another.

Even Jesus Christ, being without sin (Hebrews 4:15), was insulted, mocked, ridiculed and ultimately crucified.

Jesus warned His disciples that "[if] they persecuted me, they will persecute you also" (John 15:20). And they did. James was put to death by the sword (Acts 12:2). According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down. Early Christians suffered intensely for their faith. We read in the Book of Hebrews:

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and in holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:35b-38)

The idea that bad things do not happen to "True Christians" is simply naive and wrong.
 

"Punishment for sinful behavior"?

 Again, Solouki runs on the assumption that the plane crash was "[punishment] for sinful behavior".

 

Jesus was asked a similar question in Luke 13:1-9:

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

"'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

Jesus' words are clear. These people are not any more sinful than anyone else. Instead, the focus is on an attitude of repentance, "unless you repent, you too will all perish."

Jesus was not talking about "perishing" physically here, like in a plane crash. As we have already seen above, Jesus and early Christians suffered and died some of the most painful deaths imaginable.

Instead, it the kind of eternal death that Jesus was warning about. In Matthew 10:28:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

We do not take any delight in the death of anyone, Christian or otherwise, but instead we constantly hope for the salvation of all.

 

God loves AirAsia, "heathens" and "heathen sympathizers"

The Bible teaches that God is love (1 John 4:8ff), and He demonstrated His love not least through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross so that the way to eternal life might be open:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

God is patient, "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9b).

 

 

So God loves AirAsia. God loves the heathens. And if you’re a heathen sympathiser, God loves you too.

 

As Jesus Christ declares, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6), He also calls us to love God and love our neighbours as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31), and even to love our enemies and do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27).

 

God loves you too, Jim Solouki.

 

And in Christian love, I am telling you, Jim Solouki, to stop blaspheming and stop spreading untruths about God, and be reconciled to Christ in repentance, "for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name" (Exodus 20:7).

 

On behalf Christians everywhere, I ask for forgiveness if poor misguided souls like Solouki have caused or aggravated your grief, and pray that the Lord will be with all in their time of need.

Living Sacrifices

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." (Romans 12:1)

As I was reflecting this morning on the news that Singapore will be joining the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) by sending around 50 to 60 personnel to assist in military operations there, the words "living sacrifice" in the letter from Paul to the Romans came to mind. I recalled the graphic images of brutal killings in an article on Catholic Online. In its efforts to establish an Islamic Caliphate, ISIS has committed unbelievable acts of cruelty against men and women, young and old.

I began to wonder if the term "living sacrifice" held a deeper meaning in this time when "anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God" because "they have not known the Father or [Christ]" (John 16:2-3).

It dawned upon me that we are called to offer our bodies as sacrifices to the Lord not only in life, but also in bodily death. Yet in both senses, we are "living sacrifices". We are alive even in death because of the eternal life that Christ has given us. God is God of the living, not the dead (Matthew 22:32). Therefore, we need not be afraid of "those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul" (Matthew 10:28).

Indeed, "to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21)

Made in the Image of God: Why we should avoid labels like "gay", "lesbian", etc.

With the rise of gender theory and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) activism, a growing number of people have begun to define themselves with reference to their "sexual orientation" or "sexual identity". Terms like "gay" or "lesbian" are used to define people, and distinctions are made between "heterosexual" and "homosexual" persons. Even many Christians use these terms.

But is this Biblical?

The concept of "sexual orientation" is completely foreign to the Biblical framework, a point that homosexual activists and liberal theologians are especially quick to emphasise. Yet this is precisely the point.

From the Biblical perspective, human beings are not defined by "sexual orientation" or "sexual identity". Instead, the starting point is and has always been Genesis 1:27:

So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them. 

Men and women are created in the image of God. That is our identity.

For Christians, our identity is rooted in being children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul writes in Galatians 3:26-28:

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,  for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, Dr Michael Brown sums this up very simply in "5 Truths About Same-Sex Attraction":

Your attractions do not define you. Despite the fact that much is made today of “being gay” or having a gay identity, the reality is that your romantic attractions and sexual desires do not define who you are as a person. 

More importantly, if you have surrendered your life to the Lord and are living in obedience to Him, your primary identity is found in being a son or daughter of God. 

Many believers struggle when they put gay before Christian in terms of their identity rather than putting Christian (or child of God) first.

Likewise, then-Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Emeritus Benedict) wrote in his Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons:

16. ... The human person, made in the image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation. Every one living on the face of the earth has personal problems and difficulties, but challenges to growth, strengths, talents and gifts as well. Today, the Church provides a badly needed context for the care of the human person when she refuses to consider the person as a "heterosexual" or a "homosexual" and insists that every person has a fundamental Identity: the creature of God, and by grace, his child and heir to eternal life. 

As disciples of Jesus Christ, let us refrain from using simplistic and reductionist labels like "gay", "lesbian", etc. We are not defined by our desires, sexual or otherwise.

Marred as we are by sin, humans still bear the image of God. And through Christ Jesus, each one of us can be set free from desires that enslave us, to live a life free from sin with the guidance and counsel of His Holy Spirit.

The Gift of Life: God's grace as a juridical act

Grace presupposes law and judgment. This makes God's grace a legal act, a fact that churches often do not emphasise, possibly due to a lack of understanding.

As a result, the study of law sometimes helps to reclaim parts of Biblical understanding that may be missed by most pastors.

Singapore has adopted and adapted the Westminster system of government which separates powers between the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches. Article 22P(1)(b) of the Singapore Constitution empowers the President of Singapore, as part of the Executive branch, to exercise clemency powers to pardon convicted offenders: 

The President, as occasion shall arise, may, on the advice of the Cabinet... grant to any offender convicted of any offence in any court in Singapore, a pardon, free or subject to lawful conditions, or any reprieve or respite, either indefinite or for such period as the President may think fit, of the execution of any sentence pronounced on such offender.

The case of Yong Vui Kong v Attorney-General [2011] 2 SLR 1189, contains the following explanation of these clemency powers at para. 74 of the judgment by former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong:

I start by stating that the clemency power is a legal power of an extraordinary character. It is unlike all other legal powers in that: 

(a)     It is an executive power which is exercised as an act of executive grace and not as a matter of legal right... 

(b)     A decision to grant clemency is "[a] determination of the ultimate authority that the public welfare will be better served by inflicting less [punishment] than what the judgment fixed"... Conversely, a decision not to grant clemency represents a determination by the ultimate authority that the public welfare is better served by allowing the law to take its course, ie, by carrying out the punishment prescribed by the law. 

(c)     Ordinarily, the law should be allowed to take its course. However, when the clemency power is exercised in favour of an offender, it will "involve a departure from the law"... in that, in the interests of the public welfare, the law (in terms of the punishment mandated by the law) is prevented from taking its course. 

(d)     The considerations of public welfare that the ultimate authority deems relevant in making a clemency decision are entirely a matter of policy for it to decide... 

(e)     In the specific context of a death sentence case..., the grant of clemency to the offender confers a gift of life on him. This is because the offender has effectively already been deprived of his life by the law due to his conviction for a capital offence. If clemency is granted to the offender, his life will be restored to him, whereas if clemency is not granted, his life will be forfeited as decreed by the law. In other words, in a death sentence case, the clemency decision made, be it in favour of or against the offender, does not deprive the offender of his life; the law (in terms of the conviction and death sentence meted out on the offender by a court of law) has already done so.

We all know the consequences of sin. Even in the Garden of Eden, God warned Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when he ate of it, he would surely die (Genesis 2:17). Paul writes in Romans 6:23a, "[for] the wages of sin is death".

So the ordinary consequence of our sin is death. All of us had (eternal) death sentences hanging over our heads, having effectively already been deprived of our lives by the Law of God due to our conviction for a capital offence - no less than the offence of high treason against the Most High God.

We were all criminals on death row.

However, God - being God - has the power to give life and the power to take life.

Paul continues in Romans 6:23b, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". This is an act of grace and not a matter of legal right. (Indeed, if we were to be put on trial, we would all be found guilty.) It is a determination of the ultimate authority that the good of all will be better served by inflicting less punishment than what the judgment fixed. The Law is prevented from taking its course.

Hence, Jesus' sacrifice to save us from our sins confers a gift of life on us when we originally had none. It is a gift of life in its fullest sense.

No doubt this is what Paul meant when he wrote in Galatians 2:19-20:

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Therefore, having been rescued from death and given a second chance at life, let us live unto the Lord to the fullest!

"Where are you?"

Yesterday morning, I was complaining to God and asking Him why I do not hear His voice all the time. At the same time, I was also thinking about some of my friends whom I felt I ought to speak to more.

God had some words for me and them. He said three words, "Where are you?"

"Where are you?" were the words that God spoke to Adam in the Garden of Eden, after Adam sinned by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Bible records in Genesis 3:8-9:

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

The question was more than a mere question about Adam's physical location. It was a question of where Adam was with respect to Him, or where Adam was in Him. As Skip Moen puts it in Guardian Angel, "God is asking why Adam is not where he is supposed to be - with Him." Yet, "Adam now seeks escape from the presence of God."

The passage suggests that Adam used to walk with God, more than just physically. But now Adam said, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." (Genesis 3:10)

Jesus' call of discipleship is as simple as "follow me", literally to leave all else and walk with Him.

But there were hard teachings. Once, Jesus spoke about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Another time, He spoke about taking up the cross and denying oneself to follow Him. People left.

When Jesus asked His disciples whether they were going to leave too, Peter gave a remarkable answer in John 6:67-69:

"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." 

So God's word for me, and for my friends who came to mind, was "Where are you?"

Is the answer, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid"?

Or is the answer, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life"?

Church as Family: How Christians are truly related by flesh and blood

From the Old Testament sacrifices to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, many Biblical covenants are made in blood.

 

At the same time, we often hear people describing the church as a "family", drawing from passages such as Matthew 12:50 where Jesus said, "whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

 

Knowing that the Bible teaches that the natural family unit is established by marriage between a man and a woman and their children, a fellow brother-in-Christ once asked concerning the apparent dilemma between the two definitions of "family" in the Bible.

 

My answer to him back then was that the use of the word "family" in the context of the church is a metaphor, drawing from the understanding of the natural family unit.

 

This is not wrong, and might be an answer I would give to a non-Christian, but I soon came to realise that there is much more.

 

 

When we talk about the natural family, we are referring to flesh-and-blood relations. For example, if someone is my brother, he is related to me by flesh and blood. We would expect a DNA test to show that we are biologically related.

 

But Christians are truly related by flesh and blood too!

 

Christians are related by the shedding of the flesh and blood of Jesus, who died to redeem us all from our sins. In Holy Communion, we partake of Christ's flesh and blood. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

 

There is also another sense in which the church is related by flesh and blood with Jesus.

 

When God created woman, He put the man Adam into a deep sleep and formed the woman out of the man's rib. As a result, the man could say of the woman, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." (Genesis 2:23)

 

Jesus has been described as the Second Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:45). In the same way, Jesus was put into a deep sleep in the grave and out of His sacrifice God formed the church. The church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33). It is truly bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.

 

Therefore, in a very real sense, Christians are related by the flesh and blood of Jesus.

 

We are truly brothers- and sisters-in-Christ.

"Judging You": A conversation with a friend

"Do not judge!", people often say, (mis-)quoting passages like Matthew 7:1-5.

The dogma of the 21st century, as well as 21st century Christianity, is that of being "non-judgmental".

But who's judging whom?

Some time back, I was briefly explaining to a non-Christian friend that certain forms of birth control pills, like the "morning-after" pill, had the effect of inducing the abortion of an implanted foetus.

She immediately retorted, in a tone that was half serious and half in jest, "Judging you..."

She went on later to criticise me for being irrational, albeit in a relatively calm and civil manner.

Now, who is the judgmental one here? More importantly, which judgment is right?

That is some food for thought.