Different Voices

Above is a photograph of the exterior of the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul).  When completed in 537 AD it created the largest interior space in the world at that time.  

Hagia Sophia was for centuries the most prominent centre of Christian Worship in the world.  In the English language the name of this church, "Hagia Sophia", means Holy Wisdom.   Wisdom has always been at the centre of Christianity.

Read the first chapter of the gospel of John.

 Now read Proverbs Chapter Eight. 

I think you will find, as I do, that when read in tandem, the parallels between these two passages are striking.  

The apostle John calls Jesus the Logic of God.  The Greek word Logos - from which the English word “Logic” is derived - is translated as “Word” in the gospel of John.  John writes that Jesus, the logic (“word”) of God, was with God from the beginning and it was through Jesus (the logic of God) that all things were made – which makes perfect sense when you think about it, of course everything was made according to God’s logic. 

Proverbs 8 talks about a Wisdom that was with God before all things were made and was there when all things were made.  The Wisdom that cries out to all mankind in Proverbs is clearly also the messiah of the Gospels. 

Jesus refers to himself as the personification of truth in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  Now read Proverbs 8:1 “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?  At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand”. 

Yes, Jesus is the son of God, his death on the cross was the all-sufficient atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Yes, Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love and he showed us a new way of love for God and our fellow human beings.  But Jesus is also truth and wisdom.   A relationship with Jesus does not only give us a relationship with God and eternal life, it also gives us the best possible access to the source of all truth and so uniquely equips us to understand the world around us and exercise powerful discernment. 

In a world of lies and confusion, God’s children are uniquely equipped to be bright beacons of truth and clarity. 

I hear many people around me saying that the world is going crazy, they cannot understand what is going on and they do not know what can be done about it.  People are desperately looking for new leadership as our society’s existing leadership foolishly and cravenly bow before the bizarre, ridiculous and dangerous ideologies of our time.   

This presents a tremendous opportunity for God’s people to step up and fill the vacuum left by that missing leadership, to once again take our rightful place as the dominant cultural and political force in our civilisation.  As the catastrophic consequences of the crazy ideologies now shaping our society’s future come home to roost, the church should be in the position of being able to say “we told you so”.  But we won’t be able to claim that credibility if we didn’t tell them so, if instead God’s people tried to avoid giving offence, tried to placate, tried to appease, tried to align themselves with the disastrous “causes” of the deceived.

In his book, “THE WAR ON THE WEST”, Douglas Murray, even though he is not currently a professing christian,  devotes a significant portion of his book to the Christian church and it’s failure to stand up for the truth and what the rest of our society has lost because of that failure.  It makes sobering reading. 

Our world needs to hear the voice of wisdom, the voice of Jesus.  That is only going to happen if the sons and daughters of God allow God to speak through them – no matter what the cost.

Our church leaders need to know that we stand behind them if they choose to stand against the lies.  They need to hear our voices. 

Our church leaders also need our help.  Church leaders have many administrative and pastoral burdens to bear, we cannot sit back and leave them to shoulder all of that responsibility and to simultaneously keep abreast of the many strategies being used to assault God’s kingdom.  We need to do our bit to help our corner of God’s vineyard navigate through the many lies that pervade our culture.  We cannot reasonably expect our church leadership team to be across all the issues of our times, God’s Kingdom is under attack on too many fronts for any one of us to keep a track of it all on our own.  There is much work to be done to regain the ground lost to God’s Kingdom since the anti-christian counter culture movement erupted from our university campuses in the 1960s. 

Proverbs 11:14  "For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers"

I am convinced different voices are needed in our churches right now.   Will you be one of them?