Post 77-- Canadian Muslims and Refugees

These days we all talk about refugees, all of us, no matter our status, profession or religion.  The media are full of it, not the least the Vancouver Sun (VS). So are churches, including the two with which I associate, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) and First Baptist Church (FBC), both of Vancouver. The former happens to be located right next to the world’s first refugee welcoming centre of its kind on Victoria Drive and is planning to be deeply involved in the centre’s programme, including prodding its fellow CRC congregations to sponsor refugees. FBC is in the early stage of sponsoring, not the first time for her.

But Christians are not the only ones participating in this crisis.  Muslims are as well, Canadian Muslims, that is. More specifically for our purpose here,  BC Muslims.  Douglas Todd of the VS covered the subject nicely in his “BC Muslims fear ‘backlash’” (Nov. 23, 2015, p. A3). According to his article, David Ali, spokesman for the BC Muslim Association, emphasizes the importance of the safety and security of Canadians as a prior concern, of all Canadians, not just Muslims. “It’s our No. 1 priority,” says Ali.  “If Canadian officials feel any possible refugee is suspect … they must do due diligence.”  In France, two suspects involved in the recent Paris bombing arrived in the guise of refugees. Any such happening in Canada would create a backlash for all Muslims. Ali says his people don’t want such people to cause problems for Canadian Muslims.  Apart from entertaining such fears, more positively, the 74,000 Muslims in Metro are collecting funds to sponsor refugees.

Those fears are not merely alarmist and Ali being Muslim, they can hardly be dubbed Islamophobic!  Many Canadians express them. Barry Cartwright, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University, thinks Ali’s concern is “well placed, since… it’s impossible to properly screen 25,000 refugees…in a couple of months.”  There’s no way, Cartwright argues, to “do criminal and police checks in a region where there are basically no recognized police departments.”  Where the do exist, they will be so corrupt that any "report" from them is at best suspect. The Federal Government seems to have acknowledged that difficulty by having extended the deadline to an indefinite one well into 2016.

So, Canada’s Muslims appear as concerned about the security issues involved in the refugee movement as are the rest of us, especially as it was first presented as a hasty procedure in which few people had any confidence. After all, militants have killed more Muslims all told than Christians, simply because there are more Muslims where militants operate, whether in the Middle East or in Nigeria’s far north. They have an equal stake in it with the rest of us. It can be even argued that they have more of a stake in it, for if things go wrong and militants pop out of the refugee woodworks, surely there will be a backlash against Canadian Muslims. Of course, they will have no stomach for that. 

But there is another stake they have in all of this: the missionary one.  Various Muslim world leaders have threatened the West that they will overcome the West through higher birthrate and the movement of Muslim peoples into the West. Various estimates have already forecast that Western Europe will in the foreseeable future be overrun by Muslims, not by the sword but by birth and immigration. It is not politically correct to agree with such predictions, but it is obvious, especially in view of the low birthrates among European Caucasians. And though the average Muslim may not be that concerned with these issues, there are leaders in the background who are consciously pushing the Muslim community towards that goal. Anyone who shrugs her shoulders at such suggestions is not doing herself or her compatriots a favour. 

Being a Christian missionary myself, I understand that “instinct.” There is nothing sinister about it and I do not deny them that missionary right. From their point of view, it is the best that can happen to the West.  Muslims are just more serious about their mission than Westerners are and will use all the powers at their disposal to advance it, including political and economic. And don’t kid yourself into thinking Canadian Muslims do not share that instinct.  Every Muslim allowed into Canada represents one tiny step towards that missionary goal. Every time the Federal Government accepts a Muslim refugee, it blindly contributes towards the achievement of that Muslim goal.  It is in plain denial. 

The above paragraph is not an argument for rejecting Muslim refugees, but it is an argument for extra carefulness. It is not an argument against compassion for Muslim refugees. Those that arrive should be embraced with compassion. But it is an argument for Canadian Christians to wake up and fight the ongoing legal and cultural struggles that are taking place against Christians by the secular powers in our own society, often behind the scenes in the courts, including fake “human rights” tribunals, where most people don’t notice. It is organizations like the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) who stand in the breach on our behalf. Follow them on the internet and support them.  And, I strongly  plead for Christian Canadians to sponsor fellow Christians, the ones who have suffered much more than their Muslim compatriots at the hands of these same Muslims throughout much of the Middle East for decades before anyone  even heard of refugees.  If this is interpreted as Islamophobia, so be it; Islamophobia at its best and most constructive for the future.

Post 76—Stories of Persecution

A number of posts ago, I promised I would occasionally include stories about the persecution suffered by Christians. Those who study that scientifically, mostly Christians, tell us that Christianity is the most persecuted of all religions today.

There are several reasons for this situation. One is that oppressive governments of various stripes fear Christians as potential rivals. 

Another reason is that established religions and ideologies get nervous and jealous when another religion in their neighbourhood expands—and the later is the case with Christianity in many places. For example, China is expected soon to become the country with the largest Christian population. According to some estimates, there are already 100 million Christians in the country, which compares with 87 million members of the Chinese Communist Party (Barnabas Prayer, September 16, 2015).  That, no doubt, is a major reason for Chinese persecution and harassment of Christians, along with their residual Communist heritage. 

A third reason is ruthless ambitions and militant interpretation of some religions, as, e.g. ISIS, Boko Haram in Nigeria and, increasingly, Hindu nationalists in India.  Often behind such persecution is a long history of western colonialism / imperialism and its subtle attempt to impose secularism that has finally come home to roost.

Today’s stories are taken from Barnabas Prayer  (Sept/ Oct., 2015).  For Barnabas itself, see < barnabasaid.org >.

Many Christians in Tanzania are facing serious harassment for trying to engage in the butchery trade, which Muslims seek to control absolutely. There is no Tanzanian law against slaughtering pigs and selling pork (a forbidden meat according to Islamic law), but when Muslims complain, the authorities will often respond as if the Christians were doing something illegal.  In Kigoma, five Christians were arrested in June just for being found in possession of pork meat.  Tanzanian Muslims often claim that only they have the right to slaughter animals for meat, although this is not the case according to Tanzanian law. Yet, in Geita, on May 18, a Christian was arrested just for engaging in butchery work, and in Kagera, a man was offered the choice of paying a fine or going to jail for killing his own cow, eating part of it and selling the rest (September 8, 2015).  I am going to discuss parallel Nigerian situations like this one in the next post to show you that,  as exotic as this sounds to a Canadian, in communities with powerful Muslims this is a common situation.

According to reports, ISIS trains boys aged 8-15 how to kill. They are taught to shoot at close range and made to behead plastic dolls with swords so that they will be able to behead infidels (i.e., mostly Christians). Some of the children have been captured by ISIS. Others are lured to join it with sweets, toys and money, and then turned into killers and suicide bombers (October 17, 2015).

Two Syrian Christian families who sought asylum in Sweden have been persecuted by Syrian Muslims sharing the same communal asylum house and forced to move out. The Muslims banned the Christians from using the communal areas of the house, which accommodated around 890 asylum seekers, and made them hide their crosses. Pray that the Swedish authorities will have wisdom in the arrangements they make and will not unwittingly cause further distress or danger to Christians who have made their way there seeking peace and freedom (September 4, 2015).

Our next story is a prayer:  Almighty God, we pray to you for the many Iraqi Christian women and girls captured by ISIS and sold as slaves. We pray for the Yazidi and other non-Muslim women also sold into slavery by ISIS… who organize the slave-markets and even offered female slaves as prizes in a Qur’an-memorizing competition in June (October 18, 2015).

Tens of thousands of Burundian Christian women and children have fled political violence in their homeland since April to seek refuge in neighbouring Tanzania. The camp facilities are overflowing and there are severe shortages of food and shelter. At the time of writing 55,000 were sleeping in the open air. There is normally a rainy season in November-December, which will make life even worse for those who have no shelter. Tanzanian churches are striving to bring aid to the refugees, but are very poor themselves and had little to share with others. Ask…the Lord to meet the needs of the refugees, who are arriving at the rate of 2500 a day (October 28, 2015)!

In North Korea, Christianity is seen as the foremost threat to the ideology of Juche--total dependence on the ruling Kim family and the state. It is estimated that 100,000 Christians are incarcerated in labour camps, only because of their love for the Lord, clothed in rags, hungry and malnourished, beaten and abused. “But God also comforted me and brought a secret fellowship into existence, says Hae-Woo, one survivor of the labour camps. “Every Sunday we would gather in the toilets and pray (October 29, 2015).

Barnabas Aid reports that “the existential threat to the Christian presence in the Middle East is now being recognized as a cause for concern even by the secular Western media.”  It passes on to us a NY Times reported in July that two-thirds of Iraqi Christians have fled since 2003; a third of Syrian Christians have fled since 2011; the Lebanese Christian population dropped from 78% to 34% during the last century (September 1, 2015).  Their report on the Christian population is horrible, but the new recognition by the press is a rare piece of good news. Similar encouraging trends are in evidence by the fact that both Canadian and American governments have established offices to monitor religious freedom around the world.

I suspect that many Western secularists cannot understand why these Christians are so stubborn in their faith. Why not just change to the majority faith?  What’s the big deal?  Well, these people are often born again and have experienced and met the living Saviour. They are not about to trade Him in for some mythical fanciful idolatry, whether state religion, pagan religion or for the current world’s crop of the most haughty religions, namely Islam and secularism. 

In addition, not all self-declared Christians are born again or are even Christian. Some are adherents to forms of Christianity, including the citizens of “Christendom,” that have in effect become tribal religions that are tied up so closely with their identity that they cannot imagine letting it go for another identity, even under pressure.  Jesus told Nicodemus, a leader among the Jews of his days, that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be born again. Calling Abraham your father is no guarantee. I am happy that I am not responsible for ferreting all this out!  

But if you call yourself a Christian and insist on acting like one, no matter where or what kind, you are potentially subject to persecution, whether physical or legal or in some form of discrimination or all of these.  Even in the so-called “tolerant” but secular West.  

Post 75--Refugees: The Same Message Without the Scream

I appreciate Ezra Levant. He says it as it is without regard to the politically correct.  I would probably cite him much more frequently if I did not fear losing you, my readers, who may be more gentle in your preferences. I encourage you to tell me what you think of him.

However, today I turn to someone who is more gentle in his expression and who is found in mainstream press of the Vancouver Sun, but who tells the same story. I refer to Matthew Fisher. I see his name and column quite often in that paper but have not read him all that much. But his write up of September 12, 2015 is worth noting. 

Of course, many things happened since, especially the Paris debacle of a couple of weeks ago, but also in other countries with other races to which main stream folks don’t pay as much attention—Nigeria’s Boko Haram continues its onslaughts of bombing attacks in various cities and states, killing innocent people by the dozens at a time, often mostly Muslims; Lebanon just had its turn as did Baghdad. ISIS, of course, doesn’t let up on its tradition of extreme violence, cruelty and chaos.

So, what does Fisher have to tell us?  His title says it all: “Refugees a mix of the persecuted and the opportunistic.”  He begins by reminding us of the siege of Vienna back in 1683, the last time Muslims tried to enter Europe in such great numbers. That time they came as war mongers; this time they come to escape war, most of them anyway. In the 1970s and 80s they came to Western Europe as temporary guest workers, mostly people with little education and few needed skills.  We know how bumpy the ride has been and still is for them as well as their hosts one or two generations later.

Today they come as a mix, many of them highly skilled professionals who can afford the $5,000 or more for the ride. Many of that crowd are taking advantage of the refugee phenomenon; they pretend to be refugees, even though they come from places that do not generate refugees so much as economic migrants. They are economic immigrants no different from myself and my parental family in the early 1950s, except that today’s economic migrants are often better educated and more wealthy. 

The West can use these people, no doubt about it. But I am not so sure that the West should accept them so readily. Their move to the West represents a terrible brain drain on their home countries who have paid for their training. Accepting them in the West implies reversing the results of whatever "foreign aid" the West has poured into these countries--a plain contradiction. But what's a contradiction when it's in your favour? Remember that earlier post in which I described the human race as contradictory by nature?  That's just the way we are.  We just paper it over with lofty oratory.

Then, of course, there are the genuine refugees, the ones who rightly receive all our attention and compassion. Fisher met them in person during his visits to Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan near the Syrian border. He describes the place as a “cauldron of trauma, despair and opportunism.” Those he met there were “genuine refugees,” who “had horrific tales about barbarities they had seen…and awful news stories about life in the camp, where rape and other crimes were rife and many teenage girls had been kidnapped for sold into marriage. They were largely from hardscrabble, war-wrecked cities such as Daraa and Aleppo.”  I am very happy with the reports I read of many Canadian organizations, both religious and secular, including my own church, who are scrambling to find ways and money to adopt families or an individual or two.  That is true compassion that I—and, I hope, you, my readers—share and participate in.

But then, at the end of his column, Fisher gently turns to the politically incorrect. I quote: “Westerners should remember that an unintended consequence of this unprecedented migration might be a step toward Osama bin Laden’s dream that Islam will get its revenge against the West through immigration and birthrate.”  Osama shared this dream with other Muslim strategists, including Ghadaffi, who thundered it out, “We shall overcome you via immigration and birth” (not exact quote). Or that Baghdad sheikh over a century ago who warned the West that one day they will have good cause to rue their haughty, oppressive and secular imperialistic policies in the so-called Middle East.  

Western Europe especially may be near that time with this impossible influx, though I still see little signs of Western regret, recognition, understanding or agreement.  As far as most Westerners are concerned, it’s still all those stupid Muslims who create all this chaos, while we have benignly sought to liberate them from their oppressive stupidities.  Can you imagine such blindness and, yes, stupidity?  It’s beyond my comprehension. I am dumbfounded and highly embarrassed!  May God forgive us and turn this all around.

Post 74--Refugees: Ezra Levant's Take

Ezra Levant does not sweep sensitive or unpopular news under the carpet. Instead, he accuses main stream media of doing so. He distributes hard news that most people don’t like to hear, for it upsets them. Personally, I want to hear both the soft and the hard, the main stream and “the other,” such as Levant’s. Perhaps by Levant’s standards, the previous two posts about refugees were relatively soft, easy to read and to digest. Even though there might have been some surprises and certainly some reasons for serious disconcertion, those posts would not keep you awake at night. And they might even be true! Who can tell when it comes to media, whether soft or hard.

But today, it’s hard stuff, right from Levant’s computer heart, stuff that is almost sure to upset you. But you need to hear it. Putting your head in the sand may help you sleep, but it won’t help us get our refugee policies right. And getting them right is crucial for the future of our nation and of the Western world as a whole. So, here I share a Levant post with you—from the other side, if you like. I’m getting away easy today, since I blatantly copy his. I believe that in so doing, I am advancing the cause he is advancing—as well as that of the entire country, rightly conceived. 

Okay, here goes: POLL: 31% of Syrian migrants support ISIS terrorists (Ezra Levant (ezra@therebel.media). Justin Trudeau says he’s going to import 25,000 Syrian migrants by Christmas. That’s six or seven weeks from now. How is he going to do security checks on 25,000 people, coming from a terrorist no-man’s-land, in seven weeks? Remember, this is the same Liberal Party that doesn’t even think you should have to show picture ID, or take off your niqab, to vote. Trudeau has no clue how to screen for terrorists. But what about Syrian migrants who haven’t committed violence — but who support terrorism, and sharia law, and extremism? What about them?

 It’s a serious problem: an opinion poll of 900 Syrian migrants shows that nearly a third of Syrian “refugees” support terrorist groups. The poll, taken last year by the Arab Centre for Research and Public Policy Studies, shows that 31% of Syrian migrants in refugee camps in the region do not want the Islamic State to be defeated. They’re cheering for the terrorists. So, out of 25,000 Syrian refugees Trudeau wants to bring in, 7,500 could be ISIS supporters.

 It gets worse. In that same survey, only 10% of Syrian migrants say radical Islam is a serious problem. But 41% say America or the Jews are. Great: so we’ll be importing thousands of bigots, anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists. You simply have to watch my video report on these Syrian migrants, by clicking here. I guarantee you won’t hear a peep about this by any mainstream media outlet.

 Yours truly,
 Ezra Levant

 P.S. Be sure to forward this e-mail with your friends and share www.TheTruthAboutRefugees.com as your Facebook status.

 P.P.S. I know for a fact no other Canadian media are reporting the truth about Trudeau’s rush to bring in 25,000 risky Syrian migrants. Please help us continue our investigative journalism by contributing to our viewer-supported journalism, here.

============

So, Trudeau II and his cabinet have some serious sorting out to do if they are going to stick to their promise—or is it threat?) to bring in 25,000 of these refugees into Canada before end 2015. Though I am as eager to help genuine refugees as anyone and have as much compassion for them, realism tells me the Government should not even try to meet that quota and keep that promise. Really, it is more a threat than a promise. Trudeau may be ready, but I doubt that the country would be if they were to know the entire truth of the situation. Bring in as many as possible by that time, but only after proper check outs. Perhaps I should not treat this as a serious issue and regard it only as just another cheap campaign promise. I hope so.

Post 73—Refugees—Surprising, Interesting and Important Facts

Since the current world situation imposes that very difficult issue of refugees on all countries and, yes, all individuals—and that means you and me--, I devoted Post 72 to the subject. Today, more of the same, because it is such a critical issue that refuses to go away out of our consciousness and because it is such an interesting subject.

Did I say “interesting”? Yes, I did, but is that an appropriate way of reacting to this immense human tragedy? I doubt you’ll find even one genuine refugee who thinks of her situation as “interesting.”  Perhaps the terrorists hiding among them and using the tragedy for their own purposes will think of it as an interesting adventure. That there are those, I have no doubt, though I would not venture a guess as to their number.

The Vancouver Sun (VS) featured an extensive sidebar under the title “Eight things to know about the Syrian refugee crisis” by Ali Dharssi (26/10/2015, p. A10). Yes, these “eight things” are interesting as well as vital for us to develop a realistic perspective.  “Interesting” does not have to be trivial or emotionally distant.  Here are the “eight things:”

1           “More than half of Syria’s prewar population of 22 million has been displaced.”  Imagine that: over 50% of a nation!

2           “Tens of thousands of Syrian babies have been born as refugees.” Estimates range from 60,000 to 150,000 born just to refugees in Turkey!  All these are at risk of becoming stateless.

3           “More than half of the Syrian refugees are children.”  Over 1.6 million are under 12 years old, all in danger of losing out on education.

4           “More than three-quarters are women and children.”  A very high percentage of these women are widows struggling to feed their children. The fathers and men are absent and in many cases killed. 

5           “Terrorism does not have deep roots in Syria” according to experts. Terrorism source groups have been effectively suppressed by King Assad.

6           “Religious strife in Syria was not as bad as you might think.” Religious relationships were marked by “relative harmony,” though under an oppressive regime.

7           Syrian refugees are relatively well-educated. Prewar Syria had a literacy rate of 96%. 

8           “Syrians from all socio-economic backgrounds are fleeing.”

If your church or other organization is considering sponsoring a refugee, these facts are important to remember not only, but they might just be interesting enough to convince the members to act.

Another interesting cluster of refugee facts is that the West is not the only continent to house Syrians, though we would like to think we are. It strokes our moral pride. But, according to Frank Elbers, “the Saudis and Qataris may be playing a more constructive role than their critics give them credit for.”  

Though Saudi has allowed few to enter as refugees, it “has allowed hundreds of thousands to enter as migrant workers”—nearly 2.5 million since 2011.  They also have issued 100,000 residence permits and provided $700 million (US) in aid.  An estimated 400,000 well educated and skilled Syrians are in Saudi on temporary visas for foreign workers. “The United Arab Emirates have welcomed more than 100,000 Syrians, who have joined another 140,000 already living in the country.”  True, few classified formally as refugees will be found in those countries, but the Syrians are there in large numbers (“A Gulf in Compassion?” VS, 26 Oct/2015, p. A10).  Honour to whom honour is due.

One final point related to Saudi, though not about refugees. The Western press often berates Arab countries for not pulling their weight in helping poor countries. However, I just read that the Saudi king has signed a contract with the UN to help war-ravaged Yemen with $244 worth of aid. Though only in a side column as a filler, at least the VS reports this. It is something we do not often hear about. I have no particular need to defend Saudi, but it does not help us if we hear only negative news about Muslim countries. Again, honour to whom it is due.

Post 72—Refugees: Compassion plus or versus Security

Dr. Jim Denison on his blog "The Denision Forum on Truth and Culture" wrote the following under the above heading:

“We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples as well as a different societal and legal understand.” So warns the German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag (World on Sunday).

This is not a fictitious alarm headlined by a National Enquirer-like scandal sheet. Welt am Sonntag has consistently been named European Newspaper of the Year.  Its report comes from a security document obtained by the paper and read by top-level German security personnel.  The report warns that “the integration of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into Germany is no longer possible in light of the number and already existing parallel societies.”  In Germany, “parallel societies”  typically refers to insulated Muslim communities.

Could ISIS terrorists be among those immigrating to Germany and the West?

According to one ISIS operative in Syria, the Islamic State has already smuggled 4,000 covert gunmen into Western nations.  Such an initiative is part of the group’s global strategy: “It’s our dream that there should be a Caliphate not only in Syria but in all the world, and we will have it soon, God willing.”

Nicholas Rasmussen, Director of the  (US) National Counterterrorism Center,  warns that potential terrorists could indeed hide among Syrian refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Homeland Security officials are alert to this danger, promising "the most rigorous screening” of any potential refugees from Syria.

However, authorities question whether the U.S. intelligence community, with few assets on the ground in Syria, can provide authorities with information needed to determine whether a refugee could pose a threat. “You have to have information to vet,” according to the head of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.”

Does this mean that we should fear Muslims coming into the West?  Yes and no.

Obviously, we need a different approach to immigrant screening than in the past. There was a time when our chief concerns related to employability, language skills, and cultural integration. Now we must be aware of jihadists seeking entry to nations they intend to attack. A new day calls for a new strategy. 

The above is not the entire article, but it is enough for our purpose. Throughout the Western world, there is this debate or, rather, stormy shouting going on between adherents of basically two different opinions—those who out of compassion want to allow all these thousands upon thousands of pitiful refugees into their country and those who urge caution and careful screening as per Denison’s article. It was an issue in the recent Canadian election. Incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper was berated by some of his opponents who advocated lowering the threshold, while Harper insisted on proper screening, which, of course, would mean a slower process. 

I identified myself as a born-again Christian in the previous post. As such, I share the compassion of Harper’s opponents. I would love nothing better than for Canada to open the borders for many more of these unfortunate refugees, mothers with children and all.  And I would love it if we could speed up the process so as to get them settled and move on with their lives of contributing to Canadian society. However, my guess is that Harper shares this same compassion and would like nothing better. I suspect that his external composure hides a heart of compassion and mercy no less than the rest of us.

However, Christian compassion is not careless or unrealistic. When you carry the burden of national leadership, you have the duty of protecting the security of the nation. Anyone who disregards this issue in the name of compassion is derailed. Trudeau the First may be considered a philosopher-king, but he displayed little savvy when it comes to human nature. While strongly opposed to racism, he imported thousands of Asian racists and thus brought the degree of racism in the country to a higher level than ever before.  Like Caucasians, many Asians are racist against both Canadians and against each other. How contradictory can you get? 

The issues before us today are the two poles of compassion and security. We need to consider both issues in dealing with refugees.  Welt am Sunntag  has it right.  Their caution holds equally for Canada. No responsible Prime Minister can or may ignore either one of these two poles. Simply allowing them in without proper screening irresponsible. By flooding our nation indiscriminately we will simply smother the compassion for which Canada is known by importing people who share neither our compassion nor our respect for law, people who abuse our compassion and undermine our security.

 

In my ignorance and innocence, I advocate that Canada help support nations like Turkey that currently handle thousands of refugees within their borders with generous financial and other support so as to carry the burden with that country and others like them. As we do so, we try to speed up the process of approving refugees to enter our country without compromising our security. And we must definitely not forget about those refugees who have already been waiting for some years in our lineup. They need to be given the priority they deserve. If things need to be sped up, they need to be sped up for them as well. They should retain their position in the lineup and not be bypassed for the current crop.

May Trudeau the Second keep his eyes, heart and mind on both sides of the equation. That’s our prayer for him, for our nation and for the refugees. Whether philosopher or not, may he have a firm and realistic understanding of human nature, better than his father. May he/we devise a secure way of inviting thousands of them to our country. God bless him. God bless Canada as a nation of secure and strong compassion.

Post 71--Born Again—What Is It?

It’s theology time! The term “born again”  has a long history, something to be expected, since Jesus introduced it two millennia ago. It has undergone a long process of definition and redefinition, also something to be expected, since Jesus himself associates it with the Spirit and His unpredictable directions. 

The more “professional” theological term is “regeneration,” which may be defined as “that divine act by which the sinner is endowed with new spiritual life and by which that new life is first called into action.” Or, more simply, “implanting of the new life in the soul.”  It brings about “a radical change of the governing disposition of the soul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit”  (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, pp. 467-469). 

My favourite American theologian and late friend, Gordon Spykman, wrote that  regeneration “refers to a profound change in our condition, its fundamental redirection, the starting point of a renewed life. It is born of the overpowering initiative of the sovereign grace of God.”  It is a “decisive turnaround” that “is a result of the unfathomable work of the Holy Spirit.”   That Spirit “makes us new creatures—our old nature has been buried with Christ and we are now raised with Him to newness of life. The life-renewing Spirit enlightens our blinded minds. He liberates our enslaved wills.”  Once this has happened, “we can never be the same again.”  “Regeneration may be an undateable event. Its time and place may escape us. Yet it marks the dawn of a new day. With it comes a new lease on life. Like a seed sown in the ground, it may remain hidden for a while, but eventually it germinates and bears fruit. Rebirth (Boer: a “delatinized” version of the word) therefore is a total…renewal of the whole person,… the decisive change of the direction….”   (Reformational Theology: A New Paradigm for Doing Dogmatics, pp. 488-489).

The question is: Why born again? What’s the reason? The answer is already embedded in the previous paragraph.  Did you notice “our blinded minds” and “our enslaved wills?”  Over against these stand “newness of life” and enlightenment.

The New Testament (NT) says:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world … gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3).

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins (Colossians 2:13).

The above are only a few of the many verses in the Bible that describe our desperate situation. We are dead in our “transgressions and sins.” That’s a pretty ugly situation. That’s the short and long of it. It’s something we don’t like to hear or consider. 

But that’s not where it stops. That’s not the last word and not even the most important word. Being born again means that, according to the above verse, “God made us alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.”  It doesn’t get better than that. There’s no better news than this.  That’s why we need to be reborn, regenerated. It enables us to live the new life, the life that is guided by the standards of the Kingdom of God.

I am bold and grateful to say that I am born again.  God has reworked me. Put a new life and mind in me. The posts of this blog are kind of an illustration of such a person, along with the mistaken thoughts that still occur, for we are still surrounded by worldly standards that sometimes creep back into our minds.

I am very conscious of continued shortcomings, but that does not depress me or make me sad. My main emotion or attitude is one of joy and gratitude for forgiveness and the new life given me. Those are the final words: forgiveness, and therefore joy and gratitude. 

This is all very short about a profound reality. If you wish to pursue it further, scour the internet for books on the subject. There should be plenty. But let me tell you: Being born again is a great experience that’s with you for ever.  And it has nothing to do with the scornful caricatures we come across in the media. It has everything to do with seeing the world and your neighbor with new eyes and new values.

In closing for the day, here’s a joyful and grateful sound in the NT from one who experienced this rebirth—I Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

That’s how the more formal New International Version puts it. A more informal translation is that of Eugene Peterson’s The Message:

What a God we have!  And how fortunate we are to have Him…! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts right now.

And then he goes on:

I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.

I’m tempted to keyboard the rest of that joyful passage for you, but you can find it in any Bible. Go, read it, and you’ll notice the joy and laughter this born again thing produces in its happy recipients, the citizens of the Kingdom of God with its new ambitions, new values, new hopes and new visions—a completely new and upbeat life for which people throughout the centuries literally give up their lives. Taste and see that the Lord is good!