SUMMARY:
By MARK L. MULLINS
THIS is an edited version of the address given by Mark Mullins to the 25th Annual Conference of the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria, August 4, 2005 at the Sharon Hotel, Abuja.
Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthank-ful, unholy. Without natural affection, unforgiv-ing, false accusers, without self-control, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power: from such turn away — 2 Tim 3:1-5.
It is interesting that Paul considered it necessary to warn Timothy, living in the first century, about the perilous times that would be coming.
The Greek word for “perilous” (khal-ep-os) is used in one other place in Matthew 8:28 where the word has been translated as “fierce” when the Lord Jesus describes two demon possessed men as being “exceedingly fierce”. I believe that we are living in times of the utmost danger.
What we see in this passage is that the reason for these dangerous times is rooted in the human heart: people love themselves rather than God.
In Mark chapter 7 the Lord gives a rather uncomfortable analysis of the human heart:
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man — Mark 7:21-23.
It is similar to the list that Paul gives to Timothy. Man’s nature has not changed since the beginning of time: it is the consequence of sin.
The importance of the law is that it acts to restrain sin by legislating against it. Of course law by itself cannot redeem a person because no one can keep the law, as Paul wrote:
But that no man is justified by the law it is evident —
Galatians 3:11.
Nevertheless a nation that acts righteously, according to God’s law, is blessed:
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land where you go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them;
for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who has God so near to them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? — Deuteronomy 4:5-8.
A nation that bases its laws on the Ten Commandments and the laws derived from those commandments will be seen as great.
However what has happened in recent years has been a stripping away of these great laws and we have brought judgment upon ourselves as a result. As Isaiah cried many centuries ago:
Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write misfortune which they have prescribed” — Isaiah 10:1.
Returning to Timothy: we are seeing, in our nation, rulers making laws that are man-centred and therefore centred on the wicked human heart. Let us look again at the list that the Lord gave of the fruits of the human heart:
Adulteries: the divorce laws in Britain are now so relaxed that there is no penalty for being the guilty party in a divorce when it comes to dividing the assets and unreasonable behaviour can cover the most trivial conduct.
Fornications: increasingly the law is recognising unmarried partnerships.
In immigration you may apply to remain in Britain on the basis of a heterosexual or homosexual relationship if you can show you have been living together for at least two years.
The Civil Partnership Act will soon be in force allowing homosexual couples to have all the rights of married couples: it is homosexual marriage in all but name.
Murders: Beginning of life: we have the highest abortion rate in Europe: despite recent research demonstrating that a baby can walk in a womb as early as 10-12 weeks.
The law states at the moment that an abortion can take place up to 26 weeks: but babies survive at that age.
Our law also says that you may abort a foetus up to birth if the baby would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.
Recently it was discovered that doctors had terminated a late pregnancy of a baby with a cleft palate, which was considered to be a serious handicap (this is a routine operation to rectify).
A lady curate (Joanna Jepson) took the Crown Prosecution Service to court for failing to prosecute and they agreed to review the case but found that there was insufficient evidence that a criminal offence was committed.
End of life: Food and water has been classified as medical treatment when taken intravenously (ANH – artificial nutrition and hydration). If doctors consider it is not in the best interests of a patient to continue to receive treatment then they can withdraw food and water so that patients starve to death.
Under the Mental Capacity Act patients now have the right to make advanced decisions to refuse treatment which cannot be overridden by doctors: however when a man (Leslie Burke) suffering from a progressive degenerative disease sought the right to continue receiving treatment the Court of Appeal rejected his claim.
Voluntary euthanasia has been legal in Holland since 1984.
Reports published by a commission chaired by the Attorney General of the Dutch Supreme Court, Professor Remmelink provide clear evidence that the safeguards set in place to control euthanasia are failing on a large scale.
The legalisation of voluntary euthanasia has led to non-voluntary euthanasia and involuntary euthanasia.
Blasphemy: Although English law still has a law against blasphemy for the Christian faith it is getting increasingly hard to apply.
Whereas in 1979 the editor of Gay News was successfully prosecuted for publishing a poem called “the love that dares not speak its name” about unspeakable acts to Christ’s body this same poem was read in 2002 by a leading homosexual rights activist on the steps of an Anglican church in Trafalgar Square surrounded by a group of MPs and the police to protect them.
An attempt at seeking an injunction to require the police to prevent the poem being read was refused by a High Court judge.
Shortly after Christmas the BBC showed a blasphemous musical where the Lord Jesus Christ was compared to an overgrown baby in nappies with a fetish for eating faeces.
A plainly outrageous production designed to offend Christians, yet a judicial review claiming that the film was in breach of their guidelines was not successful: incidentally it is sadly ironic that the BBC’s motto is “whatsoever” taken from Philippians.
How are the mighty fallen.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things —
Philippians 4:8.
Disobedient to Parents: we now have severe restrictions on the use of corporal punishment: it is unlawful in all schools.
A recent case brought by 40 Christian schools who argued that the ban was an unjustified restriction of their right to manifest their religious beliefs was rejected by the House of Lords on the grounds that Parliament had considered these arguments but rejected them. A recent law was passed to reduce the ability for parents to administer corporal punishment so that a parent can now be prosecuted if any mark is left on the child after being smacked.
One of the problems today is that while Britain seems to have fallen further because it once stood so tall in terms of its righteous laws, it is far from being alone. There are now four countries that have legalised homosexual marriage including Spain, Greece and Canada. In South Africa two ladies, Ms Bonthuys and Ms Fourie, approached the High Court in Pretoria to have their relationship defined as a marriage. The common law in South Africa defines a marriage as being between a man and women for as long as it lasts, being terminated either by death or divorce. They succeeded and the Home Affairs Minister, joined by a number of churches, appealed. The judgment is awaited.
I mention South Africa because it is a pivotal country. Its laws are watched not only by the West but also by other African states. But the pressure does not just come from there.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations is another battleground that needs to be watched very carefully.
This year’s United Nations Commission on Human Rights discussed controversial issues such as abortion, freedom of speech and religion, sexual rights and orientation, gender identity, homosexual marriage and legalised prostitution.
Attempts over the last decade to make abortion a human right under the guise of such language as reproductive rights were again unsuccessfully renewed this year.
If successful the existence of this new right would then be used by UN Agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to seek funding from donor countries for abortion clinics and to campaign for changes to abortion law in the developing world.
Pressure was brought to bear to highjack a resolution by Canada on Eliminating Violence against Women and Poland on HIV/AIDS in order to incorporate ‘UN International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights’
*1.
The danger was that incorporation would have put states under pressure to decriminalise all sexual activity outside marriage (including prostitution) and legalise homosexual marriage as well as grant a universal right to abortion.
In his Olivet discourse the Lord Jesus warned us that in the end times lawlessness would increase which is exactly what we are seeing.
What is also interesting is to see how the verses before that about natural disasters and wars seem to be creating the excuse for lawlessness:
And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you are not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. But he that endures to the end shall be saved —
Matthew 24: 6-13.
World Conflict and Islam
In the context of wars we have seen nations rising against nations.
The Greek word is ethnos and refers to people groups: we think of the terrible slaughters in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis; the ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s; but then there are the conflicts between political/religious ideologies embodied in the term Kingdom rising against Kingdom.
In this regard our focus inevitably rests on Islam, which is posing a substantial threat to many countries in the world.
However it is interesting to note the response to these world events by the authorities in the UK. Following 9/11 the government attempted to bring in a religious hatred law to protect the Muslims who they say were targeted after the attack.
It was introduced again last year and now once again in this parliament.
In Australia there is a very similar law and a Pentecostal pastor named Daniel Scot was found to be in breach by holding a seminar for Christians, which was infiltrated by Muslims who recorded it.
The judge misunderstood what he said and, in effect, found him to be in breach of the law for quoting passages from the Qur’an. Daniel Scot has been ordered to apologise and not to repeat his seminars anywhere in Australia.
Failure to comply could land him in prison.
On August 24 Mr Scot, the Victorian church where the seminar was held and its local pastor Daniel Nalliah were granted leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the decision made by Judge Higgins.
The Christian Church all over the world awaits with deep interest the outcome of the appeal.
So it seems that the response to the latest ideological conflict between Western values and Islam has been to try to accommodate Islam and divide the moderates from the radicals.
While one can see some logic in this policy the problem is that the more Islam is accommodated the less accommodation there is for Christians and the more intimidated Christians are becoming: the inevitable effect of these laws which bite against Christians?
The love of many begins to grow cold.
Homosexual Rights
HIV is the 21st century plague that has caused havoc amongst the world’s population: one would have expected this to result in action to discourage homosexual practice and sex outside marriage but it appears that hearts have hardened against such correction.
Again international catastrophe, in the form of disease this time, is leading to further lawlessness and the consequential chilling effect on Christians.
It is ironic that the combination of Islam (which would be totally opposed to homosexuality) and homosexual rights are having the effect, in tandem, as a means to silence the church.
I do not know what the mark of the beast will look like (see Rev 13).
However with the direction that legislation is taking in Britain, a time will soon come when a person will only be able to work in certain areas if he is willing to compromise his Christian conscience.
This surely is what is behind this mark: to force Christians to go against their Lord.
A Call to Action
So, what we are seeing is the law as the instrument of persecution against Christians.
While Godly law is our tutor that leads us to Christ (Gal 3:24), so ungodly law has the opposite effect.
As lawyers this places us in a unique position.
The first thing is for us to wake up to our responsibilities: as lawyers we can understand proposed and actual legislation in a way that most cannot. We are the watchmen at the watchtowers for the church.
The church needs waking up and the trumpet blowers are the lawyers and those who understand what is happening.
Consider the prophet Isaiah:
This is what the Lord says to me: go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees ……let him be alert, fully alert … : … and the lookout shouted:
Day after day my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post —
Isaiah 21:6-8.
Lawyers can warn and wake up the church. Lawyers can inform Parliament and warn it of the consequences of its actions.
But this needs dedication. It is so easy to be absorbed in our work: to be worried about providing for our families that we give no time to the Lord’s work.
An army is made up of individuals and the Lord needs each of us!
I don’t need to tell you that I believe that we are living in the end times.
In Luke 21:34 the Lord warns us about the subtle way that the end will overtake us if we allow our hearts to be “weighed down with carousing drunkenness and cares of this life”.
Don’t let us be taken unawares!
Terrible things are coming on this earth and the world will be taken by surprise by them: but for us lawyers there is another challenge: as the laws are turning against Christians – before we are overtaken by them let us take our stand: sound the trumpet across the land to warn and fight for those Christians who find themselves on the wrong side of the law because they have taken their stand for Christ.
And if we are not lawyers then we can pray, lobby our MPs and lend our financial support to the campaigns and legal actions that will be needed to stand up for righteousness in our land.
In Daniel 11:32 we read, “the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits”.
Let us be amongst this number.
Footnotes:
1 http://www.unaids.org/html/pub/publications/irc-pub02/jc520-humanrights_en_pdf.htm
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Appeared in Issue CETF 34 November 2005
"...contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" -- Jude v3
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-Last revised-
Monday, October 09, 2006
