Judgement within

I have received various emails here in Trinidad, from Jamaica, concerning certain ideas about God's impending judgement on Jamaica and in the world through earthquakes. This has demanded of me some response. I am not too concerned about the comments of the non-Christian world, because we cannot take responsibility for the various ways they are likely to react to such thoughts, which must be a challenge to their hearts and a disturbance to their minds.

However, one of my trusted friends and intercessors wrote me with some of the following concerns to which I have personally responded. I am encouraged to make my response more generally read and, therefore, I am sending it out to many of my close friends, colleagues, countrymen and associates in the ministry.

My friend writes:

The key to my series of communiqués and the request for prayers in Jamaica at this time is that yesterday (May 17) Ian Boyne had someone on TV speaking about 'judgement' and the end of the world ... .

I did not hear the programme last night, deliberately, as I heard enough on the shorts advertising the programme.

This morning, the gardener here said: "Im seh the wurl a go en satday, ma'am, but dat a foolishness, nu ma'am."

I was told that there are billboards about this across Jamaica warning people. In the shorts advertising Ian's programme, the guest said that the sign that judgement has started will be a massive earthquake this Saturday, 21 May, to culminate in October 2011. So Jamaica is now in 'fear because last week and this week we have had earthquakes ... .

Blessings

MY RESPONSE

There has been a lot of talk about earthquakes and judgement. The most significant earthquake is the one taking place within our hearts and mind when we realise that God brings judgement on the sins of men. Let us awaken from our slumber and shake men from their indifference to the Lord.

Jesus announced judgement when He came into the world initiating His ministry with "Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand." He said he did not come to judge the world, though His coming brought judgement to men's hearts. He came to save the world, and those who would be saved are those who received Him. The same obtains today.

We must not be fearful of dates and events. We must challenge men to come under the hand of God and into the bosom of the Father so that we are not destroyed by sin and subsequent judgement.

One of the lessons of the creation narrative is that the sin of man affects the shaping of his culture, and his culture affects the management of his environment. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and environmental pollution are all part of the condition of Man and his world. Judgements come every day, some more terribly than others. It should not take a religious television programme to teach us about judgement when it is presented out of a soothsaying spirit.

Therefore, our prayers are not against dates and events. They are against the prevalence of sin and wickedness in the world, in our communities, in our homes and in our parliaments.

Let men cease playing God. Let them humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and walk in righteousness. Nowhere in the scriptures does God set days against which we must pray. In the midst of Sodom, Lot was safe. In spite of the threat of destruction, Nineveh was transformed. In the midst of the stormy seas, Jesus was completely at rest.

Watch and pray

Tragedy is not in the events of life, but in the condition of men's hearts, and our incapacity to deal with them. That is why Jesus warns us: "Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation (are overcome by the test)."

Let us not be beguiled by Boyne's media show and advertising hype. That is media business. Let us not become creatures of fear, but let our reverence for God and our obedience to Him drive us personally to live in righteousness, and passionately to proclaim His Good News so men can be saved not from the 'earthquakes' without, but from the judgements within.

Earthquakes are a given in this world. What is judgement to some is liberation to others. The Day of the Lord, which is anticipated as a blessing to some, is a terror to others. Let us look up, not down.

Email feedback on Bishop Peter Morgan's article to columns@gleanerjm.com and bishop.petermorgan@yahoo.com.