So, what are God's purposes in our crazy world? Is Brexit part of God's plan?

Steve Maltz

Yes, it's the "unholy Trinity" for many of you out there! Three manifestations of rampant reactionary racism. Or so you are told! Who by? Well, that's where it gets interesting - and fuzzy - because one source that doesn't tell you this is the Bible! The Bible speaks into this situation in two different ways. Firstly, we are told that God uses whoever He wants to use for His purposes, not just the usual suspects. He used pagan kings, dodgy prophets, even a donkey. Secondly, we are told most emphatically by Jesus himself that his Kingdom is not of this World and that our job as Christians is not to fix this imperfect world, but to save people out of it. That's the Gospel, pure and simple!

So, what are God's purposes in our crazy world? Is Brexit part of God's plan? After a radio interview I posed this question to a prominent Christian leader. He looked at me indignantly and riposted with his own question: "You'll be telling me next that God is in the bad stuff in this world, like the Holocaust and wars!" I was totally thrown by this, because the thinking behind it is that God is only in the nice things in life and that a God of love wouldn't dream of getting His divine hands dirty with some of the more unsavoury areas of our lives. Really? That sounds like a very weak ineffectual one-dimensional God to me. God does what He does....because He is God, the Creator of the world, the universe and everything in it! We can't limit Him to operating just in areas that don't offend us. God loves us and cares for us, but He also destroyed 99.99% of mankind in Noah's day with a flood and the town of Sodom too. By all means challenge Him on this, but don't judge Him.

There's a Hebrew word that describes God, that goes beyond love and mercy and grace. It is chesed, a word that has confounded Bible translators for centuries. It's a word that simply describes His unknowable 'Godness'. His ways truly are mysterious to us and we'll never fully understand Him, though it doesn't stop theologians from having a go! Chesed identifies Him as both loving Father and righteous judge, but also as One who goes above and beyond what anyone could expect. He forgives sinners, even King Manasseh, one of the most evil Kings of all. He died on a cross for us. How many of us would do that? It's totally beyond our understanding as are all of the other unanswerable questions, which brings us back to our "unholy Trinity".

Of course God is behind Brexit, let's not start putting words in His mouth, D'oh, how did that one slip through? Or Donald Trump, or Boris Johnson. In fact, read your Bible you'll find that most Bible heroes are deeply flawed characters. Abraham acted cowardly, David was often reckless, Moses was hesitant. God has a plan A for mankind and we are living it, Brexit, Boris and Trump and all. As Christians this should not bother us one little bit, we just need to trust that our Father God knows very well what He is doing.

Well this has been a lot to digest and I will expand on this thinking in future articles. In the meantime, please discuss. Many of you probably disagree with me. This could be interesting.