The God Who Hates

On May 19, the famously polarizing British-Canadian author and radio and television host Michael Coren appeared on the TVO current affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Coren was being interviewed about his new book Epiphany: A Christian's Change of Heart & Mind Over Same-Sex Marriage. It was disappointing to watch. Coren was once one of the most articulate social conservatives in Canada and to listen to him capitulate, complete with his maudlin apologies, to the liberal crowd was bewildering and embarrassing. Somewhere along the line, he got tired of fighting the good fight and decided that befriending the 'spirit of the age' was the right and more personally satisfying thing to do.

In order to justify this seismic shift in his thinking, he has had to re-cast what Christianity is (in his mind) and it is obvious that he now views the faith as one of all-inclusive peace and love. Well, the man who once embraced the truth has now abandoned it and settled for its counterfeit. This is easy enough to prove. To begin with, he knows enough about the faith to know that it's about the truth who is a Person, namely Jesus Christ, the truth incarnate, first and foremost. Coren should know better than to be hung up on peace and love as an end in itself as if to just 'live and let live' is the chief end of life. This isn't how Jesus was (and isn't today) and because He was God's perfect reflection on Earth, Himself God, then God the Father isn't either.

Paikin did a good job of challenging Coren with what Jesus said about marriage and where Coren himself now stands. He quoted Matthew 19:4-5, where Jesus said God "made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.'" Coren batted away any reference to the unique opposite-sex complementarity of marriage and said Christ was talking about the institution itself.

I believe the Church of Jesus Christ needs to wake up and realize something. We don't like the word 'hate' but we need to embrace the fact that the true God in Heaven hates some things. He does not hate people, but He hates many of the things people do and this is clearly verified in the life of Jesus. Some examples: Regarding peace and love, Christ said this, "Do not think that I came to bring peace to the Earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword...and a man's enemies will be the members of his household" because of Him (Matt. 10:34, 36). This adversity comes with befriending Jesus. He also said this, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself (meaning any selfish desires) and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matt. 16:24-25). Then there are the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor in the book of Revelation, especially the words Jesus has for the church in Laodicea, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth" (Rev. 3:15-16).

Regardless of what you may think of these words of Jesus, we can all agree that they aren't the words of some dreamy-eyed middle eastern mystic who preached moral equivalency. No, in Jesus beats the heart of a God who longs to live with His people and despises anything that would bring them harm, isolation and spiritual death. What kind of parents would let their children do anything they want because they 'love' them? No parents who do that truly love their children. All people are created equal, yes, but not all behavior and lifestyles are morally equal.

Michael Coren has suddenly run down the rabbit hole of appeasement and I pray that he will retreat. He has surrendered to the religion of a god created in the world's image, a cheap counterfeit to the real one - an idol. The spirit of the age is the god of "peace, love and tolerance", as a world without the real God defines them, and is no god at all. Jesus calls this god "the father of lies" because all he can do is deceive and imitate.

We should never underestimate the capacity of the human heart to self-deceive. Here is an excerpt from his book, "I believe that the welcoming of gay people, who have suffered at Christian hands for so long, is at the epicenter of the modern Christian challenge and that by washing away the stains of prejudice and discrimination, we can spark a new awakening." I have two responses to that. First, many gay people have already been welcomed into the Christian Church but like all other penitents, they have confessed their sin and have taken on a new life in Christ. Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go and from now on sin no more" (John 8:11). Coren is simply trying to accommodate sin. Second, issues like "same-sex marriage" and transgenderism and all the rest of it are the results of the humanistic religion of idolatry (idol worship) that rises from our brokenness as fallen people. 

Michael Coren needs to understand something. Any awakening in the Church of Christ will come from God Himself in the power of the Holy Spirit and not from any pet subject of a people-pleasing author who has clearly lost his way. And any true awakening will not go well for "same-sex marriage" proponents for the simple reason that regarding this, God said no.