It is not often that the words of a local councillor makes the news headlines, but David Silvester, a UKIP councillor in Henley-on-Thames managed just that last month, but has now been suspended as a result of it. He faced a barrage of mockery and criticism, after stating that the country had been ‘beset by storms’ since the passing of the gay marriage legislation last year. He had, apparently, previously warned the Prime Minister that if the government went ahead with the bill, God would punish the country. The recent flooding, especially in the South of England, has, he claimed proved him right. Despite the abuse and loss he has suffered, Mr Silvester has stuck to his guns!
I wonder what you thought of his views. Maybe somebody, knowing that you go to church, asked you what you thought. What did you say? How do you approach the issue biblically? Because if we believe the Bible is the Word of God and profitable for every area of our lives and every question that life throws up, that is what we should do. That appears to be what the councillor in question has done, and we should thank God for those in public office who do so, and pray for more like them.
The Bible teaches the reality of God and his consistent opposition to sin. It teaches that God reserves the right to punish sin in this world, and will certainly do so when this world is over. It teaches that societies that reject God, his Word and His law, must expect to experience his judgement. It teaches too that the weather is under the control of the sovereign God, and sometimes is used by God to punish wrongdoers. The Bible in both Old and New Testament shows us that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman, and all sexual activity outside of biblical marriage is wrong. Mr Silvester is absolutely right in his statement of such truths.
Where we are always on less safe ground is when we try to go further. God’s ways ultimately are beyond our knowing. Is the bad weather due to the Marriage Act? We can’t say for sure one way or the other. If the floods are a punishment for sin, there are a thousand other sins that God could be dealing with in the UK at the moment. As a nation we have rejected His Word, His law, the day that he has given us to worship Him, and ultimately and worst of all, His Son Jesus Christ. Though God is angered by sexual sin, it is not the unforgiveable sin. There will be men and women in heaven one day who were guilty of such sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), but there will be nobody in heaven who has consistently rejected the Lord Jesus.
Which is where we have to stop thinking about others and focus on ourselves! Never mind the sin of others, what about mine? Do my sins call to God for punishment, or do I know they have been forgiven because I have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross? If so, my sins are cast not into a flood, but in the depths of the sea itself (Micah 7:19).
