A consideration of the words of Jeremiah chapter 22
Many believe that there is nothing to be gained by studying the moral guidance that was given by God’s servants of old, such as these words here in this chapter 22 of Jeremiah. It is true that these words were uttered some 2600 years ago. But we must remember that the source of these words is JEHOVAH, for such is stated in the opening verse of the chapter.
“Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,” Jeremiah 22:1. The Lord says of Himself: “For I am the LORD, I change not,” Malachi 3:6. These words have been paraphrased into the well-known couplet:
No change Jehovah knows, glory to His name.
All may change but Jesus never, glory to His name!
This being so, there is no change in the moral standards that the Lord requires of His people today from those of yesterday!
That is why the study of the Bible is essential if we would live to please the Lord. Of course, it is not just a matter of ‘reading and studying’ the Bible. We are required to obey its precepts – from Genesis to Revelation!
I have obtained my title for this article from the opening of the chapter before us.
“Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation,” Jeremiah 22:1-5.
The fall-out of the wrong political measures adopted by the kings of Judah stemmed from their rejection of God’s Word. The ‘tree’ that produced the woes that overtook Judah, its kings and people, was their rejection of the Lord as their God with the following of idols and the impure and immoral behaviour that sprang from that spiritual rebellion. Their wrong politics was the ‘fruit’ of their apostasy.
The harvest that would most surely follow their wicked rejection of the Lord and His Word could ONLY be avoided by a return to an obedience to the truth of God and the adopting of behaviour that was in keeping with that truth!
What was said of Judah may be said of Ulster today!
“I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice,” Jeremiah 22:21.
The evil policies that have been foisted upon us here in Ulster and the United Kingdom in general, stem from the abandoning of God’s Word as the ‘only rule of faith and practice’. Having abandoned this wise maxim, the nation, like a rudderless ship, has been subject to “every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive,” Ephesians 4:14. As a result, the nation has been as “children, tossed to and fro, and carried about”!
An example of the utter madness that takes over the mind and heart of those who cast away the truth of God is seen in a recent report in the ‘Times’ of Thursday July 25th.
Teacher banned for misgendering pupil loses in High Court
The report makes clear that according to the the High Court judge, whose name is not given in the report, the Word of God is inferior to the notions of today’s misguided, misled ‘formers of moral views’!
The judge said: “Just because misgendering a transgender pupil might not be unlawful does not mean that it is appropriate conduct for a teacher or that, when done repeatedly and deliberately both in class and on national television in breach of the school’s instructions and ethos such that distress is caused to the child, it cannot amount to professional misconduct”.
So a ‘child’, possessed of a madness, sourced and encouraged by the religious/moral ‘movers and shakers’, may claim that they have become that which they were not born. Thus, the unchangeable genetical make-up of a person may be denied and the ludicrous claim be made that they have altered their being from male to female or vice versa!
At best, such fools can only ‘pretend’ that such a change has taken place. Where such a ‘pretence’ is acted upon, the judgment of God falls upon such. Such are seen as an ‘abomination’ in the eyes of God, irrespective of the welcoming choruses of the blind apostates of this age.
“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God,” Deuteronomy 22:5.
This is the Law of God which, as the Saviour said: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled,” Matthew 5:18.
The wearing of the garments of the gender which a person is not, is but a perverted attempt to ‘change their perceived gender’. This High Court judge, along with many in society are prepared to go along with this depraved notion!
The harvest which the Lord threatened upon Judah in the days of Jeremiah and which came about in the time of the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity the nation entered upon, is drawing near for this nation also. The ‘legal’ slaying of millions of unborn children by abortion; the declaring of the perversions that are named after the cities which suffered ‘the vengeance of eternal fire,’ (Jude 7), Sodom and Gomorrah, as morally acceptable; and the widespread fornication that is rampant within society, giving rise to marriage break-ups and children born out of wedlock — these things will undoubted be visited by God’s judgement. The Saviour predicted that this would be so at His return.
“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
Luke 17:26-30.
I repeat, it is not bad politics which damns a nation but the embracing of a ‘morality’ contrary to God’s Law that gives rise to bad politics, which in turn, brings down God’s judgment!
The following of their own hearts is that which brings down God’s wrath upon men.
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man,” Matthew 15:19-20.
Oh that Ulster might learn this truth before it suffers the consequences of abandoning the Lord and His truth!
Here is the text of the article from yesterday’s ’Times’.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Teacher banned for misgendering pupil loses in High Court
Joshua Sutcliffe cited his Christianity as the reason for refusing to use the boy’s preferred pronouns
Sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, the High Court judge was told that Joshua Sutcliffe was first suspended from teaching at a secondary school in Oxfordshire in 2017 after he referred to a transgender pupil as a girl rather than a boy.
The pupil “credibly passed for male” and was “only known by male pronouns” at the school, the court was told.
However, Sutcliffe conceded that he refused to use the pronouns “he” or “him” when referring to the pupil and for professional reasons used the pupil’s adopted male first name instead.
The teacher argued that as a Christian it was not wrong to refer to someone who was born female as a girl.
Sutcliffe was sacked from Cherwell School in 2018; he then joined a school in north London but resigned in 2019 after further complaints. That led to a disciplinary hearing before the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) over his conduct at the two schools.
It ruled that he was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, which was said could have brought the teaching profession into disrepute. As a result, Sutcliffe was banned from teaching indefinitely — an order that was subject to review after two years.
‘Just because it’s lawful doesn’t mean it’s appropriate’
In his ruling on Thursday upholding that ban, the judge noted that Sutcliffe believed that “biological sex is immutable and that people cannot self-identify as a different gender”.
The judge added that the teacher “believes that God makes us male or female, and that what God ordains cannot be changed” and that he asserted that it was “wrong to require him or any other person to refer to a transgender person by their preferred pronouns”.
It was also noted that Sutcliffe had expressed his views — which he regarded as a matter of conscience — on national television.
In his ruling, the judge said that “just because misgendering a transgender pupil might not be unlawful does not mean that it is appropriate conduct for a teacher or that, when done repeatedly and deliberately both in class and on national television in breach of the school’s instructions and ethos such that distress is caused to the child, it cannot amount to professional misconduct”.
Responding to the ruling, Sutcliffe, 34, who is married with children, said that he continued to “stand by my Christian convictions that it is harmful and detrimental to affirm gender confused children”. He added that he had been “a marked man ever since I dared to express my Christian beliefs in a school and tell the media about how I was punished for doing so”.
Lawyers for Sutcliffe said that they were considering an appeal.