The fourth article is from Pastor Lynn Rees and her son Dylan on the Gold Coast

Hi there,

Could you please put us back on the mailing list … our son Dylan, wrote this article and has been preaching along these lines at our church of a Sunday.  We did not understand what had happened with the media and Pastor Danny’s comments, but after Dylan did some research, found that, indeed, Pastor Danny had been misrepresented by the media.

Sorry for not looking closer into that – but would love to be back on the mailing list,

In Him,

Pastor Lyn Rees

WORD OF LIFE UPPER COOMERA – GOLD COAST.

Dear friends,

Many of you would be aware of the media criticism directed at Pastor Danny Nalliah following his comments about the tragic bushfires that have claimed so many lives in Victoria. Many have reported that Danny believes the fires to be the judgement of God. While I initially took these media reports at face value, upon closer investigation I think Pastor Danny has correctly attributed the tragic devastation to satan – not God. From what I can see, Danny doesn’t even state that God has removed His protection (as some have reported) but rather that it is our nation that has “walked out” from that protection.

“Asked if he believed in a God who would take vengeance by killing so many people indiscriminately – even those who opposed abortion, Mr Nalliah referred to 2 Chronicles 7:14 to vouch for his assertion that God could withdraw his protection from a nation. “The Bible is very clear,” he said. “If you walk out of God’s protection and turn your back on Him, you are an open target for the devil to destroy.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 11 Feb 2009)

To be clear, the earth is being subjected not to God’s wrath but to the devil’s wrath as we see most clearly revealed in Revelation 12. See below (particularly verse 12):

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Revelation 12:10-12

It is the devil that is hell-bent on stealing and killing and destroying mankind (John 10:10) and these unusually fierce natural disasters are grotesque and defiant displays of satan’s wrath against the “inhabiters of the earth” – largely a people who don’t know their God and/or their position and purpose and authority in Christ. While some may question Danny’s timing, he is right to declare that, as we jettison our moral compass and despise our moral foundations and break down our moral walls, that we can’t expect the protection inherent in following God’s statutes. In public policy, worldly voices are drowning out the few faithful prophetic voices in the church. As happened in type and shadow thousands of years ago, so it is happening today: “The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem” (2 Kings 25:10). As Babylon of old dealt the final blows to an apostate and weakened Israel so the Babylonian world system today is breaking down the moral walls, the moral boundaries of a lukewarm and compromised Christian West. Sadly a church that is lukewarm and comfortable and compromised doesn’t even realise that she is wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked (Rev 3:17). That’s why the warnings to us are so dire: Wake up! (Rom 13:11-12) and “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev 18:4). 

We can’t expect the world to sing the praises of the likes of Pastor Danny. Indeed to be friends with the world is to be adulterors and enemies of God (Jam 4:4). (For the record, Pastor Danny’s church has coordinated a large-scale, practical response to the needs of the bushfire victims although this has not been widely reported, if at all). The fact is that we cannot pretend, as a nation and as a society, to be living in the safety of God’s economy when we entertain and endorse sin individually and corporately. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). The companion of fools is destroyed – not by God – but by the fools (Prov 13:20). To the extent that we as a nation, as a society, as a church have aligned ourselves with the world’s values – in the areas of sexuality, abortion, homosexuality, materialism and debt – and ignored the voice of the prophets, to that extent we have weakened our defenses and exposed ourselves to the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), that prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), that great dragon (Rev 12:9), that old serpent (Rev 12:9), that roaring lion that walks about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8).

But the day that Daniel prophesied is coming! Hallelujah! The day when “the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” (Dan 11:32). Oh, for the day when God’s redeemed, Spirit-filled vice-regents rise up in faith and overcome the devil and rule and reign in these times – even in the realm of natural threats. “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matt 8:27). We shall overcome the devil as we walk in our blood-bought authority and scorn the shame and fear of death while proclaiming the Word of the Lord (Rev 12:11). Indeed our Lord and Saviour has sat down and is now waiting for His enemies to be made his footstool (Heb 10:13).

The questions of where God is during such calamities and whether they are God’s judgement are questions that many are asking and the church must answer faithfully and truthfully in love. I had someone ask me this week, “what’s wrong with the big fella upstairs?” (in relation to the flooding and fires). My answer came immediately and I believe it was, as Proverbs 16:1, an answer from the Lord. I responded that God created us – mankind – to be stewards of His earth therefore the responsibility for its unruliness lies ultimately with us. After the phone call I thought again of Elijah who knew His God, lived outside the world system, maintained a prophetic voice at the risk of death, and who was able to bind and release rain at his word (1 Kings 18:41-46, James 5:17-18). After Elijah was swept up into heaven, his apprentice Elisha asked before splitting the Jordan River, “where is the Lord God of Elijah?” (2 Kings 2:14). The question I often find myself asking is, ‘where are the Elijahs of the Lord God?’

To the extent that we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, divorce ourselves from this crumbling and corrupt world system (and our reliance upon it), to that extent will He entrust us with His plans (Amos 3:7; Luke 8:10; 1 Cor 4:1) and to that extent will He equip us with the power of His might (James 4:4-6). Indeed in these dark days, the church will become all that she was designed to be: the unblemished bride (Rev 19:6-8), the tree of refuge (Matt 13:32), the tree of healing (Rev 22:2), the repairer of broken walls (Isa 58:12) the storehouse for the famished (Gen 41:56).

Blessings,
Dylan

Rising Up Australia and the Nations as His Kingdom Comes,

Jason Golden