The antidote to desecration

A while back the polling company Ipsos Reid asked Canadians if our country was “broken.” 70% said it was, with younger Canadians agreeing the most strongly.

Whether we’re recalling the rampant drug use, increased homelessness, year-long waits for health services, or how hard it’s become to do business in a world of red tape, most of us likely agree with this assessment. Yet what we are witnessing in Canada and throughout the world today is not simple brokenness. It is something darker.

What we are witnessing is a very purposeful desecration.

Desecration

Desecration involves a very deliberate defiling. It involves dishonoring something sacred by treating it as if it were ordinary, or even garbage. Picture an 8-year-old daughter devoting days of effort to making her dad a special piece of art for his birthday. Now imagine that when she gives it to him, offered tentatively and with a shy smile, her dad responds with a sneer and he tells her he could get a much nicer picture from the dollar store. That’s what desecration is like – the girl’s gift, and the love with which she offered it, have been dismissed like trash.

But desecration is worse yet, because the target is God Himself. The intent is to spit in His face. Think back to the opening ceremony of the 2024 summer Olympic games, which featured drag performers re-enacting the Last Supper. With the spotlight of the world on them, ready to celebrate the gift of sport, the organizers chose to take the opportunity to blaspheme our LORD. The Olympic committee didn’t just make a mistake. Their actions were intentional and lined up with the hate in their hearts.

In a biblical context, we can recall “the abomination that makes desolate” (from Daniel 11:31) that foretold the desecration of the Temple in 167 BC. Not only was the faithful worship in the Temple ended, a pagan altar was set up in its place. God’s holy place was desecrated.

Today, as we can look around us with eyes of faith, it should be evident to us that we live in an age of such deliberate desecration.

Dr. Ellen Wiebe’s “incredibly rewarding” work

Consider BC family physician Dr. Ellen Wiebe. She grew up in a Mennonite family in Manitoba and is proud to have killed hundreds of her patients. Section 222 of Canada’s Criminal Code rightly identifies these deaths as homicides, though Parliament has now legalized them when done by approved specialists and has given it a friendly name: Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). As of May 2022, Dr. Wiebe’s count was already at 430 deaths. The number is likely much higher today.

That’s right, she has legally committed hundreds of homicides and continues to carry on with more every week. In fact, she is paid by our government to do this, and is happy to share about it at conferences or on podcasts. Dr. Wiebe isn’t shy about her work, which she calls “incredibly rewarding.” But she now keeps her numbers secret. “I know the exact number,” she shared with the National Post, “but I don’t want to do that, no. It’s become a weird thing, people talking about their numbers, or criticizing people who talk about their numbers.”

Her state-sanctioned homicides are only a fraction of the 100,000+ Canadians who have already been killed by the hand of medical professionals in Canada since “MAiD” was legalized in 2016.

Her other side business likely isn’t surprising. “Human rights has been a major focus of my life and my other practice is abortion,” she shared in a podcast with the New York Times. Although she didn’t disclose how many abortions she has done, 4.5 million abortions have been reported since this form of homicide was decriminalized in Canada. It is impossible for our hearts and minds to grasp the scale of this desecration.

For Dr. Wiebe, this isn’t just another job. It is exhilarating. “Her face lights up as she describes MAiD as the most fulfilling work she’s done since doctor-assisted death became legal in Canada in 2016,” the National Post reported.

What is going on?

How is it possible that a doctor, whose profession is devoted to healing, would find such fulfillment in murdering? How can our society normalize and even celebrate the deaths of over 100,000 children each year?

Dr. Carl Trueman is a Reformed professor and thinker who has become well-known in recent years for his ability to capture what is occurring in culture. He recently authored a book called The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades our Humanity. This book, and a number of talks that he gave on the same matter, have opened my eyes to better understand not just the Dr. Wiebes of this world, but also those who would allow governments to hand out free drugs, or give their children over to transgender mutilations.

Desecration isn’t something that is simply happening because we live in a sinful world post-fall – it’s not like cancer, difficult communication, or mosquito bites. Remember, desecration is deliberate, and for many desecration has become the very purpose of their existence. Trueman argues it is their goal.

What does Dr. Trueman mean by that? As we know, God put His image on humanity (see Genesis 1:28). “Man as the divine image bearer is the mark of God’s ownership of this world,” notes Dr. Trueman, “and he is to act as his vice-regent within it, carrying out God’s will, not acting in accordance with his own desires.”

That was God’s calling for us, but we were very quick to reject it. Adam and Eve didn’t want to listen to God’s expectations about how to live. They would decide for themselves, by eating from the one tree that God commanded them not to eat from. “To refuse limits, obligations, and ends that are understood to be imposed by God is to rise to god-like status oneself,” explains Trueman.

One of the foremost ways humanity tries to assert itself as its own god is to defile wherever God has put His own stamp, and that most specifically includes us, His image-bearers – human life itself. From the murder of Abel to whatever murder is in the headlines today, human history has been a story filled with desecration ever since. That explains in part why so many of the worlds “culture wars” have centered on life and on sex. These are key parts of what it means to image God.
So why do we have abortion in Canada right up to the moment of birth? No one can be confused at that point about whether it is a child, so the reason it’s allowed is because this destruction is the clearest possible desecration of the Image of God.

Why would an “enlightened” society that speaks so highly of science and reason ever say that a boy can become a girl? Because there are no barriers – not even our DNA can limit us. We can be whatever we want to be because we are gods.

Why do we have a conversion therapy law that bans counseling someone out of homosexuality, but doesn’t ban counseling someone out of heterosexuality? Because it desecrates God’s created order of a man and a woman becoming one.

Why is there such pressure to bow to LGBTQ identity, including with the pronouns that we are expected to use? Because gods demand worship. We must bow the knee. Who are you to deny me!

The antidote to desecration

What is the answer to desecration?

Consecration.

To consecrate something is to set it apart as special and sacred. God has consecrated us, through the Holy Spirit, and His covenant. We belong to the LORD and are called then to live for Him. Living out this consecration will, for many of us, appear very ordinary and maybe not all that special. But it is special because of Who we are dedicating this to. A consecrated life involves:

• Listening to our mom when she asks us to clean up our room;
• Talking respectfully to our siblings, spouse, and neighbors;
• Showing up on time at work;
• Not allowing our hearts and minds to lust;
• Welcoming the gift of life, and taking good care of each child that God has entrusted us with;
• Bringing a meal to our elderly neighbors;
• Caring for a loved one with a terminal illness for as many days as God gives them;
• Singing songs of praise to God around our dinner table.

In sum, it means we love God and our neighbor.

Granted, we can still do these things for the wrong reasons, serving ourselves. But in small and big ways, our thoughts and actions testify to whether we see ourselves as god, or whether we humbly serve the One True God.

Making the right diagnosis

If this all comes down to “loving the LORD and our neighbor,” why does it deserve another article?

Because it is critical that we understand our times rightly – that we make the correct diagnosis of the problems we are experiencing in our world.

If we look superficially and conclude that things are merely “broken,” we will likely think that the answer is that we can try to fix it. Then our hope might be put into political parties, leaders, and influencers, or technology or perhaps education to “fix” things in Canada and the world. Most of the “social justice” causes of our age are an effort to fix real and perceived injustices that we experience and see daily, from racism to drug addictions.

But we aren’t very good at fixing the human condition because the problem goes a lot deeper.

Going back to the example I gave at the beginning of the French Olympic committee, the answer isn’t going to be to educate the committee members about how their Opening Ceremony made Christians feel. They knew it would be offensive. That was their goal.

When we understand that it is desecration we are witnessing all around us, it becomes evident that the first ingredient to restoration and life is spiritual. A heart-change is needed. The only “fix” is to repent of our desire to be gods, and to humbly bow before the only true God.

Politics, education, and technology can all be very important means to bring restoration to this world. But they aren’t the answer by themselves. Jesus Christ is. That is why it is so important that we do everything in Christ, and that also explains why the core purpose of Reformed Perspective is to help you think, speak, and act in Christ.

Far too often I see Christians showing up in the public square and trying to engage with the world on the world’s terms – without Christ. They appeal to logic, science, human rights, natural law, kindness, and a variety of other good things, but fail to recognize that many of the people they are working with are just paying lip service to these values. What they really care about is their own divinity – doing what is right in their own eyes. Then we can waste a lot of effort, and do much harm, when we try to meet them on their terms.

Ordinary and world-changing

Recognizing the desecration all around doesn’t just give us the correct diagnosis of what’s gone wrong, it is also resets the expectations for what success and faithfulness look like.

Christian apologist and thinker Francis Schaeffer understood this well. In a powerful sermon, he went through Scripture to explain that throughout the history of redemption, God has used little people (Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Ruth, Hannah, David, Esther, Mary, the disciples etc.) and little places (Bethel, Shiloh, Bethlehem, Nazareth) to accomplish big things for His kingdom. These people and places were not anything special in their world. Nobody expected much from them.

Schaeffer reflected that many Christians look at their weaknesses and conclude: “It is wonderful to be a Christian, but I am such a small person, so limited in talents or energy or psychological strength or knowledge that what I do is not really important.” To this Schaeffer replied: “The Bible, however, has quite a different emphasis: With God there are no little people.” That is because what matters is not our strength or accomplishments.

“Only one thing is important: to be consecrated persons in God’s place for us, at each moment. Those who think of themselves as little people in little places, if committed to Christ and living under his Lordship in the whole of life, may, by God’s grace, change the flow of our generation.” [emphasis added]

In a world of desecration, our calling is both simple and noble: living consecrated lives for our LORD. Living in Christ.

It may feel ordinary, and even small, but don’t underestimate the impact this will have.