Following Anders court appearance in Norway this week we have to revise our understanding of the word depravity.

Previously it was thought to apply mainly to a dictator who mistreated his people. But some revision is required to take into account the years this man planned the murders. He trained in neutralising his emotions and spent thousands of hours practicing shooting with his computer war simulation games.

During these years the solitary Anders fueled his fear of difference. His ideal was for a pure Nordic race, everyone the same, no immigrants and certainly no Muslims. This dream of a utopian Norway, isolated from the world, shaped his extreme nationalism. Unfortunately this fear of diversity, this paranoia about being taken over, produced a reaction that was massively out of proportion to his imagined problem.

The bombing and shooting spree which left 77 dead has now produced the oxygen of publicity for his extreme ideas now being paraded before the Courts.

His work in disabling his emotions allowed him to mercilessly pursue his human prey on the island and have left him hugely arrogant. He cannot see himself in a realistic light. His perception has become so distorted that he considers himself to be the victim! He mocks the judiciary telling them their verdict should be either freedom or death. Anything else he scorns.

And this is a fellow human being!

What has the Bible to say?

One of the uncomfortable things about this tragedy is the fact that many of the symptoms exhibited by Anders are recognisable in us. It seems that God has permitted the full measure of evil to be displayed in a person whom we, in other circumstances, could identify with.

It’s a bit un-nerving. Like looking in the mirror and seeing our thoughts rather than only our face!

God, who can see our thoughts, has passed the verdict, “…every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood” (Geneses chapter 8 verse 21). But for now there is God’s common grace which restrains us keeping depravity in check.

The coming of Christ ushers in a Kingdom and the presence of God the Holy Spirit with power actually to overcome evil in us and not simply to contain it.

St Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about this transformation, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2nd letter chapter 5 verse 17).

This new heart is available to all who come to Christ believing – repentant murderers, bereaved families you and me, out of the sheer grace of our triune God.

Trust Him.

In the midst of all the razzmatazz surrounding the 100^th anniversary of the Titanic this week you may have missed another sinking which took place– that of Tony Flannery.

The elderly Redemptorist Priest has been singled out for improved theological formation. In other word he has to get in line! This all stems from the report of the Apostolic visitation to examine the condition of the Irish Catholic church in the wake of the clerical child sex abuse scandal.

The Vatican doesn’t announce the terms of reference, process, or duration of its investigation, but it seems he will undergo six weeks of silent reflection in a monastery and be allowed, thereafter, to resume writing and speaking, as long as he steers clear of contentious subjects and his work passes the censor.

So what has drawn the Pope’s ire upon this man? Apparently he is one of the founders of the Irish Association of Catholic Priests, a liberal organisation of around 800 Priests whose views on contemporary subjects do not meet with the approval the Vatican. These subjects include homosexuality, contraception, celibacy of priests, and the ordination of women priests.

The Vatican has been accused of heresy-hunting by the local Archbishop and there appears to be a lingering annoyance here that Rome has never acknowledged its part in the sex-abuse cover-up.

All this is a bit bewildering to the onlooker as it seems the Catholic church is simply doing what its there to do, namely manage its priests. Vows of obedience are not negotiable ideas. The tail doesn’t wag the dog!

What does the Bible say to these things?

First of all we must admit that controversy is not unknown in other churches! It goes back a long way.

Indeed in the letter to the church in Galatia St Paul took issue with St Peter when he saw they were not acting in line with the Gospel over the matter of circumcision. (Galatians Chapter 2 verses 11 to 20) Of course St Paul’s conclusion to that argument puts the nail into the coffin of the notion that any religious works can earn righteousness – “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

But what of Tony Flannery as he does his 6 week stint? Perhaps he could reflect on the saying; Unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials and charity in all things. Essentials are those things that are necessary for salvation, the recognition of the trinity the deity of Christ, his atoning death for sinners, who are spiritually dead and need to be born again.

The non-essentials? All the nonsense trumpeted by pressure groups in the media who have supplanted the Bible in declaring what is and what isn’t Christian behaviour.

And charity? That ability can only come to us by the grace of God our creator and redeemer of whom it was said (in the midst of the confusion and turmoil of His last week on earth) “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

What is good about Good Friday? Isn’t that the day Jesus was killed? Wasn’t He forsaken by His heavenly father? What else could the cry of dereliction mean? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was echoing the prophetic words penned by King David 1,000 years before the crucifixion in Psalm 22.

What is good about being deserted by his friends? Just when he needed them most they were gone. As Zechariah wrote, “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered”.

Indeed the Good Shepherd had been stricken, but by who? The Romans? The Jews? Surely not by God the Father? But Isaiah Ch.53 says He was. “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” It was why the angel said he came to earth, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

So how did Jesus the Good Shepherd become their saviour? St John writes, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” The shepherd becomes the sacrificial lamb. St John quoting John the Baptist writes, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Jesus confirmed his calling when at the Last Supper He changed the direction of the Passover from remembering their deliverance from Egypt to a memorial focused on Himself, “He took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. St Matthew chapter 26 verses 27/8.

It is not good enough the relate the work of Calvary to the Sermon on the Mount and the Isaiah scroll from which Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” These identified Jesus as the Messiah and indicated to us what sort of God, God the Father is.

The newspapers sell us short in their Easter editorials when they simply imply that Jesus died for a good cause.

The pulpits also deflect our attention from the wonder of “Amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me” to the illustration of the bread and the cup, substituting the image for the reality. Jesus has actually finished the work of salvation.

The glory of Easter is that He who was forsaken by His heavenly Father in order that we who repent of our sins and turn away from them to trust in His sinbearing sacrifice will never be forsaken but enter into that new life of being a child in the family of our triune God.

Census figures revealed this week, of the 5 years to 2011, show an overall increase in the population to 4.5 million.

Interestingly, despite all our faults, there was a 25% increase in the number of people choosing to live here. They come mainly from our neighbours in Europe and reflect the increase of immigration at the end of the boom years.

However the fact is that many stayed here after the “good times” had gone and are reflected in the figure for those born outside of Ireland which is now 766,770. This pluralism has led to a further diversity in religious beliefs with Muslims and Orthodox showing dramatic growth.

Another feature was the “no religion” which is the highest category after Catholic. The latter remain around 90% of the population despite the drop in numbers attending mass prompting one commentator to take the view that the term has more to do with identity than religion.

Sadly the Methodists have halved whilst Baptists did not register on the scale!

The Bible has quite a lot to say about census.

When the tribes of Israel came into the Promised Land the people were numbered so that the land could be fairly divided.

Later during King David’s reign he called for a census. This was known as the sinful census as it came from David’s military ambitions rather than the poll tax authorised in Exodus chapter 30 verse 11 which he had failed to collect!

It was a census that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem fulfilling the prophesy Micah made a few hundred years earlier (Micah chapter 5 verses 2/5).

But Christianity burst out from its Jewish roots at the first Pentecost when a diverse crowd responded to the Gospel – “And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia” Acts chapter 2 verses 8/9.

Many responded to St Peter’s message, “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’ and became followers of the risen Jesus.

In an increasingly diverse world let us pray for another Pentecost which will include Ireland.

“Corruption in Irish political life was both endemic and systemic” so says the Mahon Tribunal’s report published this week. What this means is not that corruption was marginal but that it WAS the Irish political system.

The lion’s share of the disgrace exposed by the report goes to the party who led the country and supremely to the “bould Bertie” who orchestrated it over many years.

In a largely godless society where sanctions for wrongdoing have been nullified so that they do not apply to those in authority there is little incentive for those with the power to do what is right.

The genius of the democratic system depends on those in office being dismissed at the next election thus preventing them from perfecting corruption! It falls down when they get repeatedly re-elected by an electorate which appreciates the benefits of having politicians in power who break the rules for them. Eventually the contamination spreads till those who would wish to act aright are implicated and their honesty erodes away. Sadly the threat of loss of promotion or loss of job encourages the conscience to become elastic and practices are permitted as moral backbone crumbles.

There were rare occasions when corruption cracked open and a basically honest person was revealed. This was movingly portrayed during the Tribunal when the Taoiseach’s secretary was reminded that what she was saying was under oath. The pressure of sustaining lies proved too much for her and she blurted out in tears that she only wanted to get home to her children.

However the norm was to brazen it out and trust there wouldn’t be another Dunlop to give the show away! There wasn’t but Mahon painstakingly documented every lie for posterity.

What has the Bible to say to this?

Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” Chapter 1 verse 7. The reason for the fear is the coming judgement which will be for all of us. In recognition of this the Psalmist says, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared”. (Psalm 130 verses 3/4)

There is a recognition that God could justly withhold that forgiveness which for those of faith is a strong incentive to do right. But for those whose faith is in Jesus and not in their ability to do right forgiveness flows from trusting in His sin-bearing work on the cross. The Apostle John writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. (1 John 1:9)

Those who have been hauled before an earthly tribunal should remember along with the rest of us that it’s not the only tribunal they and we will have to face. Its findings will have eternal implications.

Trust in the work of Jesus and submit to Him the control of your life.

Who can turn Table Mountain green and paint the Niagara Falls a similar colour? Who can scatter the Irish Cabinet Ministers to the four corners of the world? And who can stop the traffic in many of the world’s capital cities annually on the 17^th March?

The one and only Saint Patrick!

But where is this Patrick who came to Ireland to convert the Druids from their Celtic mystical ways and pagan practices? In places where the occult flourished he brought the light of the Gospel. Sadly the light has all but gone out replaced by the glitz of the big time entertainment with its god mammon milking the occasion for all its worth.

Can Patrick be found in the parades? Only in caricature form, usually in his legendary garb, chasing snakes out of the country. Most times he’s replaced by the “Mardi Gras” type festival – a big blow-out in the middle of Lent! Not that Patrick would have known about the latter. He was free from ritual and, if his writings are anything to go by, guided by scripture.

Indeed Hanson quotes 193 times he uses the Bible in his Confession.

Perhaps the most interesting is his graphic account of his conversion. It was in his teenage years, as a captive from his native land. He was sold into slavery in Ireland where he recalls his own sinfulness and turned wholeheartedly to “the Lord my God”. This was a time in Ireland when conversion was still ongoing before the church introduced the baptism of infants with the attendant creation of Christendom.

Let’s leave the last word to the man himself.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity;

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

Of whom all nature hath creation;

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

So can Sean Gallagher say he was only a tweet away from becoming the President of Ireland? This week the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s compliance committee upheld his complaint against the programme “Frontline” which used a tweet allegedly coming from a rival candidate’s campaign team and which effectively terminated his chances.

Members of the team were in the studio and the authenticity of the tweet could have been easily verified but the allegation that Sean Gallagher was a Fianna Fail bagman was allowed to stand with disastrous results to his independent stance and his Presidential hopes.

To compound matters the author of the tweet never appeared at the press conference planned for the next day and the cheque which was the subject of the tweet had been banked the day before the fundraising event where it was supposed to have been handed to Gallagher!

And we thought that these things only happened in Russia!

What has the Bible to say to such matters?

Lying, whether by tweet or words, breaks a commandment. Stealing, in this case another’s reputation, breaks another commandment (Exodus Chapter 20 verses 15/16). But who of us are not guilty of these sins? How then can any get right with God?

There is another type of election the Bible speaks of, not where we vote but one in which God, in love, takes the initiative.

This love of God for his own explains how mankind’s rebellion against his laws and rejection of Jesus is overpowered in some people. They are those who hear God’s word and take it on board. As Jesus said in his prayer, “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.  I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” (St John Chapter 17 verses 8/9)

These people are drawn to him by a faith which he gives. God the Father is absolutely determined that they will be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. They will one day be like Him.

Such is the irresistible electing love of our triune God. Our stubborn wills are overcome by his grace and no bogus tweet can thwart his plans.

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

St Paul writing to the church at Rome Chapter 8 verses 33…39.

The farmer had the ring fort demolished and used the stone to infill a nearby pond. He had bought the land a couple of months before and thought that ownership gave him the right to do what he liked with it.

When the Judge fined him €25,000 this week he discovered otherwise!

Despite the fact there are 40,000 ring fort sites identified in Ireland it seems that each one of these National Monuments are precious. “They are held in trust for the culture of the country” the Judge warned.

So, who owns the land?

Can the Bible throw any light on the matter?

Land features throughout the Bible story. It was originally promised by God to Abraham in Genesis Chapter 12 and for the next 500 or so years was known as the “Promised Land”.

The partial fulfilment of the promise came when the Israelites under Joshua took possession of some of it after they escaped from captivity in Egypt.

However it wasn’t till the reign of King David that the whole of the promised land entered their possession.

The people’s relationship to the land formed something of an acted parable. When they obeyed and lived Godly they prospered and defeated their enemies. When the disobeyed their fortunes were reversed and they became subject to the hostile nations which surrounded them.

The Israelites knew the rules but their propensity to break them by sinning ultimately led to their exile at the hands of the Babylonians. Now they had lost everything. One of the most plaintive verses is in 2Kings 25 verse 21 “So Judah went into captivity , away from their land”.

The question was would God still be their God?

The captivity lasted 70 years during which they realised from their scriptures that their fate had been predicted as a consequence of their behaviour. But God was still with them, guiding them throughout their exile.

National restoration to the land was pioneered by Nehemiah and Ezra and some efforts were made to rebuild the temple. These did not amount to much when compared to the glory of Solomon’s temple but the prophet Haggai spoke of a better day which dawned with the arrival of Jesus proclaiming that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand (St Matthew chapter 4 verse 17).

For those who had eyes to see the coming of Jesus was the end of the exile for the people of God. The land was a cipher for his Kingdom where those who bow the knee to him enter by faith into the new covenant in his blood which is the title deeds of this new land. St Paul referred to Jesus in similar terms in his letter to the church at Colosse, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (chapter 1 verses 13/14).

A private members Bill, this week, tried to raise the unfinished business of the X case where 20 years ago the Supreme Court decreed that a pregnant minor be permitted to travel to the UK for an abortion. No Government has re-visited this subject to legislate for the procedure to be carried out locally and with a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights against us we await yet another report due in June to tell us what to do.

It’s a long time since Francis Schaeffer co-authored a book “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” which made the plea to stop killing our young. The likelihood of any secession taking place in the West is remote as the numbers mount to astronomical proportions.

Two cases were mentioned in the press. The first, a married couple, had received a diagnosis in effect stating that the baby would not be likely to live. The second discovered that she had got her dates wrong and the baby was that of a former partner. However as neither the new nor the old partner wanted a child the question as to who the father was seemed irrelevant.

These accounts, appearing in cold print, to some extent masked the enormous emotional experience that those involved went through. The newspaper stories ended but of course they do not end in the lives of those involved but remain indelibly etched in the conscience. The knowledge as to how you dealt with a very vulnerable person cannot be eradicated. It was part of you and, in some ways, always will be.

What help can be obtained from the Bible?

Towards the end of his life the Apostle Paul claimed, “I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.” This means that he had to work at it. It doesn’t happen by chance. Self-control is required. Decisions have to be worked out.

People need all the help they can get.

If St Paul had removed the God dimension and simply wanted a conscience clear before men he would be in our secular humanist world – adrift in a sea of ideas in a rudderless craft! `Reason` would be at the helm and the `feel-good` factor would set the course. There is little equipment on such a ship to help the couples make life and death decisions. One poignantly cried for her mother. But she was in another country.

The Bible says that God hears these cries and in Jesus Christ has come into our sin-sick world which rejected him, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” St Matthew 23 verse 37.

But for those today who recognise their need and hear his voice the invitation, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” St Matthew 11 verses 28/30.

His yoke is easy because He bore the ultimate yoke of our sins on the cross that we might know the peace that comes from a cleansed conscience and the promised presence of the Holy Spirit to guide us in the rest of our lives.

What have we done to deserve this? A three day visit by the Vice-President of China. We are the only European State to be graced by his presence. He has met with the great ones in the US of A who rolled out the red carpet for him and now we meet him on the wet and windy tarmac of Shannon Airport.

Actually he may well have picked Shannon himself as its Business Park is reckoned to have been the prototype of the highly successful Chinese “Special Economic Zones”. These permit free enterprise to flourish in the midst of a State controlled economy. Like ourselves the Chinese have not let political philosophy get in the way of making money!

While in the US Xi visited a farm and discussed with the farmer the problem of matching production to the market needs. A very relevant question when you have the job of 1.3 billion mouths to feed! Here, he is scheduled to visit a dairy farm so our milk producers can start to increase their output. There is no word of him checking out our beef although we had a squad of Chinese on the farm recently, with many cameras, looking at how it is done.

Who knows, we may yet convert the rice eaters to beef!

Of course it is not all one way. The first Western settlers in China were missionaries and the first Protestant missionary was Robert Morrison. He met with great hardships and during his 27 years there and was only able to get home once.

He produced the first Chinese-English dictionary and translated the whole Bible. The New Testament was re-issued in pocket form to avoid being confiscated by the authorities and made its way into the interior secreted in the dress or belongings of believers.

He had been there for 7 years before he baptised the first convert. His diary entry of that event reads “At a spring of water, issuing from the foot of a lofty hill, by the sea-side, away from human observation, I baptised him in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. . . May he be the first fruits of a great harvest”.

His prayer has been answered in a most spectacular way.

Today it is reckoned there are at least 50,000,000 Christians in the unregistered churches and the same number in the official denominations.

Surely a partial fulfilment of Isaiah’s words, “So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”.

Perhaps Xi may get a copy of the Bible in his own language and hear the voice of God speaking to him. St Peter believed it was the word of God that transforms the unbeliever into a believer, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God”. 1 Peter chapter 1 v 23.