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Wikileaks and the Government of God
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Bonners Ferry Seventh-day Adventist Church, ID, USA
Delivery: 2010-12-18
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2010-12-19 19:32Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kirl-wikileaks.php
Jesus says,
No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light (Luke 8:16, 17). (Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations from the English Standard version.)
Wikileaks
Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, and founder of Wikileaks, a website dedicated to making publicly available a long list of government and other secrets, received over 92 million votes from those who felt he should be declared Time magazine's "Person of the Year." He received more votes than Glenn Beck, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, the Chilean miners. Time magazine selected, however, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, who received 52 million votes.
What makes this fascinating is that Wikileaks and Facebook are opposites. Wikileaks takes the data of large organizations and puts it in the hands of the public; Facebook takes the data of individuals and sells it to private organizations. That is, one trend is toward less power for government and corporations, more for the individual; the opposite trend toward more power for government and corporations, less for the individual. We can see which way Time leans.
In recent months, Wikileaks has revealed that some American military forces were guilty of the cold-blooded killing of civilians in Iraq (For one sample, see the video “Collateral Murder” at wikileaks.ch). The website has also revealed thousands of diplomatic cables showing such things as that the United States government bombed people in Yemen and with the agreement of the government of Yemen and lied to the American public telling them that the bombings had been conducted by the Yemeni government. I don't know about you, but I find it very disturbing when the nation I live in kills people and claims that others have done the deed.
Suddenly, unrelated charges were filed against Assange. Even Interpol became involved. Assange was arrested, pressure applied, Wikileaks had to move several times when political pressure was applied by the United State government to website hosting services. Wikileaks' Paypal and Mastercard accounts were closed down, and for a period of time, Assange was held without bail. Until the other day, Assange was held in solitary confinement for 23 1/2 hours a day. He was not permitted to talk to other prisoners, he was subjected to infrared photography 24 hours a day, and not permitted to read newspapers or magazines.
Possibly, Assange is not our kind of guy in terms of sexual morality. How much do we really know? What we do know is that this man kicked the bee's nest, and now the powers that be are out to destroy him. More interesting for our purposes, is to consider broader questions of secrecy and openness. We have entered a time when our own government is becoming ever more watchful of its own citizens—and not because of the moral character of our lives. How do we deal with that in a Christian manner? How much privacy should we expect? Let's turn to Scripture for insights.
Job Tested, Not told About Satan
The oldest writing in the Bible, we think, is the book of Job. It is a story of trust, openness, testing, transparency, and secrecy. Satan, after being permitted to work mischief in the earth, comes to confront God. But God confronts Satan with the example of His servant Job, who serves Him and lives uprightly. Satan counters that Job serves God for selfish motives, that under testing, his faith would fail and we would see Job’s selfish motives. God permits Satan to put this thesis to the test, and allows Satan to test Job in certain respects. Job remains unaware who is trying to destroy him.
In the end, Job remains faithful; Satan’s thesis is demonstrated to be false. Throughout the testing Job had been unaware that Satan, not God, was his adversary. The fact that Job did not at that time know Satan was responsible is interesting, because the result was that Job must have felt that it was God who was doing this to him. Nevertheless, Job remained entirely convinced of the fairness of God, and only desired to appeal to Him and describe his innocence. He was sure that God would treat him fairly.
Knowledge Withheld From Adam and Eve
The oldest events recorded in the Bible come to us from the earliest chapters of Genesis. Here we find Adam and Eve positioned in the garden of God. They are forbidden only one thing—they are not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan, finding opportunity to tempt them, tells them that God is hiding vital information from them. They distrust God and disobey.
Afterwards it is seen that what God was keeping from them was a knowledge of the suffering that disobedience would bring. Actually, as with Job, what had been occurring was a test. God had a positive purpose toward them and chose not to reveal every detail at that time. He made it clear that the result of disobedience would mean death. We need not know every detail all the time.
Prophecies Sealed
God also sealed portions of the prophetic book of Daniel. This was temporary. In the last days, He has brought these things into the open by unsealing the prophecies. In the book of Revelation these things stand revealed.
Jesus and Privacy
How about Jesus’ commanding His disciples not to reveal to others that He was the Messiah?
Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.’ Then he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’ And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised’ (Luke 9:18-22).
Jesus did state publicly that He was Messiah before He was crucified. Like the other cases, when God uses secrecy, it is always temporary.
Often Jesus told those whom He had healed not to reveal that He had been the one who healed them. In Mark 1:44 He heals a leper and tells him to go to the temple and offer his sacrifice without telling the priests that Jesus had been the one to heal him. In Mark 7:36 Jesus tells a deaf man who is healed not the reveal that Jesus had been the Healer. When Jesus takes His disciples up into the mountain and is transfigured before them, He tells them not to reveal what they have seen (Mark 9:9). When Jesus is accused before the high priest, He says nothing until the high priest himself invokes God and asks Jesus under oath to confirm or deny that He is Messiah. Jesus at that point confirms it. On some occasions Jesus told demons to keep silent about His identity.
Jesus often spoke in parables in order to withhold knowledge from insincere listeners. People who have closed hearts and closed minds, who are irrevocably committed to ungodly values they have already selected, are not entitled to know the truth.
Secrecy in the Bible
The Bible is literally filled with occasions where God’s people hid themselves from kings and governments. Just who is entitled to know the truth? Are people or governments given power arbitrarily to kill?
In Exodus 2:2 the infant Moses is hidden from the Egyptian government which had decreed the death of all male babies. In the New Testament, Herod tried to kill baby Jesus. In Joshua 2:4 Rahab hides the Hebrew spies from the government of Jericho. In 1 Samuel 19:2 Jonathan warns David that his father, king Saul of Israel, is seeking to murder David, and tells David to hide.
In 1 Kings 17:3 God tells Elijah to conceal himself from the government forces of king Ahab. In 1 Kings 18:4 Obadiah hides a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in caves. In 2 Kings 11:2 young Joash is hidden from queen Athaliah who slew the rest of the king’s sons.
In Psalm 27:5 God hides believers in a time of trouble. In Psalm 143:9 the psalmist declares “I flee to you to hide me.” In Proverbs 22:3 we read that
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.”
In Proverbs 28:28,
“When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.”
In Jeremiah 36:26 God hides Jeremiah and Baruch from the king. In John 8:59 there is an attempt to stone Jesus, but He hides Himself from them. In John 12:36 Jesus hides again.
Here’s one more, from the book of Amos, 5:10-13:
They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
There is a place for secrecy, even civil disobedience, in the Bible. The Bible nowhere suggests that human governments have carte blanc to search us at will or demand whatever they want from us. On the contrary, even an uninspired document like the United States Constitution, states,
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized (United States Constitution, Fourth Amendment).
(The Bible does not suggest that we trust the government. There is a reason why we are to pray for secular leaders in order that we may live a quite and peaceful life (1 Timothy 2:2)—namely, because it is but rarely that citizens get us into an international war; almost always it is national “leaders.” In Revelation chapter seven we see that God’s angels are actively holding back the four winds from blowing upon the earth—intervening to prevent the unrestrained outbreak of violence and war.)
At the same time, attempts to hide truth from God are wrong, fatal and futile. Just ask Achan. Joshua chapter seven shows how he hid the Babylonish garment and silver and how God revealed it.
David tried to hide his murder of Uriah and his affair with Bathsheba. God brought it into the open. And the examples go on. One might even say that the Bible itself functions as a positive leak, God’s avenue for exposing what is right and what is wrong. Kings and clergy are not exempt; Popes and ministers are subject to all the white light of truth.
Wikileaks and the Government of God: An Analogy
Back to Wikileaks, now. Let’s draw a rough analogy: Julian Assange is Jesus and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The empire whose secrets we are leaking is the government of Satan. When all see Satan exposed, his government will be forever discredited.
I said it was only a rough analogy. Actually, there are two kinds of information we are “leaking” or presenting to the universe. Yes, we are showing just how bad Satan’s government is. But also, and more importantly, we are demonstrating how good God’s government is. Our lives are the most dangerous “leaks.” Satan says, as he said of Job, that no one serves God unselfishly. He denies the very possibility of altruistic endeavor; all is self-interest.
It is correct to say that much of what occurs on earth does occur on the basis of self-interest. But unselfish love is also a reality. Its origin is from a power beyond us; it comes from God. God’s holy Spirit works in us to change us, to adjust our motivations. He causes us to reach out beyond ourselves, to love out beyond ourselves. Satan knows nothing of this; he prefers to deny it as a possibility. God has placed us here to demonstrate it as a reality. He calls us up higher.
Transparency and Self-Disclosure of God
God does keep some things secret for a limited time. And Ecclesiastes 3:7 says that there is a time to keep silence. And yet, the long-term biblical example of God is transparency and self-disclosure. Recall Genesis 18:17. The evil of Sodom and Gomorrah have reached to heaven and God is on the point of destroying them. But before He does so, He comes to Abraham. What does He say? “Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?” Dialogue concerning the matter, even negotiation, ensues.
At the end of time, before those who have committed themselves to selfishness are finally destroyed, God gives 1,000 years to review all the judgments He has made. We call this the Millennium. During that time, All who wish to will be able to review every decision and assure themselves of the facts of every case. God reveals all.
There will never be a Julian Assange against God’s government. The few things He has kept back He will reveal in full before judgment is executed. Christianity is about transparency. The government of God and the character of God are in the open. God’s government is open. He wants us to look, He desires us to investigate. He will not hide from us what He is doing.
Conclusion
When Julian Assange and Wikileaks come up, perhaps in a conversation at your place of employment or in a family visit at a seasonal get-together, perhaps you will find something to say about Wikileaks and the government of God. Jesus said,
No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light (Luke 8:16, 17). GCO
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