God Has No Experts

As one who has been involved in the transformation and healing the land movement that is taking place throughout the world, I have never been comfortable with referring to those of us who have seen God at work to some degree in these areas in our own sphere of influence as "experts" or as "practitioners" as if we had mastered the technique for God to bring transformation. We sometimes get invited to these "national summits" as if we were at the top, at the summit, from where we can dispense answers to others.

The kingdom of God is not a "top-down" approach to human relations. In fact, the true apostles are those who get underneath, who go deeper, who lay a foundation underground that others can build upon as the kingdom of God increases from the bottom level upward.

I am also convinced that there are no experts in bringing healing or transformation to a community. The moment we think we know something about how God works, and reduce it to a formula or even a principle that by-passes the need for a personal relationship with God, we find that God will usually, if not always, surprise us. We find that He never works on two different occasions in the same way. He has a way of showing up outside of our box, or our mental understanding of things.

In facing new challenges, I personally find the need to abandon all sense of expertise, all reliance on past experience or human knowledge, and to cast myself upon the mercy of God yet another time. He tends to come only to those who are desperate for Him, and who admit that they don't know what to do.

God does His best work through kings like Jehoshaphat, who, in a time of crisis, simply cry out that "we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, neither do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You" (II Chronicles 20:12).

The reason why God works powerfully among the Inuit is not because they are a strong people, but because they are a weak people who in themselves have come to recognize their total inadequacy to overcome the challenges that they face. They are a broken people, who no longer have intellectual answers to satisfy the western way of thinking.

There are no words to express their deepest sense of need. They have been reduced to a cry, a groan, a sigh, a tear. They are beginning to release their heart cry for God which is deeper than words. God healing power is never more evident than when people acknowledge that they don't know what to do. God rarely shows up where people already have the answers for others.

That which prepares the way for the coming of the glory of the Lord is simply a cry, a prayer, a willingness to repent, a willingness to change, a humbling of oneself before the mighty hand of God. Many times I have been driven to my knees with a sense that I had nowhere else to go, and nothing to say except a cry that acknowledged that only God understood the deepest longings of my heart that only He could fulfill.

"Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear, the upward glancing of the eye when none but God is near!"

When things get desperate, we don't even know how to pray as we ought, no matter how much experience we may have had. We never become "experts" in God's Kingdom. If we think that we know how God will work or answer our prayers, we reduce God to our mindset, and then He will surprise us by working outside of our box.

In this picture, you see both a Jewish and an Inuit lady embracing and their hearts connecting. What is it that connects them? Why do they instantly feel drawn to one another when they had never met before? Is it because they know so much?

No, it is because both the Inuit and the Jewish people have been a broken people. They have known suffering, rejection, abandonment, exile, and dispossession of land. They share the same longings to be a free people in their own homeland.

God will use a people who are humble and have been broken to reach the nations far more than He can use people who see themselves as experts or practitioners who have the answers for others. The kingdom of God does not work that way. It is the humble who are exalted, and the meek who inherit the earth.

I recently read a powerful book by Tricia McCary Rhodes entitled, Intimate Intercession. In it, she writes, "People who read books on prayer are usually hoping to learn how to pray more effectively. If that describes you, you'll be eager for me to give you some handles on how to get started or move beyond the point you are at right now.

"Should you commit an hour a day to pray for others? Should you fast consistently or spend one night a week in prayer? Do you need to have some weekly plan that ensures every need is prayed for regularly?

"The answer for all these things, for now, is no. What I'm going to ask you to do instead is to set aside your expectations of what this journey is supposed to be like. Let go of all the 'should's' and 'ought to's' that come at you when you think of prayer.

"Resist the nagging voices that tell you if you would just work harder or learn more or become more spiritual, you'd finally get this whole intercession thing right.

"Andrew Murray wrote that, 'the sense of impotence is the soul of intercession.' Don't rush past this blessed truth. Do you feel powerless at times in intercession or even impotent to begin or persevere in prayer? Do you feel inadequate?

"Do you look at yourself and wonder what God is thinking of when He calls you an intercessor? Do you watch others further along the path and question whether you will ever get there?

"If your answer is yes to any one of these questions, then there is incredibly good news for you. The very thing that makes you doubt yourself is that which actually qualifies you to be an intercessor.

"Why? Because God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). The very foundation of humility is the ability to see our own need and impotence, our helplessness to do the things we want to do.

"This is the soul of intercession because it opens the door for us to receive God's grace, and 'grace is God's transforming power to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves.'"

The Bondservant

In each of the references below, we can see that Paul, Timothy, Peter, Jude and John referred to themselves and other believers as bondservants. In the case of Paul and Peter, before they referred to themselves as apostles, they referred to themselves as bondservants of Jesus Christ.

Paul submitted himself willingly as a bondservant of Jesus Christ who Himself, during the days of His flesh, made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a bondservant before God exalted Him to a place far above all principalities and powers.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant..." (Philippians 2:5-7).

"Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle..." (Romans 1:1).

"For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake" (II Corinthians 4:5).

"For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10).

"Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ..." (Philippians 1:1).

"Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ..." (Titus 1:1).

"James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ..." (James 1:1).

"Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ..." (II Peter 1:1).

"Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ..." (Jude 1).

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His bondservants--things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by His angel to His bondservant John" (Revelation 1:1).

The word for "bondservant" in the Greek language is the word "doulos."

The Greek word "doulos" (δοῦλος) is used throughout the New Testament to denote servanthood, and primarily means that one is a slave. One who refers to himself in this way is saying that he is one who gives himself up completely to the will of another.

A Kingdom bondservant or a handmaiden is one whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing His kingdom among men and women. A Kingdom bondservant does not live to please himself, or anyone other than his heavenly Master.

A bondservant is devoted to another to the disregard of his own personal interests. A bondservant is entirely at the disposal of his master.

Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John, in referring to themselves as bondservants of Jesus Christ are saying that their life is not their own. They have been bought with a price. Their life and their plans belong entirely to their heavenly Master and Lord, and that He has the right to employ them or to dispose of them as He chooses. A bondservant is one who subjects himself to another in the strictest sense of subservience to his Lord and Master.

I got to thinking about what it means to be a "bondservant" after the teaching of one of the members of the Fiji Healing the Land Team, Aminiasi Waqanivalu, who shared on this concept at the Canada Awakening Ministries' training for the healing of the land process in Canada. Here were some of the thoughts that he shared on being a "bondservant":

"He must be willing to have one thing on top of another put on him without being given any considerations. A hired servant expects something; a bondservant expects nothing.

"Having done everything required of him, a bondservant does not become selfish, and does not accuse others. A bondservant exists to serve. He has no rights. He receives no wages, and has no right to appeal.

"A bondservant has no ground for pride, or for self-congratulation. He must act and endure everything with meekness and humility, and after he has done his master's will, he must acknowledge that he is an 'unprofitable servant,' and has only done his duty (Luke 17:10).

"And if his master should choose to put his bondservant aside for whatever reason, and choose to work through somebody else, the bondservant must accept this willingly, and without complaining, knowing that he is completely subject to his master's will."

Knowing how people in authority abuse their position and mistreat their subjects, to many of us, this is a scary concept indeed. I thought that we were "created free and equal," and are supposed to be free of the control of others so that we can all reach our own full potential and destiny as a free-standing person who is motivated from within without the confinement of rules, regulations and external controls!

There is a paradox here in that every person is created in the image of God, and has equal dignity, worth, value and the right to choose. Has not God given to every human being a freewill? Does God not stand in opposition to any human being dominated by any kind of bondage or slavery or captivity? Do not the scriptures teach that "there is neither slave nor free..for you are all one in Christ Jesus"? (Galatians 3:28).

This reality is also truth, and if you put those truths together, you understand something of why truth must be understood as paradox, and does not always fit neatly into those rational polarizations of thought whereby we in the western world compartmentalize ideas, and then spend much of our lives debating and arguing about one polarity over against the other.

While the Corinthians were arguing and disputing about certain teachings of certain ministries and human leaders around whom they were polarizing, Paul stated, "Let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come--all are yours! And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (I Corinthians 3:21-23).

G. K. Chesterton and Paradox

G. K. Chesterton was one who recognized that while truth was not subjective, it was far from simple, and is therefore best portrayed by paradox. A narrow rationality cannot explain or express the complexity of truth.

As my daughter Stephanie wrote in a university paper entitled, Progress Redefined: G. K. Chesterton and the Need for Orthodoxy for her "History of Western Civilization" class, "When one claims the existence of objective truth, opposition necessarily arises. Speaking one truth almost ways means contradicting oneself by the opposite (which is most certainly also true)."

The Hebraic mind is willing to let opposite polarities of truth that seem to contradict one another hang, whereas the Greek mindset wants to limit truth to one paradigm of thinking only. One with this mindset spends his whole life debating, arguing, and attempting to take one side of the truth against another.

G. K. Chesterton's device of paradox enabled him to say several things at once, and avoid the contradiction of leaving some aspect of truth out. Some parts of truth are indeed a mystery which our mind is still in the process of understanding. Part of our problem is with verbal and linguistic inadequacy to communicate fully the meaning of spiritual truth.

A Hebraic mind will not point out the ridiculousness of a paradox, but will arouse the wonder of it. In this post on what it means to be both a bondservant and a freeman, I am using paradox to express neglected aspects of truth in the western culture.

What the western culture is fast losing is the knowledge that all true freedom works within a moral framework. The freest societies are those who based their laws on the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule.

Postmodern man sees every moral generalization as oppressive to individual freedom and autonomy, with little regard for community. G. K. Chesteron took on George Bernard Shaw in his book, Heretics, and challenged his assertion that "the golden rule is that there is no golden rule."

According to Chesterton, "The objection to this is simply that it pretends to free men, but really restrains them from doing the only thing that men want to do. What is the good of telling a community that it has every liberty except the liberty to make laws? The liberty to make laws is what constitutes a free people...

"The saying that 'the golden rule is that there is no golden rule," can, indeed, be simply answered by being turned around. That there is no golden rule is itself a golden rule, or rather it is much worse than a golden rule. It is an iron rule; a fetter on the first movement of a man."

Societies that are not governed by "a rule of law" ends up up being governed by "the will of power," and the strong end up oppressing and ruling the weak. That being said, what the Christian worldview offers us is so much more than simply being governed by "a rule of law."

The mature Christian life is based not on an external law based on force, but an internal law based on consent, the law of love. "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10).

However, because we are born self-centred and egocentric, it takes a training, a discipline, a process of discipleship to equip us to move from our selfishness to a life that serves others by love as we submit to the law of Christ from within. His presence frees us to do what we ought, and to esteem others more highly then ourselves. This is the road to true greatness.

In the western world, we look on a bondservant as a loser, as a nobody, as having no reputation. In a sense, that is true. But as G. K. Chesterton stated in his book Heretics, "The man who said "Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed,' put the eulogy quite inadequately and even falsely. The truth is, 'Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.'

"The man who expects nothing sees redder roses than common men can see, and greener grass, and a more startling sun. Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall possess the cities and the mountains; blessed is the meek, for he shall inherit the earth."

The Other Side of the Coin

So the paradox of this truth on being a bondservant is in the words of Jesus, "No longer do I call you bondservants, for a bondservant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15).

To the Romans, Paul wrote, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:15-17).

A bondservant works for no wages, but a son receives the inheritance, and everything that his father has belongs to him. Far from being a "bondservant" who has no inheritance, Paul is here saying that we are sons of God through Christ, and if we are sons, we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ of all that God has.

What many of us with a western mindset of individual autonomy, independence, and a license to do whatever we want whenever we want have failed to note, however, is that Paul introduces this passage on our inheritance as sons with this preface in verse 14: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14).

So sonship here refers to those who are led by the Spirit of God rather than by their flesh. The truth is that unless an infant or a small child learns to become self-controlled by learning to submit to the will of somebody older and wiser, they would use unlimited freedom without training and guidance in a way that would destroy themselves. We must learn to be led by the Spirit, and not by our autonomous mind or independent thinking.

A small child does not have the maturity to administer an inheritance without squandering it. An immature son would waste his father's inheritance like a prodigal. It would ruin him.

And so, when Paul says to the Galatians, "You are no longer a bondservant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:7), it is important to notice that again, he introduced and prefaced those remarks with the following words:

"Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a bondservant, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father" (Galatians 4:1, 2). There is a time, as the son becomes mature, that he receives the reward of the inheritance. It is a time appointed by the father, not the child.

Until then, the son needs to learn obedience, be trained and disciplined to make wise choices. Some choices would bring disaster if we were left in a rebellious and self-centred state. Even Jesus, as a Son, had to learn obedience. We need to be taught to obey so we don't have to learn everything from scratch.

"Though he was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). Today, the western world lives in a narcissistic, selfish culture of "meism" that demands personal rights centred around the self, instead of respecting human rights around something or someone greater than ourselves. Without having learned obedience, we will insist on "our rights" first and foremost, and that will destroy us.

Lots of Choice. Little Freedom.

In the National Post newspaper of June 9, 2008, Lorne Gunter wrote an article entitled, "Lots of choice. Little freedom." He documents how that the material plenty offered by our consumer culture hides a creeping erosion in the liberties that truly matter.

He writes, "Apparently, the political happiness of we who live in the Western liberal democracies is flat-lining--or even declining--despite all the choice and affluence we enjoy."

He refers to William Gorten, the author of the paper, "Too much of a Good Thing: Freedom, Individualism, Autonomy and the Decline of Happiness in the Liberal Democracies." He postulates that "the causes of this stagnation or decline may be attributable, directly or indirectly, to core values of liberalism--namely freedom of choice, autonomy and individualism."

"There's the assumption that human beings make the best choices for how to lead a happy life," noted the professor from Alma College in Michigan. and yet, "we haven't seen increases in happiness that you would expect to see.

"There's been a big spike in depression in all the Western liberal democracies over the last 50 years--and this is while gross domestic product per capita has been increasing. An abundance of choice may actually make people unhappy."

Social conservatives have argued for years that too much personal choice leads to social deterioration. Family values break down when the traditional family model--mom, dad, kids--is devalued by government's sanctioning alternative choices such as common-law and same-sex families. Individualism undermines the sense of community, connectedness and bonding between the gender and the generations.

Those who see affluence as the enemy will tend to see the problem as people having too much money, too much consumer choice. Their "solution" would be to try to inculcate the socialist ideal of establishing a sense of equality needed to advance civil society by taxing away the rich to use the proceeds supposedly for the "common good."

As somebody once said, however:

"You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves."

The thing about trying to define human freedoms that are set out in documents like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) while ignoring the Charter's preamble referring to "the supremacy of God and the rule is law" is that these freedoms are based upon and sanctioned by state compulsion for their legitimacy.

Benjamin Disraeli once said that an Englishman did not need a lot of laws, because he was prepared to do the proper thing of his own accord. Now our statutes fill scores of volumes. Every aspect of our personal, family, professional and social lives, regardless of how minute, is subject to government oversight.

Meanwhile, experts are puzzled about why there is a growing dissatisfaction with government. Perhaps it is because freedom isn't failing us. We are unhappy because we are no longer free.

We are being offered bread and circuses to satisfy and amuse us, while nearly all of the freedoms that truly matter are being taken away.

The True Basis of Freedom

The apostle Paul had some real insight when he acknowledged that each and every one of us is a slave, a bondservant. We will either be slaves to sin, to controlling habits, and to addictions, or we will be a bondservant of a righteousness and a right standing of God that frees us from those controlling things, and frees us to become sons with rights to a massive inheritance.

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as bondservants to obey, you are that one's bondservants whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death of of obedience leading to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16).

While touting our freedom to do whatever we want, we have no clue or inkling about the degree to which our minds our being controlled by movies, by the mass media, or by advertisers who are bombarding us with messages that are incomplete and one-dimensional. Beer commercials showing the scene at the party do not show the inebriated guy after the party who runs over his best buddy. The commercials don't go there.

We are not as free as we would like to think we are. Drugs, sex, and other passions, if they are uncontrolled and not kept within boundaries, lead us down a pathway where we lose control of ourselves and end up doing things we had once thought we would never do. We justify ourselves by either blaming others, or making excuses, or saying, "The devil made me do it!"

Our physical bodies and appetites make for a wonderful servant, but a beast of a master. God created our bodies and they are good. Only they were never designed to be in control of us, but to be into subjection to our spirit, and to our real desire to live a life of freedom that does not centre around the self.

The Bible does not teach the supression of desire, or that all personal desires are to be extinguished as Buddhism does. In Buddhism, suffering can be ended by attaining dispassion, and extinguishing all forms of clinging and attachment. In such thinking, desire is the cause of all suffering.

The Bible talks about God fulfilling rather than frustrating the desires of our heart, but they need to be fulfilled appropriately in God's way and in His timing. There is a time of waiting, of training and of discipline involved in order for desires to be legitimately and righteously fulfilled in a far fuller way than self-centred lifestyles could ever do.

Unbridled desire and personal pleasure make a good slave, but a poor master. When our primary focus is on instant, personal self-gratification, the results can be destructive to both us, and to others around us. It leads to unhealthy lifestyles and decisions that we later regret.

And so the Bible talks about the need to become a "bondservant" to righteousness so that we will be trained and disciplined as we are led by the Spirit, often through times of testing where He is training us to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil.

Those who overcome grow into mature sons of God whom He can trust, and who will not be destroyed by the massive reward of the inheritance that is ours, an inheritance that includes "all things" (I Corinthians 3:21, 22) and "the nations to the uttermost part of the earth" (Psalm 2:8) as "joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17)

The fact is, either we will be a bondservant of sin leading to death, or of righteousness leading to life (Romans 6:16). Paul put it this way, "For he who is called in the Lord while a slave (bondservant) is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave (bondservant). You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men" (I Corinthians 7:22. 23).

To put it another way, you can be confined to a physical prison, and still be a free man on the inside, whereas you can also be free on the outside, but a slave to sinful passions and lusts on the inside. We all have to decide whose bondservants we will become.

The Bible and Slavery

Some sceptics make much of the fact that the Bible seems to condone slavery, even though it is so very unjust when humans who themselves are not subject to God become masters. Wherever slavery was a part of the culture, the Bible does not talk about initially changing the culture so much as as changing the heart, and applying the need for the love of Christ to rule in whatever situation we are in.

That is what brings transformation, or inside out change into a culture. Simply changing the government, or externally changing the laws, or fomenting revolution never produce true, permanent, lasting change for the better. We need to learn to overcome from within wherever we are, or in whatever lot we may have in life.

The Bible is based on the premise that God is in ultimate control, and that it is the humble who will ultimately be exalted, and that it is the meek who will ultimately inherit the earth. It is those who mature as sons of God, and who become peacemakers, that God will give the reward of the inheritance.

The gospel will elevate the quality of life in any culture, but the change comes from the inside out, not from the outside in. The issues of life proceed from the heart, not from the external environment (Proverbs 4:23).

While the Bible does not directly condemn slavery, it does require a heart change for both masters and slaves. The working out of biblical teaching will produce a more egalitarian society wherein "we are all one in Christ" where "there is no respect of persons" (Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25).

The Bible certainly contains warnings about the practice of slavery (Amos 1:6; Revelation 18:13), and advocates a "covenant of brotherhood" (Amos 1:9). Correspondingly, the Old Testament Law did regulate Israel's treatment of slaves (Exodus 21; Deuteronomy 15).

Repeatedly, the people were instructed not to rule over a fellow Israelite harshly (Leviticus 25:39-43; Deuteronomy 15:12-18). If a master harmed a slave, the law provided that the slave could go free (Exodus 21:26, 27), and the killing of a slave called for a penalty (Exodus 21:20).

Against the social and national backdrop of other nations, slaves in Israel were given some consideration and were to be treated humanely. There was also the right of redemption, where freedom could be purchased back. This pictures what Christ did for all humanity when He paid the price to free us from the slavery to sin.

Under Jewish law, no Hebrew was to be the permanent slave of another Hebrew (Exodus 21:2; Leviticus 25:39-46; Deuteronomy 15:12). If a slave desired to continue with his master, he would have a mark made in the ear to signify that he had chosen to remain a slave because he loved his master (Exodus 21:5, 6).

Similarly, when one comes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and finds that He is not a harsh taskmaster, but a friend and a brother (John 15:15; Hebrews 2:11, 17), he willingly choose to become His bondservant forever! As we allow His Holy Spirit to write the laws of God on our hearts, and on our inward parts, it becomes an absolute delight and a joy to serve Him out of love, not out of fear.

David could say that he served God, not out of duty, but out of delight. "I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8). "I will delight myself in Your statutes...Your testimonies are my delight and my counsellors...I delight in Your law (Psalm 119:16, 24, 70).

The man is blessed, happy, fortunate, to be envied, who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but whose "delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:1, 2). "Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart...The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace" (Psalm 37:4, 11).

In the meantime, we are in training. Even unjust authorities will eventually come to the understanding that they are ultimately accountable to Somebody greater than they are. They are not God. Much of the world is right now in a situation where they are not finding justice from the authorities of this world. Yet what we sow in this present age is what we will reap in the age which is to come.

In the present age, our hearts are being prepared to handle the riches and greatness that will be the portion of the meek who rule and reign with Christ in the age which is to come. Our hearts are being tried and tested, and our reactions to others reveal our hearts.

Are we a bondservant of man, or of Jesus Christ? If we do our very best to obey civil authorities and rulers as unto Christ, we become mature sons and daughters of God. We learn humility, we learn obedience (like Christ) through the things that we suffer. We are being trained to be able to handle our future inheritance as sons without it ruining us.

So it is a paradox of life that for every person to become free, they must first of all become a bondservant. They will end up being a bondservant regardless, either to sin, or to God.

And it is to those who are led by the Spirit, those who become mature sons and daughters, that God offers the "reward of the inheritance." Even if we are in a position of being asked to submit to earthly rulers who are unreasonable and unfair, we are to submit to them (unless they require us to sin) as if we were doing it unto Christ, our true Master, who is also our Friend and our Brother.

On the other hand, earthly masters and rulers are to note that they had better treat human beings under them as a brother, for they are also accountable to a Master in heaven with whom there is no respect of persons. In this light, the New Testament admonitions begin to make sense.

"Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ. Not with eyeservice as menpleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

"And you masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him" (Ephesians 6:5-9).

"Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not in eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.

"But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven" (Colossians 3:22-4:1).

To an earthly master, Philemon, Paul appealed on behalf of his slave, Onesimus. His appeal was "that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave--a beloved brother..." (Philemon 15, 16).

We so often sing in the Christmas Carol, O Holy Night!, these perceptive lines:

"Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His Name all oppression shall cease."

Until that day when "all oppression shall cease", we are in training to exercise authority wisely, so that in the Kingdom of heaven, there will be no abuse, no injustice, no tyranny. If we believe that God is the Judge of all, we can afford to give up our rights, commiting ourselves, as Jesus did, "to Him who judges righteously" (I Peter 2:23).

It is in this context that Peter says, "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully...For to this you wre called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps" (I Peter 1:18, 19, 21).

In Christ, whoever is a man's bondservant is the Lord's freedman, and whoever is free in the natural is also the Lord's bondservant.

I can now begin to understand why the underground church continues to flourish in China. Dorothy Sun tells the story of how her father was tortured during the Cultural Revolution under Mao tse Tung, and she was so angry about the injustice of it all, she was determined to lash back at the authorities.

Her father told her that this was not the right way to look at things. He said that "if we endure patiently, the Lord is really going to bless us." He understood that overcoming suffering is the way to glory, and our trials only serve to reveal what is in our own hearts. Yet there will be justice, because God will ultimately give to each one according to their own work, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

The moment we look to men and women who have no fear of God for justice, or take justice into our own hands, we tend to only increase the injustice. Jesus said, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven..." (Matthew 5:11, 12).

The world system around us will turn up its nose at this, and say that it is only a pipedream. The alternative vision is to believe that it is the tyrant and the harsh who will inherit the earth instead of the meek, the gentle and the humble. And that particular worldview will continue to oppress people as the powerless seek to topple the powerful, only to oppress others themselves once they achieve power.

As Lord Acton so rightly noted, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Present-day Application

In the kingdoms of this world, the only way to bring unity and community is through the exercise of power, and the suppression of freewill. In the Kingdom of heaven, we are beginning to see (and will see it increasingly in the age which is to come), that the citizens of God's Kingdom can build community and togetherness without suppressing freedom!

This can only happen in the spirit of Christ. The challenge is to build communities which are both unified and free.

The Hutterites have made a noble experiment to produce community, and I think that in many ways that they have something to say to our western culture which we do not see in our independent, individually autonomous culture. I believe that they have something precious, something valuable, something needed, and those of us who have not produced community have no right to judge them.

Nor am I at all meaning to imply that those who work without being paid wages on the Hutterite colonies are in the category of slaves. Most of them are there by their freewill, and they have also learned some things about submission to authority that is not always fair that I think can well position them to become mature sons and daughters of God more than those who live in an individualistic society.

The problem remains one where one human being who is not God, or a small clique who are not God, have the decision-making power as to how the money will be spent that the whole community produced. This has led to situations that many would say is a violation of human rights, and unfair. However, it is not unjust for those who look to the Kingdom of heaven for their ultimate compensation, and for the reward of their inheritance.

Recently it has been on the news that a former Hutterite colony member, Junia Waldner, is suing her former colony for unpaid wages, claiming that she worked hard on the colony for years with little monetary compensation.

Court documents said that she is looking for compensation from when she began working on the colony when she was eight years of age until she left the colony fourteen years later in 2006. She worked in the garden, kitchen and butcher shop, carrying heavy baskets of corn and lifting turkeys. She was paid three dollars a month. The colony says that is sufficient because all of her living costs were taken care of.

Most human rights tribunals would have to agree that from an earthly viewpoint, this former Hutterite colony member has not been treated fairly. The question is, "Would it be better for her to look on her years of employment on the colony as a service unto Christ, and look to Him for the reward of the inheritance, or should she look to human courts for justice?"


Already the colony is rolling up its sleeves and fighting back. They have hired a lawyer to challenge the charges. My own perspective is that the Colony's right to pursue a community lifestyle without paying wages to their members will likely prevail against the individual's right to compensation. If the ruling is otherwise, it will have grave consequences for the Hutterite's traditional way of life.


If one sees oneself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, we have no rights but to submit to human leaders as unto the Lord, as long as they do not require us to sin, knowing that of the Lord we will receive the best wages, and the best reward in the light of eternity, and of the eternal Kingdom of heaven.



I do not want to come across as a judge in this case. God only knows the hearts of all, and all that others have come through. I can understand entirely why this former Hutterite girl would feel that an injustice has occured, and indeed it has if one thinks only in terms of this life.

For whatever it is worth, I would question whether human courts or human rights tribunals are the best way to go about things here. I hope and pray that if I was in that place, I might find grace to look to Christ for the reward of the inheritance rather than to get into a bitter dispute that will end up wounding all sides. I would venture that it is better to look for the eternal inheritance which is incomparably more precious and valuable than even fourteen years of wages which are only of temporal value.

In the kingdom of heaven, it is not like socialism, where there is the equal distribution of unequal earnings, but each one will get a return on his or her investment of time and finances. Whatever we give, we will receive back--good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6:38).

We see much evidence of that truth already in this life, but we will see it much more clearly in the age which is to come. We always reap in greater abundance to the amount of seed that we sow.

Conclusion

When I was a boy, there was a popular song in which the lyrics said, "Make the most of time, while you're in your prime, gather ye rosebuds while you may."

In another poem, Robert Herrick reminded young women that natural beauty is fleeting.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

This makes perfect sense if all of our hope is in this life, or in the immediate, or in the present, with no thought that present choices do determine future destiny. As G. K. Chesterton so aptly said, "Great joy does not gather the rosebuds while it may; its eyes are fixed on the immortal rose which Dante saw. Great joy has in it the sense of immortality."

The world system says that the best years of life are in one's prime, and so we encourage youth to sow their wild oats in youth, and then life goes downhill from there. To the contrary, God's Kingdom is entered "through many tribulations" (Acts 14:22), but life gets better as we overcome, and the ultimate end is glorious.

We can endure almost any trial if we know that there is a purpose in our sufferings, and that God is working a character change in us, bringing us out of our selfishness into His Kingdom of love. And no matter what we go through, we are motivated by the assurance that the best is yet to come!

It was this worldview that motivated Moses, when he became of age, to "refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward" (Hebrews 11:24-26).

We will never run the race and endure the cross unless and until we, like Christ, see "the joy that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:2) at the goal, the finish line, when we mature to become like Jesus. Moses "endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).

The heroes of the faith, the martyrs, and all who bore life's trials with meekness and endurance did so because they saw something that natural eyes did not see. That prize, that reward was veilled from the natural view of things, and those who live by their natural senses are also living by faith that this present world is all that there is to live for.

A nobler vision, however, was captured by a poem written by George Matheson, which summerizes beautifully the message on this article entitled, The Bondservant:

Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free

Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be.

I sink in life's alarms when by myself I stand;

Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand.

My heart is weak and poor until its master find;

It has no spring of action sure, it varies with the wind.

It cannot freely move till Thou has wrought its chain;

Enslave it with Thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign.

My power is faint and low till I have learned to serve;

It lacks the needed fire to glow, it lacks the breeze to nerve.

It cannot drive the world until itself be driven;

Its flag can only be unfurled when Thou shalt breathe from heaven.

My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine;

If it would reach a monarch's throne, it must its crown resign,

It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife,

When on Thy bosom it has leant, and found in Thee its life.

Pond Inlet, Nunavut, in 2008 and Beyond

In a previous post on this blog, we looked at "The History of Pond Inlet, Nunavut," which has been called "the jewel of Baffin Island." Please see: THIS SITE

Subsequently, in a post entitled, "Others Have Laboured, We Have Entered into Their Labours," we noted how that the gospel message in Nunavut was pioneered by Anglican missionary Edmund James Peck between 1894 and 1905 in the Cumberland Sound area, near present-day Pangnirtung, and how it eventually spread from there to Pond Inlet under the ministry of Canon John Turner who was based there from 1929 until 1946. Please see: THIS SITE The ministry of Canon John Turner and the present-day moving of God's Spirit in Pond Inlet right up until the time of the founding of Nunavut in 1999 were prominently featured in the Sentinel Group's video entitled Transformations II. At the time of Nunavut's founding in April of 1999, Joshua Arreak, the Anglican minister in Pond Inlet said that he felt like this was a time of transition for Inuit, and that they were about to enter their "Promised Land."

It was in this Anglican Church in Pond Inlet that the Holy Spirit entered the service on February 28, 1999, as "the sound of many waters" (Revelation 19:6). It was like the sound of a mighty waterfall, something like the Niagara Falls. "Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me" (Psalm 42:6).

"At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth" (Job 37:1, 2).

However, the moving of God's Spirit is never static, but dynamic, and there is always a need for something more, and for the working of God's Spirit to go deeper, before God's Throne in Heaven and His Footstool on the earth in a community like Pond Inlet can be established. God is looking for communities on the earth where He can come to as a habitation, and not just for a visitation.

Therefore, from March 20-27, 2008, the Arctic Bible Conference that was held in Pond Inlet had as its theme, Heaven on Earth, according to the Lord's Prayer, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

James Arreak, the Pastor of the Iqaluit Christian Fellowship, has his family roots in Pond Inlet. In fact, he was the one who was leading the worship back on February 28, 1999, when the Holy Spirit came, and he is here challenging the delegates to the Arctic Bible Conference.

The theme of the Arctic Bible Conference in April, 2007, in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, had been Crossing the River Jordan. During Easter week of 2008 in Pond Inlet, James Arreak challenged the delegates that it is time for the Inuit to enter into their inheritance through faith in the promises of God, to inherit their Promised Land by becoming mature sons and daughters of God, and to see His promised blessings fulfilled in the land that He had given to them and to their ancestors.

Maturity involves moving from dependence (as a babe) to independence (as an adolescent) to interdependence (as a mature adult). Just as Israel in Egypt was totally dependent on, and controlled by the Egyptians, so the lives of the Inuit had much much depended on and been controlled by the federal government prior to 1999.

With the forming of the new government of Nunavut in 1999, and the Inuit being finally released to lead their own Arctic Bible Conference by believers from the South in 1998, they went through an independent stage, which is analogous to Israel in the wilderness. The people were now freed out of Egypt, but they still had to get the Egyptian or slavery mentality out of them.

Autonomy is a good thing, but it can lead to independence and isolationism, and we soon learn that we need more unity, more connectedness, more relationship to accomplish our goals. We cannot go into the Promised Land independently or by ourselves. We need to learn to hear the voice of God for ourselves, and then to overcome the obstacles and giants in the land through obedience to Him. We need to be transformed from a mob into a army that obeys the voice of the Lord, and walks in unity with other spheres of ministry.

That is why God is now building relationships, not only within the Inuit community, but between Inuit and non-Inuit, and between Inuit and First Nations and Metis. It is all about unifying ourselves so that we can fight for one another as different tribes, and go in together to inherit the promises of God, and to live in freedom and in security under God in our Land of Promise.

Living in the Promised Land is living where God's Throne in Heaven touches the Earth. When one looks at a map of the globe, Pond Inlet is up there at the top, and there continues to be a strong remnant there who want to see God's will done in their part of the earth as it is in heaven, and to see freedom from the abuses and hurts of the past as God's glory comes to inhabit the land. They desire to see God form a habitation, and not just a visitation which they have already known.

Here the mayor of Pond Inlet, Abraham Kublu, is welcoming the Conference guests, and the Holy Spirit, to Pond Inlet. In a letter written on January 11, 2008, Mayor Abraham Kublu stated, "The Hamlet Council of Pond Inlet invites you to come to Pond Inlet. the invitation is extended to all the participants and invited guests that wish to gather here. Council is encouraged to have the Arctic Bible Conference provide some counselling and healing services for the community. You are more than welcome to come and hold the Conference here.

"We hereby give you our support to hold the Bible conference in Pond Inlet. Council has supported this invitation by a resolution made at the regular meeting on the 10th of January, 2008."

Pond Inlet MLA James Arvaluk also gave his official welcome to the Conference delegates who had come into the community that he represents in the Nunavut Legislature.

During the middle of the Conference, both the Mayor Abraham Kublu and MLA James Arvaluk led in an official opening of the new community centre where the Conference was held. The platform was filled with territorial and municipal leaders, including MLA Levi Barnabas from Arctic Bay (pictured with the red tie) and other dignitaries. Notice that all leaders joined in prayer as one of the Anglican ministers and Moses Kyak lead out in prayer, giving thanks to the God of heaven from whom all blessings flow, and dedicating this facility for His purposes.

This time of prayer, thanksgiving and dedication was followed by a community feast which was made up largely of Inuit country food, food that is the product of the land that God had given to them and to their forefathers from time immemorial.

The thanksgiving and praise that is in the hearts of the Inuit youth of many in the North and in Pond Inlet does not stay within church buildings. Here Karen Nashalik and other youth are singing a song of praise to the Lord right at the Pond Inlet Airport Terminal Building, and everybody in the place is thoroughly enjoying it, and being blessed by it.

Here are some of the youth from Pond Inlet who led praise and worship on Youth Night. These young people have a style of worship that is a little different from the older generation, but when they are let loose, they always raise the level of the presence of God several notches. These youth are still in a time of preparation for what God has in store for them, and are under the leadership of Martha Kyak.

Rather than bolt off independently on their own, there is a sense that they are learning to be faithful, to respect their elders, and to await the day when they will be fully blessed and released by the previous generation. They are determined, I believe, to become an army, and not a mob.

One prophecy that came out during the Conference stated that "just as many of us older ones who were involved in Holy Spirit renewal when we were young had opposition from the older generation, this time the younger generation will represent something as different as we did to our parents, but this time, the older generation is going to bless them, and to release them fully into their destiny in God, a destiny which involves coming into the Promised Land, and seeing the promises of God fulfilled, and His glory fill the earth."

One thing that God is doing is restoring things that are ancient, and this time using them to glorify the God of Heaven. One of these is the Inuit drum. God is releasing ancient sounds, that are releasing ancient sounds, that will bring down ancient strongholds.

Another thing that God is doing is to reconnect Inuit with other indigenous groups, such as the First Nations. One of the people attending the Conference in Pond Inlet was Kenny Blacksmith from the Cree tribe in northern Quebec. Here he is being prayed over, and blessed by the Inuit, as they covenant to walk in agreement for God's purposes in each of their tribes as original peoples of the land. They covenant to walk together to see God's promises fulfilled.

As you can see, the services are not at all boring, as the children are released to enter in, and to have a good time, as the whole congregation focuses on the presence of the Lord. These children's hearts become soft, so that their hearts become an open doorway for the word of God to enter their minds as they continue to grow older, and are discipled.

These two Inuit girls create their own choreography for some powerful praise and worship numbers. It is just another avenue of creative worship in which Inuit are revealing God's glory, and causing others to see something that attracts them to a place where their bodies can be used to glorify God, and be filled with His Spirit, rather than with drugs and sexual immorality.

Here, on Youth Night, Elizabeth Annahatak has just brought a powerful word to the youth of Pond Inlet, and many of them are responding for prayer, and are opening up their hearts for more of God's Spirit.

The very look on these faces demonstrates how that the spiritual and the natural worlds are connected. There is a spiritual presence of God that impacts people's very faces and countenances--first in identifying with their pain, and then in healing them of that pain by the power of His love and forgiveness.

Notice how that the young and the old both partake of Communion together in the presence of the Lord. The Holy Spirit integrates and connects the generations and the gender, and breaks dividing walls.

This is just a portion of the crowd in Pond Inlet that gathered daily and each evening for the Arctic Bible Conference from March 20-27, 2008.

This lady (Rhoda) was just healed on Easter Sunday at Pond Inlet, and has just been able to get rid of her cane! She is the mother of Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who is the Member of Parliament for Nunavut in the House of Commons.

She is accompanied by Jushua from Clyde River, who had recently shared at the Conference about the great and mighty things that God had done in his community by the way of the healing of their land since the Canada Awakening Healing the Land Team was there in August of 2007.

There was a growing sense throughout the Conference that the leaders of Pond Inlet wanted to see this same healing the land process come to their community, as it had to Pangnirtung and to Clyde River before them.

This is Martha Kyak (right) together with her son. Martha is the youth leader in Pond Inlet, and is a strong intercessor. She is vitally linked not only to Pond Inlet's past and present, but also to its future destiny. Her longing and intercession is to see this part of the earth filled with the glory of the Lord, and to become a habitation for the Lord.

On this blog, we have seen something of Pond Inlet's past, and how the Inuit way of life was impacted negatively by the whalers, how that Canon John Turner came and proclaimed the gospel. Even James and Joshua Arreak's grandfather, who had been a shaman, welcomed the missionary when it was shown to him by inquiring into the spirit realm, that this was the message they had been waiting for. He used his authority as a recognized gatekeeper to open the door for the teaching of the Bible.

We have seen how that the grandmother of Gela Pitsiulak (who is presently a member of the Canada Awakening Healing the Land Team) lived in Pond Inlet, and helped to pioneer the way for future generations to go further. We have seen how that Pond Inlet has always contended for something greater, and how that in 1999, God did show up for a powerful visitation.

Yet they are still contending for a habitation. There are still defilements on the land that have affected future generations, and now the gatekeepers in Pond Inleet are opening the door to address these issues on a deeper level during the last week of July in 2008. As the land is healed, it is their prayer that Pond Inlet will truly become a habitation for the Lord!

On May 27, 2008, Martha Kyak sent an e-mail to Canada Awakening Ministries, in which she wrote, "I just spoke with our mayor, Abraham Kublu, and I am happy to inform you that you and your group are invited to come to Pond Inlet for the healing of our land...He will write an official invitation letter to you.

"As Rhoda Katsak mentioned earlier, the Anglican vestry is in full support of your group to come...We look forward to your arrival and we'll keep praying for you and your group. Be blessed!"

On May 28, 2008, she wrote, "When we met with the vestry, they wanted it this year (2008), since you will be in the north Baffin already. I was praying about this almost all night, and the Bible verse came to me: Joel 2:18-29 Especially '18Then was the Lord jealous for His land and had pity on His people. 19Yes, the Lord answered and said to His people, Behold, I am sending you grain and juice [of the grape] and oil, and you shall be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.' and the rest of the verses.

On June 3, 2008, "Rhoda Katsak and I met with the elders last week, and we will meet with them again. They were so thrilled that finally they are able to speak about the subjects that were hidden for so long. They can't wait for you to arrive and start praying for the healing of our land. There were already tears when they spoke. Be blessed!"

So there is a sense that Pond Inlet's future is as bright as the promises of God as they press on to enter their Promised Land, and to see their land healed on a deeper level from generational issues that have brought defilement, and to see Pond Inlet become a resting place, and a habitation for the Lord!

Pond Inlet will yet bring greater honour and glory to God! Will you pray with us to that end?

The Hoax of the Recent Vandalism of the Ancient Arctic Petroglyphs on Qajartalik Island

This is the community of Kangirsujuaq, in Nunavik, or northern Quebec. There are a growing number of Christians in this Inuit community who value their culture, their history, and their traditional way of life, wanting to break only with the dark side of their past, but to embrace everything that is precious and valuable in their history.

In August of 2006, the believers of this community were accused of causing "recent" vandalism at the ancient arctic petroglyphs at Qajartalik on Qikertaaluk Island about 30 miles away by boat.

One can see on this map where Kangirsujuaq is along the Hudson Strait between northern Quebec and Baffin Island. This will give one some idea of where Qajartalik is located.

Since 1996, the Avataq Cultural Institute and its chief archaeologist, Dr. Daniel Gendron, have been actively working on the petroglyph site at Qajartalik on Qikertaaluk Island as well as creating a plan to protect the site.

According to the Avataq Cultural Institute, the Qajartalik petroglyphs are a unique demonstration of the graphic expression of the Dorset culture. This is the only known site where the Dorsets worked on such a grand scale, and in steatite, to create such figurative sculptures, which are found more commonly on fragments of bone, ivory and antler.

According to Avataq's web-site, "the meaning of these drawings remain an enigma."

However, in his book, Ancient People of the Arctic, Robert McGhee gives us a pretty good idea what they represent. McGhee has conducted some thirty years of research of Arctic peoples, and is a curator of archaeology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

In his book, Robert McGhee quotes art historian George Swinton to conclude that the Dorset carvings were the tangible remnants of a religious tradition. The production of carvings was an integral part of the religious practice of Dorset "shaman-artists," and the carvings themselves an essential component of religious ritual and experience. In the words of Swinton, "It is by no means unreasonable to conceive of a Dorset artist-shaman (or a shaman-artist) as the main producer of such art."

In the Dorset culture, some individuals acquired much greater abilities at attracting and holding powerful spirit helpers. These men and women were the recognized shamans of the community. The carvings of the Dorset culture speak eloquently of a shamanic world, a world that could control people with the fear and dread of curses from capricious deities.

Robert McGhee is obviously referring to Qajartalik when he states, "Some of the same faces portrayed on masks and wands are found in the petroglyphs carved into rock cliffs along the coasts of the Hudson Strait. The rock carvings, the multi-faced antler wands, the wooden masks, the small wounded figures, and the human-animal images all suggest that Dorset artists used human imagery primarily in the service of magical or spiritual power."

He then goes on to say, "Taken together, the assemblage of human representations leaves the observer with a distinctly uneasy impression. The calm serenity apparent in the tiny maskettes carved during the early centuries of the Dorset period soon disappears, to be replaced by a variety of images ranging from unsettling to bizarre."

According to archaeologist Robert McGhee, some "figures scattered throughout the area of Dorset settlement are distinguished by a slot in the upper chest, sometimes containing a sliver of wood. It is very tempting to view these small and rather chilling objects as the elements of magical acts designed to harm other humans." He adds in another section of his book regarding this same carving, that "the figure may have been ritually killed."

In describing the very distinctive harpoon points (less then 5 centimeters long) of the Dorset people, Robert McGhee states that "perhaps the majority of the tiny harpoon heads found in Dorset villages were such magic weapons, used by a shaman to demonstrate the cause of an illness that had been cured. Of course, there is also the more sinister possibility that some of these miniature weapons may have been used in rituals designed to send illness or death to an enemy, rather than a cure."

In noting Dorset art and the shamanic world, McGhee mentions that the Dorsets, like us, found the world to be sometimes a dangerous place where accidents, misfortunes, and illnesses come upon people. However, he notes that in the Dorset world, "the means of coping were not what we would consider effective."

As with these carvings at Qajartalik, archaeologist Robert McGhee notes that "most of the carvings of Dorset villages can be associated with magical or religious means of dealing with a shamanic universe."

He writes that "The Late Dorseet people inherited an ancient religious system and worldview that saw personal spirit helpers as the medium through which humans could control, or at least manipulate, the small-scale events of their environment." The Dorset people were facing an environment that was not predictable, so the religion was an effort for humans to stay in control. However, the Dorset religion did not save them in the end, for the Dorset people became extinct.

As McGhee notes, the blossoming of "Dorset art" in a time of uncertainty was "not made simply for decoration or amusement, but for protection, or as an aid in coping with an environment in which the rules were suddenly changing. The interpretation of Dorset art as a phenomenon intimately associated with religion, magic, and a shamanistic view of the universe and its powers is consistent with a response to environmental uncertainty and economic insecurity."

The archaeological puzzle of the end of Dorset culture is far from being solved. Whatever happened to them seems to have occurred suddenly, and to have left almost no trace in the archaeological record. The archaeological evidence shows only that the Dorset culture was replaced across Arctic Canada and Greenland by the culture of the ancestral Inuit who moved east from Alaska about 1,000 years ago.

Understandably, the Avataq Cultural Institute has been working to have the Qajartalik site (where the above carvings are from) proclaimed as a national heritage site in order to preserve this important archaeological evidence of Arctic history. The Christians of the present nearby community of Kangirsujuaq are not adverse to preserving the history, as long as this ancient religion based on superstition and magic that did not deliver and protect the Dorset people of long ago is not imposed on present-day Inuit as part of their present identity.

A leading Christian Inuit from Kangirsujuaq is even the chairman of the board of the Avataq Cultural Institute in Nunavik, and Christians from other Nunavik (northern Quebec) communities are also on the board. In spite of this, when rumours began to surface during the summer of 2006 that new vandalism had taken place at the Qajartalik site, it was the Christians of Kangirsujuaq who began to have the finger pointed at them without cause and without reason.

Randy Boswell, a journalist with the Canwest News Services called Dr. Daniel Gendron, chief archaeologist of the Avataq Cultural Institute, about the alleged new vandalism, and asked him if the instigators could have been Christians. Of course, Dr. Gendron had not yet had a chance to revisit the site to personally inspect the alleged new vandalism, so he made it clear to Randy Boswell that he did not know who did it, but had to agree it could have been Christians, although he did not know. It could have been anybody.

So Dr. Daniel Gendron's speculations on the possibility of the vandalism being performed by local Christians was purely guesswork, speculation, and a possibility that had no evidence. He, for the life of him, did not think that any respected journalist would actually publish an article based on an interview that was clearly based on rumour and unadulterated speculation only.

To his horror, he found out when the article came out in the Canwest News Services network that not only was his testimony used as the main "authority" to suggest that Christians did destroy these ancient arctic Petroglyphs, but the headline blatantly declared, as a statement of fact: "Christian Zealots Destroy Ancient Arctic Petroglyphs"

The article first came out, and was published on August 26, 2006, and soon spread like wildfire not only throughout the network of the Canwest News Services, but to a myriad of other newspapers as well, including the Nunatsiaq News in the Arctic. It was subsequently repeated on web-sites and blogs galore without anybody checking the facts, or looking for corroborating or confirming evidence.

Here is the substance of the original article written by Randy Boswell of Canwest News Services, and published in late August of 2006.

"Canada's only major Arctic petroglyph site -- a 1,500-year-old gallery of mysterious faces carved into a soapstone ridge on a tiny island off of Quebec's northern coast -- has been ransacked by vandals in what the region's top archeologist suspects was a religiously motivated attack by devout Christians from a nearby Inuit community.

"For years, heritage advocates have sought special protection for the ancient etchings at Qajartalik Island, located about one hour by boat from the 500-resident village of Kangiqsujuaq. Experts believe they were created by the extinct Dorset culture, an artistically advanced civilization that occupied much of the eastern Arctic before they were killed or driven away by the Thule ancestors of modern Inuit.

"More than 170 mask-like images, animal shapes and other symbols have been recorded on the island since the 1960s. Studies suggest Qajartalik was a sacred place, used for Dorset spiritual ceremonies and coming-of-age rituals."

The article goes on to say, "But the site has been dubbed 'the Island of the Stone Devils' because some of the faces -- possibly depicting a Dorset shaman in religious costume -- appear to be adorned with horns. In the past, crosses have been scratched on the 'pagan' petroglyphs and some area residents have told researchers they believe the site is infested with evil spirits.

"Long-running negotiations between Nunavut, Quebec and the federal government over the ownership of the Hudson Strait islands has delayed for a decade plans to protect the cultural treasure, which Arctic scholars have touted as a natural candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage site...

"Now, dreams of global renown for Qajartalik may be dashed after a visit to the island last month by Quebec cultural officials revealed extensive damage to the prehistoric drawings, including deep gouges across many of the faces...

"Daniel Gendron, chief archeologist with the Inukjuak-based Avataq Cultural Institute, the key promoter of indigenous history and identity in Nunavik, said the latest vandalism at Qajartalik follows the pattern of previous attacks by members of what he called 'a very strong movement' of conservative Christians in Kangiqsujuaq and several other Inuit communities in northern Quebec."

When this article came out, Dr. Gendron was horrified that his name would be used to give credence to Randy Boswell's intentions of targeting an identifiable group of people with his article which spread like wildfire, and soon began to develop a life of its own.

His personal response was given in a letter to the Nunatsiaq News in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and was published on September 30, 2006. This letter by Dr. Daniel Gendron can be read at this site:

Subsequent phone calls and e-mails between Canada Awakening Ministries and the news editors with Canwest News Services to whom Randy Boswell is accountable were only successful as far as getting three newspapers in this Canwest News Services chain to print a tiny disclaimer that the vast majority of readers would hardly even notice. The small disclaimer in fine print simply said that we do not know who caused the vandalism, which the headline had declared as a statement of fact that "Christian zealots" had done it.

While the editors did remove the story from the original web-site that carried the article from the Regina Leader Post, the blogs and web-sites that had republished the story based on Randy Boswell's original article were now firmly established in perpetrating the myth, not to mention the other newspaper networks that helped to spread the false accusation, and most seem to have no intention of making any corrections.

It is as if they steadfast want to believe Randy Boswell's slant, rather than to believe that the whole article was based on a rumour without shred of corroborating evidence.

Dr. Daniel Gendron immediately apologized to the Christian Inuit of Nunavik and especially Kangirsujuaq when he saw how his name was used, but neither the journalist who actually gave the story the spin he wanted, nor the Canwest News Services has issued an apology to date.

In the meantime, in September of 2007, Dr. Daniel Gendron was finally able to revisit Qajartalik to assess the degree of new vandalism for himself. He was accompanied by his assistant Louis gagnon, and by Andre Fradette, the Minister of Culture and Communications in Quebec (pictured above).

To their surprise, they found that not only were these charges and accusations made right across Canada and other parts of the world without evidence, but that in fact the whole claim of new damage was a hoax. There was no new vandalism caused by humans, but only some minor deterioration caused by the weather.

Dr. Gendron's report on his latest visit to Qajartalik can be read at the Avataq Cultural Institute web-site. See: HERE

This past May 28, 2008, I personally received an e-mail from Dr. Daniel Gendron, the chief archaeologist of the Avataq Cultural Institute. Referring to the refusal of Canwest News Services to apologize on behalf of their journalist Randy Boswell, he wrote:

"Boswell is not the only one with this attitude. Jane George (of Nunatsiaq News) has refused to acknowledge her mistake and apologize to the Kangirsujuammiut.

"I even caught a book from another archaeologist before it came out. He was using this case as an example of 'vandalism'...I was so shocked when I read the text. It was basically repeating what the Boswell article had said.

"I knew the author and I called him. When he heard the true story, he immediately removed the accusing text from the book, and had to write something new. He was very ashamed and I think he will double-check in the future when he'll read such news in the papers. Imagine, this was a last minute discovery! The book was due to be sent to the printer 2 days after I got hold of that paragraph!!!

"I know we will not be able to eradicate all these false news services, but I will certainly continue to fight to get them off the web. It was nice to hear from you again.

"Take care.

"Daniel Gendron"

The Christians of Kangirsujuaq, Quebec, are a forgiving, peaceful people, and are rising above the injustice that has been perpetrated about them. The more that they forgive, and go for the glory of God, instead of trying to defend themselves in the flesh, the more God works among them in power.

The changed lives in that community will never cease to be thankful for what the Lord has done for them in healing and in setting them free from so many of the hurts and pains of the past. Building upon the foundation of everything that is good in their past, but breaking only with the bondages, their focus now is looking forward, to a destiny that is much greater than their past.