Historically, Canada was a Christian nation in many ways. It was not a perfect or even a mature Christian Nation, but it was a Christian Nation, nevertheless. I would contend that it was even more Christian than its southern counterpart, the United States of America. That we were indeed a Christian nation is spoken of in the very stones and windows and architecture of our Canadian parliament buildings (which you can learn about here).
Something that we don’t always realize (maybe because we don’t study) is how Christianized our systems of law are. We have inherited a system of government and law that was developed by Christians. For example, the principle of the “assumption of innocence until proved guilty” is deep entrenched in the civil law of the Old Testament. It can easily be understood as a good principle of natural law. But there are also protections for true gospel preaching and preachers and counselors. All of this is being undermined today. Our inheritance is not only be squandered, but it is also under attack. I want to demonstrate a few examples.
Here is a list of what has been tried and what is being done (this list is not nearly exhaustive):
Section 176 of the Criminal Code
Section 176 of the criminal code is for the protection of clergymen, so that they can do their duties, under the protection of Canadian Law. There was an attempt to remove this protection already back in 2017. A number of politicians including Jody Wilson Raybauld argued that it was unconstitutional and unnecessary. I don’t know how it is either. If anything, it is more necessary than ever. You can read about what happened in 2017 here.
Bill C-4
You can find all the information that you need about Bill C-4 here. This bill has played a major role in undermining Christian freedom in our nation. While all sound-minded Canadian Christians would condemn violent and harmful forms of conversion therapy, yet under the name of eliminating that threat, this Bill potentially extends much farther. It potentially makes the work of a pastor or counselor criminal if they encourage a man to consider himself a man or to call a man to repentance for his attraction to a man. Not only did this Bill go through, but it also went through unanimously. And the current leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, is on record with a ‘yea’ vote.
Bill C-367
You can find all the information that you need about Bill C-367 here. While this bill has not passed through parliament yet, it represents another insidious attack on Christian freedom. Bill C-367 was introduced last fall by Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet. Bill C-367 eliminates the “religious exemption” in Section 319 of the Criminal Code, which states: “No person shall be convicted of a [hate crime] offence… if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.” If Bill C367 were to go through and you were to face the charge of hate crime for reading a passage from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 about the salvation of homosexuals or reading about the incorporation of the Gentiles from Romans 11, there will be less protections under this law.
Any sound-minded Christian is against any form of racism or anti-semitism. We believe that all men and women are made in the image of God (and should be treated as such), and as a result of the sin and misery that Adam brought upon the human race, men and women are called to be transformed into the image of Christ.
Some thoughts:
I mentioned three attacks above. One which didn’t go through. One which did go through. One which might go through.
But the problems run deep.
First. While our charter of rights and freedoms acknowledge the supremacy of God and the rule of Law, yet the idea of human rights that the Trudeaus have sought to instill in our land are more inline with the French Revolution than the old British or American concept of grounding human rights in God’s design.
Second. The correlation of hate with a crime and grounding hate more in the feelings of the person who feels hated than the person who makes a statement is very dangerous. Hatred is sin, but that is different than it being a crime and that is different than defining it by the feelings of the person who presses charges.
Because our land has rejected and hates God, there is also a revolutionary overthrow of old patterns of law and protections for Christians. These are not the only actions and they are also not the first or the last actions against Christians and the Church. We also see many things happen that are much more explicit of the attack on Christianity.
Churches Aflame:
The True North Community News has done a lot of reporting over the last couple years on all the arson and vandalism happening to Canadian Churches in Canada. You can read one report here, that tracks with now over 100 churches that have been vandalized or burnt down just in the last couple of years. There was a Conservative motion recently put forward in Canadian Parliament to condemn a church arson in Regina, and this motion was shut down by MPs.
Lockdowns and the Suppression of the Church
Images of GraceLife Church with a fence around it have now become iconic of a power-hungry state that recognizes no other authority than its own. This was not just an “oops” that the Church can forget about given that pastors across Canada were arrested and fined and slandered, simply because they refused to cease and desist in the ministry of the Word and the sacrament and ministering to their congregations. We cannot deny that these issues are closely related.
Something that I frequently said during the COVID times is that if pastors self-censor in the public square or allow the state to remove their voices from the gates of the city, eventually they will come for your worship services. Twenty-five years ago it was enough for the church to privatize their religion to within the four walls of the church, but that is not the end-game. Because the declaration that “Jesus is Lord” is a threat to the pride of the kingdoms of men, that declaration is a threat no matter whether it is said in private or in public.
A servant is not greater than his Master. If they slandered Jesus for being a wine-bibber and a glutton, then you can be sure that they will accuse you of hate crimes.
Struck Down but not Destroyed
The mark of a man of God is his ability to endure suffering. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:8–10: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” While we do not experience the degree of suffering that Paul faced (we may well yet), yet, it is the duty of every pastor to endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed”
It was a common thing during those times (even in the church) to mock James Coates and Tim Stephens and others for not being persecuted or for attention seeking. But while Christians were mocking from the pew of their church buildings with their masks snuggly on and 6 feet between them and the closest member, everything sanitized and clean, James and Tim were preaching the gospel in prison, their churches were attracting people.
You see, even if these last years did not bring a lot of people back to church (it did bring many), yet, many saw the drift from our Christian origins. My conversations in these last years have been marked by men and women who are hungering and thirsting after the Word of the Lord, many of them adrift, but looking and searching.
It is the duty of the church in the times that we are living in to boldly serve Jesus Christ even as visibly there is so much spiritual decline and so many attacks on the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have something to offer that no parliament or medical professional has to offer - that is the life of Jesus Christ. The world will see that life of Christ in you when you are afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
Like Paul, when you take a beating, Christians must reject the politics of victimhood. Get up off the ground, dust yourself off, and joyfully declare that “Jesus is Lord.” That is the only way that our land will remain glorious and free. More than it was in former days.
Photo by Shubham Sharan on Unsplash