Topsy-Turvy

“Critics argue God should not destroy, but God reserves the right to restore.”

When I was in my teens I was riding in the car with my father through New England where we spent much time. On this day he used a 1940s term and it sounded so passé to me. We talked some as we drove down the road about language and changing times.

I wonder if I use the term “topsy-turvy” if my age is showing. We always used the term to mean some thing or situation completely stopped in its tracks, up-ended, turned upside down, or derailed.

Lake Reflections

My verse today is from the book of Acts. Paul came to Thessalonica and preached in the synagogue. After several weeks those who did not believe the gospel tried to find Paul and Silas to do them harm.

And not finding them, they drew Jason and certain brothers before the city judges, crying, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too! (Act 17:6)

The Greek word used here is listed in Strong’s Concordance #387 anastatoo meaning to cause trouble, to turn upside down, to cause an uproar.

In modern religion believing and receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior is often presented as the last missing ingredient to make one’s life perfect, just like the advertising media love to say about any product that it will be the one “that changes your life!”

No wonder then that many fair-weather Christians are added to the church rosters like New Year’s subscribers to the local gymnastics center. Believing in God is serious business.

The expression “topsy-turvy” is the same figure of speech as “upside down.” Used several times in the Bible, one good example in the Old Testament is Isaiah 24:1,

Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof.

(Isa 24:1)

Here God ”scatters abroad the inhabitants” of the land. This is striking in its wordplay because it says the inhabitant cannot inhabit. Everything is the opposite of what it should be. The world has been turned upside down.

Of course one man’s upside down is another man’s right side up. I recently refinish my basement and one light switch was in the “ON” position with the lever pointed up, but the light was off. The inspector was completely indignant at my incompetence, and gruffly barked “fix it!” I meekly offered the defense that without my glasses I couldn’t read the tiny embossed lettering while installing it. It still worked fine… he couldn’t fail it,

but his sense of rightness was majorly peeved! So I fixed it.

God has standards also which indicate right side up from upside down. Some people are offended at the idea that Noah’s flood was an act of God aimed at destroying, but He was actually turning the world right side up. The Scripture describes the pre-flood world as really bad. “God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.”

Critics argue God should not destroy, but God reserves the right to restore by turning whatever is upside down to right side up.

Lake Reflections---right side up!

Much confusion arises due to mislabeling right-side up and up-side down.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isa 5:20)

The real “topsy-turvy” is not the Christian, but the world culture that has acclimated to the normalcy of sin and wickedness. Jesus said in Matthew 6:23, But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Persons who reverse the good--evil spectrum are in the greatest darkness because they have defined “darkness” as “light.” They have defined what is bad and evil as what is good and desirable. When they cry “do the right thing” as an appeal to good conscience they do the evil thing instead, claiming to do good. For instance, in a business deal they think their personal profit is the “good” and don’t care if they are unethical to the other party.

Recently the New York State Senate approved abortion as legal for any reason, even for as little as the inconvenience of parenting. Video showed after the vote there was cheering in the gallery at the prospect of cutting defenseless children into pieces! Is this a crusade for women’s rights? If half the children are female, then where are women’s rights for them? There is no doubt that genuine evil is being celebrated as the good in our day.

This is what the apostle Paul warned of when he wrote that natural affection will be lost in society in the last days.

The first century church felt the same pressure to conform to “good” and “evil” as defined by the culture, and not by common sense. Clearly the Christian way meant more to them than just a happy life. The gospel of Jesus turns the culture of the godless upside down. The church needs to own up to how radical God expects us to be in our personal morals and conduct.

What was Paul teaching at Thessalonica that was so earth shattering that people said Christians were turning the world upside down?

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. (Act 17:2-3)

Paul taught on the basis of the Old Testament prophecies in the Bible that Jesus is the Savior of the world. But rather than upset the world order with an army, Jesus saves from heaven. His believers change the world from within, that is, Christians themselves change from evil to good. Their lives now become testaments to the true light of goodness. The world’s reversed scale of evil as good is turned upside down by contrast.

Recent excavations of Roman ruins in modern Israel uncovered a mass of baby bones in an ancient sewer line. Most likely it was a brothel were unwanted pregnancies were dealt with by flushing newly born children down the drain. Has society changed any? Are Christians the needed salt and light of our age and time? Christians need to change their motto from “Be all you can be” to “Be what you were not before”.

The upside-down effect is firmly rooted in Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that the last shall be first and the first last. From his first preached message he taught that the purpose of the light is to destroy the darkness (Luke 4).

Paul preached Jesus as now alive and resurrected from the dead. Jesus’ whole life seemed a portrayal of upside–down thinking to unbelievers; but what he taught was actually right-side up thinking. Paul preached in Thessalonica the Old Testament Scriptures that promised a coming Messiah who had to suffer on our behalf to bring us forgiveness. Although he was the giver of life (John 1), nevertheless he suffered through the experience of death.

In history the big “topsy-turvy” event was the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his death. The idea that the dead should live on after death was startling to the guilty who considered their evil deeds would pass from memory with their passing from life. Jesus’s resurrection proved otherwise.

What was turned upside-down by the Christians? Some many things! There are personal ethics (civics), the definition of wrong and right (justice), the story of creation by God (science), the fact all humans are made in the image of God (race relations), eternal judgment on wickedness (international law), and the incoming and guaranteed dominance of the Kingdom of God throughout the Earth (government).

When you look up the word “resurrection” in the Greek concordance (Strong’s word list #386) the very next word in the alphabetical listing is the word used in Acts 17:6 translated as “upside–down”, “causing trouble”, or “make an uproar.”

Coincidence? If Jesus is alive, it changes everything.