Quote from Forum Archives on January 20, 2009, 7:57 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

 

 

 

LIFE

January 18, 2009

 

 

TEXT:  Psalm 127:1-5

 

The Christian Church loves life and celebrates life.  Now it’s easy to think of celebrating life when a new baby is born or an infant or young child is brought to be dedicated to the Lord, but that is only a part of it.  The Christian Church celebrates life on other occasions as well.  We celebrate when anyone confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  That is the new life of salvation – born-again.  The Christian Church also celebrates life on occasions such as we marked earlier: the baptism of a believing Christian declaring her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  In these and other ways, the Christian Church declares and practices a culture of life.

 

In sad, stark contrast to life, our modern culture has increasingly embraced a culture of death.  Just a few short decades ago, Christians in America would have never imagined that we would need to designate a Sunday and week out of the year to lift up awareness for the sanctity of human life.  At one time, a vast majority believed in and practices the sanctity of human life the year round.  Now, dedicated Christian attorneys fight in the courts just to hold back the increasing tide of “legalized” forms of suicide and murder.  Francis Schaeffer, a 20^th century Christian intellectual, warned us in the 1970s that abortion was the beginning of a slippery slope of denigration of human life that would eventually lead to euthanasia and such things as physician-assisted suicides.  People were incredulous then.  Hardly anyone could believe that such a thing would ever happen.  Now, though, people in Oregon have voted to maintain the availability of the "options" of physician-assisted suicides and euthanasia.  Why did such a shift happen?

 

People think their answers, their solutions, their viewpoints are at least equal to, if not superior to, God's.  We decide which unborn children should be given an opportunity at life.  A few years back, one New York career journalist decided that she could continue her career with one, but not two, children.  So, she decided to abort one of the twins she was carrying.  I can’t imagine loving my child and watching her grow knowing that I put an equally precious, beautiful child to death for the sake of my convenience.  It must take an extremely hardened heart to endure the consequences of such a decision.  We decide when someone's life is no longer "useful" enough or of sufficient "quality" to be allowed to continue.

 

Meanwhile, God's heart aches as He sighs, "My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and My ways than your ways" (Isaiah 55:9).  As the Scripture from Psalm 127 clearly reminds us, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – for he grants sleep to those he loves.”  Without a doubt, a lot of our neighbors in this great nation labor in vain and stand watch in vain.  Issues like legalized abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and euthanasia are all indicators of how far away from God we have moved.  That move is killing us.

 

In contrast to the secular culture of death we see going on about us, Christians are concerned about the culture of life.  Our concern stems not from some innate, natural-born goodness that we possess, because we are born into sin.  Rather, we share a concern for life because God is concerned about life.  Life is sacred, because God makes it.  Life is created by God.  Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  This is confirmed in later Scriptures such as Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”  Does it not seem the height of foolish arrogance for the creature to attempt to overturn the Creator by deciding who is worthy of life?  God creates life, and then man tries to take it away.  Such foolish, vain laborers.

 

Not only does God create life, He also protects life.  Even Job recognized that in 10:12, “You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.”  Psalm 91:11 tells us that “…he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways…”  Since the Creator protects the life He creates, who are we to try to tear down that life?

 

Life is valued by God.  From Jeremiah 1:5 we learn that God prepares us for service even before we know Him: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart…”  He values us with His love, as we read from Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”  And even then, that is not even enough.  God values life so much that He sent His only begotten Son to bear the burden for our sins.  John 10:10 tells us powerfully the full truth behind Jesus’ love: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Notice here that those who advocate killing innocent life are thieves.  God values life.

 

As already noted, even a nation like America, founded upon the principles of the Christian faith, has wandered far from the foundations that once anchored it.  Like Israel of old, we insist on replacing God’s value of life with man’s temptation to destroy it.  Unfortunately, the culture of death is being imposed on those who oppose it because of the many pro-abortion leaders elected to political office.  Even though we can cite doctrinal differences with the Catholic Church in some areas, Catholic leadership frequently leads the charge against political leaders who claim to practice the faith yet advocate abortion.  For instance, on two separate Meet the Press interviews, Senator Joe Biden and Representative Nancy Pelosi responded to the question of when life begins.  Senator Biden responded, “Thomas Aquinas… said… it didn’t occur until quickening, 40 days after conception.  How am I going to tell you… that you insist on my view that is based in a matter of faith?”  Representative Pelosi answered, “The doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition… Augustine said at three months.  We don’t know…  It shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.”  In both cases, these elected officials of the American people completely misrepresented the teachings of their church and ignored the correct teachings with their responses.  In response to Senator Biden, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declare, “While in past centuries biological knowledge was often inaccurate, modern science leaves no excuse for anyone to deny the humanity of the unborn child.  Protection of innocent human life is not an imposition of personal religious conviction but a demand of justice.”  Moreover, in a different document, the Bishops explain that Aquinas “rejected abortion as gravely wrong at every stage.”  The Bishops’ response to Representative Pelosi was equally as clear: “The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, ‘Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.  This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”  They emphasize that ancient “mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago.”  (“In the news,” Celebrate Life, November-December 2008, p. 19)  I mention these two instances of confrontation by the Catholic Church with members of Congress who claim to be practicing Catholics to emphasize the need for Christian churches of every denomination to confront leadership who declares their faith in Jesus Christ yet advocate policies of abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.  Advocacy of such immoral policies conflict with Church doctrine, and such leaders need to be held accountable for their actions.  They need to know that their advocacy for abortion conflicts with the Christian faith they claim to practice.

 

The pure hypocrisy of anyone who advocates abortion is the foolish notion that any human can supersede God’s wisdom by determining who is worthy of life.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.”  Eventually, everything collapses when God is disregarded, ignored, and disobeyed.  If we cannot figure that out from the history of ancient Israel, we will never get it.  It looks like we are still failing to get it.

 

Those who follow college football will recognize the name Tim Tebow.  In December of 2007, Tebow became the 73rd Heisman winner and the first sophomore to ever receive this prestigious award.  When the Florida Gator quarterback embraced the 25-pound bronzed statue with his massive hands, the first thing he did was make a statement about his faith.  He said, "I'd just like to first start off by thanking my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave me the ability to play football, and He gave me a great family…"  If abortion advocates had gotten their way, Tebow would never have been around to win this or any other award.  Twenty-one years earlier, doctors advised his mother to abort him on two different occasions.  Bob and Pam Tebow were serving as missionaries in the Philippines when she became pregnant.  They had been praying for a son whom they could name Timothy.  She was taking a series of aggressive antibiotics to combat amebic dysentery when she discovered the pregnancy.  She immediately stopped the medicine, but her doctors advised an abortion because of the irreversible damage the drugs had presumably caused.  Pam Tebow recalled how they told her it was "just a mass of fetal tissue."  Six months into the pregnancy she was hospitalized for excruciating pain when doctors said the placenta had detached from the uterine wall.  Again she was counseled to have an abortion as doctors warned of the dangers to her own health and predicted the pregnancy would end in stillbirth.  Pam Tebow said, "They believed I should have an abortion to save my life."  Two months later, the future Heisman winner was born on August 14, 1987.  He's now 235 pounds, 6 feet 3 inches, and has been nicknamed "Superman" by Gator fans.  But with all of his success on the gridiron, Tebow insists Jesus Christ is his biggest passion.  Abortion is a critical issue in our ongoing cultural issues, and many people want to dismiss it as simply one of many concerns.  People like Tim Tebow realize it's foundational and the game he plays is illustrative of that.  Unless the football is snapped, nothing else really matters.  Likewise, without birth all of the other issues in life are moot.  (Charisma, October 2008, p.40)

All human life is valuable because God creates and sustains it, in His own image and for His purpose — His sacred image, and His sacred purpose.  Those are His "ways," which Isaiah tells us are so much higher than our "ways."  Deliberately violating God's "ways" in favor of our “ways” is the Bible's definition of sin.  I have been addressing issues of abortion and other policies from the culture of death, but disobeying God in any matter is sin.  There's only one effective way to deal with sin: confess and repent.  God is calling us to confess that we have not allowed Him to build the house and to repent from trying to build our own house.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – for he grants sleep to those he loves.”

 

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com

 

 

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