Starbucks, Saving Babies and Calvinism

In today’s broadcast, the folk at Apologia Radio speak out from a Christian perspective on some vital current cultural issues in a no-nonsense, hard hitting, but I believe, loving way.

I commend the Apologia radio ministry for both your prayers and support. I am interviewed in the final half of the show, answering questions concerning Calvinism. The program can be found here.

Friday Round Up

(1) “Reader, would you have more faith? Then seek to become more acquainted with Jesus Christ. Study your blessed Savior more and more, and strive to know more of the length and breadth and height of His love. Study Him in all His offices, as the Priest, the Physician, the Redeemer, the Advocate, the Friend, the Teacher, the Shepherd of His believing people. Study Him as one who not only died for you—but is also living for you at the right hand of God; as one who not only shed His blood for you—but daily intercedes for you at the right hand of God; as one who is soon coming again for you, and will stand once more on this earth. The miner who is fully persuaded that the rope which draws him up from the pit will not break, is drawn up without anxiety and alarm. The believer who is thoroughly acquainted with the fullness of Jesus Christ, is the believer who travels from grace to glory with the greatest comfort and peace.” – J. C. Ryle, Faith in Christ

(2) Dr. Al Mohler responds to a very chilling article by Mary Elizabeth Williams who had written, “When we on the pro-choice side get cagey around the life question, it makes us illogically contradictory. I have friends who have referred to their abortions in terms of ‘scraping out a bunch of cells’ and then a few years later were exultant over the pregnancies that they unhesitatingly described in terms of ‘the baby’ and ‘this kid.’ I know women who have been relieved at their abortions and grieved over their miscarriages. Why can’t we agree that how they felt about their pregnancies was vastly different, but that it’s pretty silly to pretend that what was growing inside of them wasn’t the same? Fetuses aren’t selective like that. They don’t qualify as human life only if they’re intended to be born.”

She goes on, “Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.” Here is Mohler’s response.

(3) In the Ligonier Friday Ligonier $5 sale the resources cover such topics as John Calvin, repentance, the Apostles’ Creed, forgiveness, marriage, Joseph, the church, masculinity, and more.

The High and Sacred Altar

Man is inherently religious by nature. Even the secular humanist is profoundly religious. That is why he can never be neutral regarding any talk of God but must vehemently oppose it with every fibre of his being. His mantra is simple, ‘If you must speak out do so in the church house, where all who agree with you can gather; stay on the reservation, away from public view.’ While hating the God that he supposedly does not believe in, he must worship; and does so by bringing his blood sacrifices to the god he has made. That is why, at the very heart of secularism, you will find the high and sacred altar of abortion.

A Royal Baby?

What’s going on here? Baby? Parents? Great-grandchild? First School? Even the Twitter hashtag is #RoyalBaby. Are royal foetuses endowed with full humanity from the point of conception?

Hmmmm

I am sure that there will now be speculation frenzy to know who is being invited to the clump of cells shower?

I think it is safe to say that they are BABIES when they are wanted, and conveniently FOETUSES when they are not. See this article.

Meet Demari

Hello, My name is Demari Thompson. I am 16 and in the 11th grade. I enjoy playing guitar, writing songs and leading worship at my church. I currently attend an arts school where I study voice, musical theater, piano and other areas of performing arts.

I have an 18 year old sister who is currently a theater major at Grand Canyon University. My mother Cheryl is the greatest mother anyone could ever ask for. My life has most definitely not been perfect but I am 100% grateful for it. I never complain about the life I have because some people never get to experience life at all due to abortion. I believe anyway you slice it, abortion is wrong and always will be.

Now what about in the case of rape? Shouldn’t a person who never asked for a child have the right to have an abortion? Well that’s a good question and I have a good answer. No it is not an excuse. Let me tell you a story.

A women by the name of Arvetta, was raped by a friend of her family one day while she was sleeping. Later on because of that incident she found out the she had become pregnant. Now she had the choice to have an abortion, but she did not believe in murder so she kept the child. As it turned out that child grew up to be one of the nicest women you will ever meet. That women is now 57 years old, has 2 children and works as a nurse.

Now here’s the shocker, that woman is my mother. My Mom is an unplanned child. Now, if my grandmother had gotten an abortion, my mother would have never been born, and I nor my sister would have never existed. I tell you this not for you to feel sorry for me but to help you understand that good can come out of even the darkest situations. The Bible says in Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

No matter how horrible rape is, after it’s done then the bad part is done. Don’t make it worse by killing the one good thing that can come from it.

Thank you for your time.

Demari

Questions about Abortion

I received this from someone earlier today:

“I am probably going to get flak for this but there have been two questions I have been dying to ask for over 30 years around abortion? First why is the church and government asking a woman to have a kid knowing full well they can’t afford them or in no way want them? What about the thousands of teenage pregnancies that occured because of a wild party or drunk night? What about the cost to society of bringing yet another unwanted kid in this crazy world?
Mainly like to know why they are against abortions yet at the same time support the arms race an nuclear war which will wipe out humanity? That does sound a bit hypocritical. Just a few thoughts. Feel free to comment. I consider myself a moderate an big brother has no right to tell us whether or not to keep a potential kid or not. I am however totally against abortions after 6 weeks.”

Here was my response:

1) Why is the church and government asking a woman to have a kid knowing full well they can’t afford them or in no way want them?

Answer: Well the current government is very pro abortion, but to answer your question: Because a child is infinitely precious, made in the image of God and does not deserve to die just because parents made foolish choices. For parents who cannot afford the child, there is such a thing as adoption. There are a great many adults who for various reasons are unable to have children and who would desperately love to have the joy of raising a child. They are on waiting lists for years just hoping that they are given the go ahead to adopt. Lack of finance is no excuse for murder.

2) What about the thousands of teenage pregnancies that occured because of a wild party or drunk night?

Answer: As above.

3) What about the cost to society of bringing yet another unwanted kid in this crazy world?

Answer: What about the cost to society of being murderers? Who said they are unwanted? You do.. and maybe their parents do, but not those who love children and would be overjoyed to raise a child in a loving atmosphere.

4) Why are they against abortions yet at the same time support the arms race an nuclear war which will wipe out humanity?

Answer: Actually, the idea about having nuclear weapons is to have such an arsenal available that no other nation would dare use their nuclear weapons against them. For example, the reason North Korea is NOT using its weapons against the USA right now as you are reading this, is because they know USA also has such weapons, enough to wipe them out. While having nuclear weapons, our hope and prayer is that they will never need to be used. The reason we sleep sound tonight in the USA is because thankfully, though many nations hate us, no one is insane enough as to take us on militarily with nuclear weapons for the simple reason that they know we have more than enough to retaliate, should such a thing occur. Believe me, if the USA discarded every nuclear weapon it has, and say Iran got one (or more)… the USA would not last another 24 hours.

Bear in mind too that to attack with a nuclear weapon is really a suicidal act, because that country (or their friends) would simply retaliate in like kind. To quote from one of Sting’s songs, “We share the same biology, regardless of ideology. What might save us, me, and you, is if the Russians love their children too.”

Being FOR LIFE means standing against abortion and (in this hostile world) having enough weapons on hand so that no one is foolish enough to send a nuclear weapon our way. There is no inconsistency… we just hope nuclear weapons never ever need to be used.

5) 6 weeks?.. Why would killing a 5 week old baby be ok?

Legitimate exceptions for abortion?

Justin Taylor has put together an article entitled “Exceptions for Abortion?” which contains much wisdom about this very sensitive subject. He writes:

I assume by now that most readers are aware of the controversy regarding comments by candidate Richard Mourdock, who is running for Senate, when asked about the issue, he responded:

This is that issue that every candidate for federal, or even state, office faces, and I too stand for life. I know there are some who disagree and I respect their point of view and I believe that life begins at conception. The only exception I have [for abortion] is in that case [where] the life of the mother [is threatened]. I struggled with it for a long time, but I came to realize that life is a gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something that God intended to happen.

President Obama, through a spokesperson, “felt those comments were outrageous and demeaning to women.”

There are many angles to this story, including media ignorance, media malfeasance, political clumsiness, bioethics, and Christian witness.

Many members of the media pounced on the story, reporting that Mr. Murdock said that rapes were intended by God. Al Mohler has an important commentary on this today. He writes:

The controversy over his statements reveals the irresponsibility of so many in the media and the political arena. The characterizations and willful distortions of Mourdock’s words amount to nothing less than lies.

A couple of liberal writers have recognized the same. See, for example, Kevin Drum’s “Richard Mourdock Gets in Trouble for His Extremely Conventional Religious Beliefs” and Amy Sullivan’s “Why Liberals Are Misreading Mourdock.” Continue reading

A Powerful Testimony

“On a different page today, that royally pissed me off. Sometime in August, twenty years ago, my mother was raped. 9 months later, I came into the world.

When I was 15, my sister told me I was a “rape baby.” Naturally, I didn’t believe her. But my mom confirmed it. And I would just like to say this: I am NOT worth less than a non-rape baby. I am NOT a burden to my mother. I AM wanted, by many. I am NOT emotionally traumatized, I do not blame myself, and I am beyond grateful to be alive. Those women said they were thinking for their children. I can say, for a fact, their children would rather be alive with that knowledge than murdered for something they had no control of.”

via Life Begins at Conception!

Abortion and the Early Church

Charles Pope, D.C., is compiling a list of quotations from the early church on abortion, which is not a modern invention but was extremely common during the Roman Empire.

He writes:

A couple of years ago a former Speaker of the House, whose name need not be mentioned here at all, showed herself an amateur theologian lacking in even basic knowledge by claiming (on what she called Jesuitical authority) that the Church teaching on abortion was no older than the 1950s. The usually cautious American Bishops lost no time in issuing vigorous correction. And rightly so, of course, as quotes like these will show.

The Didache (“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”) ca 110 AD. Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion. (2:2)…The Way of Death is filled with people who are…murderers of children and abortionists of God’s creatures. (5:1-2)

Letter of Barnabas, circa 125: You shall not kill either the fetus by abortion or the new born

Athenagoras the Athenian (To Marcus Aurelius), ca 150 AD: “We say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion…, [For we] regard the very fœtus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care… (# 35).

Clement of Alexandria: (circa 150 – 215 AD) Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, if order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human feelings. Paedagogus, 2

Tertullian circa 160-240 AD: For us, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter when you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one: you have the fruit already in the seed. Apology 9:6

Tertullian (circa 160 – 240 AD): …we are not permitted, since murder has been prohibited to us once and for all, even to destroy …the fetus in the womb. It makes no difference whether one destroys a life that has already been born or one that is in the process of birth. Apology (9:7-8)

Tertullian circa 160-240 AD: [John the Baptist and Jesus] were both alive while still in the womb. Elizabeth rejoiced as the infant leaped in her womb; Mary glorifies the Lord because Christ within inspired her. Each mother recognizes her child and is known by her child who is alive, being not merely souls but also spirits. De Aninta 26:4

Hippolytus (circa 170-236 AD): Whence certain women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility and to gird themselves round, so as to expel what was conceived on account of their not wanting to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time. From “Refutation of all Heresies” 9:7
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