Vol. 81; No. 9; February 1, 2005
One-year's trial
subscription—1/2 price!!
EDITORIAL POLICY
Every editor is solely responsible
for the contents of his own articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers
and questions for "The Reader Asks" department are
welcome. Contributions will be
limited to approximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
signed. Copy deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All communications
relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
REPRINT POLICY
Permission
is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our magazine by other publications,
provided: a) that such reprinted articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper
acknowledgment is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint appears is
sent to our editorial office.
SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
Subscription
price: $17.00 per year in the US., US $20.00 elsewhere. Unless a definite request for
discontinuance is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription to
continue, and he will be billed for renewal. If you have a change of address, please
notify the Business Office as early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
BOUND VOLUMES
The
Business Office will accept standing orders for bound copies of the current volume. Such
orders are mailed as soon as possible after completion of a volume year.
l6mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm
microfiche, and article copies are available through University Microfilms international.
For new subscribers in the United States to the Standard Bearer, there is a special offer: a ˝ price subscription for one year--$8.50. Those in other countries can write for special rates as well to: The Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 49468-0603 or e-mail Mr. Don Doezema.
Each issue of the Standard Bearer is available on cassette tape for those who are blind, or who for some other reason would like to be able to listen to a reading of the SB. This is an excellent ministry of the Evangelism Society of the Southeast Protestant Reformed Church. The reader is Ken Rietema of Southeast Church. Anyone desiring this service regularly should write:
Southeast PRC
1535 Cambridge Ave. S.E.
Grand Rapids, MI 49506.
Meditation - Rev. Ronald VanOverloop
Editorial - Prof. Russell Dykstra
All Around Us – Rev. Kenneth Koole
- Post Election 'Blues' Due to All the 'Red,' Or -- Now Who is seeing Red?
- Where the 'Blue' Mentality is Certain to Lead
Day of Shadows – Goerge M. Ophoff
Grace Life: for the Rising Generation -- Rev. Mitchell Dick
All Thy Works Shall Praise Thee – Mr. Joel Minderhoud
When Thou Sittest in Thine House – Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma
Marking the Bulwarks of Zion – Prof. Herman Hanko
Book Reviews:
ˇ Light for the City: Calvin’s Preaching, Source of Life and
Liberty by Lester DeKoster. Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2004. 139pp. (paper).
$20.00. [Reviewed by Prof. Barrett L.
Gritters.]
ˇ The Pastor
in Prayer, C.H. Spurgeon. Carlisle, PA:
Banner of Truth Trust, 2004 (Based on the second edition, London, 1893). 184 pp. (cloth).
$15.99. [Reviewed by Prof. Barrett L.
Gritters.]
News From Our Churches – Mr. Benjamin Wigger
Meditation:
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop
Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church in Byron Center, Michigan.
Walk Honestly, As in the Day
“And
that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed. The
night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armour of light. Let
us walk honestly, as in the day;” Romans
13: 11-13a.
The apostle Paul is presenting an argument for a godly walk. He had begun the “practical” part of
his epistle in chapter 12. Here at the end of
chapter 13 he is, with some urgency, encouraging the newly converted Christians in the
church at Rome to keep the several admonitions he has set before them. The urgency is found in the fact that “it is
high time” and that “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
The call to walk honestly can be
heard and kept because the saints at Rome “know” the time. Paul assumes that with conversion comes a
knowledge, and a part of this knowledge is that one is able to know the time. The idea is that believers have a special view of
time, and therefore of history. Those to whom
the Lord has not given faith do not have this knowledge.
For them time is merely a succession of days, weeks, months, and years — all
without apparent purpose. But those given
faith are able to know time and history.
They know that history is
God’s story of His work of saving unto Himself a people in Christ; and they know that
all those who are not saved, and all the rest of creation, serve this central purpose. Believers know that history is determined by the
sovereign counsel of God, according to which all things are worked (Eph. 1:11) and
according to which every detail in the life of every believer is guided (Ps. 73:24). Believers know that time is progressing to an end
already determined by our sovereign God (Is. 46:10; Acts 15:18). Believers see Jesus Christ at the very center of
history and of time. There is the time before
He came. Then there is the time He came. And finally there is the time He is coming back. We are living in the time when He is coming back,
the time between His first coming and His return. When
Jesus comes again, then time will be no more. This
means that our time is the “last days” (II Tim. 3:1; Heb. 1:2), “the last
time” (I John 2:18), when “the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11). New dispensational believers know that they are
living in the last period of earthly history.
These believers also know that
the time in which they are living is characterized by “night” and
“darkness.” While those without the
gift of faith may speak of the age of enlightenment and of advances in enlightenment,
believers know that the world of this time is in darkness (John 3:19; 8:12; Col. 3:13; I
John 2:8,9). This darkness is that of
spiritual ignorance, “having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart” (Eph. 4:18). They are in the dark
concerning God and concerning all human life and its purpose. Jesus declared, “The light of the body is
the eye: ... if thine eye be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22,23). This present world is dark because it is under the
wrath of God, becoming increasingly ripe for judgment.
Believers know that the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean is a precursor of the
final judgment of God.
Paul is teaching that this
knowledge of time ought to inspire Christians to godliness.
When believers are given to know the time, then they “are not in
darkness,” but are “the children of light, and the children of the day” (I
Thess. 5:4,5). This makes us spiritual
strangers and pilgrims in a dark world, but we are on the way to an eternity of light. We have been called out of darkness and have been
brought into God’s marvelous light (I Pet. 2:9).
We are followers of Him who is the light of the world (John 8:12). “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence
also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).
Even though it is still night,
we are to walk “honestly, as in the day.” The
word “honestly” means “in a seemly or appropriate manner.” Those given faith are in the day, so their walk
should be “as in the day.” It would
be dishonest or inappropriate for them to walk as in the night. That is why the newly converted Christians in
Ephesus were admonished not to walk anymore as the other Gentiles walked (Eph. 4:17). It would be very inconsistent for those who
profess to be in the day to continue living and behaving as if they were in the night. Walk honestly.
And believers know that
“now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” This reference to salvation obviously refers to
complete and final salvation with glorification (confer 8:18-23; I Pet. 1:9). Salvation in this sense will be realized when
Jesus comes again. He will bring
glorification for His people. This is nearer
than when we first believed. God frequently
admonishes His people to live their lives accordingly. We do not know how much more time
we have. But we do know that the end is
nearer than when we first believed. So
“seek those things which are above,” “set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth,” “mortify therefore your members which are on the
earth” (Col. 3:1-5). “Give
diligence to make your calling and election sure: ...
for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” “Seeing
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot,
and blameless” (II Pet. 1:10,11; 3:14). “Every
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (I John 3:3).
How dishonest for us to walk as
if we are still in darkness. Christ did not
come so we could live in sin! If we say that
we are Christians, but we continue to live in darkness, we are liars (I John 1: 5,6).
Instead, we are called to
realize “that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” “High time” means that we are in an hour
when we should be awake and no longer asleep! “Sleep”
is a figure of speech. It refers to a
condition of spiritual lethargy. The five
foolish virgins were sleepy, that is, they were careless, lacking watchfulness and
preparation (Matt. 25:1-13). There is an
ever-present danger for Christians, especially for those who have been raised all their
life in the sphere of the church. This
serious danger is that they take their faith for granted — that they are not
constantly diligent in watching and praying. Peter speaks often of giving diligence. It is so easy to drift along, being influenced,
rather than being an influence.
Because our salvation is nearer
than when we believed, the believer must constantly rouse himself. He must shake himself out of the condition of
sleepiness and lethargy. One who is given
faith must exercise this faith, examining himself whether he is being governed by
God’s Word. We are wise to realize the
terrible danger of assuming that we are all right simply because we are members of the
church. We must spur ourselves on, to have
our lives regulated by our faith.
This rousing of ourselves so
that we awake out of sleep is accomplished in the way of our casting “off the works
of darkness” and putting “on the armour of light.” This casting off and putting on are actions that
are to be done repeatedly.
The figure is that of clothing. When one casts off some clothing, then he puts on
others. The works of darkness are not merely
to be taken off, but they must be “cast off.”
Pull them off yourselves, and do so quickly.
Take them off completely, not partially. And once they are off, cast them as far
from you as possible.
These works of darkness are not
on us simply because we are in the dark world. No,
they come on us from the inside. They are a
part of our human nature — natural to us. It
is like a layer of skin that develops on us, and we must actively scrape it off and get
rid of it as quickly and as completely as we possibly can.
The apostle lists three groups of the works of darkness in verse 13: “rioting and drunkenness,”
“chambering and wantonness,” “strife and envying.” The previous lifestyle of these newly converted
Christians in Rome had not been good. And it
was hard for them to break from the habits of this lifestyle. Thanks be to God alone, this lifestyle was not
that in which most of us were raised. Nevertheless,
these works of darkness are not completely foreign to us.
On the contrary, they are natural to us. “Rioting
and drunkenness” refers to partying to excess, either with alcohol or with drugs, so
that we do things we would never do in our “right mind.” And “chambering and wantonness” refers
to sexual promiscuity and unbridled lust, which result in filthy words and stories,
indecent body movements and dress and unchaste actions.
We must not stick our heads in the sand and say that these works of darkness are
“out there” in the world of darkness or done only by the young people. Such is most definitely not the case!!
The third group of the works of
darkness that are to be cast off is “strife and envying.” This refers to fighting and quarreling, usually
because we are sure that we are right (the “stronger,” cf. the first verses of
the next two chapters). “Envying”
refers to backbiting, jealousies, lying one to another.
Notice that here, as well as elsewhere in Scripture, this category of the works of
darkness is made equal to drunkenness and sexual promiscuity. Those who would consider the first groups of sins
to be utterly repulsive often jump at opportunities to gossip and criticize, causing
strife in the home and/or church. But the
same spirit gives rise to all of these works of darkness.
And anyone who will look at the church in her history will conclude that more and
greater harm is done to the church and to the cause of Christ by strife and envy than by
drunkenness and sexual promiscuity! These
works of darkness are to be cast off!
And we are to “put on the
armour of light.” In heaven we will have
the robes of righteousness. But as long as we
who are in the day walk in the night, we must wear armor.
This is the primarily defensive protection of the gospel. Jesus, who is the light of the world, gives us in
His salvation the perfect helmet, in His righteousness a great breastplate, in His truth a
wonderful girdle, in His gospel of peace the best sandals, in the gift of faith the
perfect shield, and in His Word the right sword. As
believers we are soldiers in a tremendous battle. Life
for us is constant warfare, and we must seek always to fight the good fight of faith.
Know the time and know that you
are of the day. It is still night —
though it is far spent and salvation is near. Until
the day is realized, let us rouse ourselves by casting off every sin that besets us and by
putting on the knowledge of the finished work of Jesus Christ. He is our strength!
Let us know that when, at any moment, we are not rousing ourselves unto watching
and prayer, the works of darkness are attaching themselves to us. Let us give all diligence to do everything we can
to keep ourselves spiritually alert and not take our spiritual life for granted. Let us walk honestly.
Editorial:
Prof. Russell Dykstra
Movies — Not a Question (concl.)
In western society, if not in the world, drama is king of entertainment. In the U.S. and Canada, 99% of the homes with
electricity have at least one television. Moviegoers
in the U.S. spent 9.4 billion dollars at the box office in 2004 (and that does not include
renting or purchasing these movies!). In
England, movies took in over eight hundred million pounds in the last year.
Drama is so appealing to us
sinful people because it is fashioned after the depraved mind. Whatever is the fancy of the crowd, the moviemaker
will produce it (and brazenly claim it is for culture’s sake!). The depravity of man manifests itself in a
multitude of vices, and the movies can satisfy virtually all. For the violence-loving man, there are war or
gangster movies awash with blood. The movie
industry satisfies the really hardcore blood-and-guts fan with such trash as a chainsaw
wielding crazy chopping up bodies. For the
wife secretly seeking a romantic escape from her “plain” marriage, romances may
satisfy, for a while. One inclined to sexual
desire can choose from a smorgasbord of movies with sexual content, from the merely
suggestive to the downright perverted. If
one’s chief god is mammon, he can easily find movies to tickle his fancy with huge
displays of wealth. And the movies about
sports or speedy cars, or depicting death-defying stunts, satisfy the desire for thrills
in still others.
The question is, how ought the
believer respond to this proffered entertainment? Acceptance
is definitely the easier way. If he accepts
the delightfully entertaining medium, the “theological” justification is
prepared for him in advance. On the one hand,
negatively, to reject all drama is Anabaptist, i.e., legalism and world flight, he will be
assured. It harks back to the asceticism that
led to constructing monasteries. We are,
after all, called to live in the world. Positively,
the justification is common grace, as has been noted previously. The way is open to enjoy drama, though the more
cautious may urge discrimination at least in how you watch it.
And if the believer is yet
unconvinced that he may rightly partake of the world’s sinful drama, there is
this last “ace-in-the-hole,” namely, Make your own drama. Redeem the movie.
Take it over for Christ and His kingdom. Produce
drama that is God-glorifying, where sin, though portrayed, is not made glamorous, and
where the cause of right always triumphs over the cause of evil.
The “theological”
arguments are well established and almost universally approved, if a little faulty. The Christian who enjoys drama will have all the
support in the world. His neighbors will
approve. The church will probably endorse it. Even his minister’s sermon illustrations will
be recognizable, drawn from the movies of the day. And
his own sinful flesh will feast on the depravity on display.
But will the movie-going
Christian have God’s approval? And
will He be convinced by the “theological” arguments? That, in the end, is all that matters. Will the holy God of heaven and earth, too pure of
eyes to behold iniquity (Hab. 1:13), sanction His children feasting their eyes and filling
their souls with sins acted out? The believer
knows better.
The only God-approved choice is
a rejection of drama, this acting out the lives of others with all the sins that
necessarily accompany life in this sin-cursed world.
The sanctified antithetical life demands that drama be rejected. The antithesis is the line that separates the holy
from the profane. It separates all that is of
God from all that opposes Him.
Living the antithesis is, first
and foremost, positive. It is living in a
covenant relationship with Jehovah God. His
redeemed, adopted children live for God. He
is their joy. In His favor is life. Gratitude draws the Christian to seek God’s
face and to live in obedience.
However, there is a negative
side to the antithesis. The child of God
rejects all that is opposed to his God. He
becomes the enemy of those who show themselves God’s enemies. Knowing the truth of
James 4:4, that “whosoever will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God,”
he does not invite ungodly actors into his home via the television set. Nor does he visit in their parlor, the theater. Conscious of God’s command to be holy as He
is holy (I Pet. 1:15, 16), the believer refuses to be entertained with an unholy pastime.
That is the answer to the
“problem” of drama.
No doubt it is a problem. Drama is a captivating and addicting form of
entertainment. It has almost universal approval. Besides,
who can escape it? The televised variety
invades restaurants, airports, waiting rooms everywhere, and…the homes of most
Christians.
The problem is not solved by a
church deciding that drama is legitimate culture, and exhorting her members to judge
between good movies and bad. Some would urge
the PRC to follow the path of the Reformed Church and the Christian Reformed Church. They resisted the lure of drama for a while, but
capitulated to the pressure of the members who were going to the movies no matter how
vehemently the church papers inveighed against them.
The correct solution for the
PRC, and for any godly church and family, is not to cave in under pressure. On the other hand, it is not right either to
condemn movies (officially or unofficially), and still imbibe the godless entertainment
week after week. That is a glaring
inconsistency, if not hypocrisy. Likewise is
it incongruous for a preacher to condemn the Three Points of common grace but ignore the
evidence that members of the flock tread the common-grace path to the theater regularly.
The Reformed minister is called
to preach the antithesis. God commands every
preacher of the gospel — “Preach the word,…reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
long-suffering and doctrine” (I Tim. 4:2). Such
preaching lays the solid foundation of Reformed doctrine squarely upon Christ crucified
and risen. It then applies that doctrine to
the lives of God’s people.
The most serious danger for the
Protestant Reformed Churches (and others who with us reject common grace) is not that we
be labeled hypocritical — as injurious as inconsistency is to our witness. The greater danger is that while we condemn common
grace at the front door, we allow it to slip quietly in the back door to guide our
thinking and everyday life. For common grace
is powerful and pervasive! It will not rest
until it has perverted all areas of doctrine and life!
Might the practical outworking
of common grace sap the church’s strength and destroy her will to fight the battle
for sovereign, particular grace? Obvious
inconsistencies between walk and doctrine will reduce preacher and member alike — who
once faithfully decried common grace and its bitter fruits — to an embarrassed
silence. That is serious, for the truth must
be proclaimed over against the lie.
There is more. A serious conflict between doctrine and walk
cannot continue indefinitely. A man’s
walk flows out of his doctrine, out of what he believes.
There must be harmony between faith and life.
However, if the walk contradicts what is confessed, something has to give. And it will.
Let the ministers be aware of
this great evil that threatens the spiritual lives of the sheep. Pointed instruction and admonition is the need of
the hour. By means of sharp admonitions,
such as I heard in the preaching in my youth, God confers grace to repent and walk in
obedience by the power of the cross (Canons III, IV, 17).
Not that television and movies
ought to become the preacher’s weekly or monthly hobbyhorse. But if he will not preach against drama in a right
and forceful manner, then the antithetical life required in entertainment will be
seriously compromised. Look at the sad
spectacle — utterly sad — of churches that years ago stopped preaching proper
Sabbath observance. Look at the congregations
and families in the denominations where the instruction and admonition about marriage for
life has not been heard for years. This lack
in the preaching is devastating. The
antithesis must be preached if it is to be lived.
Still more is required. Elders are duty bound to bring the word to bear on
family visits. Knowing the powerful threat
that drama poses to the Reformed home, surely elders will inquire into the use of the TV
and VCR player if these are present in the home. Surely
they will ask the youth what they do for entertainment, give pointed instruction, and,
where needed, rebuke.
It also behooves parents to take
a close look at the entertainment they themselves enjoy, and what they allow in the lives
of their covenant children. How quickly it
can become habit, unthinking, easy habit, to click on the TV. Weekly, nightly perhaps, the drama pours into the
living room like so much spiritual garbage. With
regular partaking, the family become hardened, not noticing the gradual spiritual decline.
Movies. They are not a difficult question really. May I go to the movie? Ought we to watch this TV show? When examined in the light of God’s Word, the
answer is obvious.
Yet the doing is hard,
for the appeal is powerful. For this reason
the believer seeks daily help to battle the old man of sin.
“Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” we cry with Paul
(Rom. 8:24).
Then we add with him, “I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 25).
For the forgiveness of sins in His blood. For
the power of the cross. For deliverance.
All Around Us:
Rev. Kenneth Koole
Rev. Koole is pastor of
Grandville Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan
Post
Election ‘Blues’ Due to All the ‘Red,’ Or—Now Who Is Seeing Red?
The recent national election (US) prompted quite a stir among those who backed the losing
candidate and his cause, too much of one to be ignored completely in the Standard
Bearer. I have an idea that victory by the
‘other’ candidate and his party would have triggered more of a reaction in our
circles and been the occasion for more analysis concerning what it portended for the
immediate future. Be that as it may, we do
not want to pass by the outcome in silence. Much
was at stake. We realized that. Those on the other side of the fence did too.
As an aside, I realize that that
last sentence you just read assumes something, namely, that I have put the SB and
Protestant Reformed members on the Republican side of the fence in this recent election. Not necessarily in every election past or future,
but in this election.
As Protestant Reformed, we are
not ‘party’ dedicated. We are not
GOP by allegiance. But I will go on record as
maintaining that no Christian in good conscience should have voted for Senator Kerry and
his cronies. Anyone who supports abortion,
would appoint judges who are pro-abortion (read - ‘pro-murder of the unborn’),
would veto legislation forbidding it, and would support homosexual unions and marriages,
ought not be in office. And if such a one is
in office, it ought not be because the righteous helped vote him in. Such a one is openly an enemy of God and all
righteousness. Such a one must not hold rule
due to our support and approval. Submit to
such a one someday we will have to (and by that time he may be the Republican candidate),
but not because we have knowingly helped put such Nero-like rulers into office.
I do not say Christians should
have voted for President Bush. Who says one
has to vote at all? But not for men like
Senator Kerry, men without a moral compass. It
is one thing to be numbered among the unbelieving and unrighteous. It is another thing to be
‘anti-Christian’ and ‘anti-biblical’ by conviction and record (as an
increasing number in the Democratic party are these days).
But I digressed — there was
much at stake in this election. Not only we
knew it, so did those on the other side of the political fence. Witness the reaction of one Wendy Smith to the
election results, written in a column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Nov. 8
issue). It came under the interesting title
“Can We Save This Country From Its Leaders?”
When
I woke up on Nov. 3 and switched on the radio, the realization hit me like a ton of
bricks. Contrary to my predictions, we had
had a relatively fair election and the American people (or something over half of them)
had democratically voted for an extremist Christian regime.
Note the description of our
present administration. A ‘regime’
is bad enough, and an extremist one at that; but, more to the point, an extremist
‘Christian’ regime. Christianity
(that is, any form of it that actually has the courage to call certain abominations sinful
and immoral) by definition is numbered with the extremist, the ‘talibans’ of
this world. It is a cancer and a threat to
all. They want to ‘excise’ such
Christianity, don’t think they don’t.
But if the Bush administration
is numbered with extremist Christianity, where do you think thorough going Calvinism
stands!
Ms. Smith goes on. Listen to her rant.
I had the radio tuned
to NPR [National Public Radio — kk].... [A]
woman from Pennsylvania … stated that she simply couldn’t understand people who
had voted for Bush. “These people want to control what happens in my bedroom, in my
body, but they are A-OK with us having killed 100,000 Iraqis, and mounting. I just don’t get them.”
That was when the
bricks hit. I felt lost. I knew what I was planning to do in case of a
stolen election (civil disobedience in the service of saving our democracy) [sic! —
kk]. I knew what I was going to do if Kerry
won.... But I had no idea what to do now.
For months, Kerry has
been conspicuously going to church all over the country and shooting ducks and geese like
crazy in between — all in an effort to convince the people in the red states that he
“gets them.”
It was all in vain. No amount of avian carcasses would have helped.
Half the people in
this country believe in a god [sic!] who forbids stem cell research but seems to have
forgotten his own First Commandment.
In the
‘other’ America, we believe that killing all those Iraqis (not to mention
Afghanis and indirectly, Palestinians) is not only wrong, but also terribly hazardous to
our own security. We have different
‘moral’ values. And we don’t
give a ***** [vulgarity — kk] what other people do in their bedrooms.
But we, my friends,
are not in the majority.
We in that other
America had better learn to speak our own morality, which is a humanistic one, in an
emotionally convincing fashion. More
important, though, we had better take a good hard look at what is happening in the
Christian extremist America, dissect it, and try to understand it from the inside out.
I say [this] because
we had better get a grip on what we are facing, in order to figure out how to save our
country (and the poor, suffering rest of the world) from the crusade on which America is
embarked.
The above is a representative,
post-election reaction by supporters of liberal candidates.
Of interest, #1, is reference to
‘our own morality, which is a humanistic one....’
This simply acknowledges that, “As for God’s divine laws, which define
true morality, we hate them.”
And #2, the above piece
identifies Christianity as the primary reason for the Republican victory and the hated
President Bush’s reelection. It is a
call for people in places of influence and power to focus attention on Christianity, to
identify it as the threat to world peace and safety, to say nothing of national
prestige and security, and to do whatever is necessary to see to it that this Christianity
is silenced and removed from having a say-so again. The
stark enmity is palpable.
When those with Ms. Smith’s
perspective get (back) in power, speakers of biblical truth watch out. The end of our freedom to speak and preach and
teach will not be far off.
And that is really what was at
stake in this recent election — the present retention of our freedom of speech, the
right to express biblical convictions concerning immorality and sin. Those of the ‘Blue’ crowd who prate so
much about ‘tolerance,’ are and will prove, when power is theirs, to be the most
intolerant people imaginable Their vitriolic
reaction to the outcome of this recent election proves it over and over again.
Meantime, we as believers
realize that this past election is not a victory for righteousness (while laws that remove every mention of God from
the ‘public square’ are the accepted rule of the day?), but a temporary
reprieve. We and others may still speak our
minds. Meantime, the assault on
righteousness, with legal backing, continues on every side.
The recently elected
administration is not our savior. It is
however a temporary restraint placed by God’s good providence upon our present wicked
society for the church’s sake.
For this present reprieve, we
are thankful to God.
I must admit that when I hear
the liberals rant over the past election results I have a hard time not thumbing my nose
at them, like Luther mocking the devil. But
that must not be. What we are involved in is
no game. It is mortal combat.
The
lengthy quotation that follows (lifted from an article by Chuck Colson, entitled
“From a Slippery Slope to an Avalanche — Euthanizing Children”) is familiar
to many of our readers, I realize. It has
made the rounds in the Grand Rapids area. Regardless,
I feel compelled to quote it anyway. What
Colson reports and comments on is another proof positive that for all the liberals’
talk about having a morality too, be it a humanistic one, what they espouse is, in very
fact, a diabolical one.
Liberals look at Christians and ‘conservatives,’ and profess they do not
understand what we are afraid of. They cannot
understand why we will not vote for their peace-loving candidates, so filled with
compassion for the underprivileged and those out of a job.
Theirs are the candidates filled with compassion for the diseased and interested in
the health of future mankind. That’s why
they are interested in funding and promoting stem-cell research. It all has to do with love.
Though they may support abortion
on demand, they are really harmless, truly compassionate human beings. Don’t you see that? There is no slippery slope. You have nothing to fear.
Nothing to fear? Read on. What
we have to fear, once those without principles are ‘the law’ of the land, is
frighteningly, gruesomely plain.
For all the horror stories we’ve heard about
euthanasia in recent years, there are still many people who think of it as “mercy
killing.” Those people need to take a
long, hard look at what’s happening in the Netherlands right now. It’s very difficult to find anything
merciful about what Dutch doctors are doing to children and infants.
According to Wesley J. Smith in the Daily
Standard, Groningen University Hospital in the Netherlands now officially allows doctors
to euthanize children under twelve, “if the doctors believe their suffering is
intolerable or if they have an incurable illness.”
That includes non-fatal illnesses and disabilities.
Whether or not the child can consent is irrelevant — what child under twelve
would have a clear idea of what he or she was consenting to?
As Smith writes, “For anyone paying attention
to the continuing collapse of medical ethics in the Netherlands, this isn’t at all
shocking…. Doctors were [already]
killing approximately 8 percent of all infants who died each year in the Netherlands. That amounts to approximately eighty to ninety per
year.... The study found that a shocking 45
percent of neo-natologists and 31 percent of pediatricians who responded to questionnaires
had killed infants.” Smith adds that at
least a fifth of the killings were performed without parental consent. [sic! — kk]
Remember those gruesome statistics the next time
someone tries to tell you that euthanasia doesn’t hurt anyone, that it’s just a
way of helping people die with dignity. That
argument is flawed in itself because killing destroys a human life created in God’s
image. No matter how ‘humanitarian’
the reason, killing is by definition harmful....
Wesley Smith puts it this way: “Why does accepting euthanasia as a remedy
for suffering in very limited circumstances inevitably lead to never-ending expansion of
the killing license? Blame the radically
altered mindset that results when killing is redefined from a moral wrong into a
beneficent and legal act. If killing is right
for, say, the adult cancer patient, why shouldn’t it be just as right for the
disabled quadriplegic, the suicidal mother whose children have been killed in an accident,
or the infant born with profound mental retardation?”
There can be little doubt anymore that the
“slippery slope” of euthanasia has turned into an avalanche. As I’ve said before, once this kind of
attitude starts to spread, as it did in Germany in the 1930’s, to the world’s
horror, and as it is spreading in America as well as Europe today — no one is truly
safe. It can be only a matter of time before
lawmakers and doctors determine that none of us needs to have any say in whether we or our
loved ones live or die.