Monday, November 09, 2009
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Abortion is a Spiritual Issue!
Although Pr. Nour is addressing a South Dakota ballot issue his article ABORTION IT IS A SPIRITUAL ISSUE AND NOT A POLITICAL ONE hits home. Here's a sample.
Abortion is not an “election issue.” Abortion is a grave sin. Abortion assaults God’s Word of truth about the sanctity of human life and, therefore, assaults the Word Himself Who became flesh that we might have life and have it abundantly. Abortion is a sin against God who is the Author and Redeemer of Life. Abortion is not an “election, choice, or political issue.” Because abortion destroys human life–a life created in the image of its maker–the Lord Almighty. Abortion is a SPIRITUAL issue.
You can read the whole article here. http://www.afootwasher.org/2008/10/abortion-it-is-spiritual-issue-and-not.html
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Remembering Collective Shame by Uwe Siemon-Netto... Read it.
With the elections coming Uwe offers some important thoughts. He speaks about what is really important in this year's election.
Remembering Collective Shame by Uwe Siemon-Netto
From the Article:
Some future day Americans and Western Europeans will be asked why they allowed their children to be slaughtered. They would even have less of an excuse than Germans of my grandparents’ and parents’ generation. In Germany, you risked your life if you dared to come to the Jews’ rescue. In today’s democracies the worst that can happen to you is being ridiculed for being “a Christian.”
Friday, September 05, 2008
More Quotes from the Church Fathers on Abortion.
HT: James H. Grant, Jr. via Gene Veith
“You shall not kill the child by obtaining an abortion. Nor, again, shall you destroy him after he is born.” (Barnabas, 70-80 AD, 1.148)
“You shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill one who has been born.” (The Didache, 80-140 AD, 1.377)
“We say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder. And we also say that we will have to give an account to God for the abortion.” (Athenagoras, 175 AD, 2.147)
“In our case, murder is once for all forbidden. Therefore, 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 way to kill a human. It does not matter whether you take away a life that has been born or destroy one that is not yet born.” (Tertullian, 197 AD, 3.26)
“Indeed, the Law of Moses punishes with appropriate penalties the person who causes abortion. For there already exists the beginning stages of a human being. And even at this stage, [the fetus] is already acknowledged with having the condition of life and death, since he is already susceptible to both.” (Tertullian, 210 AD, 3.218)
“Are you to dissolve the conception by aid of drugs? I believe it is no more lawful to hurt a child in process of birth, than to hurt one who is already born.” (Tertullian, 212 AD, 4.57)
“There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels. So they commit murder before they bring forth.” (Mark Minucius Felix, 200AD, 4.192)
“The womb of his wife was hit by a blow of his heel. And, in the miscarriage that soon followed, the offspring was brought forth, the fruit of a father’s murder.” (Cyprian, 250AD, 5.326)
“The soul is not introduced into the body after birth, as some philosophers think. Rather, it is introduced immediately after conception, when the divine necessity has formed the offspring in the womb.” (Lactantius, 304-313AD, 7.297)
“You shall not slay your child by causing abortion, nor kill the baby that is born.” (Apostolic Constitutions, 390 AD, 7.466)
Friday, June 20, 2008
Protesting, Boycott, etc.
This is a great post from Steven J. Camp. at his blog CamponThis.
I encourage you to read the entire post. Steve deftly discusses the issue of Christians participating in social issues. I love this paragraph, especially the first paragraph.
I ask you... why do we in the church constantly become outraged when we see non-Christians living like non-Christians? Why do we "require" that unbelievers live in some sort of comfortable legalistic "righteous" bubble before they come to salvation through Christ? Have we forgotten what we were like before we tasted the kindness of God in Christ for our salvation? Have we forgotten how we were slaves to various lusts and passions of our hearts? Have we forgotten how sinful we were apart from God's grace? Have we forgotten how depraved we were and to what depth of disobedience we plummeted? How dare we hold any non-believer in derision and set ourselves above them thinking we now as Christians could not ever succomb to the depth of sin they might be in. What arrogance; what self-righteousness; what non-Christlikeness. Oh may we remember beloved: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
He has much to say but he ends with this important insight. The church has lost its identity. We have forgotten who is head of the church and why he created the church... for the sake of the Gospel. To bring forgiveness to a broken, sick and sinful world. It is God's job to change the world. It is our job to tell the world what he did in Jesus.
The strength to fight spiritual battles is not found in us, but only in Christ the Lord. In other words folks, brace yourselves, we are inconsequential and impotent when it comes to using human means to execute spiritual warfare! 2 Cor. 3:5 removes all doubt when Paul says, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God."
And...
The Church in America has lost its impact, insight, and identity because it has lost its identification with the head of the Church, Jesus Christ. We are more associated with the political process - Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Christians than with the work of Jesus Christ. We have sought and become a political-economic force rather than a spiritual one. Why is it that we can assemble five thousand Christians to champion a cause or boycott an artists public display of sensuality, but at that same time its virtually impossible to gather five hundred Christians for prayer meeting? The problem with the world is not the world, ladies and gentlemen. The problem with the world are Christians trying to sneak into heaven incognito.
What he is talking about here is Christian vocation in the world of politics. He's got it right!
Thanks for the great post Steve!
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The ubiquity of religion in this campaign season is distinctly un-Lutheran. Uwe Siemon-Netto
The ubiquity of religion in this campaign season is distinctly un-Lutheran. Uwe Siemon-Netto
Uwe lays out a nice contrast between the Two Kingdoms, right and left hand, the Church and the State. In this election cycle we would all do well to pay attention to our theology.
Here's a taste:
Nine years from now, in 2017, Protestants will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. This is a good time to remember its theological treasures, which differ from earthly treasures in that they multiply when shared. Where the world is concerned, Lutherans have perhaps the soberest message of all Protestant traditions. Like Paul and Augustine, Lutherans know that our secular reality cannot be fixed. They know that it is finite. It will disappear. Until that happens, though, we must roll up our sleeves and manage our fallen world as well as we can, preventing chaos and lovingly serving each other - not by the gospel, which would be impossible, but by natural reason. We are free to act rationally in this world thanks to our knowledge of our redemption in the kingdom of grace. But the gospel has nothing to say about traffic rules, illegal immigration, the price of gasoline, or the deployment or withdrawal of forces to or from the Middle East. The gospel cannot really be associated with any worldly cause. The gospel will illume the Christians' good sense, we hope, and affect their personal comportment to the extent that it makes others curious about their faith. But the