CHOOSE LIFE
By
Dr. Stephen Jones: 3-13-2019
Christianity
was born into a world filled with violence, where life was cheap and children
were disposable at the whim of the parents. Both abortion and infanticide were
rampant in the world, including the supposedly “civilized” Greek and Roman
world. Christians were resented for upsetting the cultural order and for
valuing women and children as well as men.
Christian
culture was based on biblical teaching, not only from the gospels and the
epistles of Paul, but their source material from the law of God. Kingdom
culture presented a divergent view from the rest of the world, as we read in Deuteronomy 30:15, 16,
15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and
adversity, 16 in that I command you to love the Lord your God, to
walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His
judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless
you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
To
this day, our cultural choice is to follow the path of life and prosperity or
to continue down the world’s highway of death and adversity. Verse 19 says
further, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
So choose life in order that you may live.”
If
we love God, we will choose life and will follow His laws which promote life.
If not, we will choose the laws of men, which inevitably lead toward death.
Does
the Law Bring Death?
Those
who despise the law of God often tell us that the law brings death, so we ought
to avoid any attempt to keep it. This misunderstanding only leads to death.
Paul says in Romans 7:9-13,
9 And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment
came, sin became alive, and I died; 10 and this commandment, which
was to result in life, proved to result in death to me; 11 for sin,
taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed
me. 12 So then the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and
righteous and good. 13 Therefore, did that which is good become a
cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it
might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that
through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
Paul
was not telling anyone to avoid the law of God. Yes, it is the law which
sentences us to death for sin, but the problem is sin—not the law. Sin is the
violation of the law (1 John 3:4). The solution
is not to repeal the law. The solution is for the Holy Spirit to work in our
hearts until we are fully conformed to the high standard of righteousness that
is set forth in the law.
The
law is holy and just because it is a reflection of God’s own nature. God’s
nature is not the cause of our sentence of death, at least not directly. Death
came when Adam violated the nature of God (through sin). The solution is not to
sin that grace may abound (Romans 6:1), but to return
to the original created order which was in harmony with God’s nature (law).
The
law was legislated in order to define sin and to set the standard by which we
measure sin and righteousness. It is true that this became a problem to mortal
men, because God’s standard was higher than any mortal could attain. But the
problem is only seen when man attempts to attain God’s righteousness through
his own will—that is, through the Old Covenant. Such a goal will surely fail and
end in death.
The
New Covenant is God’s vow to change our nature so that we become His people and
He becomes our God (Deuteronomy 29:12, 13). When His work is finished in us, we will all
be conformed to His image and do all things that are written in the law.
The
point is that Paul tells us plainly in Romans 7:12 that the law is good and that
one ought not to blame the law for man’s own inability to keep it. Verse 13
says, “Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May
it never be!” The law sentenced sinners to death, but it is sin—not the law
itself—that is the cause of death.
The Culture of Death
The
world’s faulty view of righteousness is based on the idea that men have the
right to determine their own laws as they see fit, not recognizing that their
soulish minds are flawed by sin and its effects. Hence, they naturally disagree
or disapprove of God’s law, thinking in their pride that they can establish
better forms of government to regulate human behavior.
But
men’s laws, though often good, are inevitably laced with spiritual cyanide.
This is seen most clearly in the fact that vastly different cultures promote
death, rather than life. Not only have men glorified war as a means of
attaining greatness, but they have also seen nothing wrong with abortion and infanticide.
“Infanticide,”
said the highly regarded historian W. E. H. Lecky, “was one of the deepest
stains of the ancient civilizations.” (How Christianity Changed the World,
Alvin Schmidt, p. 51)
In
the Ancient Twelve Tables of Roman Law, which established the foundations of
Roman culture, we read, “deformed infants shall be killed.” The great Roman
statesman, Seneca, also stated, “We drown children who at birth are weakly and
abnormal.” Infanticide was even part of the story of Rome’s founders, Romulus and
Remus, who, as exposti (unwanted infants), had been cast into the Tiber
River in the eighth century B.C. They were said to have survived and were
raised by wolves.
Infant
girls were the most vulnerable. In the second century, only one percent of
non-Christian Greek families raised at least two daughters. Only a few of the
unwanted girls were actually deformed, yet most were killed simply because they
were girls.
In
Sparta when a child was born, it was taken before the elders of the tribe, and
they decided whether the child would be kept or abandoned. (Schmidt, p. 52)
This
is identical to that which is now being proposed by Virginia’s governor
Northam.
Northam’s
radio remarks, however, clearly defended a physician's decision to give palliative
care — rather than life-saving care — to an infant born alive. After birth, he
said, "the infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be
resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a
discussion would ensue between the physicians & mother."
President
Obama famously stated that America is no longer a Christian nation. The culture
of death that is now rearing its ugly head (primarily within the Democratic
Party, at least for the present time) proves him to be correct, although the
culture war is still ongoing. I do not know how far we must fall before things
turn around, but I am fully persuaded that we are near the bottom. I believe
that there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will ultimately turn
our hearts and cause us to again choose life.
The
Christian Alternative
Into
this Greco-Roman culture of death Jesus was born. When He said in Matthew 19:14, “Let the children alone, and do
not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as
these,” Jesus’ words ran counter to the “civilized” culture of the
non-biblical world. One of the earliest Christian teachings outside of the New
Testament was the Didache, which is usually dated from 65-110 A.D. It
said, “Thou shalt not commit infanticide.”
Many
of the church fathers spoke against both abortion and infanticide, and in fact
this was one of the reasons that Christianity flourished. Not only did
Christians keep their babies but they also adopted many throw-away children who
had been left to die by the side of the road or in the city dumps. The majority
of these were girls, of course, and the result was that the majority of the early
Christians were women—by some accounts, sixty percent.
The
Romans sneered at this “religion of women,” but their underlying motive was
that they resented Christians implying that child abandonment was a form of
murder. They came to hate the Christian standard of morality that was fast
forming a counterculture.
Human
nature being the same today, we again see non-Christians resenting Christians
who claim that abortion is murder rather than a human right. This resentment
will only increase as the world’s insane culture of death is extended to
include infanticide.
Once
again, we have come to the crossroad of culture. Historically, abortion and
infanticide are the norms of world culture. Christianity changed that culture
wherever it flourished. But Christian culture has lost much of its influence in
the Babylonian captivity of the past century. Men chose death over life, for
that is what lies at the heart of mortal men and women.
But
we have the promise of God that He is in control of world empires, that He raised
them up to bring judgment upon the corrupt and lawless Church. That judgment is
now ending, and so it is clear that things are about to change. In preparation
for that change, God is exposing the world’s death-culture for all to see, so
that we will awaken from our sleep.
So
look up. Your redemption draweth nigh.
CHOOSE LOVE
Mar
14, 2019
Jesus
said in Matthew 5:43-46,
43 You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor, and
hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray
for those who persecute you 45 in order that you may be sons of your
Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if
you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax
gatherers do the same?
Jesus
introduced a new concept of love that was hardly taught in his day. In Latin
terms, Jesus was teaching caritas, while the Romans were practicing liberalitas.
The difference is that caritas (charity) does not expect anything in
return, whereas liberalitas was a gift (often at a temple) to curry
favor with the gods.
Hence,
“if you love those who love you… do not even the tax gatherers do the same?”
To
practice caritas, Jesus said, is to “be sons of your Father who is in
heaven.” In Hebrew terms, a “son” was one who imitated another or who
resembled his “father.”
Hence,
we see expressions such as children of wisdom, sons of thunder, children of the
devil, and sons of God. In this case, if we do good to those who persecute us
or hate us, we are children of our heavenly Father, who does the same with His
enemies by giving sun and rain to evil men as well as to the good.
This
concept was seldom taught either by Romans or Rabbis. In fact, Jesus tells us
that his audience had been taught to “love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”
Jesus came with a radically different message. To an average Jew, it was good
to hate Romans and to despise all non-Jews. But Jesus healed them and blessed
them, and the apostles wrote of these things in their gospels to transmit these
vital teachings to future generations.
So
Christians did not limit their charity to church members or even to believers
in general. They assisted needy pagans as well. Such actions defied Roman
logic. Stoicism thought that associating with the weak, the poor, and the
oppressed was beneath them and disrespectful.
The
Roman philosopher Plautus (254-184 B.C.) argued, “You do a beggar bad service
by giving him food and drink; you lose what you give and prolong his life for
more misery.” (How Christianity Changed the World, Alvin Schmidt, p.
129).
Christianity
taught that it was virtuous. The Christian idea of compassion toward strangers
and outsiders was not totally unknown in Roman and Greek culture, but it was
relatively rare. With Christianity, it was a basic tenet and a way of life.
The
Spectacles (Games)
For
600 years the Romans watched gladiators kill fight each other to the death.
These games were very popular, and the people themselves voted with their
thumbs up or down to decide whether someone ought to be killed or spared. Roman
culture did not recognize the intrinsic value of human life but measured its
value according to its contribution to the state itself. A gladiator had
entertainment value, much like a modern movie.
It
took Christianity to change this. Christians were forbidden to attend these
murderous spectacles, as they were called, and the Romans considered
this to be hate speech. In the end, the Christian Emperor Theodosius (378-395)
ended this bloodshed in the East, and his son Honorius ended them in the West a
few years later (404).
Earlier,
Constantine had ended crucifixion as a means of execution. He also outlawed the
practice of branding slaves. His son, Constantius (337-361) segregated male and
female prisoners in order to spare the women from daily rape. And, of course,
wherever Christianity influenced cultures, they put an end to human sacrifice.
Christians
also introduced hospitals to care for the sick, orphanages to care for the
fatherless, and charity to care for the aged. These were Christian innovations
in an otherwise uncaring world. Roman and Greek culture did not have the
compassion necessary to adopt such practices.
Changes
in Morality
Immorality
was rampant in Roman and Greek culture, and their religious practices did
nothing to promote moral virtue. Pagan gods and goddesses were just immortal
sinners having a full array of human vices, petty jealousies, and murderous
plots. The gods may have made men desire their power and immortality, but the
gods set no example of morality for the people.
Adultery
and fornication were common, along with homosexual relations, pedophilia, and
bestiality. The problem became so bad that even Augustus Caesar passed a law
against adultery in 18 B.C., which had little or no effect. Once a society is
addicted to sin, laws can no longer restrain it. Only a change of heart can
provide the solution—something that Christianity did indeed have to offer.
To
the Romans, a woman committed adultery if she had sexual relations with any other
man. However, a man committed adultery only if he had relations with a married
woman. Even then, he did not commit an offense against his own wife but was
charged with violating the property rights of the other husband. Many women
thus registered with the temples as temple prostitutes in order to avoid the
charge of adultery. By doing so, she became “public property,” no longer
exclusively the property of her husband.
Pedophilia
was an accepted practice among the Romans, as seen clearly in their literature,
philosophies, and artwork. Many of the emperors practiced it openly, making it
a fixture of Roman culture.
The
Apostle Paul spoke against such immorality, saying in Romans 1:26, 27,
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions, for their
women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27
and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the women
and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent
acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
His
words were considered to be hate speech in his day, and the world is fast
returning to that condition. A sinner’s conscience is pricked when his sin is
identified, and he is given the opportunity to repent or to become angry. But
Paul had obtained his moral position from the law of God in Leviticus 18:22,
22 You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an
abomination.
The
Romans, like many other societies, also degraded themselves with bestiality,
which runs counter to the law of God (Exodus 22:19). All of these pagan practices
degrade the marriage relationship and prevent men and women from enjoying the
blessings of the abundant life that God has ordained for all of us. Whatever
pleasure one derives from lawless sexual freedom ultimately brings them into
bondage and death.
Roman
culture changed to the extent that Christianity influenced it. Unfortunately,
the church itself began to lose its own moral standard in later centuries.
Church leaders, including many popes, often led the way into immorality, and
their example brought degradation back from obscurity. The early tenth century
came to be known as the Golden Age of Pornocracy, due to the debauchery in Rome
and in the Vatican itself.
The
Protestant Reformation brought a measure of relief, beginning in the 1500’s,
and this influence is still felt to this day. However, in the past century of
captivity to Mystery Babylon, there has been a concerted effort to transform
Christian culture back to the days of pagan Rome and Greece. Much of the
dignity of marriage, family, and morality in general has been lost, and if this
continues, it will soon be against the law to criticize immorality. They will
call it “hate speech,” much the same as in the first century.
The
good news is that our captivity is coming to an end. Those who have been
faithful to God and to His law will be leaders in the age to come. Babylonian
immorality has served to test God’s people to see who is worthy.
So
once again, we are faced with the same choice that Moses gave to Israel. Not
only are we asked to choose life but we are also asked to choose love—love that
is defined by Scripture, rather than the counterfeit and fake love that the
world offers. True love brings life and happiness. Fake love leads ultimately
to death, bondage, and sorrow.
Choose
love.
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