Rev. David Holwick D
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 24, 1993
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
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I. The certainty of life and death.
A. The death of Louise Soffel [devout member of our church].
B. Lives that never should have been?
The young woman lost her father early in life.
She married only to have her husband pass away soon after.
She remarried, then her mother died within the year.
She was never seen to laugh.
She was continually pregnant and gave birth to seven children.
Four of them died as infants or toddlers.
They were born so frequently that when one died, the next one
took the same name.
The surviving children all bore the scars of smallpox.
After the birth of her seventh child, she herself died from
tuberculosis.
Before she died the lingering death of tuberculosis, her husband
became an alcoholic.
He drank up all their money and at one point she had to sell her
clothes to buy food.
He lost his job, and drank even more.
He was cruel and abusive to his children, and the little ones
were often seen crying by neighbors.
When the oldest became an adolescent, it became his job to bail
the father out of the local drunk-tank.
This son had almost no formal education and never learned even
simple arithmetic.
At an early age he contracted a social disease. (syphilis)
At age 32 he was completely deaf.
Chronic depression and paranoia robbed him of most of his friends.
He never married and had no children.
After months of suffering and pain, he died from pneumonia and
congestive heart failure.
If his mother had wanted to terminate this pregnancy to spare him
all this, would she have been justified?
(Congratulations, you just killed Ludwig von Beethoven.)
#2418
II. Life and death issues are at the cutting edge of our society.
A. Just this week:
1) President Clinton rescinded restrictions placed on abortions
and experiments with fetal tissue.
2) Tens of thousands marched in Washington to protest the
20th anniversary of "Roe vs. Wade."
3) Dr. Kevorkian assisted in his 9th suicide.
B. Attitudes and practices are constantly being challenged.
1) Rapid shift away from extraordinary measures to preserve life,
...to ordinary measures, (Karen Quinlin)
...to no measures at all,
...to positive action to destroy unwanted human life.
(CT, 3/19/82, p.12)
2) The cost of medical care is in danger of burying the economy,
and further ethical frontiers will soon be passed.
III. How much is your life worth?
A. We all have some basic worth.
Back in the 1930's someone estimated the mineral worth of a
150 pound man at about 98 cents.
More recently, a biochemist recalculated man's worth based
on the "marketable" chemical elements in the average body
and arrived at a figure of about $6 million.
#736
The government doesn't value you this much.
To be specific:
The Dept. of Transportation says you're worth $1 million.
OSHA says you're worth $2-5 million.
The Environmental Protection Agency fudges both ways -
$0.47 - 8.3 million.
#147
Fallacy is that people cannot be measured in terms of money.
B. World says we are worthwhile due to what we produce or experience.
1) Some lives are more valuable than others.
a) Fletcher and others assess "personhood" in light of
perceived quality of life rather than the simple
biological fact of life.
2) First victims of Nazism were not Jews, but the retarded.
a) Gas vans eliminated them. (Zyclone B gas)
b) Only brave denunciation by a noted Lutheran pastor
stopped them.
C. Bible says we are valuable because made makes us so. Luke 12:24
1) God created us in a wonderful way. Ps 139:13-16
2) He loves each and every one of us. John 3:16
D. Critical questions face our society and must be answered.
IV. When does life start?
A. The frontiers of science.
1) Test tube babies.
2) Prenatal operations.
B. Dilemma of abortion faces this question head on.
Jean Staker Garton is a medical school professor.
One night she was putting the finishing touches to a lecture
for medical students scheduled to be presented the next day.
All her children were in bed; the late television news was
over, and she was reviewing some slides which might be used.
There appeared on the screen a picture of an abortion victim,
aged two and one-half months' gestation.
Her body had been dismembered by a curette, the long-handled
knife used in a D&C abortion procedure.
Suddenly she heard, rather than saw, another person near her.
At the sound of a sharp intake of breath, she turned to find
that her youngest son, then a sleepy rumpled three-year-old,
had unexpectedly and silently entered the room.
His small voice was filled with great sadness as he asked,
"Who broke the baby?"
Garton was so startled by this insight she became a pro-life
activist.
#1141
C. Arguments in favor of abortion. Lewis Smedes
1) A pluralistic society should not prevent individuals
from doing what their religious principles allow.
2) A free society should not invade the privacy of a
woman's body.
3) A just society should not pass laws whose execution
inevitably creates unfairness.
4) A merciful society should not make laws that force
terrible handicaps on children.
5) A wise society will not pass laws that it cannot,
and perhaps does not have the will to, enforce.
6) Each of these arguments assumes the fetus is not
in any sense a human being.
D. Arguments against abortion.
1) A pluralistic society does not allow people to
follow their consciences to kill an innocent human.
2) A free society will invade privacy if it is certain an
innocent human is about to be killed privately.
3) A just society can have unfair laws, if no law leads
to even greater unfairness.
4) A merciful society may make laws that burden children
if having no laws causes innocent unborn children
to be killed.
5) A wise society may make laws it cannot enforce if not
making them causes killing human beings legal.
6) Each of above makes an important assumption -
the fetus is a human being. CT, 7/15/83, p. 62.
#2419
E. The testimony of the Bible.
1) We are formed by God (not parents) in the womb. Ps 139
2) Mothers are not just pregnant, but "with child."
3) Jesus became Son of God at conception, not birth. Matt 1:20
4) Death of an unborn child is treated as murder. Exod 21:22f
V. When does our life end?
A. Most families will face this question intimately.
1) In old days, doctor told you why grandma died.
2) Now they ask, Do you want her on a respirator?
B. The definition of death. Hebrews 9:27
1) Bible: when you stand naked before God, you are dead.
2) All doctors: when breathing stops forever, you are dead.
3) Many doctors: when your brain stem ceases to function,
you are dead.
a) Transplant dilemma - best when taken from a breathing body.
b) Reason many feel hesitant to sign organ donor cards.
C. Providing life, or prolonging death?
1) Christians should not actively promote death. (stop feeding)
a) Euthanasia attacks the sovereignty of God.
1> The Lord gives, only the Lord can take away. Job 1:21
b) It neglects God's power to heal.
1> In 1989 Carrie Coons, 86, was in a vegetative coma.
Relatives wanted her unplugged because she had
expressed a desire to die.
But she came out of the coma, began to speak and
would not commit herself to having the feeding
tubes removed.
Her answer - it would be a difficult decision.
#805
2> Grover Taylor's mom and coma from stroke.
c) Euthanasia discounts the value of suffering, which gives
opportunities to learn or be purified.
Vicki and her husband Jim never wanted to have to go through cancer
treatment.
But when Jim was diagnosed with lung cancer they decided to accept it.
It would not cure him but give him 2 years instead of 2 months.
There was much pain but the extra time with the family, including two
Christmases, was well worth it.
"For one of the gifts that cancer treatment gives is time.
You discover that as the length of life is shortened, the feeling
for life is heightened.
Experiences and emotions that are taken for granted in normal times
are telescoped so that each stands out in clear, vibrant detail."
#1007
d) It cuts dying people off from the communities God has
ordained to serve them.
1> The church is God's vehicle to minister to the dying
and euthanasia spurns that ministry.
2> The Hospice movement is a better alternative.
2) Christians should not needlessly prolong death.
[further assess reasoning here. Celeste thought
it was confusing and contradicted earlier points]
a) If death appears to be inevitable, it should not be
fought. We accept death's reality.
b) Extraordinary medical efforts should only be used
when there is the possibility of recovery.
c) Let your family know your feelings.
VI. Choose life. Deut 30:15-20
A. Life must be given the preference.
1) Even when it is not easy Acts 14:22
2) Choose it because it is God's choice.
B. How long have you lived? REALLY lived?
1) It is possible to breathe, and be dead.
2) Jesus came to give us life in all its fullness. John 10:10
3) Eternal life begins now, not at death. John 5:24
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Articles
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CT, 12/15/78, p. 8ff, Interview with Koop concerning abortion and
euthanasia of children.
CT, 9/5/80, p. 50f, Does life begin before birth? (Stott)
Looks at Psalm 139 and gives good overview of
development of the fetus.
CT, 2/5/82, p. 28ff, Moral dilemma of "pulling the plug."
CT, 3/19/82, p. 12f, Is every life worth living? Society should
not take away what God has given.
CT, 9/20/85, p. 20ff, Three legal pillars of Roe v. Wade are shaky.
1. Right to privacy includes abortion.
2. Unborn are not persons entitled to protection.
3. State may protect only viable fetuses.
CT, 3/6/87, p. 17ff, Life defying acts. Dying process, euthanasia.
CT, 6/12/87, p. 24ff, Abortion is more than a matter of law, and
also includes attitude toward life.
CT, 10/7/88, p. 80, Euthanasia is becoming more acceptable. (Colson)
CT, 3/3/89, p. 14, What is life worth?
CT, 2/5/90, p. 65f, Christian opposition to euthanasia.
CT, 8/20/90, p. 14, Dr. Kevorkian and gruesome of euthanasia.
" " p. 38f, Right to Die and living wills.
Discipleship Journal #32, March 1986, "Rescue the Weak & Needy" by Louis
Platt.
I. If unborn babies are in any sense human, taking their lives is a form
of manslaughter.
A. It is not merely a private matter, but affects society as a
whole. (CT, 3/19/82, p. 13)
B. Law IS a deterrent. CT, 9/20/85, p. 22.
1) Even more significant, the law is a reflection of
the values we as a society want to protect.
2) Even if unenforceable, it enshrines the value of the
sanctity of human life - that we as a civilized
people will protect the most innocent and helpless among us.
II. Christian opposition to euthanasia. (CT, 2/5/90, p. 65f)
A. Euthanasia attacks the sovereignty of God.
1) The Lord gives, only the Lord can take away. Job??
B. It neglects God's power to heal.
C. It forgets that death is an enemy and not originally
part of God's plan for the human race.
D. It discounts the value of suffering.
1) Suffering gives opportunities for learning or
purification.
E. It cuts dying people off from the communities God has
ordained to serve them.
1) The church is God's vehicle to minister to the dying
and euthanasia spurns that ministry.
2) The Hospice movement is a better alternative.
III. People matter. G.K. Chesterton set forth a decidedly
countercultural view of human worth when he said:
"All men matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest
thing in theology to believe." CT, 3/3/89, p. 15.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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