UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES: 2003/01
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The Newsletter of Contend for the Faith, Inc
1 Chronicles 12:32
JANUARY 2003
OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND
As we praise God for the new year, we are very excited about the opportunities for ministry that the Lord is opening to us.
I have had more invitations to speak than ever before. Please check not only the list below, but also check the speaking schedule on our website.
I ask for your prayers for each of the events, but let me highlight just a few of them.
On the last weekend of this month I am flying to Lancaster, PA, to speak at a youth group ski retreat. I am really looking forward to helping these young people learn to think in an age of relativism.
On Sunday afternoon, January 26th, I will fly back to Charlotte and, if there are no delays, I speak at the evening service at Calvary Church. This will be the first in a three-week series of sermons titled “Exclusive Faith in an Inclusive World.” I am very grateful for this opportunity, so please pray that the retreat will go well and that the flight back to Charlotte will arrive on time.
On the following Thursday, January 30th, I will be part of the panel discussion which was postponed last December due to the ice storm. The panel is hosted by a group called Leadership Charlotte, whose mission is to develop and enhance community leaders in this city. I am told that the group of 50 going through the Leadership Charlotte program this year includes CEO’s, vice presidents, and community leaders. Other worldviews represented on this panel will be Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, and atheism. I will be representing the protestant Christian worldview. I am hoping to reasonably and responsibly articulate biblical positions on the issues discussed, and, if appropriate, give the gospel message at the same time.
EMAIL PRAYER TEAM
Because of the many opportunities the Lord is presenting to me, I would like to establish an email prayer list for those who would be willing to pray for this ministry. Before key scheduled events, or even on a few hours notice, those willing to do so would pray for the people to whom I would be speaking.
If you are interested in doing this, please send me an e-mail and I will add you to the list. I will send reminders before key events, and if something unexpected comes up (like meeting with a Mormon), I will email an urgent request for prayer support.
I can give people all the answers in the world, but if they are not accompanied by the prayers of the saints and the moving of the Holy Spirit, they will likely have little effect.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray for a high school senior in Fort Mill, SC, named Jolene who was raised in a solid Baptist church and has decided to be baptized into the Mormon church. Pray that she would agree to meet with those who can show her this religion is false.
SPEAKING SCHEDULE 2003
Jan. 24-26
Senior High Ski Retreat, First United Methodist Church, Lancaster, PA
Jan. 26
Evening Service, Calvary Church, Charlotte: “Exclusive Faith in an Inclusive World”
Jan. 30
Leadership Charlotte “Diversity Day” Panel Discussion, Charlotte
Feb. 2
Living Word Sunday School Class, Calvary Church, Charlotte: “Attack of the Clones”
Feb. 2
Evening Service, Calvary Church, Charlotte: “Exclusive Faith in an Inclusive World”
Feb. 9
Harold Hansen’s Sunday School Class, Hickory Grove Baptist Church North, Concord: “Attack of the Clones”
Feb. 9
Evening Service, Calvary Church, Charlotte: “Exclusive Faith in an Inclusive World”
Feb. 19, 2002
Comparative Religion Series, Temple Beth El, Charlotte
www.ContendfortheFaith.org
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
UNDERSTANDING PRO-LIFE PROLIFERATION
January 22, 2003 marks the 30th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that overturned all state laws prohibiting abortion in this country. After three decades and more than 42 million dead, the abortion industry is still going strong.
I believe one of the main reasons abortion is still accepted in this nation is that Christians have not done a good enough job of articulating the pro-life position. Even apart from the clear biblical teaching recognizing the child in the womb as a person knit together by God (Job 10:8-12; Psalm 139:13-16; Is. 44:2; Exod. 21:22-25; Luke 1:41-44, 2:12-16, 18:15-17; Acts 7:19; Psalm 51:5; Gen. 25:22-23; Luke 1:26-38; John 1:14), a compelling case can be made that abortion is clearly morally wrong.
The baby in the womb differs from the newborn baby in four ways. They are Size, Level of development, Environment, and Degree of dependency, and these can be remembered by the acronym SLED (developed by Stephen Schwartz in The Moral Question of Abortion (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1990) 17-18). None of the differences in these areas is morally relevant to the status of the unborn as human beings.
Size: The unborn are smaller than newborns, but size does not have anything to do with the rights people have. Are men more human than women? Does Shaquille O’Neal deserve more rights than everyone else just because he is bigger?
Level of development: The unborn are less developed than newborns, but newborns are less developed than toddlers. A teenager is less developed than an adult. But all are equally human.
Environment: The unborn baby is located in a different place than a newborn, but what does location have to do with personhood? Does a human become a car because he walks into a garage? Is a woman on an airplane a non-human?
Degree of dependency: If viability makes one human, then those who are dependent on dialysis machines, pace-makers, and insulin would be non-persons. Is an adolescent with critical injuries hooked up to life-sustaining machines no longer human? Young children are almost totally dependent upon their parents for their daily needs in order to survive. Are they therefore expendable?
None of these four differences are good reasons for disqualifying an unborn baby as being fully human. All humans should be treated with dignity.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CELESTE
As I write this, there is a little girl in New Orleans named Celeste Keys celebrating her 8th birthday. What is remarkable about this is that her twin brother Timothy celebrated his 8th birthday 95 days ago.
How can this be? Because Timothy was delivered on October 15, 1994, more than three months early in order for his mom and his sister to have a safer continued pregnancy. Because Simone Keys, the twins’ mother, had a history of high blood pressure and an irregular heart rhythm, she went into premature labor on October 11. Doctors decided the best and safest procedure for everyone involved was to deliver Timothy after less than six months in his mother’s womb. This allowed Celeste to continue to develop, and she was delivered on January 18, 1995.
There are many remarkable things about this story. First of all, it demonstrates that a baby in the womb is a human being at whatever stage of development. It is not the case, as many who favor abortion argue, that an unborn baby is a “potential person.” On the contrary, an unborn baby is a person with great potential.
Second, it illustrates the schizophrenia in our society when it comes to the abortion issue. When some doctors (perhaps even in the same hospital) are paid to kill babies through abortion at the same and even later stages of development, these doctors used their skills to save little Timothy, whose birth weight was 1 pound, 14 ounces. Think about this: for the first 95 days of his life, Timothy was considered a person under the laws and court decisions of the United States, while his twin sister Celeste, still in her mother’s womb, was not considered a person. Celeste’s mother could have walked into an abortuary at any time over those three months and legally had Timothy’s twin sister executed.
Perhaps one day in the future (and I pray it is the near future), we as a society will come to our collective senses and turn away from this culture of death and embrace a culture of life. We will recognize the irrefutable evidence that human life begins at conception, and we will return to the ethics of our Founding Fathers, who codified their position in our nation’s birth certificate, The Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Jude 3,
Dave
