Life & Death Issue #3: Slavery

I've already posted my last theological post, but I guess this one here will count as my last "social issue" post.

A lot of times when we hear the phrases "call for justice" or "the issues" thrown around, they seem stale and without meaning. But if you get into the nitty-gritty details of what's going on in our world right now, those words won't mean "nothing" anymore.

Most of what's here on this site is pretty much textbook information on the Biblical worldview – summaries and peripheral information that show how, as I found out, it seems to all make sense. The "issues" I've brought up along the way (the first one closely related to the topic of this post) are things all of you need to take notice of – no matter what philosophy or worldview you've trusted yourself to. And it's not just about telling people to take notice or to create "awareness," but about telling people to actually take action and stop bad things from happening – especially those who understand the theology here. And especially especially the people who trust in it.

Have you ever thought to yourself, "If I lived in the 1800s, I would have fought against slavery"? Well, you can live that dream of becoming an abolitionist, because today cruel slavery is the biggest it has ever been. There are 27 million slaves today scattered throughout the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Asia, Africa, etc. There may be some trafficking even happening in your own hometown. You have to open your ears to this information; it is not stale statistics when you hear directly from people fighting it. Take a listen to this radio program: http://www.lineoffireradio.com/2013/01/15/the-word-of-god-and-social-justice/

You won't understand everything the host/interviewer talks about unless you hear the other Line of Fire episodes and the other radio programs that I've linked to on my "Cool Links" page. I heard this episode last, chronologically, so I know that when he mentions other controversial topics here (but barely touches on them), he isn't making inflammatory statements. He's far from a hater. Craaazzzy far from being a hater.

This installment is also about an hour and a half long. Six years ago I wouldn't have thought I would ever have the patience or interest in listening to anything without tuning out. I think the turning point was right before Barack Obama was first elected, when I was still a young 'un in high school. As a fellow black and white person, watching him speak on TV was very cool. The speeches I saw were usually over 50 minutes and I got through them in one sitting. Looking back, I'm glad his rhetorical skills sparked interest in me to pay attention to stuff (about world events, certain government stuff, anything information-dense, etc.). I voted against him last year, and if you pay attention to stuff yourself and do some research, you'll know why.

I can say that I think everything linked on my site is worth the time to check out; but even if you gain the patience, you may not have the time to watch, read, and listen to it all. You have responsibilities. But 90 minutes on this topic...you can spare that. Maybe 2 hours today to get the peripheral/background info, too, for a better understanding of everything being said.

Back to the main topic: slavery is alive and well and it's happening in many many big cities...forced prostitution, psychological manipulation, economic slavery and more. Hear the radio program. Learn the details. Don't let it keep living – ignoring it will add to the problem.

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
 
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

Research & Action
www.thejusticeproject.wordpress.com
http://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=362
http://www.antislavery.org/english/

 

Survivors

Clips from the movie Human trafficking

"Footnotes"
On Making Any Moral Pronouncements – Calling anything Good or Bad / Good or Evil...
~ Is Having a foot in an ethical worldview logical? ~
An R.C. Sproul speech -> a short 30 mins. of your time
On humanitarian* work versus humanism -> another RC speech
Ravi Zacharias: Existence (the referenced pictures) | Lecture Two pt.1 and pt. 2 | Interview
The Civil Debate on abortion rights vs. life rights-> www.youtube.com/lifereportfan
My first post-> on some of my ignorance being fixed

* The secular is the here-and-now. Believing that the here-and-now is all that exists – that there is nothing "meta" (alongside) the physical – is the philosophy of secularism. (Metaphysics would include subjects such as the transcendent, eternal, and the created-yet-everlasting.) That explained, humanism is not a synonym for charitableness. One can do tons of humanitarian work and yet fully reject humanism.

-Rob

LOVE

Whoops, I lied. THIS is the final blog post to cap off everything I've typed. :)

Look around the internet and you'll find all kinds of examples of people hating on Christians. My anonymous internet response to those people would be this: "You've got a negative perception of them, but look into the Bible itself. It contains the greatest example of love; and it's not a touchy-feely or flimsy example, either, if that's what you think that statement means. If you say you've studied it, can you tell me what the gospel is? What the terms mercy and grace mean? Stop having preconceived notions."
Read my post dealing with preconceived notions & hypocrisy.

Well, it's not exactly the #1 example of love anywhere in the world... If there was a positive integer before 1, the Bible would be THAT number of an example of love. So, if it's true, the gospel is simply the most wonderful news ever.

If I haven't been changed by the God of the Gospel, then all of my video gathering and information posting is just rooted in a cerebral pursuit and humanism: theology, Hebrew history, and the continuity of the Bible being genuinely interesting to me and fun to learn about, and then spreading the gospel online just in case it is true. Like I said, that's more of a humanitarian/humanist motivation than one of worship and obedience, the main drive for spreading the Gospel.

On the other hand, if I just happen to be such a new-born spiritually that I don't have assurance about the truth yet, then my online Good News spreading is something being caused by the spirit of God inside me.

If the first is true and the Bible is true, then that's more confirmation that God will even use the mouth of a donkey. But if the first is true and the Bible isn't true, then more people will just have the hugest example of sacrificial love as something to follow and learn from. (But if there is no theistic God then why would feelings and actions, such as love and sacrifice, logically matter at all? What's the grounding? See my post below dealing with the deistic god and Ravi Zacharias' lectures on worldviews, morality, and the origin of human worth.)
_____

Getting a full understanding of the Gospel out there would hopefully get rid of most of what I like to call "unicorn objections." Those are objections people make to the Bible's validity that are easily debunked. Like the fact that the Bible mentions unicorns. That's only because of English translation in the 1600s; the ancient Hebrews were writing about rhinos or some other creature and had no idea about the mythical European one-horned horse (source). Another example is when people pull out verses without the cultural, spiritual, and/or textual context:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matt. 10:34

Look at the rest of the passage; immediately afterwards, Jesus continues:

"For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law..."

speaking about the persecution of believers – not the advocation of slaughtering unbelievers, which would be murder. Elsewhere, he says "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name..." And don't forget "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword will perish by the sword."

The Bible wasn't written in verses! Those were added for easy reference. That little piece of information should also help out all those heath & wealth preachers. (Speaking of those verse-twisting televangelist teachings, probably about 80% of TBN's content is anti-Bible or non-Christian: www.bit.ly/love-truth).

With all of that said, there are even some really good and sound answers to the hard questions. Check out the quote from James MacDonald in my "Skepticism" post and John Dickson's lecture on Theocratic Judgement and other violence in the Old Testament. (Scattered in various nations and under various governments, Christians have no authority to carry out any form of sentencing – they are to be simply Gospel preachers and walking descriptions of the beatitudes.)

So, let me end with a couple of GREAT Gospel-themed videos and an encouragement to study everything I posted. Be sure to double-check, triple-check, and centuple-check my stuff for accuracy using quality sources.

 The Law of God (Matthew 5:17)

start at the 2:38 time mark or the beginning of the video

 

Taking the Bullet

main scene at the 8:20 time mark

 

The REAL Story of Christmas

 

 What Does It Mean To Be a Christian?

It's Only Good News to a Needy Person

"Crucifixion" by Nikolai Ge - public domain
For many, this would lead to death by asphyxiation.
According to the video above,
it was more than just physical in this case.

Quite the Metaphor!

Imagine your family was killed:

All your children (you're married/with kids in this scenario) – who you actually like – and your spouse – who's not too bad either – were shot dead in your living room. As you open the door you see the guy starting to cut up their bodies. Your jaw and grocery bags hit the floor and police rush in from behind you to arrest the murderer. 


As they're exiting the room you say "Wait!" and have them uncuff the criminal, cuff you, and bring you to prison in the back of the cop car. Then you sit in the electric chair and are waiting to be shocked to death.

Phew! That's a picture of what God did for us:
Sin & the Gospel
Baptism, Church, and the names of God
The End

P.S. A little information is left in the public Google Doc that I didn't carry over into this blog. (This blog is an expansion of what I typed there.) It includes stuff on Manuscript Veracity and a hand-full of really good links (articles and podcasts).

The field of Textual Criticism helps get to the
original writings and the original claims of the writers.

P.P.S. This should be my final blog post. Dig in to all the linked and embedded information. Enjoy!

Worldviews

The conclusion of all my studying:
The only worldviews that I see as tenable are the Biblical one and Deism.

In my mind, the only way Deism could make sense is if its god is free of moral attributes (is neither good or bad) and just fabricated feelings of morality as a novelty to install in humankind. In that case, although you might not prefer murder to happen you can't logically say it's bad or wrong for someone to do it. You can't if there's no absolute standard.*

How can you account for the reasonability of any of YOUR moral pronouncements without an objective standard? With moral relativity there can only be preferences – no real right & no real wrong. But you know that’s not right. There are moral absolutes. What is their source?

In the Biblical worldview, our sense of morality comes from God. That's the origin. "Being in God's image" means we naturally have some of God's character (although it's twisted by sin). And that would be why we have court systems.

As humans we make moral pronouncements and place value on humanity and the idea of non-violence. Although societies do just carry things on, where did all of these values begin in the first place? The God presented by the Bible (or the God who presents Itself to people nowadays primarily through the Bible) would say that the source of all our different individual and imperfect moralities is a real objective and absolute standard. We all just inherently recognize and then borrow from that ultimate standard – altering it to fit ourselves. Making deviations in certain points. If you're still siding with moral relativity, why is it that you criticize anything? We've got consciences. And Justice can't be just an illusion, right?

As an aside, Genesis 1-11 doesn't weaken the tenability of the Biblical worldview. In my mind, that alone does not shatter everything with a single, crushing blow. Here's why. There are basically two groups of people who say they've been actually changed by the gospel: those who believe those first few chapters are figuratively/spiritually true and those who believe it is literally/historically true – the former group saying that most people aren't reading it the way the author intended (more on that throughout this episode of Stand to Reason), and the latter group saying that many scientists are getting the science wrong. Other theories exist in-between those two. (Have all the scientific questions been answered? Here are John MacArthur and Stephen Meyer on unanswered questions.)

And regarding miracles: wouldn't the Power that created matter and organized all life and existence be able to interfere with the natural order of things?

Regardless of your amount or lack of study, the root cause of your objections to the Bible might be that you don't want moral accountability (being held responsible for certain things you've done). An emotional reaction and not an intellectual argument.

Ravi making the case

One Full Lecture | a Q&A

 

Why other religious worldviews don't work

The Bible's main point: Sin & the Gospel (Good News) | Love (nothing touchy-feely)

Dr. Ravi Zacharias and others on The Existence of God:
Existence (the referenced pictures) | Lecture 2 pt.1 and pt. 2 | Apologetics | Paradox vs. Contradiction | Follow the Logic | "Saved"? | A Wretch - Like Me | Usurping

John Dickson on violence in the Bible and Church History: Part 1 - Part 2
A letter to Dr. James White from a fair deist or atheist: here
My post on Facts vs Feelings
* And a lecture on moral pronouncements & not mixing opposing worldviews


Another edit/addition:
Deism and Theism are the only tenable options, as long as it's a logical form of it.

Just listen to some of Dr. Ravi Zacharias' lectures. :)
My paraphrase: "No matter how much you section down physical reality, you find a quantity that doesn't account for its own origin." No object is self-existent. Its cause is OUTSIDE of itself. (See the Kalam Cosmological Argument.)

There's one other argument I've seen that seems to reveal a high probability of a Creator (which shows that faith in a deity may be entirely reasonable and not a totally blind step): There can't be an infinite regression of time or else we would have never reached this current moment right now. So time had a beginning.

To illustrate: If you have an infinite number of black dominoes before a white domino – each falling, one after the other – the white one will never fall. And for there to be something existing in time there had to be a First Cause that's outside the bounds, or "dimension," of time.


And if something timeless can't be bounded by the spacial restrictions we live with, this first cause has to be immaterial and omnipresent. In addition to all this, some people put forward good arguments that DNA must have its origin in intelligence – not an unguided process.


"Well then who created God?" From a human perspective, everything MUST have a beginning. That's just logical to us since we have to deal with causes, effects, and time everyday. But for there to be any effect (time, matter, the universe) there had to be a cause. One that's timeless (eternal) and self-existent without being an effect of something, itself.


One might say, "The universe happened by chance."
But let me show ya somethin':
Flip a coin and see the result. Is it heads or tails? Okay.
What was the chance that it came out the way it did?
50%
Here's a question: How much influence did chance have on the outcome of the coin toss? Read that again. Chance didn't exert any power on the coin. Chance isn't a force. It doesn't DO things.
Rather, the flick of a thumb and physics cause the result. The proper definition of the word "chance" is just simply the probability of an effect occurring.

"Chance is only our ignorance of real causes."
— David Hume

Life & Death Issue #2: Abortion

Preemies have rights. And that makes sense.
If the parents go broke and can no longer pay the ICU bills to support their child, they aren't allowed to pull the plug. But if that kid didn't arrive early, the parents would be allowed to have them dismembered. 

Premature - 23 weeks gestation



FYI, I won't post anything graphic on this blog – if you know what I mean. But I don't want to pretend those bio-hazard bags are swinging full of chocolates and cotton candy, either. Viewer Discretion is not necessary:

Madeline Mann (in the picture) shortly after her premature birth weighing 9.9 ounces. 
She is now an honors student in psychology at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

Dr. Anthony Levatino (2:45)

People like Gianna Jessen, saline abortion survivor, and Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood affiliate employee of the year and current pro-life laborer, care about all the people involved. Them and many other pro-lifers. They aren't "only pro-birth" (ignoring the needs of kids afterwards), and they aren't anti-women.

You can find hypocrites on both sides of the issue, but these specific people I'm talking about stand outside abortion clinics and talk with the people about to go in – and actually "love on them." There's concern for the parent, too! Find out about all the organizations giving monetary help, emotional support, shelter, and other love-centered sacrifices to those with emergency/unexpected pregnancies.

This is about a life and death debate – not politics. And this isn't a religious belief issue, either. There are Catholics, Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Hindus, Humanists, Feminists, Non-feminists, and all other kinds of people working in the pro-life movement. The question is this: What is the unborn? If there is humanity/personhood/value in the living, functioning organism there in the womb, then that's big. If there isn't, then go crazy – let people have all the abortions they want. But if there is uncertainty, shouldn't that at least be enough reason to pause? 

Check out info related to the civil & polite debate going on.

Someone might say, "What if a woman doesn't want to put a child through the horror of a terrible life?" That is a wonderful concern to have. But isn't an abortion also gonna be a horror? And even without pain, is the action of the abortionist justifiable?

Info and Quotes from Abort73.com

Facts and information that is not provided in the abortion clinic:

http://www.abort73.com/help/if_youre_pregnant/

"You care about me, right?" - an open letter to pro-choice people by Lindsay:
http://www.abort73.com/help/you_care_about_me_right/
^ Text from the site: Lindsay graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2004 with a degree in Visual Communications. She currently works as an artist & designer in Rockford, IL. This is her abortion story

http://www.optionline.org/get-help
^ Text from the site: If you are wondering whether or not you’re pregnant, your mind is probably racing with questions. It’s common to feel confused, scared or overwhelmed. Option Line live chat is available any time, day or night. We offer free, confidential help, information about pregnancy signs and symptoms, information on all your options, and we can quickly connect you to the local assistance you need

Other links:
abbyjohnson.org
feministsforlife.org
blog.secularprolife.org
sba-list.org 
jfaweb.org

Faye Wattleton, the longest reigning president of Planned Parenthood, in 1997:

I think we have deluded ourselves into believing that people don't know that abortion is killing. So any pretense that abortion is not killing is a signal of our ambivalence, a signal that we cannot say yes, it kills a fetus.

Ann Furedi, the chief executive of the largest independent abortion provider in the UK:

We can accept that the embryo is a living thing in the fact that it has a beating heart, that it has its own genetic system within it. It’s clearly human in the sense that it’s not a gerbil, and we can recognize that it is human life… the point is not when does human life begin, but when does it really begin to matter?

Naomi Wolf, pro-choice author:

Clinging to a rhetoric about abortion in which there is no life and no death, we entangle our beliefs in a series of self-delusions, fibs and evasions. And we risk becoming precisely what our critics charge us with being: callous, selfish and casually destructive men and women who share a cheapened view of human life...we need to contextualize the fight to defend abortion rights within a moral framework that admits that the death of a fetus is a real death.

Hearts need to be changed.

Jeannie W. French



denied care

Food for Thought pictures
Letter from a father
Roe changed her mind
other (full gallery)
 
 


Conclusion:
Listen to the compassionate (not hateful) yet professional debaters who happen to be on the "life" side of the fence, if you never have before. They're not brainless, condemnatory people as all pro-lifers are sometimes portrayed. They actually sound like pro-choicers sometimes – when they're talking on certain topics and making their way through certain logical arguments: "Life Report" Fan playlist ~ videos/podcasts

I currently subscribe to this notion: Just as teenagers, preteens, young kids, and newborns are developing human beings, embryos and fetuses are developing human beings. Fetuses and embryos aren't somatic cells like skin cells, but a full organism. An organism with functioning cells at that. Therefore it's living, but is it human? It has human DNA. But is it a person? That's where the real debate is.* And if it actually is a person, does a woman still have the right to withdraw "life support," so to speak, from a pre-born person – as they would if they were hooked up to a person in a hospital who is without kidneys? That's where the other debate is at.

Check out that Life Report show, where some 20- and 30-somethings talk about these serious topics while still remaining the fun and quirky people they are off camera; they aren't one-track robots. There is a polite (not just "civil") debate going on between some pro-choicers and some pro-lifers, and these people are involved in that arena outside of the studio.

Just because there are different opinions about something doesn't mean there can't be a correct answer. Not necessarily. Gray areas exist with certain things, but most likely not with this. People can be real without holding back, staying silent or attacking each other. So go ahead and dialogue with people. True tolerance is holding to your convictions while being able to respect the person who strongly differs with you. Good conversations can happen only in an environment of real tolerance. (Usually tolerance is talked about these days as giving up your position for the sake of peace – meeting in the middle. But that's not accurate.)

The terms "prolife" and "prochoice" are both loaded when used by the opposite sides. I get what both labels mean, as the proponents define them: person-hood rights and women's freedom. They DO NOT mean "anti-women bigots" and "baby-killers."

Whatever the truth is, the goal is justice. I'm sure every single person can agree on that. :) Women's freedom or Right to Life – justice would be upholding whichever cause is valid. Study the information out there and don't just have an emotional reaction. Emotions are natural, but just make sure your emotions are informed.


THE END




Here's a small article one of the Life Report hosts typed. First inform yourself with the first few videos of the playlist (at least 10 of 'em) and get a good review from the stats and arguments presented in text here.

And if you can handle a sad story (which is just linked here as food for thought), read this.


* I wrote a little bit more about all this in my "About Me" on Facebook.

Preconceived Notions & Hypocrisy

If you've never studied a book of the Bible such as Romans or Hebrews, or studied the smallest bit of systematic-theology, then you probably have a preconceived notion of Christianity.* A version of it in your mind which you are either rejecting or just aren't that fond of. If that describes you, then the interesting thing is that the God of the Bible also rejects it. God's right along with you on that one. Learn what the real thing is.**  

Watch a portrayal of Jesus teaching against hypocrisy: Jewish Humor

And here are 2 short presentations on that topic:

Parking Garage "Christianity"

When REAL Christians are Hypocrites

 

So Christianity-rejecters are right when they point out that hypocrisy is a sin. But if you feel like you're superior to a hypocrite (whether they are a real christian or not), aren't you being self-righteous?

And here's an interesting question: Would you take a bullet for a self-righteous person?


In the Bible, imputation is the opposite of self-righteousness. Once someone's really a Christian they will live a life of obedience and desire to sin less. But they're not doing that do look good to people or to God; God gets all the credit for saving them. (See the second footnote to get what that means.)

Find out some of what actually happens during a Roman crucifixion. That and a few other things are here in this playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9VLu-QnW1AVpGtZFBE17wMaXRD6O_8d2

THE END

* It's really easy to slide into that – even for people who grow up in religious environments for years (that was me, kind of). And it's especially easy to stay in that mindset if you've seen crazy things like this and this on TV.

** Besides post #1, this might be a good place to start: http://news2urears.blogspot.com/2013/01/sin-gospel.html
The rest of this Blog will be plenty of help, too.
Start from the top – or bottom, I should say: 2012 | 2013

Gospel Harmony

[See my previous posts to learn what the "gospel message" (good news message) is.]

The books known as Gospels were written by some of Jesus' twelve closest disciples (Latin word for "students") and/or their associates. Luke may have been the only Gentile among the Bible authors – but he was a doctor, so who knows? [ Joke by David Brickner ]

I take it Luke and the other associates conducted a lot of interviews. If you do the same sort of thing today, it is obvious that the truth can be seen and conveyed through many different perspectives. That's observable in news reporting and court testimony: even if all the people have the right facts, it won't come out identically the same through everyone's mouth.

Let's do an Activity! Well, I've actually done it already, but I'll give you all the tools to do it yourself:

• A Link to download the four resurrection accounts -- here

• A Printer and scissors -- umm...supply those yourself

I've formatted the resurrection accounts in a Word document table in such a way that you can cut out each verse and rearrange them at your will.

After you go about it for some time on your own, you can check out my outcome / solution.

Another edit/addition:
I just got the book One Perfect Life by John MacArthur. The whole thing is basically this sort of "activity" that we just did – but with a lot more of the New Testament. Fitting verses and passages together to make a single narrative layout, it's totally clear that the resurrection accounts work together. You can clearly see that Mary of Magdala first came to the tomb alone when it was still dark and the other women arrived with their spices when the sun was up. And some point after "Mary M." came back to the tomb with Peter and John (and met Jesus), they all met up on the way back to the eleven.

We've seen that the record isn't contradictory – but did any of it really happen?
Listen to Dr. William Craig talk about Evidence for the Resurrection.