Why are some children valued why others are not valued?

This little boy is valued by his mother, despite the fact that he will almost certainly die before he turns 3 because he has a rare genetic disorder.

This little girl, though valued by her parents, was ignored by passers-by after being hit by a truck and left badly wounded in the middle of the street.  (And the same sorts of things happen in this country too...  )

Forty-two million little boys and girls are killed each year before they are born, because they are not valued by their parents.

Perhaps these things are because people in general only seek to help others when it will directly benefit themselves.  (There are exceptions, such as the first link above.)

However, according to the Bible, ALL human life (even unborn) is created in the image of God... and is worthy of being protected.   Is it worthwhile for me (as a believer in Jesus Christ) to risk my own life, health, money, and reputation in order to help rescue other people, even people who are considered 'unimportant'?  YES.

"Why do we, disciples of Jesus Christ, go out of our way to help those who are struggling around us?  Because we want to - because it's what God did for us - because of the incredible inheritance that God has given us..."

"And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." "
Luke 14:12-14

"Thus says the LORD, "Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place." "
Jeremiah 22:3

"Deliver those who are being taken away to death,
And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back.
If you say, 'See, we did not know this,'
Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?
And does He not know it who keeps your soul?
And will He not render to man according to his work?"
Proverbs 24:11-12

Regarding this CNN article, "Why young Christians aren't waiting anymore", which linked to a Relevant article reporting that 8 out of 10 unmarried "evangelical Christians" between 18-29 have had sex (only slightly less than the national average of 9 out of 10 for the same age bracket), I have a couple thoughts.

First, as I mentioned in my previous post, many people who call themselves "Christians" are not true believers in Jesus.   They are merely 'culturally' Christian, with no real understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.  Many of them have not even read the Bible, and are perhaps only vaguely aware that the Bible explicitly forbids sex outside of marriage (in more than 40 places, e.g. 1 Thessalonians 4, Hebrews 13, and many others).

Second, here's an interesting excerpt from the article:

The article highlights what challenges abstinence movements face. Movements such as “True Love Waits,” encourage teens to wear purity rings, sign virginity pledges and pledge chastity during public ceremonies. Yet many of these Christian youths eventually abandon their purity pledges....

This is sad and unsurprising, that such outward, public, visibility-focused, man-centric, pledges and covenants and rings and tokens are ultimately failing to help keep (at least 8 out of 10) young men and women pure until marriage.

What is really needed is a true heart-understanding and knowledge of Jesus Christ... knowledge of God's awesome, magnificent, heartwrenching, self-sacrificing, pure, unconditional, LOVE for us.   As Tim Keller says, all sin in the life of a Christian comes from a temporary disbelief in the Gospel.   The Gospel is the good news of how God loved us so much that He Himself paid the penalty of sin that would have cost us eternal death/torment/destruction...  and how He calls those of us who are enabled to understand and believe this to repent of our sins, "turn around", and walk in "newness of life", following Him in new paths of purity and love.

If we really understand God's love for us... if we really consider how much suffering Jesus Christ endured for us because of His love for us... if we really understood how much glory is waiting for us on the other side of death...  then temptation would lose its power.

When temptation strikes, e.g. late at night between a young man and a young woman alone with their feelings and their hormones, a "virginity pledge" or "purity ring" is not going to have any real power.  What is needed instead is a generation who truly knows God, who is truly astounded and deeply satisfied by His love for us... so that we can respond to the temptation as Joseph did - "How could I do this great evil and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9)

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."  -- Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is now in eternity.  But you and I are still here.  How will we use the time that's left to us?

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."  -- Jim Elliot

"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die." -- Jesus Christ

Three articles today, the first article the most important:

1. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/28/iranian-pastor-faces-execution-for-refusing-to-recant-christian-faith/   - Youcef Nadarkhani was today sentenced to death because he converted to Christianity from Islam.  This "apostasy" death penalty will be the first in Iran since 1990.   Excerpt below from the article:

When asked to repent, Nadarkhani stated: "Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?"
 
"To the religion of your ancestors, Islam," the judge replied ....
 
"I cannot," Nadarkhani said.

Hooray to you, Youcef Nadarkhani!!!   Thank you for the awesome example of holding to the truth about Jesus Christ, no matter what the cost!  As Jesus Christ Himself promised in Revelation 2:10 - "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."  May God bless you and your family.

2. http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/09/by-dan-phillips-from-2009-brian.html - Great article discussing the balance in "sanctification" (the process of becoming more holy, after having first been "justified" (legally reckoned righteous in God's sight) through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ) in the Christian life exemplified in this verse from Philippians 2:12-13 - "¹²So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Some Christian groups tend to err more on the one side (focusing on the "work", forgetting that it is God living within us who is the only one powerful enough to change us) and some on the other side (saying "let go and let God", forgetting that there is still work involved on our part in the process of sanctification).  Dan Phillips shows the error of those who go too far in the latter direction.  

John Piper similarly summarizes it well, in his biography lecture on William Tyndale ( http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/biographies/always-singing-one-note-a-vernacular-bible ) - "How did William Tyndale accomplish this historic achievement? We can answer this in Tyndale’s case by remembering two ways that a pastor must die in the ministry. We must die to the notion that we do not have to think hard or work hard to achieve spiritual goals. And we must die to the notion that our thinking and our working is decisive in achieving spiritual goals."

3. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904563904576588583893732362.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_careerjournal - interview of Harvard's Nitin Nohria by Melissa Korn entitled "Dose of Humility With a Harvard MBA".  Notice especially this excerpt:

"But there seems to be a big difference between people's understanding of their responsibilities as business leaders and their capacity to live up to those when faced with pressure or temptation."

That is to say, business executives usually KNOW the right thing to do, but for some reason, strangely enough, when major temptation comes along, they sometimes choose NOT to do it.   Why ever could that be?

This is a perfect example of the limitations of secular ethics.   Ethics courses can teach you various "systems of ethics", e.g. consequentialism, virtues ethics, deontological ethics, etc.  But when "pressure or temptation" arises, people must decide whether it is "worth it" to them...  Why should one choose to follow the particular system of ethics?   At some level of pressure or temptation secular morality doesn't work any more - the rewards (in this earthly life) for doing the right thing are not as attractive as the relief or pleasure or gain offered from doing the unethical (/wrong) thing.   But if God is watching, and if our actions have eternal consequences, we can have solid ground for rejecting the wrong thing, knowing that we will be fully repaid in the age to come.

Like Youcef Nadarkhani.

I recently watched "The Phantom of the Opera", and was reminded of the difference between real agape love, versus fake selfish "love".   Agape love is self-sacrificing (like the two good main characters in the movie were willing to sacrifice their lives for each other, both in the immediate and in the long-term) wheras the phantom was concerned only about his own desires, reputation, and gratification.  (Until, of course...  but the contrast of "loves" is still valid...)

It is so awesome that Jesus' love for us (His redeemed ones) and for me is complete, pure, agape love... without the slightest alloy of selfishness...  He was, is, and will ever be thinking only about what is best for us... and for the other objects of His love (His Father and His Spirit) and He is so fiercely and completely committed to us that He was willing to give up all of his own comfort, splendor, glory, etc to take the eternal punishment for us, on our behalf...  willing to die for us.

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus 'every knee will bow', of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:4-11

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

I once came across this thought-provoking question:  "What evidence do you have for God in your life that couldn't be explained as God being your 'imaginary friend'?

For example, some people say "I used to be sad and depressed and my life didn't have meaning, but now that I have God and talk to Him every day, my life is full of meaning and joy and peace."  There's nothing wrong with that, for them (and indeed I've experienced God's joy and peace and love in my own life), but it's not very convincing in an objective way to other people who don't already believe in God... it can easily be explained as God being one's 'imaginary friend' or 'imaginary confidante', who helps one to get through the emotional hurdles of life, while actually being a figment of one's own imagination.

Or, consider the popular Christian hymn "He Lives" by Alfred Ackley, which ends: "...you ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!"  Basically this hymn is saying that one's main reason for believing that Jesus rose from the dead is a subjective, personal, emotional experience or feeling.  While Alfred may have felt this way (at least sometimes), and that to him this may have seemed quite convincing, to other people it is not  convincing. 

Likewise I have had missionaries from other religious groups tell me fervently that the reason they know their doctrines are correct are that they felt a 'burning in their bosom', a psychological/emotional feeling of certainty.  Unfortunately, since I have reason to believe that these missionary friends were mistaken in their beliefs, their emotional feelings do not carry much objective weight for me (or other people).   I have also heard people saying that when talking about God to other people, it is best to "tell your story", because "people can argue with facts, but they can't argue with your own personal experience or testimony."  The same problem arises - sure, maybe people won't argue with you about your personal experience, but neither do they have any solid objective reason to believe either.

So I think there are much better ways to answer the question "What evidence do you have for God in your life that couldn't be explained as God being your 'imaginary friend'?

The three strongest pieces of evidence that God exists, in my opinion are:

1. Creation
2. Jesus' Resurrection
3. Morality

1. Creation - where did we come from?  There seem to be three main questions here: (1) Where did matter/energy come from originally?  (2) How did life start?  (3) Where did the genetic information comprising the diverse myriads of living animal kinds/species come from? 

Interestingly enough, there seem to be only two major contenders for the answer to this question: either (A) God created the world and all life, or (B) (B1) matter/energy spontaneously popped into existence out of nothing, (B2) life somehow arose from nonliving chemicals in a warm muddy prebiotic puddle somewhere billions of years ago, and (B3) random mutations coupled with natural selection and associated mechanisms (gene duplication, endosymbiosis, etc) produced all the life forms we now see.

Unfortunately, both of these contenders are difficult to accept.  (A) is difficult for many people to accept because it involves a 'miracle', or an unpredictable/unique event which is not currently observed or describable using natural laws, and thus it makes people nervous.  Also, if such a God exists and created us, He might very well be in a position of authority over us, which is galling.

Richard Lewontin describes the fear regarding (A):  "Either the world of phenomena is a consequence of the regular operation of repeatable causes and their repeatable effects, operating roughly along the lines of known physical law, or else at every instant all physical regularities may be ruptured and a totally unforeseeable set of events may occur.... We can not live simultaneously in a world of natural causation and of miracles, for if one miracle can occur, there is no limit."
Richard Lewontin, Scientists Confront Creationism [New York: Norton, 1983], p. xxvi

On the other hand, (B) is difficult for many people (including me) to accept because scientific evidence strongly implies that these things (B1, B2, and B3) are impossible or have vanishingly small probability of having occurred.  Regarding (B1), we do not see matter/energy spontaneously popping into or out of existence in our daily lives or in laboratory experiments, thus it is problematic to handwave and say it occurred in the beginning.  (Some people point to the 'spontaneous appearance' of subatomic particles in particle accelerator 'quantum vacuums', but a high-energy 'quantum vacuum' of particles and anti-particles is quite different than the literally "nothing" that supposedly existed before the Big Bang.)   And if we really believed (B1), then Lewontin's fear would be even more applicable - at any instant all physical regularities would be expected to suddenly change; we would live in a completely unpredictable world.  We can not live simultaneously in a world of spontaneously-appearing universes and of normal, predictable, everyday life, for if one spontaneous uncaused Big Bang can suddenly occur for no reason, there is no limit.

Regarding B2, there is still no explanation (much less demonstration!) of how life could arise from nonliving chemicals.  "We're working on it," the evolutionary theorists say, "just give us a few more years, and we'll eventually figure out how it could have happened."  (See my previous post at http://tim223.xanga.com/743479966/dont-tell-the-creationists/ )  Another quote from Lewontin -
"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural.  We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated.  Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."
Lewontin, Richard, "Billions and Billions of Demons", New York Review, 1/9/1997, p31
Why can't you, Richard?  Rather arbitrary and problematic.

Regarding B3, the problem is that mutations can readily be shown in the lab to 'break' the genetic code, but not to add more functional information to it.  Just as splattering ink onto a newspaper page has a tiny chance of adding readable, coherent, and accurate news information (but a larger chance of making the newsprint unreadable), random mutations have been shown to degrade the working of cells, but not to add genetic code for new functional proteins.

Thus the consideration of origins is a strong piece of objective data pointing to the fact that God is very real, and that He created us.

2. Jesus' Resurrection - This is the most powerful piece of real-world, tangible, evidence that the God of the Bible truly exists.  If Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion as he predicted he would, his teachings about the God of the Bible would be fully confirmed.  And the accounts of his resurrection are so early and historically corroborated that it becomes difficult to believe any other conclusion, after examining the evidence.  Paul considered the Resurrection so crucial to Christianity that he said "if Christ has not been raised from the dead, ... your faith is in vain... [and] we are above all men most to be pitied"!

For a quick intro to why the New Testament accounts of Jesus are accurate, see http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/rediscover2.html .  The key is that the accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) about Jesus were written and distributed within the lifetimes of people who knew Jesus, so they would not have been believed if they contained falsehoods or exaggerations.  Also, the news of Jesus' resurrection was being widely proclaimed in Jerusalem within just a few days and months after the event, which was why the Christian church started in Jerusalem even under heavy persecution.  The question is worth considering: "Would someone be willing to die for something they knew to be a lie?"  The eleven (and hundreds more) disciples of Jesus were all thrown in jail, beaten, and eventually killed in various locations for their insistence that they had seen Jesus after he had died and then risen from the dead, proving that He was indeed the divine Son of God that He claimed to be.  Many people have been willing to die for their faith, but that is not the same as asking whether someone would be willing to die for something they knew to be a lie. 

Thus the historical evidence that Jesus lived, taught about God, died, and came back from the dead is extremely strong, and shows that God is very real, and has provided tangible, physical, real-world evidence to help those of us who are naturally skeptical to believe in Him.

3. Morality - As developed well by C.S.Lewis in "Mere Christianity" and Tim Keller in "The Reason For God", the fact that we all tend to live as if we believed in a real objective moral standard is evidence that such a standard does exist, and that a divine transcendent Moral Lawgiver (God) indeed exists.

For example, if you're in line at the checkout counter and someone suddenly jumps in front of you in line, you naturally feel a twinge of moral outrage.  "That's not right!"  This outrage is much larger for worse crimes, such as murder, rape, or genocide.  We all have moral impulses - we believe instinctively that some things are right and other things are wrong.  Furthermore, we do not treat these as mere "preferences", but as objective standards.

The most popular explanation by naturalists is to simply deny that morality objectively exists (cf. Michael Shermer in his debate last year with Greg Koukl, and Michael Ruse and others), and say that they are merely biological/neurological impulses that have evolved evolutionarily to help the human race survive.  That is to say, objective morality does not exist; moral statements are simply statements of personal preference, at which individuals have been genetically predisposed to arrive.  There is no transcendent "ought", there is only "is", although that "is" might take different forms.  It might take the form of "morality means you are programmed to perform acts of altruism to enhance the survival of your genes/species" (Richard Dawkins), or "morality entails the optimal 'flourishing' of mankind and can be 'discovered' by scientific observation" (Sam Harris), or "morality is simply an illusion" (Michael Ruse, Edward Wilson, etc).  See this excellent review for details - http://www.equip.org/articles/atheists-and-the-quest-for-objective-morality

The problem is that all people live as if morality is objective, transcendent, and cross-personal.  But in order to coherently justify this belief, a transcendent objective Moral Lawgiver must exist.  Not simply because "He will punish you if you do wrong" (though that is true), but in order to have a basis for WHY one OUGHT to do what is right.  Some object (cf Plato's "Euthyphro") that in order to say that "God is good", there must either exist some standard of goodness outside of God to measure Him by, or else one must adopt "divine command theory" and claim that "whatever God says/does is right by definition."  But there is another view which avoids those two positions - namely that God's character defines what is good.  He IS good; His character defines goodness, and He also naturally always acts and speaks in accordance with His good character, so that we can say his actions and words are also good.

Thus, if you believe that some things are truly objectively "right" and other things are truly objectively "wrong", your belief only makes sense if God exists (and is not simply an "imaginary friend").

Your thoughts are welcome as always...

"Oh my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."  
- quote from Charles Spurgeon, 1860

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
- quote from Jesus Christ, John 3:16-18

"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."
- quote from Paul of Tarsus, 2 Corinthians 5:20

Here's a rough outline/draft of some parting thoughts / things-which-seem-in-my-opinion-extremely-important-to-remember, intended to be shared (in either written or possibly oral form) to my local campus Christian fellowship, when I leave (perhaps some time next year)...  these will be refined and expanded and possibly distilled before final presentation...   

What are your thoughts?   (on these points, and also, are there any other points you might suggest?)

Here is an interesting article called "The War Against Girls", a good book review of "Unnatural Selection" by Mara Hvistendahl.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576361691165631366.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read#printMode

Here's an excerpt:

"Despite the author's intentions, "Unnatural Selection" might be one of the most
consequential books ever written in the campaign against abortion. It is aimed,
like a heat-seeking missile, against the entire intellectual framework of
"choice." For if "choice" is the moral imperative guiding abortion, then there
is no way to take a stand against "gendercide." Aborting a baby because she is a
girl is no different from aborting a baby because she has Down syndrome or
because the mother's "mental health" requires it. Choice is choice."

Here is another interesting article called "The Search for the Historical Adam".

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=92509

It summarizes the state of the continuing controversy about whether God created the human race directly in the persons of Adam and Eve, or whether God "used evolution" over millions of years to bring us to where we are today.  The same compromises and arguments are occurring, with the theistic evolutionists / progressive creationists / old-earthers saying "it really doesn't matter" and the rest of us Bible-believers saying "it really does matter."

The article is unfortunately biased toward the theistic evolution point of view, but it does spotlight the incredible pressures in the intellectual spheres in the creation/evolution discussion these days.

Great quote from Tim Keller -

"[Paul] most definitely wanted to teach us that Adam and Eve were real historical figures. When you refuse to take a biblical author literally when he clearly wants you to do so, you have moved away from the traditional understanding of the biblical authority.  If Adam doesn't exist, Paul's whole argument - that both sin and grace work 'covenantally' - falls apart. You can't say that 'Paul was a man of his time' but we can accept his basic teaching about Adam. If you don't believe what he believes about Adam, you are denying the core of Paul's teaching."

And finally, a closing quote from the most awesome book of all, the Bible... Ephesians 1:3-12.   I see so many of my nonChristian friends inwardly hungry for significance (especially men) or for love (especially women), all day long... vainly seeking in this or that activity or place.  If only they could know and experience our great God!  ...the God who loves us fiercely, beyond measure, and will never stop loving us, and Who has called us to true, eternal, significance through being adopted by Him:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory."

I was thinking today that the miracles recorded in the Bible as being performed by God actually seem quite "optimal".   If they were 'stronger' (e.g. ?) they might be more 'impressive', but less 'believable'.  If they were 'weaker' (e.g. 'God healed my back pains'), they might be more believable, but less impressive.  But such as they are (e.g. healing of a man born blind), they have the optimum balance of strength and believability.

If they were more observable/regular (e.g. 'anyone who goes to the top of the mountain of zinzibar at full moon will be healed of all diseases') or more universal (e.g. if Jesus healed ALL lepers throughout the world, not only those who came to him and asked for healing), they might be more quickly taken for granted and despised.   If they were less observable (e.g. if Jesus had not appeared after His resurrection to hundreds of credible eyewitnesses), they would be less believable.

They are also quite different than the occult/sorcery miracles.   If you read/watch a typical wizardry story or movie, they're all about power for the sake of impressing people and/or waging war...  casting spells on people, forcing people to do what you want them to do, adjusting life to give oneself more luxury.   But the miracles of God were typically items of rescue, provision, and healing.  People in dire straits who were about to be slaughtered unjustly, or about to die of some irreversible illness, or lacking food/water, or drowning, or whose only son had just died, etc, called out to God for help, and God performed a miracle to help them.

Beautiful.  True.  Beautiful that they are true.