Get Ready To Struggle!

In 1960's China, "The Cultural Revolution" unleashed untold violence and death on millions of Chinese who were considered traitors to the cause of the Communist Party. In the wake of the "Great Leap Forward," which killed by some estimates as many as 50 million Chinese and which was a great example of an "oxymoronically" named campaign, Mao decided that there were too many traitors in China's midst. The traitors, or counter-revolutionaries as Mao dubbed them, needed to be excised from society for the good of the country.

When Life Has No Value

"One that I absolutely love...I mean I have to admit to welling up several times while reading the book, about one who was an amateur clown. And I think he was having...you were going to be administering his assisted death, and I think you must've left the room or something or he left the room and he came back dressed in his full clown regalia including a red nose and you asked him what that was about and he said that he wanted to go out laughing. And I thought that that was so charming...it's become socially accepted now that people are having assisted death."

We often think about life, what it is about, where we're going, why we're here. Questions like these have troubled mankind almost since the beginning of life on earth. And I say almost from the beginning, because we can be sure that Adam and Eve knew exactly why they were here.

But as much as such questions occupy humanity's mind, the answers that man has given to them have led to nothing short of abject despair. Take the above quote as perhaps one of the best examples of this reality. It was uttered by an interviewer in a Canadian show that was interviewing a doctor that specializes in assisted suicide. In Canada, perhaps more than any other country, assisted suicide has become not only accepted and common, but also quite the tidy business for the quacks that engage in the practice (see the video above for one such case).

Think about it for a second. Is there anything more morbid and hopeless than creating an entire business model around the idea of killing yourself? What level of complete hopelessness must a person have to come to the conclusion that killing yourself is preferable than continuing to live? And bear in mind that an increasing number of cases are not people who are terminally ill or battling terrible pain, but many who are simply tired of living and who can give a "good reason" as to why their lives should be terminated.

The doctor that was being interviewed goes on to say that Ed, the person who was being euthanized, wanted to go out happy and that is why he chose to wear his clown suit. You can see how society is increasingly making of such deaths nothing more than another in its long lines of despicable activities that should be celebrated and that are so "courageous." It won't be long before everyone is required to look upon such heinous acts as good and praise worthy!

Just think of what went through Ed's mind at the moment of his demise. Imagine his surprise when he finally expires and finds himself in a place of suffering and torment the likes of which we cannot even begin to imagine! And all that while thinking that he was putting an end to his imagined suffering here on earth.

But what can be expected from a world that believes that we are little more than cosmic dust? The end of our lives is little different than the end of a fly's life. After all, we have evolved from the same stuff, in the same way, and have the same value. Our lives are nothing but the sum of our genes bouncing around inside our bodies and leading to nothing transcendent or useful. Thus, it should not be surprising that our lives can be ended in the same way.

As one pundit once put it "things have become curiouser and curiouser." And indeed, life in the view of the perverted thinking of the unbeliever gets less and less important or valued with each passing day. And this trend continues to happen and to expand because people who hold such beliefs do not understand human nature. They fail to realize that man is irreparably sinful and will do whatever he thinks will be to his advantage. As the saying goes, give sinners and inch and they'll take a yard.

That is the same tendency we see in the current trend of men "transitioning" to become women and participating in women's sports. People supporting such actions were convinced that such men would never do anything like "transitioning" merely for gain. Yet, we now see an increasing number of cases where that very thing is in full display.

We would do well to remember, however, that as Paul told the Athenians, many of whom had the exact same thoughts that many today have, that God has "set a day when He will judge the world by that Man whom He has appointed, and has given us witness in raising Him from the dead'' (Acts 17). Who are we going to believe, man or God?

 

 

Give People What They Want

Recently the Southern Baptist Convention expelled Saddleback Church, the church that Rick Warren founded, from its rolls. This action followed Saddleback's support for and ordaining of three women to be among its pastors.