Gregory Koukl's Blog, page 73

At What Age Should Parents Start Training Kids to Defend Their Faith?

Brett helps parents determine when they should start teaching their kids apologetics.

The Right to Die May Become a Duty to Die

As a follow-up to Melinda’s post on “death with dignity,” here’s an excerpt from a post by Wesley J. Smith titled “How Assisted Suicide Advocacy Hurts the Sick.” A friend of Smith’s who had ALS wrote this in 1997, during a time when there was a similar push for assisted suicide in the media. Since he was fighting to live, he said, “They are trying to drive me from the well-lit boulevards into the dark alley,” and he wrote “I Don’t Want a Choice to Die” for the San Francisco Chronicle explaining his anger against those who promote assisted suicide:

[A]s Chicago’s beloved Cardinal Joseph Bernardin wrote to the Supreme Court just before he died: “There can be no such thing as a ‘right to assisted suicide’ because there can be no legal and moral order which tolerates the killing of innocent human life, even if the agent of death is self-administered. Creating a new ‘right’ to assisted suicide will endanger society and send a false signal that a less than ‘perfect’ life is not worth living.”

Euthanasia advocates believe they are doing people like me a favor. They are not. The negative emotions toward the terminally ill and disabled generated by their advocacy is actually at the expense of the “dying” and their families and friends. We often feel disheartened and without self-assurance because of a false picture of what it is like to die created by these enthusiasts who prey on the misinformed.

What we, the terminally ill, need is exactly the opposite — to realize how important our lives are. And our loved ones, friends, and, indeed, society need to help us feel that we are loved and appreciated unconditionally.

Instead, reporting in the media too often makes us feel like token presences, burdens who are better off dead…. 

If physician-assisted suicide is legally available, the right to die may become a duty to die. The hopelessly ill may be subtly pressured to get their dying over with — not only by cost-counting providers but by family members concerned about burdensome bills, impatient for an inheritance, exhausted by care-giving or just anxious to spare a loved one further suffering.

In my view, the pro-euthanasia followers’ posture is a great threat to the foundation upon which all life is based, and that is hope. I exhort everyone: Life is worth living, and life is worth receiving. I know. I live it every day.

Read the rest of what he wrote. Wesley J. Smith’s blog, Human Exceptionalism, is an excellent resource for following the latest bioethics issues in the news—surrogacy, transhumanism, euthanasia, ESCR, etc. I recommend it.

A Countess Who Devoted Her Fortune to Christ

Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, was a remarkable woman in her time. She was born in 1707 to aristocracy, suffered loss, family disputes, and bad health. She married the ninth earl of Huntingdon, descended from kings, and was part of royal social circles. Her early traditional life gave no indication of her extraordinary activities later in life.

She was raised in the Church of England, but had not experienced personally God’s grace. Revival came to England in the 1730s with preaching from John Wesley and George Whitefield. The Countess heard their message and experienced conversion. She became an evangelist herself, engaging anyone she met – high or lowly standing – about the Gospel. She invited preachers to her house to teach her guests. She became passionate. And she examined her beliefs and actions to live out her Christian convictions.

She believed that generosity and charity were not individual actions, but a way of living. She visited debtor’s prison and personally paid off what was owed by inmates, freeing them. She reached out to coal miners, offering them help. Through the chaplains she sponsored, she helped needy people, giving away today’s equivalent of millions of dollars. She practiced what she read: “When I gave myself up to the Lord, I likewise devoted to Him all my fortune.”

Decades before William Wilberforce and his circle made abolition of the slave trade a national cause, Selina opposed slavery. She sponsored black authors and activists.

She helped found a college called Trevecca for training preachers that was eventually incorporated into Westminster Collge, Cambridge University. The students didn’t pay anything to attend. Many were poor. The Countess paid their expenses from her own pocket and raised support for their education. Trevecca graduates became some of the most influential pastors of their time. She sponsored 64 chapels in England. The school also produced missionaries. The Countess sponsored missionaries to the East Indies, Africa, America, and the South Pacific.

She corresponded with George Washington about founding a college in America for Native Americans. She used property she inherited to found the Bethesda Home for Boys in Georgia.

Selina’s conversion transformed her; God transformed her life. And she lived out the grace she received as thoroughly and generously as she could.

(Source: Mere Believers by Marc Baer)

Death with Dignity

I’m very sorry to hear that Brittany Maynard ended her life Saturday. My sincere condolences to her husband, family, and friends.

Brittany literally became the cover girl for doctor-assisted suicide when she went public with her decision and was on the cover of People magazine. She was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor and chose to end her life at her own timing rather than die of the disease. This is called death with dignity.

There has been criticism for those who have publicly disagreed with her decision. But Brittany went public in order to spark a change in public policy, so it’s in the public square for discussion.

“Death with dignity” is a phrase that suicide proponents have used. Of course, there’s rhetorical power to the phrase to identify it with suicide, bypassing the difficulty and suffering of dying naturally. But dignity has nothing to do with the mode of death, but the way someone handles dying. There’s nothing at all undignified about needing the care of others when we can no longer care for ourselves. There’s nothing undignified about a difficult death. Dignity is a virtue of how the person handles the very difficult circumstances they find themselves in.

I’ve become more personally acquainted with suffering and dying. For the last year my mother’s heart conditions have worsened. She’s become incapacitated and needs care for virtually every need she has. She’s bedridden and her memory is worsening. It’s nothing very unusual for someone nearly 90. She’s slowly dying. It’s very difficult for her and there have been times she’s yearned for it to end. But my mother has accepted every degradation in her condition with grace. She’ll die of natural causes. She is dying with dignity.

My mother often says she never imagined she’d be like this. She would rather die than linger like this. I can’t imagine how hard it is to be in her situation. And I know there are families dealing with much, much worse.

It isn’t pointless.

There’s a community aspect to anyone’s death. Each person’s death and how we handle it either communicates the intrinsic value of human life or the lack of it. It speaks of our value for those virtues or says they’re unimportant. It tells everyone that life is precious and not ours to take, or it says that we are our gods and personal autonomy is paramount.

Brittany Maynard went public because she wanted her death to tell us what she thought about suffering and dying. We need to think carefully about what she told us because it has consequences for all of us and how we treat the suffering and dying, the very vulnerable. My mom’s dying process also tells us something. And I hope that it teaches us that we aren’t the masters of our fate. That life is precious and valuable even when it’s extremely difficult and painful. That we need to care for the sick and dying with patience and compassion. And that there is dignity in the way we accept dying by natural means even when it’s very, very hard. In caring for the sick and dying, we affirm the value of every person by treating them humanely through sickness until death.

Obviously, there are worldview issues involved in this. If you don’t believe in an afterlife, the virtues gained during the end of life aren’t very valuable. If you don’t believe that we are God’s creatures and He gives us life and value, then we are the masters to exercise autonomy over our fate. The value – or lack of it – we put on life at the worst moments in life and death will have consequences for how we treat people at any point in life. This will have consequences for how we as a society provide for the suffering and dying. It will have consequences for the kind of people we are. 

These are the issues that need to be part of the public discourse. 

Why Our Moral Debt Could Be Transferred to Jesus

In a post addressing “19 Objections and Answers on Penal Substitutionary Atonement,” Derek Rishmawy responds to the objection that “penal substitutionary atonement is morally repugnant because moral guilt is not transferable. It is wicked to punish the innocent in the place of the guilty”:

In response to this, some have noted that some forms of debt are transferable. People can pay off each other’s financial debts all the time. Why not Christ? Well, as long as it is thought of financially, yes, that seems unproblematic. But moral debt seems different and non-transferable. We are not usually supposed to punish the innocent in the place of the guilty. At this point, it seems that a few things ought to be made clear. 

First, Jesus is the Christ, not just any other person. Christ is not just a name; it is a title meaning “Messiah”, the Anointed King. In the biblical way of thinking, kings of nations stood in a special representative relationship with their people. As N.T. Wright says, when you come to the phrase “In the Messiah” in the NT, then, you have to think “what is true of the King, was true of the people.” So, if the King won a victory, then so did the people, and so forth. The King was able to assume responsibility for the fate of a people in a way that no other person could. This is the underlying logic at work in the Bible text. We do not think this way because we are modern, hyper-individualists, but he is the one in whom his people are summed up….

Jesus occupies a unique moral space precisely as the mediator of the new covenant relationship. Most people cannot take responsibility for the guilt of others in such a way that they can discharge their obligations on their behalf. Jesus can because he is both God and Man, and the New Adam, who is forging a new relationship between humanity and God. This, incidentally, is just a variation on Irenaeus’ theology of recapitulation (re-headship). As all die in Adam, so all are given life in Christ (Rom. 5:12-20). If Christ dies a penal death for sins, then those who are in Christ die that death with him (2 Cor 5:14). His relationship is, as they say, sui generis, in its own category.

This is where modern, popular analogies drawn from the lawcourt fail us. We ought not to think of Christ dying to deal with the sins of people as some simple swap of any random innocent person for a bunch of guilty people. It is the death of the King who can legally represent his people in a unique, but appropriate fashion before the bar of God’s justice. He is our substitute because he is our representative. Strictly speaking there are no proper analogies, but there is a moral logic that is deeply rooted in the biblical narrative.

You can read Rishmawy’s response to the other 18 objections here.

Links Mentioned on the 11/04/14 Show

The following are links that were either mentioned on this week's show or inspired by it, as posted live on the @STRtweets Twitter feed:

The Line in the Sand (PDF) by Greg Koukl


Preaching in Hitler's Shadow: Sermons of Resistance in the Third Reich – Edited by Dean Stroud


Logic and Religion by Melinda Penner


"Contradict" bumper sticker


God Is the Gospel by John Piper


Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy – Message by John Piper—did God save us for our sake or for His? (There's also a video version.)


The Canaanites: Genocide or Judgment? (PDF) by Greg Koukl


The Sin of Forgiveness? by Greg Koukl


Is Forgiveness Always Right and Required? by Justin Taylor

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To follow the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00–7:00 p.m. PT), use the hashtag #STRtalk.

The Myth of Hate

I’m told writing this post won’t matter. I can clarify until I’m blue in the face and nothing will change. It doesn’t matter what Christians actually think or believe about homosexuality. It seems the world will still believe what it wants to believe no matter what anyone says.

But I still have hope. So, I’m putting this out there. The most common misconception about Christians and homosexuality is that Christians hate homosexuals. Though there are some things Christians have done to contribute to this impression, it’s largely untrue.

Let me first speak for myself. I can honestly say I don’t hate or feel animosity towards people who identify as gay or lesbian. Keep in mind that I’m, allegedly, one of those right-wing fundamentalist fanatics who say homosexual sex is sin. I travel around the country teaching about the Christian worldview and often address the topic of homosexuality. I’m the one the media refers to as “a Christian minister who serves up homophobia to congregations across the country.” If there’s any kind of person who is supposed to hate homosexuals, it’s me. I’m the activist.

But I don’t. Not even a little. I have family and friends who identify as gay and lesbian and I love each of them. They come over and spend time with me. There’s no malice. I’m not angry. They're always welcome in my home.

I realize I don’t speak for every Christian, but I know and have met a lot of Christians across the country. I’ve been travelling and specifically talking about this topic for over a decade. I’ve met Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, Coptics, Presbyterians, Evangelicals, Seventh Day Adventists, Mennonites, Methodists, Anabaptists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Orthodox, and others. Guess what? I don’t find they hate homosexuals. In fact, they’re often frustrated that no one believes them that they, as Christ commanded, love all people. Of course I’m not claiming to have performed a rigorous poll. But if hate largely represented the attitude of most Christians, you’d think I’d run into it when I spoke up on homosexuality.

Are there some people – even Christians – who hate homosexuals? Sure, you can find them. They often get disproportionate media attention because of their noxious speech or behavior. Others can be found on internet forums and in the comments sections of blog posts or articles. But you can’t broad brush all or most Christians this way.

Two years ago I met a Christian who was genuinely hateful towards homosexuals. At first, I didn’t believe he was serious because it’s rare to find that attitude in the Church. He explained that his father (now deceased) used to disparage homosexuality and that’s what instilled hate in him. Even though he admitted he felt this way, he knew it was wrong, confessed his sin to me (a stranger to him), and asked for help to change.

Even though it’s rare to find bona fide haters, many homosexuals tell me that Christians show hate to homosexuals by what they do. “You may not feel or say you hate homosexuals, but your behavior – denying marriage equality – is hateful in itself. Your actions speak louder than words.”

That doesn’t logically follow, though. People have been legislating against one another since voting began. That’s part of the political process. People might vigorously disagree on public matters, but it doesn’t mean they hate each other.

Furthermore, even though Christians agree with the biblical prohibition of homosexual sex, it doesn’t mean we hate people who violate it. This is an important and obvious distinction that seems forgotten. The Bible, for example, is opposed to gluttony, but we don’t hate gluttons. The Bible is against drunkenness, but we don’t hate people who drink too much. The Bible is against pre-marital sex, but we don’t hate people who have sex with their boyfriend or girlfriend. The Bible is opposed to stealing, but we don’t hate thieves. Yes, the Bible is opposed to homosexual sex, but we don’t hate homosexuals.

In fact, the Bible commands us to do the opposite. We’re called to love our neighbor. Indeed, Jesus commands us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-44). I’m not saying homosexuals are the enemy – they’re not and I make that clear each time I teach. My point is that we’re not given room to even hate people who are against us. That’s because our enemies are also made in the image of God. They deserve dignity and respect.

Loving homosexuals – indeed all people – is consistent with what our King commands. That’s why the Christians I see are eager to live accordingly.

How Do You Engage in Conversation with a Christian Anarchist?

Greg discusses where to begin in conversation with someone who identifies as a Christian anarchist.

New Mercies Every Morning

Lamentations 3:16-25

He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
"therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
to the soul who seeks Him.

God's new mercies give us refreshment and rest when we're suffering or just dealing with the normal stress of the day.

For a few years now, I've read Paul David Tripp's three tweets on grace and mercy every morning. It's been a good reminder, a good way to meditate for even a few moments daily on the significance of God's grace and how it works out in my life. Even when things are going well, it's good to be reminded that all I am and have is because of God's grace and no merit in me. It's a good attitude adjustment no matter my circumstances and feelings. Shifting my focus to God's grace gives my soul rest.

So I was very excited to see Tripp's new daily devotion book New Morning Mercies published by Crossway. I've read several of Tripp's books and have used the ones on the Psalms for daily devotion to meditate on the Psalms for a few weeks. His meditations are insightful and practical. Some are poems. I'm not really a poetry lover, but I have learned a lot from his creative expressions.

I'm using this actually for evening devotion, to rest my soul a bit after busy days. I've given a copy to a friend who also needs some rest. Tripp's books are always helpful and I'm glad to have one now that is a daily reading and meditation.

The Gospel Is Worth the Pain

It’s Reformation Day today. Nearly 500 years ago, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses in Wittenberg. At the time, he didn’t expect this would lead to his being put on trial just a few years later—the trial where he ultimately said:

[M]y conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

Being faithful to the Word of God is not easy. It involves pain. Sometimes fear, loneliness, helplessness. We may think of Martin Luther as a hero now, but he had the same fears you and I have. When asked if he was ready to recant during the trial, Luther asked for another day to consider his answer. He went back to his room and prayed this prayer:

O God, Almighty God everlasting! how dreadful is the world! behold how its mouth opens to swallow me up, and how small is my faith in thee! ... Oh! the weakness of the flesh, and the power of Satan! If I am to depend upon any strength of this world—all is over.... The knell is struck.... Sentence is gone forth.... 0 God! 0 God! O thou, my God! help me against all the wisdom of this world. Do this, I beseech thee; thou shouldst do this ... by thy own mighty power.... The work is not mine, but thine. I have no business here.... I have nothing to contend for with these great men of the world! I would gladly pass my days in happiness and peace. But the cause is thine.... And it is righteous and everlasting! 0 Lord! help me! 0 faithful and unchangeable God! I lean not upon man. It were vain! Whatever is of man is tottering, whatever proceeds from him must fail. My God! my God! does thou not hear? My God! art thou no longer living? Nay, thou canst not die. Thou dost but hide thyself. Thou hast chosen me for this work. I know it! ... Therefore, 0 God, accomplish thine own will! Forsake me not, for the sake of thy well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, my defense, my buckler, and my stronghold. Lord—where art thou? ... My God, where art thou? ... Come! I pray thee, I am ready.... Behold me prepared to lay down my life for thy truth ... suffering like a lamb. For the cause is holy. It is thine own! ... I will not let thee go! no, nor yet for all eternity! And though the world should be thronged with devils—and this body, which is the work of thine hands, should be cast forth, trodden under foot, cut in pieces, ... consumed to ashes, my soul is thine. Yes, I have thine own word to assure me of it. My soul belongs to thee, and will abide with thee forever! Amen! 0 God send help! ... Amen! (Quoted by R.C. Sproul in The Holiness of God.)

Because the Gospel Luther found in the pages of the Bible freed him from his tortured conscience before a perfectly holy and just God, because it reconciled him to that great God, the Gospel was worth any price to Luther.

Is it worth it to you? Have you seen your own sin? Do you, like the woman of Luke 7, love much because you’ve been forgiven much? You will need to. Standing for the truth as Luther stood will never be easy. Plead with God for courage, and keep focusing on Jesus, “the author and perfecter of faith,”

who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.