Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 201

Making Birth Control Pills Available Over the Counter?

Prolifer Mike Brady has expressed concern over the recent move of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to recommend that birth control pills be available over the counter. (Learn more.)

Mike goes on to explain why people should oppose this. One major reason is the third mechanism of the pill prevents implantation of a newly created human being, thus it would result in many more chemical abortions. He also explains that “The other side effects of the pill, including risk of blood clots, and cancer, would not be monitored.”  

(If you’d like to read more specifically about the abortifacient effect of the pill, see my book Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?, available in print and as a free ebook.)

I recommend you take action by contacting the FDA and sending them a brief comment. This can be done at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/email/cder/comment.cfm.

      

 

Inside Information about Mankind

This is an excerpt from C. S. Lewis’s classic Mere Christianity. If you’ve never read the book, I highly recommend you do. And if you have read it, I think you’ll enjoy rereading it or listening to the audio, as I’ve done recently.

There is one thing, and only one, in the whole universe which we know more about than we could learn from external observation. That one thing is Man. We do not merely observe men, we are men. In this case we have, so to speak, inside information; we are in the know. And because of that, we know that men find themselves under a moral law, which they did not make, and cannot quite forget even when they try, and which they know they ought to obey. Notice the following point. Anyone studying Man from the outside as we study electricity or cabbages, not knowing our language and consequently not able to get any inside knowledge from us, but merely observing what we did, would never get the slightest evidence that we had this moral law. How could he? For his observations would only show what we did, and the moral law is about what we ought to do. In the same way, if there were anything above or behind the observed facts in the case of stones or the weather, we, by studying them from outside, could never hope to discover it.

The position of the question, then, is like this. We want to know whether the universe simply happens to be what it is for no reason or whether there is a power behind it that makes it what it is. Since that power, if it exists, would be not one of the observed facts but a reality which makes them, no mere observation of the facts can find it. There is only one case in which we can know whether there is anything more, namely our own case. And in that one case we find there is. Or put it the other way round. If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe—no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house. The only way in which we could expect it to show itself would be inside ourselves as an influence or a command trying to get us to behave in a certain way. And that is just what we do find inside ourselves.

Surely this ought to arouse our suspicions? In the only case where you can expect to get an answer, the answer turns out to be Yes; and in the other cases, where you do not get an answer, you see why you do not. Suppose someone asked me, when I see a man in a blue uniform going down the street leaving little paper packets at each house, why do I suppose that they contain letters? I should reply, "Because whenever he leaves a similar little packet for me I find it does contain a letter." And if he then objected, "But you've never seen all these letters which you think the other people are getting," I should say, "Of course not, and I shouldn't expect to, because they're not addressed to me. I'm explaining the packets I'm not allowed to open by the ones I am allowed to open."

It is the same about this question. The only packet I am allowed to open is Man. When I do, especially when I open that particular man called Myself, I find that I do not exist on my own, that I am under a law; that somebody or something wants me to behave in a certain way. I do not, of course, think that if I could get inside a stone or a tree I should find exactly the same thing, just as I do not think all the other people in the street get the same letters as I do. I should expect, for instance, to find that the stone had to obey the law of gravity—that whereas the sender of the letters merely tells me to obey the law of my human nature, He compels the stone to obey the laws of its stony nature. But I should expect to find that there was, so to speak, a sender of letters in both cases, a Power behind the facts, a Director, a Guide.

—C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

      

Now, THAT’S what I call a Kingdom-Impacting App!

Recently I met with my long time friend and former director of The Jesus Film Project, Jim Green. He suggested I download the new Jesus Film app on my smartphone. I did and when he showed me what it offers, in over 1,100 languages, I was astounded. Jim said when he strikes up a conversation with someone in an airport, for instance, he looks up the various Jesus films in their language, then sends them an email on the spot giving them a link to the gospel. Maybe they’re from Libya. I press “Map,” and see there are 20 different languages to choose from, including seven different Arabic dialects. After playing with it for ten minutes I said, “Now THAT is an app!”

Learn more in this 2-minute video:

To get the free app for your Android or Apple mobile device, go to www.jesusfilmmedia.org.

      

Thoughts about John Lennon, his Death, and the Ray Comfort video Genius

December 8 is the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. He died 32 years ago. Ten months later, my mother died, and a few weeks after that I was working out in a gym and a man I didn’t know was going on and on about how great John Lennon was. I told him that actually I believed that many people whose names no one knows are the truly great ones. I told him about my mother, and said, “You’ve never heard her name until now, but in God’s eyes, my mother was great and John Lennon wasn’t.” 

I’m going to end by linking you to a fascinating new video that talks about John Lennon and much more. But first, some thoughts about Lennon.

Lennon’s song “Imagine” has been widely heralded, and still is. It was sung in the closing ceremonies of this summer’s Olympics:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say 
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one.

I talked about John Lennon in my book If God is Good.  I said,

“Imagine there is no evil... it’s easy if you try,” Lennon wrote and sang. He celebrated a world without God: a secular utopia of free sex and drugs. But someone devastated by a partner’s adultery or a father’s sexual abuse or the crime-causing drug addiction of a loved one would picture a very different world: drugless and sexually pure.

That easily imagined world, if people like John Lennon and us were its architects, would in fact be filled with evil. And unlike God, we would lack the power to defeat the evil, bring good out of it, and guarantee by our righteous sacrifice that a goodness of cosmic proportions would one day eradicate the last remnant of evil.

When it comes to world-making, we might compare God’s résumé with ours. Complainers should consider designing a better universe, creating it, then going to live in it.

If that’s not practical, then maybe we should consider the possibility that God knows better than we do.

We who have not formed galaxies and fashioned worlds should not be so quick to tell God how to run his universe.

But I don’t mean to suggest I have no sympathy for John Lennon. I believe he was yet another lost soul, trying to find his way. I did some research and found that John wrote and sang “Imagine” in 1971, after he had expressed regret that he had said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus (though clarifying that he nonetheless thought it was true).

Interestingly, he continued to explore various religions, and made a few professions of Christian faith, but never for long. After quoting his own line “money can’t buy me love” he said, “It’s true. The point is I want happiness. I don’t want to keep on with drugs. ….Explain to me what Christianity can do for me. Is it phony? Can He love me? I want out of hell.”[i]

By 1977, Lennon was telling friends that he was a “born-again Christian.” He made no connection with a church, tried Buddhism, consulted psychics and dabbled in the occult, and later mocked Christians and the faith. By nearly all indications, he wasn’t a true Christ-follower.

Despite the words of “Imagine,” then, John Lennon did not live by the mantra of “no religion.” He was confused as he experimented with various religions, but he knew drugs were a dead end street, he wanted out of hell, he wondered if God loved him, and he said, “The point is I want happiness.” And in his desire for happiness he was like every other person who has ever lived. He was right to not want to go to hell, and right to ponder the love of God.

All this is a build up to a powerful video produced by my friend Ray Comfort. It’s called "Genius." Ray asked me to watch it, and I wrote this:

“'Genius' is a fast-paced, thought-provoking and compelling video, with fascinating content. To some it will be startling, to others refreshing, to all it will be eye-opening. I highly recommend watching 'Genius.'”  

The film presents the gospel and proposes there are many “false Christians,” those who think they are, but are not. I fully agree. 

I encourage you to take 30 minutes and watch this with an unbelieving friend, or a group of Christians, encouraging them to reflect on it and pass it on to others: www.geniusthemovie.com.

      

[i] Steve Turner, The Gospel According to the Beatles (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006), 187-88.

God’s Fastest Land Animal—a Work of Art

If you enjoy nature and nature photography like I do, you’ll love this. And relax...no blood is spilled.

I look forward to the New Earth when animals will do what they do out of pure pleasure—which is how our dog Maggie spends most of her days even now. :)  I love how technological advancements and human creativity allow us to see these creatures in action with breathtaking clarity, as never before.

“The wild beasts will honor me” (Isaiah 43:20).

I look forward to the promised new world, when:

The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox. (Isaiah 11:7)

“The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
    and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord. (Isaiah 65:25)

Now, watch this cheetah RUN at about 70 miles an hour, to the glory of its creator. (The video is 7 minutes, but if you only have 2 minutes, watch that much. You’ll be glad you did.)

      

image credit

Discovering The Hole in Our Holiness

Kevin DeYoung has a written a new book on an important topic, titled The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness. John Piper writes, “This book is vintage DeYoung—ruthlessly biblical.”

Holiness was once a central component of following Christ. But for many today, the Christian life is little more than a celebration of cheap grace and pseudo-liberty, with a high tolerance for sin. In this well-written and much-needed book, Kevin DeYoung thoughtfully points us to an unpopular yet strangely liberating truth—that God is holy and expects us to be holy. With no hint of legalism or drudgery, Kevin offers a balanced and engaging view of law and grace. Kevin DeYoung is one of my favorite writers, and this book demonstrates why. I repeatedly said “Yes!” as I turned these pages. I’m convinced that Christ-followers desperately need to read, discuss, and live out the timely, God-exalting message of The Hole in Our Holiness.

In this 2-minute video, Kevin talks about why we should care about holiness:

Kevin DeYoung on Holiness from Crossway on Vimeo.

Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:

I see a growing number of Christians today eager to think about creative ways to engage the culture. It’s not hard to find Christians fired up about planting churches and kingdom work. You can even find lots of believers passionate about precise theology. Yes and Amen to all that. Seriously. There’s no need to tear down what is good and true just because something else good and true may be missing. Jesus commended the churches in Revelation where they were faithful and then challenged them where they were in spiritual danger. I have no interest in making anyone feel bad for being passionate about Bach, bass fishing, or Herman Bavinck. There are a hundred good things you may be called to pursue as a Christian. All I’m saying is that, according to the Bible, holiness, for every single Christian, should be right at the top of that list. We need more Christians on our campuses, in our cities, in our churches, and in our seminaries who will say with Paul, “Look carefully then how you walk” (Eph. 5:15).

Is it possible that with all the positive signs of spiritual life in your church or in your heart, there is still a sad disregard for your own personal holiness? When was the last time we took a verse like, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Eph. 5:4) and even began to try to apply this to our conversation, our movies, our YouTube clips, our television and commercial intake?

What does it mean that there must not be even a hint of immorality among the saints (v. 3)? It must mean something. In our sex-saturated culture, I would be surprised if there were not at least a few hints of immorality in our texts and tweets and inside jokes. And what about our clothes, our music, our flirting, and the way we talk about people who aren’t in the room? If the war on poverty is worth fighting, how much more the war on your own sin? The fact of the matter is, if you read through the instructions to the New Testament churches you will find few explicit commands that tell us to take care of the needy in our communities and no explicit commands to do creation care, but there are dozens and dozens of verses that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy (e.g., 1 Pet. 1:13–16).

Let me say it again: I do not wish to denigrate any of the other biblical emphases capturing the attention of churches and Christians today. I know it makes a more exciting book if I say everyone else has missed the boat. That’s not the case, however. The sky is not falling, and it won’t until Jesus falls from it first. But we don’t have to pretend everything else is wrong to recognize we don’t have everything right. There is a gap between our love for the gospel and our love for godliness. This must change. It’s not pietism, legalism, or fundamentalism to take holiness seriously. It’s the way of all those who have been called to a holy calling by a holy God.

Randy

Hobby Lobby and Mardel Ordered to Provide Abortion Pill Coverage

During the election season I addressed the issue of religious liberties and the implications the reelection of our President would have. I so much wish I was wrong about this. Here is a Christian businessman who owns Hobby Lobby and Mardel Christian bookstores, and employs thousands of staff. He is being ordered by the administration, and this has been upheld by a district judge, to violate his conscience by paying, via insurance, for his employees’ abortion-causing chemicals and procedures. Please pray for David Green, his company and their employees. And for the far-reaching implications of civil rights and religious liberties.

Judge: Hobby Lobby, Mardel must provide abortion pill coverage                                          

Christian-owned-and-operated Hobby Lobby Stores and sister company, Mardel Christian & Education, didn't receive the outcome founder and CEO David Green wanted in yesterday's federal court case.

U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton ruled Nov. 19 that the Oklahoma City-based companies must provide the "morning after" and "week after" pills under new federal healthcare rules that begin Jan. 1. If they don't, the companies will face fines of up to $1.3 million per day.

"We disagree with this decision and we will immediately appeal it," said Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. "Every American, including family business owners like the Greens, should be free to live and do business according to their religious beliefs. The Green family needs relief now, and we will seek it immediately from the federal appeals court in Denver."

The court did not question the fact that the family's beliefs forbid them from participating in abortion, but ruled that those beliefs were only "indirectly" burdened by the mandate's requirement that they provide free coverage for specific, abortion-inducing drugs in Hobby Lobby's self-funded insurance plan.

In a related health care case, Tyndale House Publishers received a favorable ruling last Friday, Nov. 16, which stopped enforcement of the Obama administration's abortion pill mandate for the Christian publisher.

Read the rest of the article.

      

 

Fiction Feeds Souls (Including Children’s)

As a fiction writer, and as a father and grandfather, this post by Nate Wilson resonated with me. I met Nate a while back at a Desiring God conference. He’s a good brother with a great point—the power of story, and the importance of saturating our children and grandchildren with the kind of stories that will, as Nate says, “Give them a taste for goodness, for truth, for beauty.”

Stories are Soul Food: Don't Let Your Children Hunger

By N. D. Wilson

My children have heard a lot of stories. Some have been made up on the fly (The Wilson Kid Adventures), some have involved hobbits, some apostles, some dwarves, and some have involved men caught up in horrible wars (their great grandfathers). My kids have heard stories about B-17 squadrons, and destroyers hitting mines, and their great grandmother’s dear friend, Corrie Ten Boom. They have heard stories about boys and about girls, about men and about women who faced the darkness armed with Light. They have heard true stories from history, and they have heard true stories that we call fiction. And I have been blessed to watch their young eyes sparkle with joy, and their young souls swell and grow with story food. Stories are more than amusement.

Do not fear those who can destroy the body — lions, armies, giants, kings, Balrogs, Caesars, large rats, or neighborhood bullies.

A Mistrust of Magic?

Bible-believing Christians frequently have a deep mistrust of fiction. In particular, they have a deep mistrust of, ahem, magic. This is impossible for me to understand, partly because I was weaned on C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, but more profoundly because I was marinated in Scripture at a very young age (by my parents). And Scripture is full of . . . stories. More than that, Scripture is full of the miraculous and the amazing. “Throw water on the altar,” Elijah says. “Fire will still fall from Heaven.” A famous shepherd boy takes down an infamous six-fingered giant. Don’t let the long-haired man near a jawbone. Collect the animals and build a boat. Whatever you do, don’t listen to that serpent.

Bible pop-quiz: Did Pharaoh’s magicians really turn staffs into snakes? (Hint: yes.)

Christians serve the Man who walked on water. We serve the Man who could not be kept in the belly of the great fish, the Man who shattered the grave, and all alone, ripped the city gates off a place called Death.

Loathe the Darkness and Love the Light

Christians believe that this world is so much more than a mechanical soulless machine. And yet, we tend to tell our children stories that (we hope) will only speak to their intellects. We want to give them a list of facts to tick off, like we’re trying to communicate a party platform to new recruits, like they’re nothing but brains ready for programming. We feed their souls sawdust and are surprised when they drift away to other cooks (with different tales about reality).

Kids (and adults) don’t just need the truth in their heads — they need it in their bones. They need to know what courage looks like and tastes like and smells like before they ever have to show it themselves. They need to do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly — heroes and villains can show them why. They need to loathe the darkness and love the Light.

Feed Your Children

Feed your children stories that will keep their eyes wide with wonder when they look out their front windows or wander their yards. Feed them stories of joy and hardship and courage and tragedy and triumph. Give them heroes, real and imagined. Give them a taste for goodness, for truth, for beauty.

Yes, I’m prejudiced. I write fiction (yay, verily, even fantasy). But I’m not trying to provide the mechanical children of a mechanical universe with a much needed (false) daydream. I work to imitate this world; I hunt through the jungles of history and mythology looking for spices; I dig through the stories of the prophets looking for meat. I hope to write the fantasy of here, for the future heroes of here. I do what I can, hoping to feed souls.

N. D. Wilson is a best-selling novelist, screenwriter and essayist. His newest novel, released to critical acclaim, is Ashtown Burials I: The Dragon's Tooth (Random House), the first installment in a children's adventure/fantasy series. He can be found online at ndwilson.com or on Twitter (@ndwilsonmutters).

      

N.D. Wilson photo by by Mark LeMoreaux  | child hand photo credit: apdk via photopin cc

From Eternal Perspective Ministries

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Challenge Those Who Value Tolerance to in Fact Be Tolerant

Our culture lives by a double standard. We place tolerance above all things, including truth. But those who consider themselves unyieldingly tolerant often prove to be decidedly intolerant. In particular, they are intolerant toward every person and idea that they, confident in their own appraisal, judge to be intolerant.

I love this suggestion in a blog post by Gregory Koukl with Stand to Reason:

Ask for Tolerance

If you’re placed in a situation where you suspect your convictions will be labeled intolerant, bigoted, narrow-minded, and judgmental, turn the tables.  When someone asks for your personal views about a moral issue—homosexuality, for example—preface your remarks with a question.

You say: “You know, this is actually a very personal question you’re asking, and I’d be glad to answer.  But before I do, I want to know if you consider yourself a tolerant person or an intolerant person.  Is it safe to give my opinion, or are you going to judge me for my point of view?  Do you respect diverse ideas, or do you condemn others for convictions that differ from yours?”  Let them answer.  If they say they’re tolerant (which they probably will), then when you give your point of view it’s going to be very difficult for them to call you intolerant or judgmental without looking guilty, too.

This response capitalizes on the fact that there’s no morally neutral ground.  Everybody has a point of view they think is right and everybody judges at some point or another.  The Christian gets pigeon-holed as the judgmental one, but everyone else is judging, too.  It’s an inescapable consequence of believing in any kind of morality. 

      

photo credit: pepo

From Eternal Perspective Ministries

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Ollie Asks for a Reason to Anticipate Heaven

When I explained the premise of my book Heaven, my friend looked at me, incredulous. I rephrased my explanation using different Scriptures and illustrations and suddenly the light went on. He said, “I’ve never thought this way before. I don’t think many people have.”

Unfortunately, he’s right. Few have thought long and carefully about where they will spend eternity, and those who have given any thought at all to it often have notions that are popular in our culture but lack any biblical basis.

In this excerpt from my novel Deception, Detective Ollie Chandler looks to Jake and Clarence for a reason to anticipate Heaven:

“Why would anyone want to go to heaven? When my grandmother spoke about heaven, it was the last place I wanted to go. Who wants to be a ghost anyway? My idea of utopia was a place like earth, where you could have fun and ride bikes and play baseball and go deep into the forest and dive into lakes and eat good food.”

“Sounds to me like the new earth,” Clarence chimed in from the backseat.

“Exactly,” Jake said. “The Bible says the heaven we’ll live in forever will be a new earth, this same earth made new, without the bad stuff. God doesn’t give up on His original creation. He redeems it. And we’ll have these same bodies made better. The Bible teaches the exact opposite of what you’re saying—we won’t be ghosts. We’ll eat and drink and be active on a redeemed earth.”

“So you’ll still be Jake Woods?” I asked.

“Yeah—without the bad parts. We’ll be able to enjoy creation’s beauty and rule the world the way God intended us to. Baseball and riding bikes? Why not?”

 “Wish I could believe that.”

“What’s stopping you?” Jake asked.

      

From Eternal Perspective Ministries
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