Category: Subject Index

Two-thirds of Americans, including half of conservative Christians, approve of stem cell research that destroys human embryos, according to a recent survey. The poll, sponsored by the Genetics and Public Policy Center, also revealed an American public that is concerned about protecting human embryos but even more supportive of research that results in their destruction.

Only those classified as “fundamentalist/evangelical” failed to achieve at least 55% approval for embryonic research-and 50% of fundamentalists/evangelicals supported ESCR, with 9% strongly approving and 41% approving.

The survey results, released Oct. 13, came as debate continues over the federal government’s role in stem cell research. There are efforts in Congress to liberalize funds for destructive embryonic stem cell research. The House of Representatives approved such a measure earlier this year. The Senate appears to have a majority in favor of that bill but has yet to vote on it…

…So far, embryonic stem cells have produced no treatments for human beings, while non-embryonic stem cells have provided therapies for at least 65 ailments, according to Do No Harm, a coalition promoting ethics in research. These include spinal cord injuries, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and sickle cell anemia. Taking stem cells from non-embryonic sources – such as bone marrow and umbilical cord blood – does not harm the donor.

Baptist Press, via Pulpit Helps

Analysis:

First, the fact that a majority of Americans favor embryonic stem cell research does not make it right. Men have through the ages differed in their ethics with the Almighty.

Second, the fact that so many Americans are in favor of embryonic stem cell research indicates just how ungodly is the nation in which we live. The interesting note that while Americans agree with the need of protecting embryos, they more strongly agree with ESCR, indicates a disturbing ability to rationalize away killing. In effect, they are saying that human life (in the form of an embryo) is worth sacrificing if the benefits to humanity is sufficient. Not to be too alarmist in our rhetoric, but that is exactly the rationale used by the Nazi’s for their human experimentation during World War II. Further, if we are willing to sacrifice some humans (embryos) for the “greater good”, what will keep us from later including the handicapped, the very young, the sick or the elderly?

Third, the fact that even 50% of “fundamentalist/evangelicals” are in favor of ESCR is an indication of just how pervasive societal influences can be. And, Christians are not immune to such ungodliness either. Remember the troubles in the Corinthian church due to the ungodliness in the community surrounding them? Remember God’s exhortation to, “Come out from among them and be separate… Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

I recently came across an article written by Spiros Zodhiates, editor of Pulpit Magazine, and a well known Greek scholar. The title of the article was Logos: Logic Incarnate. Following is the first paragraph of the article:

Ever since the Fall, man’s limited perspective has been at odds with God’s omniscient intelligence. At the beginning of his Gospel, John introduces us to the Word (ho Lógos) who was with God and was God (John 1:1). Lógos not only means “word” but also denotes logic and intelligence. In a nutshell, the goal of logic is to arrive at a definite conclusion based on a starting premise of idea. Because God is not only logical but logic itself, His thought patterns would undoubtedly make the most sense when applied to any situation.

December 2005, Pulpit Helps, page 5

Interestingly, there is another Greek word, dialogismós, which is used a number of times in the New Testament to refer to the thoughts or logic of men. Though the word literally means, “consideration, reasoning or thought” (Strong’s), it often refers to a human logic that is at odds with the Lógos. Notice the following scriptures:

Continue reading “Lógos” →

The new year is upon us, and it is a good time to establish some resolutions and goals for this congregation as we enter the year 2006.

While I know that such resolutions are somewhat arbitrary, given that there is nothing special in the date of January 1st itself, nevertheless it is as good a time as any to evaluate our progress in the work of our Lord, and to encourage in each of us a more zealous effort in the future.

In the past year we have had several long time members move away for retirement or to begin working with other congregations. While we are proud, for example, of the preaching efforts of brother Kris Braddock, his and Courtney’s association with the brethren here is missed, as are all who have left our number and moved to other places.

Continue reading “Congregational Goals” →

This past week we received the January 2006 issue of “The Christian Chronicle” in the mail.

The paper chronicles events, news and “ministries” of many of the institutional churches both in America and the rest of the world. In addition to various news items there are featured articles regarding church “ministries” and trends. There were three feature articles that caught my eye:

Continue reading “The Social Gospel in Action” →

[The following opinion piece, (edited for space) which appeared in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, written by columnist Matt Stone, establishes a typical flawed view of morality.]

Moralism represents the self-understanding of what constitutes decent and indecent behavior – each person one’s own judge and seeking respect in the appraisal of others.

Of course, the perception of “decent” or “indecent” behavior is fluid, allowing open-endedness for society to shape its own moral code: Whereas we abhor polygamy today, it was yawningly normal for Moses to have multiple wives. Dynamism, self-respect and the dignity of the individual are the cardinal tenets of moralism.

Continue reading “Your Morals – Or Mine?” →

Plans for the proposed Internet domain .xxx, purely for pornography, have been dropped like a hot cake, just days before they were to receive approval.

Vint Cerf, chairman, ICANN, stunned an open meeting of the governmental advisory committee (GAC) in Vancouver, by announcing that the issue had been pulled-off the agenda of the upcoming ICANN Board meeting due to time-constraints. Cerf did not give any indication, as to when the issue was likely to be re-opened…

…The concept behind the .xxx domain, is to provide an area of the internet specifically and exclusively for pornography, that will be self-regulated.

Continue reading “Proposed Porn Domain Nixed” →

John Gibson, gutsy anchor of Fox News’ “The Big Story,” is to be commended for titling his latest book The War on Christmas, for as Gibson shows, the attempt by certain groups to prohibit Christmas displays is not simply an academic difference on how to interpret the Establishment Clause but a desire, by anti-Christians, to stamp out of society any reference to Christmas. To wit, proscribing the innocuous greeting “Merry Christmas!” or placing the word Christmas over December 25 in the school calendar.

Gibson’s book chronicles schools from Eugene, Ore., to Maplewood, N.J., that have not simply forbidden singing carols but even the reading of Dickens’ literary classic A Christmas Carol. Gibson illustrates that often these decisions are made not by secularists but by school officials warned by the ACLU that it will bring the school and its officials to court unless all seasonal Christmas symbols are expunged from the premises.

Continue reading “Anti-Christmas War Wages On” →

Texans voted Tuesday to make same-sex marriages and civil unions unconstitutional.

The highly contested and controversial constitutional amendment defining a marriage in Texas as a union solely between one man and one woman passed by 76 percent, as of press time Tuesday.

Previously, gay marriages were outlawed in Texas, but the law granted judges discretion to allow civil unions.

“The passage of this amendment reaffirms the will of the mainstream Texans and protects the sanctity of marriage from activist judges who might seek to redefine it,” said state Sen. Todd Staples in a statement.

Staples, R-Palestine, sponsored the bill authored by state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa.

Chisum said he was thrilled but not surprised that the proposition passed.

“We’ve always been a conservative state that values family, and this just proves it in spades,” Chisum said. “You put the proper issue out there, and people will show up [to vote].”

Every state except for Massachusetts outlaws gay marriage. Texas became the 18th state to write a same-sex marriage ban into its constitution Tuesday.

By Marjon Rostami
The Daily Texan (Online)

Analysis:

It is gratifying that most Texans, at least, believe that marriage, by definition, is a “union solely between one man and one woman.” The amendment to the state constitution gives some protection, for now, to the institution of marriage in our state.

Continue reading “Texas Passes Proposition 2” →

A COMPREHENSIVE chart of the genetic differences between human beings has been drawn up for the first time, promising breakthroughs in the hunt for the genes that influence common diseases such as cancer, asthma and diabetes.

The International Haplotype Map, or HapMap, provides an index to the human genetic code, allowing scientists to identify inherited variations that affect human health with much greater speed and simplicity…

…While the Human Genome Project has sequenced the 99.9 per cent of DNA that is shared by every person, the HapMap has started to plot the other 0.1 per cent – the individual idiosyncracies that make people different and often underlie ill health.

“The human genome sequence provided us with the list of many of the parts to make a human,” Peter Donnelly, Professor of Statistical Science at Oxford University and one of the project’s leaders, said.

“The HapMap provides us with indicators – like Post-It notes – which we can focus on in looking for genes involved in common disease. This report describes a remarkable step in our journey to understand human biology and disease.”

Panos Deloukas of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre near Cambridge, which conducted much of the work, said: “Humans are genetically 99.9 per cent identical: it is the tiny percentage that is different that holds the key to why some of us are more susceptible to common diseases such as diabetes and hypertension or respond differently to treatment with certain drugs.”

The Times OnlineBritain, October 27, 2005 ~ Mark Henderson

Analysis:

Two things stand out whenever I read articles such as this, detailing the amazing progress being made in genetics research.

First, such discoveries underscore the obvious divine fingerprint that is on human life. All life, in fact. The DNA sequence is as complex as any computer code, and governs every aspect of human appearance, health, and physical characteristics. The DNA “code” demands the recognition of a “code writer.” It is ever more obvious that life is not a chance event. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

Second, the ethical quandaries men face continue to multiply. Just because men have developed the ability to accomplish a scientific task (stem cell research and cloning come to mind) does not mean that they have the right before God to exercise that ability. While I am certainly for progress, a willingness to brush aside questions regarding the ethicality or morality of such experiments is troublesome. Christians need to be aware of such dangers, and speak out against unethical practices that are defended by an appeal to “progress” and “the common good.” The end does not justify an unethical means.

Recently, while reading through Homer Hailey’s book, Prayer and Providence, I came across a section describing the fact that prayer is sometimes either not answered, or not answered immediately.

In describing the fact that prayer is not always answered, Hailey referred to Moses prayer for God to relent in his decision not to allow Moses to go over into the promised land, (cf. Deut. 3:23-27). God said, “No” though he did allow Moses to view the land from the summit of Mount Pisgah.

Continue reading “Delayed Answers to Prayer” →

Last autumn, Dover’s (Pennsylvania, SC) school board instructed its ninth-grade biology teachers to tell students the theory of evolution is an incomplete one, and that intelligent design, which says biology’s minutia presents evidence of an intelligent creator, is an alternative argument to evolution”…

…”Supporters of intelligent design say the argument has nothing to do with the Bible, God or the Judeo-Christian account of life’s origins found in Genesis. But a group of doubting parents sued the district in December, saying intelligent design amounts to a religious belief, and has no place in a biology course.

The three-paragraph statement read to students is unconstitutional, they say, because it implicitly endorses a superhuman creator, and that breeches the church-state separation wall. Thompson argues it’s ironic that a group advocating civil liberties would endorse the censorship of a particular idea.”…

…”The Harrisburg trial is not the first to consider the ideas of evolution and religion. There’s the 80-year-old Scopes “Monkey Trial,” during which defendant John Scopes was found guilty of a state law that banned the teaching of evolution. In 1968’s Epperson v. Arkansas, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas statute which prohibited the teaching of evolution. In the 1980s came McLean vs. Arkansas and Edwards vs. Aguillard, which overturned acts demanding schools give equal time to the evolution and “creation science.” And in Georgia, a suburban Atlanta district is still fighting a judge’s order to remove stickers in science textbooks which say evolution is “a theory, not a fact.”

Bill Toland
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Analysis:

Evolutionist advocates have long held it to be inappropriate to entertain in the classroom the viability of the creation account. “That is religion”, they say, “and a violation of the principle of the separation of church and state.”

Now that an argument regarding the intelligent design of the universe is being made based upon scientific principles rather than an appeal to scripture, the complaints remain.

However, the assertion that the concept of a divine being is unscientific, is just that, an assertion. Just because it contains an element of “religion” does not make it invalid. In effect, scientists are not willing to entertain a plausible explanation of the origins of the universe and life just because it does not fit into their arbitrary pigeonholes.

The September 8, 2005 edition of the River Oaks News had a front page article detailing the upcoming September 18th celebration of the First Christian Church’s 150th year of existence.

In 1855, the first church in the city of Fort Worth was chartered as the “First Christian Church.” The small building built at that time has been replaced by the large structure presently occupying that same location.

Continue reading “First Christian Church Celebration” →

September 8, 2005 (AP)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced yesterday that he will veto a bill that would allow same-sex marriages in California.

Schwarzenegger said the legislation, given final approval Tuesday by lawmakers, would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved a ballot initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 prevents California from recognizing same-sex marriages from other states or countries.

“We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote,” the governor’s press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. “Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto.”…

…The Republican governor had indicated that he would veto the bill, saying the debate over same-sex marriage should be decided by voters or the courts…

…The announcement dampened a celebratory mood among the bill’s supporters, who only the night before cheered, hugged and kissed as the state Assembly narrowly sent the bill to the governor’s desk.

The vote made it the first legislative body in the country to approve same-sex marriage. The state already gives couples many of the rights and duties of marriage if they register as domestic partners.

Massachusetts’ highest court ruled in 2003 that the state constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry. The nation’s first state-sanctioned, same-sex weddings began taking place in May 2004.

Vermont began offering civil unions in 2000, after a ruling by the state’s Supreme Court. Earlier this year, Connecticut became the first state to approve civil unions without being forced by the courts.

Analysis:

The preceding article indicates a societal trend which violates God’s standards of what is right and moral, not to mention the divine definition of marriage. Rather than what is contended by the immoral today, Jesus, in commenting on marriage, quoted the Genesis account, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4-5).

Our society mirrors the ungodliness of the first century. The apostle Paul condemned the immoral. “Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).

It may be in the future that all states will recognize same sex marriages. If so, it will not change the fundamental fact that the Almighty God of Heaven most certainly does not and will not!

Harrah’s Entertainment’s top executive is recommending the Mississippi government allow the company to build a temporary casino on land to replace its Grand Casino Biloxi riverboat, which was hurled ashore and destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

The temporary casino, without a hotel, could be built relatively quickly and could “start to generate some revenue” for the state, Chief Executive Gary Loveman said.

Mississippi’s Gulf Coast has been decimated by Katrina. Both its riverboat-based tourist economy and its local economy have been destroyed. When asked about the appropriateness of opening a casino amid the destruction, Loveman said the casino would draw from a wider region and would generate more tax revenue for the state than, say, a hotel.

“We would draw from a three-hour perimeter,” he said. “That would be a start.”

Harrah’s also owns the Grand Casino Gulfport in Mississippi, a riverboat casino that was destroyed, and a land-based casino in New Orleans that sustained only modest damage. Harrah’s owns more casinos that were hurt by Katrina than those owned by any other Las Vegas operator…

…When and where the company will be allowed to rebuild its Biloxi and Grand Casino Gulfport properties and whether they would be farther inland and in more secure locations “will depend on if the law changes,” he said. Loveman later said there was a “good chance it will be changed.”

Mississippi law now requires casinos to be built on boats or pontoons over water, though a change implemented last month allows casinos to be built on pilings over water. Some observers say the riverboat requirement will end because of the damage wrought by the storm, which tossed many riverboats ashore.

Liz Benston
Las Vegas Sun, via lasvegassun.com

Analysis:

It is amazing how quickly corporations and individuals will seek to profit from tragedy. It is my prayer that when New Orleans and the port cities of Mississippi rebuild, they will leave off rebuilding the centers of vice that have become synonymous with that area of the country.

Here is an opportunity for these communities to reject the ungodly practices that characterized the coastal cities of Louisiana and Mississippi. There is no need to rebuild the casinos, and yet the gambling industry will use hurricane Katrina to lobby lawmakers to change the laws, and allow the casinos to leave the coast, and take up residence inland.

Perhaps such destruction should be viewed as a chastisement from God, and repentance should be forthcoming, rather than rebuilding the infrastructure of ungodliness.

How would you characterize your relationship with God? Do you have the deist’s view of God?

de · ism: a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe. (my emphasis, SC)

(Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary)

Many people today advocate a deistic attitude toward God. In their way of thinking, God exists, and perhaps is responsible for our existence, but has no direct interaction with man. This allows us to believe what we want, do what we want, all without fearing any consequence from a deity which is, after all, far removed from and uninterested in the existence of His creation.

Continue reading “Developing Intimacy With God” →