David Platt - A Woman's Choice
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Doctor Euthanizes Patient With Dementia, Secretly Put Lethal Drugs in Her Coffee
A Netherlands Regional euthanasia Review Committee has decided that a forced euthanasia done on a woman with dementia, where the doctor sedated the woman by secretly putting the drugs in her coffee, was done in “good faith.” The committee chair is also urging that the case be reviewed by the court, not to punish the doctor, but to set a precedent concerning these acts
Guilia Crouch stated in her report for the Mail online that:
The doctor secretly placed a soporific in her coffee to calm her, and then had started to give her a lethal injection.
Yet while injecting the woman she woke up, and fought the doctor. The paperwork showed that the only way the doctor could complete the injection was by getting family members to help restrain her.
It (the paperwork) also revealed that the patient said several times ‘I don’t want to die’ in the days before she was put to death, and that the doctor had not spoken to her about what was planned because she did not want to cause unnecessary extra distress. She also did not tell her about what was in her coffee as it was also likely to cause further disruptions to the planned euthanasia process.
The Review Committee concluded that the doctor ‘has crossed the line’ by giving her the first sleeping medicine, and also should have stopped when the woman resisted.
Janene Pieters reporting for The Netherlands Times stated:
The review committee determined that the woman’s declaration in her will did not clearly state that she wanted to be euthanized after being admitted to a nursing home. The words “when I myself find it the right time” does not take into account a situation in which the woman was no longer mentally competent. The committee can understand how the doctor read it as a well-considered wish, but still feels that it was too broad an interpretation.
The committee also concluded that the doctor “crossed a line” by giving the woman the first dose of sedative secretly – hidden in a cup of coffee. And that the doctor should have stopped at the woman’s movements at the end. Even though it is possible that the movements were purely physical reactions, it can not be certain.
Keep up with the latest pro-life news and information on Twitter.
Jacob Kohnstamm, who is the chair of the Regional euthanasia Review Committee, wants the case brought to court to create a precedent to enable other doctors to lethally inject people with dementia, without consent, and without fear of legal repercussions. According to the article in the Mail online:
Kohnstamm said he was in favour of a trial: ‘Not to punish the doctor, who acted in good faith and did what she had to do, but to get judicial clarity over what powers a doctor has when it comes to the euthanasia of patients suffering from severe dementia.’
Purchase the Euthanasia Deception documentary.
So lets, examine the facts surrounding this death by lethal injection:
The woman had dementia and was incapable of asking for euthanasia,
The declaration in her will was not clear,
She stated several times that she did not want to die,
She was not informed that a sedative was put in her coffee,
Her family was required to hold her down so the doctor could lethally inject her.
The Regional Review Committee found that it was done in “good faith.”
The Regional Review Committee wants the court hear the case an to set a precedent approving the lethal injection of people with dementia, who cannot consent.
As I have said in the past, euthanasia is out-of-control in the Netherlands.
LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here. Image is a file photo.
The -other- “ban” that was quietly announced last week
Most of the world is in an uproar right now over the travel ban that Donald Trump hastily imposed late last week on citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries.
But there was another ban that was quietly proposed last week, and this one has far wider implications: a ban on cash.
The European Union’s primary executive authority, known as the European Commission, issued a “Road Map” last week to initiate continent-wide legislation against cash.
There are already a number of anti-cash legislative measures that have been passed in individual European member states.
In France, for example, it’s illegal to make purchases of more than 1,000 euros in cash. And any cash deposit or withdrawal to/from a French bank account exceeding 10,000 euros within a single month must be reported to the authorities.
Italy banned cash payments above 1,000 euros back in 2011; Spain has banned cash payments in excess of 2,500 euros.
But apparently these disparate rules don’t go far enough.
According to the Commission, the presence of cash controls in some EU countries, coupled with the lack of cash controls in other EU countries, creates loopholes for criminals and terrorists.
So that’s why the European Commission is now working to standardize a ban on cash, or at least implement severe restrictions and reporting, across the entire EU.
The Commission’s roadmap indicates that forthcoming legislation, likely to be enacted next year.
This is happening. And it may serve as the perfect case study for the rest of the world.
A growing bandwagon of academics and policy makers in other countries, including the United States, UK, Australia, etc. has been calling for prohibitions against cash.
It’s always the same song: cash is a tool for criminals and terrorists.
Rogoff further states “all that cash” is being used for “tax evasion, corruption, terrorism, the drug trade, human trafficking. . .”
Wow. Sounds pretty grim.
Apparently pulling out a $5 bill to tip your valet makes you a member of ISIS now.
Of course, this is total nonsense.
And the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released a ton of data late last year showing that:
- 52% of grocery purchases, along with personal care products, are made in cash
- 62% of purchases up to $10 are made in cash
- But even at much higher amounts over $100, nearly 1 in 5 purchases are still made using physical cash
It seems that perfectly normal, law-abiding citizens still use cash on a regular basis.
But that doesn’t seem to matter.
A bunch of university professors who have probably never been within 1,000 miles of ISIS think that a ban on cash would make us all safer from terrorists.
You probably recall the horrible Christmas attack in Berlin last month in which a Tunisian man drove a truck through a crowded pedestrian mall, killing 12 people.
Well, the attacker was found with 1,000 euros in cash.
The logic, therefore, is to ban cash.
I’m sure he was also found wearing pants. Perhaps we should ban those too.
I learned this first hand, years ago, when I was an intelligence officer in the Middle East: criminals and terrorists don’t need to rely on cash.
The 9/11 attackers spent months living in the United States, and they routinely used bank accounts, credit cards, and traveler’s checks to finance themselves.
A cash ban wouldn’t have prevented 9/11, nor would it have prevented the Berlin Christmas attack.
What cash controls do affect, however, are the financial options of law-abiding people.
These policymakers and academics acknowledge that banning cash would reduce consumers’ financial privacy. And that’s true.
It’s one of the only remaining options in a financial system that has gone totally crazy.
Especially in Europe, where interest rates are negative and many banks are on the verge of collapse, cash is a protective shelter in a storm of chaos.
Think about it: every time you make a deposit at your bank, that savings no longer belongs to you. It’s now the bank’s money. It’s their asset, not yours.
You become an unsecured creditor of the bank with nothing more than a claim on their balance sheet, beholden to all the stupidity and shenanigans that they have a history of perpetrating.
Banks never miss an opportunity to prove to the rest of the world that they do not deserve the trust that we place in them.
And for now, anyone who wishes to divorce themselves from these consequences can simply withdraw a portion of their savings and hold cash. Banning it, for any reason, destroys this option and subjects every consumer to the whims of a financial system that is stacked against us.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Black
Founder, SovereignMan.com
Monday, January 30, 2017
‘Silence’ Star Liam Neeson Says He Experienced the Love of God
After filming for the persecution film, “Silence” star Liam Neeson said he experienced the beautiful and calming love of God.
In a recent interview with Patheos, Neeson said he was impacted by the Jesuit spiritual exercises he practiced in preparation for the film.
“You strike up a relationship with Christ through the Gospels, so that ultimately Christ becomes your brother, someone you talk to regularly, every day, throughout the day,” he said of the Jesuit meditations.
Based on the acclaimed 1966 novel by Japanese Catholic writer Shusaku Endo, “Silence” tells the story of two Portuguese Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver), who are met with great persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor, Father Ferreira (Neeson), who renounced the faith under torture at the hands of the Japanese regime.
“I think Ferreira’s idea of God was ultimately one of love, but this is what I choose to believe myself,” Neeson revealed. “If God were a stern master, I would have given up the faith long ago. God is love, love is God. I have had personal experiences of God’s love, beautiful and calming, all the things the Psalms talk about. If he was a stern master, well, I don’t know.”
“Silence” is not the first film in which Neeson plays a priest and he recalled learning something very valuable about God from his time on set for the 1986 film “The Mission.”
“One thing that I did learn, something that I try to apply always is what Fr. Dan Berrigan taught me when we were filming ‘The Mission,’” the 64-year-old told the outlet. “That lesson was and is ‘to see God in all things.’ It is a part of Jesuit training and it opened my mind in so many ways. I am still filled with doubt at times. And I come back to what Father Dan taught me, to see God in all things, in the good, the bad, the nasty, the brutal. I think this was the real test for Fr. Ferreira in ‘Silence.’ It is not clear in the film, but I think he had his faith when he died.”
“What was really easy was falling in love with this person, was falling in love with Jesus Christ. That was the most surprising thing,” Garfield told the National Catholic Review. “God! That was the most remarkable thing–falling in love, and how easy it was to fall in love with Jesus.”
First human-pig ‘chimera’ created in milestone study
Scientists have created a human-pig hybrid in a milestone study that raises the prospect of being able to grow human organs inside animals for use in transplants.
It marks the first time that embryos combining two large, distantly-related species have been produced. The creation of this so-called chimera–named after the cross-species beast of Greek mythology–has been hailed as a significant first step towards generating human hearts, livers and kidneys from scratch.
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who led the work on the part-pig, part-human embryos at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, said: “The ultimate goal is to grow functional and transplantable tissue or organs, but we are far away from that. This is an important first step.”
The study has reignited ethical concerns that have threatened to overshadow the field’s clinical promise. The work inevitably raises the spectre of intelligent animals with humanised brains and also the potential for bizarre hybrid creatures to be accidentally released into the wild. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) placed a moratorium on funding for the controversial experiments last year while these risks were considered.
Izpisua Belmonte said that fears around chimeras were inspired largely by mythology rather than the realities of meticulously controlled experiments. But he acknowledged: “The idea of having an animal being born composing of human cells creates some feelings that need to be addressed.”
Professor Daniel Garry, a cardiologist and head of a different chimera project at the University of Minnesota, said that the rapid progress in chimera research had prompted a range of troubling questions, including whether the progeny would look more human or more pig, what would happen if a chimera had a human thought and whether it was possible for the human cells to cannibalise the pig embryo, resulting in a mostly-human, slightly-pig offspring.
Israel pushes ahead with settlements as Trump takes office
JERUSALEM–The municipality of Jerusalem granted final approval Sunday for the construction of hundreds of new homes in east Jerusalem, while a hard-line Cabinet minister pushed the government to annex a major West Bank settlement as emboldened Israeli nationalists welcomed the presidency of Donald Trump. [Dennis: The election of Trump has given the "Greater Israel" believers faith that God is with them. This element in Israel believes that the Israelis have a Divine Right to the land. Therefore, they will keep pushing for more land and refuse to hear the cry of the Palestinians. They will refuse to submit to world opinion. With America as their ally, they will lead us all down the road to WW3.]
After eight years of testy ties with President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is looking forward to a new era of close relations with the U.S. under Mr. Trump. The two were scheduled to talk on the phone later Sunday.
At his weekly Cabinet meeting, Mr. Netanyahu thanked Trump for his friendship and his inauguration speech pledge to battle radical Islamic militants. He said they would discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the situation in Syria and the Iranian threat, among other issues.
More hawkish elements in his coalition, however, are already calling for concrete action given Trump’s perceived acquiescence to Israeli settlement building. [Trump may be against the gay rights/abortion on demand policies of the Democratic Party, but he is all, for all a great Israeli supporter. His daughter is married to a practicing Jew and has become Jewish herself. His son-in-law has a position in his administration, and is an important councilor. America may become more isolationist under Trump, but more pro-Israel at the same time.]
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home Party, was pressing the government to back legislation that would annex Maaleh Adumim, a sprawling West Bank settlement just east of Jerusalem. He also urged Netanyahu to abandon his stated position in favor of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Netanyahu, a longtime supporter of the settlements, has nonetheless been cautious about expanding them in the face of strong opposition from the U.S. and other Western allies. With Trump signaling a much softer line toward the settlements, Israeli hard-liners say there is no longer any reason to show restraint.
“For the first time in 50 years, the prime minister can decide: either sovereignty or Palestine,” Mr. Bennett wrote on Twitter.
An official in the Jewish Home Party said Netanyahu was urging Bennett to put his proposal on hold. Netanyahu said that he had been asked by Trump administration officials not to take any major action without proper coordination, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal coalition negotiations.
The official said Jewish Home officials were skeptical of Netanyahu’s claims and would continue to push the government to approve the annexation measure. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
Such a move would cause a major clash with the Palestinians and the rest of the international community, which consider settlements to be illegal. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem–areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war–for a future independent state.
Annexing Maaleh Adumim would be seen as undermining negotiations. It is also in a strategic location in the middle of the West Bank that could impede the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
In the meantime, the Jerusalem municipal housing committee granted building permits for 566 new homes in east Jerusalem. The permits had been put on hold for the final months of the Obama administration.
“We’ve been through eight tough years with Obama pressuring to freeze construction,” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. “I hope that era is over and we now can build and develop Jerusalem for the welfare of its residents, Jews and Arabs alike.”
Deputy Mayor Meir Turjeman, who heads the committee, said an additional 11,000 homes were planned in east Jerusalem. He said he hopes to get the plans approved by the end of the year and begin construction in the next two to three years.
Israel clashed frequently with Mr. Obama over construction in areas it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war, and last month, the Obama White House allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning settlements as illegal. [Dennis: Will the world community use this condemnation of Israel as a rallying point to try and force some kind of Middle East peace agreement? The Bible talks of a "Holy Covenant" formed by the world community with the help of the Antichrist. Will the "Holy Covenant" concern Israel and the Palestinians and bring a temporary peace to the area?]
Trump has signaled he will take a far kinder approach to them.
Trump’s appointed ambassador to Israel has close ties to Jewish West Bank settlements as does the foundation run by the family of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Tax records show Trump also donated money to a Jewish seminary in a settlement.
In a sign of the changing times, a delegation of West Bank settler leaders said it was invited by Trump administration officials to attend the inauguration.
Unlike other West Bank settlements, Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers its neighborhoods inseparable parts of its capital. But the annexation is not internationally recognized.
Netanyahu says Jews have been in these areas for centuries and that their presence does not undermine prospects for peace. He blames failed peace efforts on Arab denials of Jews’ historical connections to the land.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the building plans and called on the U.N. to act. “It is time to stop dealing with Israel as a state above the law,” he said.
Nuclear ‘Doomsday Clock’ Ticks Closest to Midnight in 64 Years
WASHINGTON–Atomic scientists reset their symbolic “Doomsday Clock” to its closest time to midnight in 64 years on Thursday, saying the world was closer to catastrophe due to threats such as nuclear weapons, climate change and Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president.
The timepiece, devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and displayed on its website, is widely viewed as an indicator of the world’s vulnerability to disaster.
Its hands were moved to two minutes and 30 seconds to midnight, from three minutes.
“The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it’s ever been in the lifetime of almost everyone in this room,” Lawrence Krauss, the bulletin’s chair, told a news conference in Washington.
The clock was last set this close to midnight in 1953, marking the start of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Thursday’s reset was the first since 2015.
Krauss, a theoretical physicist, said Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin carried a large share of the blame for the heightened threat.
The bulletin cited nuclear volatility, especially as the United States and Russia seek to modernize their atomic arsenals and remain at odds in war-torn countries such as Syria and Ukraine.
Trump has suggested South Korea and Japan could acquire nuclear weapons to compete with North Korea, which has conducted nuclear tests. Trump has also raised doubts about the future of a multilateral nuclear pact with Iran.
Chinese aid to Pakistan in the nuclear weapons field, as well as the expansion of India and Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals, were also worrisome, the bulletin said in a statement.
The climate change outlook was somewhat less dismal, “but only somewhat.”
Thursday, January 26, 2017
1984 climbs the bestseller list—almost 70 years after it was published
Doublethink. Newspeak. Hate Week. Thought Police. All are phrases that don’t sound too terribly out of context in a world of “alternative facts” and Days of Patriotism. The terms, though, originated nearly 70 years ago in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, which is eerily finding traction and resonance again today: The famed dystopian novel of life in a totalitarian state sat at No. 6 on Amazon’s bestseller list Tuesday morning.
It’s not the first time in recent memory that 1984 has appeared on the charts. In 2013, the book also blipped onto the bestseller list–likely because the NSA surveillance scandal at the time sounded frighteningly reminiscent of Big Brother.
The pdf file can be found here: http://www.planetebook.com/ebooks/1984.pdf
Russia’s new influence may limit Trump’s scope in Middle East
Here's an article by a Washington Post correspondent. I will go over it with you showing how a knowledge of Bible Prophecy will help you to understand the events taking place and where they will ultimately lead to. Are you ready? Let's go.
By Liz Sly, Washington Post, January 22, 2017
ASTANA, Kazakhstan–At a time of widespread global anxiety about President Trump’s foreign policy goals, the Middle East stands almost alone in its optimism about his presidency.
The United States’ traditional Arab allies are hoping he reengages in the region after years of what they perceive as neglect by Barack Obama’s administration. U.S. rivals are hoping he becomes an ally and aligns with their interests.
But after eight years of steady disengagement by his predecessor, Trump may find his room for maneuver constrained by the expanded influence of Russia and Iran, analysts say.
Ezekiel 38:1-17 King James Version
1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog (Russia), the chief prince of Meshech (Moscow) and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
5 Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: 6 Gomer (Eastern Europe?), and all his bands (the European Union?); the house of Togarmah (Turkey) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. 7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
10 Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
[Dennis: Here we see that Saudi Arabia, an American and Israeli ally, along with the UK, an American and Israeli ally, and its former colonies, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and possibly India, protest. What will happened from now until then that all the US can do is protest? It seems to indicate that America will have a lessening military influence in the Middle East.]
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: 16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
Back to the article from the Washington Post.
“Even if Trump wants to have a more assertive policy, he will not be able to bring America back as the strongest regional player,” predicted Ibrahim Hamidi, the chief diplomatic correspondent of the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. “The Americans can’t go back to being the only superpower anymore.”[Dennis: Exactly what we have seen in the Bible. Trump is also calling for Europe to pay its way in NATO. With the UK exiting from the European Community, will we see the formation of a European army? ]
Although the president and some of his foreign policy nominees appear to have opposing views on some issues–such as the importance of NATO and whether Russia can be trusted–they seem to agree on the need to do more to fight the Islamic State and to push back against Iran’s widening influence, making the Middle East one of the few areas on which there appears to be some level of foreign policy consensus.
Russia now holds sway in Syria, has forged a close relationship with Turkey that could threaten Ankara’s ties with NATO and has been courting traditional U.S. allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Most recently, Russia has been exploring relationships in Libya, dispatching its aircraft carrier to the waters off Libya and inviting the erstwhile U.S. ally Khalifa Hifter on board for a video conference with the Russian defense minister this month. [Dennis: Again we have seen in the prophecy Turkey and Libya will be in the combined force against Israel in the last days.]
The Syrian regime is also unlikely to want the United States playing any significant role in the country, which has a long history of fraught relations with Washington, said Salem Zahran, a Beirut-based media entrepreneur who runs media outlets in Syria and has close ties to the Syrian regime.
“Trump is a businessman and if Syria were a company, he would see it as a losing company. Why would anyone invest in a losing company?” Zahran asked.
Iran has more reason to fear the tough anti-Iranian rhetoric that has emanated both from Trump and his foreign policy nominees. But any attempt to push back against Iran would contradict the goals of allying more closely with Russia and Syria–which are, at least nominally, allied with Iran–and also run the risk of confrontation. [Dennis: It is amazing that Ezekiel's prophecy, written some 500 years before Christ, predicts an alliance between these very three nations in the last days and their eventual attempted invasion of Israel.]
The burning with fire could be some kind of preemptive strike that brings America to her end.]
But whether Trump is a leader who will provide patience and consistency is a concern for some in the region, Hamidi said.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Have You Got the Whole Story?
Whenever I am asked to give a series of apologetic talks I try & make it clear to those who have invited me that I am not coming just to win an argument about the reliability of the Bible or merely to leave people with the impression that the reality of suffering need not rule out the philosophical possibility of there being a God.
The Rationale Behind 'Have You Got the Whole Story?'
I don't want people to walk away with the idea that theism is a plausible hypothesis; I want to confront people with the Christ who is Lord of the Universe. If people are going to feel the full force of His claim on their lives then they will need to see how he fits within the unfolding story of salvation from creation to new creation. It is as simple as that. They won't know how to make sense of the details of claims of Christ until we set those claims within the context of the unfolding story of the Bible. Because of this my habit has been to start any series of apologetic type talks with this overview of the Bible.
I do it with the following aims:
I don't want people to walk away with the idea that theism is a plausible hypothesis; I want to confront people with the Christ who is Lord of the Universe.
I want the first talk to set the context for the subsequent talks. So when we move on to, say, the problem of suffering or the uniqueness of Christ I want to be able to show people how to make sense of those things within the Bible's unfolding story. So, for example, when we talk about suffering, go from creation to new creation via the cross in a way that sets the problem of suffering firmly within the plan of salvation & underlines the coherence of the Christian world-view; when we talk about the uniqueness of Christ, show how it is the unfolding story of the Bible that painted the early church into a corner when it came to their convictions about who Jesus is.
Doing apologetics in a 'biblical theological' sort of way means we are underlying the fact that our God is the God of history who has stepped into history & is taking history to its climax. He is not the result of philosophical speculation – which is the impression that some apologetics can leave you with.
So, with this as the background, here's my talk:
Have You Got the Whole Story?
Out of a plastic Sainsbury's bag I pour the 1,000 pieces of a 1,000-piece jig-saw puzzle onto your kitchen table. Then I challenge you to complete the puzzle before bedtime. If you are going to pull it off, what will you need? A good light to see by? A mug of coffee & a plate of chocolate digestive biscuits? Some background music? Yes, all those things. But most of all you will need the picture on the box. If I don't give you the picture on the box you are stuffed before you have even started because when you pick up a light blue piece how will you know whether it is sky or sea? But if I give you the box & on it there is a picture of a summer meadow, then its odds on that the piece is probably sky. So you stick it up somewhere near the top & press on. The big picture on the box is what makes it possible to fit together all the little pieces.
So what are we to do? It turns out we live in the light of a framework, but the framework is one we have put together in the light of how we live. There is an awkward circularity about things.
The million dollar question is, "Is there anyone who could break the circle? Is there anyone who isn't looking at the universe through a keyhole, anyone who is big enough to see everything that is going on?"
The Christian claim is that God is the one person big enough to see everything that is going on, & that in the Bible He has given us the picture on the box that really does make sense of all the pieces of our lives.
For a start we are not left to conjure up meaning for ourselves. The Bible begins with God. He gives the whole universe its meaning. And what we discover is that we are no accident. God created us & he gives us a purpose in life. And that purpose is not to go shopping for ourselves, but to live for Him. He created us to enjoy His love for us & He calls us to grow in our relationship with Him by living in line with what He says: loving the things He loves, hating the things He hates, so that in the way we treat one another we reflect His character.
The Bible says God looked at what He made & called it "very good".
"Hold on", you say, "if the picture on the box is so good, what about all the ugly pieces of the jigsaw that lie scattered across the face of the earth? What about the massacre, the war, the disease? What about the tsunamis, the earthquakes? What about what she said to me, what he did to me, that really hurt? Where do those pieces fit into Paradise?"
We Walked Out on God
When it comes to arranging those pieces I need to do it in light of something else that is on the box. Life with God was good but we walked out on God. We said something like, "God, we don't want to live in the light of Your stupid picture on Your stupid box." And so, in the name of freedom, we have messed around with the pieces. We have broken them, scratched off the paint, & tried to put them together to make something they were never meant to make. Whereas what God made was very good, what we have made is not good. In fact this twisting of God's goodness is what we call evil. And the whole of creation has been caught up in it. Think of it like this. Scissors are great tools for making things with. You can have a lot of fun cutting out chains of paper men & snowflakes with them. But if you put scissors in the hands of a small child, they will need supervision. Without it, things get dangerous. On a cosmic scale, let us loose in creation without a relationship with God, & things get dangerous for us.
The post-modern take on language as power play is just a fancy French way of talking about what humankind has been doing for centuries. It is what happens when we say to God, "God, we don't want to live in the light of Your stupid picture."
A World Cut Off from the God of Life
So what does God do? His Paradise is a place of peace, not for warmongers. So Adam & Eve are thrown out of the Garden. They are thrown out of life with God & into what the Bible describes as death. Oh their arms & legs were still moving, but spiritually they're dead because they are cut off from the God of life.
God's Promise of Life
When God expels Adam & Eve from the Garden, He also makes a Promise. He promises that someone descended from this woman will come to put things right & restore us to life with God again. And the story of the Bible turns out to be the story of God keeping that Promise.
So God takes a man called Abraham & promises that he is going to have more descendants than there are stars & that through his descendants He is going to bless the whole world by leading everyone back to life with God again. It has to be said that this all sounds a little unlikely. Abraham & his wife Sarah are childless pensioners. So when Sarah hears God's Promise, she just laughs. This has got to be a joke. But the God of the Bible is the Creator. He spoke & the stars slotted into place. When He says something will happen, it will happen – however impossible it looks to us.
Joseph's brothers are jealous of him, so they sell him to a bunch of slave traders (bad news). It turns out alright though because Joseph ends up as chief slave in one of the most important households in Egypt (good news). But his master's wife frames him because he wouldn't sleep with her. So Joseph ends up in prison (bad news). But even this turns out alright because in prison Joseph meets Pharaoh's cup bearer. He mentions Joseph to Pharaoh; Joseph gets a hearing & ends up PM (good news).
So the descendants of Abraham are kept safe (good news) & they all pile down to Egypt.
After a while there are so many of them (good news) that the locals get jumpy & turn them into slaves (bad news). And so God's people are left wondering whatever happened to God's Promise to restore all things? Making mud brick for the Egyptians was nobody's idea of paradise.
The God who Delivers
But God hasn't forgotten His Promise. And so He calls Moses. And we wonder, is Moses, at last the one who'll lead the whole world back into Paradise? God says that through Moses He is going to set His people free from slavery in Egypt. And here's how: He warns that He is going to come in judgement one night & strike down the first born in every household in Egypt. This was to be a graphic demonstration that to walk out on the God of life will always lead to death. "But", God said, "if you take a lamb, kill it & smear it's blood on the doorpost, then when I come in judgement I'll see the blood & pass over your house."
You can imagine the first born of the house just before bed-time:
"Dad, did you kill the lamb?"
"Yes. Now off you go up to bed."
"But dad, did you smear the blood on the door?"
"Yes..."
"And it's CLEARLY visible?"
The next day Pharaoh had had enough. He lets the Israelites go. The Lord leads them through the Red Sea & they're free. But not free just to wander round the desert & do what they like. They have been restored to the reason they were created, they have been set free to start a new life with God.
God declares to them, "I have carried you on eagles' wings & brought you to Myself." In other words, He's telling them that He has saved them for a relationship with Him. Then He promises that He's going to take them to a new land, the one promised to Abraham, & that when they settle there it will be a kind of paradise.
This rescue from Egypt provides the backdrop to what God promises to do in the future. The Bibles sees God's people in Egypt as a picture of the state of all humankind. We like to think we're free, & we fear that God is going to come along & tie us up in chains. No, it is when we walk out on God that we end up in chains. We say things we wish we'd never said, do things we wish we could stop doing. But we can't. And that's because we are not free. Free means free to worship God as we were made to, to be His royal servants, & enjoy life with Him in all its fullness. As it is, we are like the Israelites in Egypt: slaves who face the prospect of death. So again the question we are forced to chew on is, "How can we be set free from slavery & be restored to the relationship with God that we were made for? How can we get back to life with God?"
In answer to that, the prophets go on to say that God is going to do a second Exodus. It will be bigger than the first. He won't just lead the Israelites out of Egypt; He will lead all people of all nations out of the slavery they find themselves in.
Meanwhile, God is leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, & on the way He gives them a whole bunch of laws. It is very important we get the order right here. Most people think that the deal with God is that He says, "Here are My laws & if you keep them, then that'll qualify you for life with Me."
No. If that was the way round, they'd still be in Egypt making mud bricks. God doesn't rescue them as a reward for their good behaviour. He rescues them just because He is the sort of God who keeps His Promises & will never walk out on his people. Then, once He has rescued them, He says, "Now, in the land we're going to I want you to live in a way that reflects My character. So don't lie, because I am a God of truth. Don't steal, because I am generous. Don't commit adultery, because I am faithful."
This means that very early in the story we see that the way that 'walking dead' people get back to life with God is not by pulling up their socks & gritting their teeth & resolving to turn over a new leaf & try harder to be better people. It is by God rescuing us...
Once that is firmly in place in the picture on the box it makes a big difference to how I arrange the pieces of my life. It means I am not collecting up all the good things I have done, hoping they will impress God at end of the day. It means I am not pointing a judgmental finger at you, thinking, "Well I am better than he is, that must put me in the top third. If God doesn't take me, who is He going to take?" I am not looking with smug satisfaction at my own achievements, it means I am humbly looking for God to come & rescue me.
And you ask, "But I wasn't in Egypt, where is the lifeline He has thrown me? Where is the lamb, whose blood means the Lord will pass-over me?" And it is to this Lamb that the rest of the story leads.
The Kingdom of God
Back in the Ancient Near East, the Israelites get to the land. And eventually get a King David. Is this the one? Is this the one who will finally destroy evil & set up paradise? For a while things look promising. David is a good King. But then the wheels of his reign fall off as he fools around with murder & adultery. But while everyone else is breaking all their promises, God goes on making them. He promises that a descendant of David, a king in David's line, will in fact be the one the world is waiting for.
Under David's son Solomon, we get a high point of the Old Testament. God's people are living with God & the writers says it is like Eden all over again. It's wonderful.
One day this extremely rich woman with a lot of camels & jewellery shows up & starts sniffing around the Kingdom. Solomon confronts her, "Who do you think you are, the Queen of Sheba?" Turns out she really was. She had heard about how wonderful life in God's kingdom was like, so she had come to look around. And she goes home saying, "I was never told the half of it." Life with God was way better than she had expected.
And so, we wonder, is this it? The nations of the wider world are being blessed by Abraham's descendants who are living in a kind of paradise. Have we got to the end of God's story?
No, because in the temple they are still sacrificing animals. Which sounds pretty primitive to us.
What's with the sacrifices? God is teaching His people that their sin is still a problem. They still need their guilt removed from them & their consciences cleansed. And the killing of a young bull (for example) is a picture of how He does that.
The priest looks at the people & says, "God says that your sin means you deserve death." Then he lays his hands on the bull & says to the people, "But in His kindness, God says, ‘let your sin be transferred onto this bull.'" And then the bull is killed & the priest declares that the people are forgiven. The bull has died to pay for their sin.
God gave His people a system of sacrifices that needed to be made again & again, to remind them that they don't have a cast iron right to enjoy life in His presence. God still has some cleaning up of their hearts to do.
Again & again we see from the picture on the box that God will not smile at sin. God will hand them over to the consequences of their rebellion. People who want nothing to do with Him will get their own way. They will have nothing to do with Him. They will be shut out of life with Him.
So when it comes to the way I treat my little brother, the damage I do with my sharp tongue or the way I use my girlfriend, I can't just shrug it off. The picture on the box tells me that I am accountable for what I do. Which means that what I do matters; which means that ultimately I matter.
God Promises his Servant
Meanwhile, by the rivers of Babylon, the Israelites are not happy. In fact they "sat down & wept when they remembered Zion." They couldn't understand how God could have let this happen to them. Perhaps He has been bluffing. Perhaps He's powerless against the Babylonian gods. Perhaps He's not the one true God.
But into their doubts & fears God says that this exile will not last forever. He says, "When I end it, then you'll see I am God."
What puzzled them was the way God says this servant was going to go about His task. The prophet Isaiah says He's going to suffer & be led like a lamb to the slaughter, & the "Lord will lay on Him the punishment for all our sins."
So the prophets start to explain. Yes, physically we're back in Jerusalem. But spiritually we're still a long way from Home. And so, at the end of the Old Testament, the people of God are left still waiting for God to keep His Promise to come & put things right. So they wait. And they wait.
The Coming of the King
For nearly 400 years nothing. Then a bloke called John in a camel hair jacket & an eccentric line in snacks, stands up in the desert & cries out, "You know how God was going to send His servant to end the exile? Well get ready! Get ready for the one we have been waiting for, for the one Whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." At last, God is coming to our rescue. They are all agog. And then up steps this carpenter's son from Nazareth. And it has to be said, it was a big letdown.
But this Jesus stands up in the synagogue & reads out a bit from the prophet Isaiah, where God is saying that one day He'll come & end the exile & set people free, & restore things to how they were meant to be.
And Jesus rolls up the scroll & calm as you like says, "Today that Promise is fulfilled." And they are outraged. Who does He think He is? Restoring all things was something that God was going to come & do.
People often ask, "Why doesn't God come & make Himself known?" The claim of the New Testament is that He has.
And all along Jesus is saying to them, "Does what I've been doing ring any bells? Who do you know Who's got power over the sea, Who famously fed people in the desert, Who has got the sort of power to bring the dead to life?" Then one day He says it straight out. The disciples say, "Show us the Father." And Jesus replies, "Don't you get it. If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."
People often ask, "Why doesn't God come & make Himself known?" The claim of the New Testament is that He has. If you had been there 2,000 years ago you could have seen God, walking the streets of Palestine. You could have touched Him. You could have kissed His face.
The King on the Cross
So, the Son of God heads off to Jerusalem & the disciples say, "Don't go! They'll kill you." And He says, "Yes, that's exactly why I have come. I have come to die." He explains that He has come to give His life as a ransom payment. That is how He is going to set us free from the slavery we are in.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a bit like the story of Joseph. From a distance it looks like events in the life of Jesus have spun out of control, & that a promising career is brutally cut down in its prime. But it turns out that when we are doing our very worst, God is achieving His very best. Even through the ugliest moments in human history He is working out His good purposes. And it doesn't get any uglier than the cross.
The picture on the box has made it plain that God-forsakenness is for those who have walked out on God. Why is the one innocent person in the history of the universe being God-forsaken?
Look at the cross through the lens of our own culture & there is no way we'll ever get it. But look at it in the light of the unfolding story & you see how it is the climax of God's plan to rescue humanity.
By His death we have been saved from God's judgement & set free from slavery. It's by His death that Jesus has pulled off the great Exodus. It's by His death that God calls us Home.
Look at the cross & there's where you see that the God of the Bible has bothered with us. He has rolled up His sleeves & got His hands dirty to pull off His plan to rescue us. It is a plan which meant, at its climax, sending the son He loved to take on His Own shoulders the consequences of the mess we made when we walked out on Him. And He did it all so that we could be set free from being walking dead men & women & enter into life with Him, life in all its fullness.
The King of the New Creation
Meanwhile, the disciples don't get it. The had dared to hope that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God to crush evil once & for all & restore things to how they were meant to be. But the Messiah was going to have power over life & death – not end up murdered. Messiah was going to be installed as the Judge of the universe – not end up condemned in a kangaroo court. All that was left for them to do was to go back to their fishing.
On the Sunday some of them go to visit the tomb. And His body has gone.
Way back in Genesis, God promised to bless the world through a descendant of Abraham. It turns out that Jesus is that descendant. It is through Him that all people of all nations are called back into the blessing of life with God.
Left to our own devices we find ourselves East of Eden, tied to Adam, following in his path away from God. A Christian is someone who recognizes that they were once tied to Adam. But now they are tied to Christ. Through Him we have been restored to what it means to be human, because He has led us back to life with God. True to what was promised in the Old Testament, He gives us His Spirit to start to make us new on the inside so that we begin to love the things that He loves, hate the things that He hates & treat one another in a way that reflects His character.
