The Atlantic: “The Pill: Contraceptive or Abortifacient?””

Semantics matter: what does “the pill” do?

With legislation set to go into effect requiring private employers to provide abortifacients as an insurance benefit, Liberty University English professor Karen Swallow Prior has called attention to the increasingly sloppy usage of relevant terms in the controversy. Unclear and confusing language in this instance is not inconsequential but actually muddies the moral waters. And an important aspect of this problem, Dr. Prior writes, is the need “for some political, scientific, and moral clarity on the birth control pill.” What does “the pill” do, and what does it not do?


Oral contraceptive pills (OCPs), a familiar daily sight to millions of American women since acquiring FDA approval as a contraceptive in the 1960s, typically contain low doses of two hormones. OCPs fool a woman’s hormonal regulatory mechanisms in order to inhibit ovulation. But what happens if ovulation and then fertilization do occur? Image credit: motorolka/Shutterstock through www.theatlantic.com

What is the difference between contraception and abortion? Historically, until pro-abortion activists began to push for a change of definition,5 conception was synonymous with fertilization—the union of a sperm and an egg. A human life begins at fertilization. Therefore, contraception has traditionally meant prevention of fertilization. In practical terms, this requires preventing contact between sperm and ova (eggs). Oral contraceptives (OCPs) accomplish this with reasonable success primarily by preventing ovulation. OCPs fool a woman’s hormonal regulatory systems with low daily doses of hormones. But if an accidental ovulation occurs and an egg is produced and fertilized, do OCPs prevent implantation of an embryo in the uterus?

This question, in the past, was primarily discussed among conservative pro-life professionals. As our knowledge has increased, it has become clear to most of us that OCPs neither prevent implantation nor damage the unborn child exposed to them. Lately, this question is attracting much more attention. Why?

As most of our readers are aware, the new health care law—aka Obamacare—opens the door for non-elected bureaucrats to demand “morning after pills”—often called “emergency contraceptives”—be routinely covered as an employee health benefit. These medications are abortifacients intended to prevent or disrupt the implantation of an embryo, thereby leading to the death of the child.6 Many Christians believe their duty to God requires that they not pay for abortions, even those accomplished invisibly and quietly using medications. Therefore, many Christian colleges and Christian-owned businesses have filed lawsuits begging our courts to protect several constitutional freedoms that Obamacare violates. (See News to Note, December 1, 2012 to learn more.)

As public debate has heated up, Dr. Prior notes there has been increasingly sloppy use of terminology. Of course, these semantic games didn’t just begin. When various medical organizations agreed to change the definition of conception to make it synonymous with implantation, deceptive words entered our language. Since several days elapse between fertilization and implantation, this change allowed health care providers to administer abortifacients under the guise of contraception. Ethically, this is killing a human being with impunity on the basis of a semantic technicality.

Since Obamacare has been on the firing line, the media and scientists are now paying more attention to how ordinary oral contraceptives (OCPs) work. Dr. Prior writes, “Some pro-lifers, this one included, find it at least a little bit suspect that now, in the midst of controversy around this issue . . . scientists are suddenly backtracking on long-held views about how the birth control pill works.”

OCPs, in addition to preventing ovulation, thin the lining of the uterus. Does OCP-induced thinning of the uterine lining render it unreceptive to an embryo? If so, then OCPs would be abortifacients also. If people can be convinced that oral contraceptives—which enjoy wide acceptance—have been doing the same thing as the “morning after pill” all along, then support for mandated medical coverage for abortifacients may well slide in to favor on the slippery slope of morality by public consensus.

Though some pro-lifers err on the side of caution, most physicians—including myself and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists—are convinced that OCPs do not cause embryo loss. Why would this be? It turns out that the lining of the uterus is never prepared for the implantation of an embryo—whether a woman is “taking the pill” or not—prior to ovulation. OCPs prevent ovulation, but when a “breakthrough ovulation” occurs it is possible to get pregnant. Once fertilization occurs—whether the woman is “on the pill” or not—the post-ovulation ovary continues producing the hormones needed to prepare the lining of the uterus for implantation. God’s design is such that while the fertilized egg is traveling down the fallopian tube, the uterus is preparing to receive it. Ordinary OCPs do not disrupt this process, but “emergency contraceptives” do.

The author of The Atlantic article mentions that the “morning after pill” delays ovulation and implies there is thus little moral difference between it and conventional OCPs. We disagree. When a “morning after pill” is taken before ovulation and succeeds in delaying ovulation until all living sperm scattered through the woman's reproductive tract have died, then it prevents fertilization. If this were the only mechanism by which “morning after pills” worked then—insofar as the risk of destroying a human life is concerned—they would be morally indistinguishable from conventional OCPs.7

Yet inhibition of ovulation is only one of the ways “emergency contraceptives” work. If ovulation has already occurred and the ovum has gotten or gets fertilized, then the only way for “emergency contraceptives” to prevent the continuation of the pregnancy is to prevent or disrupt the implantation. Some people claim that “emergency contraceptives” merely thin the lining of the uterus the same way ordinary OCPs do and that they therefore work in the same way. If that were the case, however, then “emergency contraceptives” would be quite unreliable. Drugs used as “emergency contraceptives” are effective because they do not simply thin the uterine lining the way ordinary OCPs do, but actively interfere with the embryo's implantation.

It is important to have our terminology straight as the public debate on this topic continues, lest semantics be used to distort truth.

“Reproductive freedom” is a concept that has received a great deal of attention since the advent of pharmacological contraceptives. Men and women make many choices in life, including whether to obey God’s moral law that reserves sexual activity to marriage. But when an inconvenient or unwanted pregnancy occurs, regardless of life circumstances, that “freedom” should not include the right to murder another human being. The embryonic human life produced has a right to live, and killing him or her by either dismembering the body (one common method of conventional abortion) or by using powerful drugs to deny him or her the opportunity to grow in the mother’s uterus is reprehensible, and “reproductive freedom” should never include those options. And if the law of the land for forty years since Roe v. Wade has allowed women to abort their babies in the name of “reproductive freedom,” our constitutionally protected freedoms should at least prevent private citizens and the businesses and institutions in their care from having to pay for women to kill their unborn children

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Around the World with Ken Ham

Hobby Lobby and Obamacare


Posted: 19 Jan 2013 06:39 AM PST


Many of you have been following the lawsuit that the Hobby Lobby corporation has filed against the Obama administration. Under the new health care mandate, Hobby Lobby, a retail chain of arts/crafts stores, is required to offer health insurance that provides abortion-inducing drugs (abortifacients) to its employees. (For a detailed discussion of how so-called “emergency contraceptives” work, in contrast to ordinary contraceptive pills, read this News to Note article by Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell: www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/01/12/news-to-note-01122013#five).

Now, the owners of Hobby Lobby are standing their ground and have sued the federal government. Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green and his family have said that by being forced to offer insurance that provides abortifacients, their religious beliefs are being violated. The fines for not complying with the Obamacare mandate are about $1.3 million per day. Hobby Lobby asked that any fines be delayed until the court proceedings were over, but Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied the request.

A recent news report (www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/blog/2013/01/11/hobby-lobby-vs-health-care-law) said that Hobby Lobby has found a way to delay by a few months the January 1 requirement to comply with the health care mandate. This is good news for Hobby Lobby—but it still doesn’t solve the issue of what’s at stake with regard to religious freedom in the US.

Sadly, what is happening to Hobby Lobby doesn’t bode well for Christians in general. Joel Belz in World magazine (www.worldmag.com/mobile/article.php?id=24863) recently wrote, “If all this is not a blatant denial of an American citizen’s freedom to exercise his or her deeply help religious beliefs, it’s hard to imagine what the federal government might do to be offensive.” And that’s a legitimate concern to have.

You see, if Hobby Lobby is forced by the federal government to act in ways that violate the owners’ convictions concerning the authority of Scripture, what will stop the government from forcing churches and individual believers to act against what God’s Word says?

Scripture tells us that we’ll experience persecution for the sake of Christ:


If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. (John 15:18–21)

I applaud the Green family’s bold stand for the truth of God’s Word when it comes to the lives of unborn babies, and their stand for God’s Word will likely come at great cost to their organization. Please pray for them as they publicly stand for their biblical convictions. I pray that other Christians will be prepared to stand as they have done.

Actually, all companies and organizations are affected by this Obamacare mandate. Answers in Genesis is also working with our legal representatives to do what needs to be done legally in regard to this vital issue.

Please pray for AiG and other organizations as we also have to confront this sad issue head on.

For our eye-opening commentary on the abortion decision handed down 40 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court (called Roe v. Wade), read: www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/01/18/roe-v-wade-40-years-later.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Note: Steve Golden assisted in the preparation of this blog item.

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O Céu em uma Flor do Campo- devocional

Compilação

Os céus manifestam a glória de Deus e o firmamento anuncia a obra das suas mãos.—Salmo 19:1 (RA)

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Porque as suas coisas invisíveis, desde a criação do mundo, tanto o seu eterno poder, como a sua divindade, se entendem, e claramente se vêem pelas coisas que estão criadas, para que eles fiquem inescusáveis.—Romanos 1:20 (NVI)

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O celestial lota a terra,
E a presença de Deus este em todo arbusto em chamas.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Muitas vezes me perguntam se não me sinto só no meu trabalho. Fica difícil responder, pois parece-me óbvio que não é possível se sentir só quando existe tanto trabalho a fazer, tudo é lindo, livre, e repleto da presença de Deus!—John Muir

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A criação de Deus é a maior prova da Sua existência.—David Brandt Berg

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Indaguei à terra, “O que é Deus?”, e ela respondeu, “Eu não sou Deus”. – E tudo na terra fez a mesma afirmação. Indaguei aos mares e oceanos, e às criaturas rastejantes, e a resposta foi igual, “Nós não somos Deus; procure mais no alto.” Indaguei aos céus, ao sol, à lua, e às estrelas, e todos responderam, “Nós também não somos o Deus que você busca”. Pedi então a todos os sentidos humanos, “Digam-me algo sobre Ele.” E a resposta retumbante foi: “Ele criou a todos nós.” A minha indagação se deu em momentos de contemplação de tanta beleza, e a resposta veio por meio de seu resplendor. Indaguei sobre o meu Deus ao universo inteiro, e a resposta foi, “Eu não sou Deus, mas Ele me criou”.—Santo Agostinho

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Perceber o mundo em um grão de areia
E o Céu em uma flor do campo
Ter o infinito na palma da mão,
E a Eternidade em um instante!
―William Blake

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Todo mundo de luz e de trevas é um milagre. ―Walt Whitman

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Maravilhar-se é um elemento básico da adoração.—Thomas Carlyle

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Certa vez ouvi um indiano na televisão dizer que Deus estava no vento e na água. Fiquei maravilhado com tão bela declaração, contemplando a possibilidade de mergulhar em Deus ou senti-lO tocar o meu rosto por meio de uma brisa.—Donald Miller

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Ele faz coisas grandes e inescrutáveis, e maravilhas sem número. -- Jó 5:9 (NVI)

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Ficamos tão impressionados com todo o estardalhaço no mundo científico que nem nos sentimos no direito de dizer que o girassol vira na direção do sol. É praticamente automático preferirmos explicações… bem prolongadas e com termos complicados. Agrada-nos muito mais quando nos é confirmado que o girassol gira porque é heliotrópico. O problema com esse tipo de discurso é que ficamos tentados a achar que entendemos de girassóis, sendo que não sabemos nada sobre essa planta. O girassol é um mistério, assim como cada coisinha no universo. —Robert Farrer Capon

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Todo ser humano e seu espírito é criado com o toque divino, o toque da mão de Deus.—David Brandt Berg

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A melhor maneira de ler e entender a Bíblia é ao ar livre, e quanto mais junto à natureza, melhor. -- Pelo menos essa tem sido a minha experiência. Passagens relatadas na Bíblia aparentemente improváveis ou inacreditáveis quando estamos em um local fechado, no exterior parecem totalmente naturais. Isso ocorre porque na natureza contemplamos maravilhas o tempo todo; percebemos que o milagroso não é extraordinário, mas sim a maneira normal e natural de tudo. É o nosso pão de cada dia; qualquer pessoa que tenha realmente observado os lírios do campo ou as aves no céu e pensado na improbabilidade de existirem neste mundo cálido situado na fria expansão dos céus, não vai ter muita dificuldade em aceitar que água foi transformada em vinho -- em comparação, um milagre bem pequeno. Nós nos esquecemos do milagre muito maior e contínuo produzido pela água (junto com solo e a luz do sol), que é o fato de ela se transformar em uvas.—Wendell Berry

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Existem duas coisas nas quais quanto mais reflito mais admiração e assombro me causam: o céu estrelado na dimensão física, e a lei moral na dimensão interior.—Immanuel Kant

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Deus criou as florestas, as pequenas estrelas, e os ventos – e eu acho que fez tudo para compensar pelo tipo de civilização que tentaria sufocar o espírito da alegria no nosso íntimo. Ele criou as grandes expansões para as pessoas que querem ficar a sós e conversar com Ele longe da multidão que amortece qualquer reverência. E acho que Ele fica feliz por, às vezes, deixarmos de lado preocupações e responsabilidades para ficarmos pertinho dEle, assim como Jesus saiu de mansinho para ir orar a sós no deserto.—Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

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O ser humano deveria ouvir um pouco de música, ler um pouco de poesia e observar uma gravura bonita cada dia da sua vida, para que os cuidados do mundo não sufoquem o senso de beleza embutido na alma humana pelo seu criador. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Imprima no seu coração que cada dia é o melhor dia do ano. ―Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Se a pessoa perder o respeito por algum aspecto da sua vida, perderá o respeito pela vida em geral.—Albert Schweitzer

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Senhor, eu lhe agradeço por este dia surpreendente, pelo espírito animado das árvores verdejantes, pelo céu azul e por tudo o que é natural, que é infinito, que é .—E. E. Cummings

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Aquele que não contempla apenas a aparência, mas consegue vislumbrar a alma fazendo contato com ele e se revelando por meio da aparência vai parar mais de um momento e contemplar – e não encontrar palavras para se expressar -- com o mesmo sentimento de quando as estrelas da alva se uniram em canção.—George MacDonald

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Deus é como a luz. Maravilhar-se é como a sombra. Se espantar a sombra, jamais conseguirá alcançá-la. Ela pode até desaparecer por completo. Se caminhar em direção à luz, a sombra sempre irá atrás de você. Isso acontece quando o coração está alegre. “Certamente que a bondade e a misericórdia me seguirão todos os dias da minha vida”.—Ravi Zacharias

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Eu diria que o agradecimento é o tipo de pensamento supremo, e a gratidão é a felicidade junto com o deslumbre.—G. K. Chesterton

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Bendize, ó minha alma, ao Senhor!
Senhor Deus meu, tu és magnificentíssimo;
estás vestido de glória e de majestade.
Ele se cobre de luz como de um vestido,
estende os céus como uma cortina.
Põe nas águas as vigas das suas câmaras;
faz das nuvens o seu carro,
anda sobre as asas do vento.
Faz dos seus anjos espíritos, dos
seus ministros um fogo abrasador.

Lançou os fundamentos da terra;
ela não vacilará em tempo algum.
Tu a cobriste com o abismo, como com um vestido;
as águas estavam sobre os montes.
À tua repreensão fugiram;
à voz do teu trovão se apressaram.
Subiram aos montes,
desceram aos vales,
até ao lugar que para elas fundaste.
Termo lhes puseste, que não ultrapassarão,
para que não tornem mais a cobrir a terra.

Tu, que fazes sair as fontes nos vales,
as quais correm entre os montes.
Dão de beber a todo o animal do campo;
os jumentos monteses matam a sua sede.

Junto delas as aves do céu terão a sua habitação,
cantando entre os ramos.
Ele rega os montes desde as suas câmaras;
a terra farta-se do fruto das suas obras.
Faz crescer a erva para o gado,
e a verdura para o serviço do homem,
para fazer sair da terra o pão,
E o vinho que alegra o coração do homem,
e o azeite que faz reluzir o seu rosto,
e o pão que fortalece o coração do homem.
As árvores do Senhor fartam-se de seiva,
os cedros do Líbano que ele plantou,
Onde as aves se aninham;
quanto à cegonha, a sua casa é nas faias.
Os altos montes são para as cabras monteses,
e os rochedos são refúgio para os coelhos.

Designou a lua para as estações;
o sol conhece o seu ocaso.
Ordenas a escuridão, e faz-se noite,
na qual saem todos os animais da selva.
Os leõezinhos bramam pela presa,
e de Deus buscam o seu sustento.
Nasce o sol e logo se acolhem,
e se deitam nos seus covis.
Então sai o homem à sua obra
e ao seu trabalho, até à tarde.

Oh Senhor, quão variadas são as tuas obras!
Todas as coisas fizeste com sabedoria;
cheia está a terra das tuas riquezas.
Assim é este mar grande e muito espaçoso,
onde há seres sem número,
animais pequenos e grandes.
Ali andam os navios;
e o leviatã que formaste para nele folgar.

Todos esperam de ti,
que lhes dês o seu sustento em tempo oportuno.
Dando-lhe tu, eles o recolhem;
abres a tua mão,
e se enchem de bens.
Escondes o teu rosto,
e ficam perturbados;
se lhes tiras o fôlego,
morrem, e voltam para o seu pó.
Envias o teu Espírito,
e são criados,
e assim renovas a face da terra.

A glória do Senhor durará para sempre;
o Senhor se alegrará nas suas obras.
Olhando ele para a terra, ela treme;
tocando nos montes, logo fumegam.

Cantarei ao Senhor enquanto eu viver;
cantarei louvores ao meu Deus,
enquanto eu tiver existência.
A minha meditação acerca dele será suave;
eu me alegrarei no Senhor.
-- Salmo 104:1-34 (NVI)

Publicado no Âncora em janeiro de 2013.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli. Revisão Tiago Sant’Ana.



Postado em: Bíblia, Criação, Reflexão

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It’s Just Like the Plan

By James McConkey

Download Audio (8.9MB)

You remember the story of the engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. During its building he was injured. For many long months he was shut up in his room. His gifted wife shared his toils and carried his plans to the workmen. At last the great bridge was completed. Then the invalid architect asked to see it. They put him upon a cot and carried him to the bridge. They placed him where he could see the magnificent structure in all its beauty. There he lay, in his helplessness, intently scanning the work of his genius. He marked the great cables, the massive piers, the mighty anchorages which fettered it to the earth. His critical eye ran over every beam, every girder, every chord, every rod. He noted every detail carried out precisely as he had dreamed it in his dreams and wrought it out in his plans and specifications. Then as the joy of achievement filled his soul, as he saw and realized that it was finished exactly as he had designed it, in an ecstasy of delight he cried out, “It’s just like the plan! It’s just like the plan!”

Some day we shall stand in the glory and, looking up into His face, cry out, “O God, I thank Thee that Thou didst turn me aside from my willful and perverse way to Thy loving and perfect one. I thank Thee that Thou didst ever lead me to yield my life to Thee. I thank Thee that as I day by day walked the simple pathway of service, Thou didst let me gather up one by one the golden threads of Thy great purpose for my life. I thank Thee, as, like a tiny trail creeping its way up some great mountainside, that pathway of life has gone on in darkness and light, storm and shadow, weakness and tears, failures and falterings, Thou hast at last brought me to its destined end. And now that I see my finished life, no longer ‘through a glass darkly’ but in the face-to-face splendor of Thine own glory, I thank Thee, O God, I thank Thee that it’s just like the plan; it’s just like the plan.”

Then, too, while we do need to walk carefully and earnestly that we miss not God’s great will for us, yet let us not be anxious lest, because we are so human, so frail, so fallible, we may make some mistakes in the details and specifications of that plan. We will do well to remember this. God has a beautiful way of overruling mistakes when the heart is right with Him. That is the supreme essential. The one attitude of ours which can mar His purpose of love for our lives is the refusal to yield that life and will to His own great will of love for it. But when that life is honestly yielded, then the mistakes in the pathway which spring from our own human infirmities and fallibleness will be sweetly and blessedly corrected by God, as we move along that path. It is like guiding a ship. Our trembling hand upon the wheel may cause trifling wanderings from her course. But they seem greater to us than they are in reality. And if we but hold our craft steadily to the polestar of God’s will as best we know it, she will reach her destined port with certainty, notwithstanding the swervings that have befallen her in the progress of her voyage.

But now we come face to face with a question of supreme importance, and that is this: “How shall I ascertain God’s plan for my life? How shall I be safeguarded from error? How shall I discern the guidance of God from the misguidance of my own fleshly desires and ambitions? How shall I find the path in which He is calling me to walk?” We answer first: Believe!

The trouble with most of us is that we do not believe God has such a life plan for us. We take our own way; we lay our own plans; we choose our own profession; we decide upon our own business without taking God into account at all. According to our faith is it unto us. And if we have no faith in God’s Word in this regard, what else can we expect but to miss God’s way for our lives, and only come back to it after long and costly wanderings from His blessed, chosen pathway for us? Ephesians 2:10 (For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them) is as surely inspired as Ephesians 2:8 (For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God). The promise of a life plan is as explicit in the one as the promise of salvation is in the other. Brood over this Ephesians verse. Is it plain? Is it God’s Word? Does it not say clearly that God has a life plan for you in Christ Jesus? Then settle down upon it. Believe it with your whole soul. Do not be shaken from it.

Again—pray!

Dr. Henry Foster, founder of the Clifton Springs sanitarium, was a man of marvelous power with God. A man, too, of great insight into the mind and ways of God in the matter of guidance in the affairs of life. What was the secret of that wondrous power and wisdom? Visitors were wont to ask this question of one of the older physicians on the staff of that great institution. And this was his response. He took the visitor by the arm. He led him upstairs to the door of Dr. Foster’s office. He led him into this little chamber, across to the corner of the room. There, kneeling, he lifted up the border of a rug and showed to the visitor two ragged holes in the carpet, worn by the knees of God’s saint in his life of prayer. “That, sir, was the secret of Henry Foster’s power and wisdom in the things of God and men.”

Friend, when your bedroom carpet begins to wear out after that fashion, the man who lives in that room need not have any fear about missing God’s life plan. For that is the open secret of wisdom and guidance in the life of every man who knows anything about walking with God. Does any man lack wisdom? “Let him ask of God.”1 Are you one of the men who lack wisdom concerning God’s plan for their lives? Then ask of God. Pray! Pray trustfully, pray steadily, pray expectantly, and God will certainly guide you into that blessed place where you will be as sure you are in His chosen pathway as you are of your salvation.

Do not launch out upon the sea of life headed for a port of your own choosing, guided by a chart of your own drafting, driven by the power of your own selfish pleasures or ambitions. Come to God. Yield your life to Him by one act of trustful, irrevocable surrender. And then begin to choose to do His will for your life instead of your own. So shall you come steadily to know and see God’s will for that life. Our Lord Jesus clearly said this: “If any man will do my will, he shall know.”2 Without a shadow of doubt, we will begin to know God’s will as soon as we begin to choose His will for our lives instead of our own.

Thus the spiritual field-glasses through which we come to see God’s will for our lives are double-barreled. Side by side are two lenses. The one—“I trust.” The other—“I will.” When a man can hold both of these to his eyes, he will see God’s will with unclouded clearness.

Listen. Begin to believe in God’s plan for your life. For no man can see the will of God save through these two crystal lenses—the trustful heart and the yielded will.

Originally published in Life Talks: A Series of Bible Talks on the Christian Life, 1911.Published on Anchor January 2013. Read by Simon Peterson.


1 James 1:5.

2 John 7:17.

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Heaven in a Wildflower- Anchor Devotional

A compilation

Download Audio (11.3MB)

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.—Psalm 19:1 (NIV)

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For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature.—Romans 1:20 (NLT)

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Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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I am often asked if I am not lonely on my solitary excursions. It seems so self-evident that one cannot be lonesome where everything is wild and beautiful and busy and steeped with God that the question is hard to answer.—John Muir

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God’s creation is the greatest proof of His existence.—David Brandt Berg

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“What is this God?” I asked the earth, and it answered, “I am not He,” and all things that are in the earth made the same confession. I asked the sea and the deeps and the creeping things, and they answered, “We are not your God; seek higher.” I asked the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and they answered, “Neither are we the God whom you seek.” And I said to all the things that throng about the gateways of the senses, “Tell me something of Him.” And they cried out in a great voice, “He made us.” My questions were my gazing upon them, and their answer was their beauty. I asked the whole frame of the universe about my God and it answered me, “I am not He, but He made me.”—Saint Augustine

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To See a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
―William Blake

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Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.―Walt Whitman

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Wonder is the basis of worship.—Thomas Carlyle

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I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that was, because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze.—Donald Miller

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He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.—Job 5:9 (NIV)

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We are so impressed by scientific clank that we feel we ought not to say that the sunflower turns because it knows where the sun is. It is almost second nature to us to prefer explanations … with a large vocabulary. We are much more comfortable when we are assured that the sunflower turns because it is heliotropic. The trouble with that kind of talk is that it tempts us to think that we know what the sunflower is up to. But we don't. The sunflower is a mystery, just as every single thing in the universe is.—Robert Farrer Capon

*

No human being, no human spirit is created without the touch of the divine, the touch of the hand of God.—David Brandt Berg

*

The Bible is best read and understood outdoors, and the farther outdoors the better. Or that has been my experience of it. Passages that within walls seem improbable or incredible, outdoors seem merely natural. That is because outdoors we are confronted everywhere with wonders; we see that the miraculous is not extraordinary, but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread. Whoever really has considered the lilies of the field or the birds of the air, and pondered the improbability of their existence in this warm world within the cold and empty stellar distances, will hardly balk at the turning of water into wine—which was, after all, a very small miracle. We forget the greater and still continuing miracle by which water (with soil and sunlight) is turned into grapes.—Wendell Berry

*

Two things fill me with constantly increasing admiration and awe, the longer and more earnestly I reflect on them: the starry heavens without and the moral law within.—Immanuel Kant

*

God made the forests, the tiny stars, and the wild winds—and I think that he made them partly as a balance for that kind of civilization that would choke the spirit of joy out of our hearts. He made the great open places for the people who want to be alone with him and talk to him, away from the crowds that kill all reverence. And I think that he is glad at times to have us forget our cares and responsibilities that we may be nearer him—as Jesus was when he crept away into the wilderness to pray.—Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

*

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

*

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.―Ralph Waldo Emerson

*

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.—Albert Schweitzer

*

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.—E. E. Cummings

*

One who not merely beholds the outward shows of things, but catches a glimpse of the soul that looks out of them, whose garment and revelation they are—if he be such, I say, he will stand, for more than a moment, speechless with something akin to that which made the morning stars sing together.—George MacDonald

*

God is like the light. Wonder is like the shadow. If you chase the shadow, you will never catch up to it. It might even disappear. If you walk toward the light, the shadow will always pursue you. That is when the heart sings with gladness. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow all the days of my life.”—Ravi Zacharias

*

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.—G. K. Chesterton

*

Praise the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.

He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.

He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

The birds of the air nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for man to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine,
and bread that sustains his heart.
The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the pine trees.
The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the coneys.

The moon marks off the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.
Then man goes out to his work,
to his labor until evening.

How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
There the ships go to and fro,
and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

These all look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
—Psalm 104:1–34 (NIV)

Published on Anchor January 2013. Read by Bethany Kelly. Music by Michael Dooley.

Posted in: Audio, Bible, Creation, Reflection

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Doctor Returns to Congo and Is Hailed as a Hero

By Jeffrey Gettleman, NY Times, January 14, 2013
BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of Congo—It was as if someone extraordinarily famous had come to town. Thousands of people craned their necks as the motorcade roared by, cellphones out to grab a snap, an air of expectation and excitement eclipsing all the street noise of clanging Coke bottles and beeping motorcycles.

“There he is!” someone yelled. “Le docteur!”

In the back of a white truck—zooming past so fast it spewed clouds of dust—sat a kind-faced man staring out at the crowds: Denis Mukwege, a gynecological surgeon renowned for treating thousands of brutally raped women. He returned home triumphantly on Monday after more than two months in exile after nearly being assassinated, possibly for speaking out on behalf of the countless women who have been gang-raped by armed groups that stalk the hills of eastern Congo.

Congo, torn by war for years and traumatized by dictators for decades, is desperate for heroes. So perhaps it is no surprise that Dr. Mukwege carries such an enormous amount of pride—and hope—on his rounded shoulders, which are most often covered by a white lab coat. For around 15 years now, he has kept a major hospital running in one of the most turbulent parts of the country, sometimes performing as many as 10 operations a day, on women who have been raped so viciously that they stumble in with death trudging just a few steps behind.

For his work, Dr. Mukwege has won many human rights awards and is often mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. The American playwright Eve Ensler, who works closely with Dr. Mukwege, called him a “spiritual force.”

Banners with messages like “We are behind you” flew all across Bukavu on Monday. One man wore a shirt that said, “Welcome our Superman.”

The obvious love and support for Dr. Mukwege among the people here make it all the more difficult to discern who was behind the assassination attempt on a night last October, when four armed men slipped into his house in Bukavu and waylaid him as he drove in. When his trusted guard jumped out to confront the attackers, the gunmen shot him in the head. With bullets flying, Dr. Mukwege, 57, threw himself to the ground, and the attackers fled. Less than a week later, he escaped to Belgium with his wife and two daughters.

The local authorities say they do not know who tried to kill him. But many of his supporters have their suspicions. A month earlier, Dr. Mukwege had delivered a powerful speech at the United Nations in which he denounced mass rape in Congo and railed against his own government—which has a record of silencing critics—for allowing it to occur with impunity, to the point that the United Nations has called Congo “the rape capital of the world.”

He has also criticized Rwanda for fomenting chaos in Congo. Bukavu, though, is relatively safe. A sprawling, disheveled city hunched over Lake Kivu, one of the most beautiful bodies of water in Africa, it has a thin blue haze from thousands of cooking fires. But around the city, in just about every direction, lurk men with guns.

As Dr. Mukwege’s truck pulled into Panzi Hospital on Monday, a crowd of women—many of them rape victims—burst into song. People yelled “Hallelujah!” One delegation of women from an island in Lake Kivu presented Dr. Mukwege with all he needed to survive for a few days—a bucket of charcoal, several cabbages, pineapples, onions and a gigantic pumpkin.

“We don’t need the military or Monusco,” said one woman, referring to the United Nations mission in Congo. “We women will protect you.”

Some people who had stood for hours under the sun were now huddled in the rain, waiting to hear him speak.

Overwhelmed by the outpouring of emotion, Dr. Mukwege mopped his face with his sleeve and stepped to the podium.

“The power of darkness will be defeated,” he called out to wild cheers. But he also asked people to forgive, saying, “We must respond to violence with love.”

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Doomsday Clock Holds at 5 'Til Midnight

LiveScience.com, Jan. 15, 2013
The hands of the infamous “Doomsday Clock” will remain firmly in their place at five minutes to midnight—symbolizing humans’ destruction—for the year 2013, scientists announced today (Jan. 14).

Keeping their outlook for the future of humanity quite dim, the group of scientists also wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to partner with other global leaders to act on climate change.

The clock is a symbol of the threat of humanity’s imminent destruction from nuclear or biological weapons, climate change and other human-caused disasters. In making their deliberations about how to update the clock’s time this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists considered the current state of nuclear arsenals around the globe, the slow and costly recovery from events like Fukushima nuclear meltdown, and extreme weather events that fit in with a pattern of global warming.

“2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States, marked by devastating drought and brutal storms,” the letter says. “These extreme events are exactly what climate models predict for an atmosphere laden with greenhouse gases.”

The Doomsday Clock came into being in 1947 as a way for atomic scientists to warn the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons. That year, the Bulletin set the time at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight symbolizing humanity’s destruction. By 1949, it was at three minutes to midnight as the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated. In 1953, after the first test of the hydrogen bomb, the doomsday clock ticked to two minutes until midnight.

The Bulletin was at its most optimistic in 1991, when the Cold War thawed and the United States and Russia began cutting their arsenals. That year, the clock was set at 17 minutes to midnight.

From then until 2010, however, it was a gradual creep back toward destruction, as hopes of total nuclear disarmament vanished and threats of nuclear terrorism and climate change reared their heads. In 2010, the Bulletin found some hope in arms reduction treaties and international climate talks and bumped the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock back to six minutes from midnight from its previous post at five to midnight. But by 2012, the clock was pushed forward another minute.

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The Heart of It All: Salvation- Eternal Salvation?

By Peter Amsterdam

January 10, 2013

While all Christians believe that Jesus died for our sins and we are saved through the sacrifice of His death on the cross, there are some differences in belief among different denominations as to whether that salvation is permanent or whether it can be lost.

It is a fact that there are Christians who lose faith, who stop believing in Jesus and salvation, and who turn from living a Christian life. The question arises in such instances: Did that person lose his or her salvation? Having once been saved, can you lose your salvation?

The Roman Catholic position on salvation differs significantly from the Protestant view and won’t be covered in detail in this article, though I’ll mention a few general things in brief. (This is by no means a complete explanation of Roman Catholic beliefs on salvation.)

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that by the sacrament of baptism God infuses justifying grace into the soul, which cancels original sin and imparts the habit of righteousness. This initial justification is strengthened through other sacraments, love-inspired works, and special merit from Mary and the saints.[1] The belief is that when Catholics die, if they have committed venial (minor) sins which haven’t already been forgiven through the sacrament of confession, their souls will go to purgatory, a place where they will be fully cleansed. Having gone through the cleansing work of purgatory, they are then justified before God. Believers who commit mortal (serious) sin and die without receiving forgiveness through confession fall from grace and lose their salvation. Salvation in Catholic theology depends on continued obedience and can therefore be lost.

The two primary Protestant views are presented in general terms in this article. Beyond the main basic premises, various denominations on both sides of the issue also have further nuances within their belief systems, which aren’t necessary to delve into here.

Let’s look at the two general positions, beginning with those who believe that salvation can be lost if certain conditions are not met throughout a Christian’s life.
Conditions

Those who believe that it is possible for salvation to be lost believe that once one is saved, there are certain conditions that must be maintained in order to keep salvation. The belief is that God has reconciled us to Himself and we will have eternal life, provided these conditions are met. Some Pentecostal denominations, such as the Assemblies of God, as well as Wesleyan-based ones, such as the Methodists, believe this.

These conditions mainly have to do with maintaining one’s spiritual life and living a Christian life. Those who believe that salvation cannot be lost also believe that it’s important to maintain one’s spiritual life, but don’t believe salvation will be lost if one fails in this duty.

The conditions, as seen by those who believe salvation can be lost, are based on five general principles that must be fulfilled: abiding, continuing, enduring, firmness, and faithfulness. The position is that these conditions must be fulfilled throughout one’s life to maintain salvation.[2] In the footnotes, I've included some of the verses which those who take this position base their understanding on.

Abiding

The first condition in this belief system is that one must abide in what they have heard concerning the Gospel. They must stay close to the source, God’s Word and Christ. [3]

Continuing

Continuing means remaining steadfast. While God has begun the work of salvation, one must continue steadfast, to hold fast and continue in the faith. If one moves away from the faith and hope that is in the Gospel, then salvation will be lost.[4]

Enduring

Enduring in the faith to the end of our lives is seen as one of the conditions of the final salvation of a believer. Life is filled with ups and downs, and the expectation is that individuals will hold on to their faith and live it through life’s trials. If there is a failure to endure in the faith until the end of one’s life, eternal life will not be obtained.[5]

Firmness

Those who don’t confirm—or make firm—their faith by supplementing it with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love are in danger of losing their salvation. By spiritually growing in these—and presumably other—virtues, they confirm their salvation.[6]

Faithfulness

It is necessary to remain faithful to the end. The believer must remain in faith and belief. If that faith weakens and turns to unbelief, then there is a loss of salvation and eternal life, unless there is repentance and return.[7]
Eternal Security

Other Christians disagree with the idea that salvation can be lost. They see God’s work in salvation through Jesus’ death as bringing eternal life, and consider that Christians have assurance of that eternal life due to Christ’s sacrifice.

Among those who believe in eternal security, sometimes referred to as “the perseverance of the saints,” there are differences of opinion as to why salvation can’t be lost. Nevertheless, they are in agreement that it cannot be lost.

Reformed churches (Calvinists) believe that God predestined people to be saved, and since they are predestined by God for salvation, they can’t possibly lose their salvation. While they don’t believe predestined Christians can lose their salvation, they do believe that some who profess to be Christians aren’t truly saved, that they aren’t predestined to salvation, and that those who lose their faith or turn their back on God were never truly saved in the first place. From their point of view, no truly saved Christian will ever turn against God. While there are undoubtedly people who profess to be Christians who aren’t actually saved, or who have said a salvation prayer but didn’t really mean what they were saying and thus weren’t born again, it doesn’t seem within the realm of possibility that no saved Christian ever turns away from faith in Jesus. Most Christians probably know of, or have heard of, saved Christians who abandoned the faith.

Many Protestant and evangelical churches base their belief in eternal security on specific promises in the Bible, without linking them to belief in predestination. Reformed churches also use scriptures which speak of eternal life as the basis for their understanding and belief in the perseverance of the saints.

Those who believe “once saved, always saved” believe this way due to a number of key verses which are very specific regarding having salvation permanently.

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.[8]

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.[9]

These verses have no caveats. They explicitly say that those who believe have eternal life, and no one or nothing can take it away. They will never perish. I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me. The next passage strengthens that understanding.

I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.[10]



Scripture states that those who believe in Jesus have eternal life.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life … [11]



For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.[12]
Eternal Life

Some who believe that Christians can lose their salvation don’t look at eternal life as meaning forever, but rather see it as a quality of life, a type of life in relationship with God, which one can have for a time and then lose. However, this concept doesn’t match the meaning of the Greek word aiōnios which is most often used in the Scripture for everlasting or eternal. The definition of aiōnios is without end, never to cease, eternal, everlasting.[13]

Eternal life stands in contrast to judgment, condemnation, and separation from God. Those who receive Jesus, who are born again, are not condemned—they have been redeemed by Christ’s death on the cross.

God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned … [14]

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[15]

Salvation doesn’t bring an end to sin in our lives. As Christians we are to continually strive to overcome sin, but humans have sinful natures and therefore we sin, and when we do, we should ask God for forgiveness.[16] While our sins have ramifications in our spiritual lives, in that they affect our personal relationship with God, they aren’t a cause for the loss of our salvation. We may suffer the consequences of our sins and be chastised for them, since God, as a good parent, lovingly tries to teach and train us; but we don’t lose our place as a child of God, one adopted into God’s family.

For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives … If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons … He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.[17]



To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.[18]



As children of God, we are heirs of eternal life. It is our promised inheritance through salvation.

You are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.[19]



When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.[20]



Being justified by grace, which means being saved through Jesus’ sacrifice, we are heirs of an imperishable inheritance which is kept in heaven for us and which is guarded by God’s power.



Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.[21]


The Holy Spirit, the Guarantee

As believers, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.[22]

Theologian Wayne Grudem explains the seal of the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our eternal inheritance like this:

The Greek word translated “guarantee” in this passage (arrabon) is a legal and commercial term that means “first installment, deposit, down payment, pledge” and represents “a payment which obligates the contracting party to make further payments.” When God gave us the Holy Spirit within, He committed Himself to give all the further blessing of eternal life and a great reward in heaven with Him. This is why Paul can say that the Holy Spirit is the “guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” All who have the Holy Spirit within them, all who are truly born again, have God’s unchanging promise and guarantee that the inheritance of eternal life in heaven will certainly be theirs. God’s own faithfulness is pledged to bring it about.[23]

God has promised salvation; through His death and resurrection Jesus has secured it; the Holy Spirit guarantees it. Our salvation is secure, is permanent, and is eternal. Once you have it, you don’t lose it.

We may have temporary lapses in faith, but these lapses in faith and obedience do not change our legal standing as heirs, as those justified by the blood of Jesus.[24] Those who are saved, who have received Jesus, who are born again, do not lose their salvation.

One verse which is used by those who believe a Christian’s salvation can be lost is:

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt.[25]

This is a much debated scripture passage, and depending on one’s theology it is looked at differently.

Those who believe one can lose their salvation use this verse to show that it can be lost. According to this view, those who have been enlightened, who have received the heavenly gift of salvation and have shared in the Holy Spirit, if they fall away, lose their salvation.

From the Reformed point of view, Wayne Grudem argues in a lengthy explanation that the author of the book of Hebrews is not talking about born-again believers, but rather about those who were associated with the early church, who were enlightened by the Gospel but had not come to full belief and salvation. They knew something of God’s Word, they had seen the Holy Spirit work in different situations, and had seen the power of God manifest in others. They were connected with Christians, with the Holy Spirit, and had been influenced by them, but had not made the decision to believe. They had become “associated with” the work of the Holy Spirit, they had been exposed to the true preaching of the Word and had appreciated much of its teachings, but in spite of all this, they willfully rejected all of these blessings and turned decidedly against them.

In this view, the author of Hebrews was saying that it’s impossible to restore these particular people, as their familiarity with the things of God and their experiences of the influences of the Holy Spirit had served to harden them against conversion.[26] This interpretation fits the Reformed belief that those who are truly saved won’t stop believing, but will persevere to the end due to their being predestined to salvation.

From the non-Reformed position, Baptist professor Dr. Andrew Hudson explains these verses in the larger context of what the book of Hebrews is teaching. Within the context of the complete book, he argues that while this verse is speaking about saved Christians, it is not speaking about them losing their salvation. He begins by making the case that “those who were once enlightened” does mean saved Christians. He goes on to point out that “falling away” in this context is not fully rejecting Christ, and that the judgment for the Christian who falls away isn’t a loss of salvation.

Hudson makes the point that the book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were facing persecution and who were faced with either trusting God for help (through Jesus) or refusing to trust Him. If they were to turn away from Christ and return to the Mosaic worship system, they would be saying that Jesus’ sacrifice was not sufficient for their daily faith needs. In taking that stand, they would be saying that Christ’s work on the cross was defective. In doing so they would be criticizing His public ministry and thus “putting Him to open shame.” In such an instance, these Christians would lose God’s blessing and experience His discipline. If they repented, they would be forgiven, but they would still face discipline from God’s hand. The believer would not escape the consequences of his sinful action by simply repenting. He’d be forgiven, but would face the repercussions.

Hudson suggests that the verse could be paraphrased like this:

For it is impossible for true believers who have been once enlightened, and have accepted the heavenly gift, and have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and have experienced the good word of the Gospel and the power of the coming kingdom; and then they fail to live their daily life by faith in Christ, to return by means of repentance to a place where they can escape God’s temporal chastisement because they have openly claimed that Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient to maintain fellowship with God and they have publicly embarrassed and dishonored Christ, their patron.

I see Hudson’s explanation as the proper interpretation of the verse. It shows that Hebrews 6:4–6 isn’t speaking of Christians losing their salvation and being unable to regain it. (For Dr. Hudson’s full paper, click here.)

Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Savior, who have been born again, are saved permanently. We have received eternal salvation, God’s gift of love. We have everlasting life, we are reconciled to God, and we will live forever.—All because God loves us and Jesus died for us, so that we might receive the wonderful gift of salvation.

There will probably always be some theological debate among Christians as to who is saved and who isn’t, or whether some are predestined and others aren’t, as the scriptures on these matters and the interpretation of them will probably always generate some controversy. Let’s remember that these things are truly in God’s hands and it’s not our place to be judgmental. There may well be those whom we will be surprised to see in heaven, as we may not have thought they were believers, or that they sincerely meant it when they prayed for salvation. But we must remember that God is the true and righteous judge; He is the one who knows each person’s heart and motives, who understands everything about each of us. He longs for people to be saved. He loves us all and freely extends His gift of salvation to all who will receive it.

I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.[27]



[1] Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Demarest, Integrative Theology, Volume 3 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 175–176.


[2] These are summarized from J. Rodman Williams’ book Renewal Theology, Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 122–127.


[3] Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it … how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Hebrews 2:1,3).

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He made to us—eternal life (1 John 2:24–25).

If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned (John 15:6).


[4] You, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard … (Colossians 1:21–23).


[5] Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us (2 Timothy 2:10–12).

Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised (Hebrews 10:35–36).


[6] We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end (Hebrews 3:14).

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10–11).


[7] Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).

I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent (Revelation 2:4–5).

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from My God out of heaven, and My own new name (Revelation 3:12).


[8] John 6:39–40.


[9] John 10:27–29.


[10] Romans 8:38–39.


[11] John 3:36.


[12] John 3:16.


[13] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press. 2000), 790.


[14] John 3:17–18.


[15] Romans 8:1.


[16] For more on the subject of the connection between sin and salvation, see The Heart of It All, Sin: Humanity’s Sinful Nature, and Sin: Are There Degrees of Sin?



[17] Hebrews 12:6, 8,10–11.


[18] John 1:12.


[19] Galatians 4:7.


[20] Titus 3:4–7.


[21] 1 Peter 1:3–5.


[22] Ephesians 1:13–14.


[23] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 791.


[24] Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9).


[25] Hebrews 6:4–6.


[26] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 794–803.


[27] Philippians 1:6.



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The Heart of It All: Salvation- Predestination?

By Peter Amsterdam

January 15, 2013

In the previous article, I wrote about the different views within Protestantism regarding the assurance of salvation or the possibility of losing one’s salvation. There is another notable difference within the various Protestant belief systems related to the subject of salvation. This variance is rooted in different ways of looking at God’s providence, which is defined as His continuous activity of preserving and governing the whole of creation by His wisdom and goodness and power, for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose and for the glory of His name.[1]

There are two general overarching positions: the Reformed position, which follows John Calvin’s (1509–1564) teaching regarding predestination, and the Arminian position, which follows the teachings of Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609). While this article will use the terms Reformed and Arminian as referring to the two different positions, it is only referring to these positions in regard to the interpretation of predestination. It doesn’t reflect total agreement with all Arminan doctrine, nor disagreement with all Reformed doctrine.


Reformed Position

Some denominations, such as the Reformed churches that follow the teachings of John Calvin, believe that each human being’s actions are decreed by God, and thus God ordains all that happens in the world. Within their definition of God’s providence they state that God cooperates with the created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do; and directs them to fulfill His purposes.[2]

I wrote about this subject in an earlier article. In this line of belief, God is seen as the primary cause of all that happens on earth, but He causes things to happen in a way that is hidden and thus it’s not evident that He caused it. To an observer, there is something else that caused it which he calls the secondary cause … When applied to human actions, this doctrine means that all things that people do are foreordained by God as the primary cause, and that people do what God has foreordained. However, they have no awareness that they are doing these things due to the primary cause. Even though they feel they are doing these actions of their own volition, they are actually the secondary cause. Nevertheless, they are held accountable for their actions.[3]

Believers in the Reformed tradition consider that humans have free will, in that they make free choices, but the choices they make are predetermined by God. As stated in the earlier article on this topic, this belief [Reformed] holds that even though God has foreordained the choices individuals make, humans freely choose what God has foreordained them to do. According to this position, humans make willing choices and aren’t aware of any restraints by God on their decision making, even though those restraints exist.[4] Christians in the Arminian tradition also believe in God’s providence as defined above, but believe that humankind has been granted true free will, in that people can make choices that are not previously decreed by God.


The “Elect”

When these two different belief systems approach the matter of salvation, the question arises as to whether believers—those who are saved and are called “the elect” in scripture—are predestined to salvation or whether they make a freewill choice to accept salvation. Are the elect chosen by God for salvation from before the foundation of the world? Has He predetermined who will be saved and who won’t be? Or is it the case that God, in His foreknowledge, knows the freewill choices individuals will make, and thus knows in advance who will choose to accept salvation?

In the Reformed belief system, the view is that God chose those who would be saved before the world was created. In the Arminian belief system, it’s considered that He knew who would accept His gift of salvation which was offered to humanity because of His omniscience, but not because He predestined some to be saved and some not to be.

Within the Reformed belief system, humans are seen as making a free choice regarding salvation. They hear the Gospel call to salvation and they respond positively and thus have made a freewill choice. However, the Gospel call is seen as being irresistible. When the call is heard by those who are predestined to salvation, they heed the call. They choose to heed the call because they are predestined.

Wayne Grudem explained it this way:



When Paul says, “Those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He also justified” (Romans 8:30), he indicates that calling is an act of God. In fact, it is specifically an act of God the Father, for He is the one who predestines people “to be conformed to the image of His son” (Romans 8:29) … This calling is rather a kind of “summons” from the King of the universe and it has such power that it brings about the response that it asks for in people’s heart. It is an act of God that guarantees a response … The powerful act of God is often referred to as effective calling, to distinguish it from the general gospel invitation that goes out to all people and which some people reject. [5]

In the Reformed understanding, the Gospel call goes out in a general way, but the only ones who respond, who receive the summons that guarantees the right response, are those who are predestined to salvation. Those who reject the call do so because they are not chosen for salvation.


Grace and Works

Those who hold the Arminian interpretation of free will and predestination see the Gospel call as offering the hearer a completely free choice to accept or reject the call. They see God’s election as having to do with His foreknowledge of an individual’s acceptance of salvation, rather than God choosing those who will be saved and those who won’t. From this perspective, God’s elect are those who God, in His omniscience, knows will respond when they hear the Gospel.

Within the Reformed belief system, if someone makes a choice to accept salvation, that would mean that the person is doing something to merit salvation—in other words, the person would have a part in their salvation and as such would feel they deserve some credit for being saved.

Wayne Grudem explained it this way:



If the ultimate determining factor in whether we will be saved or not is our own decision to accept Christ, then we shall be more inclined to think that we deserve some credit for the fact that we were saved: in distinction from other people who continue to reject Christ, we were wise enough in our own judgment or good enough in our moral tendencies or perceptive enough in our spiritual capacities to decide to believe in Christ.[6]

Both the Reformed and Arminian positions affirm that we are saved by grace and not by works. The difference between the two positions is that the Reformed put forth that salvation is a complete act of God, with God being the one to prepare the heart to receive the Gospel of those whom He has elected and foreordained to be called and chosen. He bestows irresistible grace on the foreordained, and because it is irresistible, the elect person can do nothing else but get saved. Thus there is no participation on the human side, and salvation is a complete act of God.

In the Arminian view, it is also understood that salvation is a free gift of God’s grace, and that no works are involved on the part of humanity. This free gift from God is offered to all, but not all accept it. Salvation is made available, but individuals are able to freely choose to either accept or reject God’s gift. That is a freewill choice, granted to humans by God. Such a choice isn’t seen as a “work” to merit salvation.

William Lane Craig makes the following point regarding our freewill choice:



John 6:65[7] means that apart from God’s grace, no one can come to God on his own. But there’s no suggestion there that those who refused to believe in Christ did not do so of their own free will … the fault does not lie with God that some persons freely resist God’s grace and every effort to save them; rather they like Israel fail to attain salvation because they refuse to have faith.[8]


Reprobation

The Reformed position is that God has chosen those who will receive salvation from before the foundations of the world. He has also chosen those who will not be saved. This is known as the doctrine of reprobation.

Some would say that this concept shows God as being unjust and unmerciful. The Reformed understanding is that God is under no obligation to save anyone who sins, yet in His mercy and love He has chosen to save some—those He has predestined to salvation.

The doctrine of reprobation teaches that reprobation is the sovereign decision of God before the creation to pass over some persons, in sorrow deciding not to save them, and to punish them for their sins, and thereby to manifest His justice.[9]

The Arminian position does not endorse the doctrine of reprobation. Their understanding is that salvation is available to all, and while God’s foreknowledge allows Him to know who will choose to accept and who will reject, it is a choice made by the individual, not by God Himself.


Who Did Jesus Die For?

The difference in beliefs carries over into Jesus’ work of salvation. The question arises: did Jesus die for the sins of everyone or only for the sins of those who were predestined to salvation?

The Reformed position is that Jesus died for the sins of the elect, that it is a limited atonement, or a particular redemption, and He didn’t die for the sins of all. The Arminian belief is that of unlimited atonement or general redemption, that Jesus died for the sins of all, although the atonement, while available to all, isn’t accepted by all because of free will.

Following are some of the verses Reformed Christians use to put forth that Jesus died for only the predestined:



The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep … I am the good shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.[10]

The Reformed understanding is that the people Jesus laid down His life for are the sheep, those who know Him, because they were predestined to know Him. And the others aren’t His sheep, He doesn’t know them, and He didn’t lay down His life for them.

In these next verses, the interpretation in the Reformed thinking is that Jesus knew that there were those whom the Father gave to Him, and they were predestined to salvation, while others weren’t.



All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day.[11]

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.[12]

The next verse is used to make the point that Christ gave Himself up for the church—meaning for the believers—inferring that He didn’t die for those who don’t believe.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.[13]

Based on these and other verses, the Reformed position is that Jesus died for particular people (specifically those who would be saved and whom He came to redeem), that He foreknew each of them and had them individually in mind for His atoning work.[14]

Those who embrace the Arminian position, who believe in universal—or general—atonement, base their understanding of Christ’s atonement on other verses which indicate that Jesus tasted death for everyone. That He died for the sins of the world, as a ransom for all, for whoever believes in Him.



[John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[15]



I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.[16]



He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.[17]



For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all … [18]

We see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.[19]

The understanding in the Arminian position on these verses, which I agree with, is that Jesus died for the sins of the world, meaning for the sins of all. This doesn’t mean that all people in the world are saved, as clearly many people reject the offer of salvation, but it means that through Jesus’ death on the cross salvation is made possible for all men.

God doesn’t wish for anyone to perish, and He desires that all people receive salvation. In His great love, mercy, and patience, He has made salvation possible through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for “the world,” for humankind, so any who believe can be saved.



This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.[20]

The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.[21]

The atonement is universal in God’s attitude and desire that none would perish, and in the saving grace made available through Jesus’ sacrifice. But not all believe or receive, so the atonement, the forgiveness of sin, and eternal life, is not given to all. It is bestowed on those who believe.

Theologian Jack Cottrell explained it this way:



God’s grace as it appears within His own nature in the form of a desire to give forgiveness to sinners is universal in scope. It is true that this gift is actually given only to particular individuals, but the limitation is the result of man’s choice and not God’s. It was God’s choice to create man with a relative independence and a relatively free will. He does not force His own desires upon man, but respects the integrity of the free will with which He endowed His image-bearers at the time of creation. The reason why some receive grace and some do not is because some freely reject it and some freely accept it. This is to say that the actual reception of grace is conditional; i.e., it is conditioned upon a man’s willingness to accept it.[22]

J. Rodman Williams wrote:



God yearns for their salvation … and Jesus Christ died for them all. It is reprehensible to speak of a limited atonement, that is to say, that Christ died only for those whom God elected to salvation. Christ did not come into the world to save some and condemn others, but to save all. The only barrier is man’s own disbelief: “This is the condemnation, that … men loved darkness” (John 3:19). Thus general calling is the calling of God’s outreaching love that would take every person to Himself. He has no hidden agenda, by which He has already decided to save some and reprobate, or bypass, the others. There is no predestination to death. God’s purpose is never destruction. Those who do not believe will go into darkness, but this is not God’s desire. They go, not because God didn’t choose them before the foundation of the world, but because in spite of His great love and act of reconciliation they do not choose to receive it in faith.[23]

As much as I admire many of the Reformed theologians and feel that they are right and very strong on many aspects of Christian doctrine and faith, I believe they are mistaken in this case, and I agree with the Arminian position in this instance.

While there is a difference in some beliefs between Reformed and Arminian Christians, we are, along with all Christians, all part of the body of Christ. All Christians believe God loves humanity, that everyone needs to hear the Gospel message from Christians who are willing to bring it to them. In explaining the differences regarding salvation and atonement, it is not to say that Arminian are better Christians than Reformed, or vice versa. There are differences in theological perspectives, but we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, who love Him deeply and who desire to see others receive God’s gift of salvation.

God loves humanity. In His great love, He made it possible for human beings to become reconciled with Him, justified before Him, and able to possess eternal life, all through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. He loves each human being. His Son died for the sins of each individual. He has given humans the ability and the freewill choice to believe and receive salvation or to decide against it. His desire is for all men to receive redemption, but in choosing to create human beings with free will, He does not force people to accept His love.



For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.[24]



[1] Jack Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Ruler (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1984), 14.


[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 315.


[3] The subject of predestination was touched on in The Heart of It All: The Nature and Character of God; God’s Omniscience (Part 2).


[4] The Heart of It All: The Nature and Character of God; God’s Omniscience (Part 2).


[5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000) 692–693.


[6] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 678.


[7] [Jesus] said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65).


[8] William Lane Craig, Molinism and Divine Election.


[9] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 684.


[10] John 10:11, 14–15.


[11] John 6:37–39.


[12] John 17:9.


[13] Ephesians 5:25.


[14] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 596.


[15] John 1:29.


[16] John 6:51.


[17] 1 John 2:2.


[18] 1 Timothy 2:5–6.


[19] Hebrews 2:9.


[20] 1 Timothy 2:3–4.


[21] 2 Peter 3:9.


[22] Jack Cottrell, What The Bible Says About God the Redeemer (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1987), 382–383.


[23] J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 20.


[24] John 3:16.



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