I call upon You, Lord, God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob and Israel, You who are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who, through the abundance of your mercy, was well-pleased towards us so that we may know You, who made heaven and earth, who rules over all, You who are the one and the true God, above whom there is no other God; You who, by our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, give to every one who reads this writing to know You, that You alone are God, to be strengthened in You, and to avoid every heretical and godless and impious teaching.

St Irenaeus of Lyons, Against the Heresies 3:6:4


Friday, January 10, 2014

WHY WE FIGHT MUST ALSO INFORM HOW WE FIGHT--FOR LIFE


Some of the finest prolife apologists, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for informing my own methods and efforts in fighting abortion, argue that Christian prolifers should not introduce their theology into the argument, but should rather argue their case for life on allegedly “neutral” evidences from science and philosophy. Hear this simple thought from the brilliant theologian and ethicist John Jefferson Davis.

"A Christian ethic of abortion must be firmly grounded in biblical principles, such as the sanctity of human life created in God's image and likeness. Principles like that supply what is noticeably lacking in secular discussions: a genuinely transcendent, rather than merely pragmatic or relative, basis for recognizing the dignity and value of human life."

John Jefferson Davis, Abortion and the Christian: What Every Believer Should Know, (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1984) p. 35.

This simple and fundamental reason for why Christians should be vanguard in the public debate on abortion is equally a starting point in the how of our methodology. I believe it was J. C. Ryle who said, “We have the truth, we needn’t be ashamed to say it.”

If the sanctity of human life is not grounded in the imago Dei, then I am ready to concede the point that human beings are not intrinsically and morally valuable. As Davis says, apart from this biblical presupposition, all the arguments for human value and dignity are reducible to pragmatics and relativism.

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