Category Archives: morality

WHAT WAS SODOM’S SIN?

Ethics, morality July 16, 2019 Comments: 2

PMW 2019-057 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In Gen. 19:5 we read: They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” What do these men intend by this request to Lot?

Historically, Jew and Christian alike have recognized Sodom’s pervasive sin (highlighted in Gen. 18–19) as widespread homosexual conduct. But in the contemporary world of collapsing moral values, many “affirming” scholars, whole liberal denominations, and an increasing number of evangelical Christians have challenged this understanding. Continue reading →

PROHIBITING BLOOD EATING?

morality July 9, 2019 Comments: 2

PMW 2019-055 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Genesis 9:4 reads: “You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” This command is not a ritual directive confined to old covenant symbolism, but a moral one constraining mankind’s conduct. We may see this and its fundamental meaning from the following lines of evidence, which will incrementally build the case step-by-step.

(1) This is a Noahic commandment for the entire world (Gen. 9:9–11). It is not a command given to Israel as a distinctive people, for she will not exist until several hundred years later (after Abraham, Gen. 12), as we can see from the genealogy connecting Noah to Abram (Gen. 11:10–26). Continue reading →

TRANSGENDER SURGERY ISN’T THE SOLUTION

Ethics, morality, sin March 15, 2019 Leave a comment

2019-022 by Paul McHugh (Wall Street Journal)

Gentry note: Dr. McHugh does not address the ultimate underlying problem in transgenderism: the spiritual issue. But his article is helpful for basic scientific and medical issues arising from transgenderism. A world confused about God is quite naturally confused about self, in that people are images of God. The world is suppressing some of the most basic truths (gender identity) in unrighteousness. Only the spread of the gospel can ultimately help these individuals.

The government and media alliance advancing the transgender cause has gone into overdrive in recent weeks. On May 30, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services review board ruled that Medicare can pay for the “reassignment” surgery sought by the transgendered—those who say that they don’t identify with their biological sex. Earlier last month Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that he was “open” to lifting a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military. Time magazine, seeing the trend, ran a cover story for its June 9 issue called “The Transgender Tipping Point: America’s next civil rights frontier.” Continue reading →

THE INFANTICIDE DEBATE

Culture, Ethics, Law, morality February 19, 2019 Leave a comment

PMW 2019-015 by Samantha Gobba (World magazine)

Gentry note: Since the Obama Presidency, America has lurched leftward and become destructively fragmented. Our culture is now in the wholesale process of “integration downward into the void.” That is, as unbelief gets its cultural act together, its deadly consequences and ultimate despair become more integrated in society and obvious to even the simplest citizen. Long predicted, infanticide has now become a topic of discussion and even legalization. I am convinced that this horrific practice may be the “bridge too far” that ultimately explodes in secularism’s face. I suspect that this may begin retarding the downward collapse of our culture. Of course, this will require a revival of Christianity in America, which postmillennialism expects. This article shows the horror of unbelief in our culture.

A Virginia bill that would have flung wide open the door to late-term abortions in that state caused a nationwide backlash and accusations that supporters of the measure were promoting infanticide. The bill died in a House of Delegates subcommittee vote last Monday, but the controversy about it has since inspired a push in the U.S. Senate to protect newborn babies from abortionists. Continue reading →

ABORTION BY INFANTICIDE

Ethics, morality February 15, 2019 Leave a comment

PMW 2019-013 by Lita Cosner (Creation Ministries, Intl.)

Gentry note: This is an older article (2008), but one that anticipates what we are now experiencing in America: the legal slaughtering of near term and delivered babies. As postmillennialists committed to the spread of righteousness and truth, we stand against such a practice. And the first step in standing against it is to understand what is going on. This article ought to help.

Blurring the line between abortion and infanticide?

When the Roe v. Wade decision was delivered, the reality that a baby was being killed during abortion was less clear to many people—it was common to think that what was being removed was ‘a blob’ or ‘a clump of cells’. But most who would be in favor of abortion would at least draw the line at birth—once the baby is outside the womb, nearly everyone agrees that he or she is entitled to the full protection of the law, regardless of what route the baby took to get there. But some think that there is one time a fully-born baby does not have the right to life—when he or she was born as a result of a botched abortion. Continue reading →

EVOLUTION: A MESSAGE OF HOPE?

Creation, Ethics, morality, Pessimism, Worldview February 12, 2019 Leave a comment

PMW 2019-014 by Philip Bell (Creation Ministries, Intl.)

The hope of the Christian faith is inextricably linked with a belief in purpose. The Apostle Paul famously waxed lyrical with the words, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). By virtue of His incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection, the Universe’s Creator and Sustainer (John 1:1–3, Colossians 1:16–17) became the Saviour. Having a personal relationship with God—through repentance and faith (e.g. Mark 1:14–15)—guarantees us a place in heaven. We have a confident, certain hope of eternal glory. But can this message be sustained if, as a consistent belief in evolution requires, humankind’s special creation by God is overturned?

“We are the one creature to whom natural selection has bequeathed a brain complex enough to comprehend the laws that govern the universe. And we should be proud that we are the only species that has figured out how we came to be.”1 So concludes evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne in his book Why Evolution is True. Continue reading →

A NONSECTARIAN PRO-LIFE ARGUMENT

Ethics, morality February 1, 2019 Leave a comment

PMW 2019-010 by Douglas Groothius (Constructive Curmudgeon)

Abortion is the intentional killing of a human fetus by chemical and/or surgical means. It should not be confused with miscarriage (which involves no human intention) or contraception (which uses various technologies to prohibit sperm and egg from producing a fertilized ovum after sexual intercourse). Miscarriages are natural (if sad) occurrences, which raise no deep moral issues regarding human conduct-unless the woman was careless in her pregnancy. Contraception is officially opposed by Roman Catholics and some other Christians, but I take it to be in a moral category entirely separate from abortion (since it does not involve the killing of a fetus); therefore, it will not be addressed here.[1]

Rather than taking up the legal reasoning and history of abortion in America (especially concerning Roe vs. Wade), this essay makes a simple, straightforward moral argument against abortion. Sadly, real arguments (reasoned defenses of a thesis or claim) are too rarely made on this issue. Continue reading →