As one liberal politician so comfortably stated, “My wife and I are raising our children to be moral and ethical people, but, if they make a mistake, I would not punish them with a baby.” The person who spoke those words confesses to be a Christian. Is there such a thing as a Christian who believes that pregnancy is a punishment? Even in the most pagan of ancient societies where they would sacrifice new-born children to the gods, they never considered those babies to be “punishments.” I believe that much of modern, Western society has hit a new low in the area of cultural immorality.

The interpretation of life is something that requires more than head knowledge. Life is not a matter of political opinion or personal views. Life is objective, obvious, and unquestionable.

No one argues that a seed in the soil, watered, and fertilized is a source of life; it is not yet fully what it will be, but it is life nonetheless. The opinion of conscious life is the point of contention. But whether we agree that life begins at conception, I would find it hard to agree that a baby represents punishment.

With the attitude that pregnancy is a punishment rather than, at the very least, a product of sex, it is now okay to kill the unaware and underdeveloped.

Many of us are not aware that millions of babies die on hospital beds every year. The most stringent country in the area of abortion is Germany, with its new constitution that does not allow any measure of tampering with the birth process. My second son was born in Germany, and my wife was not allowed anything more than a mild pain pill during labor.

The country with the most liberal legislation and practices regarding abortion is Canada. According to the nationally known ethicist, Dr. James C. Peterson, (C.C. Dickson Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at Wingate University, and a Ranked Adjunct Professor of Theology and Ethics at Gordon-Conwell’s Charlotte, North Carolina campus), hundreds of nine-month-old babies suffocate on Canadian hospital tables every day.

Surely, we do not regard children as punishments to those who are sexually active outside of marriage. Even those children are not punishments. If anything, those children are the recipients of punishment by too often being born to parents who are not old enough to be parents, living in poverty due to the poor decision of their irresponsible, sexually active parents, or they are simply killed before they can beg to live.

In His dust,

Johnny

© 2008 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved

Three words used for “hell” in the Bible:

1. Tartaroo - a word borrowed from the Greek world which was a reference to the place where angels were punished in the world of mythology.

2. Hades – A Greek translation of the Hebrew word Sh’ol – only word used for hell in the Old Testament and refers to the world of the dead, grave, pit, and sleep. The Gates of Hades is a physical place in the Decapolus where the pagan God, Pan, was worshiped.

3. Gei-Hinnom – A reference to The Valley of Hinnom. 2 Kings 23:10, “He (King Josiah) desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.”

Molech was a god that the people would sacrifice their first born child to by burning him or her in the Valley of Hinnom. King Josiah destroyed and desecrated the place so that it could never be used for anything other than a town dump, which it became and was still being used for in the days of Jesus.

People would take their garbage to the Valley of Hinnom in Jerusalem where a continuous fire would burn the trash. Wild dogs would fight for scraps of food. And as they fought they would make a high pitched whimper like fighting dogs do and their teeth would grind together. This was known as the “weeping and gnashing of teeth in Gei-Hinnom.”

When Jesus speaks of a person being cast into hell, he is referring to the wasted life; a life which is good for nothing but the local dump. When we don’t follow God, we are like food that can’t be eaten, therefore we have become a rotten spot in the Kingdom of God, which is better off being thrown in the garbage where only wild animals will find anything of value in the waste that has become the life of a child of God.

Hell for Jesus and his followers was a literal place to which they could point and say, “Those who refuse to serve God are like a cup that refused to hold water, and the dump is waiting.”

In His dust,
Johnny

© 2008 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved

“Deciding when life begins is above my pay grade.”

After listening to this statement made by a particular presidential candidate as he responded to Rick Warren’s question about the beginning of life, I was reminded of an ethics class I took a couple of years ago at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Dr. Peterson was the professor and he gave a scenario of a burning hospital building where one hundred zygotes were kept safely frozen while one infant screamed in horror, choking from the smoke. He then asked, which one would you save, the screaming infant or the one hundred fertilized human eggs?

He gave this scenario after asking everyone in the class to consider when we considered life to begin. “Do you believe life begins at conception or when the light of the world touches the skin of a new born?” Most of us said we believe that life begins at conception. But when he gave us the scenario, a fireman answered, “I’d save the baby, and if anyone tried to make me save the zygotes and leave the one baby, I would punch him in the face.” This fireman/seminarian was one of those who adamantly stated that a fertilized egg was just as viable as a crying baby.

The reality is, this is not that difficult a question to answer, but it is a very delicate reality when we are called to respond. Life is life. Is a tree a life? Are germs alive? Of course. Is a fertilized egg a life? Absolutely. The real question is the question that Rick Warren asked which is, “When does a human being receive human rights?”

Since the earliest of civilizations, human beings have killed infants for the purpose of prosperity. Burning a baby alive or slicing it open and spilling its blood on an altar was thought to bring about rain, bountiful harvests of food, and fertile women for these pagan societies. The Valley of Hinnom (translated “hell” in the New Testament of English Bibles, Greek geenna) which was turned into the dump of Jerusalem by King Josiah is an example of such a place (see 2 Kings 23:10). The god, Molech, was offered sacrifices of infant burnings in return for prosperity.

Today, we kill unborn babies (fetus is Latin for child) for the same reasons. “If you have this baby, you will live in poverty, never be able to finish school, and no man will have you with that extra baggage.”

The arguments always lead back to whether a person who is raped or impregnated by incest should be able to have an abortion, but sadly, those who are having the most abortions are those who simply want the pleasures of sex without the responsibility of offspring. One report stated that many women between the ages of 18 and 25 in one particular European country have had an average of 8 abortions by the time they are 25-years-old.

When does a human being receive human rights? I don’t think the individual answer to that question is above anyone’s pay grade. I think it’s a matter of that which is the right thing to do regardless of personal inconvenience.

When does a cow’s life begin? Can you imagine a farmer not wanting calves on his farm, so he reaches in to the wombs of all his pregnant cows and squeezes the life out of the unborn calves? I promise you, within twenty-four hours, that farmer would be playing cards with Michael Vick…behind bars.

Psalm 139:13-16 reminds us that God knows us even in our mother’s womb and has plans for our lives. Though the pain caused to the mother may be immensely horrible and inconceivable, even the child of incest and rape can have a life of great value and purpose.

In His dust,
Johnny

© 2008 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved

The last two weeks have kept me pretty busy, and I have been enjoying myself. I spent last week living in a cabin that smelled like someone’s dirty laundry, but I really liked being out there with the teens and young adults. This week is a lot different. I am staying in a condo in Orlando with wonderful amenities that include a whirlpool tub that my four-year-old daughter loves.

I am grateful for the rest and appreciate the opportunity to not have to do much thinking. This thought process reminded me of a conversation that I had with a dear friend this past week. He asked me what I thought about a pastor turning off his phones for a week to rest, not allowing himself to be contacted at all.

At first, I thought it seemed a little extreme, but then I realized that a week of no communication is good for everyone. All of us can use at least seven days of no contact for a few reasons. First, it allows us to really rest. Second, it reminds us that no one is indispensible. And last, even Jesus took time to get away, even leaving those who needed healing left on the bank while he disappeared to a private place.

May God richly bless all of you as you consider taking time for yourselves at least one week per year.

Away from the crowd,

Johnny

© 2008 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved