The Works of God

For my most recent blog post at Desiring God I spent time reviewing some of the shameful history of the church in the eugenics and abortion movements.  Similar to the church’s history with slavery, Dianne had to listen to me wonder how the religious proponents of eugenics at the turn of the 20th century and their theological children who support abortion in the 21st century could have been and are so unaware of the evil they were and are promoting.

And it makes me tremble to consider what evil I’m still clinging to that will be considered shameful in a hundred years.

Thankfully, J.C. Ryle gave me a shot of something strong and good and pure in the midst of a life that ‘may be weak, sickly, unhealthy, painful . . .”:

Faith is life. How great the blessing! Who can describe or realize the gulf between life and death? “A living dog is better than a dead lion.” (Eccles. ix. 4.)

And yet life may be weak, sickly, unhealthy, painful, trying, anxious, weary, burdensome, joyless, smileless to the very end. Assurance is more than life. It is health, strength, power, vigour, activity, energy, manliness, beauty. . .

Blessed, thrice blessed are they that believe! They are safe. They are washed. They are justified. They are beyond the power of hell. Satan, with all his malice, shall never pluck them out of Christ’s hand.

But he that has assurance does far better–sees more, feels more, knows more, enjoys more, has more days like those spoken of in Deuteronomy, even “the days of heaven upon the earth.” (Deut. xi. 21.)

J.C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, p. 190.

The argument from those who promote aborting unborn children with disabilities is that the parents don’t want the children to suffer and the parents themselves don’t want to suffer through their children’s suffering.  Somehow, this prior knowledge of suffering grants the right to rid ourselves of it, no matter the cost to a little human being.

Jesus had prior knowledge of his suffering, and he also had prior knowledge of something else:

. . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 ESV

Let us live in this knowledge – joy is coming!  God will help us endure to the end.