Tim Challies recently stated on a podcast that when he sees a child with Down syndrome, he assumes the family is Christian. Why? Because so many children with Down syndrome are not allowed to be born.
Al Mohler wrote yesterday (scroll down almost to the bottom) on two recent articles that Dr. Peter Singer wrote, one for the New York Times and one for the Guardian. I agree with Dr. Mohler’s opinion about Dr. Singer:
Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, Peter Singer is one of the most reprehensible intellectual forces alive today.
And yesterday I read that scientists have found a genetic link for autism. Even if it does explain only 3% of autism diagnoses, it is a beginning to unraveling the mystery that is autism. I’m all for unraveling mysteries and helping more kids. But one significant result of better knowledge about Down syndrome is that more kids with Down syndrome are being killed before they are born.
What you believe about God matters a lot here.
Much more comes to mind with all the above news, especially about Peter Singer’s new idea (mostly tongue-in-cheek and simply meant to provoke, I’m guessing) that this generation of human beings be the last generation.
But this one thought kept coming to mind as these articles swirled around in my head:
Is the church ready for what’s coming concerning our children with disabilities? Is the church preparing people right now for the suffering they will experience when a child is diagnosed with a disability?
In one sense, yes. University professors like Dr. Singer have been mocking the notion of a transcendent, sovereign God for centuries. Our most recent murderous decades with abortion were preceded by the murderous eugenics movement by almost a century. The church is still here, and God continues to call some to stand against such evils and some to live with disability in their families.
But it seems like it is coming faster and sooner than before. Prenatal diagnoses of increasing numbers and types of disabilities are becoming more common. Rates of abortion for children with disabilities are at stunning levels. Men and women can take tests to determine the likelihood of their conceiving a child with certain disabilities, with the assumption that this is not to prepare them to raise a child, but to help them avoid having such children.
We need the church to help their people now, before the diagnosis comes. What we believe about God and other people and how we spend our lives is at stake:
The ultimate purpose of the universe is to display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God. The highest, clearest, surest display of that glory is in the suffering of the best Person in the universe for millions of undeserving sinners. Therefore, the ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering and bring about the praise of the glory of the grace of God.
O Christian, remember what Carl Ellis and David Powlison and Mark Talbot and Steve Saint and Joni Eareckson Tada said: they all, in their own way, said that whether we are able or disabled, enduring loss or delighting in friends, suffering pain or savoring pleasure, all of us who believe in Christ are immeasurably rich in him and have so much to live for. Don’t waste your life. Savor the riches that you have in Christ and spend yourself no matter the cost to spread your riches to this desperate world.
Pastor John Piper, from The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God at the 2005 Desiring God National Conference.
The Works of God 
A son talks to his father, and we get the help
June 19, 2010 by John Knight
Disability manifests itself in a thousand different ways. Sometimes a child matures as he should physically, but cognitively never develops. Sometimes a child’s mind thinks clearly, but her body has significant physical differences. And some children experience both.
My boy is one who will never develop either physically or cognitively. Things can be hard for him at times. He can’t tell us where things hurt when he’s sick, or why he’s frustrated. We frequently don’t know why he’s laughing, either. For some reason, spontaneous laughter doesn’t rise up temptations to worry like other behaviors do!
And God, in his kindness, lets me be comforted by his word at unexpected moments.
On Friday, Dr. Mark Struck used this passage from Matthew 11:25-30 in his devotions with Desiring God’s staff. Jesus is talking to the Father, and we get the help and encouragement:
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
It was a sweet word for me. Jesus knows it all. Jesus has ALWAYS known it all. ALL things have been handed over to Jesus by the Father. Jesus promises rest for ALL he has chosen.
My boy is known completely, and he has been from before creation. Jesus knew what he was doing when my Paul’s life was prepared, for God’s glory and for the good of God’s church.
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