Coffee House Chapel #6

April 7

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Our text instructs us to reject the world’s thinking - and to begin to think as Christians. “Our thinking is not to be determined by the culture of the world around us but rather that we are to have a distinctly different and growing Christian worldview.” (Boice)

Today I want us to consider thinking Christianly versus thinking secularly. I am not suggesting that we only think about Christian things - though thinking about Christian things is important. All of our thinking should be based upon revealed doctrine and how it applies to life. There are two thoughts I want us to consider:

1. It is possible to think in secular ways about religious things. Let’s consider the Lord’s Supper. For most believers, the Lord’s Supper is one of the most spiritual of all aspects of our worship, yet it is possible to think about the Lord’s Supper in a worldly manner. Examples: During the observance of communion - the church financial planner remembers that he/she did not include the communion elements in the coming year’s budget. Another observant thinks critically of how the pastor is handling the elements. Still another person might be thinking about how good it is for a person to have spiritual thoughts or to observe the Lord’s Supper. Each of these three examples reflect secular thinking about spiritual practices.

2. It is possible to think Christianly about the most mundane of secular matters. As you fill up your vehicle with gasoline, you might reflect on how the mechanized world tends to make God seem unnecessary to people, or how the hurry up pace of our lives makes it difficult to think deeply or even to care for other people. We might consider whether our world of labor easing toys serve us or enslave us. Do others toys cause us to covet and break the tenth commandment. How do these toys impact the environment over which God has made us stewards?

Harry Blamires writes, “There is nothing in our experience, however trivial, worldly, or even evil, which cannot be thought about Christianly. There is likewise nothing in our experience, however sacred, which cannot be thought about secularly – considered, that is to say, simply in its relationship to the passing existence of bodies and psyches in a time-locked universe.”

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 8

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

How do we begin to think and act like Christians? The dominant philosophy of our day is secularism. Secularism sees only the visible world, as Carl Sagan believed - the cosmos is all that there is and all that will ever be! To refute secularism, we must start with the doctrine of God, “for God alone is above and beyond the world and is eternal.” (Boice)

If there is a God, then there is such a thing as the supernatural. “Supernatural means over, above, or in addition to nature.” (Boice) God exists! And He exists even though we may not acknowledge Him. The truth is - the only reason Sagan’s cosmos exists is because there is a God. “If anything exists, there must be an inevitable, self-existent, uncaused first cause that stands behind it.” (Boice)

John H. Gerstner once said quoted his high school physics teacher as he was talking about creation, “The most profound question that has ever been asked by anybody is: Why is there something rather than nothing?” When Gerstner learned how to think better, he realized that it was not a profound question at all. “It posed an alternative, something rather than nothing. ‘But what is nothing?’ Gerstner asked. ‘Nothing’ eludes definition. It even defies conception. For as soon as you say, ‘Nothing is.....’ nothing ceases to be nothing and becomes something. Gerstner referred to Jonathan Edwards, who is not noted for being funny but who was at least a slight bit humorous on one occasion when he said, ‘Nothing is what the sleeping rocks dream of.’ So, said Gerstner, ‘Anyone who thinks he knows what nothing is must have those rocks in his head.’ As soon as you ask, ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’ the alternative vanishes, you are left with something, and the only possible explanation for that something is ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Gen 1:1), which is what Christianity teaches.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 11

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

God has revealed Himself through His universe and to the universe. This revealing is the doctrine of revelation. In 1972, Francis Schaeffer wrote a book entitled “He Is There and He Is Not Silent.” God is not hidden, as many skeptics would have us believe, He has revealed Himself in nature, in history, and most importantly – in Scripture.

Previously we mentioned four “isms” that are part of the pattern of this age: secularism, humanism, relativism, and materialism. The doctrine of God refutes secularism. God’s revelation to man refutes relativism. “If God has spoken, then what He has said is truthful and can be trusted absolutely, since God is truthful. This gives us absolutes in an otherwise relative and therefore ultimately chaotic universe.” (Boice)

The church - down through the ages - was of the conviction that God had spoken through His Word - and that He can be trusted. It has only been in recent times that the truthfulness of Scripture has been challenged. You see, “without a sure word from God all words are equally valid, and Christianity is neither more certain nor more compelling than any other merely human word or philosophy.” (Boice)

The Christian faith - because it has the Word of God - must be unyielding in its convictions. Believers must insist upon the truth. One argument used against the dogmatic (yet hopefully loving) stance of Christians is, “That’s just your opinion.” Dr. Boice suggests the following unyielding, yet nice way of answering, “You’re right; that is my opinion, but that’s not really what matters. What matters is: Is it true?”

Another area where Christians must be firm is on moral issues. We must not back down or compromise on issues of morality for expedience’s sake. When speaking out against immoral acts, we often here the same argument, “That’s just your opinion.” Additionally, in matters of morality, we will often be attacked personally with such arguments as “You’d do the same things if you were in her situation” or “Do you think you’re better than he is?” Don’t let such attacks push you from your stance. Try the following response (or something similar to it): “Please, I wasn’t talking about what I would do if I were in her shoes. I’m a sinner too. I might have acted much worse. I would probably have failed sooner. I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about what is right, and I think that is what we need to talk about. None of us is ever going to do better than we are doing unless we talk about it and decide what’s right to do.” (Boice)

Harry Blamires writes, “What the secular mind is ill-equipped to grasp is that the Christian faith leaves Christians with no choice at all on many matters of this kind.” Christians are under God’s authority, and God has expressed His authority to us in the Bible.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 12

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

There are two important implications to be drawn from the doctrine of God:

First - God made us to have eternal fellowship with Him. As a result - Christians look at failure, suffering, pain, and death differently than unbelievers. For the believer - though they are bad, these ills are not the greatest of all tragedies. Yes - death is an enemy, “ The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor 15:26) Believers must remember that the bad is overbalanced by eternal matters. “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt 10:28)

Second - success and pleasure are not the greatest good. They are good, and the have their place, but they compare negatively when juxtaposed with salvation from sin and knowing God. Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt 16:26)

What is the Christian response to materialism? There are two kinds of materialism: philosophical materialism such as doctrinaire communism; and practical materialism such as found in the West. The West practices the syllogistic thinking that because we are not communist, and communism is materialistic, then we are not materialistic. That type of reasoning is not necessarily true. “Most of us embrace a practical materialism that warps our souls, stunts our spiritual growth, and hinders the advance of the gospel in our time.” (Boice)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident, addressed the graduating class of Harvard in 1978. Up to that point, most Americans thought highly of Solzhenitsyn. He had suffered in the oppressive gulag prison system. Solzhenitsyn’s address at Harvard was so critical of the West, that he lost most of his popularity.

Solzhenitsyn did not defend socialism. He was quite pleased with its ideological defeat in Eastern Europe. For in his address he declared of socialism, “It is zero and less than zero.” But he also said, “Should someone ask me whether I would indicate the West such as it is today as a model to my country, frankly I would have to answer negatively.... Through intense suffering our own country has now achieved a spiritual development of such intensity that the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive.” He went on to say, “after the suffering of decades of violence and oppression, the human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today’s mass living habits, introduced by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor and by intolerable music.”

According to Solzhenitsyn, the West has pursued physical well-being and the acquiring of material goods to the exclusion of almost everything spiritual.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 13

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Westerners were astounded when communism in Eastern Europe starting crumbling in 1989. Democratically elected officials replaced party appointed thugs. What should we remember from those times?

1. While communist lands moved in democratic directions - the West moved more and more towards materialism. Today, it’s “...as if the only thing that matters is how many earthly goods we can acquire...” (Boice) When the East Germans streamed through the breaches in Berlin wall, Westerners were amazed as the East Berliners marvelled at the goods found on the West Berlin Shelves. “But what is the good of their being able to come to the West if all they discover here is a spiritual climate vastly inferior to their own?” (Boice)

2. The American media, blind to spiritual things, did not acknowledge the truth behind the changes in the Eastern Bloc. It was not the genius of Mikhail Gorbachev or any of the other ex-communist leaders that brought about the change – it was the spiritual vitality of the people.

The first crack in the Eastern Bloc came in Poland with the Solidarity movement, whose strength came from the Roman Catholic church with the support of its Pope. In East Germany, on October 9, 1989, the faith and spiritual strength of the people was the turning point. As they faced an army on full alert, the cry of the seventy thousand demonstrators was, “Let them shoot, we will still march.”

In Romania, just weeks after former President Nicolae Ceausescu declared that apple trees would bear pears before socialism should be endangered, a Protestant pastor’s parishioners declared they were willing to die before they would let him be arrested by state police. On December 16, 1989, hundreds and then thousands of people joined those parishioners in defending that pastor. A twenty-four-year-old Baptist church worker distributed candles to the throng. He lit his candle and the others joined him. When the secret police opened fire on the demonstrators, the young Baptist was wounded in the leg, and the doctors had to amputate it. At the hospital, the young man told his pastor, “I lost a leg, but I am happy. I lit the first light.” The Romanians call the events of December 1989 “God’s miracle,” rather than a national revolution. The rally cry of the throng was “God Lives!” Romania was a fiercely atheistic country, yet the people shouted, “Freedom! Freedom! We do not mind that we die!”

“Willing to die? Ah, that is the only ultimately valid test of whether one is a practical materialist at heart or whether one believes in something greater and more important than things.” (Boice) Some Westerners are willing to die. The civil rights marchers of the 1960's were willing to die. But we seldom see that commitment today. “In 1978, during President Jimmy Carter’s abortive attempt to reinstate draft registration for the young, newspapers carried a photograph of a Princeton University student defiantly waving a poster marked with the words: ‘Nothing is worth dying for.’” (Boice)

Chuck Colson asks, “But if nothing is worth dying for, is anything worth living for?” “If there is nothing worth living for or dying for, then the chief end of man might as well be cruising the malls, which is the number one activity of today’s teenagers, according to the pollsters.” (Boice)

Solzhenitsyn summarizes the America’s weak thinking at this point when he says, “Every citizen has been granted the desired freedom and material goods in such quantity and of such quality as to guarantee in theory the achievement of happiness, in the morally inferior sense which has come into being during [these last] decades ... So who should now renounce all this? Why and for what should one risk one’s precious life in defense of common values?”

“Christianity has the answer to that, and Christians in past ages have known it. It is to ‘gain a better resurrection’ (Heb 11:35), which means to do what is right because what is right pleases God and that is what ultimately matters. But those who do it must be thinking Christians.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 14

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Previously we looked at the Christian doctrine of God which is the biblical answer to secularism, humanism, relativism, and materialism. We also need to look at the Christian doctrine of man as an expanded answer to humanism.

“Humanism is the philosophy to which human beings inevitably come if they are secularists. Secularism means eliminating God or anything else that may be transcendent from the universe and focusing instead on only what we can see and measure now. When God is eliminated in this process, man himself is left as the pinnacle of creation and becomes the inadequate and unworthy core for everything.” (Boice)

This humanistic philosophy finds its roots in the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Protagoras. Protagoras expressed his view in words that became better known in the Latin concept of “homo mensura.” “Homo mensura” means “Man, the measure” or “Man is the measure of all things.” This philosophy teaches that man is the standard by which everything is measured. Man is the ultimate creature and he is the ultimate authority.

“This seems to elevate man, but in practice it does exactly the opposite. It deifies man, but this deification always debases man in the end, turning him into an animal or even less than an animal. Moreover, it causes him to manipulate, ignore, disparage, wound, hate, abuse, and even murder other people.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 15

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

In the last thirty years or so, Americans have changed in the way that they relate to other people. There was a time when there was something of a Christian ethos in this country, and people cared about helping others. Today, as a general rule, we help others so that we can get rid of them. “This approach is materialistic and utilitarian (pragmatic).” (Boice)

In 1981, Daniel Yankelovich published a study of the 1970s entitled “New Rules: Searching for Self-Fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down.” The book documented a dramatic shift in America’s values, finding that personal self-fulfillment is the ultimate goal in life, rather than self-sacrifice for others as Americans had been noted for in previous times. By the late 70s, 72 percent of Americans spent much time thinking about themselves and their inner lives. In 1976, Tom Wolfe called the 70s the “Me Decade” and compared it to a third religious awakening.

Many will ask, “Isn’t this a good thing? Shouldn’t thinking about ourselves make us happy?” Redirecting our energies to fulfilling ourselves, and earning just as much as is possible so that we may indulge our every whim would seem to be the ticket to a satisfied life! But “it doesn’t work that way. It fails on the personal level, and it fails in the area of our relationships with others.” (Boice)

A 1978 “Newsweek” article by Margaret Halsey described the seventies as the “me” generation. She highlighted the belief that “inside every human being, however unprepossessing, there is a glorious, talented and overwhelmingly attractive personality [which] will be revealed in all its splendor if the individual just forgets about courtesy, cooperativeness and consideration for others and proceeds to do exactly what he or she feels like doing.”

Halsey pointed out that there are not attractive characteristics in everyone (or at least in most people) and that human nature consists even more basically of “a mess of unruly primitive elements” which spoil the “self-discovery.” “These unruly elements need to be overcome, not indulged. And this means that the attractive personalities we seek really are not there to be discovered but rather are natures that need to be developed through choices, hard work, and lasting commitments to others. When we ask ‘What’s wrong with me?’ it is the ‘me, me, me’ that is the problem.” (Boice)

“Me, me, me” affects our relationships with others and it makes our world impersonal. In his 1971 book, “The Greening of America,” Charles Reich wrote, “Modern living has obliterated place, locality and neighborhood, and given us the anonymous separateness of our existence. The family, the most basic social system, has been ruthlessly stripped to its functional essentials. Friendship has been coated over with a layer of impenetrable artificiality as men strive to live roles designed for them. Protocol, competition, hostility, and fear have replaced the warmth of the circle of affection which might sustain man against a hostile environment....American [has become] one vast, terrifying anti-community.”

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 18

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Last time we looked at “What’s Wrong with Me? Most of the world, at least the Western world, is egocentric - in other words - it’s all about ME! The Christian answer to this problem is the biblical doctrine of man. If we Christians are to have a renewed mind, we must stop thinking about ourselves, as the world does, and begin thinking as God does. God has informed us how He thinks - in His written Word to us, the Bible.

When we turn to the Bible we see two important things about human beings: (1) “Man is a uniquely valuable being - far more important than the humanists imagine him to be; and (2) in his fallen condition we also find that he is much worse than the humanists suppose.” (Boice)

How do we know that man is more valuable than humanists think? In Genesis 1:26 we read, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” In the very next verse we read, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

In ancient times, all books were copied by hand. There was no typesetting, and there certainly were no computers. When I want to emphasize something, I can use italics, CAPITAL LETTERS, boldface,underline (unfortunately - I can't find a way to do this on BB - but I hope you get the idea), etc. In olden days, emphasizing was done by repetition. When Jesus wanted to stress something, He started with the words, “verily, verily.” We have that repetition in Genesis 1, with the phrases, “in our image, after our likeness,” and “in his own image, in the image of God.” The concept is repeated at least three times, and that is the ancient’s way of saying that man being created in the image of God is a very important thing.

Later in Genesis, God tells us that because man was made in God’s image we are not to murder other people, and that murders are to forfeit their lives at the hands of mankind as a punishment for murder. (Genesis 9:6, “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”)

Next time we will look at the meaning of being made in God’s image.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 19

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

What does it mean to be made in God’s image? This has been the subject of debates for centuries! All to often - man tries to create gods that look like us - or at least things that we can relate to, but that is putting the “cart before the horse!” The above mentioned debate starts because God is far beyond our comprehension. We will never fully understand God, even when we are in His presence. But there are a few things we know:

1. Personality. “To be made in God’s image means to possess the attributes of personality, as God Himself does, but animals, plants, and matter do not.” (Boice) What does this involve. A partial list would include: knowledge, memory, feelings, and a will. Being the proud slave of six cats, I must admit that animals (at least my cats) have what we call personalities. Individuals in a species sometimes behave differently than others of the same species. But my cats cannot create (unless you consider causing havoc a creative thing). Though my cats seem fond of me (at least some of them), they do not love or worship. “Personality, in the sense I am writing about here, is something that links human beings to God but does not link either God or man to the rest of creation.” (Boice)

2. Morality. To be made in the image of God means to possess morality, for God is moral, and those who are made in His image are moral - that is, knowing the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil. (Remember when the serpent tempted Eve - she knew that God had told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.) This ability to tell the difference between right and wrong involves elements of freedom and responsibility. Humans to not have absolute freedom - only God possess that type of freedom. Humans are limited - but still we have true freedom, as evidenced by Adam and Eve’s wrong use of that freedom in the garden. When the first couple sinned - they lost their original righteousness. “But they were still free to sin, and they were free in their sinful state afterward in the sense that they were still able to make right and wrong choices. Moreover, they continued to be responsible for them.” (Boice)

Next time we’ll look at spirituality.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

Note: I am scheduled for two nights of sleep study - so I probably will not be able to post a devotional for April 20.

 

April 25

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

What does it mean to be made in God’s image? This has been the subject of debates for centuries! Previously we looked at “personality” and “morality.” To be made in God’s image means to possess, as God does, personality and morality.

Today we want to consider:

3. Spirituality. Being made is God’s image also means possessing spirituality. Possessing spirituality means that we humans are able to have fellowship with God. “Another way of saying this is to say that ‘God is spirit’ (John 4:24) and that we are also spirits meant for eternal fellowship with Him.”(Boice) There is nothing greater than this - than to have fellowship with God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says it this way, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

“Perhaps at this point we are beginning to see why secular humanism is so bad and not just a less attractive option than Christianity. Humanism sounds like it is focusing on man and elevating man, but it actually strips away the most valuable parts of human nature. As far as personality goes, it reduces us to mere animal urges, as Sigmund Freud tried to do. Regarding morality, instead of remaining responsible moral agents, which is our glory, we are turned into mere products of our environment or our genetic makeup, as B. F. Skinner asserts. As far as spirituality is concerned, how can we maintain a relationship to God if there is no God and we are made the measure of all things?”(Boice)

Solzhenitsyn said that in humanism “things higher, warmer, and purer” are drowned out by “today’s mass living habits and TV stupor.” “We can make engrossing five-minute TV videos or commercials, but we no longer build cathedrals.”(Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

Please excuse my absence - between the sleep studies this past week - maintaining my secular job - and extreme tiredness (sleep studies do not promote sleep) - it was a rough week.

I would also ask you to pray for my son Kelly - he finished his sleep study and he quits breathing 62 times per hour. He will also soon have surgery - deviated septum.

 

April 26

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

We find ourselves in a bit of a conundrum. Humans beings are more important than the humanist imagines, yet things are bad! What is the cause of this problem? The answer is found in the doctrines of sin and the fall of man. Yes, we are more valuable than the humanist believe, yet at the same time, we are in worse trouble than the humanist can admit. We were made in the image of God - but we lost that image. We are not the human beings God intended us to be - and the reason is – SIN!

Dr. Boice writes, “Romans 1 is about human beings falling down a steep slippery slope when they abandon God.... the conceptual framework for this downbound slide is found in Psalm 8.” Note that verse 1 and 9 repeat the same thought, “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” In the middle of these identical phrases we find the order of creation. “who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”

God made man lower than the angels and higher than the animals. “This is what Thomas Aquinas saw when he described man as a mediating being. He is like the angels in that he has a soul. He is like the beasts in that he has a body. The angels have souls but not bodies, while the animals have bodies but not souls.” (Boice)

In man’s position as being somewhere between the angels and the animals - man is to look up toward the angels, actually past the angels and towards God. The desired state of man (this is especially so of believers) is to become increasingly like God. (“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:29) This being like God is what the serpent used to seduce Eve. But in her desire to be like God - she disobeyed God’s command (as did Adam) - and sin entered the human race. Now having a sin nature, the natural man’s attempt to be like God (or at least to appease God) causes him to make this attempt using his own ingenuity. Thus you have a Cain - trying to come to God on his own terms - instead of on God’s terms. Abel went to God on God’s terms - and was forgiven. Angered, Cain killed Abel. How quickly the human race went down that slippery slope.

If man will not look up to God, if we reject God, as secularism does, “then we will inevitably look downward and so become increasingly like the lower creatures and behave like them. We will become beastlike, which is exactly what is happening in our society. People are acting like animals, and even worse.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

April 27

Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Today, I am going to quote Dr. Boice, as he writes on some of the more unsavory ramifications of the fall of man.

“Over the last few decades I have noticed that our culture is tending to justify bad human behavior on the ground that we are, after all, just animals. I saw an article in a scientific journal about a certain kind of duck. Two scientists had been observing a family of these ducks, and they reported something in this duck family that they called ‘gang rape.’ I am sure they did not want to excuse this crime among humans by the comparison they were making, but they were suggesting that gang rape among humans is at least understandable given our animal ancestry. The inference comes from the evolutionary, naturalistic worldview they espoused.

“A story of a similar nature appeared in the September 6, 1982, issue of ‘Newsweek’ magazine. It was accompanied by a picture of an adult baboon holding a dead infant baboon, and over this there was a headline that read” ‘Biologists Say Infanticide Is as Normal as the Sex Drive – And That Most Animals, Including Man, Practice it.’ The title is as revealing in its way as Carl Sagan’s ‘The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.’ It identifies man as an animal, and it justifies his behavior on the basis of the identification. The sequence of thought goes like this: (1) man is an animal, (2) Animals kill their offspring, (3) Therefore, it is all right (or at least understandable) that human beings kill their offspring.

“The argument is fallacious, of course. Most animals do not kill their offspring. They protect their young and care for them. But even if in a few instances some animals do kill their offspring, this is still not comparable to the crimes of which human beings are capable. In the United States alone we kill over one and a half million babies each year by abortion – usually just for the convenience of the other. And the number of outright murders is soaring.”

The evolutionists say that man is getting better and better all the time. I believe that the evidence does point to evolution - only it’s the inverse of humanistic thought. Man is evolving - but he is getting worse and worse all the time - not better and better!

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd