This is the Faith Debate, a theological roundtable gab fest, a free-for-all forum with faith community leaders wrestling over the truth. In less than one half hour, learn more about what really matters than what most others learn in a week. The Faith Debate is on the World Wide Web at WFMD.com, keyword faith. Are you ready for the clash of ideas? Are you ready for the sound of freedom? Let's get ready to rumble in this corner weighing in with a master of divinity from Reformed Theological Seminary, the faith debate master of ceremonies, Troy Skinner. So there was a Facebook post linking to an article that was written by couples, families that had elected to have a late-term abortion performed. And the title of the article was, We Are Not Monsters. And so I had some people interacting with me on that subject matter. And it seems like some were interested in hearing my take on that question of late-term abortion. and whether or not those who have them are monsters, I guess, was the question. And so, here's what I said. To my Facebook friends who are professing Christians, this post is directed to you. The open letter within the news story about the, that's called We Are Not Monsters was the news story, attached to the post, is almost certain to receive a lot of social media attention. Before commenting on this news story, please be sure to read the letter. Most online versions of the story will likely include a link to the letter. Also, before commenting on this news story, please be sure to revisit your Bible and seek to model your behavior after the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. With those encouragements offered, here's my take. The letter's opening paragraph mentions that recent legislation at the state level has reignited a conversation about abortion at the national level. This is so very true. The fact that political sides are now again battling over late term abortion, what the letter refers to as later abortions, as well as over abortion more broadly is also very true. Additionally, it seems fair to say that a national conversation most often uses broader brushstrokes, thus relegating anecdotal experiences to the sidelines. Even further, it also seems fair to say that the politicization of the issue too often comes at the expense of both truth and compassion. I will add that one does well to admit that truth and compassion are frequently absent from each side of the debate. My fellow Christian brothers and sisters, please respond to the writers of this letter and those who support the letter with gentleness and self-control. The writers say that they are speaking for themselves, and we in turn might say that we are speaking for ourselves. Yet this is not all that's true for us, is it? Pro-lifers are not merely speaking for themselves, they are speaking for the unborn child who is not yet able to speak. And putting an even finer point on it, Christians are not merely speaking for themselves, but are speaking as ambassadors representing their eternal King. So let's please speak as Jesus of Nazareth would speak. Doing this requires a deft touch. It's not easy to tell someone who has had an abortion that the doctors who make their living by immorally killing children are best viewed as barbarous and unethical. It's not easy pointing out with a note of irony that these doctors do not appear to be offering compassionate care to the young people whom they are killing. It is difficult to find ways to address the relatively small number of abortions argument without coming across as argumentative. Some estimate that the types of cases referenced in the letter constitute perhaps 1% of all abortion cases. If this estimate is accurate, then the relatively small number would calculate to about a half a million babies since Roe versus Wade was decided. Is it quibbling to point to 500,000 lives and say this doesn't feel like a relatively small number, nor incredibly rare for that matter? The previous paragraph helps to illustrate how easy it is to get sucked in the pragmatic mathematics argument or to the expedient political arguments. We might do better to accept the invitation to view this as a personal decision because, after all, it is one that determines the life or death of a person. We might do even better still to highlight the reality that the personal question is actually a moral question because later abortions stories, as are all abortion stories, are ones of tragedy and loss, as the article says. Treating it as a moral question allows one to easily discuss the feelings of quote-unquote relief that might accompany some abortions, as stated in the letter. My fellow Christians, we all know far too well that our own sinful decisions are often felt to bring relief. After all, if disobeying God's Word didn't feel good, would we all struggle so hard to be obedient? Look, the letter is right to say that women who have had abortions are not monsters. They are people made in the image of their Creator. just as their babies are. Undoubtedly, we all have family and neighbors who have had an abortion. It is completely fair to say that they are just like you, just in different circumstances. Remember, if you have broken God's law in even one place, you stand guilty of having broken the whole law. This is what scripture teaches. Everyone stands condemned, which is why everyone needs the salvation provided by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It's easy for us, perhaps, to point to abortion and cry, murder! Is it equally easy for us to point at the hatred harbored in our own heart and also cry, murder? Those inside the church need and deserve and are blessed by a rebuke that leads to obedience to God. This is because Christ's yoke is easy and his burden upon his bride is light. But those outside the church, according to the Bible, are lost and in need of being pointed to their maker's grace and mercy. Then, after they repent, will they hear the voice of the Savior telling them, go and sin no more. In the meantime, my fellow believers, do not place upon them the yoke of the law, a yoke that we ourselves have proven time and again that we are unable to carry. I am with you who say that we have all been knit together in our mother's wombs and are fearfully and wonderfully made. This is true of the abortion supporters, too. They are flawed image bearers like you. Sadly, they are misled into buying the lies of the world around them. And so they do not have eyes to see nor ears to hear that the babies are the ones who have become exploited and marginalized. Instead, they see themselves as the oppressed. This situation requires our empathy. Consider, do you mock and ridicule the blind or the deaf for their blindness and deafness? Stand for truth. Always stand for truth. Do so with love. Always do so with love. Have a conversation with those who believe differently than you do. Listen to them. Hear what they're saying and why. Do so with patient, long-suffering. Enter into their hurts and their hopes so that the Holy Spirit might enter into their hearts. I am all for changing the law in order to protect the defenseless. At the same time, I also know that completely ending abortion will not happen by changing the law. It will happen only by changing the heart. You're listening to a special edition of the Faith Debate Show where I'm going through my social media feed from the past year and sharing with you some of the most noteworthy moments in my social media world from 2019. Here's, as I mentioned in the last couple of weeks, sometimes people will send me something and ask for my comment, explicitly ask for my comment. I might not have commented on it otherwise. So somebody said, Troy Skinner, have you seen this one before? Best explanation I've ever seen for faith and understanding evil in the world. And there was a link to a story that talked about, you know, the nature of evil and how can there be evil in the world with a good God and stuff. And so I read it and then I responded back saying, hey, thanks for sharing it. And I said, I am truly touched that you thought of me and passed this along to me. I'm not sure if I've seen this particular article before, but there are other stories like it floating around the internet. Back in the day, these things would circulate via forwarded emails. Remember those days? The exchange within the story is clever and it feels logical on the surface, but I must say there are a couple of trouble spots. One such trouble spot is the attribution to Albert Einstein. It's almost assuredly an urban legend that Einstein had such an encounter while in school. The story is about him putting his instructor, his professor, in place in the classroom. Anyway, back to what I wrote. In fact, it's incredibly likely that no student ever had an exchange like this with his professor. Yet when telling a story like this, it makes sense to insert the name of the smartest guy most of us know and say, Einstein said it, so I get it. The second trouble spot is that the logic of the argument depends upon the syllogism. That's not the sort of argument that would persuade a philosopher or, in the case of the story, a deeply committed atheist professor. However, of more importance to me are the troubles that arise from a biblically Christian perspective. The fact is the Bible does not say that evil is an illusion. In fact, the Bible says that it's all too real and never minimizes the truth of misery and pain that is caused by evil. Consider the most famous prayer in scripture is the Lord's Prayer, which has as one of its petitions for God to deliver us from evil. I found it helpful to remind myself that one can only know about God and what God himself reveals about himself. So he has revealed that he is not the author of evil. but he has not revealed the fullness of his purpose in allowing evil. So, I generally advise that our best course of action is to follow after the example of Job, who cried out in Job 1. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. When contemplating the pain, suffering, evil in the world, it is also helpful, critical even, that one remember that the world has fallen. The creation has been marred by sin. This is not to say that all suffering is tied to a particular sin. We cannot make one-to-one correlations between the degree of someone's sin and the degree that someone is suffering. But there is sin in all of us, to be sure, and that the sin, it brings with it our broken world. And yet there is the great Christian hope Christ will return, and with his return comes a renewed heavens and earth. And then there'll be no more sin, no more crying or pain or sickness or death. Evil is not ultimate. God is ultimate. And God's final word on evil is victory over the powers of evil. This is possibly far more than you expected or wanted in a response, but I know that other people often read the comments section on Facebook posts, and so perhaps this will be interesting to at least some out there. And so she responded back on Facebook saying, I think I took it as the extrapolated implication that evil is not an illusion, but instead that evil is the absence of God as opposed to an illusion and thus not real. But yes, I can definitely see that would be a concern for people to take this as evil is not real. And yes, I totally agree that it's unlikely that this truly came from Einstein. And who else would I think of than you when it comes to asking a debating faith question? So I said, I hear you. the Bible teaches that God is omnipresent. There is no place that God is absent. The benevolence of God can be absent, but not God himself. Sorry if I'm being a nudge, but these sorts of clarifications are important, I think. And he said under, or she said actually, she said, understood, and I am in no way qualified to discuss the finer details, so correct away." And some other people chimed in as well, and I wrote, I noticed in the comments on this page that someone put something there and they seem now to have removed it, and I can't remember all of it, but one part discussed proof for the theory of evolution. The quote-unquote proof offered was that of micro evolution, which has no bearing on the theory of evolution, which advocates for macro evolution. I mention this simply as a point of clarification in case anyone saw the other person's comment. So anyway, this is the Faith Debate on 930 WFMD. I'm going through my social media feed from the past year, and now I'm going to transition. We're at the halfway point of this show. I'm going to transition. I gave myself a challenge. I wanted to post about about 52 books, one book a week for a year, books that I read and that I posted about. So my goal is 52 books in a year, and I'm happy to say that I met the challenge. And so my year last year started with book one. And I said this, there was a time not so long ago that I read lots of books. An average of about a book a week was my norm for many years. I recently allowed myself to slip from that habit. I've decided to attempt getting back on track in 2019. Again, this was last year's goal. As a measure of accountability, I'm intending to post on Facebook what it is I'm reading. The goal is 52 books in 52 weeks. I'm starting these posts a little late, but I'll try to get caught up a little bit at a time. Anyway, here's book one, which I think I posted maybe third or fourth week of the year. 600 years ago, Thomas Akempis wrote a book that is still widely read today. That's what one would call a classic. The Imitation of Christ provides deeply helpful thinking on living a spiritual life that mimics the life of Christ. It is an aphoristic work, meaning that it's a collection of maxims, proverbs, pithy statements that are standalone lessons. No books save the Bible are perfect, but on my must-read scale, this one merits a 10 out of 10. A select quote from the book says, So now you're wondering, okay, what was book two? Well, personal goal for 2019, 52 books, 52 weeks, here's book number two. This author happens to be a dear friend of mine. He's a local Frederick pastor, has been a guest on several episodes of the radio show The Faith Debate, and has a weekly radio program of his own. In a couple of weeks, my lifelong friend Scott Wiersma and his wife Susie Haskell Wiersma will be in Maryland and will preach at Neila Chempung's Church Covenant Family Chapel while in the area. I am so looking forward to that. Here's a selected quote from It's Time to Dream Again by Neela Champong that captures some of the questions which the author aims to help Christians answer. Quote, what is a God-initiated dream? How does God initiate a dream? What can a God-initiated dream do for you? Why is it very easy to reject the dream planted in our hearts by God? If you want to know the answers, you got to talk to Neil, or you got to read his book. And if you want to hear Neil, he'll be up right after the Faith Debate show. His show airs right here on 930 WFMD. If you're listening to the Faith Debate, I am Troy Skinner. Thanks so much for listening. So I was still playing catch up. So early on, I was really scrambling and doing, I did three or four posts like in three or four days, I think, or maybe not quite that fast, but pretty rapidly. So this year's goal is 52 books in 52 weeks. Number three, I began plowing through the reading list weeks ago, but I didn't post anything for the first several weeks. So we're playing catch up. It's important because if it's not posted on Facebook, well, then it didn't happen. I became a Mitch album fan years ago during his frequent contributions on ESPN. He is a thoughtful, mild-mannered, and gifted communicator. It's easy to see why he's been a successful columnist, and his writing skills have translated nicely to authoring best-selling books. The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a delightfully heartwarming read. The entire book can be consumed cover to cover in a single afternoon. With this book and the movie by the same name, Mr. Albom encourages readers to appreciate the apparently mundane interactions that they have each day. There's a reward in a job well done, in noticing the people around you and valuing loving, humble service. From a Christian perspective, the reader will notice elements of forgiveness, God's common grace, and the value of each and every image-bearer. This book is far from biblically sound with regard to the afterlife. However, it doesn't claim to be, as is evident from this select quote, which is taken from the dedication page. Quote, Everyone has an idea of heaven, as do most religions, and they should all be respected. The version represented here is only a guess, a wish, in some ways, that my uncle and others like him, people who felt unimportant here on earth, realized finally how much they mattered and how they were loved. So I piggybacked on that with my 52 Books in 52 Weeks. I said, yesterday I posted book number three. It was Mitch Albom's book. So with today's post, I'm up to book number four and week number six. I'm slowly getting caught up. I've actually read three of Mr. Albom's books, including Have a Little Faith, A True Story. In my opinion, this book is not as good as The Five People Who Meet in Heaven, nor the first album book I ever read called Tuesdays with Maury. Have a Little Faith is a story of bouncing between two worlds, a rabbi and a Christian pastor. The story is good, but not as strong as the other two books I have mentioned. If you read one book during your lifetime that is authored by Mitch Albom, then make it Tuesdays. If you grab a second, grab five people. Then, if you want, grab Have a Little Faith. The ecumenical spirit of this work is a strength. It also is a weakness. It's a strength in that it points to commonalities that exist between people of different faiths. The Jewish perspective and the Christian perspective are each treated with respect. There is dignity within each congregational leader, the older white Jew and the younger black Christian. There is a stark contrast between those with some wealth and those battling poverty. But they share a common humanity. The author is insightful and unafraid to voice difficult doubts. The weakness is in diminishing the differences between religions so that the uniqueness of each sort of gets lost in the shuffle. The Jewish faith is not the Christian faith. The Christian faith is not the Jewish faith. While they each agree on many points of how to live life here on earth, serving others, leaning on faith for comfort and understanding, the importance of forgiveness, etc., they do not believe the same things about eternal matters. It's tempting to be merely agreeable and to not draw any distinctions, but this is not fair to what different religions truly believe. For example, Jesus Christ made exclusive claims by saying that he, as the Messiah, is the only way to the Father, and this makes all the difference despite the many surface similarities. There's far more to life than simply believing that something bigger than ourselves is out there. A select quote that provides just one example of where Christians should see a difference in perspective from the book. Look, Lord, I've done X amount of good stuff on earth. I've tried to follow your teachings and to pass them on. I have loved my family. I've been part of a community, and I have been, I think, fairly good to people. So, Heavenly Father, for all of this, what is my reward? And he'll say, reward? What reward? That's what you are supposed to do. So, anyway, be careful what you read out there. And so, actually, speaking of that, this is something from the comments section. Somebody said, I read this book a long time ago. Mitch is from Detroit. The person's also from Detroit. Please don't read The Shack. So I said, I have read The Shack, which is also heartstring plucking. As with Mr. Albom's book, the shack is not biblically sound. However, there's a huge difference. William Paul Young claims in the shack to be teaching theology with his book, and it is dangerously heretical theology on multiple fronts. What's so incredibly saddening is that numerous churches use the shack as a foundation for Bible study classes. Are you kidding me? And then she wrote, I've heard the same thing. I was appalled that anyone would use this as a Bible study. It might be fine for outside of church discussion to show theological error, perhaps. I just hate this kind of book. I know how many think it's wonderful, but I completely agree with you about the dangerously heretical teaching. And I said, given its focus on tragedy, loss, grace, mercy, relationship, seeking answers to life's difficult questions, and that sort of thing, it is easy to see why people like the shack. But I hear that addicts like heroin, too. And then somebody else jumped in and said, I agree with you. The shack is really heresy. I read it and ended up pretty conflicted at first. It pulls from your emotional core. My feeling is that it lowers God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit's level of divinity. It overly humanizes them. Does that make sense? And I said, you are correct. It connects emotionally, but it definitely ignores the holiness of God. The book also confuses the Father with the Son with the Holy Spirit. So the shack presents not just a weak God, but a modalistic God, among other major theological problems. And so there you have it. So thank you so much for joining me on this walk through memory lane of social media posts from last year. Feel free to join on the discussion. Go on WFMD's Facebook page and comment under the Faith to Bake posts you find there, or find me elsewhere on social media and interact with me. I'm always open and welcoming people to do that with me. I enjoy it very much, as you can imagine, doing a show like this. Until next week, if you want to hear podcasts in the meantime, go to WFMD.com, keyword faith, thanks to faith debate page, go to the audio vault section, and there's, I don't know, several hundred faith debate shows there waiting for your consumption. Thanks so much for listening. Until next week, 167 and a half from 167 and a half hours from right now. God bless.