May 31
Proverbs 14:1-16:33
A few years ago, a 17 year-old in the Netherlands was euthanized according to her wishes. She was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the Netherlands, children as young as 12 may be euthanized at their request if a physician deems their suffering to be "unbearable with no clear resolution in sight". "Inside Edition" reported that more than 6500 people died through legal euthanasia in the Netherlands in 2017. Recently, an elderly woman had requested physician assisted suicide but changed her mind just prior to the procedure. Rather than abandoning the procedure, the physician had the family members hold the patient down as he continued with the procedure. A couple of years ago I walked past a number of nurses on one of the units that I work in the hospital, discussing euthanasia. The one talking was discussing it's merits giving the example of someone who had the right to die due to her circumstances. I interjected and asked them if every one of the doctors that they now work with or ever worked with was of outstanding moral caliber and ethically pure. They laughed, knowing the mixed bag that physicians are, just like people in every walk of life. I then asked them why would they like to give physicians, many to which they would deem unethical, the power to kill another human being. This is a power which physicians should not have the right to carry out. Most don't realize that the Hippocratic Oath originally written around 400 BC, was changed in the last 50 years. In the original version it said, "Nor shall any man's entreaty prevail upon me to administer poison to anyone, neither will I counsel any man to do so. Moreover, I will give no sort of medicine to any pregnant woman, with a view to destroy a child. Further I will comfort myself and use my knowledge in a godly manner". The modern version reads: "Most especially must I treat with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play God." Yet, by changing this 2500 year-old document, this is just what doctors are enabled to do, "play God".
We read in Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." We have so elevated our own intellect, our own ethics and morals, that to our ruin, people have elevated themselves over God. In their foolishness, when it comes to many of the morally hot topics of the day, people foolishly feel they hold the moral high ground over God. The conclusion of Judges which details a period of moral decline in the nation of Israel, said in Judges 21:25, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." As smart as we think we are, we are not that smart. As moral as we think we are, we are not that moral. We read in Proverbs 14:15, "The simple believes every word, But the prudent considers well his steps." People mistakenly trust their feelings and their sense of right and wrong more than God's perfect Word. We read in 14:22, "Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good." Many would argue, that things like euthanasia, or transgender, or legalization of drugs,etc. are not evil, they only care for and love the people who desire such things. But only God gets to decide what is evil and what is good. Anything opposed to the goodness of God is indeed evil. We read the truth in 14:27, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death."
Everyone who elevates themselves over the will of God, according to His Word, is in fact playing God. To accentuate how things are progressing, every two years when I am required to renew my license I am now required to take a two credit course on end of life management, which describes how to hasten the ending of one's life. Never in my previous 25 years was any course required for renewal. We can place blinders on if we so desire, but the moral decline of our nation and our world is occurring at breathtaking speed. We can choose to ignore the headlines all we want, but this is the reality we find ourselves in. To those who like to argue on behalf of euthanasia, how do you know whether or not that struggling individual might have accepted Christ's invitation for heaven if allowed to live one more day. Their earthly torment would then have led to heavenly bliss, rather than a continuation of their torment in hell. Only God has the right to create life and only God has the right to decide when it ends.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: