The Killer Instinct

By David Feddes

You shall not murder. (Exodus 20:13)

John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to death for torturing and murdering more than
thirty boys and young men in the Chicago area. There was no doubt of Gacy's guilt—the
remains of most of his victims were found in the crawl space under his house. And yet it
took 14 years and millions of dollars in appeals before Gacy's execution was finally
allowed to take place. Meanwhile, in the same legal system, it's considered unjust to
require a 24 hour waiting period if a woman wants to have her unborn baby killed.
Helpless babies can't get one day, but a mass murderer gets a 14-year waiting period.
In many areas, the death penalty for criminals doesn't even exist, while abortion
gets full government funding. The very same society that pays to have babies
exterminated also invests countless millions of dollars taxed from ordinary citizens to
provide lifelong room and board for brutal killers and rapists. Makes a lot of sense,
doesn't it?
We're going to look at the sixth of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not
murder.” Abortion and the death penalty are two of the hot issues connected with the
sixth commandment, but there are others as well. Are euthanasia and physician-
assisted suicide okay? Is it always murder for soldiers to kill during war, or for police to
kill someone in the line of duty? Is it wrong to kill animals for food or to use animals in
medical experiments that benefit humans? These cases all involve killing of one sort or
another, and in each case the basic question is this: Does this killing amount to murder?
As we think about the sixth commandment, I'd like to approach it from two
different angles. First, I want to deal with the controversial questions I've just mentioned
as clearly and briefly as possible. We need to know what kinds of actions are murder,
and which are not. Once we've clarified some of these areas, the second thing I want to
do is get at the underlying attitudes that breed murder. As important as it is to get our
ethical guidelines straight, it's perhaps even more important to get to the heart of the
matter and deal with the murderous attitudes and feelings that form what we might call
"the killer instinct."

Clarifying the Command

Let's begin by clarifying how the command, "You shall not murder," applies to a
number of situations and actions. We don't have time to get into all the details and
arguments, but I do want to state what mainstream Christian teaching throughout
history has understood the Bible to say about these things.
What about animals? Is it wrong and murderous to kill them? Not according to
the Bible. God told Noah, "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you"
(Genesis 9:3). There are biblical examples, too many to mention, of God's people eating
meat or wearing animal skins. Jesus himself helped catch fish and eat them, and he
took part in Passover meals that involved eating roasted lamb. That alone is enough to
show that it's not always wrong to kill animals.
Animal rights activists demand an end to medical experiments on animals and
want everyone to become vegetarians. They have strong feelings, but they don't have

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the support of the Bible. Animals are God's creatures, and we shouldn't mistreat them or
inflict useless suffering on them, but that doesn't mean they have the same God-given
sacredness and rights that people have.
The sixth commandment is concerned with killing humans. God places human
life in a special category. No individual person is allowed to kill another just because he
wants to. Most of us find this very obvious and basic, at least in some cases. I don't
know anyone who would want to argue that the killings committed by John Gacy or a
Mafia hit man are anything less than wicked and horrible. But other forms of killing are
receiving more and more approval.
Consider euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. This is becoming more
acceptable in the minds of many, but it is in clear conflict with God's Word and with the
church's moral teaching. When God prohibits murder, that means you may not murder
yourself, and it means no physician may murder a person he thinks might be better off
dead. If a terminally ill person wants to die in peace, without being forced to endure all
sorts of useless or burdensome treatments that will only prolong his misery, that's one
thing. It's quite another thing actually to kill a person by lethal injection or some other
means. Don't be confused. Euthanasia isn't about the right to die. It is about the right to
kill. We may refuse procedures that prolong our dying and add to our misery, but we
may never accept a procedure that actually causes death. Euthanasia is a form of
murder.
And that brings us to the most common form of murder in the world today:
abortion. The Bible protects human life at every stage of development, and so
Christians from the earliest days of the church and throughout the centuries have
opposed abortion. Pagan cultures were fond of abortion and also of killing newborn
infants who weren't wanted or were handicapped or were the wrong gender. But the
Christian church condemned this killing as murder. These days, some religious people
and politicians try to pretend that abortion might be okay in God's eyes, but in doing so,
they are rejecting the Bible and the historic Christian faith. The Bible doesn't explicitly
say you shouldn't murder unborn babies, any more than it says you shouldn't murder
teenagers or elderly people. The Bible says you shall not murder, period. God protects
human life at every stage of development.
Let's think next about capital punishment. When a government imposes the
death penalty, it is obviously killing a human being. But is this killing a form of murder?
Not necessarily. According to the Bible, there are situations where government
legitimately imposes the death penalty.
Certain deeds are so terrible that a person forfeits his right to go on living in
human society. In Genesis 9:6, the Bible says, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by
man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." A person
who deliberately kills another person is deserving of death himself.
Applying the death penalty, however, is not left to vigilantes or secret death
squads, but to the government and its courts of justice under the public rule of law. In
Romans 13:4, the Bible says that the ruler "does not bear the sword for nothing. He is
God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer."
This doesn't mean a society or government has to use capital punishment, but it
does mean that capital punishment is not always and everywhere wrong. The death
penalty can be a proper use of governmental authority. The only alternative for dealing

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with a murderer or habitual, dangerous criminal is imprisonment until he dies. And we
might as well face it: this is just another way of depriving the criminal of his life. He has
no freedom, no right to vote, no opportunity to pursue personal dreams, no occasion to
mingle freely in society. The government takes a criminal's life away through lifelong
imprisonment, just as surely as if it killed him. If a society feels it is more humane to do
this, and if it wants to spend its citizens' tax money on lifelong food and housing for
killers and serial rapists, it may do so, but not because the death penalty is somehow
equivalent to murder or a violation of God's law.

War and Self-Defense

This section is written by Dr. Edwin D. Roels.
One of the most common situations where killing takes place is in war. That was
true in biblical times and it has continued to be true throughout human history. The Bible
itself contains many situations where God not only approved of a war but even
commanded it. (See, for example, Deuteronomy 2:31-37; Joshua 8:24-27; 1 Samuel
15:2-3.) Thousands and even tens of thousands of people were killed during these
wars. Partly on the basis of these wars in the Old Testament, most people seem to
believe that there is a place for a just war which is carried out in appropriate ways. Even
though the New Testament does not explicitly promote or justify going to war (with the
possible exception of Romans 13:1-4), most Christians believe that a “just war” is
permissible and may even be required when it is carried out in appropriate ways.
But what makes a war “just”? Christians do not all agree on the answer to that
question. However, a “just war” would seem to require at lest the following elements.
(1) The war should promote peace and justice and freedom for people who are
unjustly oppressed or attacked by others.
(2) The war should be fought only if it is clear that it is the only way, or at least
the best way, of achieving what is just and right and fair.
(3) The war should have a likely outcome of doing much more good than harm.
(4) The war should be fought with as little destruction of life and property as
possible in order to achieve legitimate objectives.
(5) The war should not be fought simply for financial gain or to advance a
person’s or country’s control over other people or their lands.
(6) The war should not be fought primarily to promote the narrow political
interests of an individual, group, or country.
Any war which is based primarily on the pursuit of selfish or sinful goals is forbidden by
the Sixth Commandment.
As for individual self-defense, the Bible seems to permit people to take the life of
someone else if this is truly the only way they can defend themselves or other innocent
persons against a vicious or potentially fatal attack. Even under such circumstances,
however, people should never take the life of another person if there is a way to avoid it.
(See, for example, 2 Samuel 2:18-28.)
Even though most people tend to agree that the taking of human life is
acceptable under certain circumstances, there are others, both Christians and non-
Christians, who are convinced that killing a human being is always wrong—no matter
what the circumstances may be. They believe and teach that the Sixth Commandment
requires us always to preserve human life and never to destroy it. They are totally

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against killing in war, against capital punishment for any crime, and even hesitant about
killing another person in self-defense.
Those Christians who approve of judicial killing (capital punishment) or just wars,
and those who approve of killing in self-defense should make very certain than they
never take the killing of another person lightly. Even in war, people should never kill
wantonly, viciously, or unnecessarily. They should always remember that every human
being is an image bearer of God and should be treated as such. Killing someone should
always be considered a last resort rather than a quick solution. God is the ultimate
Author of life. We should not be quick to destroy it.

Attitude Problems
That, in all too brief a form, is what the historic Christian faith says about some of
the life-and-death issues that vex a lot of minds and rouse a lot of tempers these days.
In considering the sixth commandment, though, we need to do more than just define
ethical guidelines for what is or is not murder. In saying, "You shall not murder," the
Lord also calls us to examine our hearts, to explore our thoughts and attitudes, to see
whether we are controlled by a destructive "killer instinct" toward others or by the life-
giving, life-affirming love of God.
God searches our hearts. He's concerned not only with our actions, but with our
attitudes. Jesus made this very plain in his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said
concerning the sixth commandment,
"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and
anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who
is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment... anyone who says, 'You
fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell" (Matthew 5:21-22).
According to Jesus, God doesn't just judge us for actual killing, but for wishing someone
dead and for character assassination. Wrong attitudes and words are evil in
themselves, and they are also the breeding ground for actual violence and murder.
In the Bible, God unmasks a number of dimensions to the killer instinct. One
aspect, as we've just learned from Jesus, is anger. Not all anger is wrong or murderous,
of course. There are times when we are rightly angry at evil or injustice. But the anger
becomes evil when we're angry for the wrong reasons, or when we have righteous
indignation but then hang on to it and nurse it into a hateful grudge. That's why the Bible
says, "'In your anger do not sin': Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
and do not give the devil a foothold" (Ephesians 4:26-27). Ongoing anger is the devil's
foothold. It's the way Satan, in all his murderous malevolence, finds a spot in our hearts
and enslaves us to the killer instinct.
Anger easily becomes outright hatred. That's what happened to Cain in the book
of Genesis. God accepted and approved Cain's brother, Abel, but not Cain. "So Cain
was very angry," says the Bible (Genesis 4:5). God told Cain that instead of being so
angry, he should get right with God so that he could be accepted as Abel had been. But
Cain didn't listen to God. He listened to his own anger instead. Cain attacked his
righteous brother, Abel, and killed him and became history's first murderer. Wherever
love is not in charge, the killer instinct takes over. The Bible says,
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And

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 why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's
were righteous... We know that we have passed from death to life, because we
love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who
hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in
him (1 John 3:11-15).
That's pretty plain, isn't it? Love means life. Hate means death.
Sometimes we're amazed and horrified at how murderous people can be. We are
sickened by scenes of butchery from Rwanda and Bosnia. We shudder when a movie
like Schindler's List recalls the atrocities committed by the Nazis under Hitler, or when a
film like The Killing Fields depicts the vicious genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge
under Pol Pot. We shake our heads as newscasters tell us about senseless murders on
the streets and in the homes of our cities. We ask, "Why? How could this possibly
happen?"
Meanwhile, we forget that the seeds of murder often lie right within our own
hearts, just waiting for the right circumstances. Every time I hate or despise someone
from another ethnic background, I have the heart of a murderer. The horrible civil wars
and genocides of this century didn't just happen, you know. They appeared where
seeds of rage and hatred had been growing for quite some time. The same is true of the
murders you hear about in the news. Hatred was growing in the heart well before the
gun was actually fired. If you've been nursing a grudge for years, or if you feel hatred for
a certain person or a certain group of people, you're a lot closer to being a murderer
than you might like to think.
Hatred takes different forms. It may be anger and resentment and desire for
revenge, or it may be something much cooler and distant. A man who kills during an
armed robbery doesn't necessarily have any strong feelings against his victim. He just
wants what the other person has, and he couldn't care less about that person's life. A
company which saves money by exposing workers to great risk rather than paying for a
safer working environment isn't angry at its workers. It just doesn't care about them. A
tobacco company isn't trying to get revenge on the smokers it helps kill. It just cares
more about profit than about people. A woman who aborts her baby doesn't have a
grudge against the baby. She just cares less about that baby's future than her own.
Hatred, the killer instinct, isn't always a matter of rage or revenge. Hatred is
sometimes just an intense focus on one's own goals and a cool disregard for the well-
being of others. The most murderous of all questions is simply this: "Am I my brother's
keeper?" Whether our hatred is fierce and angry, or cool and detached, that question,
first asked by Cain, is the most chilling expression of the killer instinct. "Am I my
brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9)

Deadly Words
Killing begins with attitudes, and it is helped along by words. Jesus connected
murder with anger and hatred, and he also connected it with the way we label other
people. To call someone "fool," said Jesus, is to murder that person's dignity and to put
yourself in danger of hell. Labels kill. "Sticks and stones may break the bones," but
words can break the heart.
The use of hateful words and labels is damaging enough to the spirit, but it also
helps to make the physical act of killing easier. For a racist lynch mob, which was easier

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to hang: a black man loved by Jesus Christ—or a "nigger"? For a religious terrorist,
which is easier to blow up: a fellow human, or an "infidel"? Labels make killing easier.
When doctors and nurses are giving advice on pre-natal care to pregnant women, they
always speak of "your baby," but if they are about to perform an abortion, they refer only
to "the fetus." Words that depersonalize and degrade are expressions of the killer
instinct.

Me First
Hatred, whether in its hot and angry form or in its cool and uncaring form, is the
essence of the killer instinct, and it all boils down this: I matter more than you. I would
rather you didn't exist at all than change my own priorities, and I would rather fight to get
what I want than learn to trust in God's care and love. In James 4:1-2, the Bible says,
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that
battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you
cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do
not ask God."
Apart from God, the only rule is hatred. Even in supposedly good relationships,
the underlying rule is the killer instinct that says, "I matter more than you. My life matters
more than yours." One of the starkest examples of this comes from Rwanda. According
to a Reuters report, Samuel Karemera, a Hutu farmer, killed three Tutsis who had been
his friends, because a Hutu mayor ordered it. Samuel said, "I killed three, a man and
two women, with a big club... They were my neighbors. I knew them well. [The mayor]
said: 'Kill ... all the Tutsis.' So we had to do it or be killed ourselves as traitors or
sympathizers with Tutsis." A similar story is told by a woman named Juliana, who said
she killed a wounded Tutsi boy, using a club spiked with nails, because soldiers ordered
her to finish him off, and she wanted to save her own life. When the choice came to kill
or be killed, Samuel and Juliana chose to kill.
We'd like to pretend we're different, but are we? Faced with the choice either to
kill someone or lose your own life, what would you do? As pictures flashed in from
Rwanda, many of us asked in horror, “How can a man dismember a child with a
machete just because the child is from another tribe?” Well, before we try to answer
that, maybe we should ask, “How can a doctor dismember an unborn baby with a
curette just because the parents don't want the baby?”
The killer instinct asks, "Am I my brother's keeper? If push comes to shove, my
life matters more than his." This is the mind of death. It means that we are already
murderers in the way we think, and that under certain circumstances, we could become
murderers in deed as well. This killer instinct brings death to relationships, death to
other persons, and ultimately, eternal death to every person who remains in it. As the
Bible says, "Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him" (1 John 3:11-15).
The sixth commandment, "You shall not murder," helps us to see murder for
what it is, and it helps us to understand the deadly attitudes that lie behind it. The
commandment shows us the ugly truth about ourselves, and then it drives us to seek a
better way. It drives us to the foot of the cross of Christ.
In a kill or be killed world, Jesus chose to be killed. As the almighty Son of God,
Jesus had the power to destroy every last one of us, and he had every right to do so.

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But instead, he took upon himself the hellish suffering we deserve. In a world ruled by
hatred and selfishness, in a world dominated by the killer instinct, Jesus revealed the
kind of love that comes from God alone. The Bible says, "This is how we know what
love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our
brothers" (1 John 3:16).
Is that kind of love at work in you? Have you renounced the way of evil? Have
you put your trust in Jesus? No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, it is
not too late for God to change you. If you're guilty of hatred, even if you're guilty of
actually murdering someone, you can still find forgiveness; you can still find a new heart
and a new life, through faith in Jesus' death and resurrection. So accept God's love for
you, and commit yourself to a life of love. Even if it costs you—even if it kills you—it is
worth the price, because beyond the cross lies the resurrection, the final triumph of life
over death, the final victory of love over hate.

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

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The Truth About Abortion
By David Feddes

Politicians who favor abortion rights sometimes talk as though Christian teaching
is unclear about abortion. They talk as though the Christian church throughout the
centuries has held a variety of opinions about abortion. This is false. Christian teaching
is crystal clear in opposing abortion. The Christian church since the first century has
condemned abortion as murder.
Unborn babies can’t vote. They can’t speak for themselves. But God’s Word and
God’s church speak in their defense. The vast majority of people in North America claim
to be Christians, but many ignore what Christianity says about abortion. Politicians
ought to defend the weak, but some support abortion and even suggest that there is no
clear Christian position against it. Let me say again: this is false.

Clear Christian Teaching

The Bible speaks of the marvelous way God forms us in our mother's womb.
Psalm 139 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's
womb... your eyes saw my unformed body" (v. 13, 16). When the Bible speaks of
people like Jeremiah and John the Baptist, and of Jesus himself, it speaks of them even
before birth, not just after. The Bible clearly treats unborn children as sacred human
lives being shaped by God. And God protects all human life in the command, "You shall
not murder." The Christian church, living in the light of God's Word, has always
understood that abortion is a horrible offense against humanity and against God.
Two of the earliest Christian documents, dating to less than a century after Jesus'
resurrection, were the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas. The Didache, a Greek title,
which means "The Teaching," said explicitly, "You shall not murder a child by abortion."
The Epistle of Barnabbas said the exact same thing: "You shall not murder a child by
abortion."
The Church Fathers in the next few centuries declared the same message.
Clement of Alexandria wrote, "Those who conceal their immorality by taking drugs to
bring on an abortion completely lose their own humanity along with the fetus."
Athenagoras wrote, "Women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give
account of it to God." Tertullian said, "To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing;
nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is
coming to birth." The Apostolic Constitutions declared, "You shall not kill your child by
causing abortion... For everything that is shaped and has received a soul from God, if it
be killed, shall be avenged."
When the Christian leaders of those early centuries talked about abortion, they
made it clear that men were just as much at fault as women. John Chrysostom
thundered against men who sexually exploited women and then pressured them into
abortion. Chrysostom denounced what he called "murder before birth" and said,
Adultery leads to murder, or rather to something even worse than murder. For I
have no name to give it, since it does not get rid of the thing born, but prevents
its being born. Why then do you abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws...
and make the chamber of life [the womb] a chamber for murder, and arm the

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 woman who was meant for childbearing unto slaughter? ... For even if the daring
deed be hers, yet you are the cause.
Chrysostom knew all too well that for every woman who aborts a baby, there's a man
who is at least as much to blame.
Even when Roman Catholics and Protestants parted ways on some things, they
continued to agree that abortion is wrong. For example, Protestant Reformer John
Calvin wrote,
The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being,
and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun
to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field,
because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be
deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to
light.
All through the centuries, the Christian church and its leaders have applied the
teaching of the Bible to the matter of abortion and have denounced it in the strongest
possible terms. Michael Gorman researched the early church's attitude toward abortion,
and found three main themes that came up over and over: "the fetus is the creation of
God; abortion is murder; and the judgment of God falls on those guilty of abortion."
That's the Christian position on abortion. Anyone who says otherwise, for personal or
political reasons, is wrong.
Up until the last few decades, this was understood by all nations with a significant
Christian influence. Even Planned Parenthood used to oppose abortion. A Planned
Parenthood pamphlet from 1963 said, "An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has
begun. It is dangerous to your life and health." So, then, what changed? Planned
Parenthood changed. Public policy changed. But the truth hasn't changed. God hasn't
changed. Christianity hasn't changed. The Bible's revelation that human life is to be
protected from womb to grave hasn't changed. Science confirms what Christianity has
been saying all along: a unique human individual comes into being at the moment of
conception. That may be an inconvenient truth, but truth it is, and we must not ignore it
or look for ways to get around it. Human life begins at conception and ought to receive
protection.
We’ve seen that the Bible speaks of human life in the womb as precious to God,
and we’ve seen that the Christian church from the first century until now has defended
unborn life and condemned abortion. If that is Christianity’s unchanging truth about
abortion, then what has changed? How could individuals and politicians and courts
abandon their obligation to protect the right to life of unborn humans?

Gods of Sex and Death

What changed is this: people fell back into the most ancient and horrible of all
religious errors. Many ancient religions, not acknowledging the one true God, made
gods of sex and death their ultimate realities. They put orgies and human sacrifice, sex
and death, right at the center of their religious practices. Today the ancient error is back.
People see sexual indulgence as the greatest good. But even with all our contraceptives
and sex education, sex still does what God designed it to do: it still makes babies.
Indeed, the sexual revolution has produced millions of babies that the parents didn't
want. The only way to worship sex is to give death its due as well. If you want sex to

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come before all else, the price is that you have to be willing to kill a baby once in a
while—or fifty million, if necessary.
In ancient times, when people killed a baby to improve their own status, it was
called child sacrifice. Today we call it "choice." In ancient times, when people ingested
the flesh of a dead child, it was called cannibalism. Today, it's called fetal tissue
research. Just as the ancients would sacrifice children with the approval and help of
men in priestly robes, so today, we sacrifice children with the approval and help of
judges in black robes and doctors in white robes. The Bible says: "bloodshed follows
bloodshed... my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:2,6). When
God says that, he's not just talking to people in ancient times. He's talking to us. Lack of
knowledge, ignoring reality, lying to cover murder—that's why bloodshed follows
bloodshed in abortion clinics across this continent and around the world.
We've turned away from God; we've idolized the glory of sex and the power of
death, and we're right back with those ancient people, wallowing in the same immorality
and bloodshed. God is talking about our culture; he's talking about us, when he says in
the Bible, ""They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters" (Psalm
106:38). "They have committed adultery and blood is on their hands... they even
sacrificed my children" (Ezekiel 23:37). I know, I know. It's not polite to talk this way.
We're not supposed to use harsh words, and we're not supposed to drag religious
convictions into the abortion debate. But God isn't so polite. He sees the idolatry, the
adultery, the child sacrifice, and the cannibalism for what it is, and he declares his wrath
against the whole bloody mess.

Norma’s Story
But that's not the whole story. The Lord also offers an opportunity to change, and
he promises forgiveness to those who repent and trust him.
Norma McCorvey is the woman who was once identified as "Jane Roe" in the
U.S. Supreme Court's landmark abortion decision Roe v. Wade. Norma's legal action
was the occasion for making abortion a nationwide right, destroying millions of babies.
She was very proud of this and once told a reporter, "I live, eat, breathe, think
everything about abortion."
But one day, Norma McCorvey accepted a child's invitation to go to church.
There she broke down crying and kept saying, "I just want to undo all the evil I've done
in this world. I'm so sorry, God. I'm so sorry." Finally she stopped crying and started
smiling. "I no longer felt the pressure of my sin pushing down on my shoulders," she
said. "The release was so quick that I felt like I could almost float outside."
Norma came to understand what abortion really does. "It's as if the blinders just
fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth—'that's a baby.' Abortion ... was
about children being killed in their mother's wombs. All those years I was wrong." But
even though she was so wrong, she could still be forgiven through faith in Jesus' blood
poured out for sinners when he died on the cross. Norma McCorvey declared, "I'm one
hundred percent sold out to Jesus and one hundred percent pro-life. No exceptions. No
compromise." In 2005, she petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn its decision
approving abortion. Her petition was denied, but the fact remains that Norma McCorvey,
the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, now thinks the court was dead wrong, and she now
defends the unborn. In the summer of 2008, she declared, “I am dedicated to spreading

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the truth about preserving the dignity of all human life from natural conception to natural
death.”
Norma McCorvey is living proof that God’s grace is greater than any sin. If you've
sinned by committing abortion or by supporting policies that permit and promote
abortion, you can be forgiven. Jesus gave his blood to save people with blood on their
hands. But Jesus forgives only those who admit their guilt and ask for his forgiveness
and seek to be different. In the Bible the Lord says,
"Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil
deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! ... Come now, let us
reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be
white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah
1:15-18).
The truth about abortion is that it destroys a precious human individual. The truth about
abortion is that it can be forgiven through repentance and faith in Jesus. The truth about
abortion is that it must be opposed by Christians, and that the right to life should be
upheld in public life.

4
Life  Support  

David Feddes
 Why  go  on  living?  
Why is light given to those in misery,
and life to the bitter of soul, to those
who long for death that does not
come? (Job 3:20-21)
•  This question is almost as old as
the human race.
•  Modern medicine makes the
question even more pressing.
 Complications  of    
modern  medicine  
•  Fewer die young, meaning that more will
live to have cancer, stroke, or Alzheimer’s.
•  Feeding tubes, ventilators, dialysis, and
other procedures save lives (blessing).
•  Life support technology can also prolong
death, where people linger in a hospital
attached to equipment (curse).
•  Life support technology forces us to deal
with ethical puzzles that people without
modern medicine didn’t have to deal with.
Why  go  on  living?  
Why is light
given to those in
misery, and life
to the bitter of
soul, to those
who long for
death that does
not come?
(Job 3:20-21)
 Hard  decisions  
•  Earlier generations didn’t have to decide
about restoring heartbeat, ventilators,
intravenous antibiotics, tracheotomy, feeding
tubes, and other life support technology.
•  Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide:
not just withholding technology to delay
death, but using technology to cause death.
•  We will have to make decisions for family
members and for ourselves. If we’re pastors
or counselors, we will be asked for advice.
 Not  my  own  
•  For none of us lives to himself alone and
none of us dies to himself alone. If we live,
we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to
the Lord. So whether we live or die, we
belong to the Lord. (Romans 14:7-8).
•  What is your only comfort in life and in
death? That I am not my own, but belong--
body and soul, in life and in death--to my
faithful Savior Jesus Christ. (Heidelberg
Catechism Q&A 1)
 Trust  amid  trouble  
Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in
distress... My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning; my strength fails
because of my affliction, and my bones
grow weak... I am forgotten as though I
were dead… But I trust in you, O Lord; I say,
“You are my God.” My times are in your
hands. (Psalm 31)
 You  shall  not  murder:    
human  life  is  sacred  
•  Unborn babies, people with disabilities,
cancer sufferers, Alzheimers patients—all
bear God's image. God alone has authority to
end their lives.
•  There may be shades of grey in withholding
or withdrawing life support.
•  A doctor killing a patient, or a patient killing
himself, is not an ethical shade of grey. It’s
as clear as black and white: it’s murder.
 Better  off  dead  
than  disabled?  
•  We may ask: Is this treatment worth giving.
•  We must not ask: Is this life worth living.
•  Carry each other's burdens, and in this way
you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal 6:2).
Easier  to  live  
vs.  
 easier  to  die  
“Instead of making
it easier for people
with disabilities to
die, I would like our
society to make it
easier for them to
live.” (Joni
Eareckson Tada)
 Support  all  human  life  
•  Remove barriers for disabled people
•  Help disabled people reach their potential
•  Respect, love, and help aged and infirm
(home care or frequent visits to facility)
•  Provide care even when we can’t cure
(hospice, pain control, attention, love)
•  Learn from the disabled and the dying
•  Don’t question if lives are worth living;
instead, make lives worth living.
 Purpose  in  suffering  
•  Euthanasia advocate: "I have found that there
is no purpose in suffering. People who suffer
never become better people as a result of it…
The sufferings of Christ were meaningless.”
•  My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
•  Deeper faith, warmer love, stronger testimony
•  Ultimate focus is knowing God and eternity,
not just minimizing pain in this life
 Life  support  decisions  
•  God does not require us to use all life
support technology just because it’s there.
•  We may refuse treatment that is likely only
to prolong the dying process.
•  Advocates of euthanasia tend to equate
killing with refusing extreme measures. But
there’s a huge difference.
•  It is helpful to spell out advance directives.
•  It is wise to designate as a health care proxy
someone you trust with your life.
Facing Facts About AIDS
By David Feddes

Daniel has a wife and three young children. Daniel often travels far from home in
connection with his job and spends nights in different cities. Sometimes when he’s
away, Daniel goes to prostitutes or other available women. Then Daniel starts having
health problems. Something is wrong. He goes to a doctor. A blood test shows that
Daniel has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Daniel isn’t sure which woman gave him
HIV, and he has no idea how many other women he himself has infected.
Daniel doesn’t want anyone to know about his HIV problem—not his employer,
not his wife, not his children, not his friends, not anybody. It’s too shameful to tell
anyone. So he keeps going to bed with his wife, and he doesn’t change anything or
mention a condom. If he did that, his wife would become suspicious and wonder what’s
wrong.
Awhile later, Daniel’s wife, Rebekah, suspects something might be wrong with
her. She wonders whether she might have HIV. But she doesn’t want to get a blood
test. It would be embarrassing to ask for the test, and if she is infected, she doesn’t
want anyone else to find out. Meanwhile, her youngest child is still nursing, and
Rebekah doesn’t know if her baby could get HIV by breastfeeding. She has never heard
of the drug that helps protect breastfeeding babies from HIV, and she doesn’t dare to
give her child a nutritional substitute for breast milk. In her village, all infants are
breastfed by their mothers, so any mother who stopped nursing and used a milk
substitute might as well carry a sign saying “Something is wrong with me.” People would
avoid her for fear of getting what she’s got, and Rebekah can’t stand the thought of
being despised and isolated. So Rebekah doesn’t get tested, and she keeps nursing her
baby.
A few months later, she becomes pregnant with a new baby. Daniel and
Rebekah don’t talk about whether their unborn baby might turn out to have HIV, and
they don’t discuss it with anyone else. They don’t ask whether anything can be done to
make it less likely that the unborn baby will get HIV. Daniel and Rebekah just go on with
life as usual.
Not long after the baby is born, Daniel gets so sick that there’s no way to pretend
everything is fine. Other people find out about his illness. Even then, however, nobody
among his friends and relatives actually says much about AIDS. They just avoid Daniel.
He can’t afford the drugs that sometimes help HIV/AIDS victims to live longer.
Eventually, Daniel dies, leaving his wife and children without an income.
A few kind people try to help them out, but most people avoid them. Rebekah
and her children don’t have enough to eat. They get a little food that keeps them alive,
but they are undernourished and weakened. Then Rebekah’s HIV becomes full-blown
AIDS. Without proper nutrition or access to any drugs, she soon dies, leaving behind
four young orphans. The two youngest are HIV positive and are doomed to die in
childhood. One got the virus nursing at the mother’s breast; the other got it while still an
unborn baby inside her infected mother.

1
The Need For Truth
The story I’ve just told is a composite of things that are happening to many
different people. AIDS is a deadly killer that strikes down men and women, youth and
little children. In the battle against AIDS, one of the most important weapons is truth. We
must tell the truth. We must face facts about AIDS. The deadly power of AIDS would
vanish if everyone knew the truth, lived by the truth, and told each other the truth.
In the story you just heard, if Daniel had lived by God’s truth that sex is a
beautiful gift to be enjoyed only in marriage, he never would have caught the disease.
Even after he caught the disease, if he had simply told the truth to his wife, Rebekah,
and had changed their sex life to protect her, the rest of his family would have been
spared. After Rebekah caught the disease, if she had sought the truth about her
condition and had known the truth that HIV can sometimes be transmitted by
breastfeeding, if she had not kept nursing her baby to hide the truth about her illness
from others, she could have protected her nursing child by getting alternate nutrition.
If people in their village had known the truth that HIV/AIDS cannot spread simply
by being near someone, and if they had heeded God’s truth about loving the sick and
needy, the family would not have been shunned, and people would not be so tempted to
hide the truth about having AIDS. If Daniel and Rebekah had known and acted upon the
truth that 30% of babies born to women with HIV get the disease inside the womb, they
could have refrained from having more children.
After the damage is done, though, it’s not enough to be reminded of truths we
should have heeded. It’s not enough to talk about “if” or “should have.” We may need to
face painful truths about our own sins and mistakes, but above all, we need to know if
there’s any hope in the face of illness and death. As we face facts about AIDS, we’ll see
a number of important things, but the most important fact is that God gives his love and
life to people in even the most dreadful situations, if only they trust in Jesus. It’s possible
to face even something as horrible as AIDS with hope, not despair, when you turn to
Jesus.
The chief weapon in the fight against AIDS is the truth. When truth is lacking,
people die. When truth is made known, believed, and acted upon, people live.

Scary Statistics
One important fact about AIDS is that it is a vast and terrible epidemic. At first its
awful impact was concentrated on a particular minority of the population: homosexual
males. In the early 1980s, when doctors began noticing a strange new disease, they
called it GRID, Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, because most people with the disease
were homosexual men. Then it was found that drug users caught the disease by
sharing needles with each other. There were also a few people who got AIDS through
tainted blood transfusions in the time before blood was screened for HIV. But in the
early days of AIDS, people who weren’t homosexual men or drug users were fairly safe.
That has changed.
Homosexual men are still the highest risk group, but the infection rate among
heterosexuals is growing, and many women and children are becoming infected. The
three main ways to get AIDS are sexual activity, drug use, and parent to child
transmission. You don’t get AIDS if somebody sneezes nearby or if you drink from the
same glass, because the virus doesn’t live in saliva. You don’t get AIDS by touching or

2
shaking hands or kissing or using a toilet that was used by an infected person. You
don’t get AIDS if a mosquito bites an infected person and then bites you, because even
though blood carries the virus, HIV dies inside the mosquito. There are many things that
won’t give you AIDS at all, and we shouldn’t have needless fears. But some things are
known to transmit AIDS, and we must be alert to them. Unborn children and nursing
babies can get it from infected mothers. If you’re a youth or adult, you can get HIV/AIDS
by sharing a needle with an infected person or by sexual activity with an infected
person.
Dr. Richard van Houten compiled some scary statistics. As recently as 1995, only
8% of new infections in Canada were women. A more recent study found that 24% of
newly infected Canadians are women—a big change in a short time! (This doesn’t mean
24% of all Canadian women are infected; it means that of every four newly infected
people, roughly three are men and one is a woman.) It’s no longer safe for women to
assume that AIDS afflicts only gay men and not women. Despite the growing peril,
despite the fact that sex outside marriage is the most common means of transmitting
the virus, a majority of unmarried Canadian women say they have had sexual relations.
The AIDS plague is especially terrible in Africa. In 1990, South Africa had an
infection rate less than 1%; more recently the rate among pregnant women has been
estimated at 25%. Think of it—one out of every four pregnant women, infected with
AIDS. Mother to child transmission of HIV is estimated at about 30%, which would mean
that about one of every eleven babies being born in South Africa will die of AIDS in
childhood. Of the other 10 babies, two would lose their mothers to AIDS.
Other African countries are also gripped by the epidemic. In Zimbabwe 70% of
deaths among children under age 5 are due to AIDS. In Botswana, if infection rates
don’t decrease, almost 90% of all who are now 15 years old will die of AIDS before they
turn fifty. Life expectancy is below 40 years. Life expectancy is similarly low in
Mozambique, Malawi, and Swaziland. AIDS has not yet reached that level in Nigeria,
which has the largest population in Africa. But that is small comfort. The Nigerian
problem is bad and getting worse. In the year 2000, the infection rate surpassed 5%.
In Africa, the plague is spreading fastest among young people who are between
the ages of 15 to 24, and women catch the infection most easily. It’s estimated that of
young people 15-24 worldwide who have AIDS, 60% are women. Millions of people
worldwide are now infected, and millions more have already died. Each day, 1,800
babies are born infected with AIDS. Each month 42,000 children die of AIDS.
This is a terrible tragedy for individuals, families, and friends. It is also deadly for
countries and their social systems. When young people just entering the prime of life
are dying by the millions, the economic damage is severe. Just at the point when people
are trained and ready to become productive, they’re gone. In Zambia, the number of
school teachers dying of AIDS is equal to about half the number of all new teachers
being trained each year. AIDS can ravage education systems and economic systems
and make entire political systems less stable than ever. Some nations that once worried
about population growth are now worried about not having enough people to do the
work and pay the taxes. Meanwhile, political decisions related to AIDS can upset people
with different opinions and make the political system less stable.

3
Killer and Liar
All this horror is the work of a vicious murderer who doesn’t want us to know the
truth about AIDS. The disease itself can be called a murderer, but the chief murderer is
Satan, the prince of darkness and death. How does Satan multiply death? Through lies.
As Jesus put it, Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for
there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and
the father of lies” (John 8:44). Satan loves lies and delights in death. He lied to our first
parents, Adam and Eve, in order to bring death to the human race. And today he still
uses lies to spread death. This is certainly true of AIDS: it is a killer that is most deadly
when truth is unknown or ignored.
Satan’s lies are horrible, and he uses different lies on different people in different
places. He often uses the lie that having sex with anyone you wish is the way to
happiness. The truth is otherwise: people are far happier when they refrain from sex as
singles and are faithful to their spouse when they are married. God says that sex is for
marriage and marriage is for life. The Lord calls us to abstain from sex outside marriage
for our own good. Satan the liar comes along and says, “You’re not made in God’s
image. You’re nothing but an animal. And animals have urges. So follow your urges.
You can’t help it.” But the Bible says that God won’t let you be tempted beyond what
you can bear but will provide a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13). Who should we believe:
Satan the liar, or God who cannot lie? You can live as God commands if you ask God
for the strength to do so.
Many officials want to battle the AIDS epidemic by passing out condoms to
almost everybody and giving free needles to drug users. Such measures may help
reduce the risk of AIDS for people with sinful lifestyles, and I hope some lives are
spared. But I’m afraid the overall effect may be to spread Satan’s lie. The condom and
the needle proclaim, “You people are just animals. You can’t be expected to do anything
right, so don’t even try. Here’s a way to improve your chances of survival while doing
wrong.” God offers much more. He calls you to a higher, better way of life. God says
you can be different, and he gives you the power to change. Condoms may provide
some protection if they are used right and don’t break, but wouldn’t it be better to treat
sex as a lovely gift from God and to see ourselves and each other as image-bearers of
God?
Lies are Satan’s speciality. In some parts of the world, Satan spreads the lie that
not having sex can make you crazy because it is a natural drive that must be released.
The truth is that people who control their desires are some of the sanest, most sensible
people around.
In some places, people are fooled into thinking that if you don’t have sex before
marriage, it may stunt your ability to produce children later on. The truth is the exact
opposite: sex with various partners before marriage can give you diseases that make
you sterile and unable to have children.
An especially deadly lie in some areas is that if you have AIDS you can get rid of
it by having sex with a virgin. The truth is that doing such a wicked thing cures nobody.
It only infects another person and sentences her to die along with you.
Another lie of Satan is that drugs can cure your problems and make you feel
good. The truth is that drugs cause all sorts of problems and make you feel worse in the
long run—and if you share needles when doing drugs, you can get AIDS and die.

4
 Still another lie that Satan uses in certain cultures is that AIDS can infect you by
someone else’s witchcraft, which is totally false. When Satan wants to spread AIDS, he
doesn’t look for a witch doctor or a shaman or a mighty curse. He looks for ways to get
people to make choices that go against God’s design. AIDS is not spread by hexes but
through certain bodily fluids, mainly blood and semen.
Satan uses lies to infect people with AIDS, and once they get infected, he uses
lies to keep them from the truth. Many who are infected don’t even know it. In the United
States, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted a
major study of gay and bisexual men. Among the findings, it turned out that 77% of
infected men were not aware of their HIV status. They had not been tested recently—
some had never been tested—and they didn’t see themselves as high-risk. They did not
know the truth about their condition.
Other people, even after blood testing shows infection, simply won’t believe it.
They still feel healthy most of the time and can go about normal activities for years.
They take no measures to preserve their own health as much as possible, and they take
no precautions to protect others.
Others may face the fact that they are infected, and they may take all the right
medical steps and behave toward others in the most responsible way, but even then,
Satan’s arsenal of lies has another weapon of deception. If you get HIV/AIDS, Satan
may whisper, “You’re a stinking sinner, and that’s all you are. Now you’re getting what
you deserve. You’re beyond hope. God hates you. Other people will hate you if they find
out. You might as well hate yourself. There’s no way out of this. Death is coming.
There’s no way to avoid dying, and there is no hope for you after death. You’re doomed
to a future without love, without peace, without happiness.” The name Satan means
“accuser,” and accusations are some of his deadliest lies.
Not everything Satan says is a complete lie, of course. He has to use just enough
of the truth to make his lies convincing. It’s true that you and I are sinners, and it’s true
that sin deserves death. But it’s not true that you’re nothing but a sinner. You are also a
precious person created in God’s image. It’s true that each of us offends God by our sin,
but it’s not true that God hates you or that you can never be loved again. Jesus has
loved and transformed thieves, prostitutes, and killers, so why can’t he love you and
me? It’s true that AIDS is a horrible disease and that if you’re infected, there are tough
times ahead. But it’s not true that you have no possibility of a happy future. You can
have the brightest future imaginable if you trust in Jesus Christ and have eternal life
through him. Satan sprinkles his lies with a bit of truth here and there, but Jesus Christ
is the truth (John 14:6), and Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me, I will never drive
away” (John 6:37).

Healer and Friend

If you’re sick with sin and sick with AIDS, you’re exactly the kind of person Jesus
came to save. When Jesus was at a party, befriending sinners despised by others, he
said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). So if you’re guilty of sin and are terribly sick, don’t
despair. Instead, be glad that Jesus wants to be your friend and help you.
Jesus’ enemies labeled him “a friend … of sinners” (Luke 7:34). They meant it as
an insult, but for all of us who know ourselves to be sinners, it’s wonderful to know that

5
Jesus is the friend of sinners. For all who are sick, it’s good news to hear the truth that
Jesus came to heal the sick, not to hang around with people proud of their healthy
bodies and healthy souls. The ultimate truth about AIDS, then, is that this is the very
kind of thing that Jesus came to deal with. Jesus is the ultimate healer and friend.
The Bible says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s
work” (1 John 3:8). Sin is the devil’s work. Death is the devil’s work. AIDS is the devil’s
work. But Jesus appeared to destroy the devil’s work. The lies of Satan cannot defeat
the truth of Jesus. The sins prompted by Satan cannot surpass the grace of Jesus. The
fear and hatred that come from Satan cannot cancel the love of Jesus. The sickness
and death spread by Satan cannot stop the resurrection power of Jesus.
If the world chooses to face the AIDS plague without God and without Christ, the
problem will get worse. Those who are not children of God through faith in Jesus are
part of a realm run by Satan. As the Bible puts it, “The whole world is under the control
of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Worldly powers cannot free themselves from Satan’s grip
or refute his lies or defeat death. The world as a whole can’t shake itself loose from
Satan, and you and I as individuals can’t deal with Satan on our own. We cannot
outthink Satan or overpower him. But if we trust in the Lord and in his mighty power and
fight with his weapons, we shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free.
The truth is that Jesus suffered and poured out his blood on the cross in order to
pay for our guilt and set us free from our shame. He rose from the dead to give eternal
life and joy to dying people. So it would be in the spirit of antichrist to hammer AIDS
victims with guilt and shame without proclaiming the saving love of Jesus Christ. It
would also be the worst kind of folly for people with AIDS to reject Jesus love’ and to
enter eternity without him. It’s not just a question of health or sickness, life or death. It’s
a question of heaven or hell.
Whether or not we have AIDS, all of us will die of something at some point, and
then we must enter eternity. The God of love calls you to share eternity with him. But if
you don’t want the Lord Jesus in this life, you will not have him in the life to come. The
only alternative to eternal joy with Christ is unending hell without him. So I appeal to you
with my whole heart, and I tell you on the authority of the living God, turn away from sin,
and turn to Jesus. Accept his love. Trust his promises. Obey his commands. Ask him to
wash you clean by his blood and to give you fresh power by his Holy Spirit. Follow the
Lord on the path of life. Look forward to enjoying God’s friendship and pleasures in his
new creation. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

6
Friend of the Poor
By David Feddes

God is a friend of the poor. If you’re poor, you can't find a better friend than God;
but if you harm poor people or refuse to help them, you can't find a fiercer enemy than
God.
In the Bible, God befriended poor Israelite slaves and punished their rich
Egyptian oppressors. When "the Israelites groaned in their slavery, God heard their
groaning and was concerned about them" (Exodus 2:24-25). He sent ten terrible
plagues on their oppressors and drowned Egypt’s army in the Red Sea. He rescued the
Israelites from bondage and poverty, provided for their needs during their travels, and
gave them a land of their own. That great rescue, the Exodus, became the defining
event for Israel.
When the Israelites sang of God in their worship, they sang of him as a friend of
the poor. One such song, Psalm 146, says,
He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord
sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who
are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the
wicked (v. 7-9).
Any Israelite who knew the nation's history knew God was committed to be a friend of
the poor, to help the refugee, the hungry, the homeless, the imprisoned, the accused
with no defender, the woman with no husband, the child with no parents.

Taking It Personally
The Old Testament says that the Lord not only cares about the poor and helps
them, but he actually identifies with them. God takes personally how the poor are
treated. "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker," says the Bible,
"but whoever is kind to the needy honors the Lord." "He who is kind to the poor lends to
the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done" (Proverbs 14:31, 19:17).
God made this clear already in Old Testament times, and he made it even
clearer when he came to earth in the person of Jesus. Jesus was born into a poor
family. His first cradle was a manger. For several years, Jesus and his parents were
refugees in a strange land, fleeing from a murderous politician named Herod. Later,
they settled in Galilee, the least wealthy area of a poor country occupied by a foreign
army. As an adult, Jesus had no fixed address. As he put it, "the Son of Man has no
place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). Jesus lived on earth as one of the poor, and today he
still identifies with poor people. Jesus says that at the final judgment he will tell friends
of the poor,
“‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom
prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave
me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick
and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me… 'I tell you the
truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me"
(Matthew 25:34-40).

1
 That's how closely the Lord identifies with those in need. What we do for them,
we do for him. And if we neglect them, we neglect him. Jesus will banish to hell those
who ignore his needy brothers, saying, "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of
these, you did not do for me" (Matthew 25:45).

Faith in Action
God is a friend of the poor, and any friend of God will also be a friend of the poor.
This doesn't mean that being kind to the poor is the only thing that matters. It doesn't
mean that as long as we try to help people in need, we don't need forgiveness or faith.
The Bible constantly reminds us that we're saved by Jesus, not our own goodness.
We're saved by faith, not works. But faith isn't really faith if it doesn't produce good
works. The Bible says,
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?
Can such a faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and
daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well
fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same
way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:14-17).
If you have a living faith, if you know God is a friend of the poor and identifies
himself with them, if you know how much Jesus sacrificed for you to meet your
desperate needs, then you can't possibly turn your back on those in need. The Bible
says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2
Corinthians 8:9). Since Jesus did this for us, Christians with more than enough should
share with those who don't have enough (2 Cor. 8:13-14).

Giving Money
John Wesley, a Christian leader from an earlier time, had a simple, three-part
approach to money. First, get all you can. Second, save all you can. Third, give all you
can. In other words, make as much money as you honestly can. Then, instead of
spending it on all sorts of things, save as much as possible. And finally, once you've met
your own needs, give the rest away.
Wesley practiced what he preached. When he had an income of 30 pounds, he
spent 28 on himself and gave away two for missions and aid to the poor. When his
income rose to 60 pounds, what did he do? He spent 28 on himself and gave away
thirty-two. When his income was 120 pounds, he still lived on 28 and gave away ninety-
two. Get all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.
You and I will never be friends of the poor; we'll never give all we can, until we
tell ourselves "Enough!" That's not easy. It's more common to assume that if your
income goes up, so should your spending and your standard of living. As soon as you
can afford a nicer house than the one you're in, you should buy it. As soon as you can
afford a fancier car than the one you have, you ought to get it. As soon as you can
afford more expensive clothes than what you're wearing, you should improve your
wardrobe. But does every increase in income call for an upgrade of lifestyle? Why not
use the additional money to help someone else? That's why God gave you that extra
money! Get all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.

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Giving Yourself
If you're a friend of the poor, one way to help is with money. But don't just give
money. Give yourself. People often need a friend even more than they need cash.
Single mothers sometimes need an adult to talk with or a few hours of relief from child
care. A jobless person may need encouragement or advice. People struggling with
addictions need a friend they can call any time, any place when temptation is getting too
strong. People in prison need friends to visit or write them and encourage them to walk
with God. They need godly mentors to help them start over when they're released from
prison.
Being a friend of the poor sometimes involves money, but it also involves time
and effort and personal involvement. This personal dimension is so precious and so
important. In some cases, you'll be building friendships with brothers and sisters in need
who are already Christians. You will increase their joy, and they will increase your joy.
In other cases, needy people may not yet know Jesus, and by helping them, you
can show them Jesus’ love in action. You can tell them about Christ and his salvation
and invite them to your church. When you do that, you're sharing the greatest treasure
of all. Nothing is more valuable than being a child of God, a part of his family, and living
forever in his joy.

Faith-Based Compassion
When you share your faith and lead people into fellowship with Jesus, you are
giving them a chance to share in benefits that last forever, and you're also sharing a key
that opens up new possibilities right now. In the poor areas of our cities, the best single
predictor of whether families stay together and get above the poverty line is whether the
man of the house goes to church. For prison inmates, the best way to avoid crime and
stay out of prison after they are released is a living faith in Jesus. And for people with
addictions, a spiritual fellowship is crucial to staying sober. To help people with
problems, don’t just give them money or food. Give them time and love. Be their friend,
and introduce them to Jesus and to Christian fellowship.
This is crucial for helping people you know, and it's also an important principle to
keep in mind when you support various organizations. Today, there are many agencies
that reach needy people in areas you can't reach personally, and by giving money to
such agencies, you're able to help people you've never met. These organizations are
best when they are rooted in Christ.
In the hands of a church-sponsored mission, your gift has a greater probability of
actually helping the people it's intended to help. It's a sad fact that government efforts at
poverty relief and foreign aid often enrich cheaters or bureaucrats. Also, some secular
charities are headed by lavishly paid executives, and a large percentage of the
donations go to overhead costs and advertising, rather than to helping the needy.
Christian organizations are usually more careful with money, thanks to more spiritual
integrity and accountability. But an even more important reason for supporting Christian
organizations is the fact that the best thing we can share with the poor is the gospel of
Jesus Christ. In seeking to address physical needs, we shouldn't neglect spiritual
needs. Life in Christ is the gift that lasts forever.

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Getting at Root Causes
What’s more, sometimes the only way to deal with material poverty is to strike at
the roots of spiritual poverty. Faith in Christ gives people hope. Without hope, there is
no incentive or ambition, and without incentive or ambition, there is no escape from
poverty. When a bleak situation tempts people to give up, faith in Christ gives them
hope, and hope has enormous power.
The gospel attacks physical poverty by helping people to reject false beliefs that
keep them down. For example, if people believe in karma and reincarnation and the
caste system, they may simply resign themselves to poverty and oppression as
punishment for a previous life. The gospel shows inequality and injustice for what it is
and opens up new possibilities.
God loves justice, and God’s people seek justice. Justice means treating people
fairly, and it means taking a stand for those who lack the influence to be heard. The
Bible says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all
who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy"
(Proverbs 31:8-9). Wherever possible, we need to use our influence to change unjust
structures and oppressive policies. In seeking justice for the powerless, we do what we
can on behalf of the helpless unborn, the uninsured, the elderly, those with disabilities.
We work for safer streets, better schools, a fairer court system, and more job
opportunities in impoverished communities. Justice means helping immigrants and
refugees instead of despising them.
Still another way the gospel helps deal with poverty is that it calls people to take
responsibility for themselves. Some poverty is due to injustice or lack of opportunity, but
some poverty is due to sexual sin and decaying families, to drinking and drugs, to
laziness at work and school, or to buying on whims rather than having the self-control to
save for future needs. The Bible helps people face these problems and overcome them.
These are just some of the reasons we can't address poverty fully without telling
people about Jesus. The gospel Word and loving deeds belong together. This is all part
of walking with Jesus, the friend of the poor. The Bible says,
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions
and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be
in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in
truth (1 John 3:16-18).

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

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Angry Racists
By David Feddes

Racial hatred is a deadly force. There are white racists who look down on blacks
and people of other races. There are black racists who demonize whites and Jews and
Asians. Sitting in a Canadian barbershop, I've heard angry racists gripe about blankety-
blank immigrants from Pakistan and other places. Buying groceries in the United States,
I've heard a checkout clerk complain about the blankety-blank Hispanics who are taking
over "our" country—even as she admitted that her own parents were immigrants.
I wish we could say that racial conflict is dead. But it's not. Where race relations
have improved, we should be glad. But where conflict continues among different races,
tribes, and nationalities, and where racism remains in our own hearts, we must face the
problem squarely. As we do this, we must also see the deeper root of the problem.
When we're at odds with other people because they're not like us, we're also at odds
with God.
How can we have true and lasting harmony among different kinds of people? By
getting in tune with the God who speaks in the Bible. In the Bible we meet God the
Father who created humanity in his own image (Genesis 1:27). "From one man he
made every nation of men" (Acts 17:26). In the Bible we meet God the Son, Jesus
Christ, who poured out his blood and "purchased men for God from every tribe and
language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9). Christ's cross destroys barriers and
melts hostility among different races (Ephesians 2;14-16). In the Bible we meet God the
Holy Spirit who "does not show favoritism" but makes himself at home in the hearts of
people of any race who believe the message of Christ (Acts 10:34,44). The Holy Spirit
makes us part of one body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:13). In the Bible we find that
when we trust Christ Jesus and are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, we "are all sons of God," "all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26,28). As
members of God's family, whatever our racial or national roots, we must "keep on loving
each other as brothers" (Hebrews 13:1), eager not to hurt others but to "serve one
another in love" (Galatians 5:13).
Serving each other and loving people of all races doesn't come naturally; it must
come supernaturally.

Too Much to Swallow?

The Bible changes us by introducing us to a God we hardly know and giving us a
whole new way of seeing things. The Bible is no ordinary, everyday book. It doesn't fit
comfortably into our natural thought patterns. The Bible says things that may be hard for
us to believe. Some things in the Bible are hard to believe because they are so
astonishing and out of the ordinary. Other things, though, are hard to believe simply
because they upset us.
Take the Bible story of Jonah, for example. Scripture says God rescued Jonah
from drowning by sending a great fish to swallow him. Jonah lived for three days and
three nights inside the fish. Then the fish vomited Jonah out onto dry land, alive and
uninjured. Now, that's not the sort of thing that happens every day, so some people
think it can't be a true story. It's too miraculous and supernatural for them to believe.

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 But the story of the great fish isn't the only part of Jonah that some people reject.
The story goes on to tell how God made Jonah go to Nineveh, the capital city of
Assyria, his nation's most hated enemy. There, Jonah had to warn the people of
Nineveh about God's judgment. The Ninevites repented and begged God for mercy, and
much to Jonah's dismay, the Lord "had compassion and did not bring upon them the
destruction he had threatened" (Jonah 3:19). Jonah was furious. He snarled, "I am
angry enough to die" (Jonah 4:9). This angry racist wanted God to favor him and his
people. He was outraged that God would be kind to these rotten foreigners who had a
long history of making life miserable for Jonah's countrymen. But God cared about
Nineveh. He asked Jonah, "Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (Jonah
4:11). The Bible story of Jonah ends at that point and leaves all of us to ponder God's
question: "Should I not be concerned?"
God cares about groups of people we don't like. He cares about them just as
much as he cares about us and our group. It may be harder for us to swallow that fact
than it was for the fish to swallow Jonah! After all, if God cares about people we hate,
then if we belong to God, we are to stop hating and start caring about them too. And
that may seem too much to expect. It would be easier just to hang on to our anger and
prejudice.
But no matter what part of the Bible story of Jonah we want to reject, every word
of it is true. The part about the fish that swallowed Jonah is true, and so is the part
about the God who had mercy on the people Jonah hated. If we find it hard to accept a
particular part of the story, the problem is with us, not with the Bible. It was no problem
for the God who creates men and fish to keep Jonah safe in a great fish's belly; the only
problem is if our minds are too small to grasp God's power. Likewise, it's no problem for
the loving God who created all people to care about other groups of people as much as
he cares about our group; the only problem is if our hearts are too small to love people
whom God loves. When we listen to the Bible and believe what it says, God expands
our minds to recognize his power and expands our hearts to embrace his great love.
Jonah was an angry racist. He wasn't just angry at the foreigners he hated; he
was angry at God himself for loving those foreigners. But whether Jonah liked it or not,
and whether we like it or not, the Lord insists on caring about people of every kind. He
cares equally about Serbs, Albanians, and Croats. He cares equally about Arabs and
Jews. He cares equally about black and white, about Hutu and Tutsi. God doesn't side
with one tribe or race or country against another. With God's help, Jonah finally
accepted that fact and wrote it down so we could learn it too. God cares about groups
we don't like just as much as he cares about us. The more you read the Bible, the
clearer this becomes.

Foreigners Included
Moses, the great leader of Israel, married a woman from Africa. Moses' sister
Miriam and his brother Aaron, prominent people in their own right, were upset about
Moses marrying a foreigner, and they spoke against him (Numbers 12:1). But God got
angry at Aaron and Miriam until they prayed for forgiveness.
In the book of Jeremiah the Bible speaks of a man named Ebed-Melech. The
Bible calls him a Cushite, which means he was an African from what we today call

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Ethiopia. This man worked for the weak, corrupt king who reigned in Jerusalem. Ebed-
Melech was one of the few honest, godly people in the palace. When the prophet
Jeremiah was dumped into a muddy pit and left to starve, this brave African spoke out
and rescued God's prophet (Jeremiah 38:1-13). The Lord promised this faithful
foreigner, "I will save you ... because you trust in me" (Jeremiah 39:18).
Ebed-Melech's story gave me firsthand a taste of how much some racists hate
people of African descent. Awhile back, I wrote in a Today devotional booklet for the
Back to God Hour about Ebed-Melech, and someone sent me a nasty anonymous
letter. The angry racist who wrote it promised never again to read anything I write and
condemned me for saying that the heroic Ebed-Melech had African roots. But I was just
saying what the Bible itself says.
Long before Jesus came to earth, the Old Testament prophesied about him and
announced that the coming Savior would save people of every race and nation. God
told Abraham that through his offspring (Christ) all nations of the earth would be blessed
(Genesis 18:18). Through the prophet Isaiah, God declared that it wouldn't be enough
for the Messiah to bless only the people of Israel. "I will also make you a light for the
Gentiles," promised God, "that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth"
(Isaiah 49:6). Therefore, God went on, "Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the
Lord say, 'The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.'... For my house will be
called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:3,7). God clearly welcomes and
includes people of every race and nation.
With the coming of Jesus, God's inclusiveness became clearer than ever. At the
same time, angry racists became fiercer than ever. Many of Jesus' countrymen thought
they alone mattered to God, and it made them furious to be told otherwise. One
Sabbath Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth. When he read Scripture and began
to preach, people were amazed and liked what they were hearing. But then Jesus
touched a sore spot. He said that a prophet is usually honored more away from home
than by his own people. He also pointed out that in Old Testament times God's prophets
sometimes did miracles for foreigners that they didn't do for their own countrymen.
Back in the prophet Elijah's time, there was a famine, but although there were
many widows in Israel, said Jesus, God didn't send Elijah to help them. Instead, he sent
Elijah to a widow in the region of Sidon and provided that foreigner with a miraculous
supply of food. Likewise, in the time of Elijah's successor, Elisha, many people in Israel
suffered from leprosy, and yet, said Jesus, the only leper Elisha miraculously healed
was a foreigner, Naaman the Syrian.
Jesus was driving home the point that race and nation don't count for much in
God's eyes. You can be born in the "wrong" place and seem like the last person God
should care about, and yet the Lord may single you out for special blessings. By the
same token, you can be from the same ethnic group as Jesus himself—you can even
be from the same town—and still be out of tune with him.
That was not what Jesus' hometown folks wanted to hear. A few minutes earlier,
they had been thrilled with their talented hometown boy, but when he mentioned God's
kindness to foreigners, they became furious. They stopped listening to his preaching,
jumped up from their seats, and formed a lynch mob. They drove Jesus out of town and
wanted to throw him down a cliff. But Jesus somehow walked right through the jostling

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crowd of angry racists and left (see Luke 4:16-30). That incident is proof that angry
racists don't just hate foreigners; they hate the Lord himself for choosing to be kind to
foreigners.
Later, after Jesus' death and resurrection and return to heaven, the apostles who
spread his message also met resistance from angry racists. The apostle Paul was
Jewish, just as Jesus was Jewish. Paul worked hard at calling non-Jewish people to
trust Jesus as their Savior. Many of them believed the gospel and rejoiced. Others,
though, were extremely anti-Jewish. They wouldn't believe a Jewish preacher telling
them about a Jewish Savior. In one city, some of Paul's enemies whipped up anti-
Jewish anger and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar
by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accepts or practice" (Acts 16:21). City
officials joined in the attack, viciously beating Paul and throwing him into prison.
Paul was attacked by non-Jews who despised his Jewishness, and Paul also met
opposition from certain Jews who hated him for bringing the gospel to non-Jews and
befriending them. Once, Paul was speaking to some fellow Jews in Jerusalem. Paul
explained how he had once been a killer of Christians and how Jesus had appeared to
him and transformed his life. As he spoke, the crowd listened quietly. But when Paul
went on to explain how Jesus told him to go far away and bring Gentiles into the church,
the crowd exploded in rage. They threw dust in the air and shouted, "Rid the earth of
him! He's not fit to live!" (Acts 22:21-23)
Racism is an equal opportunity sin. It may sound odd to put it that way, but
people of every race have a sinful tendency to put their own group above other groups.
The Bible shows case after case of this ugly tendency, and Scripture also shows that
this is utterly at odds with God's own attitude.
Sadly, even people who claim to believe the Bible can sometimes ignore what it
says. At various points in history, and even today, some members of Christian churches
have been dreadful racists. They have turned a deaf ear to the Bible's insistence that
"God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do
what is right" (Acts 10:34-35). When their racism is challenged, they, like Jonah, may be
"angry enough to die," or, like the people in Jesus' hometown, they may be angry
enough to kill. But no matter how angry the racists become, God doesn't change, and
the Bible doesn't change. However, if we listen to God speak in the Bible, we can
change.

Multiracial Multitude
What about you? What's your attitude toward people who aren't like you? How do
you feel about people of a different country or culture or skin color? If you hate them or
look down on them or simply don't care what happens to them, then you are included in
the ranks of those who are angry at God and attack Jesus and his messengers.
Remember, it's not just other people you're against. You're fighting God himself. And if
you go up against the Almighty, you're bound to lose.
Why try to resist God? Why not repent? God will forgive your racism and help
you to change if you ask him. Why not be reconciled to God and to God's multiracial
family? Trust the Father who made you and every other person in his image. The more
you value their dignity, the greater your own dignity becomes. Believe in the blood of

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Jesus which can wash away all your sins and which also washes away the sins of
people from every tribe and language. The more you treasure what his blood does for
them, the more you will treasure what that blood does for you. Welcome the Holy Spirit
to live in your heart, the same Holy Spirit who lives in the hearts of Christians from every
racial background. Build your life on the truth of the Bible, the Book which shows God in
all his goodness and angry racists in all their foolishness. Believe this Book, and it will
transform your mind and make you part of Christ's healing peace.
I guarantee you, it's a lot more fun than the sour spirit of an angry racist. I'm not
always as sensitive as I should be to cultural differences, and I still have a long way to
go in fully appreciating people whose background and personality may be very different
from mine, but I can honestly say that I've been enormously enriched by friends who are
from different cultures but share the same belief in the Bible and the same love for
Jesus. In my student days, my roommates included a Korean citizen and a Chinese
American. One of the best summers of my life was spent with Jewish Christians in
Israel. At Back to God Hour Ministries, I worked with a board and staff which included
brothers and sisters in Christ who were Native American Navajo, African American,
French-speaking African, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Hispanic, Russian, Arab,
Brazilian, and more. As a professor at Christian Leaders Institute, I interact with
Christians from various nations around the world. This many-colored mosaic is a
glimpse of heaven.
In order to enjoy heaven, you must enjoy mingling with a multiracial multitude. If
you want a place that includes only you and your own kind, you may find such a spot in
hell, but there's no place like that in heaven. The Bible pictures heaven as "a great
multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne" (Revelation 5:9). As one hymn of heaven says:
Here from all nations, all tongues, and all peoples,
Countless the crowd but their voices are one.
Vast is the sight and majestic their singing:
"God has the v`ictory: he reigns from the throne!"

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

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Overcoming Tribalism
By David Feddes

Of all the problems that threaten humanity, tribalism is one of the worst. Tribalism
is caring only about your own tribe and nobody else. Tribalism is fear of anyone outside
your own tribe or group, hatred for people of a different background, contempt for
anyone who seems foreign to us. Tribalism is an allergic reaction to anyone different.
Tribalism is seeing people of another race or group as enemies. Tribalism can be
deadly, and it is contagious. It sweeps through groups and tribes and infects entire
nations with hatred.
The results are dreadful. When you're tribalistic, you stop thinking straight: you
judge people by the color of their skin or the name of their tribe or the place of their
birth, rather than looking at who they really are. You become paranoid and irrational.
Whenever anything goes wrong, you blame it on those strange people you don't like,
and you think they're hatching some kind of secret plot. Tribalism muddies the mind and
strangles the soul.
Tribalism has an awful effect on the hater, and beyond that, of course, there's the
damage to those who are hated. Just look at the twentieth century: the Turkish
slaughter of the Armenians early in the century, the Nazi destruction of six million Jews
in the middle of the century, the tribal massacres in Rwanda and Bosnia near the end of
the twentieth century. As the twenty-first century began, many thousands in the Darfur
region of the Sudan have been murdered because of ethnic and religious conflict. Tribal
tensions have brought danger and death to Nigeria and other nations. Those are just a
few examples of how murderous tribalism can be.
How can we overcome tribalism? How can we defeat racism and suspicion and
ethnic strife? That's one of the most pressing questions in the world today. In Western
Europe, there's hostility to immigrants and guest workers. In Eastern Europe and the
Balkans, old hatreds exploded with renewed cruelty after the collapse of communism.
Canada has ongoing tensions among French speakers and English speakers and
aboriginal peoples—differences that various politicians have tried and failed to resolve.
And in the United States, racial tension is not yet a thing of the past. It enters into hiring
practices, bank loans, home purchases, and law enforcement. Accusations fly back and
forth of racism and reverse racism. Even university campuses, which are supposed to
be bastions of understanding and tolerance, are afflicted by racial incidents. So tribalism
is a problem we can't afford to ignore. But what can be done about it?

Trying Segregation and Integration

Segregation doesn't work. There have been those who thought the best way to
prevent conflict was to keep different groups apart and prevent the different factions
from mingling. But segregation doesn't prevent conflict; it promotes it. In the United
States "separate but equal" turned out not to be very equal. In South Africa, apartheid
drew boundary lines that turned out to be battle lines. Too often, segregation defines
justice as "just us." It doesn't remove tribalism; it makes it official policy.
Segregation doesn't work, so what about integration? Maybe if different peoples
are mixed together and live side by side for a while, they'll learn to appreciate each
other. Well, Serbs and Bosnians were forced to live side by side for more than forty

1
years under communist rule, but the hatred remained. Integration is not enough. Hutus
and Tutsis lived side by side in Rwanda, but mistrust and hatred only grew stronger.
Integration is not enough. In Nigeria and in other African countries, people from many
different tribes were brought together under a national government, and persons from
different tribes flocked to huge cities and mingled there, but blending can sometimes
lead to conflict. Integration is not enough. In the United States, after decades of civil
rights legislation, forced busing, and greater integration, racial hostility is still a problem.
Integration is not enough.
Just because people go to the same schools, ride the same buses, live in the
same neighborhoods, shop in the same malls, or work in the same factories, doesn't
mean they'll become friends. Political and social integration is not enough. It's naive to
assume that the more people have to do with each other, the more they'll like each
other. Just as often, the more they're together, the more they hate each other.
Integration doesn't cure tribalism. That's not to deny the importance of civil rights
and equal opportunity. But those things aren't enough. They can take us only so far.
Replacing an old policy with a new policy still won't replace hatred with love. The
deepest problem isn't legal or social; it's spiritual. We need more than new laws; we
need new hearts.

Breaking Down Barriers

We need the gospel of Jesus. The gospel declares that Jesus saves people from
every tribe and language and people and nation and makes us one in him. Jesus
breaks down barriers of hostility. Jesus reconciles us to God, and he reconciles us to
each other. Jesus unites people who are utterly different.
At the time the New Testament books of the Bible were written, tribalism was as
much a problem as it is today. The Roman Empire brought many different nationalities
under one political system. The empire covered a vast, multi-ethnic area, and brought
many different peoples into contact with each other. But political integration didn't bring
unity or understanding.
There was a sharp division between Romans and non-Romans. Romans gloried
in their status as the world's only superpower. Rome gave her own citizens rights that
nobody else had. They had little regard for the people whose territory they occupied,
and the occupied peoples hated them right back.
And then there were the Greeks. They saw just two kinds of people in the world:
Greeks and barbarians. The Greeks had a legacy of brilliant philosophy and art and
culture, and they knew it. The Greeks had culture; everybody else was barbarian. In
their eyes, it was that simple.
There were many other ethnic divisions as well, but perhaps the most serious,
from the Bible's perspective, was the division between Jews and non-Jews, also called
Gentiles. Many Gentiles were anti-Jewish. The emperor Claudius once expelled all
Jews who were living in Rome. Gentiles were anti-Jewish, and many Jews despised
Gentiles and commonly spoke of them as "dogs." They refused to eat with Gentiles or
stay in their homes.
Amid all this division and hatred, the gospel of Jesus Christ burst forth and
exploded the barriers. The apostle Peter was a Jew living under Roman occupation, but
God led Peter to present the gospel to Cornelius, an officer in the Roman army. Peter

2
baptized this Gentile "dog" and his entire family into the church, and he even stayed at
Cornelius' house a few days (Acts 10). Earlier, the Jewish evangelist Phillip led a black
government official from Ethiopia to become a fellow believer in Christ (Acts 8:26-40).
And then there was Paul, a Jew who prided himself on his Jewishness and had
little use for non-Jews. After Paul became a Christian, Jesus sent him to tell the gospel
to Gentiles. Paul brought Christ to the Greek businesswoman Lydia. Paul preached to a
gathering of Greek intellectuals. Paul preached to Roman government officials. Paul
planted multi-ethnic churches throughout Asia and Europe.
Over and over, the gospel brought the most unlikely people together. Ethnic
barriers fell: Jews and Greeks and Romans and Asians and Africans were baptized into
the same faith. Social barriers fell: slaves and merchants and government officials and
fishermen worshipped together in the same churches. As the apostle Paul put it, "Here
there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or
free, but Christ is all, and is in all" (Colossians 3:11). People of different backgrounds
followed the same Lord Jesus, and they sought to live by Jesus’ words: “By this all men
will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35)
How can the gospel take people who seemed to have nothing in common but
fear, hatred, and disgust for each other, and make them one? The Bible tells us in
Ephesians 2. The chapter has two main sections. The first half of Ephesians 2 shows
how Jesus removes the barrier between God and us, and the second half shows how
Jesus removes the barrier that separates people of different tribes or nations. Notice the
order here: First reconciliation with God, then reconciliation among people.

Reconciled to God
Let's look first at our relationship to God. The Bible shows that whatever our
racial and tribal differences might be, we've all got the same basic problem, and we all
need the exact same solution. Paul begins Ephesians 2 by telling his readers, "As for
you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins." Paul says they were controlled by
the power of Satan. And he applies that not just to his readers but to himself. "All of us,”
says Paul, “also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful
nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects
of wrath." It's a grim picture: dead in sin, dominated by Satan, slaves of selfishness,
objects of God's wrath—all of us!
But [says the Bible] because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by
grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us
with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages
he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to
us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and
this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can
boast.
It's only God's grace, his undeserved kindness, that saves us. Apart from Jesus’ death
and resurrection, we're goners, all of us. We've all got the same basic problem, and we
all need the same salvation. No one is in a position to look down on anyone else. The
ground is level at the foot of the cross. It's Jesus' blood that makes us right with God,
not our ancestry, our tribe, our culture, or anything else about us. In Christ there is no

3
black or white, no Arab or Jew, no Asian or Latino, no Yoruba or Ibo, no Hausa or Tiv,
no immigrant or native, rich or poor, but only sinners saved by God's grace and made
one in Christ Jesus.
"By grace you have been saved, through faith"—is that true of you? Jesus Christ
is the only one who can remove the barrier between you and God. He died and rose
again to do that. He's the only one who can take away your sin. He's the only one who
can give you the incomparable riches of eternal life. If you haven't already put your faith
in Christ, you need to do so. No matter who you are, no matter where you were born, no
matter your race or nationality, you're no different from anyone else. You need Jesus.
You need to admit that without him, you're dead in sin, you're under Satan's power,
you're full of selfish desires, and you deserve God's wrath. Then you need to believe
that salvation is a free gift of God's grace in Jesus Christ. You need to accept that gift
for yourself personally, trusting that what Christ did, he did for you. At that point, you
become a new creation in Christ. You start doing good works which God has been
preparing in advance for you to do (v. 10). Have you put your faith in Jesus? According
to Ephesians 2, that's the only way you or I can be reconciled to God.

Reconciled to Each Other

Once Christ reconciles us to God, he reconciles us to each other. He brings
people from very different backgrounds together and makes them one in him. The
second half of Ephesians 2 shows how Christ breaks down barriers, in particular the
barrier between Jew and Gentile.
We talked earlier about Romans, Greeks, barbarians, and so forth, and how they
despised each other. These divisions were based on pride and fear and bigotry. But the
barrier between Jew and Gentile was different. Certainly, there was needless prejudice,
but it wasn't just a matter of human prejudice. It was also God's choice. The Lord had
called Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and their descendants as a special people for
himself. It was God who distinguished the Hebrews, the Jews, from all others through
the ritual of circumcision and through the laws he gave to Moses. It was God who sent
his prophets only to the Israelites. And so, in a sense, the Jews were correct when they
thought of themselves as a people set apart by God.
But according to Ephesians 2, all that has changed. The barrier between Jew
and Gentile has been demolished in Christ. You see, God didn't choose the Jews just
for their own sake, but so that all the nations of the earth might be blessed through
them. God didn't give the law of Moses and the various prophecies only to favor the
Jews, but as the first step toward his ultimate purpose, which was yet to come, of
blessing all nations with the light of his grace and truth.
God's choice of the Jewish people reached its fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah.
The sign of circumcision was no longer important. The sacrifices and rituals of the law of
Moses were no longer necessary. These ceremonies and signs were fulfilled in the
ultimate sacrifice on the cross. The revelation of God's ways was no longer confined to
Jewish people; Jesus commanded his disciples to preach the gospel to all nations.
Everything that had previously kept Gentiles from being part of God's special
people was wiped out at the cross, and people of every nation who trusted Christ were
to be welcomed and given the exact same status, whether Jew or Gentile—whether
Greek or Roman or African or Asian or Native American, or whatever. It no longer made

4
any difference; the only thing that mattered was Christ. Ephesians 2:14 says, "For he
himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the
dividing wall of hostility." The gospel announced peace with God to everyone on the
same terms: faith in the crucified and risen Christ. And in placing everyone on the same
ground before God, it placed them on the same ground with each other.

No Longer Foreigners
At the end of Ephesians 2, in verses 19-22, God shows us the privileges we can
have through faith in Christ and the unity we have with fellow Christians of every
language and race and nation. We’re no longer strangers or foreigners to each other.
God shows us this in three word pictures: we're citizens of his kingdom, we're members
of his family, and we're building blocks in his temple. Here's what the Bible says:
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with
God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him
the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the
Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which
God lives by his Spirit.
Think of it! In Christ there are no foreigners, only fellow citizens of God's kingdom. In
Christ there are no strangers, only brothers and sisters in the family of God. In Christ
our ethnic differences aren't ugly barriers; they're the beautiful variety of materials which
God uses to build a splendid temple for himself.
We're fellow citizens with all God's people. We're not foreigners; we're not illegal
aliens; we're not on a temporary visa; we're citizens. We belong. Christ is our ruler and
the Bible is our constitution. There are no second class citizens. If you've been a
Christian for two months, you're just as much a citizen as the one who's been a
Christian for sixty years. If you're of a different nationality than most of the people in
your church, you're still just as much a citizen as they are.
In God's kingdom, no one has any more or any less rights than anyone else. All
of us have the right to the freedom Christ purchased for us. All of us have the right to
appeal directly to our Lord in prayer. All of us have the right to be affirmed as full
citizens of the Kingdom. The Bible says, "God does not show favoritism but accepts
men from every nation who fear him and do what is right" (Acts 10:34-35). Racism and
tribalism have no place in the church of Christ. We're fellow citizens.
And that's not all. We're not only citizens of the same kingdom, but we're
members of the same family; we're brothers and sisters in God's household. The church
of Christ is a place where the same ruler gives us the same rights, but it's also a place
where the same Father embraces us with the same love. He has adopted people from
every tribe and language and people and nation into his family.
If you're a parent with little children, maybe you've been asked, "Who do you love
the most, me or my sister?" What do you say? "I love all of you the same." The children
are all different—this variety is the spice of family life—but all are special to you. One is
not loved more or less than the next. That's how it is in God's family. Sometimes, we'd
like to think that God has favorites—and we're it. "Who do you love more, Lord, me or
my sister? Me or my brother? My nation or a different nation? My tribe or that other
tribe?" But in God's household, all are loved with an everlasting love. The Lord loves

5
each of us enough to die for us. He loves each of us enough to share the family fortune
with us. He gives to all his children everlasting life and incomparable riches.
What's more, the Lord even gives us the right to reign with him. In God's
household, you're the daughter of a King, and that makes you a princess. You're the
son of a King, and that makes you a prince. The Bible says that we will judge the world;
we will even judge the angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). We will reign with Christ forever and
ever (Revelation 22:5).
That's all part of belonging to God's household, and that means we need to affirm
and respect and love each other. I need to treat every Christian I meet as a brother or
sister, as a fellow prince or princess. I can't pretend that God loves one more than
another. We're brothers and sisters in Christ, loved by the same Father, destined for the
same great inheritance, members of the same household.
And finally, according to Ephesians 2, we're all part of the same magnificent
building project. God uses many different building materials, with many colors shapes
and sizes, to build a temple for himself. He takes the cultural differences that once
caused separation and makes them a cause for celebration. He turns barriers into
building blocks.
So instead of trying to force all cultures to become like our own, we can celebrate
the splendid variety of people that God builds into his temple. We rejoice in unity, not
uniformity. We're not all the same; we're different. But we have the same foundation, the
gospel message of the prophets and apostles recorded in the Bible, and we're all held
together by the same cornerstone, our Lord Jesus Christ. With all our variety, we "are
being built together to become a dwelling place in which God lives by his Spirit."
Citizens of the same kingdom, members of the same family, parts of the same
temple—Christ brings unity in our diversity. Trust in Jesus! He is the cure for the
tribalism that sickens our souls and divides our world. Jesus is life and joy for all who
are excluded and despised. Jesus has broken down the barriers between God and us.
Jesus has broken down the barriers between different groups of people. Live in his love!

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

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 E P I S O D E 5

T h e

REVOLUTIONARY AGE
I. Bible as Absolute Base for Law
A. Paul Robert’s mural in Lausanne.
B. Rutherford’s Lex Rex (Law Is King): Freedom without chaos; government by law rather than arbitrary
government by men.
C. Impact of biblical political principles in America.
1. Rutherford’s influence on U.S. Constitution: directly through Witherspoon; indirectly through
Locke’s secularized version of biblical politics.
2. Locke’s ideas inconsistent when divorced from Christianity.
3. One can be personally non-Christian, yet benefit from Christian foundations: e.g. Jefferson
and other founders.

II. The Reformation and Checks and Balances

A. Humanist and Reformation views of politics contrasted.
B. Sin is reason for checks and balances in Reformed view: Calvin’s position at Geneva examined.
C. Checks and balances in Protestant lands prevented bloody resolution of tensions.
D. Elsewhere, without this biblically rooted principle, tensions had to be resolved violently.

III. Contrast Between English and French Political Experience

A. Voltaire’s admiration of English conditions.
B. Peaceful nature of the Bloodless Revolution of 1688 in England related to Reformation base.
C. Attempt to achieve political change in France on English lines, but on Enlightenment base,
produced a bloodbath and a dictatorship.
1. Constructive change impossible on finite human base.
2. Declaration of Rights of Man, the rush to extremes, and the Goddess of Reason.
3. Anarchy or repression: massacres, Robespierre, the Terror.
4. Idea of perfectibility of Man maintained even during the Terror.

— P A G E 16 —
IV. Anglo-American Experience Versus Franco-Russian
A. Reformation experience of freedom without chaos contrasts with that of Marxist-Leninist Russia.
B. Logic of Marxist-Leninism.
1. Marxism not a source of freedom.
2. 1917 Revolution taken over, not begun, by Bolsheviks.
3. Logic of communism: elite dictatorship, suppression of freedoms, coercion of allies.

V. Reformation Christianity and Humanism: Fruits Compared

A. Reformation gave absolutes to counter injustices; where Christians failed they were untrue to their
principles.
B. Humanism has no absolute way of determining values consistently.
C. Differences practical, not just theoretical: Christian absolutes give limited government; denial of
absolutes gives arbitrary rule.

VI. Weaknesses Which Developed Later in Reformation Countries

A. Slavery and race prejudice.
1. Failure to live up to biblical belief produces cruelty.
2. Hypocritical exploitation of other races.
3. Church’s failure to speak out sufficiently against this hypocrisy.
B. Noncompassionate use of accumulated wealth.
1. Industrialism not evil in itself, but only through greed and lack of compassion.
2. Labor exploitation and gap in living standards.
3. Church’s failure to testify enough against abuses.
C. Positive face of Reformation Christianity toward social evil.
1. Christianity not the only influence on consensus.
a) Church’s silence betrayed; did not reflect what it said it believed.
b) Non-Christian influences also important at that time; and many so-called Christians
were “social” Christians only.
2. Contributions of Christians to social reform.
a) Varied efforts in slave trade, prisons, factories.
(1) Wesley, Newton, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and abolition of slavery.
(2) Howard, Elizabeth Fry, and prison reforms.
(3) Lord Shaftesbury and reform in the factories.
b) Impact of Whitefield-Wesley revivals on society.

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VII. Reformation Did Not Bring Perfection
But gradually on basis of biblical teaching there was a unique improvement.
A. With Bible the ordinary citizen could say that majority was wrong.
B. Tremendous freedom without chaos because Bible gives a base for law.

Questions
1. What has been the role of biblical principles in the legal and political history of the countries
studied?
2. Is it true that lands influenced by the Reformation escaped political violence because biblical
concepts were acted upon?
3. What are the core distinctions, in terms of ideology and results, between English and American
Revolutions on the one hand, and the French and Russian on the other hand?
4. What were the weaknesses which developed at a later date in countries which had a Reformation
history?
5. Dr. Schaeffer believes that basic to action is an idea, and that the history of the West in the last
two or three centuries has been marked by a humanism pressed to its tragic conclusions and by
a Christianity insufficiently applied to the totality of life. How should Christians then approach
participation in social and political affairs?

Key Events and Persons

Calvin: 1509-1564
Samuel Rutherford: 1600-1661
Rutherford’s Lex Rex: 1644
John Locke: 1631-1704
John Wesley: 1703-1791
Voltaire: 1694-1778
Letters on the English Nation: 1733
George Whitefield: 1714-1770
John Witherspoon: 1723-1794
John Newton: 1725-1807
John Howard: 1726-1790
Jefferson: 1743-1826
Robespierre: 1758-1794
Wilberforce: 1759-1833
Clarkson: 1760-1846
Napoleon: 1769-1821
— P A G E 18 —
Elizabeth Fry: 1780-1845
Declaration of Rights of Man: 1789
National Constituent Assembly: 1789-1791
Second French Revolution and Revolutionary Calendar: 1792
The Reign of Terror: 1792-1794
Lord Shaftesbury: 1801-1855
English slave trade ended: 1807
Slavery ended in Great Britain and Empire: 1833
Karl Marx: 1818-1883
Lenin: 1870-1924
Trotsky: 1879-1940
Stalin: 1879-1953
February and October Russian Revolutions: 1917
Berlin Wall: 1961
Czechoslovakian repression: 1968

Further Study
Charles Breunig, The Age of Revolution and Reaction: 1789-1850 (1970).
R.N. Carew Hunt, The Theory and Practice of Communism (1963).
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1957).
Peter Gay, ed., Deism: An Anthology (1968).
John McManners, The French Revolution and the Church (1970).
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1957).
Louis L. Snyder, ed., The Age of Reason (1955).
David B. Davis, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1975).
J. Kuczynski, The Rise of the Working Class (1971).
Edmund S. Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma (1958).
John Newton, Out of the Depths. An Autobiography.
John Wesley, Journal (1 vol. abridge).
C. Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger, Ireland, 1845-1849 (1964).

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