Apology for my recent writing

My most recent post, concerning the fate of those who die in infancy, has been greatly misunderstood. I now realize that my writing is not clear. I was responding to this. Apparently my attempt at satire did not work as I had hoped, so I feel that I should clarify a few things. I was writing to show the ridiculousness of those who would say that there is no biblical warrant for the idea of an "age of accountability" (although I greatly dislike that term). In my writing, I presented several biblical arguments that support this idea, but then simply dismissed them as human sentimentality without any real scriptural support. This is the argument that I have seen put forth by those who are strongly against this belief. They insist that their own belief is correct and do not deal with the biblical arguments of those who believe otherwise. I was attempting to show this, but apparently I have done so badly, because only one person who read it without actually discussing it with me first realized that it was meant to be satirical.

What about his modest proposal?A response to Mr. Pfost's recent writing

Dear Mr, Pfost,

First, I would like to congratulate you on your progressive thinking. For too long we as Christians have simply uttered such inane and outdated phrases as ‘Abortion is murder” or “God is pro-life” or whatever other cheeky response we can come up with when faced with the hard decisions of our reproductive responsibilities without truly examining both sides of the issue. We all know that it is just not that easy.

You have said that abortion is a sure way to fill heaven and advance the kingdom of God. However, I must kindly and humbly disagree. Anyone who uses their mind at all can easily see that the Bible teaches that all infants are damned to Hell. After all, Paul clearly states in Romans 5 that “death spread to all men” because of Adam’s sin (v. 12) and all men are condemned because of that same sin (v. 18).

Now, some may try to say, as you have done, that God actually sends these babies to Heaven. I ask, where is the biblical evidence for this assertion? It is at this point that your people may point to passages such as Revelation 20:12 and 2 Corinthians 5:10. They will try to argue that, while Adam’s sin has created in us a sin-nature that precludes our coming to God on our own, we are not judged based on that sin. Instead, they would say, we are judged and condemned based on our own sins, which we commit in the body.

How can one argue with these people? They are obviously giving in to mere human sentimentality and ignoring the clear teachings of Scripture. When you tear down these proof-texts of theirs, they will flee to yet more context-less verses.

They will say that David proclaimed that he would go to be with his dead infant son after his own death (2 Samuel 12:23). “How can this be if babies go to Hell? Surely David, a man after God’s own heart, did not go to Hell too,” they will assert. Shall we then give in to this argument? No! We must continue to strive for the truth.

They will answer, “What about the nation of Israel wandering in the wilderness? Did not God say that the children of Israel would be allowed to enter the promised land because they ‘have no knowledge of good or evil’ (Deuteronomy 1:39)? Why would God punish infants today, who have no more knowledge of good or evil than did those children, for their sins when he allowed these to go unpunished?”

They may even appeal to our precious Westminster Confession. “Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth” (12.3). How can some infants be saved if the only way to salvation is by believing in Christ’s death and resurrection, as is clearly seen in the Scriptures? The answer, I belive, is quite evident.

I am sorry if my words are too harsh toward your position. I believe that those, like you, who believe that God can save infants who are obviously damned for Adam’s sin and do not have the ability to make a conscious decision to come to Christ give Him far too much freedom in salvation. As God’s holy Word clearly teaches that all men are born sinners, and the only way to salvation is through Christ, it is impossible for these infants to be saved. They lack the necessary knowledge of their sins and the knowledge of what Christ has done for sinners at the cross.

Again, I pray that you will accept my apologies for my harshness and the possibility that I have misrepresented your position. I look forward to the day when we will have no need to debate these issues that divide us, when we enter the kingdom of God as the children to whom it belongs (Mark 10:14).

Your humble brother in Christ,

Matthew Newman

Seeing the Invisible:Do "the least of these' matter?

“Don’t forget about us.”

It’s just one sentence—four words. I hear them all the time. What’s so different this time? What is it about these words that makes me question my goals in life? How can they turn my desire for more stuff into revulsion at my materialistic excess?

When they come from the mouth of an African child who, as far as I know, could be dead today, they move with a force stronger than any words should. They don’t cut—they dig. They pull back the layers of excuses and cop-outs until they take hold and reveal something I’d be more comfortable leaving covered.

How often I have forgotten. How often I have just slipped back into my comfortable life here in America. I get caught up in the boring sameness of my routine—school and work, school and work.

The children of Uganda have a routine as well. Every night, children as young as five years old walk miles into the nearest cities and towns and congregate in the streets. They sleep on concrete floors, with mats and burlap sacks for comfort. Tens of thousands of children gather in bus stations and other public places across the country every night. Why?

Uganda is in the midst of the longest-running war in Africa. Every day, 130 people lose their lives to violence in this fight. The leaders of the Lord’s Rebellion Army, wanting to replenish and add to their forces, nightly raid the outlying homes and abduct the children. They force these children to be killers. Any who refuse or try to escape serve as examples to the other children. They are tortured and killed. Over the course of the war, an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 children have been abducted by the LRA.

These children flee to the cities for protection. They are not safe in their homes. This would not be tolerated in the West. If thousands of American children were sleeping in the streets every night, something would be done. If they were Europeans, someone would intervene. Why then is this happening? Are the children of Africa any less important than our own? Are they any less worthy of basic human rights, of being safe in their own homes? Indeed, are they any less human?

Where is the moral outrage, the righteous indignation? We march when the government talks of making illegal aliens felons. We protest when the government does not go through all the proper channels to listen in on phone calls and when terrorists are not treated as well as we think they should be in prison. We are furious when our country goes to war against a tyrannical dictator. We are silent when the children of Africa are turned into ruthless soldiers against their will. We stand idly by as they are brutalized and left to fend for themselves at night.

How is it that so few people in America are aware of this terrible situation? Our newspapers and televisions tell us daily all the freshest gossip in the world of celebrities. We’re always well informed of the latest basketball rankings. We are woefully, but perhaps blissfully, ignorant of the single greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today. After all, as long as we don’t know, we don’t have to do anything. We don’t have to feel bad about our rampant consumerism or our unquenchable lust for ourselves.

A movement has started that seeks to bring about an end of this ignorance. Invisible Children is an organization seeking to inform the rest of the world of the situation in Uganda. It started with three young men taking a trip to the country and returning with this unbelievable story. They made a documentary, which they have been screening all across the US. They sell DVDs and bracelets made by the Ugandans to help raise money for their cause.

The next step will occur April 29, 2006, with what is being called the Global Night Commute. Tens of thousands of people, in 130 cities across the nation, will follow the example of the children of Uganda and march into the hearts of their cities for the night, to gather together to sleep in the parks and bus stations and other public places in an attempt to draw attention to the plight of these African children.

What then shall we do? Will we just go on with our lives here in America? Will we forsake these children and leave them to whatever fate awaits them? Or will we try to make a difference? It doesn’t take much—just a night away from the comforts of home, just a few minutes to write to a senator or representative asking the government to intervene, just a few dollars to help fund the efforts of those who are working to right this very grave wrong. It only takes us looking beyond ourselves for a little while.

Will we remember these helpless young ones on the other side of the world, or will we forget them?

For more information:
http://www.invisiblechildren.com
http://www.nrc.no/UgandaKeyFacts.doc
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2346&l=1
http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/uganda/reports.do