A bizarre twist on morality (abortion)

[DavidL]

Reply to the original topic:

This thread has meaning only if you reduce God to being nothing more than a set of rules.

According to the Bible (at least the way I read it) people are not judged according to righteous obedience, but by their faith. For example, King David committed both adultery and murder, but it is recorded that he was a "man after God's own heart". Sins like adultery and murder are temporal and forgivable, but setting one's conscience against God for eternity is not, because God will not violate a person's freedom of choice. To those who want to spend eternity apart from God's presence, then God grants them their choice. Hell is the ultimate consequence of that choice, and one element of its "hellishness" is that the decision is irrevocable. That is the nature of eternal torment.

Regarding premise #3, I don't believe that aborted fetuses "automatically" go to heaven. Saying that a fetus can not have sinned physically may be correct, but the unforgivable sin is an eternal one: it is not dependent on an existence in time. As a descendant of Adam, every person is born (i.e. conceived) a sinner, and as Jesus pointed out, all sin begins in the "heart". The only difference with a life that was terminated early is that WE (as opposed to God) don't get to see whether that soul had a humble, repentant heart (attitude).

To properly understand the concept of eternity, we need to somehow try to expand our intellectual horizons beyond a space-time world view.

Assuming that all of life's questions can be answered by philosophy and logic is also unhelpful. The problem with logic is that it can be overcome by forgiveness. There is nothing logical or just about forgiving someone, because justice demands that good deeds be rewarded, and evil be punished. But Jesus' atoning death turns all of this logic on its head.

Sorry, I know that for many of you who want to reduce God to set a of rules, all I've done is complicate the issue. But God is a living being who can be spoken to, reasoned with, and (if I may say it with reverence) negotiated with. Eternal life is a relationship with the living God, not merely an adherence to a set of rules because one fears punishment.

Put another way, one can not manipulate God's hand by saying "if I do this, then God MUST respond in this manner...". In this way, one must have faith in what God says about Himself, that all those who have the faith and humility to repent (i.e. in the "eternal" sense) will find themselves overwhelmed with His compassion and forgiveness.

The key to the kingdom is not superior knowledge, but the humility inherent in a childlike faith.

David