God created humans with inherent value, but mankind has rebelled against God through sin. In Romans 2, Paul teaches that no one can claim self-righteousness or excuse their sins, as God will judge all people based on their deeds. Recent events highlight mankind's suppression of truth about God and sin. Funerals being held for aborted babies in the Netherlands show how sin distorts logic to excuse rebellion against God's law valuing life. Rising anti-Semitism in Europe coincides with growing Muslim populations, as fears are unconsciously expressed through solidarity with Muslims and antagonism towards Jews, similar to Stockholm Syndrome where victims bond with their abusers. All will be judged by God unless they repent and turn to Christ for salvation.
Understanding Jainism Beliefs and Information.pptx
Dutch Funerals for Aborted Babies Highlight Suppression of Truth
1. 平成25年
12月
月報
フルダ・ミニストリー
ー主に在る
とこしえの集いー
DECEMBER
2013
NO 218
ULDAH MINISTRY
LETTER TO THE
BROTHERS AND
SISTERS IN CHRIST
【TIME TO SEEK SALVATION FROM
MAN’S DEEP SEATED SIN 】
Eternal Fellowship
News Bulletin
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You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass
judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you
judge another, you are condemning yourself, because
you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we
know that God’s judgment against those who do such
things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human
being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same
things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his
kindness, forbearance and patience, not realising that
God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and your
unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against
yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his
righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God ‘will repay
each person according to what they have done.’ 7 To
those who by persistence in doing good seek glory,
honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But
for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth
and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There
will be trouble and distress for every human being
who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
10 but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does
good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God
does not show favouritism.
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish
apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will
be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear
the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is
those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do
by nature things required by the law, they are a law for
themselves, even though they do not have the law.
15 They show that the requirements of the law are
2. written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes
accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when
God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
ROMANS 2:1-16.
The past few months have seen many occurrences in the world around us, which the secular
world tend to dismiss rather easily, without delving deeper into the meaning of those events. As
we approach the end of this year, we have another God given opportunity to reflect upon our
inherent sinful nature and to find the place of our true security, and admitting the fact that we are
born into a fallen race and apart from God’s grace, all of us are utterly helpless and hopeless.
Because of man’s refusal to acknowledge and obey the true God and His rules, man’s history has
taken a downwards path since the fall. As seen in Paul’s summary of the fallen human nature in
Romans 1:18-23, none of us can excuse ourselves from God’s simmering anger unless we repent
and turn to Him while we live in our present physical bodies: ‘The wrath of God is being
revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the
truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God
has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his
eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has
been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither
glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish
hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the
glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and
animals and reptiles’. Here Paul depicts three reasons why God condemns the pagan world. ①
Suppression of God’s truth, ② Ignorance of God’s Word and revelation, ③ Perversion of
God’s glory.
I present two recent articles, both of which deal with man’s suppressed guilty conscience as a
result of the rebellion against God, and His divine order of creation and His redemptive plans.
The first article is entitled in “Illusions of valuing Life: Coffins for aborted babies” (17th October,
2013, http://liveactionnews.org/illusions-valuing-life-coffins-aborted-babies/,
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-new-normal-dutch-parents-burying-their-aborted-babiesin-dainty-coffins), which highlights the twisted logic forged by sinful man to excuse away his/her
rebellion against God’s Law.
It is often said that society’s technology is outpacing its ethics. This has become abundantly clear in
the Netherlands where a new phenomena has arisen: Funerals for aborted babies. In the Netherlands, a
woman can have an abortion if it is performed by a certified facility at any time between conception and
viability, subject to a five-day waiting period. The number of abortions performed in the country has
hovered around 28,000 per year, roughly similar to other European countries. As part of prenatal health
care, expectant mothers have their unborn children screened for birth defects. If the child is found to
have disabilities such as Down syndrome (or have an “unintentional pregnancy”), the Dutch couple can
opt to have the child aborted. After the abortion, couples are now choosing to hold funerals for the
children they just had killed. The aborted children are being put in coffins or cremated…… But when
Dutch gynecologists describe induced, pre-term birth as the most desirable way to get rid of one’s
offspring—because “it causes no harm to the uterus” and “does not require anesthesia”—and
counselors describe how meaningful a funeral or cremation can be to symbolize the life of the lost
child—never mind that our actions actually killed it—something is utterly wrong. Medical evidence has
shown the psychological trauma on the mother following an abortion. The woman (couple) enters into a
brief relief phase lasting anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, because, for better or worse, the
crisis is finally over. The moral dilemma eventually resurfaces, and the decision to abort is now
questioned…… Dr. Julius Fogel, an obstetrician-gynecologist and psychiatrist who performed more than
20,000 abortions during his career, perhaps explained best the psychological situation confronting many
women after an abortion. He states, “There is no question about the emotional grief and mourning
following an abortion…… There is no question in my mind that we are disturbing a life process.… Often
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3. the trauma may sink into the unconscious and never surface in the woman’s lifetime.… Having these
funerals are thought to help in the psychological healing process in the mother.” [They] put his tiny body
in a dainty little coffin,” describes a LifeSiteNews correspondent, “and covered it with sand in an effort to
create the illusion that his life was truly valued.” This newest practice of encouraging the killing of the
unborn is an example of how Romans 2 describes the law written on our hearts and how we suppress
the law with self-worship (Emphases added).
God created man in His own image and the enormous value placed upon each individual
life is apparent from the biblical proclamation that God alone handles life over the whole
creation as written elsewhere in the Scripture. Paul teaches on several principles of divine
judgment upon sinful man in Romans Chapter 2. God had revealed Himself so as to let His
ways and deeds be known to everybody, before man made himself, birds, animals and reptiles,
etc., objects of worship. Having condemned non-believing pagans in Romans Chapter 1 verses
18-32, Paul proceeds to condemn even moral man in Chapter 2.
Up to this day in human history, there have been some moral people even among pagans,
who would live up to high ethical standards, condemning the moral corruption of their
contemporaries. Some Jews would be proud enough to condemn the Gentiles. However, Paul
argues that those who believe themselves free from divine condemnation because of their
moral lifestyle are not exceptions to God’s condemnation, ‘because (they) who pass judgment
do the same things’, and are exposed in God’s sight even if they are hidden from others’
sights. All of us are inherently blind to ourselves and our sinful state, and therefore, we should
be properly informed about God’s principles of judgment so that all of us will be led to eternal
life with Him.
First, self-righteousness is condemned. The false assumption that we are already in the safe
haven of divine acceptance and of the acknowledgment of truth must be got rid of. Secondly, the
accumulation of our sinful deeds recorded in God’s book is ultimately judged at the end of our
days. Pride, unconcerned attitude to others, prosperity and detestable things, the basis on which
Sodomites were judged; ‘arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and
needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me’ (Ezekiel 16:49-50) would be all
counted as guilt. However, there may not necessarily a single general judgment of all mankind
but several different types of judgments. Thus, all will fairly be judged unless sinners turn to
Christ for their salvation as the Word proclaims: ‘ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word
and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from
death to life’ (John 5:24). Thirdly, each individual’s works are appropriately rewarded without
partiality and without regard to ethnic background. Fourthly, obedience, not knowledge, is
rewarded. The false security and peace of merely knowing God’s truth is the deceitfulness of sin.
Each individual’s conduct reveals the real nature of his heart. As the Scripture states that
salvation is not by man’s works but solely God’s grace for those who believe in Him, so man
cannot get eternal life through his good and moral lifestyle. Moral Gentiles who ‘do by nature
things required by the law’ show that the Law is not to be found on tablets of stone and writings
of Moses alone but that it is inscribed in their hearts. Therefore, God’s Law is unconsciously
reflected in their deeds, consciences, and thoughts. That is, ‘they are a law for themselves, even
though they do not have the law’ in Paul’s words. However, the Scripture also teaches us that
man’s conscience is not always trustworthy or not necessarily directing man to what is right. For
instance, there is a case in that ‘both their minds and consciences are corrupted’ because
nothing is pure for those who are corrupted and do not believe (Titus 1:15). Such people ‘claim to
know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for
doing anything good’ (1:16).
The second article contains quite an intrigue insight about European Anti-Semitism, in which
one of the human’s defense mechanisms, “Reaction formation” in terms of Psychology is applied
to the analysis of the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. According to the late survey conducted by the
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4. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (reported on 24th Nov.’13), many European
Jews no longer feel safe in their home countries and more of them are thinking of escaping to
Israel. One of five respondents to this survey avoids wearing anything in public that would
identify them as a Jew and this is more acute in Sweden. This fact should be taken seriously for
European governments and other nations, along with the biblical warnings against God’s enemy.
When European history teachers omit the Holocaust from their curriculum, they do not do this because
they hate their Jewish students more than their Muslim students. They omit it because they are afraid of
their Muslim students…… In the "Stockholm Syndrome," now seen, ironically, in Sweden, victims start
bonding with their abusers in the wish that if they share the same values as their abusers, their abusers
might stop abusing them. "We must be open and tolerant toward Islam and Muslims because when we
become a minority, they will be so toward us." — Jens Orback, former Swedish government minister.
The European Union [EU] is singling out Israel for sanctions…… Is there, then, an EU tendency to be
anti-Semitic? As Thomas Friedman once wrote "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile.
But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction out of all proportion to any other party in the
Middle East is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest"…… Although European anti-Semitism predates
Muslim immigration to Western Europe, the recent rise in post World War II anti-Semitism there coincides
with parts of European Muslim populations' becoming more numerous, vocal, assertive and sometimes
aggressive. The fear of this onrush might sometimes be expressed in an unconscious, unaware way,
displaced, or covered over, as some sort of morally superior solidarity. In Sweden, for instance, about a
month ago, a tragic and disgusting incident took place. A pregnant Muslim woman was physically assaulted,
verbally abused and her headscarf was torn off. This act should be condemned in the harshest of terms. But
instead, many Swedes established the 'Hijab Outcry' movement, in which countless ordinary citizens and
prominent figures took pictures of themselves wearing a Hijab to show their "solidarity" with the victim……
With the Swedish "Hijab Outrcy," for instance, one might look past this appearance of moral superiority,
and see that show of solidarity for what it possibly really is: fear. Psychology teaches us that when we have
feelings that we worry might be viewed as socially unacceptable or potentially damaging to us in some way,
we find ways to defend ourselves from the discomfort of too much anxiety; these ways are known as
defense mechanisms, responses that are involuntary emotional counterweights to try to offset the feelings
that make us uncomfortable…… In the "Stockholm Syndrome," victims start bonding with their abusers in
the wish that if they share the same values as their abusers, their abusers might stop abusing them……
The affection and solidarity that many progressive Swedes demonstrate regarding their Muslim
population shows similarities to this stance: Swedes have reason to fear the aggressive elements among
their Muslim population: many Muslims have created de facto enclaves in large cities, such as Malmö; and,
if their demands are not met, do not shy away from using brute force…… The carnage caused to Swedish
society by vast elements of its Muslim population, however, has apparently failed to change Swedish
attitudes. The Swedes' solidarity in the face of pervasive gang-rapes and other abuses looks indeed
"overdone, extravagant and showy;" what is really an ordeal has become transformed instead into a sort of
online Instagram or Facebook contest of who can show the most solidarity. This might lead one to conclude
that Swedish anti-Semitism might be propelled by the Swedes' fear of their Muslim population, whom they
fear far more than their Jewish population, who are not numerous, aggressive or hostile. Without even being
aware if it, unconsciously, many Swedes, as in the "Stockholm Syndrome," may be trying to get themselves
into the good books of those whom they fear by displaying a kinship and closeness in racist tendencies
against a group that both they -- and the people they fear -- also already dislike: Jews.
(21th Nov.’13, http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4041/european-anti-semitism-muslims)
We hope all the blessings and peace of this special Season
Will light up your life with Faith, Hope and Love.
Wherever and Whoever we are,
JESUS CHRIST is God’s Gift for us!
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