Josh Benner

Tag: life

  • “You’re not pro-life, you’re pro birth:” And other ridiculous arguments

    “You’re not pro-life, you’re pro birth:” And other ridiculous arguments

    A common argument I hear in the abortion debate is that pro life people aren’t really pro-life, we’re pro birth. That if we were really pro-life, we’d support all sorts of government programs. Federally backed universal pre-K, expanded maternity leave, etc, etc, etc. Furthermore, we also must personally be adopting and fostering babies and donating to help support mothers who don’t want to have babies. 

    To be fair, many pro-life people do those things. Christians, for instance, adopt babies at a rate that is twice the national average. Pro-life people open up pregnancy centers to care for mothers. There are also innumerable government programs which help provide food, healthcare, and other necessities. During this formula shortage (and as the father of an eight month old, I’m in the thick of it), I learned that like half the babies in America qualify for WIC . 

    Could these programs be expanded even more? Sure. I’d be on board with that. But here’s part of the issue. There’s always one more government program people can think of.

    I also think that it should be easier for people to adopt. If it wasn’t prohibitively expensive, many more people would adopt. But just because I haven’t adopted a baby, that doesn’t mean that I’m just pro-birth. 

    That’s like saying that if a person didn’t personally host a Jewish person in their home during the reign of the Third Reich, that they didn’t really oppose the Holocaust. Yes, I realize that’s not a perfect analogy (as far more babies have been aborted than people died in the Holocaust). I know people will say it’s not the same. But it’s a sad thing that we can’t at least agree that tens of millions of aborted babies is a tragedy. 

    It’s such a bizarre exercise where pro-choice people try to dictate what pro-life people must do in order to actually be pro-life. And if we don’t, then people should be allowed to kill their babies. So basically, it’s a hostage situation. 

    Now for the person who’s pro-choice, if pro-lifers did all of these things, would the pro-choice person then be pro-life too? Of course not! (At least, not anyone I’ve ever talked to who’s pro-choice). Because it’s not simply about a lack of resources, but it’s about a fundamental belief that it’s morally acceptable (and even laudatory) for a person to kill their not yet born baby. 

    For that reason, the argument has always seemed to be to be disingenuous. 

    So pro-life people aren’t really pro-life if we’re not progressive liberals. That has always seemed pretty convenient. But here’s the thing. 

    If you’re pro-choice, then that means you are just as supportive of a woman choosing to abort OR to have the baby. But if you’re truly supportive of a woman having the baby, then what are YOU doing for that child? You also need to adopt him or her. 

    I mentioned earlier in this piece that tens of millions of babies have been aborted in this country. In the wake of the Roe reversal, I’ve wondered if the radicalism of the abortion movement was part of what led to the pro-life movement having the political will to see numerous states pass laws which are pro life.

    We had been told it could never happen. Abortion went from being something “safe, legal, and rare,” something that was an unfortunate reality to something that became glorified. Not among everyone who’s had an abortion, but you’d see the “shout your abortion” movement and those talking about having had multiple abortions and treating abortion as birth control. It became grotesque. Blue states pushed for late term abortion laws where a fully developed fetus could be killed.

    I’ve heard people talk about how much of a step back this is for America. The Mississippi law that led to the legal challenges that led to the overturning of Roe challenged a Mississippi abortion ban (unless there was an emergency situation) after 15 weeks. That’s later than most of Europe allows abortions. 

    But it wasn’t good enough. The radical abortion movement in America fought any limitations on abortion. Even with a fully developed fetus, even with a fetus that had a developed nervous system and that could feel pain. And we were told that such actions were good things. 

    The taking of innocent life was never good.

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  • Jesus, Genesis, and a New Creation. John 1

    Jesus, Genesis, and a New Creation. John 1

    Jesus is the Lord of creation and new creation.  

    I’m going to highlighting a few words and phrases in this opening prologue to John.  

    In the beginning.  Word.  Life. Light.  Darkness. 

    Just to name a few.  

    These are all found both in John 1, but also in Genesis 1. 

    The Word of God

    Opening phrase of the Gospel of John: In the beginning was the Word. It’s the same way in which the Bible opens up, the first words in Genesis are: in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

    John starts with: in the beginning was the Word.  Now, it’s interesting that John says “the Word.” 

    He doesn’t say “in the beginning was Jesus” or “in the beginning was the Christ” or “in the beginning was the Lord” but “in the beginning was the Word.”  

    But, in the beginning was the Word. 

    Given that in the Old Testament, God’s word is tied to creation, salvation, healing, and deliverance, the incarnation of Jesus is God’s greatest and most spectacular form of expression to the world. The Word is an appropriate title for Jesus because it is through this Word that we have ultimate truth, eternal life, future hope, assurance of God’s promises, and God’s greatest revelation of himself to the world.  

    And we learn from our passage this morning that this Word was in the beginning.  

    This Word is not some abstract idea or force. This Word exists. 

    Life

    Verse 4: In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

    Two more ideas that are found in creation. Life and light. Both of these ideas will also be significant themes in John’s gospel. Let’s start with life. Nearly half of the New Testament usages of the word life come from John’s writings.  

    In Genesis, life is created. The animals that walk the earth, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, culminating in God’s creation of man in his own image. All life is created in Genesis.  

    And here, in referring to Jesus, it says that life itself is found in him.  

    He’s the creator of life, the sustainer of life.  He’s the giver of true life. Life in himself.  

    The best known verse in the entire Bible. John 3:16. Jesus refers to eternal life when he says  “God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  

    That’s the life that Jesus came to bring. John 10:10, Jesus says that he has come so that his people can have life and have it abundantly.  

    And it’s the life that can only come through Jesus. John 14:6, he says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.”  

    And he has authority to say these things.  

    Because…

    In the beginning was the Word.  And in him was life.  And he made everything.  And he’s God.  

    And so John begins his gospel by talking of the God of creation entering into creation to make his new creation.  

    Light

    Next theme of creation that’s found in John. Light.  

    In Genesis, the first thing that God calls into being is light. 

    Genesis 1:3-4  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good 

    Light is a symbol for life, salvation, and the presence of God. In Revelation 22, the final chapter of the Bible, a book also written by the Apostle John, in pointing to God’s coming kingdom, John talks of heaven and says:  

    They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light (Revelation 22:5). 

    The light of God displays his glory and presence. Yet John takes it to a fuller meaning.  

    In John 8:12, Jesus will say:  I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life

    Light is contrasted by darkness. Darkness in John refers to evil and sin. Darkness is the opposite of light both metaphorically and literally.  

    In Genesis 1:4, we’re told that God separated the light from darkness.  John chapter 1 says that “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”  

    Again, John keeps pointing back to creation to show us a new creation that Jesus is bringing into the world.  

    The Word became flesh

    Perhaps the climax of this entire introductory prologue of John’s gospel is found in verse 14:  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    The language returns to using the word Word. And it says that this Word, Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us. The God who created the world entered his creation.  

    What a profound reality that is. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 

    In creation, before the fall, there was fellowship with God. It was paradise.  

    And yet Adam and Eve sinned. Cast out of the garden. But here in John, we see that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus came into our fallen world. Because he loved us. Because he’s gracious. Because he’s good. He is the eternal God of creation.  

    New Creation

    And he came to bring a new creation.  

    In the opening of John, we see the groundwork being laid for that which was lost in the fall to be regained through the gospel. Paradise was lost due to sin, but in the beginning of John, we see that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Darkness came into the world because of sin, but we see that Jesus is the true light. Death came into the world because of sin, but in Jesus, there was life.  

    Not just anyone is capable of doing that. But Jesus isn’t just anyone. He was in the beginning. Jesus is the eternal God of creation who brings a new creation. He’s here to give you a new life. He overcame the darkness by living a sinless life. He brought life through his own death. He restored the relationship by being forsaken.  

    All of it was his work.  

    He invites you into a new life, a new covenant. He gives you a new heart.  

    The Apostle Paul said that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.  (2 Cor. 5:17). In John 3, a man named Nicodemus. He’s intrigued by this teacher and ministry and he wants to learn more. Jesus says that we must be born again.  

    On the night before he was crucified, he told his disciples to love one another, and he called it a new commandment.  In the closing sections of the Book of Revelation, John talks of seeing a new heaven and a new earth. He records Jesus saying that he making all things new. (Rev. 21:5).  

    When we trust in Jesus and are born again, Jesus does bring a new creation. He does make something new. He makes a new person. 

    Jesus is the Lord of creation and new creation.  

    Have you trusted in Jesus? Is he your Lord and savior?  

    There is no other way to God, there is no other way to life, there is not other way to forgiveness, there is no other way to heaven than through Jesus.  

    He is a mighty God.  

    And it takes the might of God to bring new life to sinners who were dead in sin.  You can’t make yourself alive. But Jesus can. Because in him was life.  You can’t make yourself worthy. But Jesus has. Our passage this morning says in verses 12-13: 

    To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 

    You can’t earn your way to heaven, but Jesus came from heaven to earth. The word became flesh and dwelt among us.  

    And the present reality is eternal security and a heavenly hope. But it points forward still to the greater new creation that Jesus has promised and is bringing into the world.  

    Because a Christian is forgiven, to the glory of God. But the world is still fallen. We are still surrounded by darkness, and fall into sin. We have eternal life, but still face worldly death. But Jesus is bringing an ultimate and final new creation into his world.  

    He’s putting it back together.  

    He promised to bring restoration. And he is.  

    And as sure as he brought that at his incarnation, he will bring it finally and totally at the consummation of his kingdom.  

    All around the world, every hour of every day, people are coming to faith in Jesus. A miracle is happening, a recreation is happening in people’s souls. People are overcoming areas of sin, because of the work of Christ. Lives are being transformed by the gospel. People who don’t know Jesus are being impacted by the love of his followers.  

    And Jesus continues to work. 

  • What baseball can teach us about life

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    The second half of the 2019 baseball season starts today. Between now and late September, the regular season will feature over 1,000 games.

    One ting I love about baseball is that no matter how good or bad today’s game went, tomorrow is a new day.

    In baseball, you can get absolutely trounced one day. Pitching can be terrible, hitting can be terrible, you can lose by 15 runs. Just a disaster of a game. But no matter how badly you might lose today, tomorrow is a new day and a new game.

    Conversely, no matter how much you dominate today, you could hit 4 home runs, pitch a no hitter, have a walk off home run, everything can be clicking, but tomorrow is still a new day and you need to do it again. You can’t just rest on yesterday. (more…)

  • Born at 23 weeks, smallest surviving premature baby discharged from hospital


    She’s the smallest newborn to ever survive.

    Born from an emergency c-section in December, the little girl, nicknamed Saybie, was born at just 23 weeks. This week, the baby was discharged from the hospital.

    When she was born, Saybie weighed just 8.6 ounces.

    Not 8 pounds, 6 ounces. That would have been a healthy, above average birth weight.

    Saybie weighed 8.6 ounces! About the weight of a juice box. Doctors knew she was going to be small, but when Saybie was born, even they were surprised. (more…)

  • On abortion, red states are getting redder while blue states get bluer

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    Separated by the Mississippi River, Illinois and Missouri are in two different worlds when it comes to abortion. It’s a microcosm of much of the nation. As several states have passed new, strict laws on abortion, including Missouri, other states have passed legislation to further diminish the rights of the unborn.

    Last week, Missouri passed one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation, outlawing abortion after eight weeks. Perhaps of greater significance is that the final abortion clinic standing in Missouri is expected to lose its license at the end of this week. In a statement from Planned Parenthood, they say that the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services is refusing to renew the license of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis. If that clinic shuts down, it will be the first time since 1974 that a state was without an abortion clinic.

    Planned Parenthood has taken the matter to court. (more…)