Euthanasia
Put To Death Immorality • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Over the last several Sunday mornings we have been studying through the series “Put To Death Immorality” which was taken from Colossians 3:5.
Colossians 3:5 (ESV)
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
We have examined thus far, immodesty, gambling, abortion, and social drinking.
That brings us to a subject that many don’t like discussing but is never the less just as important to understand.
That subject being “Euthanasia.”
Euthanasia is a fancy sounding word that simply means…
the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy
Basic Questions on Suicide and Euthanasia 8. What is euthanasia?
The word refers to the process by which people’s deaths are intentionally brought about by themselves or others, sometimes for generally commendable ends p 23 such as the relief of pain and suffering. In other words, while some people use the term euthanasia only when one person is killed by another (i.e., “mercy killing”), the term is broad enough to also encompass suicide and assisted suicide as well as the withholding of life-sustaining care with the intention of ending a person’s life.
There are four forms of euthanasia.
Voluntary - passive euthanasia.
Medical personnel, at the patient’s request, will merely allow nature to take its course.
Voluntary - active euthanasia.
Medical personnel, without the patient’s request, will take some active non-natural means to hasten death.
Involuntary - passive euthanasia.
Medical personnel, without the patients instructions will merely allow nature to take its course.
Involuntary - active euthanasia.
Medical personnel, without the patient’s request, will take some active non-natural means to hasten death.
Now obviously voluntary passive euthanasia is not sinful such as when a cancer patient says “I am no longer going to try and prolong.”
I can also confidently and biblically say that involuntary passive euthanasia is not sinful wherein the proverbial “plug is pulled” and a nature is allowed to take it’s course resulting in the person dying.
For the purposes of this lesson we will focus on those areas of euthanasia that are sinful.
Such as active euthanasia wherein non-natural means are used to hasten death.
Reasons Given In Support
Reasons Given In Support
Society Is Better Off.
Society Is Better Off.
For centuries societies have had the mindset that the mentally or physically handicapped are not good for a society.
By handicapped it is meant not just those born this way but those that become this way such as the elderly.
The thought process is that when someone is found to be in this state they are a financial drain on society.
During the Roman Empire, when an elderly person became unable to care for themselves, the family would carry the person to the woods and leave them there to die. This was considered a way of showing love and care for the elderly.
In the Middle Ages, some cultures practiced a form of euthanasia by giving the sick or elderly a dose of poison, in order to release them from their suffering. This was believed to be a compassionate act.
In the 1800’s, some European cultures practiced 'voluntary death' where individuals would ask to be euthanized when they became ill.
People Should Have The Right.
People Should Have The Right.
On January 28th, 2022 the New York Times published an article entitled “The Right to Die: Dying with dignity raises tricky ethical questions.”
In this article they point out a Gallup poll from 2020 that showed that 74 percent of respondents agreed that doctors should be allowed to end patients lives “by some painless means” if they and their families request it.
Several countries have legalize euthanasia for even children such as the Netherlands, and Belgium.
300 Illustrations for Preachers Belgium Legalizes Euthanasia for Children
In 2002 Belgium legalized euthanasia for adults. In February 2014, the lower house of Belgium’s parliament voted 86 to 44 to extend the “right to die” to include children, a measure that had already passed the country’s senate three months before. Euthanasia for children, with parental consent, has been legal in the Netherlands, Belgium’s neighbor, since 2002.
Summary
Summary
As I said earlier this is not a new concept but one that has been around for a very long time.
The first recorded instance of euthanasia is found in 1 Samuel 31:4 where king Saul asks his armor-bearer to “Draw you sword, and thrust me though with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.”
So the question of course we as Christians must ask ourselves is “are these reasons” given valid and in accordance to scripture?
What Does The Bible Say?
What Does The Bible Say?
God & Life.
God & Life.
Year after year those in favor of active euthanasia have sought to redefine what “life is.”
Ethicist Joseph Fletcher offered indicators of “personhood.”
He said for one to be considered a person they should have an IQ greater than 40, be self-aware, have self-control, a sense of time, capable of concern for others, and be able to communicate.
God defines life here on earth as…
A union of body, spirit, and soul.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV)
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Spirit is what God gives us that is life itself.
Genesis 2:7 (ESV)
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Job 27:3 (ESV)
3 as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils
Ecclesiastes 12:7 (ESV)
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
James 2:26 (ESV)
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
So everyone that God gives spirit or life to is “living” or “has life.”
What does God think of the handicapped?
Exodus 4:11 (ESV)
11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Luke 14:13–14 (ESV)
13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
What about the elderly?
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
Leviticus 19:32 (ESV)
32 You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
As long as someone has “spirit or life” in them they are alive in God’s eyes and thus death to the living must then be measured against this truth.
So what about…
God & Death.
God & Death.
God has always separated the taking of life by one human to another human into two categories.
There is what we may call simply “killing” which is the taking of a life with biblical justification.
Genesis 9:6 (ESV)
6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
Numbers 35:19 (ESV)
19 The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.
Joshua 9:24 (ESV)
24 They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing.
48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
There is also murder which is the taking of an innocent life which never has any biblical justification.
Exodus 20:13 (ESV)
13 You shall not murder.
1 Peter 4:15 (ESV)
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
Psalm 94:6 (ESV)
6 They murder the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless
Summary
Summary
God certainly distinguishes between the taking of non-innocent life and innocent life.
When someone “takes the life” of any innocent person that is not a “good death” as the word euthanasia is translated out to mean, that is murder.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Once again, from a biblical point of view, when someone takes the life of an innocent person it is murder.
Allowing a sick injured person to pass away naturally is not the same as actively taking the life of an innocent person.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.