Assisted suicide, like almost every other deliberate action to end life, is currently a crime in the UK, reflecting God's laws in the Bible. But this week's Parliamentary vote in Westminster seeks to make it legal.
Likewise with abortion. Once supposedly full of rigorous safeguards to protect a few, it has, for many, become an on-demand medical service accounting for almost 10 million lives lost in the UK since 1967.
'Assisted dying' sounds much nicer but is still assisted suicide. Yes, there are some very hard cases, but hard cases make bad law. Far from protecting all vulnerable people from suffering, many decent people may either find themselves encouraged toward medical suicide, or more likely, feel some duty to stop being a burden on their families and even the state. And after the deed is done there is no personal accountability.
But there is accountability. We will all die. And the Bible teaches that everybody will stand before Jesus one day. Those who trust Him will receive His welcome; those who do not, His judgement leading to eternal suffering.
The essence of sin is that we take control when God's pathway is inconvenient to us. But in the end, God has the last word. That is why death is not the end. Those who deny God His right and timetable, to give life and take it away, are mistaken. And for those who lose their life, there is no second chance.
The social imaginary has now collected public and legal approval for various matters of life and lifestyle which do not agree with God's Word. It will leave its legacy of spiritual confusion for the next generations. But despite all these new 'freedoms', there is less hope. To deny the authority of the God of all hope, is to lose the blessing of hope. But many have never heard what God has said, which is why His people have the responsibility to speak truth into a hopeless world.
BeaconLight's mission is to offer hope by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus. When people come to know Him, and let Him be in control - even though they may be in prison or trapped in one form of slavery or another - what they have previously wanted, and lived for, melts into insignificance in the light of His presence. The light of the gospel is the light of Christ: and whoever believes in Him has assured hope of fulness of life.
Lamentation 3:19-26 (NIV2011) says this:
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.’
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
As a star shone out to guide the Magi to Jesus, we too have been appointed to shine like stars in the universe as we hold out Jesus, the Word of life, to a dying world (Philippians 2:15-16).
Please pray for us as we send out God's truth through Word@Work and the CrossCheck video on smartphones and other devices, and send thousands of books around the world - often into very dark corners. We are confident that Jesus' light will bring eternal life and hope to those who trust Him.