Highest Law...lesson two

Faith Fellowship Church…PO Box 1586…Broken Arrow, OK 74013…918-451-0270…Pastor Terry Dashner…

Higher Law series
Lesson Two

“Evolution of Inalienable Rights”

The Bible declares that man is created in the image and likeness of God. The Bibles says that God used His own hands to form man out of clay; therefore, man is inexorably connected to the earth. Maybe that’s why man is at his best when he’s outdoors, close to the soil. Man is just more in tune with himself and the scheme of things when his hands are in dirt. Man can listen to God. Man can hear God speak because God gave him a spirit with ears to hear. Man can see God’s beauty. Man sees God’s hand revealed in His creation; and looking at the great expanse, man cries out to God because he needs, he’s made for God’s fellowship. Man is unique in the created rank and file. He’s made to reflect God’s image.

Man is made like God so that he might care for his own. Man is caretaker to his wife and children because God is eternal caretaker. Man esteems, he honors his wife and children. And they respect him. God honors those who honor Him. Man seeks fulfillment and peace because God is the Prince of Peace. Man is created in God’s image to be like Him, to find his peace in Him, to worship Him. Man is a special being in the created order.

If this is true, then why is man so prone to evil? Man is a “fallen” creature. He has stooped to sin and unless he turns to his God for rescue, he plays the opposite to a good and merciful Creator. Because man is made like God, he has the potential to do “good” or with his free will (God is a free moral agent) choose to do evil. And it can be a destructive evil—killing, maiming, slandering, deceiving, hurting, fracturing, splintering, dividing, and conducting terrorism in the name of a god.

Nonetheless, man and woman are God’s highest created beings, just under God. The Bible says, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [Or than God] and crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8: 4-5). Because humanity is so loved by God, He has gone to extremes to win humanity’s love. The greatest feat that God performed for man, in reason to rescue him, was allowing Jesus to redeem (purchase, ransom paid in full) man from sin. That’s what Calvary was all about. God is still rescuing men and women through the Cross. Any one who cries out to Jesus for rescue, according to scripture, will be eternally saved.

“Where it all started”

I’ve chosen this reminder about the uniqueness of humanity for one reason. I plan to write about the lifting of human life to its rightful place of sanctity by outlining its history from the Roman Empire (the sanctity of life was at its lowest ebb) to the present day. I will endeavor to disclose the sanctity of human life as it has progressed from its worst regard of infanticide in Rome, to its lifting by “inalienable rights” in the Enlightenment, to its abortion by choice in present day America. As it has been said so it is true. When good men do nothing, evil men play havoc. Let’s begin.

Life was considered sacred to the Jew. God instructed Israel to celebrate life, to protect it, to care for it. This does not seem to be the case with a casual reading of the Old Testament. It appears quite the opposite. Israel is led in one brutal war after another. Carnage is everywhere present. But why did Israel fight? The Bible is clear on this point. God wanted a race of people, a nation to be His instrument of righteousness to the world. He wanted a nation that was unique, unlike the polytheistic and devil worshipping nations around them. It was imperative that Israel remained a nation of right standing with God and His law and order. God would one day bring His Son into

Faith Fellowship Church…PO Box 1586…Broken Arrow, OK 74013…918-451-0270…Pastor Terry Dashner

the world through the Jewish race. Israel was groomed by God, at times severely (dispersion, gentile rule, and etc.), in order to accomplish His purpose of delivering the world through Israel’s Messiah. Jesus Christ lived in Israel during the time of Roman occupation---gentile rule. Because of His humble roots, not all Jews believed He was their Messiah. He didn’t fit the part. The Jews were looking for a political ruler that would lead them against the Romans and establish God’s Kingdom, once and for all, on the face of the earth. When Jesus died on the cross the Jews were justified in their belief. Jesus was no Messiah, or so they thought. Seventy years later, Israel was crushed under the foot of Rome and the Jews were scattered through out the world once again (Jesus had predicted this). The Jews would not reclaim Palestine, their ancient lands, until 1948.

When Christianity was in its infancy, it was considered just another sect of the Hebrew religion. It carried out the same philosophies as the Jews, preached from the same scriptures (Old Testament) as the Jews, and centered in the same capital as the Jews—Jerusalem. It wasn’t until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD that Christianity stood as a separate and distinct religion from Jews in the eyes of Rome. Also, at this time the church, still relatively small, was persecuted relentlessly by Rome as an unlawful religious sect. Notwithstanding the plight of the Christians by Rome, Christians continued to elevate human life as sacred, just as the Jews had done before them. That was not the case for the pagan Romans.

Rome cheapened life. Rome began its decline morally during the last days of the Republic and continued the decline throughout the Pax Romana. Contentment was replaced by greed. People looked to the government to supply free grain and public amusements. Family life disintegrated, divorce and immorality abounded, and superstition increased. Once the backbone of Rome, a hard-working patriotic citizen was now hard to find. The Roman father had the right to accept or reject the birth of his children. The life of a divorced woman was terrible. She ranked with the cattle of the field. Infanticide was rampant. By the third century, mighty Rome was over run with barbarians. The Roman Empire was no longer. Christianity was lifted to prominence with the Edict of Constantine. It became the official religion of the Roman Empire when the capital of Rome was moved from the west to the east. Christianity did much to restore morality and lift the sanctity of human life to a higher place in the state. Unfortunately, the church went through a decline during the years that followed and was sometimes the culprit in lowering the sanctity of life immorality of the priesthood, the dark ages, the misappropriation of scriptural truths, and the Crusades).

“The Dawning of a New Day”

To be continued…

God Bless America!

Pastor Terry Dashner, Faith Fellowship Church, Broken Arrow, OK 74013