The Problems With ‘I Choose Life’ as a Slogan

1- You can’t really choose when you will get pregnant.  It’s outside of your control, ultimately.  Sure, you can see when you’re likely fertile and you can convince your mate that then is the ideal time for conception.  But you neither one make conception happen.  You don’t choose life.

2- You may choose to have an abortion or not have an abortion, but that’s not choosing life.  That’s choosing NOT to end a life.  It’s not the same thing.

3- And in some tragic cases your body spontaneously aborts a baby (though this is euphemistically called a ‘miscarriage’ it is in fact a spontaneous abortion).  You may, in the decision to have children choose to have children though at the end of the day you do not cause conception to happen.  That’s totally the work of God.  And in some instances you may choose NOT to have an abortion.  But in some instances, against your will, spontaneous abortion happens to you.  And you cannot control it.  You cannot CHOOSE for it not to happen.  That, like conception, is in God’s hands.  Not yours.

Life, you see, is outside of your control.  When it is conceived and when it is allowed to continue or caused to cease.  All are out of your control ultimately.

It is a species of hubris to boast that you have ‘chosen life’.  Not only did you not choose your own life, you didn’t choose anyone else’s either.  Life, as death, belong to the purview of God alone.  And you are not God.

Pick a better slogan.

Government and Politics are Not the Same Thing

Government is the invention of God.  Politics is the invention of Satan.

The Most Harm Done to Christianity was Done by Constantine

Personally I wish Constantine had never been born. No one did more harm to the church than him. Not Marcion. Not Montanus and his crazed women. Not the liberals of 19th c. Germany. Not the medieval Popes. Not the maniacal Proggies of our day. Not even the Pagan Pentebabbleists and their abject lunacy. No, the worst thing to ever happen to Christianity is Constatine the Foul.

May his memory be for a curse.

The Devil at Work

“When I was a boy the story was once told about Satan’s inability to start a quarrel between a man and his wife who loved each other deeply. He achieved his purpose through an old woman, who placed a sharp knife under the pillow of each of them. Then she told each [about the knife under the other’s pillow]. The man found the knife [under his wife’s pillow] and killed his wife.

Then Satan approached the old woman and held out a pair of shoes to her on a long stick. When she asked why he didn’t come closer Satan replied, ‘You’re worse than I am, for you’ve done to the man and his wife what I couldn’t do.’ “So we see that the devil is always hostile to whatever our Lord God does.” — Martin Luther

From the Vault: Everything Hinges on Pronunciation, Doesn’t It…

Via Randy *The Calvinator* Blackateer

Remembering Patrick Miller on the Anniversary of His Death

The Rev. Dr. Patrick D. Miller Jr., a prodigious scholar at two seminaries affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), died Friday [May 1, 2020] in Black Mountain, North Carolina after a long illness. He was 84.

According to his obituary, Miller taught at what is now Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.

Born to Dr. Lila Morse Bonner and Dr. Patrick Dwight Miller in Atlanta on Oct. 24, 1935, Miller spent his childhood and youth in San Antonio and Atlanta. After graduating from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1956, he enrolled at what was then known as Union Theological Seminary, where he met May Ann Sudduth from Louisville. They were married in 1958. Following graduation from Union, they traveled to Harvard University, where Pat earned his doctorate.

Etc.  May he rest in peace.  He was a fantastic scholar.

Important Events in Church History that Took Place in May

A lot has happened in the month of May over the history of the Church. Here’s the highlights:

Zwingli published some things:

• Z 3,97 – 1524 – May 2
• Z 4,176 – 1525 – May 10
• Z 5,109 – 1526 – May 15
• Z 1, 155 – 1522 -May 16
• Z 5,171 – 1526 – May 21
• Z 7,457 – 1521 – May 25
• Z 4,188ff – 1525 – May 27

Bullinger also published some stuff:

• B 6, 249 – 1549 – May 4
• B 6, 381 – 1560 – May 8
• B 6, 95 – 1532 -May 11
• B 6, 387 – 1562 – May 13

Important events included:

• Emil Brunner received another Honorary Doctorate, from Oslo – 1946 – May 7
• Emil Brunner volume 3 of Brunner’s Dogmatics published – 1960 – May 14
• Bullingers First Sermon – 1529 – May 16
• Emil Brunner earned his ThD – 1925 – May 16,
• Bullinger was elected to serve the congregation at Bremgarten – 1529 – May 17
• The Baden Disputation – 1526 – May 21–June 18
• Barmen Declaration – 1934 – May 31

Notables born were:

• Rolf Rendtorff – 1925 – May 10
• WP Stephens – 1934 – May 16
• Julius Wellhausen – 1844 – May 17
• Albrecht Durer – 1471 – May 21
• Hermann Gunkel – 1862 – May 23
• Peter Opitz – 1957 – May 25

Notables who died were:

• Maurice Casey – 2014 – May 10
• Philipp Wälchli – 2019 – May 14
• Adolf Schlatter – 1938 – May 19
• John Calvin – 1564 – May 27
• Philip Davies – 2018 – May 31