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Following Christ involves following his commands. The law of Christ referred to in such Scriptures as John 13:34-35, 1 Corinthians 9:21 and Galatians 6:2 involves bearing one another's burdens, loving each other as he has loved us. But whereas these verses summarise beautifully the substance of Jesus' teaching, we cannot...
Earlier this century there was a broad consensus about ethical decision making in medicine. Ethical codes such as the Hippocratic Oath and its modern restatement The Declaration of Geneva (1948) were broadly accepted by secular bodies and largely consistent with the Bible. This is no longer the case. Both medicine...
Some points to make: Animals are important and should be treated humanely. Human beings are more important than animals. God gave us the right to rule over animals and to eat them. Advances in medicine have been dependent on animal research. All people are speciesist in some respect (eg using...
1. Aren't you condemning people to a painful, horrible death? Euthanasia is unnecessary because alternative treatments do exist. This is not to deny that there are patients presently dying in homes and hospitals who are not benefiting from advances in palliative care, either because facilities do not exist in the immediate...
Do God's commands ever conflict in such a way that it is impossible to obey one while not at the same moment disobeying another? If so then how should we act in such situations? Much has been made of moral conflicts by situation ethics writers such as Joseph Fletcher: Is...
Some wonder how can a Bible written 2,000 years ago speak to the ethical situations we face in the late 20th century, but because the Bible is God's Word, and God doesn't change (Mal 3:6) he has prepared for situations not envisaged by the original authors. The Bible was written...
If we are honest we come to hold many the beliefs we do as a result of a combination of gut-feeling, emotion, conscience, consensus, 'consequentialism' or acceptance of authority. But how can we have our minds 'transformed' (Rom 12:1,2) and make decisions God's way? Commands and Character We are concerned with...
1 Chronicles 12:32 tells us about the men of Isaachar who 'understood the times' and 'knew what to do'. This training material is geared at these two ends. But we need first to be aware of what is actually happening in the world of medicine today - so here is...
Some points to make: Extramarital conceptions have increased rather than decreased since the advent of contraception. Many young people don't use contraception or don't use it properly. It doesn't protect you from emotional hurt, or sexually transmitted disease (if hormonal). Some methods act after conception.
It is easy to get steamed up and emotional and lose a discussion by sheer lack of tact. Alternatively, we can win the argument but lose the person. Peter exhorts us to give an account of the hope that we have within us with 'gentleness and respect' (1 Pet 3:15)....
