“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” Hebrews 9:27.
But after this . . . WHAT ???????
The following headline jumped out at me when I went to look at the latest news headlines on Thursday past.
Could assisted dying be coming to Scotland?
It is a report of a member of the Scottish Parliament, one Liam McArthur, who has tabled a bill whereby, if it becomes law in Scotland, terminally-ill people will be offered assistance to end their lives!
The report continues: “Supporters of the legislation say it would ease suffering.
Opponents worry that some terminally-ill people could feel under pressure to end their lives.
The Assisted Dying Bill is drafted by the Lib Dem MSP, Liam McArthur, who expects it to be debated this autumn.
The bill was published on Thursday and will potentially be voted on next year.
The Scottish government says ministers and SNP backbenchers will not be instructed how to vote, as the matter is an issue of individual conscience.
First Minister Humza Yousaf, who is a Muslim, has indicated that he is likely to vote against the bill, which is also opposed by the Church of Scotland, the Catholic Church in Scotland, and the Scottish Association of Mosques.
Under the proposals, patients could only request medical assistance to end their life if they had a terminal illness and had been ruled mentally fit to make the decision by two doctors.
Mr McArthur says “the terminal illness would need to be advanced and progressive” and the medics would have to ensure there was “no coercion.”
In addition, the patient must be aged 16 or over, a resident of Scotland for at least 12 months, and must administer the life-ending medication themselves.
In Scotland, it is not illegal to attempt suicide but helping someone take his/her own life could lead to prosecution for crimes such as murder, culpable homicide or offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
CHANGING VIEWS
We are likely to see such a change also sought in the other parts of the United Kingdom. Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer supports assisted dying law change. (See Sir Keir Starmer supports assisted dying law change)
In a vote in Westminster in 2018, MPs voted down the 2015 bill on allowing terminally ill people to end their own life by 330 to 118.
In the Republic of Ireland, Sinn Fein has given its support to such a law being established there. (Sinn Féin to support Right to Die Bill moving to next stage).
Since they are the political ‘Movers and Shakers’ in Stormont, we can easily see that such a law may well be introduced here in Ulster as well. In Northern Ireland, it is an offence to encourage or assist the suicide or attempted suicide of another person, as is set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1966. But then many things have changed in ‘Ecumenical’ Ulster since 1966 and most certainly not for the better!
Just after I had completed this article, the following news article appeared on our local BBC news site. Assisted dying: Sinn Féin and SDLP would consider change to law
Both Nationalist parties are indicating their willingness to support such a change in our law. The report states: “Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) both say they would consider supporting a change to the law to allow assisted dying for people with a terminal illness.”
NO COINCIDENCE
Growing support for what is euphemistically called ‘assisted dying’ is, in truth, support self-murder. It is one of the fruits of the departure from the Word of God that has taken place in these islands. This departure has been led by the ‘liberal’ clerics who dominated the major denominations.
The Bible makes it very clear that ‘suicide’ is utterly forbidden. Thoughts of such are the result of the despair that sin brings into the mind of the one living in defiance of God and bereft of the comforts and blessing of the gospel of Christ.
“Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit,” Ecclesiastes 2:17. Life often becomes unbearable for one who is in conflict with God and His truth. Such a lifestyle is utterly opposed to God’s will for mankind. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man,” Ecclesiastes 12:13. When that duty is embraced life becomes precious and a joy, even amidst the trials that may afflict the obedient! “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” John 16:33. The Christian’s hope of eventual victory and glory, wrought by Christ for him over all his enemies, sustains him amidst the greatest of trials. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life,” Revelation 2:10.
Amidst life’s trials, and they will increase for the child of God as this age nears its conclusion, we are sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit and enabled to hasten to our Heavenly Father for His help and blessing, available to us through Christ.
Heed these words carefully.
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory,” Ephesians 1:1-14.
We have listed what is the purpose and will that God has ordained for His people; what God has done for us and will yet do for us; what we have at present and what we will have forever in glory.
These glorious truths will sustain the believer through the greatest of trials. It will give to the believing saint, “songs in the night,” Job 35:10. Such was the experience of Paul and Silas in jail in Philippi. “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them,” Acts 16:25.
The Psalmist had this confident hope and shared it with us. “Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life,” Psalm 42:8.
The Christian thus ‘comforted’ is enabled to comfort others in their trials. So said Paul. “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God,” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
The Old Testament saints enjoyed these comforts also. “For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old,” Isaiah 63:8-9.
We can go ‘with boldness’ to this loving Saviour Who ‘knows all about our troubles’!
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need,” Hebrews 4:14-16.
THE GREAT TRUTH FORGOTTEN AND IGNORED
As I have read reports of those planning to end their lives in those foreign clinics which offer such a death and that legally, I have, with sorrow of heart, thought of what is revealed to those who thus end their lives the very instant that ending takes place! They do not find the deliverance they most foolishly hoped for and which they were encouraged to believe would be theirs by relatives and friends and likely also clerics. No, instead they were instantly made aware that the BIBLE IS TRUE in what it says regarding that which awaits those who depart this world as unconverted, Christ-rejecting sinners. They discover that which awaited the unbelieving ‘rich man’ of whom the Saviour spoke.
“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments,” Luke 16:22-23.
No matter how men may mock at the teaching of the Bible on the torments of the damned or how such a doctrine is railed against by the false prophets who fill so many pulpits, HELLFIRE AWAITS THE POOR SINNER WHO DIES WITHOUT CHRIST!
That is what the loving Saviour of men taught!
The drive for legalised ‘assisted dying’ is one of the clearest evidences, of which there are many others in this increasingly godless time, that this nation, so blessed of God in former times through the mercies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, has turned its back upon the teaching of the Word of God! Should such a thing become law, then we have reached the stage of which the Psalmist said nations would strive after in Psalm 2.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,” verses 1-3.
Have we not witnessed this casting away of God’s truth to a distressing and alarming degree in the last 50 years? Every form of moral perversion, springing from the ungodly hearts of depraved sinners, has replaced laws based upon the moral standards of the Bible and instituted in from times when the fear and reverence of God was evidently upon our nation.
We even have those who profess to be Christians intermingled with the administering of such perversity! Have we not witnessed professing Christians in Stormont silently acquiescing to the acceptance of such perversions and professing Christian councillors working silently alongside those who either openly acknowledge their deviance or are loud in their support of those who are perverts!
All this indicates the drift of the nation away from God’s truth. Having legalised the murder of the unborn, we are soon to see the legalising of the murder of the aged and infirm. Both cases of murder are justified on the basis that it is better for all concerned!
In the case of ‘assisted dying’ by the ungodly, that is most certainly not so.
As the text at the beginning of this article states:
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
Only in a world where God is forgotten, His Word is ignored and His warnings despised can there be an embracing of dying by our own hand as a way to a better experience!
We echo the words of the ‘preacher’:
“Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment,” Ecclesiastes 11:9.
There is a day coming when God will call all men before Him, “to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” Jude 1:15.
Dear reader, if you are not saved then heed God’s Word today and repent and believe the gospel that you might be delivered from your sins and the wrath that awaits all who die in an unconverted state.
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John 3:36.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
April 1st, 2024