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9:15 a.m. Early Worship Service
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10:30 a.m. Prayer Meeting
11:00 a.m. Sunday Worship Service
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Wednesday--- Deacons' Meeting, 10:00 a.m.
January 31 --- Annual Policy Meeting, 12:15 p.m.
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The Value of a Life January 17, 2021
I. All Life is Valuable – Genesis 1:31; 2:7; 9:6; Exodus 21:22-25; Deut. 27:25
The Hebrew word translated “soul” is nephesh. According to the Bible, animals also possess the nephesh. For example, in Genesis 1:20, when we read that God made swarms of “living creatures,” the Hebrew text underlying “creatures” is nephesh. Genesis 1:30 tells us the “living nephesh” is in animals.
The term nephesh in these passages means conscious life or animate life (as opposed to something like plant life). Humans share a basic consciousness with certain animals, though the nature of that consciousness varies widely. (Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, 42)
curse = to invoke divine harm or evil upon someone or something (Rick Brannan, ed., Lexham Research Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible, Lexham Research Lexicons)
II. Genocide Must Not Be Tolerated – Esther 3:8-11; 7:3-10; John 15:18-21
In America, early settlers looked down upon the American Indians as being inferior. Therefore, they took their land and killed many of them. I have been watching a documentary on The Trail of Tears and how the Cherokee Indians, who actually were a civilized tribe with missionaries, Baptist churches, and farms, had their land, homes, farms, and possessions taken from them upon the discovery of gold in their homeland. They were forced to march all the way from Georgia to Oklahoma with up to 8,000 deaths during their removal. Up to 4,000 Choctaw Indians and 3,500 Creek Indians also died during the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
In Australia, in the late 1700s through 1920s, between 250,000 to 2,000,000 Aborigines were slaughtered.
In 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic majority in the east-central African nation of Rwanda murdered as many as 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. Started by Hutu nationalists in the capital of Kigali, the genocide spread throughout the country with shocking speed and brutality, as ordinary citizens were incited by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their neighbors…Over two million refugees fled the country. (www.history.com)
Genocide is a term used to describe violence against members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the intent to destroy the entire group. The word came into general usage only after World War II, when the full extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime against European Jews during that conflict became known. In 1948, the United Nations declared genocide to be an international crime; the term would later be applied to the horrific acts of violence committed during conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and in the African country of Rwanda in the 1990s. (www.history.com/topics/holocaust/what-is-genocide)
Genocide is always a crime against groups, not individuals. The individuals are victims simply because they belong to a group. In this way the individuals themselves are dehumanized, reduced to numbers. Because they are so dehumanized they become, in the eyes of those who destroy them, mere statistics. All the normal moral constraints against killing human beings are set aside. The goal of those who commit genocide is rarely admitted to be the killing itself. Normally, there is a stated “higher” aim such as the economic or political improvement of society. In Hitler’s case the aim was the “racial purification” of the German people. (“Genocide,” Compton’s Encyclopedia (Compton’s Encyclopedia, 2015).
US Holocaust Memorial Museum – Currently, the Chinese government is systematically persecuting Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities on the basis of their religion and ethnicity. Beginning in the spring of 2017, the state began to rapidly expand its network of detention centers that the government claims are "re-education" centers. Estimates of the total number of facilities now range between 500 and 1,400…
Uyghurs are barred from freely practicing their religion, speaking their language, and expressing other fundamental elements of their identity. Restrictions apply to many aspects of life, including dress, language, diet, and education. The Chinese government closely monitors Uyghur religious institutions. Even ordinary acts such as praying or going to a mosque may be a basis for arrest or detention.
Approximately one million Uyghurs are currently imprisoned in detention centers, for reasons as simple as practicing their religion, having international contacts or communications, or attending a western university. The Chinese government has defended the camps as “vocational training centers” aimed at combating violent extremism. Leaked government documents reveal that the state is in fact targeting people based on religious observance, such as praying or growing a beard, as well as family background.
Researchers have reported that individuals in the camps often are subjected to ill-treatment and indoctrination. Uyghurs who have been detained report being forced to renounce their religion and were required to sing songs and make statements swearing allegiance to the Communist Party. Some have reported experiencing torture and sexual violence. Those who are detained are often unable to communicate with or receive visits from their families. Children whose parents are detained are placed in government-run adoption centers, sometimes far from their homes and families. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – ushmm.org)
The Open Doors World Watch List: North Korea was listed as the number one country of persecuting believers, followed by Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan. In North Korea, “Being discovered as a Christian is a death sentence. If you aren’t killed instantly, you will be taken to a labor camp as a political criminal. These inhumane prisons have horrific conditions, and few believers make it out alive. Everyone in your family will share the same punishment. Kim Jong-un is reported to have expanded the system of prison camps, in which an estimated 50-70,000 Christians are currently imprisoned.
Most Christians are unable to meet with other believers, and have to keep their faith entirely hidden. There are even stories of husbands and wives not knowing, for many years, that their spouse was also a Christian. Secret police carry out raids to identify Christians, and children are encouraged to tell their teachers about any sign of faith in their parents’ home. A Christian is never safe.”
Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) wrote about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – ushmm.org)
