Ask Pastor Mike Fabarez

Speaker 1

You might have to be the one to make the call. When a loved one is sick or dying, what are the justifications for taking them on or off life support? Well, join us for a serious and important conversation about euthanasia with Pastor Mike Fabarez here on Focal Point.

I'm Dave Drew. Glad you could join us for this important edition of Focal Point. Now, if you've got an elderly parent or have a friend or a loved one who's suffering from a life-threatening condition, today's program is going to be one of critical importance to you.

Maybe you've already had to ponder what's the right thing to do when someone's no longer able to live without artificial life support. Right now, we're joining Focal Point executive director Jay Worton with Pastor Mike Fabarez to ask Pastor Mike.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Dave. Pastor Mike, today's question addresses a topic we've been hearing a lot about in the news recently. And this listener asks, is euthanasia wrong?

Speaker 3

Yeah. This is a tough question in our day because now the front pages start to be dotted with stories that are very, lure us in, very compassionate, makes us respond compassionately, like we totally understand why someone wants to end their life.

Speaker 4

Euthanasia.

Speaker 3

Maybe we should deal with the word for a second. It literally means "good death." That's what it comes from, those two components: good death. Good death means that it would be better for this person to die now. It would be a good thing. I mean, obviously, that's under the heading in the news today of mercy killings or the right to die movement. It would be good for us to have that control, to be able to decide when I die and how I die.

There are biblical examples of people doing this. You have Abimelech in Judges, chapter nine, I think it is, where he's been injured, suffering a head injury, and he's about to die. He says, "I don't want to be known as dying this way by this woman who has thrown this millstone." He calls his armor bearer over and says, "You're going to have to kill me because I want to die on my terms. I don't want to die the way this is working out; it's going to be a disgrace to my history."

You remember Saul saying much the same on Mount Gilboa. He's fatally injured, and as he's dying, he asks his armor bearer to thrust him through to end his life. We see this as a microcosm of the whole debate: can I, on my terms, decide to die my way?

Consider how David responded when they came to offer the news that they had run through the king. David's response, as a godly man and a prophet in the Old Testament, makes it clear: no, it's not okay. Saul may die in battle on Mount Gilboa by the enemy, but to finish him off—that's wrong. Even if Saul requested it, it's wrong; it's not right.

That is the biblical constraint. This presents the problem we have. We would like to be compassionate and say, "Oh, yeah, we do not want people to suffer, see themselves disgraced, or lose control of their body or their functions." So, this is a more noble, dignified way to die. But in reality, it meets the criteria of what the Bible would say is murder—killing someone intentionally and ending their lives. The Bible says you can't do that with a human being.

Speaker 2

Pastor Mike how would we counsel someone who says to us, it's not compassionate to prolong the suffering, or it's the most loving thing we can do to help end their pain? What do we say to them?

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, I guess we would look again into the Scripture where God has given us directives from our manufacturer, from our God, as to how to live our lives. And the response that we see is not, hey, if you're suffering, end your life so that you don't have to suffer anymore. But I think of Paul in Philippians, chapter one, talking about the fact that he's imprisoned, he's in a dire situation, that he's afraid he might die and he might be killed. And his response is to pray and declare the fact that he's going to be courageous. There's a great deal of courage in this.

Or it's a lot like the thorn in the flesh from 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, where he's talking about this terrible ailment that he has. It's so bad, he calls it a messenger of Satan. He then is told by God that his grace will be sufficient. He'll be able to bear up in a graceful, dignified way in this pain, and God will provide him. Sometimes the suffering will be prolonged, and it may be a terrible situation, but courage and grace.

And then even in the Bible, if you look throughout the Bible, you'll see the use of medication. Even in Proverbs 31, speaking about the medicinal options they had in their day, saying, give them to those that are perishing. So clearly, medication is coming a long way from the Old Testament times. But we ought to utilize that and utilize it in a liberal way for those that are suffering. We want to make people comfortable.

But, you know, courage and the grace of God and medications is the biblical paradigm, not ending their life. And if you think about the Bible in the Old Testament times and the New Testament, they had plenty of options like we do. You could easily end someone's life, but instead, we see that as an immoral act that the Bible would condemn. And instead, we pray for courage and grace and we administer medications as best we can to try and alleviate the pain. But we don't avoid it by ending a human life.

Speaker 2

Well, certainly this conversation hinges on the fact that there is a sacredness to life. Maybe you can speak to that a little bit on what the Bible has to say.

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, if you think about it, people do this with their animals all the time. Take their animals to the pound and they are suffering. And so we just put the animal down, put the animal to sleep.

Well, we don't do that with human beings because we are not animals. We are distinct from animals. We are made in the image of God. There is something sacred about life, that life is given to us by God. Human beings don't have the right to take it unless there's a divinely sanctioned reason to take it. And that's not pain and suffering. It's not disgrace or, you know, the kind of pain or whatever it might be, the difficulty. We don't have the right to end the life because of those things. It's not on the list.

So because we're not animals, because we're made in the image of God, we can't do that at will. We can't even do it when it seems like it would be a good thing to do. Better to die on your terms than to let this disease or this illness kill you. The Bible still tells us we don't have the option.

So, yeah, to put your cat down. I get it. And you have the right to do that biblically. You just don't have the right to do that with your grandmother or your parents or your spouse or yourself.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Pastor Mike. We're going to keep this conversation going with a message you did from your Thursday night study series called the Sanctity of Life.

Speaker 4

Why don't you take your Bibles and pull up Genesis, chapter one. We want to talk about what it means that human beings are described as being created in God's image. God's image. That's a big topic. If you look again at verse number 27, it says God created man. Doesn't say men; he says man. This word encompasses the totality of humanity at this point in his own image. But he makes it very clear here, and he'll get into more detail in chapter two about the creation of woman. He says, "In the image of God, he created him; man, mankind, male and female, he created them." The distinction is being made that this creation is in the image of God, and everything else is not. Animals are distinct from most creation because there's something about them that is parallel to mankind in having a soul, having some immaterial part to them. However, we need to recognize that as high as they are in the creative order, there is a clear line of demarcation between every animal that God has ever made and mankind. They are on a higher echelon of God's creative work, but they are certainly not in the image of God, as we'll see.

So, distinction number one is that there is no distinction at all. God makes men and women in his image, and they are equally in his image. It has nothing to do with their distinction in gender; one is not higher in terms of the center of God's image than the other. When it comes to animals, they are excluded from that definition or anything else in the creative narrative of Genesis 1. I can build a long, drawn-out case for this, but let me make it as simple as I can. You know this, I trust: John, chapter 4, verse 24, describes God as spirit. In essence, he is spirit. That's the passage where the woman at the well speaks with Jesus, who says he's looking for worshipers that worship in spirit and truth. The idea is that he is spirit, and that was because we're doing away with the temple on Mount Gerizim and the temple in Jerusalem. God is making a point about who he is. You can look elsewhere in the Bible; it's everywhere, right? God dwells in an approachable light. No man has seen God or can see God. All the manifestations of God or the descriptions of God that present him in physical terms clearly indicate that when we talk about what God is, He is spirit.

Whenever spirit is described in any detail, like it is in Luke chapter 24, verse 39, it couldn't be more clear that spirit is not physical. "See my hands?" Jesus says this after the resurrection. They're afraid; he's a spirit, a vision, a ghost. "See my hands, see my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." We could build a larger case for that, but I hope it's not hard for you to see that those who would recommend to you that when you look in the mirror, you see something that kind of resembles God are mistaken. If God were to show up now, clearly we believe in the incarnation, and Jesus Christ showed up, and he has two ears, a nose, eyebrows, teeth, a chin, elbows, and toenails. Of course, you could say, "Well, sure, God, as he says to his disciples, is Spirit. But if you've seen me, you've seen the Father." We must not be talking about a visual image of something physical because the Bible is clear that God is spirit.

Now, the world doesn't think that human beings are created in the image of God. Most people are naturalists. Even if they believe in God, they believe that we got here through accidents and that we're nothing more than animals that have evolved to a place where we can think, create art, and do these things that we do. So we're kind of at the top of the heap in the same spectrum. The Bible would say we're in a whole different plane. We're in a whole different category as being made in God's image. That's true, and I don't see myself really as a part of some kind of cyclical or linear evolution of humanity. I'm really a special creation of God, specially and uniquely reflecting the character of God, the ontological character of God, having intellect, emotion, will, and dominion—all those things we talked about.

What are the implications? Well, let me just say this: as arrogant as it sounds, even we saw it in Psalm 8, people come first. They come first before everything. They are at the top of what it means in the physical world in terms of honor and glory. There's nothing bigger unless you go beyond the natural; you have to go to the supernatural. The elohim of Psalm 8 says, "What is man?" And by that, I mean mankind. Human beings, people, come first.

Now flip the page over if you would, and let's talk a little bit about Genesis 2:27, kind of this re-exploration into another layer of information about the creation account here. He says, being more specific about the creation of man, "Then the Lord formed the man of the dust of the ground." That's how he got him out of the dirt—the same material in the dirt, the same material that makes up the minerals and stuff in your body. Then he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. So I want to talk about this for the remainder of our time. Humans are created with two facets, okay? The two facets in this text, just to use the words in the text, are dust and breath. Dust and breath. The composite of man in this text is described as being made from the dust and then having injected into him something God here calls breath. Then he becomes a living creature. Now, that's unique. It's a unique making of the person as it was described in chapter 1, verse 26, in the image of God. Here is more description of how that takes place.

You've heard me say this many times if you've sat under my teaching. We talk about the material and the immaterial part. The dust is the material; the breath is the immaterial part. We're not talking about the air that moves through your lungs, but something that God is describing here that makes someone alive. It's what I often call from the platform. I know every illustration breaks down at some point, but I like to talk about hardware and software. You have a material part—the dust of the earth, the minerals in your body, the textures of your body, the fibers of your body—and then there's the software, at least in quick conversation from the pulpit. The fact that we are more than just material; we're software too. I mean, death is such a vivid expression of that, that we're more than just the material cells of a body, and we're more than just a little electricity running on top of those cells. We are someone besides that—software running on hardware, immaterial indwelling material. You want to be real simple about it: we are body and spirit.

Just to think in those terms, before we set up a couple of views here on this, I want to think through what it means when the Bible continually says, "And when the Spirit is gone, then death takes place." Take this illustration. It was such common knowledge; it was the foundation for James talking about how can you say you're a Christian without any changed life? You say you have faith without works. Remember this passage? "Just as the body, he says, apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." You put these two together, and you have a living being. That's what took place in Genesis, chapter 2, verse 7, which is also what took place in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26. But the recapitulation or the retelling of the story in chapter two gives us more detail. Go another layer deep, and we learn that out of the dirt, he was made material, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Now he is a living creature. If you separate those two, you're dead.

Okay, well, that makes sense. When Jesus died on the cross, he cried out again with a loud voice, and he yielded up his spirit. In Acts, chapter seven, Stephen is dying; he's being stoned to death. People are throwing rocks at him, and as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord, receive my spirit." Now, something very clear about the Bible: as we get more and more Discovery Channel talk about us just being physical beings, we're just naturalists, we're just material, we just happen to be animated because we got a little electricity running over our cells. But if you recognize from beginning to end in the Bible, you only have a person when you have spirit and body. You have that as a human being, a living creature here on planet Earth. The separation of those is death. It would be good for us just to kind of state what is so obvious in the Bible and make sure we get that clearly in our minds. Our bodies are important to God. Our material bodies are sanctified, elevated, and esteemed because of the presence of the Spirit. My spirit, which you may put all the emphasis on the software, but the hardware is elevated and esteemed because of the software. First Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 15: "Don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ? You're now part of God's thing here—God's organization, God's organism. Shall I take then the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?"

Speaker 3

Never.

Speaker 4

Why would I commit sexual immorality? Because now my body is important to God. God is a God who will redeem the body and resurrect the body just like he did Christ's body. Your body is important. It's been graced and esteemed by the presence of the Spirit. Two verses later, three verses later, four verses later, he says, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? How important was the building of the Old Testament, the temple that Solomon built? I mean, it was looked after, kept after, talked about, nourished, and cherished. There was a building that was nourished and cherished. You got the Spirit from God. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. So glorify God in your bodies.

And the Bible says in one day, just like the body's being corrupted, the world's being corrupted, and it will obtain freedom from all that corruption. It will enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning metaphorically together in the pains of childbirth until now. Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons. We want the culmination of our redemption. And ultimately, the end redemptive work will be the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope, we were saved. What? Well, this, the demonstrative pronoun in this sentence, goes back to the final conclusion and consummation of our redemption, which is the redemption of our bodies. We are saved in that hope.

Now, hope that is seen is not hope, right? If we already have it, who hopes for what he sees and what he already has? All I'm saying is the Bible puts a high premium on people made in the image of God, and those people are software encased in hardware. And there is probably more unity there in that than even my illustration represents. But the idea of then seeing the body is much more important and valued. That is a part of the theology of the Bible. The picture we have at the initial description of man is material and immaterial. Two primary parts, software and hardware, body and spirit. That's the idea. Not to mention that other distinctions are unaccounted for.

And by that, I mean when we look at the immaterial part of who we are, we get passages like this in Mark 12:30: "Hey, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." Strength, you could even argue, is an immaterial thing that runs my muscles, my mind, the part of the way I'm thinking, my soul, whatever that is, and my spirit or my heart. Right. Didn't even mention spirit here. Then I got, you know, I've got a hard time, as is often done, in building a whole theology on the difference between soul and spirit. I got a hard time doing that with Mark 12:30. Now, I could do a lot on this, but I figured I'd be right about where I'm at. And that is out of time.

But let me just say, as Kim Riddlebarger says, and it's true that most theologians throughout church history, at least in the mainstream of orthodox Christianity and evangelicalism after some of the early patriarchal periods, have all believed that we are not primarily three parts; we're primarily two parts. The trichotomist notion of human nature as tripartite—three parts—is unmistakably Greek and pagan, rather than Hebrew and biblical. Then he goes on to quote Lewis Berkoff, a very respected systematic theologian. I would agree with that. The idea of the trichotomy, once you try to build on it, a distinction between soul and spirit, animal, earthly, God-given, heavenly, God-relating, I think we've got lots of extraneous things that we're not going to find in the Bible to create such a structure.

Therefore, let's ask the question, are we primarily two parts? Which, of course, is what I've been hinting at. That's called a dichotomy. I believe in the dichotomy of man: material and immaterial, body and spirit, hardware and software. Well, then, what about the word soul? With little time left, let me just say the word soul is even shown up in the first verse we looked at, and that is Genesis, chapter two, verse seven. This is Hebrew, of course, the Old Testament. The Lord God formed the man out of the dust. Clearly, that's the material part—dust to the ground—and breathed into his nostrils the breath. That's the Hebrew word, the standard Hebrew word for spirit. He breathed in him the spirit of life. So he got life because he was spirit, and he became a living creature. That's the Hebrew word, soul.

So he was material, he got spirit, and then he was a soul. Follow that thinking now. Acts, chapter 2, verse 41: "Those who received his word were baptized." Those describe people that came up, there were baptized, there were added that day about 3,000 souls. It's like a ship. It's like the ark. It's like a captain saying to his mate, "How many souls on board, sir?" Right. That idea of the whole of the person is a fairly consistent use of the distinction between spirit and soul, with soul being the totality of someone and spirit being the immaterial part in distinction to the material part.

First Peter 2:25: "For you were straying like sheep, but you've now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls." Now, just on the argumentation I made in the Book of First Corinthians, how concerned is God with my body? Very concerned. What does he think about my body? Temple of God. All of that is God's concern for my body as well as, of course, throughout First Corinthians, my spirit here in the text; he is the overseer and the shepherd of my life, my soul.

Matthew 6:25 and many other passages in the New Testament, when the word soul is found in the text, they translate it throughout the New Testament, oftentimes as life. Here's the word for soul: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your literally soul," that's the word translates life, "What you're going to eat, what you're going to drink." That's about my life. Those are things about my life that need to be attended to or about your body, what you will put on. Is not your soul more important than food and your body more than clothing? Now, people can try to make hard distinctions and contrast between body and soul, like body and spirit here. But we're talking, I think, as rightly translated, I believe, as your life, the totality of your life, this one may be stronger.

Matthew 20:28: "The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his," here's the literal word, soul, "as a ransom for many." And all you got to do is look throughout the New Testament and the Old Testament regarding the giving of Christ. And just as important in the descriptions of this is his bodily crucifixion and by his stripes on his body you were healed. Certainly, he doesn't just give his spirit. See, this is not the immaterial part. I believe this is the totality; he gave all that he was. So if that is how I understand soul, even though I realize it has that sense of immaterial, I believe it's immaterial and more. Spirit is the immaterial part. Body is the material part. Soul is a description of the totality of who we are.

Speaker 1

You're listening to Focal Point and an abbreviated version of the message called the Sanctity of Life. It follows a conversation with Pastor Mike Febares about euthanasia. To hear this broadcast again, or find resources related to today's topic, go online to focalpointradio.org.

While it's possible right now that God's put someone on your heart who's facing that final journey, I want to send you a book to prepare you for that day titled *How Can I Be Sure I'm a Christian*. Do you want to be sure that you and your loved ones will have that heavenly reunion you long for beyond a shadow of a doubt? This book will help. If you come to the final chapter and still have doubts, you'll find over a dozen suggestions for things to do to be sure you're all headed for heaven. The book is yours when you call 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org. You can also write to Focal Point, our address: PO Box 2850, Laguna Hills, CA 92654.

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I'm Dave Drouehe inviting you back when Pastor Mike Fabarez returns with a message on solid friendships for life. That's Monday on Focal Point. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.

Speaker 4

It.