In this series about Give Up Our Rights we have seen that churches sometimes choose to condemn others to death so that they can pursue their plans and dreams for their own life. Our “right to life” causes us to sometimes keep that same right from others, such as drug addicts, alcoholics, and prostitutes.

Thankfully, within the last twenty years or so, numerous churches have started to show more grace, love, and acceptance to single mothers, and people with addictions to alcohol and drugs.

But there is still a wide gap between the typical church and whole segments of society where we would rather judge, condemn, and ignore than love, accept, and serve. By our actions and even by our words, we  tell these people groups that they do not have the right to life, and the world would be better off if they just died.

What people groups are these?

Muslims

People of other religions we have trouble accepting, especially Muslims. We view them as the enemy, as a challenge to our faith, and though we condemn Islam for teaching that all non-Muslims must convert or die, we Christians are often guilty of teaching the same thing.

This is not only seen in our willingness to go to war against Muslim states, but is also evident in some of our evangelistic endeavors where we almost gleefully tell non-Christians that if they do not convert, they will suffer and burn eternally in hell. I am not a Universalist, but this “turn or burn” message is not found in Scripture, nor does it come from the mouth of Jesus.

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In this series about  Giving Up our Rights, the first right we want to look at is the right to life. Is this really a right promised in Scripture and compatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Everyone Deserves Life

No one can deny that all people desire and deserve life. It is for life that God created this world, and it is through life that we glorify God. Even those who live without God know all people deserve life, which is why the penalty of death is reserved for our worst criminals.

And murder, which is wrongfully taking the life of another, is viewed by all cultures as one of the worst crimes that can be committed. So it is natural and normal to claim our right to life.

The Cost of Demanding our Right to Life

Problems arise, however, when in our attempts to maintain and preserve our life, we fail to recognize the source of all life, namely God, and that because all life derives from Him, every other person on this earth has just as much of a right to life as we.

Divorced from God, an individual’s right to life can lead them to kill and destroy the lives of the innocent, the weak, the poor, the voiceless, and defenseless. Thousands of people are killed through genocide or war when one person or one group of people decide that the way they want to live their life requires the death of others.

There are numerous examples of this, but one main practice comes to mind, especially since it is so prominent in our culture today: the sacrificing of our children in the name of business and success.

In ancient times, people would lay their infant babies in the fiery red-hot hands of the god Molech, in the belief that Molech would give them prosperity in their business, crops in their fields, and success in life.

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When the Gospel is properly lived, it does result in life, liberty, and happiness, but not usually in the way the world defines it.

When life, liberty, and happiness become goals in and of themselves, they cease to be goals and quickly become our gods. They then lead us, not toward the Gospel and the will of God, but in direct opposition. There is no better example of this than the one being in Scripture who desired to live life as he wanted, liberated from all divine control, free to pursue his own happiness as he defined it.

Who is this? None other than Lucifer. His initial rebellion and his existence ever since, have been in the name of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

While life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are valuable human ideals in themselves, they are by no means “God-given rights,” are not guaranteed in Scripture, and when such values are divorced from the understanding that we will answer to God, these rights become some of the greatest instruments of death, enslavement, and sadness the world has ever seen.

They become almost Satanic.

The Right to be Wrong

In many regards, these rights have caused western society and culture to become self-centered and egotistical. “We are dominated by the essentially Enlightenment values that rule American culture: pursuit of happiness, unrestricted freedom of choice, disdain for authority” (The Divine Conspiracy, 214).

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Chapter 14 in my book, Close Your Church for Good, is called “Give Up Your Rights.”

In this chapter, we look at the unalienable rights and the constitutional rights which are listed in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and ask if these are guaranteed in Scripture. Are these rights something worthy fighting for and dying for, or are they contrary to the values of the Gospel and goals of the Kingdom of Heaven?

We will see that while there is much inherent good within these rights, when they are divorced from accountability to God, they become little more than ways to justify our abuse and mistreatment of others. Furthermore, sometimes the values of the Gospel and the example of Jesus will lead us to voluntarily give up our rights for the sake of others. If churches really want to spread the Gospel and advance the Kingdom of God, we may be required to give up our rights.

Please note that due to some of the feedback I receive on these posts, this chapter might be radically revised for the final edition of the book. These changes will only be available in the print or eBook version when it comes out.

Here are the blog posts that form this chapter:

• Introduction
• Give Me Libery or Give Me Death?
• Fighting for Our Rights
• Our Right to be Wrong
• The Right to Life
• Better off Dead
• Loving LGBT People
• The Right to Liberty
• The Idol of Liberty
• Liberty to Kill in the Name of Jesus
• Liberty of the Gospel
• The Right to Pursue Happiness
• The Right to Practice Religion
• Against a Christian Government
• If Christianity Became Illegal
• The Gospel and Politics
• The Right to Free Speech
• Shutting Up about Free Speech
• The Right to Assemble
• The Right to Bear Arms
• The Myth of Redemptive Violence
• Is there such a thing as a Just War?
• Death to our Enemies?
• Our Rights and Jesus

To see other chapters in this book, see the Table of Contents post.

I love this country. I love the ideas expressed in our foundational documents like the the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I am proud to be a citizen of the United States of America. I love the fact that I live and work here, and that my children can grow up in what is arguably one of the best countries in the world.  I love what our nation stands for and much of the history which has brought our nation to where it is.

Sure, there are some things that sadden me about our history, and there are some things in our current situation I would like to see changed. But in general, I think the United States has a noble history of trying to do what is right and best.

However, it sometimes seems that the values expressed by our government as found within the Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Bill of Rights, sometimes conflicts with the values of Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven as found within the pages of Scripture. When Christians become aware of these conflicts, we must choose between them, and try, to the best of our ability, to remember with the apostle Paul, who was himself a citizen of Rome, that first and foremost, we are citizens of heaven.

This is where our true loyalties must lie.

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I was reviewing my manuscript this morning for by book-in-progress, Close Your Church for Good, and was shocked to discover that somehow, somewhere, I lost about 15,000 words.

I was not happy.

Anger, frustration, panic, and despair better describe what I was feeling. I think I might have screamed in agony.

But there is one good thing. 95% of what I lost has been posted in one form or another on this blog. It will probably take me a dozen hours or more to figure out what I lost, and then copy and paste it back over, reformat it, and adjust the transitions, but at least it wasn’t all completely lost. If that had happened, I probably would call it quits on this book, even though I am only two chapters from completing the rough draft.

Any of you writers ever had this happen? How did you recover?

Update: I type the manuscript on two different computers, and to get it back and forth between the two, I send emails to myself. Thankfully, the last time I emailed it to myself was on Thursday. I went and checked my “sent emails” folder and there it was! So I only lost a few thousand words. Phew! That’s not so bad. It is possible the final few thousand words are on my other computer, which I will check later today.