The Argument from Miscarriage

What it is.

Miscarriage is no longer something that women have to suffer in silence with.  There are support groups and generally people care about the pain that comes with the territory of a lost baby.  Ed Sheerhan had the song Small Bump about miscarriage, which shined some light on the matter and there was a story about the devastation of miscarriage in the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting.  Millions of women around the world have experienced the pain associated with losing a baby, no matter what age that child is. And even though we know it's devastating, the Christian view gives hope and it's not some phony false hope either.

Just a day after Mother’s Day in 2014, I had a miscarriage.  I had only briefly been aware of my own pregnancy but I wanted to be sure before we told anyone.  But the baby died before we got the chance to give everyone the good news about expecting him/her.  And while the pregnancy hadn’t been planned, I was still unprepared for the emotional turmoil that came from both the pregnancy hormones and acknowledgement of the life that barely was.  If it hadn’t been for my knowledge of God’s word which promises the eternal security of children, it would have been near impossible to deal with the grief attached with what I’d experienced.




Why it’s an argument.

In a world of situational ethics and relative morality, many justify abortion (saying it’s okay if it's the mother's choice) while thinking miscarriage is horrid (it's not okay if the child dies by natural causes).  Richard Dawkins was criticized when he said that an unborn human is less human than a born pig. But if you rule out God, his statement is right.  It’s not right in that humans have so little value, but right that if you believe in the Theory of Evolution and relative morality humans have no reason to be considered to have value.

So if an infant is just human tissue and humans are just animals then why treat miscarriage (a 'natural' occurrence) like it's horrible, devastating and wrong? You might be horrified that I'd even have to ask such a question but when your own belief system devalues human beings why should anyone besides the mother and father care? Nobody has ever said to a mother that’s miscarried, “wow, you really suck at propagating the species”.  But if that’s all we’re meant to do then a mother who miscarries is a blight to society and not doing her duty.

And why should we be saddened at something that is only natural? The Bible tells us because it's not natural and that death is wrong, particularly the death of an infant. The Bible is the only worldview system that sees it as perverted because the world is under a curse that mankind's free will has unleashed. This is the reason for cruelty, for evil and for miscarriage.  It’s not God’s fault that He “allowed this to happen” but the fault of the world which we are ordered to hate for such injustices.

Miscarriage is indeed cruel, but to them who believe in survival of the fittest it must see it as natural (generally a good thing). So they must become inconsistent when they say it's not fair. They use the theory of evolution to justify the practice of abortion while think it's cruel and unfair that someone should have to suffer a miscarriage. If it's only "tissue" then what's wrong with losing it? It's not a baby in their view, so why is it wrong?


If it's tragic or if it's wrong and without God there is no real right and wrong, then there must be a reason why we see it as wrong. You can't wave it away saying: "because that's how it is".  Even if you say it is wrong, a non-Christian worldview means that your feelings on the subject don't matter an iota. What makes your subjective feelings worth anything in a world with no objective truth and in a world where (as Richard Dawkins says) we are barely worth more than pigs?

The Bible is the source that tells us why there's something special about humankind and why every life is precious. That's why the Bible has been responsible for setting slaves free, stopping racism, starting hospitals, starting charities and giving hope to those who have miscarried.

No hope can a secular world based on the evolutionary story (which has no legitimate transitional forms as evidence) give to a grieving mother, I know this personally. But we know there is immense hope for all children born and unborn that die before their time. "Let the little children come to me," said the Lord Jesus and they will be with Him forever. It's not just a fantasy. It's based on the testimony of many and the strength of the consistency in the biblical world view.

In a nutshell.
We see something perverse about the loss of a baby or child.  If perverse means ‘abnormal’, then the world should be a place where babies ideally don’t die.  This confirms the biblical story that something went wrong after creation and we were meant to live in a perfect world.

The Argument from Good vs Evil

By Bridget Brenton

I doubt you can watch a movie, a TV show or read a book without coming across some sort of epic struggle of good vs evil.  But where does this come from?  Why should we even want "good" to triumph over "evil"?  And it’s a judgment call that we all make individually, not a societal value.  Translation: it's an inherent part of our nature.  We see that good is valuable, something to be preferred and the desire for it to triumph is so strong in us that we make movies, books and stories filled with good triumphing. 

And that desire, being such an inherent part of us must have come from somewhere.  Being a personality trait - something personal - it would make sense that it came from the personal first cause of humankind.  It makes perfect sense that it came from a SOMEONE instead of a something.  And God being all good and all holy would be the perfect candidate for this someone.  After all, why would He create creatures that would hate what He is, and that would hate good?

Another interesting point to note is that there needs to be a bad to emphasize the good.  Would we even know what evil truly was without it being exposed by its opposite?  Could we call anything evil without an ultimate standard of goodness to measure it up against?  Just like we wouldn’t know what light was without dark, we wouldn’t have been able to truly understand good unless the world went bad.  In the Bible the first people didn’t know what evil was originally, all they ever had experienced was good.

Because of this C.S. Lewis said that Dualism (a good god and evil god warring against each other for eternity) was the only other view besides the Deistic view (a good God reigning eternally) that made sense in light of the existence of good and evil.  We know evil exists and people that claim there is no evil become inconsistent when they want to condemn rapists, paedophiles or murderers.  And we can see the opposite is good.  Therefore it seems to make sense that these two are the most powerful forces in our universe.

But which is more powerful?  Are they both mutually powerful?  And this is where Dualism falls flat.  The two Powers, the good and the evil, do not explain each other.  You cannot accept two conditioned and mutually independent beings as the self-grounded, self-comprehending Absolute.  But further research shows us evil is not a real thing at all but simply good spoiled.  Good must be the ultimate and evil has to borrow from good in order to exist.  There can be good without evil, but no evil without good. Evil is a parasite. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse.

Atheists must claim that evil does not exist but evil is so self-evident that on the flip side they use it as an argument against God.  “Evil exists, so God can’t exist” which almost all philosophers discount as untrue, as there is no reason both can’t co-exist. Also, an atheist must first define “evil.”   They cannot use the words evil and good without assuming God (an ultimate good) is real.  “A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.  What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?” C.S Lewis asked.  And rightly, C.S. Lewis when as an atheist needed to assume an ultimate good in order to say the universe was evil.

There is no “evil” unless there’s a reason why it came into being.  The best explanation given for its existence is that God gave His creatures free will and thus evil came from there.  Evil exists thanks to our state of spiritual alienation from God, due to both the individual and culminated choice of humankind (and “angelkind”).  As an atheist must borrow from the theistic explanation to say evil exists at all and we shouldn’t assume anything without reason, we should rule atheism out as to explaining the existence of evil.

So now we’ve ruled out atheism and dualism.  But since good vs evil is such a universal experience of humankind, it would make sense also if this struggle existed on a larger plane.  And what could be larger than for the fight for the very essence of our beings, our souls?  It should be on a universal scale and there's only one scenario that truly captures this - God vs Satan.  We are told that this is a spiritual war in the scriptures and all around us is a battlefield. 

The amazing part is that even though we unconsciously (or consciously) pick sides, we have inherent knowledge about the outcome to this.  Good will prevail and there’s the inherent knowledge in us of the end that God wins.  Evil doesn't win.  Cruelty doesn't pay.  There is a just God who is good and we can trust Him.  And all these intuitive truths about an ultimate good play out in the greatest fiction: in Star Wars, in Harry Potter, in The Lord of the Rings.  Christianity is the only worldview out there where good truly exists and truly prevails for all eternity and there’s a reason that resonates with us, because God put that truth into our hearts.

The Argument from Feminism

By Bridget Brenton

It’s been claimed that Jesus was the “first feminist”.  Indeed Jesus, in His teaching, provided a lot of the justification toward the movement for equality that before had been largely unseen.  Jesus broke down a lot of barriers that were caused by racism and by misogyny.   It was especially His treatment of women as if they were equals which caused some Pharisees and religious leaders of the day to despise Him.  It was revolutionary thinking.  It’s hard for us to really appreciate that today.

Back then women weren’t seen as having any legal rights, and women were not allowed to bear witness in a court of law.  They were not allowed to participate in public prayers or to even petition God themselves, as the man of the household – either their son or husband – would do that.  These attitudes to women weren’t based on the word of God, but the traditions of men.  Sometimes they were thought of more as sex slaves who would leave their family to be married or to join a harem.  Men in Palestine would be allowed several wives yet women were not allowed to divorce their husbands.

Men had all the rights in marriage, yet Jesus completely taught a contradictory viewpoint to this.  He rejected polygamy and easy dismissal of one’s wife by insisting on monogamy and speaking up about the malpractice of taking divorce lightly and using it in an abusive way.  It was completely counter-cultural and uplifted the dignity of women.  He also challenged women’s roles in the instance of Mary and Martha.  He rejected the stereotype that "a woman's place is in the kitchen" when he commended Mary for choosing the role of the "intellectual" instead of a homemaker.

Jesus didn’t exclude women, he spoke to the Samaritan woman breaking down the cultural and sexist boundaries and it was her testimony that led to many others from her town believing in Him.  He wanted women to tell the good news too, just as much as men.  The extraordinary thing is how God chose women – the despised of society – to be the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection.  Even when legally their testimony wouldn’t hold up, it was women who first viewed the empty tomb and witnessed Jesus in His full glory as Messiah.

Instead of the misogynous representations of God, Jesus told a parable of the woman who found the lost coin (Luke 15:8), where God was projected in the image of woman!  That goes hand and hand with the two other parables where God is projected as the shepherd (the lost sheep parable) and the father (the prodigal son parable).  In some instances the Holy Spirit has been associated with a feminine character.  The Syrian Didascalia states: "The Deaconess however should be honored by you as the lineage of the Holy Spirit."

Paul took the teachings of Jesus on women to their logical conclusions and encouraged the role of women in the churches he was planting. He had women ministering, Priscilla was teaching Apollos, and there was more opportunity than ever before to have women accepted as equals among men.  As Paul wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28).

We never would have progressed with gender equality if it had not been for the spread of Christianity and that is largely due to the very words of Jesus as recorded in the Bible.  Even today, you can tell the contrast between societies with a Christian basis (like those in the Western countries) and societies that have an Islamic basis who have less freedom and rights for women.  It’s not because these societies have progressed less and are further “behind”, but because without the teachings of Jesus there would be no reason for women to be seen as equals.

Feminism actually makes little sense in an evolutionary worldview.  Sadism makes much more sense based on the “survival of the fittest” mentality.  The reason why it makes more sense is that if “nature” made man stronger than woman then (as Marquis de Sade suggested) “what is, is right”.  Therefore man should, based on the very standard of nature, be able to do whatever he wants to women.  Yet we know that Sadism is wrong, despite how much it complements the Theory of Evolution.

You must be inconsistent if you are an evolutionist in supporting feminism and rights for weaker people (like babies and the elderly).  Christianity provides a basis for rights for all people because all are created in the image of God and deserve to be protected and given the chance to live, not for themselves, but for God and for others.

The Argument from Martyrs

By Bridget Brenton

“They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
- Revelation 12:11

Islam was spread by the sword and the blood of those who opposed Muhammad.  Christianity was also spread with the blood, the blood of the saints and martyrs willing to die the same way as their Lord and Savior did.  The persecution started with Jesus and Paul summed up the attitude of a saint - if an evil world horribly murdered our Master then we should feel honored if the same thing happens to us. 

The word martyr comes from a Greek word meaning witness, and the common usage has come from the New Testament of the Bible.  Thus there were no 'martyrs' before Christianity, it began as a Christian concept from the moment Stephen was stoned for preaching about Jesus at the beginning of the book of Acts.  Islam which came much later borrowed the concept of martyrs from Christianity (as well as many other things). 

When I believed myself to be a Wiccan, I read a lot about how supposed Christians killed witches and burnt people at the stake and all the evils done by Christians but it wasn't until I read the Bible that I saw there was a difference between the true persecuted church and the ones that spread their own agenda in the name of Jesus.  People from the beginning have used God's name to try to justify their own evil practices.  As God is love, those that spread hate in the name of Jesus don't know Him at all!  But God has a special compassion on both the poor and the martyred - "blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake" and gives a promise that those murdered out of a hatred for their witness of God will be avenged.

A book called Foxes Book of Martyrs, which is a classic, documents the beginnings of how Christianity began with the bloodshed of the faithful, especially through Rome where Christians were set alight and thrown to wild beasts for public amusement.  And it makes sense that if the world is evil, as the Bible tells us, under the rule of the wicked one Satan, that there will be opposition to the true church.  And the death toll of the true church climbs because, like with the crucifixion Jesus, the world does not know His followers either.

Today the evidence is that there are more Christian martyrs than ever. The International Society for Human Rights documents that Christians are (by far) the most persecuted religious body on the planet and 80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians. According to the Pew Forum Christian martyrs are made in 139 nations, almost three-quarters of all the countries on earth and it’s said an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed each year for the past decade.  So to put it in perspective, there are 11 Christians killed somewhere in the world every hour, seven days a week and 365 days a year, for reasons related to their faith.

Yet, these stats are changing and not for the better, but for the worse.  Open Doors does studies on the worst 50 countries for Christian persecution and has noted Christian martyr deaths around the globe doubled in 2013 with 2,123 killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. That’s not even counting the accounts of discrimination, imprisonment, harassment, sexual assaults, and expulsion carried out in countries all over the world. 

In North Korea an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 followers of Jesus are suffering in prison camps for “crimes” such as owning a Bible, going to church, or sharing their faith.  It is reported they got the worst treatment in the country because (the same as in ancient Rome) they do not allow the worship of any other being than the Supreme Leader, who expects to be treated as a deity.  Many die of malnutrition, having to exist off insects and/or rats and have to suffer horrible tortures like being forced to drown their own children.

In Syria it is Islam or death and if Christians refuse then they can suffer the most horrible of fates.  Whole churches and villages have been burned to the ground because of the anger over those resisting the Islamic agenda.  India has also been known for this type of persecution.  Women raped, children kidnapped and men brutally killed all because they will not submit to the mighty hand of Islam.  In the African country of Eritrea Christians are sent to prisons which are described as “giant ovens baking people alive.” 

But there is another side to this, just how C.S Lewis said it was wrong to talk about human sufferings without also talking about heaven.  There is an eternal promise that makes sure these persecuted ones do not die in vain.  If it was all in vain it would be a horror upon horrors, but there is hope.  There is a witness of many who know God has heard their cries and will avenge them and give them a future.  I don’t just glibly believe it, I know it to be true, and so do the ones risking their lives for a chance of letting others know what the living, personal God means to them.