What made it OK for God to kill women and children in the Old Testament?

Reading passages in the Old Testament we can often be appalled by the large extent of the loss of human life. John Piper offers this helpful answer to a question often raised by these parts of the Bible.

Petition on Assisted Suicide

Here are the contents of an email I’ve just received and I thought I’d share it with you. Please sign the petition to voice the importance of protecting human life.

DEAR BROTHERS & SISTERS IN THE LORD 

PLEASE CIRCULATE 

Dear all, 

I was very surprised to find yesterday on the Prime Minister’s website 

several petitions calling for assisted suicide to be made legal, but none 

calling for the law to remain unchanged. 

So yesterday I have started a new petition on the No. 10 Downing Street 

website to keep the law as it is. It has attracted 8 signatures during its 

first few hours. 

I look to the Christian community in particular to support and promote 

this petition, which you’ll find at: 

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/notolegalsuicide 

It says: “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to retain the law 

that makes it a criminal offence to assist another person to commit 

suicide”. 

I explain my reasons as follows: 

QUOTE 

The law currently makes it a criminal offence to assist another person to 

commit suicide. There has been a stream of media stories about British 

people travelling to Dignitas in Switzerland to be killed because they 

wish to end their lives. These are all very tragic stories. However, it is 

important to note that in recent years no-one in Britain has been 

prosecuted for taking their relatives to Switzerland to die, nor in 

respect of other cases of assisted suicide in the U.K. 

But to decriminalise assisted suicide would – as many commentators have 

observed – make many elderly people vulnerable to relatives who may have 

ulterior motives for wishing them to die early. 

The law as it is acts as a deterrent to those wishing to assist a relative 

to die early. There is therefore a very strong case NOT to change the law, 

despite the increasing clamour in some quarters for assisted suicide to be 

made legal. 

. 

UNQUOTE 

Please get this petition off to a good start – today is its second day. 

Just click on the link above and follow the instructions carefully. It’ll 

take you 2-3 minutes to complete. 

Thanks! 

Tony Bennett 

  01279 635789  

Sent to contacts Thurs., 30 July 2009