Calvin Synod Herald, 2002 (103. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
2002-01-01 / 1-2. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 15 Christians Are For Life Rev. Albert W. Kovács In the Providence of God all human beings are created by the heavenly Father, with an equal and unalienable right to life from conception to death. It is the church Members’ responsibility to promote the biblical truths about life and to enlist advocates for the unborn, handicapped, helpless, aged and dying, pursuing their rights through education, law, charity and prayer in the name of the merciful Savior. Following are some voices of the past which afford insights of the faithful still valid today. John Calvin: “...the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to fully enjoy... If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.” Martin Luther: “There should be no trifling with those who are pregnant, but they should be the object of constant care.... For those who have no regard for pregnant women and do not spare the tender fruit are murderers and infanticides.” Josephus (Jewish historian 75 AD): “The law, moreover, enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it; and if any woman appears to have done so, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a human being and diminishing humankind.” Bonhoeffer: “Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life.... The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of life. And that is nothing but murder.” Job 31: “Did not He who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?” Psalm 139: “For Thou didst form my inard parts, Thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb... My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was being made in secret... Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance, in Thy book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Jeremiah 1: “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Paul - Gal. 1: “But when He who set me apart before I was born, and had called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son to me... I returned to Damascus.” Presbyterians 1869: “This Assembly regards the destruction by parents of their offspring before birth with abhorrence, as a crime against God and against nature; and as the frequency of such murders can no longer be concealed, we hereby warn those that are guilty of this crime that, except they repent, they cannot inherit eternal life. We also exhort those who have been called to preach the gospel, and all who love purity and truth, and who would avert the just judgement of Almighty God from the nation, that they be no longer silent or tolerant of these things, but that they endeavor by all proper means to stay the floods of impurity and cruelty.” A PRAYER FOR LIFE Lord of life, how great is Your wisdom in forming humankind so wonderfully from age to age! How great is Your power bringing them to behold the light of day! How great is Your goodness in preserving and multiplying the human race over all the centuries! We thank You, beloved Father, that You have created mothers on earth to be Your own handmaidens in these glorious works of birth, and have made them fruitful by Your divine blessing. Let each be, in the fullness of time, a happy mother, that she may joyfully behold what is concealed beneath her heart. Gather fathers and family, friends and community, around each mother and her silently growing child, that love may descend in torrents and flood every heart, rewarding us with the joys that only Your gift of children can bring to our daily lives. Almighty Creator, bind us all together in our solemn and sacred labors, that the murder of the Innocents may be held back in our time, and the unborn no longer led to death. May our differences with each other, as people of different faith communities, be seen as expressions of the great varieties of gifts You have bestowed upon us individually, and make all hues or shadows pale before the serious and immense tasks we have undertaken together in Your name, for the sake of Your beloved and precious children; for we all pray to You, our Lord, forever One God, world without end. Amen. War Ravaged Church Reconsecrated in Croatia A Reformed Church in Korog, Croatia, was reconsecrated on January 26th, with a crowd of more than 1,000 attending. The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, participated in the event, with his wife and a large Hungarian delegation. The Reformed Bishop of Nagyvarad (Orodea, Romania), the Rt. Rev. Dr. László Tokes, delivered a sermon in which he called the Calvinist church a symbol of the homecoming of Korog’s citizens, who had become refugees during the war years in the Balkans. He noted that the rebuilt edifice now stands as a monument of peace and reconciliation. Orbán remarked that the renewal of the church demonstrated that there always will be Hungarians in Korog. He and his party had visited for two days in Croatia, observing Hungarian life there, and returned to Hungary later that afternoon. Troops of the Yugoslav army entered the Hungarian-inhabited village in 1991, where they had lived for many centuries, and destroyed the homes and the church. Croatia had become independent, but in the effort to recover it many other ethnic groups, like the Hungarians, were also overrun. Then the Chetnik’s came in afterward to pillage what was left. The Hungarian government, greatly concerned about the welfare of the Hungarian minorities outside its borders, created a 200 million forint ($750,000) relief fund to assist in the reconstruction of Hungarian villages following the war’s destruction. The fund assisted the congregation in restoring their house of prayer.
