Assisted Suicide or not....

Guess this title reads like a 'Diagnosis Murder' plot line, or something out of 'Murder She Wrote', but it's a serious title about a serious business.

Assisted Suicide is topical and probably inevitable in our current societal condition, we discuss here whether assisted suicide is a mercy killing or legalised murder.

Getting these hubs together for the 30 hubs in 30 days bit, is a real good way to start writing from the hip on subjects that have been lingering in the subliminal awaiting exposure to the light of day.

My writing always seems to try and look at things from a biblical viewpoint.

That is....what did God say and what does He seem to think about something.

But equally we live in a secular society, so let's see if those opposites can fit together?

I'm trying to get to know God better and every day is a new chance to discover what He wants from me.

I'm 58 and been with Christ for 17 years, my family seem to live into their 90's, so I may have enough time to find out everything I want to know about God, but still I don't want to waste one day, for nobody knows when God will call us away from this mortal coil!

My constant proclamation has been for a long time; that I will live for exactly as long as God wants me to, not one second more, not one second less.

Don't give the enemy the authority to steal one second of your life!

If you have more time than me, (and who knows?) then start finding out who God is as soon as you can, the earlier one starts, the better the relationship will be, why wait until you meet Him before you find the answer to this essential question:

Who do you say I AM?

Terry Pratchett has attracted much publicity to the subject of assisted suicide during the two years since he discovered he was a sufferer of Alzheimer's disease, and that it was not cureable.

Being an obviously highly intelligent writer, with a massive and vivid imagination, one can see why this is a major situation in his life.

Many folk could suffer from Alzheimer's and hardly notice the change personally, for many of us have very little life to lose, but someone like Terry Pratchett knows that as his condition progressed he would be aware that his very personality was dying.

He wants to be able to control his death with dignity.

So we get to the point of assisted suicide.

From a biblical perspective, God retains the right to determine the time of our deaths and does not approve of our involvement in our own or the deaths of others, unless He has instigated it.

So as a bible believing Christian I must reply that assisted suicide is not permitted, mainly because it is the ultimate rebellion against God, the one where you attempt (and succeed) to thwart Gods 'omnipotence' and cheat the system.

In reality God must allow your suicide to take place.

That does not make God less than all powerful, it just makes Him ultimately compassionate even when it is against His wishes and your best interests.

But that concept only practically applies to a believer, for any unbeliever has and is already committing rebellion against God and expects to experience Gods disfavour if God existed, which the unbeliever obviously does not think to be true.

So from a secular perspective, we believers have no right to make them stay alive to satisfy our Gods desires.

And they are right.

Suicides always used to be buried in the outer perimeter of the churchyard or cemetery, to show their exclusion.

I have no idea if that is still the case, not having lived in the UK for 25 years.

But I can see the point, where a willing Church of England wanted to bury someones loved one who was ostensibly a Christian, but had taken their own life.

This is not however the case today, were England is a secular state and the Church of England is more or less a spent force, trying to reinvent itself into a 'broader' church which is all the more 'inclusive' and yet failing miserably to attract the young blood that it requires.

The case for assisted suicide should be put to a referendum, alongside late term abortion, homosexual equality in the workplace, and all the other hot potatoes that keep parliament and the church busy.

In effect it would act as a vote for or against the UK remaining a Christian country with a secular government, or a secular country with a emasculated clergy.

Let the people choose, they are mostly, in any case, living secular lives, even those who profess the Christian faith and attend CoE churches, for they willingly sit under doctrinal error and non scriptural decisions taken by a mostly ineffective Bishopric.

For the record, if anyone really wants to shake off this mortal coil, then all they need to do is surrender their rebellion against Christ, and ask God to remove them from this physical plain.

God may do that, unless He still has a purpose for your life to continue, and that will NOT be your punishment, because although you will have incurred the condition due to sin in your life, God is not vindictive.

He may use your misfortune to gain your attention, but He does not inflict it upon you.

That's Satan's domain.

Where we are in rebellion against God, we are under the power and authority of Satan, and he will try to hurt, disable and kill us especially where we are in rebellion towards God, and before we can get the chance to return to Gods mercy and grace.

But note that I said "unless He still has a purpose for your life to continue" and that should not be missed, for God does know the beginning from the end, and He does have plans for us, and if He decides to keep you here after you have asked to be checked out, then you can be sure that the plan you have to fulfil will be worth hanging around for.

You can bet your life on that!