http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2008/01/19/religion/dpt-intheory12.txt

 

 

http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2008/04/03/religion/dpt-spiritualguidance03292008.txt

 

 

http://www.templeisaiahoc.org/

(...as published in the Daily Pilot)

 

 

IN THEORY:

Assisted death helpful or harmful?

 

[Published: Friday, July 4, 2008 10:55 PM PDT]

 

 

Daily Pilot: "Washington state voters may decide in November whether to approve a Death With Dignity act. The referendum would let doctors prescribe lethal drugs to terminal patients judged to have less than six months to live. Where do you stand on this issue and why?"

 

Pastor Tomlinson: I am not in favor of physician assisted suicide although I have great sympathy for those who live with chronic pain. I believe human life is God-given and therefore sacred.

 

The Bible says in Genesis 2:7 these words: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: And man became a living soul."

 

It is my conviction that life belongs to the God who gave it, and we should not lightly take it, nor should we help others to do so. Compassionate physicians should do everything they can to make people as comfortable as medically possible, and we should have the right to decide whether or not a physician uses artificial means to prolong our lives, but it is not our right, nor our physicians, to prematurely end our lives.

 

God's desire is that each of us reflect on eternity and use whatever time He allows us on this earth to prepare to meet Him in the afterlife. That preparation is done in our response to the gospel message of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my belief that we should not help anyone end their own life before God is ready to take it. How do we know but what the Lord may use a terminal illness to show a person their need of His saving grace?

 

Pastor Dwight Tomlinson

 

Liberty Baptist Church

 

Newport Beach

 

 

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