Further decline in marriage in Scotland
WHAT is painfully obvious to those who have a Biblical perspective of marriage is confirmed by recent statistics: marriage is being increasingly devalued. The Register General’s Annual Report shows that the total number of marriages recorded in Scotland in 1996 is 30,242; that is 421 fewer than in 1995, and the fewest since 1909. A quarter of those who married had been married previously.
One reason for this decrease is that an increasing number of couples are opting for living together: a way of life that is not frowned upon by society, let alone condemned as immoral. In fact, the Director of Marriage Counselling Scotland said earlier this year, “I think that’s a perfectly sensible thing to do…. We don’t talk about married couples, we talk about long-term committed intimate relationships…. The way people live their lives is up to them, as long as it does not have an adverse effect on other people. If they want to live together they should do that.” At the same time, an Aberdeen University sociologist, commenting on co-habitation, said, “I don’t think it means that we are a weaker or less moral society.”
Such statements indicate disgraceful ignorance, or defiant rejecting, of the Divine standard. Part of God’s prescription for the welfare of mankind is marriage. It is He who has instituted it, and it is at our peril that we replace it by a lifestyle that is most decidedly immoral by its flagrant breaking of the Seventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
Princess Diana and her fortune-teller
PRINCESS DIANA’S recent visit to a medium in the Derbyshire village of Lower Pilsley raises disturbing questions. While she is no longer the wife of the heir to the throne, she has tremendous influence over many people in Britain and beyond. Apparently she was introduced to Rita Rogers, her medium, by the Duchess of York, who has also frequently consulted her. When two women so closely connected with the British royal house are indulging in practices condemned so emphatically by the Word of God, it is a clear indication of how seriously the nation as a whole has departed from giving to God the place that is to due Him as the ruler of providence.
Mrs. Rogers claims to be able to contact the dead. She is said to have passed on messages to Diana from her late father and claims that the Princess has found them “profoundly comforting”. But it is profoundly disturbing to find people giving false comfort to those who have suffered the sadness of losing loved ones. In her book, Reaching for the Children, Mrs Rogers describes, it is reported, “many moving encounters with the bereaved, desperate to achieve contact with those they have loved and lost”. What is certain, however, is that she has had no contact with any human being who has passed through death into eternity.
The words of God to Israel are sufficiently strong and clear to convince everyone to refuse to have anything whatever to do with such an evil and dangerous practice, if they are willing to listen to God: “There shall not be found among you any one that . . . that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer [literally, one making enquiries to the dead]. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord” (Deut 18:10): It is obviously no light sin to be involved in such practices.
It seems incredible that anyone would continue to consult a medium who has been so far out in some of her predictions. For instance, the Duchess of York, after an air disaster Orr Long Island, New York, became convinced through talking to Mrs Rogers that a friend of hers was among the dead. In fact, he was 3000 miles away in Los Angeles; he is still alive. Even more seriously, when a friend of the Duchess attempted suicide, this fortune-teller insisted that the friend would repeat the attempt — and succeed. Thankfully this friend is still alive also. Another woman who consulted Mrs Rogers asserted that she was a charlatan and added, “She was off the mark with everything she said.”
But the main point is not whether the predictions of someone who claims to be a medium turn out to be accurate. There is always a chance that any forecast may turn out to be accurate, especially if — as is often the ease — such predictions are couched in vague terms. Fortune-telling is a work of darkness. The Devil cannot know the future, but he is highly intelligent and can surely make a shrewd assessment of how the future may turn out. We
need not therefore be surprised if a number of these predictions turn out to be correct.
There can only be one response to all manifestations of the occult: “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” But it is a sad comment on this generation, that influential figures take decisions on the basis of what they are told by those who are involved in the occult. One is reminded of Elijah’s question: “Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?” Rather, in all their perplexities of every kind, everyone is to “come boldly to the throne of grace”, where God still hears the prayers of those who cry to Him.
K. D. M.
Mercy killing — a question of intent
LAST month two doctors in England “separately decided to break cover and confess to the mercy killing of terminally ill patients”. Their professed aim was to highlight, even at the risk of prosecution, the present situation where, they claim, mercy killing is widespread under the guise of relieving pain.
At present, it is perfectly legal for a doctor to use whatever dose of drugs is required to relieve pain, but illegal to use drugs in any dose where the intention is to end life. The British Medical Association, to its credit, maintains that this distinction must be upheld, otherwise the doctor might be seen as an agent of death, and trust be lost.
The point at issue may seem a fine one but if any one is in doubt as to the importance of it one has only to look across the channel to Holland where a Dr Chabot admitted to helping a healthy woman of 51 end her life in 1991. He had agreed that she was hopelessly depressed after the death of her two sons. Dr Chabot was charged with malpractice, but was acquitted after judges accepted that a patient’s psychological suffering was as valid a reason for seeking euthanasia as physical suffering.
The question of intent ought to be jealously guarded and rigorously reinforced by the law.
“For as he thinketh in his heart so is he,” (Proverbs 23:7).
J. R.T.