All Articles For Walking in the Light

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. A couple of years ago when this country first became alarmed at the rapid spread of AIDS, Rev, Jerry Falwell expressed the opinion that this dreaded disease was the judgment of God on the sin of homosexuality. The howl that arose from the media reverberated from one end of the country to the other. If it was within their power, the media leaders would undoubtedly have tarred and feathered him and ridden him out of the country on an iron rail. More disturbing was the...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Some who have come to the defense of current views on homosexuality have made use of a distinction which we must consider in this article. The distinction is between the actual act of homosexuality and the tendency towards homosexual behavior. The former is the actual engaging in homosexual behavior; the latter is an inborn tendency towards homosexual behavior which does not necessarily result in performing homosexual acts. The distinction is very common. John R.W. Stott calls attention to this distinction in an article in the November 22,...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. We have been examining the question of the origin of homosexuality in the light of a distinction which is often made between a tendency towards this sin and the actual performance of homosexual acts. Many believe that a man is not responsible for his homosexuality because he is born a homosexual and can do nothing about this tendency of his nature. He cannot fight it; he cannot be changed; he is a prisoner of his genes. It is interesting to note (though we do it by way...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Genetic Engineering In our last article we began to call attention to some of the truths of Scripture which have to be considered as we approach this whole question from a Biblical point of view. We mentioned three items: 1) That just because science is able to do something, this does not mean that per se what science does is morally permissible. Man must rule science, not science man. 2) That the whole theory lying behind genetic experimentation and engineering is evolutionistic and humanistic. 3) That...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Dying was once, from a certain point of view, a rather simple matter. A person grew up, took up his life’s work, worked hard (usually without vacation) until he was in his sixties or seventies, and after his “threescore and ten years” or “fourscore years if strength was great,” he died. He never thought of retirement, social security, pension plans, spending his “golden years” profitably. He lived and worked—and went to his eternal reward. As is true of so many things in life, modern...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Sometime ago when I was discussing in this series of articles the evil of abortion, I mentioned the fact that in some places aborted fetuses were being used for experimental purposes. Some called into question whether this was really being done. Just today I was reading an article which appeared in the October 12, 1987 issue of World (Vol. 2, No. 19) in which an aspect of this matter is reported. I thought it worthwhile to interrupt our discussion of euthanasia to quote at length from...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The problem of euthanasia is a difficult and complex one, partly because the term is used for so many different procedures and under so many different circumstances. Generally speaking, the term can refer: to withholding of that which is necessary to sustain life. But one can withhold life support equipment such as respirators or heart-lung machines; one can even withhold food and water, whether given by mouth or given intravenously. That is one kind of euthanasia, usually called. passive euthanasia. But there is another...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In previous articles we have attempted to point out the complexity of the problem of so-called euthanasia and see some of the ramifications of it in our present-day society. In the next two articles, we have to try to come to some conclusions on the matter and offer some guidelines for our thinking. We live in a very strange world, made strange by the presence of sin. Indeed, as the night of sin grows darker and iniquity abounds, the strange inconsistencies of life in...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In Vitro Fertilization In our last article on this subject we introduced the subject of in vitro fertilization (IVF). This is the process by which conception takes place outside the womb of the mother in a test tube or petri dish. It is a technique used for married couples who have exhausted every medical means of having children and remain childless. By this method ova are taken from the wife, sperm from the husband, and the ova of the wife are fertilized in the laboratory. When...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. [Note. This is a continuation of the subject under discussion at the conclusion of Installment #9, in which Prof. Hanko was quoting from Bibliotheca Sacra.] — Even more revolting is another technique which results from IVF to which Bibliotheca Sacra refers in the same article. Almost daily, new advances in artificial reproduction further erode the biblical categories of marriage, procreation, and family. For example researchers have developed a technique in animals that will soon allow lesbian couples to have children. Already lesbians have used artificial insemination...