When does life begin? The answer to that and other questions on this edition of Key Life. Hi, I'm Mike Kellogg and you are now listening to Key Life, where you can find honest answers to honest questions about God's Word. Now, here is Steve. Thanks, Mike. And welcome, Pete Alwinson, who is my pastor. He does this. We do this for a number of reasons, because Pete has a lot of good stuff to say, he's well-read, educated, understands the Bible, and it's nice to have him here because of the answers that he gets to questions. But we also want to make a statement about the church, that while we are a paraturch organization, we are very pro-church. And we don't mention our church's name, but we mention our pastor's name, because we want to make a statement. And finally, and probably more important than the other two reasons. Pete is on the board of directors of Key Life Network Incorporated. He has something to say about my salary, and he's not the kind of person I want to miss with. Hey, listen, we love to get your questions. You got to write them down. Send them to Key Life, post office box 5,000, Madeleine Florida, 32794. Key Life Canada, post office box 32150, Cambridge, Ontario. In 3H5N3, or you can email us at steveatkeylife.org, but do it with your regular mailing address. And you always get a response from me or a staff member on the broadcaster in the magazine. And one other thing, don't use the 1-800 key life number for questions. We get thousands of questions, but we don't answer any that come by the way of phone. You can book them a part of Key Life tapes free. You can get the booklet free. You can get the magazine free. You can get the catalog free. You can make your contribution. But you got to write your question down. And we love to get your questions. We have thousands of questions, and we've never thought of any of them as being done. Right? Right, absolutely. We lead us in prayer. Let's do it. Oh, Father, we have many questions. And we come to you today at the end of the week. And, Lord, sometimes we have more questions than we have answers. And we give those to you. But we're grateful that as we come to you, we know that we're so loved, and we're in the presence of such majesty that we don't have to have all the answers that we can rest in you. And sometimes that's easier than at other times, Father. But today we come. We pray that you'd move into our heart through spirit and give us peace and give us joy. Give us the ability to rest as children who are in the arms of a loving Father. And we praise you, Lord Jesus, for being the very one who came to earth to make that possible through your life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. And we honor you, Lord Jesus, right now. We ask you to give us wisdom as we meet on Sunday to worship that we could give focus to you and that you would meet us as we assemble with your people. The called out ones called by your name. Be with our leaders, priests, and pastors, teachers. Be with the families of our spiritual leaders as well, Lord, and protect them from the enemy. Cause them to be used greatly, but protected by your spirit. We do pray that you'd use this time now and make it worth our while and answer our questions and lead us in the growth. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Pete, this first question is from California. When does life begin at conception, at birth, or somewhere in the middle? A lot of thinking people come from California. Yeah, if you are from California. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. California's are wonderful people, native California. Not those that go away. You know, we're discussing this before or the broadcast. You simply cannot, I don't think, have a biblical position and say any other time, then at conception, at conception, a life is a life. How can you say anything different? I mean, it seems to me that seems obvious. I think this is the defining social issue of our time. I think it's more important than any other social issue, because it goes to the very heart of the biblical witness about human beings and creation. I do think that we have to be very careful in pastors. And pastors, if you're listening right now, you have people in your church who have been through an abortion, and wouldn't dare tell you and are going through really difficult times. So make sure you understand grace and make sure you apply it in that area. I think I've said before on this broadcast, don't have a friend who does not participate nor allows people in his church to participate in pro-life marches. I don't agree with that. It doesn't think we need to stand up and take a stand sometimes. He said, the reason I don't do that is because the people who give you the one-way sign and hawk and say, go get them, they agreed with you before they ever were drove by the march. He said, those who do another finger and scalp said they disagreed with you before the pro-life march, and they're going to continue to disagree. But those who say nothing, who quietly pass you by, will probably have had an abortion or have a friend or somebody they love with an abortion, and they will never again enter the doors of a church. Yes, that's right. And then that is so heavy. I think that we as pastors, you as a Bible teacher, you used to be a pastor, and you're very pastoral. And I think that we have to stand firm and at the same time preach grace. We have to, because if you don't, you end up being self-righteous, and you end up being missing the whole point. We have a former board member. She had a grandchild that went through some sickness, and so it's no longer a board member. She had a big play in our station in Fort Wayne. And he's just wonderful. We just love her to death. But she had a friend that she'd grown up with who was pro-choice, our pro-abortion, and Char obviously is pro-life, and they were both at an event. We're on one side of the road. They had the signs promoting abortion on the other side. The pro-life people were making their statement. She looked across the street and there's her friend that she's loved all these years, and seen her all this time. She went over and they put their signs down, and just hugged each other and wept. And then Char or maybe your friend said, now maybe we can talk. We've got to sit down and rationally discuss this. We have to teach grace, but we can't compromise. You know, just one more on this. I got to tell you, Steve Cohn is a basketball coach here in the city and a good friend of mine. He told me he went over to a game in Tampa that he went by one of the Catholic schools over there, and saw on their lawn, they saw 4,400 white crosses. And there was a sign that said, this is heavy. He said, you know, 4,400 children died today, and they had no choice. Whoa, whoa. And these students had done this and it was just a problem. That didn't make you think, oh man. That was a church and we're in Tampa. It was a Catholic church over in the Tampa area. Yeah, cool. Well, obviously we feel strongly about that. We feel strongly about grace too. If you're listening and if you've had an abortion, welcome to the Center's Club. Jesus, I love you. You just go to him. Don't you let that keep you from him and his forgiveness and his love? You know any different than anybody else, man. We all are sinners and we've done stuff or fought about it that's just as bad. So don't hide it. Find a mature Christian who understands grace. Talk it out. Get it settled. We had a lady in our church. Yeah. Over there. She stood up and gave testimony. She had had an abortion. Years, 20 years before. Oh, I was done. I mean, that was the most powerful thing I ever heard. And I'll tell you about it in the congregation broke out on the blog. And we wanted to give her a standing ovation. That's the way the church ought to be. In the way she had come to understand where her position was that God loved her, that she was forgiven, but she had to speak. She did and she was free once she did. She really was free. Oh, okay. I'm trying to find an easy one here. There's gotta be an easy one. How many books are there in the Bible? I don't know. The 67. I do know the truth, the answer to that one. 68, right? Yeah, 68. Right. This is from Missouri. This is easy. What does the Bible teach you about cremation? Nothing. Nothing. Okay. Go to the next book. Yeah, go. So is it okay? Yeah. I think it really is. I think it simply speeds up. Yeah. The process. Yeah. Okay. So is it okay? Yeah. I think it really is. I think it simply speeds up. Yeah. Yeah. The process. Yeah. What God, what Mother Earth would do anyway. I think that Roman Catholics have rubric against that. You know, I had thought that too. In fact, I had said that on a broadcast. And they don't. Somebody had told me Roman Catholic had talked to me. He said, no, I'll beat you wrong. Okay. But I think some do some down. I don't think it's a monolithic position. Yeah. I don't know. Well, let me see. Oh, we got plenty of. What is the Bible? This is from Florida. What does the Bible teach about our appearance? The wearing of jewelry? The use of makeup? The covering of one's head? Tattoos? And the light? I noticed. You pierced your nose there, Steve. This is not funny. I don't need this right now. But you know that. I'm going to tell the board. No, he didn't do that. Didn't do that. Is it all right? Listen. I don't. I don't. I think the first Peter 3 passage. When it talks about women, but there's a general principle for everybody there. There has to be reasonable propriety as a part of the kinds of things that we do in terms of what we wear. The jewelry that we wear. But I don't think there's any kind of absolute prohibition in the Bible. We just need to be balanced about that. And I don't think God goes, take that ring off. Yeah. Or Nardu. I think he says that's a cool tattoo of a man. But you know, I think there's a balance there. And I think it's a personal adornment is, I mean, it's okay to pursue different forms of personal adornment. Right? I think so. I don't have a better problem with that. We'll probably get some letters on it. You know, what was the passages in some of the Old Testament where there was ritual scarring and tattooing that was connected to allegiance to particular gods. Yeah, that's a different thing. That's a different thing. Yeah, right. But I don't think in terms of external, the point of the first Peter passage is that if our identity is in what we look like, rather than who we are in our position in Christ, then there's a problem. And that's what he says. Ladies, don't let your adornment be external only. And guys, I mean, in bodybuilding and stuff, you know, where is susceptible is that? Sure. Good answer. We're quite balanced. You know what I mean? Between the two of us. Yeah, right. What? Let me see how we're doing. Well, maybe we'll, let's see. Why did God allow us this man to fall? That's from Ohio. For his glory. That's right. Man, I don't know. Other than that, for his glory. This is his show. And that was a part of the show. And the fact that we did not know him and were falling and he saved us. Rises up to praise and glorify the God of the universe. And that's what his whole thing is all about. I like it. I like it. I like it. Let's stick with it. You don't want to talk about super-o-lite serianism. I don't like serianism at all at first. We could. Well, I can't. I mean, I can't even celebrate. Guys, we got to get out of here. Whenever you write a call, would you be sure and give us the call letters of this great station? Not a lot of people. Make this broadcast possible. And we like to know exactly who they are. So when you write a call, give us the call letters of the station. And one other thing. Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.