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The Apostle Edward Schiavo A Sign of The Bible’s April 1, 2005 News Release An important fact overlooked by millions of people of faith is that God did actually answer their prayers when it came to Terri Schiavo. However, HE gave an answer that millions of people did not like, because they live in an era of prophesied mythology. It is a myth that God heals everyone. It is a myth that God needs 15 years to heal someone. It is also a myth that removing Terri’s feeding tube was wrong in God’s eyes. If something is spiritually afoul in the Schiavo saga, it is that the reality of the kingdom of God that Jesus preached about is no longer acknowledged by the masses, especially Christians. Simply put, why should you grieve for Terri when Jesus told you to rejoice for the righteous, who go back to God the Father? I too believe the Courts have gone astray and that we now have a culture of death in the United States. Still, I found myself in actual agreement with NPR’s Juan Williams on Fox News on Sunday, March 27, 2005. I also found the conservative Schiavo rhetoric extremely offensive, even though I am a conservative. When conservative pundits talked about “killing” and “starving” Terri to death or “judicial homicide” — conservatives engaged in the same Orwellian double speak that liberals do when they talk of being “pro choice.” Here is what I know from my own four-inch thick Schiavo file. Terri was kept alive for fifteen years by direct medical intervention. She was without any cognitive ability the entire time. She could not, for example, simply blink once for yes and twice for no. Or, nod her head. She was not ambulatory. She had to be lifted in and out of bed by other humans. She could not survive without a feeding tube. Removing the tube did not “deny” food and water to a human. Why not? Because the food had to be specially prepared and “injected” into the stomach cavity by an outside attendant. Remove the food preparation service and Terri dies. Remove Terri’s 24-hour attendant and Terri dies. Stop rotating her body on a regular basis and skin ulcers and eventually a pathological infection will attack her body. Equating the removal of Terri’s feeding tube with Nazi death camp starvation is Orwellian language. Equating Terri’s feeding tube and its attendant necessities as not being a form of medical intervention is Orwellian and insulting to most people’s common sense. This Orwellian “life” argument fails completely when it is applied to a 80-90 year old person in a similar circumstance. I.E. Why didn't we keep Pope John Paul's body “alive” for 15 more years? Medical technology can do it! Isn’t that why the Schiavo “life” argument holds little common sense with a population that deals with family death on a regular basis? And, what about the thousands of similar hospice “tubes” removed annually by families without the circus atmosphere and family rancor? Are these families now murderers too? The argument shows biblical illiteracy and a culture of prophesied mythology [2 Tim. 4:3-4 NIV]. It is not a faith argument, but an argument focused and based upon worldly concerns. Our nation’s people used to place its trust and faith in God. Not in the world’s systems or medical technologies. It seems many have forgotten some basic teachings of the Bible: 1. To be a friend of the world — makes one an enemy of God [James 4:4]. 2. The flesh profits nothing — it is the spirit that gives life [John 6:63]. 3. We fully enter into life — when we shed our earthly vessel [Mt 18:8-9]. 4. We should rejoice for spirits who return to God the Father [John 14:28]. 5. We are to pray for God’s will—not our own worldly desires [Mark 14:36]. Terri’s story was not a right to life issue like abortion; it was about a right “of the spirit” to enter its real life. Christ taught that another life exists for us beyond the pale of our earthly body. Christ taught that life begins in the kingdom of God. To fully enter the kingdom of God requires true repentance, faith and an earthly shedding of flesh. Some deaths are easy and some hard. In the case of my own dear wife, I bear witness that her beauty did increase during her death process. I’ve got the pictures to prove it. Many Schiavo comments demonstrate ignorance of the spirit’s need to shed its earthly flesh. There is a natural shedding process, a time to die! I believe it was the right thing to remove the feeding tube and allow Terri’s spirit to pass on with some amount of dignity. After 15-years of medical intervention, her spirit deserved that much from her family and society. I also reject the simplistic idea that Michael Schiavo was an evil man “rushing” to kill his wife. That act doesn’t take 15-years and doesn’t come from a man who gets trained to be a nurse to help Terri and to serve in a Florida state prison. True people of faith in God can stop prolonged medical intervention and place their loved one like Terri into God’s loving hands with prayer, and then allow HIM to make the life or death decision. God doesn’t need medical machinery including feeding tubes to heal people and every case of biblical healing was instant. Seeking government and political intervention along with extended medical intervention after 15-years was not an act of faith in God. It was faith in the world’s systems. All people regardless of their faith should now rejoice for Terri’s new life! Those who worked evil on Terri Schiavo or used her, for whatever reason, and especially for demagoguery or political gain, should know that God repays on HIS timetable. Rev. Edward G. Palmer 4/2/2005 #### The Reverend Edward G. Palmer, aka The Apostle Edward, has written extensively about the issue of Christian mythology in the End Times online at http://www.edwardtheapostle.org. A complete discussion of divine healing is available to read free at this site. Edward points out Bible Scripture and challenges the myth that Christians need to keep bodies artificially alive after exhaustive medical efforts have been made. |
