re: Does IVF create abortions?

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I’m assuming you will not be using chemotherapy, a vent or ECMO and have a medical will that stipulates to that.

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Surely you realize that those procedures are ordered towards the preservation of life and do not include the destruction or mangling of life along the way, right?

The analogy you gave and one from earlier in the thread about organ transplants breaks down when considering the differences with elective IVF, and IVF's inherent potential for destroying and damaging life.

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Well then you would have no problem explaining to others or starting threads about the sin of masterbation and lust?

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Lust and porn consumption are sins and are pretty commonly discussed in the Reformed communities (online) where I spend time. I will say that they're less common from the pulpit, but there is no ambiguity about where the church stands.

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sports betting, smoking, or beer drinking in the South

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Dude what south did you grow up in If it's Louisiana, I get it

In Georgia and Alabama Baptist churches, it was VERY common to hear the dangers of alcohol from the pulpit in my youth.

In general I think it's fair to say that there are certain sinful practices that have gotten disproportionate attention from the Church. You can argue that for most of the current era there was too much focus on the sin of homosexuality OR at least not enough focus on the sin of sex outside of marriage, lust or other sexual sin.

I think there are non-hypocritical reasons for that to some extent, for example because the push for approval of premarital sex or the like hasn't been quite as direct and authoritative as the push for acceptance of homosexuality. But in general I don't think your criticism is entirely off. I do think it is mostly irrelevant to abortion, which regardless of hypocrisy elsewhere should nonetheless get the Church's full attention.

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It doesn't surprise me that many in that denomination don't see an issue with IVF as a result.

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Feel free to peruse the thoughts of the Reformed Baptist community on IVF

You're making a lot of assumptions in this thread, per normal.

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I haven’t heard too many sermons on sports betting, smoking, or beer drinking in the South but I have heard quite a few on abortion and other politically divisive issues

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You are obviously very tied into the church scene. Thanks for the posts.

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Surely you realize that those procedures are ordered towards the preservation of life and do not include the destruction or mangling of life along the way, right?

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They are obviously “playing God” as the OP delineated the issue and followed up in subsequent posts. If that is not the issue, then they shouldn’t use it pretending that it’s the issue.

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even though it's a stretch to call yourself Reformed when all the reformers baptized infants.

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I'll let them know when I see them

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I'll let them know when I see them

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Good deal. Give them a copy of Iustitia Dei by Anglican theologian Alister McGrath too. It might interest them to know that a detailed analysis of early church history has shown that the system of justification they were trying to return to didn't actually exist until they invented it.

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The thief on the cross

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Died under the old covenant, and even if he didn't (he did), that doesn't then necessitate the exception to become the rule.

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Faith Alone by Sproul

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Great book, and one which completes the set. Iustitia Dei for a deep-dive into what Christian's believed from 33-today, and Faith Alone for an analysis of what Protestant Christian's have believed since the reformation.

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And yet he was in Paradise that very day with Jesus?

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Depends. There are no punctuation marks in the original Greek of Luke 23:42-43.

So the passage could be read as, “Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.” On this reading, “today” refers not to when the good thief will be with Jesus in paradise, but to when Jesus tells the good thief that he will be with him in paradise. This would make the most sense since Jesus later tells the disciples after the resurrection that he had not yet gone into his kingdom.

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My theological understanding of the old covenant is all screwed up, I guess.

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I wasn't implying that people who died under the Davidic covenant can't go to Heaven, if that's how you took it, but rather the Protestant use of the good thief to support their new covenant sola fide doctrine that didn't exist for 1.5 millenia after Christ can't apply to the good thief like they think it does, because he didn't die under that covenant.