The National Right to Life Committee has reported that there have been 54,559,615 abortions since the U. S. Supreme Court sanctioned abortion 39 years ago (Roe v. Wade & Doe v. Bolton). That's an average of 3,832 unborn babies killed every day, for 39 years.
Listen to God's response to Judah, through the prophet Jeremiah, after years of child sacrifice to the pagan (demon) god Molech (Psalm 106:37).
"...they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children. They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it has never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! So beware, for the time is coming, says the Lord, when this garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For I will upset the careful plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will allow the people to be slaughtered by invading armies, and I will leave their dead bodies as food for the vultures and wild animals. I will reduce Jerusalem to ruins, making it a monument to their stupidity. All who pass by will be astonished and will gasp at the destruction they see there. I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all the food is gone. Then those trapped inside will eat their own sons and daughters. they will be driven to utter despair.” (Jeremiah 19:4,5,7-9 NLT)
What makes us think that God views human life as any less inviolate today? What makes us think that thousands of years later, America will escape divine retribution?
The notion that there is a consequence for the shedding of innocent blood is found throughout the Scriptures - Old and New Testament. (See Genesis 9:5,6 and Revelation 6:10) It is the inevitable retribution of a Holy and just God. He takes the pre-meditated killing of those created in His image very seriously - He always has and always will.
God sternly warned Israel, years in advance, not to engage in the pagan sacrifice of their children to the demon god Molech. But there was also a warning to those who turned a blind eye to the killing.
“I myself will turn against them and their families and will cut them off from the community.” (See Leviticus 20:5 NLT)
Our ambivalence and disregard for the relentless killing of human life through abortion, evidenced by our apathy and silence, is not going unnoticed any more than the killing itself. Rev. Flip Benham, of Operation Save America has said,
"It [abortion] is THE major issue. It is why God is draining America's wealth, it is why 19 guys with box cutters can bring this nation to its knees, it is why there are many judgments on this land. We are sacrificing His children."
In Ezekiel chapter five, the prophet warns Israel of the impending judgment. But his warning extended beyond Israel, even to us in 21st century America.
“So I will turn you [Jerusalem] into a ruin, a mockery in the eyes of the surrounding nations and to all who pass by. You will become an object of mockery and taunting and horror. You will be a warning to all the nations around you. They will see what happens when the Lord punishes a nation in anger and rebukes it, says the Lord.” (Ezekiel 5:14,15 NLT)
We have been warned. As George Mason, one of the Founding Fathers of our nation, stated,
“As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punished national sins, by national calamities.”
Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas of Elijah Ministries and Operation Save America, has written,
“To those who have ears to hear, it is time to bear the reproach and follow Jesus outside the mainstream camp of American Christianity (Hebrews 13:3). We must unashamedly connect the dots to God’s truth, warnings, and judgments with the corresponding reality facing our nation. These natural disasters, pestilence, plagues, wars and civil strife are not the results of coincidence or a string of bad luck. America has sowed to the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind.”
As the Church, we should be willing to shoulder the responsibility of ending abortion. First is the need for repentance. Repentance for abortion in the church and repentance for our silence and ambivalence in the face of the holocaust taking place around us. Peter issued the challenge,
“For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household.”
(1 Peter:4:17 NLT)
Will God extend mercy to a nation guilty of the innocent bloodshed of over 54 million unborn? King Manasseh of Judah sacrificed his own son to Molech as he led his nation in the killing. (2 Kings 21:6) He paid a price. The Assyrians put a ring through his nose, bound him in chains as they led him away to Babylon. Later, in deep distress, he sought the Lord and in His mercy, the Lord returned him to Jerusalem and his kingdom.
(2 Chronicles 33:6-13)
God will hear our prayer if we repent and seek him. King Asa led the people of Judah in a great spiritual revival, destroying pagan idolatry and seeking God. After God delivered King Asa and Judah from a million man army, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Azariah,
“Listen, all you people of Judah and Benjamin! the Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without the Law to instruct them. But whenever they were in trouble and turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him out, they found him.”
(2 Chronicles 15:2-4 NLT)
Secondly, it’s a matter of obedience to the Great Commission. Abortion has always been first and foremost a gospel issue. The gospel elevates each unborn child to the their rightful place as the image bearing creation of God. After all Jesus Christ entered our world through the womb of Mary and died that even the unborn might have eternal life. Why the reluctance of the American pulpit to speak the truth about abortion wrapped in the gospel? After all, it is
"Godly sorrow that brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret."
(2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV)
The Gospel is the only power that can regenerate the human heart, transforming it to make life affirming decisions in the face of unplanned or even unwanted pregnancy. It is the only power that can change the heart of those who participate and are invested in the abortion industry - and those in government protecting their practice. And it provides the only hope of forgiveness, healing and restoration for the post-abortive.
"...the time is now,” says Flip Benham, “for the Church to rise up and wait not for political parties, or the president, or Congress, or the Supreme Court to take care of the issue. It is our responsibility. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. Abortion will come to an end, when the Church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will end - and not one second sooner."
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