Prayer and the End of Abortion

Thanks to the leadership of Respect Life of the Archdiocese of Miami, 40 Days for Life has finally come to Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the abortion capital of the Southeast United States. Thousands more will be praying at 249 additional sites across America and in four other countries.

Why fast and pray for forty days in front of an abortion clinic? 

Abortion is first and foremost a spiritual issue. According to Jesus, Satan is a murderer, a liar and the father of all lies (John 8:44). He "...comes to steal and kill and destroy.” (John 10:10 ESV). Based on these statements, I believe Satan is the architect of abortion. Murder and deception are endemic to the abortion industry, making abortion a Satanic enterprise.

Our first strategy, therefore, in bringing an end to abortion, is prayer.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:11-13 ESV)

Jesus Christ has triumphed over Satan and the demonic forces behind abortion, "...having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Colossians 2:25 NIV) 

The Church is the only institution spiritually equipped to engage the Satanic forces behind abortion. Therefore, the Church should lead the effort to end abortion.

Abortion is a gospel issue. The gospel can change the heart of an abortion minded mother to make a life affirming decision. The gospel can change the heart of those who participate and are invested in the abortion industry and those in government protecting the state sanctioned killing. The gospel alone provides the hope of forgiveness, healing and restoration for the post-abortive. 

Here is our mandate, 

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  

(2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV)

Is prayer changing the abortion industry?

Shawn Carney, 40 Days for Life Campaign Director, recently reported some of the results of the last seven prayer campaigns:

*15,000+ church congregations have participated in 40 Days for Life campaigns

    

* Reports document 5,045 lives that have been spared from abortion -- and those are just the ones we know about

* 61 abortion workers have quit their jobs and walked away from the abortion industry

* 21 abortion facilities have completely shut down following local 40 Days for Life campaigns outside their doors

* Women and men have been spared from the effects of abortion, including a lifetime of regrets

  

* Many people with past abortion experiences have begun post-abortion healing and recovery

The responsibility to end abortion lies with the Church. Jesus promised, “...the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 

According to ChristianNewsWire.com (02-08-12), 

“With 251 locations, this will be the largest springtime 40 Days for Life campaign in history. 40 Days for Life consists of 40 days of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion, 40 days of constant, peaceful vigil outside abortion centers and Planned Parenthood offices and 40 days of pro-life community outreach.”

If you live in Southeast Florida, you may sign up to pray for an hour (or more) a week - for six weeks in front of Planned Parenthood's abortion clinic in Pembroke Pines or Choice For Women in Miami. If not find an abortion facility in your area. See the list of participating communities and sign up online at: www.40daysforlife.com/location.

The Truth Protects the Unborn

(This is the response to a Facebook posting advocating that “government get OUT of peoples personal lives” and let “...people and families make there own decisions based on there beliefs about this [abortion] issue.)

If we allow truth, and therefore jurisprudence, to be defined subjectively by “...people and families [who] make there own decisions based on there beliefs about this issue,” we will live in anarchy and moral chaos. For example one group could advocate their right to have sex with your underage children and according to your premise, they should have the right to do so.

Society and its laws must appeal to a moral standard that transcends their own human inclinations. Hence western civilization, flawed as it has been, has been built on both natural law (e.g. it is counter intuitive for a mother to kill its young) and transcendent law, in the West historically Judeo-Christian values. 

That is the philosophical underpinning of the U. S. Constitution.

The founding fathers understood this and therefore charged government with the responsibility, of among other things, protecting human life, noting that these “self-evident” “rights” had their source in “their Creator,” not government, politicians, or any other human institution. 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (emphasis mine)

Justice Harry Blackmun who wrote the prevailing argument in Roe v. Wade, acknowledged that his case would fail if the personhood of the unborn could be established. Here is what he wrote, "If this suggestion of personhood [of the unborn] is established, the [abortion rights] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment." 

Subsequent to the writing of Roe v. Wade in 1973, with the discovery of DNA, it has been scientifically established that the unborn are human from the moment of conception. That debate is over. 

For example, Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, M.D. of Harvard University Medical School, agrees, "…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception." I could site  endless numbers of scientists who have drawn the same conclusion from the medical/scientific evidence. 

Therefore pro-life apologist, Scott Klusendorf, is correct when he says that, "…elective abortion unjustly takes the life of a defenseless human being. ..killing him or her to benefit others is a serious moral wrong."

The advocates for a woman’s right to kill her unborn child know they have lost the argument that life in the womb is merely a "tissue mass" or a "product of conception." 

From both a legal and moral perspective, therefore, the central issue in the abortion debate is not "women's rights" or a “woman’s right to choose,” but the "human rights, the "civil rights" of the unborn. You cannot extend to a woman the right to kill her unborn child, as the U. S. Court has done, without at the same time denying her child the “unalienable” right to live, guaranteed by the U. S. constitution.

The question we should ask is, in light of the irrefutable evidence 

that life begins at conception, why has the Supreme Court not reversed its ruling that denied the personhood of the unborn?

Why do politicians continue to support state sanctioned killing of unborn children?

Perhaps John Piper has exposed the reason. He writes, 

"…when people benefit from wrongdoing or wrong-thinking,

they will turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the mounting evidence for what is right and what is true.The mind selectively sees what will justify the desires of the heart. In the end that is what must be changed."

That is why the abortion issue is ultimately a gospel issue. Jesus Christ alone, can change the human heart to embrace the truth revealed both in nature (science) and the His revelation of truth to man, the Bible. 

Listen to the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday message, given January 29, 2012 at Pines Baptist Church entitled. "The Gospel, Abortion & the Church," from which much of this response came. Listen online or download from their media site The Sanctity of Life - January 29 at http://www.pinesbapt...hurch.org/media