Genesis 3:15; 4:8-10; 9:5-6
Deuteronomy 21:1-9
Before we
begin I want to acknowledge that for many abortion is a controversial subject and
may be difficult perhaps even painful for some to think about. I know it is
likely that someone here this morning has been touched by an abortion. If that
is your experience, while you cannot escape the truth about abortion nor some
of the consequences of your abortion, please know there is hope in the gospel
of Jesus Christ. We will never understand God's grace apart from God's truth. But
God's truth will always lead us to God's grace.
It is my
personal conviction that abortion is a gospel issue. In other words, you cannot
address abortion from a Biblical perspective without acknowledging that God has
made every provision through the death of His Son Jesus Christ to forgive, heal
and restore those who have been involved in the abortion of a child. The blood
of Jesus Christ is sufficient to cleanse us from any and every sin through
repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
I'll never
forget what I heard from your Pastor, probably eight years ago now when I took
him to visit the Hope Women's Center in Miramar. That center was closed in 2008
due to lack of finances to keep it open. Hope is a pregnancy resource center that
provides free pregnancy tests, free options counseling, free limited obstetric
ultrasound, the Gospel and more for women and men facing an unplanned and often
unwanted pregnancy. I introduced him to the center director, Hope Remy, and
this is what he said. "If you ever have a girl who is pregnant and has no
where to go, call me and we will take her in." That's the heart of you
pastor.
If your
life has been touched by an abortion in any way, or if this morning you face an
unplanned pregnancy and don't know what to do, there is help here. Share you
need with one of the leaders here. You are in a safe place in this church. I am personally
so glad this morning that the gospel is God's powerful remedy for my sin and
yours.
I intentionally
made the title of this message personal, hoping each of us would take the
responsibility that the Lord wants us to bear for the shedding of innocent
blood, in our community, realizing that as we look at a Biblical response to
the shedding of innocent blood, there is value if not, a desperate need, for us
to see how God would have each of us respond not just as a community of
believers but as individuals committed to obey the gospel and Biblical truth.
Last year,
Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas in his pamphlet, Field
Manual for Abortion Ministry, raised these two questions that have continued
to trouble me for months now.
"What
does Christianity look like in a nation that murders its own children?"
If you are
a Christian, how would you answer that question?
Question
number two,
"Has the
church failed to be prolife or have we failed to be Christian when it comes to
rescuing our neighbors scheduled to be dismembered?"
These are
weighty questions. Perhaps the fact that there is even the need to ask the
questions, should concern us. Doesn't it seem almost counterintuitive that one
would need to ask these questions of the church? It reminds me of God's
response to his people, the nation of Judah, as they sacrificed their own children
to the pagan demon god Molech. The prophet Jeremiah in two places records God's
words of disbelief,
“…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
never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!" (Jeremiah 19:4-5 NLT)
Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas
writes, "...I believe this cruel act is so foreign to God's commandments,
character, and will that he refuses to acknowledge it. In other words, this
despicable practice is so far off the charts, so beyond the pale, that God will
not dignify it with any sense of rationality. For parents to sacrifice their
own children in order to obtain a better life is unthinkable in the mind of
God." (Abortion Violation, pg.
28)
Shedding
innocent blood is the Biblical term for the unjustified taking of a human life.
It is the Biblical term that best describes abortion. In 1973, two U. S.
Supreme Court decisions, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalized abortion in
all 50 states during all nine months of pregnancy for virtually any reason.
This
plunged America into a national tragedy that has proved to be unparalleled in
our 329 years of history, as the abortion death toll in America is estimated to
be approaching 58 million unborn children. (57,762,169 - estimate by Dr.
Randall K. O’Bannon National Right to Life Committee education director.)
As
we seek to answer the question before us, we begin where the Scriptures begin,
with creation. The creation account identifies who man is. Understanding this is
critical to understanding how to respond to the shedding of innocent blood.
The
creation account indicates that man was created by God. Genesis 1:26a (ESV) Then
God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." Genesis
2.7 "then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature."
This is the
consistent and repeated declaration of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Man
was created by God.
According
to the apostle Paul it is the foundation of a Biblical worldview. In Romans
1:25, he writes of the consequence of
rejecting God's disclosure of Himself in creation or natural revelation, and
the refusal to honor Him as God, "...they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."
In other words according to Paul, there are ultimately only two worldviews. One
denies there is a Creator and therefore worships the creation. The other
acknowledges the Creator and worships that Creator. As Peter Jones writes,
"To
speak in postmodern terms, there are only two 'metanarratives'---an ultimate
story from within the universe, or an ultimate story from outside the universe.
A word from within, or a Word from without.
Either creation is divine or the Creator is
divine. It is one or the other, but cannot be both. To claim that creation is
divine is to deny true divinity to the Creator." (One or Two? pg. 89)
You
see, modern evolutionary theory, that governs the thinking of 21st century
America, denies the existence of the Creator and therefore postulates that man
was the product of a meaningless, random evolutionary process over billions of
years, the result of a cosmic accident. Therefore man is just another animal who
has risen to the top of the evolutionary chain having succeeded in the survival
of the fittest.
Man
has no intrinsic value by virtue of his origin, because he has denied the
existence of the Creator. That is secular America today. He is therefore
accountable to no one but himself. In essence this is the self-deification of
man. Having denied the existence of God, man becomes his own god and answers to
no one but himself. This is the prevailing worldview of 21st century western civilization.
It is the worldview that makes room for the shedding of innocent blood.
This
was illustrated by an article written by Mary Elizabeth Williams in the online
website, salon.com. Perhaps you remember I shared it with you two years ago. The
title of her article says it all. "So What if abortion Ends a Life" Subtitle:
"I believe that life starts at conception. And it's never stopped me from
being pro-choice." In the article she acknowledges that the children she aborted
were human beings, nevertheless she goes on to say, "All life is not
equal....a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the
woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for
her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the
non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always."
Despite
acknowledging that life begins at conception and that the unborn are human
beings she defends her right to kill her unborn children based on the survival
of the fittest, the basic and necessary tenant of atheistic Darwinian
evolutionary theory. No accountability to transcendent moral truth because of
the denial of a transcendent Creator.
The creation account also indicates that man
was created in God’s image and likeness Genesis
1:27 (ESV), "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created them." Pediatrician, Dr. Rendle-Short identifies some of the
Godlike qualities man shares with God. As human beings, we share these Godlike
qualities: language, humans can
communicate. Sometimes when I leave the house I say to my dog, "Good by
Maggie." She has never yet responded to me by saying , "See you
later, Jim!" She's not created in the image of God with the capacity for
language to communicate. Intelligence, man
can think. Creativity, man can create
complex products. Think of that the next time your are forty thousand feet in
the air flying across the country. Love,
man can live in relationships, have fellowship, live in community. Holiness, man has a moral conscience, can
tell right from wrong. Immortality, man is eternal and will live
for ever; freedom, man can make
choices. This is “because he is human, made in the image of God.” (John
Rendle-Short, M.D, “Man: The image of God”)
In
other words, man resembles God. This is what gives us the capacity to know God.
It is why God could communicate personally with Adam and Eve in the Garden. It
also gives us the ability to represent God, in his creation as we see in verse
28 that follows. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue
it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens
and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28 ESV) Oswald
T. Allis has said, “Man is made in the image and likeness of God. This sets him
apart from all the other creatures and entitles him to have dominion over them.
He is the climax of the creation...”
The Biblical record also
verifies the personhood of the unborn. This
speaks directly to the issue of abortion. We see personhood in God’s
relationship to the unborn. This is just one of multiple examples found in
Scripture. God
said of the prophet Jeremiah “Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated
you; appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)
Do
you see the personhood of Jeremiah while in the womb? God viewed him as a
distinct and unique person with a specific calling on his life all before he
was even born. In fact God says He knew Jeremiah before he there was even any
physical manifestation of him in the womb.
The
biological and scientific evidence is consistent with the Biblical case for
life. Science verifies that human life begins at conception. That debate ended
years ago with the discovery of DNA present in the first cell of human
development. Professor
Micheline Matthews-Roth, M.D. of Harvard University Medical School writes,
"…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins
at conception…”
Friends, the Biblical evidence is clear. Man is created by God and for God. Man is created in His image and likeness. The unborn are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons from the moment of conception. Man is charged with exercising dominion over creation. Understanding this truth is critical in forming a Biblical worldview that informs and shapes our response to the shedding of innocent blood. The Biblical creation account then, provides us with the foundation for cherishing and protecting human life from the moment of conception.
Friends, the Biblical evidence is clear. Man is created by God and for God. Man is created in His image and likeness. The unborn are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons from the moment of conception. Man is charged with exercising dominion over creation. Understanding this truth is critical in forming a Biblical worldview that informs and shapes our response to the shedding of innocent blood. The Biblical creation account then, provides us with the foundation for cherishing and protecting human life from the moment of conception.
The
doctrine of "blood guilt" emerges very early in man's history. Genesis
chapter four records the first crime in human history, the murder of Abel by
his brother Cain. "Cain spoke to his brother. And when they were in the field,
Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said, 'Where
is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I don't know, Am I my brother's keeper?'"
(Genesis 4:8-9 ESV)
Years
earlier Satan had deceived Adam and Eve and the world was plunged into sin. God
then had no recourse but to separate himself from Adam and Eve as sin cursed
His creation and paradise was lost. God cursed Satan saying, "I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, he will bruise your head, and
you will bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15 ESV) This is the first announcement of the gospel.
The first prophecy of the coming Messiah who would provide a means of
reconciliation between man with his Creator. A day would come when the seed of
Eve would strike a decisive victory over sin and Satan on the cross. But God
also identified the efforts Satan would make to attack the seed of Eve. And with
this the epoch struggle between good and evil began. And Satan has been involved
in an unrelenting attempt to kill the offspring of Eve ever since beginning
with Eve's second born son. With the very first shedding of innocent
blood we see the hand of Satan carrying out his agenda, Jesus later exposing
him as a "a murder from the beginning" in John 8:44. And down through
history Satan has continued to be the propelling force behind the taking of
human life.
The
story continues, verse 10 of Genesis four. "And the Lord said, 'What have
you done?' The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." The shed blood of Abel had a voice that
cried out to God! What is the
significance of Abel's innocent blood crying out to God? It is God's way
of expressing both his displeasure with the shedding of innocent blood and
implies that He is bound to respond to the taking of innocent human life in a
manner consistent with the value He has placed upon human life having created it
in His image and likeness. When you take human life created in the image of
God, it is a very personal attack upon God Himself. In essence you kill God in
effigy.
This
passage established the doctrine of blood guilt. As the German commentator
Delitzsch has written, "Innocent blood has no voice, it may be, that is discernable by human ears, but it has
one that reaches God, as the cry of a wicked deed demanding vengeance."
John
Ensor writes, "'Blood guilt' is a blunt, almost vulgar term. It hits
rudely, like a slap in the face. It is God's chosen term to arouse godly fear
and compel decisive action. It is a word awakening, forcing us to recognize an
unbreakable linkage: God's image is debased and his wrath justly incited every
time a person made in God's image is unjustly destroyed. There is no debasing
of God's image without consequences. Blood guilt requires God's vengeance and vindication.
It stands as an indictment against the sin of shedding innocent blood, but it
is also a promise, of sorts, to victims." (Innocent Blood, pg. 39-40)
In
Revelation 6:9,10, of the martyred witnesses under the altar, John writes,"...I
saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and
for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign
Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on
those who dwell on earth.'" (ESV)
Rusty
Lee Thomas commenting on the cry of the martyrs, "Do we grasp the
magnitude of this appeal? Innocent blood when spilt on earth, creates a voice
with a demanding message. Though human ears cannot discern it, the blood cries
out to God for vengeance against those who are culpable." , (Abortion
Violation, pg. 94,95)
Bible
commentator H. C. Luepold writes, "That a voice should be attributed to
blood is not strange inasmuch as the soul is regarded as lodged in the blood of
the man (Lev. 17:11) and the death of God's saints is precious in His sight
(Ps. 116:15)....God requires blood, that is, seeks out and avenges all
instances of unjust shedding of blood....Men may esteem souls or blood lightly.
Not so God." (Genesis, pg. 205) The
shedding of innocent blood results in blood guilt that must be atoned for.
In
the opening verses of Genesis chapter nine, we have God giving Noah
instructions as civilization makes a new beginning after the flood. Notice
verses five and six, "And for you lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from
every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a
reckoning for the life of a man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall
his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." (ESV)
Notice
that God formally announces His demand for an accounting for the shedding of
innocent blood. If a man takes another man's life, God said, "I will
require a reckoning." In other words, God saw the need to restrain evil
behavior so he makes provision for civil government to act as a protector of
human life. Martin Luther writes, "This was the first command having
reference to the temporal sword. By these words temporal government was
established, and the sword placed in its hands by God."
"
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed." Romans chapter
thirteen teaches that one reason God instituted government was to restrain
evil. This is consistent with Genesis nine. Theologically, the depravity of man
provides the moral necessity for the institution of government. Paul writes
that those who govern are God's servants given the responsibility to exercise
lethal force if necessary in their restraint of evil as they secure the safety
of human life. Of the civil authority he writes, "...for he is God's
servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the
sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's
wrath on the wrongdoer." (Romans 13:4 ESV)
We
have a problem in America at this point. Our government, charged by God to
protect the innocent from the threat of murder in the womb has betrayed their
trust. Many of our civil officials, mayors, judges, congressmen, senators, presidents
have themselves threatened the safety and security of our unborn children by
denying them their right to life. Just this past week, our President observed 42nd
the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and re-affirmed his commitment to the right of a
mother to kill her own preborn offspring. He defended the U. S. Supreme Court decisions
of 1973 that have resulted in the loss of almost 58 million unborn children.
Roe
v. Wade is an example of what is known as "legal positivism" or moral
relativism in government. This happens when those in authority abandon transcendent
truth and govern in a moral vacuum. Dr. Del Tackett explains, "The claim
that the state is the ultimate authority for creating, interpreting and
enforcing law. All legal truth is based on the decision of the state." (Dr.
Del Tackett, 2006 Truth Project, Focus on the Family)
The
Psalmist described it this way, asking a rhetorical question of God. "Can
wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? They
band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to
death." (94:20-21 ESV) Those words could have been written for this day. They
describe what the Supreme Court has done in legalizing the killing of the
unborn.
Isaiah
gave this warning, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put
darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet
for bitter." (5:20 ESV)
Back
to Genesis 9:6. Notice the reason God demands justice for the shedding of
innocent blood. " Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood
be shed, for God made man in his own image." We are back to Genesis one. The
preservation of innocent human life, the protection of innocent human life all
stems from the fact, that human life bears the image of its Creator and when we
unjustly extinguish that life it constitutes a personal affront to a Holy and Righteous
God.
But
as we've already seen, early on God reveals to Adam and Eve and all of their
offspring that he has a plan to atone for man's sin. We turn a few pages
forward from chapter nine, to chapter twelve and find God revealing more of
that plan this time to Abram. After calling him to leave his home and go to an
unfamiliar land, God makes this remarkable promise, Genesis 12:2-3, "I
will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing, I will bless those who bless you, and him who
dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be
blessed."
From Abram's
offspring would come a Savior through who the families of the earth would be
blessed. Do you see how intricately and purposefully God the Creator has bound
Himself to His creation? Do you see the love message woven into His dealings
with mankind from the very beginning?
Blood atonement was the
central principle of God's plan of redemption. Leviticus 17:11, "For the
life of a creature is in the blood...it is the blood that makes atonement for
one's life.' This truth is central to the Biblical doctrines of both incarnation and
atonement. Jesus' incarnation was the pre-requisite to His work of atonement. The
writer to the Hebrews understood this, writing, "without the shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness of sin." (9:22)
Theologically
you cannot separate salvation through atonement from the sanctity of human life
because the life, the soul of man is in the blood. John Ensor writes,
"Is there anything
more valuable than human life and the redemption of human life? By virtue of
our salvation, Christians have inherited
from God a profound commitment to the sanctity of life and a devotion to make
Christ known. Both come from holding blood (life) precious."(Innocent Blood, pg. 32) With the incarnation we come full circle. The
God who created a human life in His own image, Himself becomes a man so that
through an act of love He could bear their sin on the cross so they could live
in fellowship with Him for eternity. That is the Gospel of Life. That is the
greatest reason there is to be prolife.
How
should I respond to the shedding of innocent blood? In Deuteronomy 21: 1-9, instruction
is given to Israel regarding what to do when innocent blood is shed in the land.
The body of a murdered man is found in a field, and no one knew who murdered
him. The elders and judges were instructed to determine by measurement what
town was located nearest the body. Then the leaders of that town were to lead
the community in a process of atonement for the shedding of the innocent blood. Since the unknown murderer could not be
punished, a heifer or young cow was killed to atone for the blood guiltiness in
the land. The elders of the town washed their hands over the heifer declaring
that "Our
hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement,
O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the
guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood
guilt be atoned for." (Deuteronomy 21:7-8 ESV)
Notice the
result, verse nine "So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood, from
your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord." How
should I respond to the shedding of innocent blood? We cannot ignore the
shedding of innocent blood in our community or nation. In other words, we are
not to go on day after day business as usual when innocent blood is being shed down
the street from where we live and work.
This map
shows the 23 abortion clinics, represented by blue triangles, in Broward County
with 3 more just to the north and six more just to the south of the county
line. The five red hearts, Hope Women's Center locations. Can we say, as the
elders of Deuteronomy, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our
eyes see it shed."?
Then, there
is a role leadership should play in the community in efforts to end the killing
of the unborn. John Ensor writes,
"Whenever
the innocent are killed, no matter who they are, known or unknown, big or small,
the Deuteronomic law instructs the spiritual leaders of the community to
rearticulate the pro-life ethic. The people are to hear that the taking of innocent life or the passive acceptance of
the death of the innocent is horrifyingly unacceptable." (Answering the Call, pg. 75)
This speaks to the
silence of America's pulpits. Last year (2014) Dr. R C Sproul, Jr. in an article entitled, "Are
Evangelicals Pro-Life?" wrote, "...one in six abortions in America is procured by a confessing
evangelical. That means that if only professing evangelicals secured abortions
since Roe v. Wade, [1973] we would account for roughly 9 million dead babies, more than Nazis killed in
the Holocaust." Iwonder what role the silent pulpits of the church have
played in this tragedy.
Each of us can respond in some way to the bloodshed in our land. Michael
Spielman, he as a website called abort73.com. He writes,
“It
is unreasonable to suggest that everyone in the church should be working
relentlessly to end abortion, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that
everyone in the church should be doing something to end abortion.” (Michael
Spielman, “A Biblical Mandate to do Something About Abortion”)
You
can volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center like Hope Women's Centers that this church
has supported for many years. You can give financially to keep their doors
open.
You can pray for those at risk for abortion. I've
left a few cards from Hope out on the foyer literature table their phone number
where the help can be reached.
And you can pray for those who've had an abortion. Your pastor can help you if you've had an abortion. You can call Hope. They have small groups that meet confidently to help men and women whose lives have been touched by abortion receive the healing and the grace that God extends to them.
You can prayer at the abortion clinics, standing against the spiritual forces of darkness at work within. In the foyer I have provided copies of a prayer guide to assist you in praying to end abortion.
You can provide sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics for those being misled by the abortion industry.
You can vote for judges and political candidates who value human life. In one of the recent presidential elections around 25% of voting evangelicals voted for the pro-abortion candidate, and I believe about four million did not even bother to vote!
In Luke chapter ten, Jesus
helped a lawyer understand what it meant to love his neighbor. The lawyer was evidently hung
up on exactly what that looked like, so he asked Jesus, "Who his my
neighbor?" Jesus then tells him the story of a man on
his way to Jericho from Jerusalem who was robbed and beaten and left half dead
alongside the road. Three different individuals had the opportunity to come to
his rescue, in all likelihood to save his life. Two of the three did not
respond to the needs of the man bleeding by the side of the road. Those two
were the church leaders of that day a priest and a Levite, responsible for the
spiritual care of their nation. And Jesus points out that not only did they
fail to respond but, they "passed by on the other side." In other
words they consciously and deliberately distanced themselves from the needs of
the man dying by the side of the road. Jesus then pointed out that the one who
proved to be the neighbor to the dying man was the one who showed mercy to the
badly beaten traveller. He then said, "Go and do likewise."
In his book Innocent Blood, John Ensor defines "Samaritan compassion "
this way,
"Doing right in the
sight of the Lord means acting to stop the shedding of innocent blood.
The only person in Jesus’
parable who is pro-life according to the demands of love is the Samaritan.
Only he was willing to
make the nearly dead man’s problem his own.
Only he was willing to see the victim’s suffering as
his own.
Only he was willing to act according to what he would
cry out for if their positions had been reversed." (page 54)
The Church in America is
struggling in its response to America's abortion crisis. We have failed to expose
the shedding of
innocent blood and proclaim that repentance brings full pardon through the shed
blood of Jesus Christ. We have failed to grasp with regard to the killing of
over 3,300 preborn children each day. According to Jesus' parable salvation has
a moral imperative built into it with regard to the needs of those around us, our
neighbors, including the unborn whose lives are threatened by abortion. Again, John Ensor, "Loving my neighbor will
occasionally arrest me, and maybe even require me to help prevent someone from
being murdered."
The writer of Proverbs said something very similar. He could very
well have written it for us today.
"Save those who are being led to their death; rescue those
who are about to be killed. If you say, 'We don't know anything about this,' God,
who knows what's in you mind, will notice. He is watching you, and he will
know. He will reward each
person for what he has done." (Proverbs 24:10-12 NCV)
© James P McGarvey All Rights Reserved
