[This is a message I gave at a workshop at the
15th Annual Pregnancy Care
Center Conference (Sound the Call) in Lake
Yale FL, on October 3, 2014, sponsored by the Florida Baptist Children's Homes. You can look at the PowerPoint slides that accompany the message here. It is a combination of "Abortion, the Devil and the Church" and material from "The Sanctity of the Unborn."]
In his pamphlet, Field
Manual for Abortion Ministry, published earlier this year, Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas posed these two penetrating questions.
"What does
Christianity look like in a nation that murders its own children? Has the
church failed to be pro-life or have we failed to be Christian when it comes to
rescuing our neighbors scheduled to be dismembered?"
I wrestle with
those questions. Do you? Admittedly they are troubling questions, that
we in
the church must consider. The battle to end abortion is
fought on multiple fronts. The efforts being made in the political and judicial
arena; the work of prolife apologists; abstinence
ministries; foster care and adoption ministries; homes for unwed mothers; the
ministry of prayer and sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics; abortion recovery
ministries; and off course the thousands of pregnancy resource centers, strategically
located across the nation.
However,
foundational to every effort to end abortion is the understanding that abortion
is first and foremost a spiritual issue, a gospel issue. The fact that Pastor
Thomas has raised these two questions would suggest that perhaps the church has
largely failed in its response to this national
and worldwide crisis.
Why is that? Why
do church members go a lifetime without hearing a Biblical message on the
sanctity of human life? Why are the deep seated spiritual, emotional and
behavioral needs of post abortive men and women largely ignored by the church?
Why do a quarter
of a million women in evangelical churches abort their children each year? Why
is it so challenging for pregnancy resource center leaders to gain the support of
pastors and churches in their communities?
I believe one
reason, if not the primary reason, is the failure of the church to see the
killing of preborn children in its spiritual context; through a Biblical
paradigm or Christian worldview. We have failed to
consistently place abortion in its theological context.
I want to address
this subject from the authority of Scripture. But I want to do so, in the context
of two very important biblical truths. Let me illustrate it this way. There are
two things a train must have to safely reach its destination. Two tracks. Two
tracks that run parallel to each other all the way to its destination. A train
will go nowhere without riding on both tacks at the same time all the way to
the end of the rail line.
In the same way, we
must communicate what God says about abortion in the context of God's grace and
God's truth. You see, theologically grace and truth always go together. In
fact, they are theologically inseparable. They are like the two sides of the
same coin. You cannot have one without the other.
And here's why
this is so important. Pastor Randy Alcorn has written, "Grace without
truth deceives people, truth without grace, crushes people."
We will never
understand God's grace apart from God's truth. But God's truth will always lead
us to God's grace. This is the context in which we address abortion in the
church, and society at large.
Abortion
was legalized forty-one years ago on January 22, 1973. According to the
National Right to Life on that day '...the Supreme Court handed down its Roe
v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions legalizing abortion in all 50 states
during all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason, medical, social, or
otherwise.”
In
other words, a woman was given the legal right to take the life of her preborn
child at any time during the nine months of pregnancy right up to moment of
natural child birth for virtually any reason. The Court ruled that an unborn child is not a person and therefore lies
outside the protection of the U.S. Constitution. In other words, these words of
the Declaration of Independence, “...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.” The Court ruled that these words do not apply to preborn human
beings. Therefore the preborn become the property of the mother and the mother
has the “right” to keep or kill her unborn child.
This ruling
parallels the 1857 Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court that declared an African
American freed slave named Dred Scott was not a person for one reason: his skin
color was black. This gave the slave owner the right to keep, sell or in some
instances kill the slave. The slave was the property of his owner without the
right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The question that concerns us first and foremost is, who are the unborn? Or to state
it in even broader terms, what is the Biblical view of man, and what value does
God place on human life?
To
answer that we begin at the
beginning. Notice first of all that man
was created by God, Genesis 1:26a (ESV), then God said, "Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness....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." Genesis 2:7 (ESV)
Contrary to
modern evolutionary theory, man was not the product of a meaningless, random evolutionary process over billions of years.
Man was not the result of a cosmic accident. On the contrary, we see in this
creative act meaning that transcends the notion that man is but a creature who
over millions of years has risen from the primordial chaos to the top of the evolutionary
chain having succeeded in the survival of the fittest.
Why in the abortion debate is it important
to note that man was created by God and not the product of random chance? As
already noted, the Founding Fathers recognized that man was endowed with
certain unalienable rights, including the right to life. Endowed by their Creator. Not the Federal Government, not the Supreme Court, not the state of
Florida, but their Crestor! You see the Founding Fathers understood Genesis
one.
Secondly notice
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." Let me explain some of what that means. Pediatrician, Dr. John Rendle-Short identifies
some of the Godlike qualities man shares with God.
Language. Humans
can communicate. My dog Maggie can bark,
whine, growl, but I have yet to hear her utter a single word, no less
speak a sentence. Intelligence. Man can think. Not only can he think as a rational being, he
can think in the abstract. He can compute complex mathematical, chemical and engineering problems. Creativity. He
can create sophisticated products. Think of the technology of modern
scientific, medical, engineering and construction industries, just to name a
few. He can send a man to the moon and back and communicate instantly around
the world from a smart phone and on the internet.
Love. Man lives in relationships, fellowship, and community.
Man is a social creature with the ability to love and be loved, to care for and
nurture its young and live in enduring committed relationships like marriage
and family. Holiness. Man has a moral conscience, the ability to tell right
from wrong. Immortality. He is eternal. Unlike the rest of the animal world, he
will live forever. Freedom. He 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)
What a huge statement this makes about man’s capacity to
relate to God. The fact that God created man in his image and likeness speaks
of God’s intention and purpose in creating a unique creature having the
capacity to live in relationship with His creator. As Marcus Dods wrote years
ago,
“Man is dear to God because he is like Him... Man, alone
among God’s works, can enter into and approve of God’s purpose in the world and
can intelligently fulfill it. Man is incommensurable with the rest of the
universe. He is of a different kind and by his moral nature is more akin to God
than to his works.”
Thirdly, man was
given a mandate to multiply and have dominion over the earth. Note Genesis 1:28
(ESV), "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."
Oswald T. Allis has
written, "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…”
Note that God
links creation with procreation. Please do not over look the significance of
this in
the abortion debate. Thomas Paine, one of the authors of the U. S. Constitution
wrote,
“...All men are born
equal and with equal natural rights, in the same manner as if posterity had
been continued by creation instead of generation...the latter being only the
mode by which the former is carried forward...and consequently every child born
into the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. The world
is as new to him as it was to the first man that existed and his natural right
in it is of the same kind.” (The Rights
of Man)
This speaks
directly to the culture of death that has shaped the thinking of millions of
men and women who abort their own posterity when faced with an unplanned and
often unwanted pregnancy. In every conception we must see the creative work of
God in fashioning another human being created in his image.
Fourthly, note the
personhood of the unborn. We see personhood in God’s relationship to the unborn.
Of John the Baptist it was written, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit,
even from his mother’s womb." Luke 1:15 (ESV). The prophet Isaiah’s
testimony “Before I was born the Lord
called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.” (Isaiah 49:1b)
The Apostle Paul,
"But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by
his grace.” (Galatians 1:15 ESV) God said of the he prophet Jeremiah, "Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated
you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5 ESV)
Listen to this
incredible incident. These words were spoken by Elizabeth who was six months
pregnant with John the Baptist when Mary, just days pregnant with Jesus Christ,
visited her.
"When
Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, 'Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your
greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.'" (Luke
1:41-44)
Do you realize
what took place here? The text says that John the Baptist leaped for joy in his
mother's womb when he came into the presence of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who
was but days old in the womb of his mother Mary. This is the first recorded
worship of the Messiah, and it took place in the womb. I call it intra-uterine
worship. Do you see the personhood of the unborn in these narratives?
What is God’s
View of human life? Douglas Erlandson has written,
“God deals with
the lives [of man] from conception to adulthood. The Bible does not appear to
recognize a special change in God’s dealings with man at birth. God values each
of the above men while he is still in the womb, knows him, chooses him, shapes
him.” (Abortion: Answering the Arguments)
The Biblical
evidence is very clear. The unborn are created by God and for God. They are
created in His image and likeness and are recognized by God as distinct and
unique persons from the moment of conception. Understanding this truth is
critical in forming a Biblical worldview that shapes the church's response to the
shedding of innocent blood.
Recent science
and technology validates the Biblical conclusion that human life begins at conception.
Listen to an abbreviated description of the development of the unborn in the
womb. Douglas Erlandson has written,
“When the
fertilized egg (or zygote) is first formed, it already possesses its full
complement of DNA or genetic information. That information never changes. A
person’s sex, blood type, hair and skin color, and future height are all
determined in that first cell. From that moment on, unless its life is
terminated, it will develop until it becomes an adult human being.” He adds, “It will never
become a cat, dog, gorilla, or anything other than a member of the species homo
sapiens. From the moment of conception, it is every bit as much a human being
as you or I. Nothing radically changes at birth. Birth is simply a change of
address one stage on a continuum of life stages.”
At 20 days, or
almost three weeks, the foundation of the entire nervous system has been laid
down. Twenty-five days after conception the heart beats. At twenty-eight days,
forty pairs of muscles are developing along the trunk of the new life and arms
and legs forming.
By the forty to
forty three days, the brain registers waves on an electro encephalogram and the
heart energy output is reported to be almost 20% of an adult. By the forty-second
day the skeleton is complete and reflexes are present and movement of the baby
in the womb may begin. Psalm 139:13 (NIV), “For you created my inmost being; you
knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
By the eighth
week or fifty sixth day, you have a perfetly formed baby with hands, fingers, including
distinctive fingerprints, feet and toes. All vital organs are present and
functioning. The baby responds
to touch. Psalm 139:14, “I praise you,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.”
In the eleventh
week, about three and a half months, all bodily systems work. The baby swallows,
tastes, sleeps, wakes, responds to light and darkness, warmth and cold. Psalm
139: 15, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in the
secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.”
In the eleventh
and twelfth weeks, the arms and legs move, the baby sucks its thumb, inhales and
exhales amniotic fluid, and nails begin to appear.
By four months,
or sixteen weeks, the fetus is five and a half inches long. The genital organs are
clearly differentiated. The baby swims, kicks and turns somersaults. The baby
cries, hears voices, has rapid eye movement, eyebrows and eyelashes.
At five months
survival is possible if born. The baby can learn and remember, is well coordinated
and kicks are being felt by the mother. Psalm 139:16 (NIV), “Your eyes say my unformed
body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them
came to be.”
Pastor John Piper
has written, “Psalm 139 emphasize(s) God as the primary workman nurturer, fashioner, knitter, Creator in this time of gestation. Why is this important? It’s
important becuase God is the only One who can create personhood. Mothers and
fathers can contribute some impersonal egg and some impersonal sperm, but only
God createas independent personhood.” (Brothers We Are Not Professionals, p.
219-220)
Whether we
approach the issue of the personhood of the unborn from a Biblical point of
view or from a purely
scientific or biological perspective, the inescapable conclusion is that life within
the womb is human life, a distinct person from the moment of conception.
The vast majority
of women and men considering an abortion and the vast majority of women and men
in the church have never had the opportunity to hear what you have just heard. Neither the
church nor the billions dollar abortion industry is giving them the truth about
life in the womb or the risks associated with killing life in the womb.
Who is behind the
abortion holocaust? What is the driving force propelling the worldwide shedding
of innocent blood?
Fifthly, the
Biblical evidence would indicate that
abortion is satanic enterprise. The stage was set thousands of years ago as
recorded in Genesis 3:15 (NIV). After Satan deceived Adam and Eve and man was
plunged into sin. God said to Satan,
"...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his
heel." With that, 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.
Jesus, Himself,
said as much. John chapter eight records an encounter between Jesus and
a group of religious leaders. In that
exchange Jesus said this about the devil,
"The
devil…was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is
no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar
and the father of lies." John 8:44
(NIV)
Here Jesus
identifies two roles of Satan, a murderer from the beginning and a liar and the
father of lies. It is estimated that
between forty and fifty million babies are killed by abortion worldwide each
year. About one in five pregnancies end
in abortion worldwide. (AGI “In Brief”,
October 2007) It is estimated there have been 1.72 billion abortions worldwide
in the last forty years. That is an average of 117,800 per day for forty years.
(Dr. Brian Clowes, director of
education and research at Human Life International Lifenews.com 4-1-13)
In John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief
comes only to steal and kill and destroy." The devil has been very
successful in carrying out his agenda.
Satan is a liar and the father of lies. Deception
proliferates in the abortion industry. Deception characterizes the abortion
industry. Deception involves telling lies. The words of an abortion counselor, "Although
the test is positive, you shouldn't consider yourself pregnant," she
explained. "It's really just cells dividing at this point. We can take
care of the problem quickly and easily, and you'll never have to think about it
again.” She made four statements. Each statement was a lie.
Deception involves the withholding the truth. This study showed that, “Even
though the majority felt rushed and uncertain, 67% received no counseling; 79%
were not told about alternatives to abortion.” ( VM Rue et. al., Medical Science Monitor)
Deception leads to moral schizophrenia. As Pastor Randy
Alcorn has noted, “In America it is
illegal to harm your pre-born child, but it is perfectly legal to kill him.”
The Devil is “a murderer...a liar and father of lies.” These
two “attributes” expose him as the Architect of Abortion.
Six. Look
with me at the Ancient Origen of child killing. We trace it back to Molech worship.
Molech was a god
of the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot. Molech was a fertility god whose
worship included child sacrifice. In Ezekiel 16:20-21 God said,
"And you
took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to
the idols… You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.”
King Solomon
built the first high place for the worship of Molech. Subsequent kings
continued the practice including King Ahaz and King Manasseh who sacrificed
their own children. Notice the parallels with abortion. In Molech worship a child was sacrificed to gain
Molech's favor. In other words, the parents sacrificed something of value,
their child, to gain something at a given point in time they considered to be
of even greater value, such as seeking Molech’s favor for a good harvest,
victory in battle, or financial well-being.
Notice the similarity with abortion. In abortion the mother sacrifices
the life of her child for something which at that time is of more value to her
than her child; her education, avoiding personal shame, finances, personal
convenience, her career, or birth control.
In his book, Field Manual for
Abortion Ministry, Pastor Rusty Thomas writes, "Though thousands
of years have passed...the pagan ritual...persists. These ancient rites
continue through clinics established by organizations such as Planned
Parenthood in the abortion industry. The setting has indeed changed, but the
lying message and brutal practice remains the same. Can you hear its voice
today? 'You are too young.' 'You have to think about your schooling and career.'
'You cannot afford a baby.' 'It will leave stretch marks' ...Moloch and Baal
still whisper, 'Give your child to me and all will be well with you.'"
Sacrifice for what? Pastor John Piper writes, “Abortion
in America is not done consciously with any desire to get blessing from a
deity. But it is done to gain something 'better' than the baby—The life of a
child is being sacrificed for something. What that 'something' is defines the
barbarity of our culture.”
Do you see the deception? The Scriptures identify the demonic nature of
this child sacrifice in Psalm 106:37-38,
"They
sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent
blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols
of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood."
Note the parallels between Molech worship and abortion. Abortion is the “sacrifice” of the preborn. “They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters.” The preborn are family – sons and daughters. “They
sacrificed their sons and their daughters.” Abortion sheds innocent blood.
“They shed innocent blood.”
Leviticus 17:11 reads,
"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." (Hebrews 9:22) And
the Apostle Paul wrote, "In him [Christ} we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins..." (Ephesians 1:7 NIV)
Theologically you
cannot separate atonement, our salvation, from the sanctity of human life,
because the life 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)
The innocent blood of the aborted is sacrificed to demons. “They sacrificed…to
demons.” Roman Catholic theologian,
Rev. Thomas Euteneuer writes,
"The
spiritual dimension of [abortion] is its systematizing of ritual blood sacrifice to the god of child murder, Moloch.…this
demon appears in many forms and cultures through history (Phoenician,
Carthaginian, Canaanite, Celt, Indian, Aztec and others) but is always the same
blood thirsty beast that demands the killing of children as his form of
worship. The modern abortion industry offers ritual blood sacrifice to the
ancient abortion demon. It is in every way a demonic religion." (Resource
Moloch #24)
Pre-born children
killed by abortion are the casualties of the war between Heaven and
Hell. Pastor Randy Alcorn,
“As the devil loved the sacrifice of children in the ancient heathen
cultures, so he loves the sacrifice of children in our modern culture. Whether
children are sacrificed to a heathen god called Molech or to the god of our own
convenience, he does not care. Whether these children are born or unborn does
not matter to God’s enemies, for each of them is equally created in the image
of God, and by killing them Satan comes as close as he can to striking out at
God Himself. In killing those created in God’s image, Satan kills God in
effigy.”
Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers, in their work, Massacre of Innocence, summarize,
“The spiritual heritage of the Moabites and the Ammonites
is passed down to our own day through abortion. Today the church is fighting against those
same spiritual forces for the very survival of our nation. Without all
out spiritual warfare, what are our chances of victory when the demons' lust is
being gorged on the blood of not just one, but over one million children killed
each year?”
Lest you think that abortion and the demonic is just ancient
history, let me bring you up to
date.
Seven. Modern feminism, witchcraft and abortion. In December of
1985, this article, entitled,
"Feminist Spiritualism and Abortion" appeared
in the feminist Ms. Magazine, written, and I emphasize,
by feminists - about themselves. "The feminist spirituality
movement began to emerge in the mid-1970s [Roe v. Wade 1973] and has become one of the
largest sub-movements within feminism.…to the women in feminist spirituality,
witchcraft had even a more fundamental meaning. It is a woman's religion,
vilified by patriarchal Christianity, and now finally, reclaimed.”
Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers write this about the article, “Much
space was given to goddess worship or adulation of the various demons associated with child
sacrifice (including Isis and Aphrodite).” (Massacre of Innocence)
Let me give you just a sampling of the thinking of modern day
feminists. Patricia Baird-Windle owned three
abortion clinics, responsible for 65,000 abortions. In an interview after retirement
she said, "Abortion is a major blessing and a sacrament in the hands of
women..."(The 'Sacrament' of Abortion: An Interview With a Retired
Abortionist.")
Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President of the Episcopal Divinity
School in New England said the following in a sermon in 2007, “When a woman becomes
pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option
open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to safe, affordable
abortion – there is not a tragedy in
sight – only blessing.”
Episcopal Priestess, Dr. Carter Hayward, told the National Abortion
Federation in 1985, "Abortion would be a sacrament if women were in
charge. Abortion should be a sacrament even today."
One of America's educators, Psychologist Dr. Ginnette Paris, in her book The Sacrament of Abortion, wrote, “It’s
rare for a woman to choose abortion because in some way she dislikes the fetus.
She sacrifices it for the sake of something she judges at this moment to be
more important, whether it be her existing children…or her own physical,
economic, or psychological survival or the fate of the planet." Do you
remember what I just shared comparing abortion to child sacrifice? She
continues, “When abortion is necessary, not only should there be no
shame but there should be a new consensus that to have a child who cannot
adequately be cared for is shameful…It is not immoral to choose abortion; it is simply
another kind of morality, a pagan one.”
Frank Pavone, commenting on her book writes, “The fact that some
defend abortion as a sacred act should alert us to the depth of the spiritual
warfare that is going on. Abortion has never been merely or even primarily a
political issue. It is a false religion." He writes of a former
abortion clinic security guard who "...after being converted, admitted
why he was angry at pro-life sidewalk counselors: 'You were coming to protest
in front of our church. That clinic was where we conducted our worship.’”
Again, Holmberg and Rogers “Abortion is the sacrifice of human
pre-born infants on the altar of convenience by those with a pagan worldview.
Abortion is not just a political or social issue; it’s a spiritual issue.
Witchcraft is the spiritual force behind the politics of abortion.”
Eight. Unmasking a "woman's right to choose" and
"reproductive rights." If you watch the news; if you read the
secular press if you listen to the main stream media; if attended in a public school or a state university; if you dialogue
about abortion around the water cooler at work or at home over the back yard
fence, these are the words that always come into play. These are the two terms
the
proponents of abortion use to frame the debate. "A woman's right to
choose" and "reproductive rights" are code words for a woman's
right to take the life of her
unborn child.
Looking at this from a Biblical context, Genesis 3:1-5 is
the key Scripture.
"Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the
wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, "You
must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat
fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit
from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it,
or you will die.” ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the
woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil.”
Note the significance of the "tree of the knowledge of good
and evil." Here are the temptations faced by Eve and everyone since. To live independent
of God - self idolatry – self love rules. Man becomes his own god “you will be
like God.” Man determines right and wrong (moral relativism). This is the
underlying premise of the proponents of “a woman's right to choose" and
"reproductive rights.” As Dr. Carl Ellis has said, Eve became, in essence,
the first secular humanist."
Notice the link between abortion and the Garden of Eden. "I
do not want a child at this time." Pastor John Piper writes, “…that is one of the most
powerful sentences a person can speak…the ‘want’- of a mother has become the will of a god....Our modern,
secular, God-dethroning culture has endowed the will (the ‘want’) of a mother not just with sovereignty over her child, but
with something vastly greater....the right and the power to create personhood.”
He points out that the legal right “to choose” gives
women the legal right to define personhood or play god. Again John Piper, “…the
awesome thing is that we endow her will not just with sovereignty over her
unborn baby, but with the to define it. If she wants it, it is a baby, a
person. If she does not want it, it is not a baby, not a person.” (John Piper, "Abortion and the Tree of Knowledge of
Good & Evil.”)
Nine, how should the Church respond? First of all, live in sexual purity.
About 80% of abortions are performed on
unmarried women. “…among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality,
or of any kind of impurity.” (Ephesians 5:3, NIV)
We must repent of abortion in the church, "There are six things the
Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:.…hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs
6:16a) Why repent of abortion in the church? Thirty seven percent women
having abortions identify themselves as Protestant, twenty eight percent of
women having abortions identify themselves as Roman Catholic (AGI, “In Brief” July, 2008), and 250,000
evangelical women choose abortion each year. (www.heartlink.org Focus on the Family)
Earlier this year (2014) Dr.
R C Sproul, Jr. 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, we
would account for roughly 9 million dead babies, more than Nazis killed in
the Holocaust."
In light of the spiritual nature of abortion, make prayer and fasting the
first work of ministry. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers
of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
(Ephesians 6:12)
Abortion is a Gospel Issue! I have been sharing these two conclusions:
for the last eight years.
The Body of Christ, the church, is the only organism (institution) spiritually
equipped to engage the Satanic forces behind abortion.
Therefore the Church must take the lead in the efforts to
end abortion.
Provide practical and compassionate help to those at risk
for abortion. Abortion
is a complex issue that demands a practical and compassionate response by the
church. Over fifty percent of all women who have an abortion feel they have no
choice. Notice some of the reasons women have abortions: forced by their
mother; father opposed giving birth the child; persuaded to abort by husband or
boyfriend; no
other option given; loss of family support would have been kicked out of the home; and persuaded by the clinic. (Frederica
Mathewes-Green, Real Choices)
The church must also minister healing and restoration to the
post-abortive. One study showed that, "65% report symptoms of
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder they attribute to their abortions.” (VM Rue et,
all)
This is, I emphasize, a short list of emotional and behavioral problems
faced by the post-abortive: emotions such as anxiety/panic, grief/loss, fear of
losing your child, guilt, self-hatred depression, anger/rage and behaviors such as drug and alcohol
abuse, child abuse, promiscuity, overprotecting parenting, eating disorders, Inability
to bond with children.
You probably realize as you look at this list, that these are very
common problems pastors and counselors encounter every day in their ministry. This
data has staggering implications for the pastoral care ministries of the
church. For millions in the church and society the root cause of these
destructive emotional and behavioral problems could be an undisclosed and unresolved abortion(s) in
their past.
In his book, Answering the Call, Pastor John Ensor has written, “Abortion destroys the essence of femininity.
All women are ‘Eve’ (in Hebrew, ‘mother of all living’), possessing the
potential ability to bear life. As one mother who aborted three times told me,
‘John, never, never forget that a woman is connected to her child by an
umbilical cord that is not just physical, but emotional, psychological,
and even spiritual. When we murder our own babies, we die as well.” (John Ensor, Answering The
Call)
There is forgiveness, healing and restoration for the post-abortive in
Jesus Christ. Several years ago I was on Facebook one Sunday afternoon. A
pro-life advocate was having an online discussion about abortion. A
woman came into the discussion, telling us she had three abortions in her past. Listen what she went on to post,
“The consequences to women who have had abortions (and
men as well) cut deep into the soul…The post-abortive women sitting in church
on a Sunday morning need to hear about forgiveness for all sin through Jesus Christ….abortion
is not the unforgivable sin so many think it is...women need to know there is
healing and hope in Christ that they may also forgive themselves.”
The host asked her about how she was dealing with the loss of
her three children. This is the powerful testimony she shared…the fact
of the matter is that I don’t grieve any more. Christ as delivered me from all
of the pain through his healing power! I know that one day I'll stand in heaven
finally meeting my three precious children David, Rebekah, and Grace Hope!... when
they've asked the Father why they couldn't be with me on earth or why they
never knew me here, He’ll look at them with love and say, “I don't remember.”
The blood of Jesus Christ shed over 2000 years ago, has
covered our sin, all of our sin, your
sin and my sin, any and all sin; the sin of killing your preborn child; the sin of pushing a girlfriend or wife,
daughter or granddaughter into an abortion; the sin of paying for an abortion; the
sin of performing an abortion; the sin of doing nothing to end abortion.
Through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness and
cleansing; there is a way to resolve the guilt, shame and hurt that abortion
inevitably bring to the human experience.
America needs to
hear the truth about abortion wrapped in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel
has not failed abortion. Rather, out of our fear of offending those in most
need of help, out of our fear of being divisive or too "political," the
church has largely failed to apply the gospel to abortion.
Tragically those
involved in the abortion industry are themselves the casualties of Satan's
deceptive schemes. To the Corinthian church Paul wrote, “The god of this age
has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the
gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2
Corinthians 4:4 NIV)
This is how we
respond to 41 years of abortion. Unashamedly proclaim the gospel of life while responding
with compassionate and practical help like that offered in pregnancy resource centers.
They are fulfilling the Lords command embodied in the parable of the Good Samaritan. John Ensor wrote, "The commands of
Scripture exist that we might be compelled to do what does not come naturally."
(Innocent Blood)
In Luke chapter
ten (vs. 25-37) Jesus helped a lawyer understand what it meant to love his neighbor.
He was evidently hung up on exactly what that looked like so he asked Jesus,
"Who is 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 likely hood 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.
Jesus points out that not only did they fail to respond but, they "passed by
on the other side."
In other words they
consciously, 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."
John Ensor, in his book Innocent Life, 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." (Innocent Blood)
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 the implications of the gospel 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.
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, "Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; Don’t stand back and
let them die. Don’t try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn’t know about
it." (Proverbs 24:10-12)
On January 20, 2011, Rev.
Flip Benham, then head of Operation Save America, issued the following
statement in a press release.
"...the time is now, for
the Church to rise up and not wait 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 come to an end – not a Second sooner. The
responsibility for ending abortion in America rests squarely upon the shoulders
of the Church of Jesus Christ.”
In closing, I want to encourage you who serve in
Pregnancy Resource and Pregnancy Care Center ministries.
We are at war!
Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark
world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
The enemy has been identified.
Abortion is a Satanic Enterprise. His strategy has been exposed.
Satan is a killer and liar, the Architect of Abortion! You are on the front
lines of that war. You a disrupting his worship. You are a target.
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing
firm in the faith..." (1 Peter
5:8-10)
The enemy has been defeated.
The one who does
what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1
John 3:8 NIV)
…having disarmed
the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over
them by the cross. Colossians 2:15 (NIV)
We are equipped for victory.
For in Christ all
the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given
fullness in Christ, who is the head over ever power and authority. (Colossians
1:9-10)
"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 (lofty thought) 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)
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength
of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
Devil." (Ephesians 6:10-11)
The priority of prayer and perseverance.
Make prayer your priority. Saturate you personal life and ministry with prayer. Persevere!
"praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer
and supplication. To that end keep alert, with all perseverance, making
supplication for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18)
(c)
James P. McGarvey All Rights Reserved
