(I gave this message on January 20, 2024 at the Polk County March for Life Lakeland Florida City Hall.)
Abortion was legalized in America by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. That ruling was finally overturned over 49 years later, on June 24, 2022, allowing the battle for life to continue in each of the 50 states.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we must be willing to address the subject of abortion from the authority of Scripture but 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 arrive at 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 tracks 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 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. If your life has been touched by abortion, please know that there is forgiveness, healing and restoration in the Gospel of truth and grace found in Jesus Christ. Please remember this truth as we consider this subject.
It is estimated that over 65 million unborn children have lost their lives in America to abortion since it was legalized in1973. In his pamphlet Field Manual for Abortion Ministry ,Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas poses these two penetrating questions, "What does Christianity look like in a nation that murders its own children? 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?" Troubling questions, aren’t they?
Why do we March for Life? I want to begin by looking at the sanctity of the unborn. What value does God place on human life? To answer that question, we begin with creation.
Man was created by God, in His image and likeness. Genesis 1:17, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” Genesis 2:7 (ESV) "...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.”
It should be clear from the Biblical creation account that man is not the product of a random, meaningless evolutionary process over billions of years. Man is not the result of a cosmic accident. God intentionally created man with capacities reflective of Himself. In other words, in His image. As God said in Isaiah 43:7, man was “created for my glory.”
Pediatrician, Dr. John Rendle-Short, M.D. in his book, Man: The Image of God, points out Godlike qualities man shares with God.
Language – humans can communicate. My dog Maggie could bark, whine, and growl, but I never heard her utter a single word, no less speak a sentence.
Intelligence – man can think. Not only is he a rational being, but he can also think in the abstract. For example, he can compute complex mathematical, chemical and engineering formulas.
Creativity – man’s intelligence allows him to create sophisticated products. He can send a man to the moon and back. He can speak instantly around the world from a cell phone or on the internet.
Love – Man is a social creature. He can live in relationships, living in fellowship and community, with the ability to love and be loved; to live in committed lifelong relationships, like marriage.
Holiness - man has a moral conscience with the ability to tell right from wrong.
Immortality – man is an eternal being who will live forever.
Freedom – man can make choices. All of this “because he is made in the image of God."
Notice the Personhood of the unborn. This is what God said to 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) Before there was any physical manifestation of Jeremiah in the womb of his mother, God knew Him.
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. Luke 1:41-44 , "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.’"
Do you realize what took place? 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?
You see, the Biblical evidence is clear. The unborn are created by God and for God. They are created in His image and likeness.
They are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons even in the womb from the moment of conception, if not before. Life begins at conception.
The scientific evidence leads us to the same conclusion. Douglas Erlandson writes, “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.”
Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, M.D. of Harvard University Medical School, agrees writing, “…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception…”.
Who is behind abortion? Who is the driving force behind this holocaust? The Biblical evidence would indicate that abortion is a 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."
And 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. Abortion is a Satanic enterprise! Jesus, Himself, said as much. "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.
Has he been successful? The World Health Organization reports that there are roughly 73 million abortions worldwide each year. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports that last year, 2023, there were 78,250 abortions in Florida, 2,152 of those here in Polk County.
John Powell has written, “In the United States it is statistically confirmed that the most dangerous place for anyone to be, with regard to the preservation of one’s life, is in the womb of one’s mother.” (Abortion: The Silent Holocaust)
The words of Jesus regarding Satan according to John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." The Devil has been very successful in carrying out his agenda.
Satan is also a liar and the father of lies. Deception proliferates in the abortion industry. In fact, one can accurately say that deception characterizes the abortion industry. Notice that deception involves telling lies. These were 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. This is the mantra of the abortion industry.
Deception leads to moral schizophrenia. 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 all lies.” These two “attributes” expose him as the architect of abortion.
The ancient origin of child killing is traced back to the worship of the Ammonite fertility god Molech whose worship included child sacrifice. King Solomon built the first high place in Israel for the worship of Molech. King Ahaz and King Manasseh sacrificed their own children as they led their nation in the worship of this demon god Molech.
Ezekiel 16:20-21 records God's response to Israel’s involvement in the sacrifice of their children to Moloch, “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.”
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. For example, 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 greater value to her than the child. Her education, avoiding personal shame, finances, personal convenience, her career, birth control.
Sacrifice for what? Pastor John Piper, “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—he 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."
There are distinct parallels between Molech worship and modern abortion. Abortion is the sacrifice of the unborn.” They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.”
The unborn are family – our sons & daughters. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.”
Abortion sheds innocent blood. “They shed innocent blood.”
The innocent blood of the aborted is sacrificed to demons. “They sacrificed…to demons.”
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.”
Lest you think that abortion and the demonic is just ancient history, let me bring you up to date. Modern feminism, witchcraft & abortion.
In December of 1985, an article, entitled, "Feminist Spiritualism and Abortion" appeared in the feminist Ms. Magazine, and I emphasize written by feminists about themselves. "The feminist spirituality movement began to emerge in the mid-1970s 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 what was in 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)
Listen to these astounding words. “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 child sacrifice to Molech and abortion? Psychologist Dr. Ginnette Paris wrote those words in her book, The Sacrament of Abortion. 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.’”
I hope you have seen some of the reasons that abortion is first and foremost a gospel issue! There are two conclusions I have been sharing with the Church for well over a decade.
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 effort to end abortion.
When the church sees abortion as a Gospel issue, we will win the battle for life! Christ has already won the 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 every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10) And in verse 15, the Apostle Paul continues, “...having disarmed the powers and authorities, he [God]made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Pastor John Ensor has written, "The commands of Scripture exist that we might be compelled to do what does not come naturally." (Innocent Blood - Challenging the Powers of Death With the Gospel of Life)
In Luke chapter ten Jesus tells 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 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 their 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 traveler. Jesus then said, "Go and do likewise."
John Ensor, in his book Innocent Blood, 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."
May I suggest to you that according to Jesus' parable, our salvation has a moral imperative built into it with regards to the needs of those around us, our neighbors.
Last year 2,152 unborn children lost their lives to abortion here in Polk County. That is an average of almost six children every day. They were our neighbors! Children will die unless someone intervenes on their behalf. In other words, we have an opportunity to obey Jesus’ command and “go and do likewise."
Again, Pastor 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)
In January of 2011, Flip Benham of Operation Save America, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, 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 rests squarely upon the shoulders of the Church of Jesus Christ."
I think he's right.
© James P McGarvey , All Rights Reserved
