Is Abortion Necessary? #4

Some closing thoughts on this passionate topic…

For the most part people want to have illicit sex lives but don’t want their personal and professional lives interrupted.  It is just plain selfish.  But not only that, the abortion business is a huge money making business.  These doctors make lots of money taking the lives of these little babies.  The pro choice folks say “Yea but the baby isn’t breathing so it isn’t alive.”  Of course it breathes; the baby receives oxygen from the umbilical tube.  I think it is obvious that if you take the baby out of the womb it will begin to breath.  Where does the confusion lie?  Is it merely an agenda that is being forced on the American people?  There is something wrong with a society that says that a girl must have permission from her parents before she gets her ears pierced, but she doesn’t have to get permission from the social engineers to be given contraceptives or to have that little baby killed.  She can do that without any parental consent.  No woman has the right to kill a baby, that baby is not part of her body it is just living in her.  She most assuredly wouldn’t kill an unwanted guest in her home.

     Where do we stand as a nation?  Proverbs 24:11 and 12 says “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?  And he that keepeth thy soul not know it?  And shall not he render to every man according to his works.”  It is our entire problem and it has gone on too long.  We better make sure we are informed; we can’t afford to be ignorant.  We better work and pray for a constitutional amendment to have abortion outlawed, and sexual morality must be taught in our homes and churches.  Isaiah 58:1 “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.”  We all must stand up with conviction for righteousness – “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.”

After all – what is next?  Is it our senior citizens who aren’t functional in society; just a burden?  Is it handicap or retarted children?  Do we kindly say to them “You aren’t of any use so we don’t need you or want you.”  Once the doors are opened it is hard to close them.

Just some thoughts from my heart the last few days…Selah!

Is Abortion Necessary? #3

To answer this question (the one I left off with last) I will go to the word of God and determine that a solid biblical worldview is the only solution to this problem.  In the scriptures we will clearly find when life begins and how life is to be treated.  The bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”  The bible is my source for wisdom and my compass for what is morally right and morally wrong.  It was used by our founding fathers in America.  Patrick Henry said in 1798 “The bible is worth all other book which has ever been printed.”  Thomas Jefferson said “Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to be more pure than that of Jesus.”  This nation was founded on the doctrines of the word of God.

When does life begin?  Jeremiah 1:5 says “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.”  It is important to key in on the many phrases in that verse, but the one we will look at for our study is “God formed Jeremiah in the belly.”  “God chose Jeremiah even before he was conceived or formed in his mother’s womb.  Then God formed Jeremiah and gave him his genetic structure he wanted him to possess (Wiersbe 17).”  The Hebrew word for formed is Yatsar which means to form or to mold into shape.  First time the word is used in the bible is in Genesis 2:7 where God formed man out of the dust of the earth.  He formed someone into the desired shape He designed.  “The word knew ‘yada’ means a far more than intellectual knowledge, it was used to describe an intimate relationship (BKC).”  Clearly the bible in the Jeremiah passage is using human terms.  Whenever God speaks of the unborn child He uses human terminology to reference the person.

Abortion says life isn’t important, God says the unborn child is important and is a person.  The bible says in Exodus 21:22 “If men strive to hurt a woman with child (not a fetus of zygote) so that her fruit depart from her…he shall surely be punished.”  God says the child that is in the womb of its mother is a living person with rights.  “The term child ‘yeled’ refers to living people, it occurs with regard to family relationships (Gristani).”  Luke 1:41 says of John the Baptist when Mary came to visit Elisabeth, “When Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the BABE leaped in her womb.”  Now it doesn’t say that a fetus leaped in her womb but rather the babe.  “Even before his birth John the Baptist rejoiced in Jesus Christ (Wiersbe 16).”  This is the same word used in Luke 2:12 “Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger.”  This speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ after he was born.  The same word used for babe inside the womb and outside the womb.

Probably the most eloquent and detailed passages in the word of God to describe for us the unborn child is found in Psalm 139.  The bible says in verses 14 through 16:

“I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect; and thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned.”

We cannot ignore the fact that God made us wonderfully.  If we are to see life from the proper perspective our thinking of God must be right.  Wrong ideas about God will ultimately lead to wrong ideas about whom we are and where we come from.  There are basically three question to life: where did I come from, why am I here and where am I going.  “Wrong ideas about God lead to a wrong life on the wrong path toward the wrong destiny.  In other words theology – the right knowledge of God – is essential to a fulfilled life in this world (Wiersbe 195).”  I believe when David wrote the Psalm before us that he had come to the realization that he was in fellowship and communicating with Omniscient, Omnipotent Creator God, and the God of this wonderful universe.

“David knew nothing of the modern science of embryology, nothing of the mysterious process by which a baby grows in the womb.  He had only the haziest of ideas about these things, but he knew enough of the process to be in awe of it.  What about us? (Phillips 597)” We do know that each microscopic cell is a world of itself; its cell is a microscopic universe of almost unbelievable complexity.  It is these cells that make a creature alive.  “God does not leave the making of a human being to the mechanistic forces of chance.  He is directly involved in each stage of the process.  He thinks about us all the time (Phillips 598).” 

The verb “covered” in verse 13 means to be woven together, and in verse 15 “curiously wrought” is to embroider just like a quilt (Strongs).  Inside the womb God Himself is weaving and embroidering a child and abortion stops that process.  How awful!  From the outset of conception to the point when we leave this world God has laid before us a wonderful journey through this life.  The scriptures clearly point us to the fact that life begins at conception.  That is when the sperm meets the egg and begins to make its journey to implantation in the womb of its mother.

 Al Mohler tells a story of a seventeen year old girl who assures the nurse in the clinic that she doesn’t consider the child within her to be a baby.  “Not until it’s developed, the nurse tells her that the fetus will not be completely formed until about the ninth week, and that hers is more like a chicken yolk (Mohler 2).”  That sure doesn’t add up to what God says.  He doesn’t say that the unborn child is like a chicken yolk, after all that would be a chicken.  God says that when he created man he was created in the image of God, not a chicken yolk.  God also makes it clear that even before the point of conception that we are known of God.

 Now that we have established when the bible says life begins we should examine the consequences.  Proverbs chapter six says “These six things the Lord doth hate: yea the seventh is an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, and feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false witness, and he that soweth discord among the brethren.”  Abortion is a horrible grizzly business.  It is done in the name of civil rights, but who has asked the baby.  I can imagine that here is a little baby in her mother’s womb, maybe keeping track of the events of growth, possibly anticipating meeting who it is that is always talking on “the outside”, and then her mother kills her.  Every day in what we call the United States of America, a nation so very blessed of God, over 4,000 innocent babies will never be given a chance to be all that God would have them to be.  No lawyer to argue their case, no trial, and no say so; killed in an inhumane manner.  If one was to keep an eye on their watch, every twenty one seconds one will be killed. 

 All this because the Supreme Court in 1973 decided that it is a woman’s right to choose whether she delivers the baby or not.  In fact there are only three requirements to kill a baby.  First of all the baby has to live inside the mother.  The other requirement is that the mother wants the baby killed, and the only other is that you must have a doctor who is willing to do the killing.  This is what they said on that 22^nd day of January 1973:  “A state is forbidden to proscribe (forbid) at any time prior to birth, if the opinion of one licensed physician an abortion is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother (Supreme Court).”  It is the term “health of the mother” that is so broad, and has become just about meaningless.  After reviewing the decision that was handed down basically if having a baby would force a distressful light and future on the woman, she may kill her baby.  So if having a child forces unwanted stress on your life you are able to consult with an abortionist.  That just isn’t how we operate as a civilized society.  In the world we live if someone distresses you, you can’t react to that or you will be arrested.

Tomorrow I will close with some remarks….

Phillips, J, Exploring Psalms; Mohler, A, Culture Shift; Wiersbe, W, Psalms commentar”Be”

Is Abortion Necessary? #2

It does seem that American’s conscience have become somewhat seared.  It doesn’t take long for one to find some information about the horrors of the abortion business.  The doctors that perform these killings speak so callously about it.  Money must be the driving force to the conscience being devoured.  In a 1992 National Abortion Federation meeting, Dr. Martin Haskell, a supposed expert in the field of what he calls “Dilation and extraction.”  He boasts as to having done over 700 of the procedures “with a low rate of complication.”  I ask: “did anyone ask the baby?”  He describes the procedure:

“Surgeons typically perform a classic D and E, in which the doctor dismembers the fetus inside the uterus, using forceps, and pulls it to pieces.  After twenty weeks, when the classic D and E is usually hard to accomplish because the fetus’ bones are too strong and the tissues are too tough, the standard procedure is either induction, in which the women is put through a drug induced miscarriage, or in some cases a form of D and E is which feticide is injected into the uterus and the dead fetus is then left inside to soften, making it easier to pull apart (Haskell).”

Those words are absolutely horrifying.  This same man went on to say that he wanted to see this entire thing taking place, so he decided to start using ultra sound.  He also states that just 10% of all the procedures were because of some genetic problem and the other 90% were strictly “elective.”  Just about all abortions were because the women decided that she just didn’t want any children.  It is truly amazing at how self-centered our society is becoming.  The term used to describe the removing of the unborn child is called disarticulate.  The only thing that seems to be disarticulated is our consciences. 

It is simply amazing that the same doctor that will deliver the baby and provide pregnancy care to a pregnant woman performs twice as many abortions as deliveries.  One such doctor, Dr. William Harrison admits to “destroying life” when he performs an abortion.  It is ironic that a medical practitioner committed to the preservation of life, would dedicate a large portion of their career to the business of killing unborn babies.  The question has been and probably will continue to be: when is a baby a baby?  Or better yet at what stage of the gestation period does a child have rights?

I first would like to determine what those various stages are.  Obviously it begins with the sperm and the egg.  When they unite that union is called a Zygote, and from there that travels to the uterus to be implanted and begin growing.  At this point the child is called an embryo where it is established in its own little life.  Then at about 8 week when all the human physical characteristics have developed it is called a fetus.  The child is called a fetus until birth.  Now most people don’t have a problem with the sperm to the zygote stage.  “The controversy rages concerning stage two (zygote) through stage four (fetus) of human development (Mcquilken 310)”, it is the question of when personhood begins that must be answered.  Terms like value of life, useful life, and worthy life are used to label an individual.  “A person is one who has the capacity to make self-conscious choices and to survive without dependence on others (Mcquilken 312).”  That is an idiotic statement as I personally have four children and every one of them is dependent on me for survival.  This maybe not so much to the extent that they couldn’t survive without me, especially the older ones, but how about the seven month old he couldn’t make without me.  Now if I decided that the infant was too much trouble and inconvenience I couldn’t elect to have him dismembered.  If I did I would go to jail for murder and so would the doctor.  So at what stage of the process is one considered an individual with rights? 

On Monday I will answer this question….until then – find a bible believing/preaching church tomorrow – and GO!

Is Abortion Necessary?

We live in an age of artificial controversies.  Of the many significant issues that are dealt with in society, the one that seems to draw the most attention relates to the sanctity of human life and the scandal of abortion.  We find ourselves in society engulfed in this culture of death which has claimed millions of innocent lives.  This culture is nearly invincible.  It is to this culture of death and the issue of abortion that we turn to today.

The majority of people in this world have negative views toward God and nature.  The moral compass of society is much skewed.  How God is viewed, and is the universe in which we live a created world or just an accident, is the question that all must answer.  The answer to those questions from people will determine how they ultimately determine what is morally correct and what is not.  To take creator God out of the equation essentially is enthroning us as god.

 I would like to take this discourse down to the level of abortion in America.  It appears that the behavior of the American people is changing quite rapidly and this is affecting our value system.  It is the values of a culture that will determine what is perceived to be right or wrong, which reveals their worldview – what is real.  We hear the cry of people wanting the separation of church and state.  This is not what it seems on the surface, it is actually a cry of separation of the church from public morality.  We are trending toward a fully secularized America.

The American people are being brain washed when it comes to morality.  Ten years ago there was Bill Clinton, President of the United States and a member of a Baptist church in Arkansas.  Today we still reap what he sowed publicly and then denied.  With one stroke of the pen he reinstated what former presidents took out of the law concerning abortion.  Immorality in the White House, the place that represents what we stand for in America, passed down to main street suburbia.  This immorality in the White House didn’t begin there; all you need to do is look at the likes of John Kennedy and others.  It’s not only that negative influence from leadership, but Americans are also being destroyed by Hollywood and the agendas that they attempt to shove down our throats.  Sexual immorality sells and this runs right down into the gutters of the multi-million dollar abortion industry.  Today, we have a President in the White House that is all for it!

 Abortion on demand was not made legal in this nation by an act of the people through their elected representatives, nor was it forced by popular vote.  Abortion was legalized in all fifty states when the United States Supreme Court invented a constitutional right to abortion and imposed it on the people of the United States.  Thirty five years later the people of the United States are still not trusted to settle the matter of abortion by democratic means.

 Because morality in America is cafeteria style – choose what works for you – it is an anything goes society.  I believe the question must be asked, are there moral absolutes?  What a person believes determines what their worldview is.  In order to answer the question of abortion being right or wrong we need to determine from what perspective we are looking from.  “Everyone has a worldview, but relatively few people have a biblical worldview.  This explains a great deal about behavior.  The reason so few people act like Christians is that they do not think like Christians.  Behavior results from values and beliefs.  Thinking biblically about the issues of life should ultimately result in living biblically within society (Anderson 1).”  As you can probably determine I will, with God’s help, build a case to show that abortion is wrong and do so using a biblical worldview.

     What is the history of abortion?  This is not something that has just come on the scene in the last thirty or forty years.  It is a practice that has been around since ancient times.  “Many cultures (Assyrians, Babylonians, Sumerians, Hittites) considered abortion a serious crime (Anderson 38).”  There were some societies which outlawed abortion while others found no difficulty with the problem. For example: “The fragility of fetal life and the problem of infant mortality was a great scourge in ancient Mesopotamia.  The prayers offered to the gods were for them to keep safe the woman and the child in her (Fuller).”  In the United States the practice of abortion was illegal until January of 1973.  Since that time there have been over 50,000,000 unborn children murdered, which equates to 1,500,000 each year!  That is just too many – just one is too many.

     Abortion affects millions of people, is very controversial, and is the most frequently performed surgery in America.  Is abortion a moral issue?  Abortion is still legal in the country yet we have appointed two Supreme Court justices in the past three years who are strongly pro-life.  “It is bad and that is why this issue has not gone away.  Abortion, like race-conscious hiring, generates moral friction.  Most people will tolerate it as a lesser evil or a temporary measure, but they will never fully accept it.  They want a world in which it is less necessary (Mohler 106).”  That is looking at abortion in moral terms.  How about a representative from the liberal side:

 “Inevitably attacking abortion as a great evil means attacking providers and patients.  If abortion is so bad, why not stigmatize the doctors who perform them?  Deny the clinic a permit in your town?  Make women feel guilty and ashamed for choosing it and make them sweat so they won’t screw up again?  Unwanted pregnancy – thus the need for abortion – might soon join obesity and smoking as unacceptable behavior in polite society (Pollitt).”

     That is mind boggling to me.  This woman suggests that in the group that she associates with that obesity and smoking are actual moral issues, and killing an unborn baby is not.  She went on to say that an unborn human being has no claim to life.  This is a prime example of moral relativism; the idea of what is right in my opinion may not be right in your opinion and vice versa.  Pollitt goes on to say:

“Morality has to do with rights and duties and obligation between people.  I do not think terminating pregnancy is wrong.  A potential person is not a person any more than an acorn is an oak tree.  I don’t think women should give birth just because a sperm meets and egg.  I think women have the right to consult their own wishes, needs, and capacities and produce only loved, wanted children they can care for – or no children at all.  I think we would be better off as society if we respected women’s ability to make these decisions for them and concentrated on caring for the born (Pollitt).”

     This is a great example of morality in society being flexible.  Now I don’t disagree with the idea that people should be ready to have a child.  To have the ability to care for the child and love the child is so very important.  However just because someone gets pregnant and it is an inconvenient time in their life to have a child, does that mean you destroy that life in order for the person to maintain the quality of life they desire.

Tomorrow I will continue….

Anderson, K, Christian Ethics in Plain Language; Mohler, A, Culture Shift; Pollitt, K., Prochoice Puritans