Slave to the King

Unworthy rebels, redeemed by the King of Kings and made servants fit for His use.

Tag: abortion

Elitists Lecturing the Church About Abortion

June 25, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Today, I read articles by both Karen Swallow Prior and David French regarding making abortion “unnecessary” and “unthinkable.” In both cases, they give token acknowledgment to the fact that Christians for hundreds of years have actually done the hard work of caring for those in need. But, their solution isn’t to praise that work and call for churches to keep doing the same.

Rather, it is that Christians simply have not done enough to address those issues, so we must now abdicate that responsibility and give it to the government. Both articles advocate for government-sponsored social and financial programs, appealing to the sense that women who are pregnant seek abortions due to societal and monetary issues.

Both Prior and French call for society at large to be responsible to fund and care for pregnant women through government-enforced taxation and redistribution of resources. What I find interesting in both articles is that neither is willing to recognize that it has been government-based programs that have caused much of the societal and financial decay in our nation.  Welfare programs have repeatedly made women and minorities dependent on handouts. They do so by punishing recipients the moment they obtain any kind of self-sufficiency by ending those benefits. Social and financial programs are very much not an opportunity to provide a “leg up” but force people to live on the meager dolling of what the bureaucrats give them.

Also, rampant sexual immorality in our nation can be traced to the government-sponsored promotion of “safe sex” education over abstinence. And it is the government force-feeding acceptance of “alternate lifestyles,” teaching sexual perversion as virtuous and freeing.  Nowhere in either article do Prior and French call for churches to hold the government accountable for helping to further the depravity that has resulted in “unwanted pregnancies,” yet we are called upon to make this same bureaucracy responsible for solving the problem it helped cause.

Also interesting is their appeal to statistics which say abortion has decreased since Roe. Yet, neither address that abortifacient contraceptives have risen in use (i.e. “the morning after pill”). Countless numbers of babies have been aborted after conception because these “medications” prevent implantation after initial conception. Children that are conceived, yet lost because the pill caused them to be flushed away are still murdered, even if they were not injected with saline, burned, and dismembered.

Both Prior and French want to lecture Christians and take the “moral high ground” by saying we can’t really be pro-life unless we endorse government-based solutions. Yet, their arguments are spurious and vapid. They mostly ignore the work done for centuries by the Church, use statistics slanted in their favor to make their case, and conveniently fail to address the government’s own hand in our current mess.
In short, their solution is no solution at all.

Is Roe the End?

June 24, 2022 / / 1 Comment

A Historic Moment

Today, June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In this monumental decision, the Court ruled there is no constitutional protection for abortion and returned the matter to the States. In other words, each State must now decide whether to make abortion illegal, legal, or restricted in some capacity. This means it is not a full ban on the horrific practice despite what commentators, media personalities, or politicians have claimed.  Nor is it a removal of a Constitutional protection enshrined in our founding document. There has never been any such protection in the Constitution. What Roe v. Wade did is interpret that laws banning abortion were unconstitutional. That decision thus prohibited states from making laws outlawing the act. In today’s decision, the Supreme Court reversed that finding and determined no such protection existed. You cannot remove something that was never there.

What Now?

What happens next? All 50 States in the Union must now determine what laws they will pass with regard to the act of abortion. Some states have already passed legislation that would be triggered once the decision was handed down. Other states already have laws protecting the practice of abortion and will continue to stand by them. Ultimately, each state’s laws will be based on the votes of its citizens and the representatives they place in State political offices. This is not the end of abortion, but it most certainly limits the ability of people intent on murdering their babies. The fight to end abortion is far from over, but a major victory has been won.

What does this mean for the church? As Christians, we recognize that Scripture declares murder to be a sin. God knew us before we came into being.  He declared when would be born and would die.  He determined the path our lives would take. And He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. We are made in His image and likeness. God has declared the willful murder of such image-bearers to be a sin, one which has not only temporal but eternal consequences. Therefore, the church must continue to proclaim to the world at large that the murder of babies is a sin. That those who promote, affirm, endorse, and engage in this willful rebellion will face His just and righteous wrath. We must call on the world to repent of such heinous sin and turn to Christ whereby the only hope of forgiveness can be found. We must not equivocate on this matter. We must firmly, authoritatively, and with great love, proclaim this truth to the world.

What Cannot Be

But we must not fall prey to the language of the world on this matter. We must not seek to soften the blow that abortion is a sin by telling people that abortion is only thinkable because we have failed to provide for the needs of women. That abortion only happens because social justice has not yet been achieved. This is patently untrue. Murder occurs because people are sinners. We commit sin because our hearts are enslaved to sin. That sin will be shown in a myriad of ways, including the murder of babies in the womb. We can justify our sins all day long with hundreds of reasons but it is still sin. We cannot remove the guilt of sin because life is unfair or difficult.

We must also not fall prey to the redefinitions of terms. It has become passé to rephrase pro-life to mean “pro-whole life.” In other words, that protecting infants from murder is not actually being pro-life. To be pro-life, you must be willing to have the secular government at large provide and care for life from womb to tomb. We are told we must authorize the government to so organize society through financial incentives, social programs, and health care to ensure that every life born has every single thing it needs. In this redefinition, you cannot possibly be pro-life without this provision. To reject it means you are “pro-birth” and could not care less what happens after.

Those actually aware of the history of the church know that Christians have created numerous resources for hundreds of years to care for children and families in need. Through local church donations and care in the community – and through the creation of charities, pregnancy centers, hospitals, adoption agencies, and more – the church has always stepped up to the plate to provide for those children in dire need. It is a lie from the pit of Hell to say that Christians do not care what happens after a child is born. And by adopting the language of “pro-whole life” we deny the truth that countless Christians in history have actually done the work of caring for those in need.

Do Not Forget Our Primary Mission

Finally, we must not assume this particular victory means our work is done in the culture. Even if all abortion was banned today (may we see that day soon) evil hearts that desire to murder their children are still enslaved to sin. The very hearts that want to fight to restore abortion to legal status are still speaking vile words that spew forth from evil hearts. Their standing before God has not changed even if the law were changed completely. Sinners bent on evil still need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While we rejoice and worship God for His mercy on this matter, we must almost recommit ourselves to the command to make disciples of every nation. We must confront hearts with the truth of Scripture that they are enslaved to sin and will stand before God on Judgment Day. That the only hope of forgiveness, even for those who have already murdered children in the womb, is Jesus Christ. We must confront them with their sins, warn them of the danger to come, and plead with them to turn to Christ alone.

Christians, Roe is not the end. While the fight has been long and arduous, it is not yet over. And it would not be over even if we could put an end to this abdominal act. The first and primary mission of the church is the proclamation of the gospel and the winning of souls to Christ. We can fight and win culture wars but still lose souls to Hell. Let us fight the one without neglecting the other. No, Roe is not the end. It is a time of humble rejoicing to be sure. But, it is also a reminder of the great God we serve and the mission He has given us. Let us go forth and serve our King this day and every day till He brings us home.

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