Perhaps now that the anniversary of Roe v. Wade is upon us the media will pay scant attention to the subject of abortion. As an issue, it has all but disappeared since the 1992 election. Neither major political party has talked about it much, and one wonders if the abortion “issue” will surface during the 1996 campaign at all. In fact, one wonders if either political party will have a pro-life plank in this year’s platform.
Many wish the abortion “issue” would just disappear entirely; they cannot understand why pro-life people are so adamant. “Why can’t they compromise? Why can’t they tone down their rhetoric? Why can’t they just downplay the abortion ‘issue’?”
Such thinking betrays a total lack of comprehension about the subject of abortion. Those who believe the Bible know that the “fetus” is a human being. The Bible does not refer to such as a “blob of tissue,” and neither do Christians.
Christians do not have any authority of their own; the reason is that Jesus possessed it all (Matt 28:18-20). All we can do is recognize what He commands and teaches–and abide by it.
The Bible teaches that the life within the womb is human life. Consider Luke 1:41 and 44. The babe (Greek, brephos), referring to the unborn John, leaped in the womb of his mother Elizabeth when Mary greeted her. Is brephos just a Greek word for fetus? Consider Luke 2:12 and 16. The shepherds were told, “You will find a Babe (brephos) wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” Verse 16 adds: “And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe(brephos) lying in a manger.” God chose the very same word to describe the unborn child in the womb as He used to refer to the newborn infant. What can we properly conclude but that to God the brephos is a human being both before and after birth?
Now if the unborn child is a human being (and it is!), then what is it called when someone terminates the life of a human being. If the individual is not worthy of death (and babies are the most innocent of all), then we rightly define the shedding of innocent blood as murder!
Abortion is not murder because a group of right-wing fanatics are emotionally charged up about the practice; it is murder by Biblical definition. Is murder something that should be down-played? Should we just all be willing to compromise on it? When someone’s wife or husband is murdered, do they want justice, or are they willing to just let it pass in silence?
Those who want the pro-life community to remain silent or just fade away are unrealistic. For us, this issue is not an option; it is a matter of life and death, right and wrong, morality or corruption. The person who does not respect the innocent life in the womb is subject not to respect life in any other form, such as the elderly, the handicapped, the mentally retarded, etc.
To our shame, we have an entire generation that has never known a time when abortion was illegal. If Roe v. Wade is not overturned soon, it may be too late to ever do anything about it again.
Someone says, “But isn’t economic reform and balancing the budget exciting?” Yes, but is it worth sacrificing millions of unborn children on the altar of TAX CUTS. For the child of God, the economy is not the thing; it’s morality. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
TODAY’S PROPHET
Prophets of old cried out against the sins of the people in the Old Testament times. What might someone like Jeremiah or Amos say of the existence of abortion of our so-called “enlightened society today? Some suggestions are given below (with Scripture references following in parentheses).
“For three transgressions of America, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they abort the righteous for silver, and the innocent for a pair of shoes. They pant after the lust of the flesh, which is displayed shamelessly on the silver screen. They pervert the way God designed the body to be used; a man and his father lie with the same lad. They were like well-fed lusty stallions; everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife. Shall I not punish them for these things? And shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?” (Amos 2:6-7. Jer. 5:8-9).
“Moreover abortion doctors shed very much innocent blood, till they had filled America from one end to another” (2 Kings 22:16). [If such a statement seems too strong, consider the chart below, which to be accurate should now have triple the amount of crosses as the ones shone for abortion.]
“Woe to the bloody country! I too will make the pyre great. Heap on the wood, Kindle the fire… I, the Lord, have spoken it; it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not hold back, nor will I spare, nor will I relent; According to your ways and according to your deeds they will judge you,” (Ezekiel 24:14).
These are just a few passages of Scripture that come to mind; how long can any nation endure that allows the heinous injustice of the shedding of innocent blood? God’s people dare not become indifferent on this subject.
*Send comments or questions concerning this article to Gary Summers. Please refer to this article as: “The Abortion ‘Issue’ (1/21/96).”
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