It is increasingly apparent that many people have made up their own concepts of God. They have heard His name and perhaps have had a brief encounter with the Scriptures at some point in their lives, but they really have no comprehension of God’s holiness or His sense of justice. They have depended upon the popular culture for their ideas of God rather than the Bible.
Many are like children connecting the dots–only in religion the dots are not numbered; so they develop a grotesque and warped view of Deity. They have heard of His wondrous love; probably they have read 1 Corinthians 13. They know that God forgives people, but they have seldom, if ever, been taught that repentance is a prerequisite; so the dots have been connected in such a way that God is viewed as one gigantic CHUMP. Undoubtedly, they have heard about the woman taken in adultery and about Jesus’ pronouncement: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Overlooked is the follow-up admonition to the woman: “Go, and sin no more.”
People’s perspective of God is that He is just like us (Ps. 50:21). We don’t take sin all that seriously; so why should He? Sure, Jesus died on the cross, but that was just to show God’s love (John 3:16). Many do not connect it to our penalty for sin (1 Cor. 15:1-4). So, in the popular view, God is love, willing to forgive, and not unduly concerned about sin. The church is not a big issue with God, either, in their minds. After all, there are many problems (including division) that pertain to this subject. Why do we need the church anyway? Surely, we can pray for ourselves and have our own relationship with Jesus without involving some church.
With this kind of thinking, the next step is for each individual to develop his own morals. People think as follows: Everything is relative, right? We certainly can’t be expected to depend on some outdated code put together 2,000 years ago. Our society tells us that homosexuality is all right; so the Bible must be obsolete. Abortion is convenient; it solves so many problems. A young woman can remain independent and free, the father can relax concerning the child support he would have had to pay for the next 20 years, and the “would-be” grandparents are rescued from social embarrassment. Just think! All of this happiness only cost the child’s life. Is that such a great price to pay? And the best thing is that God probably approves it. Why, many respected and long-standing religious denominations accept the practice of abortion; sometimes, they proudly fellowship abortionists.
Yes, above all else God wants people to be happy. That’s the reason He is willing to give them eternal life and the reason that salvation is by grace only. He doesn’t require anything of us. Oh, we have to believe that He is there and that Jesus wants to be our Savior, but that’s about it. Why, here’s a little tract that says that I’m a sinner but Jesus wants to be my Savior. All it says I must do is confess that Jesus died for my sins and that I must confess Him as my personal Savior. See how easy that is? God made it so simple for me to be saved. He wants me to have fun now, and He will grant me eternal life later on. So anything that gets in my way, like an unwanted child, we must be allowed to “dispense” with. We probably should avoid sin, but when we mess up, God takes care of everything for us.
If this kind of thinking does not result in letters like the following one to the editor, then how else can a person’s thinking become so jumbled? Vanessa C. Bilanceri of Austin writes:
For each woman and her partner to be able to choose what is best for them at that time in their lives is truly a gift from God. I think abortion is a blessing. Living is all about choice and God gives us freedom of choice everyday. The government should also (The Dallas Morning News, June 27th, 10A).
Since this person is thanking God, we can assume that she is not an atheist. It is also apparent that she does not know the Scriptures, or she could not display such ignorance. God NEVER gave abortion as a “gift.” What book of the Bible does that come from? The New Testament declares the life in the womb to be a baby, equal in status to the child out of the womb (Luke 1:41, 44; 2:12, 16). No one in this or any other society ever had permission from God to kill the life that was in a woman’s womb. Women got that right from the Supreme Court in 1973, not God.
It is true that we make choices every day; God gives us the freedom to commit sin. We are free to have abortions just as we are free to kill relatives or total strangers. We are free to commit fornication or adultery. We are free to lie, cheat, and swindle others. We may gossip about someone we despise and slander that person’s good reputation. We are free to accuse innocent persons of child molestation or rape, thus ruining their lives. We are free to be as selfish, as evil, or as nasty as we want to be. But there comes a day when we will have no choices. We will have no choice but to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds done in the body (2 Cor. 5:10). We will have no choice but to abide throughout eternity in hell because of our sinful choices.
There is a way to receive forgiveness, but it involves first of all recognizing what sin is and, second, admitting that it is sin. If we refuse to acknowledge that abortion is sin (if we instead defend it), then we cannot get forgiveness for it. The same holds true of adultery or fornication (which may prompt the consideration of abortion)–or any other sin.
Before someone blithely thanks God for abortion, she ought to be sure that God delights in it. She should be able to prove that God approves of abortion. Proof cannot consist of saying, “God wants me to be happy, and abortion solves my problem and makes me happy; therefore, God approves of it. We can only practice something if God authorizes it either specifically or in principle. The Bible does not recommend abortion, and Christians have regarded it as sin since the beginning of Christianity. Our current culture has influenced the letter writer more than the Bible has. Abortion remains murder (the killing of an innocent life).
A similar letter appeared in the Denton Record-Chronicle on June 19. This letter had to do with abortion via the yet-to-be-approved pill, RU-486. It begins by addressing those who are opposed to birth control of any kind and recommends Paul Ehrlich’s book of 1968, The Population Bomb. This book is full of inaccuracies. In fact, according to Ehrlich, Earth could not last past 1990. The letter writer, Joy Lane, also thinks the world is starving because of a lack of food, which is not true. We have enough food, but corrupt governments in various regions do not care about their people.
The solution presented in the editorial is found in the last sentence. After four paragraphs arguing the case for overpopulation, the letter concludes with these words: “Surely, it is a merciful Heaven that has provided RU-486 for the whole world!” (10A). Here is a perfect example of the non-sequitur. There is no discernable connection between the problem of over-population (if it is a problem) and RU-486, which is also called the “morning after” pill.
A writer might have praised the birth control pill for its ability to prevent pregnancies from occurring, which would mean fewer children. But what connection to the writer’s thesis does RU-486 have, since it destroys a child already conceived? Abortion is already legal; so children in the womb can already be killed. All that RU-486 does is kill them sooner. There will be no appreciable difference in the carnage.
Whose conclusion is it that Heaven provided RU-486? Did Heaven also provide Agent Orange? It is rather the ingenuity of man that creates such substances, whether they be used for good or for evil purposes. God has given us a mind and the ability to use it. We are now able to map 90% of the human genome. The question is, “What will be done with the knowledge?”
Perhaps RU-486 has some positive medical use, but destroying lives that have already been created does not qualify. This is an evil purpose, and Heaven had nothing to do with it. Nor can Heaven approve the destruction of innocent human lives via this means. No one can thank Heaven for it– except those who have created God in their own image and fancy that He agrees with them concerning their own chosen morality.
Christians must impress upon others the fact that mankind does not have the right to concoct its own moral system and then imagine that God approves. The Scriptures reveal God to us so that we have an objective account of Him, His holy ways, and His requirements for us. We confuse good with evil; in fact, we frequently get it backwards (Isa. 5:20). We do not have the right to approach God on a subjective basis (how we think He should be), but we must understand Him as He has objectively revealed Himself to us through the Scriptures.