The Nation of Slaughter
For the most part, my posts have been about Jesus and His life in us here in America and the countries I have visited recently. I have tried to stay away from divisive issues (except to the extent that Jesus can be divisive). But this post is different. I have been called to write about abortion and the ever-encroaching darkness in America (and the world). This has been a hard post to write because it will offend some, even Christians, and that makes me uncomfortable. But I am a man under authority, so to be obedient here is what I believe I am called to say:
Over the last several weeks America has walked deeper into spiritual darkness, which will, unless our nation repents, have catastrophic consequences. The Democratically-controlled New York State Assembly and Governor Cuomo have (gleefully) passed legislation that appears to make full-term abortion much more likely. And the other day, the sponsor of a bill in Virginia (that thankfully did not make it out of committee) acknowledged that her bill would make it legal to abort a child even after the birth process had begun.
Since the United States Supreme Court decided in Roe vs Wade on January 23, 1973 that it was a woman’s constitutional right to abort her unborn child, over 61,000,000 (!) unborn children have been killed in this country (1.5 trillion in the world since 1980).
Every follower of Jesus should be grieving and repenting over these decisions. Here’s why:
Made in the Image and Likeness of God
Scripture maintains that each human being is made in the image and likeness of God and therefore every human life is sacred and valuable to God. This has been fundamental Judeo-Christian doctrine since forever (e.g. see Genesis 1:26). When does ‘made in the image and likeness of God’ kick in? Is the child in the mother’s womb 10 minutes before birth not made in the image and likeness of God while that same child 1 minute after it leaves the mother’s womb is?
The argument about ‘when does life begin’ has been kicked back and forth ever since the Supreme Court ruling. For me, as a Bible-believing Christian, the question is, “when does life become sacred?” Is there a time during the gestation period when science can point to the unborn child and say, “yesterday this child did not contain the image and likeness of God, but today it does”? Maybe when its heart begins beating, perhaps when the child begins to move and kick, or when its brain is developed enough to feel pain. The fetal heart beat usually begins 3 – 5 weeks after the egg is fertilized. Movement can begin as soon as 13 weeks. At 20 weeks, the unborn child is especially susceptible to pain. So, when is the unborn child ‘alive’, containing the image of God, and therefore its life is sacred? After 3 weeks, 13 weeks, 20 weeks? To me, this is a philosophical question that attempts to justify killing an unborn child at some point in the mother’s pregnancy. Can I kill the child after 3 weeks, 13 weeks, 20 weeks? How about at 30 weeks? What about 38 weeks? The moment of birth? Is there a time before which it is ok to kill the unborn child and after which it is not? For me the question is, “At what point is the unborn ‘made in the image of God”?
There is only one answer that makes sense. The unborn life is made in the image and likeness of God at the moment of conception. In that moment the beauty, mystery, and amazing majesty of life begins to unfold. Is the Grand Canyon worthy of reverence and awe? What about our Galaxy or the Universe? Yes, of course. But we should be even more awed by this thing we call life. Is it not one of the greatest mysteries of all the mysteries in the world around us? A thinking, communicating, creative, problem solving person, with feelings, emotions and the ability to express them; who can love, hate, give life and take life away, who can converse with the Almighty, and actually have God living in them, begins with one egg and one sperm uniting in a woman’s body. When is the divine spark that burns in the heart of every human being first lit? From my perspective, it is lit at the instant of conception. And therefore, from that point on the agglomeration of cells is alive and very quickly, in a matter of a few weeks, becomes recognizable as an incipient human being, and so from the beginning is worthy of all the protection that we accord all other living things, because life – made in the image of God – is sacred. Killing that unborn child is the shedding of innocent blood – also known as murder.
Abortion is Murder – A Form of Child Sacrifice
How does a society, claiming to value human life judging by the laws against murder, which even has laws prohibiting cruelty to animals, get to a place where the murder of the most innocent and helpless is not only accepted but sanctioned by the highest law in the land?
I don’t know. But we are not the first culture or society that makes killing babies a national disgrace. Israel during the time of Jeremiah sacrificed their new-born infants to the god Molech. There is not much difference in my mind between aborting an unborn child, especially after 30 weeks or so, and throwing a 2-hour old infant into a roaring furnace. Here are the words of Jeremiah:
“The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up detestable idols in my house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topeth in the Valley of Ben Hinnon to burn their sons and daughters in the fire – something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. So, beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the people will no longer call it Topeth or the Valley of Ben Hinnon, but the Valley of Slaughter . . . I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the town of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate” (Jeremiah 7: 30 – 32; 34 NIV).
During the reigns of Kings Ahaz and Manasseh furnaces made in the image of the god Molech were set up in the Valley of Ben Hinnon near Jerusalem to burn to death the first-born infants of the people living in Israel (Jeremiah 32: 35). The idol to Molech was a large bronze furnace made in the image of a man with outstretched hands and the head of a bull complete with horns. The hands were heated to red hot. The infant was placed in the hands and then consumed in the furnace. Since the late 19th century this form of shedding innocent blood has been connected by many with abortion.
The shedding of innocent blood is murder; murder is always a tool of satan, “who comes to steal and kill and destroy”. The shedding of innocent blood, like the child sacrifice to Molech in the Valley of Slaughter or abortion, is a form of satan worship, whether we acknowledge that or not. Abortion has two other consequences: 1) murder is a sin, and as with all unrepented sin, the woman who undergoes an abortion opens a door into her heart for demonic oppression; and 2) an abortion can produce a curse that can have an impact on succeeding generations.
The reasons why women get an abortion are numerous. Some include: to preserve the life of the mother, in the case of rape or incest, and most commonly for the convenience of the mother, who does not want to deal with the difficulties and consequences of raising a child. While I believe that abortion is murder – shedding the blood of the most vulnerable and innocent of our society – I also have compassion for the woman who chooses abortion. I suspect that after an abortion many women live with a deep sense of shame, guilt, remorse, and unforgiveness for the rest of their lives.
As a couple who minister the love of Jesus to women who have had abortions, my wife and I have seen the burdens they carry. But I have also seen that when a woman gives the shame, guilt, and sin to Jesus, He sets them free. In my opinion, Jesus is the only way for a woman to find the spiritual and emotional freedom from her shedding of innocent blood. And because of His great love and compassion for that woman, if she repents, Jesus will heal her and make her whole.
God is the Creator of Everything. We Belong to Him
In America, many who align themselves with liberal progressive ideology favor abortion and call themselves ProChoice. The idea is that women have the right to choose what they do with their own bodies – called ‘reproductive rights’. If they want to abort the unborn child in their womb, it is their right and no one has the right to tell them otherwise. In fact, the Supreme Court of the United States tells women they have a constitutional right to an abortion. But that is not God’s law.
God is the creator of all life. And children are formed by God in their mother’s womb; they are a gift from God. Scripture affirms these truths:
“In the beginning was the Word (John means Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made: without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1: 3, 4 NIV).
“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalm 24: 1 NIV).
“But now this is what the Lord says – He who created you, O Jacob; He who formed you O Israel: Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43: 1 NIV).
“For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful” (Psalm 139: 13, 14 NIV).
Speaking to Jeremiah about his destiny, God told him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1: 5 ESV). God formed Jeremiah and, before he was born, had plans for his life.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2: 10 NIV).
“The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gave me life” (Job 33: 4 NIV).
“Children are a gift from the Lord, they are a reward from Him” (Psalm 127: 3 NLT).
Each human being is created, knit together by God in their mother’s womb; hence made in the image and likeness of God at the time of conception. We are God’s workmanship. God gives us breath, a heartbeat, a mind, and personality – He gives us life and light. God gives each person gifts. He created us, we are His.
God gives us the freedom to choose how to live our lives. We can live independently from Him, with self as our god; we can claim the right to ourselves. God will not stop us. “I am my own king, the ruler of my life – and no one can tell me what to do or how to behave”. That is the attitude of a 2-year old (“You are not the boss of me”), and sadly many adults living today. And that is a fearful place to live – ultimately that life will be judged.
God has a different plan. We belong to Him – all of us. Our spirit, soul, mind, and body were formed by God. He created every part of us – we are fearfully and wonderfully made – so all of who we are belong to Him. And God, our Creator, values and loves each of His creations – an idea satan does not want you to believe.
“Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12: 1 NIV).
The path to true freedom is to give up the right to ourselves, and swear allegiance and obedience to the King of Kings. That means we bring everything that we do, say, or think into conformity with His plan for our lives. Sounds boring? Not at all. Living conformed to God and His word is exciting. What is boring is living as slaves to the ideas and practices of the world. It always surprises me that the ones who think they are the most free, most countercultural, most independent are the ones who are in the deepest bondage to the approval of the world around them.
An unborn child is not, in this sense, the property of the woman in whose womb the child is temporarily living. That child belongs to God. God formed it; God gave it life. It is not ours to dispose of how we wish. It is His! We are given the privilege and responsibility of stewarding that life, of nurturing it until it grows old enough hopefully to find its own value in its Heavenly Father. We do not own that life any more than we own our bodies – we are God’s and He has plans for us. It is the satanic power operating in the kingdom of self that tells us otherwise – it is the power that we call pride. Believing that we are ‘the god of our own life’ is the great deception of satan.
The life we are called to live is God’s story, not ours. Spiritual and emotional healing begins when He brings us out of our story, where we live in the power of self, into His story, which we live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
We Are All Murders
As I wrote above, abortion is the shedding of innocent blood. God calls the shedding of innocent blood murder. Murder is always initiated by satan. There is a spirit of death, a dark stain of murder running throughout the history of America. Our nation murdered Native Americans, slavery was murder – slaves were literally murdered and ‘murdered’ emotionally and spiritually; much innocent blood was shed during the American Civil War and afterward in Reconstruction. Today drugs ‘murder’ thousands of people each year, both because drugs kill, and the murder that accompanies drug dealing. St Louis is the ‘murder capital’ of America. It is number 13 on the list of cities in the world with the most murders per capita. (Worldwide, America is a relatively safe nation. America is 111th out of 217 nations, with a murder rate of 4.7 people/100,00. The majority of those violent deaths occur in a relatively small number of counties in America).
But while murder is the shedding of innocent blood, Jesus reminds us that in the Kingdom of God, murder is also calling a brother ‘you fool’. When we gossip about a sister with the intent of damaging her reputation, look down on a brother or get angry with him, call someone a fool, or in some other way disrespect another person we are bringing ourselves under God’s judgment – Jesus says we are murderers. But surely you say, killing an innocent unborn child is way worse than getting angry with someone. Apparently not. Jesus says:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother (in the Greek, in this context, ‘brother’ refers to everyone) will be subject to judgment . . . But anyone who says, ‘You fool’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5: 21 – 22 NIV). We murder with our tongues and with our thoughts.
Although abortion is murder, it is just the latest manifestation of the spirit of death in America. We have all contributed to the rise of that spirit. None of us are innocent. And just as with a young mother who will grieve the death of her unborn child and have to live a life of remorse and shame, he who internalizes the anger and resentment toward another will also open a door in their heart to demonic oppression and ultimately judgment in the fires of hell. Bad news!
It is right to call abortion murder. But it is also correct to call unforgiveness, resentment, and anger that we carry in our heart toward another person murder.
America Under Judgment
America has come under judgment for its history of murder, but especially for the murder of the most innocent and helpless. God’s word is clear: “I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the town of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate”.
Look around America today. Do you see the desolation? Everywhere we look there is fear, anger, hatred, division, discord, the rise of Marxism and socialism (unimaginable in America 20 years ago) which is rooted in the demonic, the rise of divisive identity politics and political correctness (a form of tribalism), erosion of free speech, the secularization of colleges and universities (fueling the acceptance of Marxism and socialism), destruction of families, lives being torn apart by drugs, pervasive sexual immorality including, but not limited to, pornography, which is even taking a toll on children as young as 10; more people abandoning God; a rise in witchcraft, spiritism, and New Age practices, even in churches where occultic practices like yoga are widespread, even defended. The culture is awash in the occult – magic, sorcery, and witchcraft are widely accepted, for example in Harry Potter novels and Disney cartoons; and rock and roll bands routinely hold up their hands with pinky and Index finger held up, thumb tucked in toward the palm (for my University of Texas friends – the “hook em horns” hand gesture) symbolizing horns of the demon Molech (but not, I am sure, in the hand gestures at a UT football game).
Certainly there is goodness, light, and life in America, and in many ways America has long been a beacon of hope for the world. But over the last 40 years or so, that light is dimming under the relentless attack of evil. We have opened a door in America; increasingly we are coming under the authority of satan – and concurrently under the judgment of God for our sins and evil behaviors, as He slowly removes His hand from our country.
What is the way out of condemnation and judgment? The way out is repentance. We must repent as individuals for the ways we have murdered. We must repent as the Church for shrinking back from our responsibility to love those around us, and for our toleration of sin and evil in our midst. And we must repent as a nation for our murderous past and for the murder we are committing every day. America is sinking into darkness. We need Jesus. In His Kingdom we will find life, light, redemption, and the forgiveness of all of our sins; in His Kingdom every Kingdom man and woman will find the love they want and need.
“For He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves, where there is redemption and the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1: 14 NIV).
Or in this Old Testament passage I hear so often quoted today:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn (repent) from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV).
There is hope for America and the world. Jesus is our hope; our only hope. He is still standing at the door, knocking. If we, through repentance, will open the door He will come in and eat with us and we with Him. Grace – through Jesus, we, individually and nationally, can experience more life, more peace, more joy, and the love of the Father. Life in the Kingdom of God. The self-proclaimed curse can be reversed. But Christians must act on behalf of our nation now – at some point it will be too late.
Praying against the darkness,
John