"What Would God Say About... Abortion?"
Insight Service - Discovery Christian Church - January 27, 2005
DEUTERONOMY 18: 9 - 13
INTRODUCTION: (Please turn to text)
Several years ago, there was a motion picture entitled, "Who’s Life Is It, Anyway?" It was a film starring Richard Dryfuss, and was about a man who was dying but faced the possibility of being kept alive by life support machines. The plot was very simple and asked the question: “Don’t I have the right to do whatever I wish with my life, with my body?” In the story, which I understand was based on a true account, the character played by Dryfuss actually went to court to ask for, and was granted, the right to die.
“Don’t I have the right to do whatever I wish with my life, with my body?” Let’s answer that question in the light of this scripture in 1 Cor. 6:19-20- “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are NOT YOUR OWN; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” You see the Christian’s question is not “Don’t I have the right to do with whatever I wish with MY life, MY body?” The blood bought believer asks: “What decisions can I make about my life and my body that honor God... because I belong to Him!”
The right to do whatever we please with our bodies is central to a lot of issues but it is at the very core of abortion. “Since I’m the one that’s pregnant,, don’t I have the right to choose to do with that pregnancy as I please? Since it’s MY body?” We’ve categorized that as “Pro-Choice.” The world adamantly says, “Yes you do. It is your right to choose!” Legally it says: “You have the right to abort a baby because it is your life to do with as you desire.” But there is an outcry, from those who think completely opposite. They say, “No. The pregnancy within you is a life that’s not your own. If you abort, you murder your child!” We catagorize that position as “Pro-Life.” And so since that infamous decision, by the Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 1973, that said abortion was legal in this country for every and any reason, a battle rages. And it is an emotionally charged, incredibly intense struggle. As Christian’s what are we to do? Are we to ignore the issue and stick our heads “ostrich-like” in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist or do we take a stand? If so, how strong of a stand? Well, we want to tackle that question as we begin this five-part series entitled “What Would God Say About...” In the weeks to come we will ask what God would say about eternal security, being treated unjustly, fasting and church leadership. But tonight, since this is the week of that landmark and famous or infamous Supreme court decision, let’s see what God would say about abortion.
Now some people will say that the Church should stay away from political issues. But is abortion a political issue or a moral issue? If it is purely political then lets’ stay out of it. But, if it’s moral we must speak up. Jesus said, "You’re the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor it is good for nothing..” That means we care about what God cares about and have the courage to stand for God’s moral truth even if it goes against popular thought. You talk about controversial? John the Baptist spoke out so strongly against moral issues he got beheaded. Jesus was so controversial he was crucified. And the Church must be the conscience of the community or there will be no standard of morality. Now, I understand that it is possible for the Church to get involved with every minor skirmish that comes along to the extent that we get sidetracked from our main task which is to preach from the Word of God. So, we must ask, “Does God speak on this issue?” Because if He says something about abortion, then it becomes incredibly significant that we understand His position, so that as faithful followers we can stand where He stands.
So, let’s look at this issue in three ways: 1) How the World thinks about abortion. 2) How God thinks about abortion.. and... 3) How the Christian SHOULD think about abortion.
I. HOW THE WORLD THINKS: CONVENIENTLY
First let’s look at what the world thinks. The sanctity of life was an issue as far back as Moses’ time. Israel came out of Egypt to the land of Canaan and found her new neighbors to be of different races and to hold very different religious practices. Deuteronomy 18 introduces us to one of those neighbors, the Ammonites. Now the Ammonites worshiped a God called Molech. Now, according to history, Molech was a large grotesque beast with the body of a man and the head of a bull and the abdomen was hollowed out. This idol worship, as almost all idol worship, involved sexual immorality. But the worship of Molech not only contained sexual immorality but also the sacrifice of children! Under the bull a fire burned until that hollow abdomen glowed with heat. The ancient idolaters would dance and perform sexual activities with several partners in front of this false god. The revelry would intensify until an infant child of one of the orgy participants was thrown alive into the hot abdominal cavity. The child was seared to death, its shrieks of pain drowned out by the feverish beating of drums and the din of voices involved in sexual ecstasy. The next day when the orgy was over and the mass hysteria had long been quieted and the idol had cooled down the burned remains were taken out of the other side of the idol. That is why the King James translators said in verse 10, "There shall not be found with thee any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire.." MSG -"Don’t you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire."
Moses warned the Israelites that they were not to participate in that activity because it was detestable to God. The consciences of the pagan Ammonites were so hardened that they sacrificed their own children to intensify their selfish desires. Now, that sounds horrible. But is our world doing much different today? Millions are engaging in every kind of sensual pleasure. Unrestrained sexual activity has resulted in an enormous number of unwanted pregnancies. The answer for those unwanted pregnancies in so many cases is to sacrifice them in the womb and so they are tossed onto the ashes of the abortuary as the gods of sex and success are worshiped. Listen, over 98% of all the abortions performed today are performed for convenience! Not because the life of the mother is threatened, not because the woman was raped or treated incestuously, but because the pregnancy was inconvenient to their plans.
And to make it even more "Molech-worship" like, is the way an unborn baby is aborted. It is interesting to me that having an abortion is called “choice.” And yet those I’ve talked to who have had an abortion never knew the details of what they are choosing. Why wouldn’t any medical professional at least describe the procedure? I’ve had knee surgeries and an angagram and the Doctor explained in detail what was going to happen.. But not in most abortions. The brutality of it is not explained by those who do it, you’ll never it on a ballot. So, I want to be as sensitive as possible but I think it is important that you know a little about this process. There are several common ways to abort a pregnancy. One of the newest methods is by using the drug: RU-486. RU-486 is taken after the mother misses her period. It can be used up to the second month of pregnancy. It works by blocking progesterone, a crucial hormone during pregnancy. Without progesterone, the uterine lining does not provide food, fluid and oxygen to the tiny developing baby. The baby cannot survive. A second drug is then given that stimulates the uterus to contract and the baby is expelled.
A more common way is by using a “suction machine” which is 27x more powerful than a domestic vacuum cleaner. This is called “suction aspiration.” A tube is placed within a woman and the suction tears the placenta from the uterus, dismembering the child. Another is called “Dilation and Curettage” or D & C. The abortionist inserts a looped shaped knife into the mother’s womb and literally cuts the child into pieces. A mid-trimester method that is used is to insert a saline solution that has a corrosive effect of concentrated salt that literally burns the unborn baby to death. The mother than delivers a dead baby. And up until November, 2003 when the President signed a law making it illegal, we had “partial-birth” abortion or “Dilation and Extraction.” This is where a child is literally delivered, all except it’s head. Then a knife is inserted into the base of the back of the neck, a suction machine is placed in the hole and into the brain cavity and turned on. Almost unbelievably there are current court cases seeking to overturn the “Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act” that President Bushed signed.
Why? How? Well because the world thinks that since the baby in the womb is just a little bit of tissue it’s okay to abort it. But the amount of tissue doesn’t make a person’s worth, the spirit inside the tissue does. But when you see it only as a “fetus” you’re not worried about the spirit or life. And so, since January 22, 1973 when the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand there have been over 53 million abortions. One out of every three pregnancies end in the killing of the unborn baby. More unborn lives have been snuffed out than 10 times the number of Americans lost in all our wars. And yet even from a logical stand-point the world’s reasoning doesn’t make sense. Do you know that in Arizona an Iguana is considered an endangered species and there is a $500 fine for destroying an Iguana egg? Or in Florida, that you can go to the beach and be fined $20,000 and be put in prison for a year for taking one Sea Turtle egg from the nest? Because both those states consider what is growing in those eggs to be worth while and yet in both states unborn babies in the womb are thought worthless! Does that make sense? But that is the world’s thinking process when it comes to the unborn. It’s all based on convenience, on the fact that the unborn child is simply tissue and therefore if it gets in your way, complicates your life, so, get rid of it.
But, as Christians we know that we are not to think like the world thinks. Col 3:2 - “Set your mind on the things of God, not earthly things.”(NIV) So let us look at:
II. HOW GOD THINKS: PERFECTLY
We know that God is perfect. The Psalmist writes in Psa. 18:30- “As for God, His ways are perfect, the Word of the Lord is flawless..”(NIV)So, instead of the reasoning of the world we must go to the reasoning of the Word. With that in mind, let me say this as clearly as I can as we begin this point. You cannot read scripture without concluding that God considers life to begin at conception not at delivery! Consider with me the following scriptures:
Exodus 21:22-23 - “If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and it causes her to give birth prematurely but there is not serious injury to the child, the offender must be fined whatever the pregnant woman’s husband demands.. But.. If there is serious injury from this action, you are to take life for life..” The life of both the woman and the unborn child were valuable to God! The Jews understood this because every man had hope that the Messiah could spring from his family and so they were extremely careful of the unborn child even in the case of an accident.
Psalms 139:13 -16 - “For you knit me together in my mother’s womb..” Do we have the right to get rid of God’s work in progress? Vs:16- “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” David says that God already knew him and had ordained his days while he was still in the womb.
Isaiah 49:1 & 5 tell us that God called Isaiah before he was born, he called him in the womb to be his servant. And it’s not just the O.T. In Luke 1:41 it says that John the Baptist was 6 months developed in his mother’s womb when Mary came to visit his mother Elizabeth. Lk 1:44- “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb..” The word "brethos" used to describe John as “the baby..” is the very same word for the infants that in Luke 18:15 Jesus touches and then has sit on His lap. The words are used interchangeably. You see, to God, birth doesn’t create life! It just manifests the life that has already been created by God in the womb. And there is no way a serious Bible student can rationalize abortion today.
Now, you may say, "I can see that God considers life to begin at conception. But does God recognize any mitigating circumstances?" What about rape? If a girl is violated by a brutal man should she have to bare that child? Now, make no mistake about it, that is a difficult question. But as difficult as it is I don’t think that two wrongs can make a right. Interestingly, the Presbyterian Journal did a study and reported "that out of 3,500 rape cases followed carefully in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area over the period of 10 years revealed no pregnancies. In only the most rare cases does pregnancy result from rape or incest because of the trauma involved. Rape or incest as reasons to legalize abortion are nothing more than emotional smoke screens behind which those profiting from abortions choose to hide."
"What about if a mother’s life is in danger?" Well, I think if there is a choice between the mother’s life and the life of the child in the womb it is probably best to choose the mother because that is the life that is woven with so many other lives. But Dr. C. Everett Coop, former U.S. Surgeon General, wrote, "Protection of the life of the mother for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arrived that threatened the mother’s health the Dr. will either induce labor or perform a C-section, his intent is to save both the mother and the baby."
“What about when you know you’re going to have a handicapped child?” Can God not use handicaps to His glory? Moses stuttered, Mephibosheth was lame, Bartimaeus was born blind but in each case God used them to show His kindness.
You see, the point is, God considers every life important! He knows the hairs on our head, he knows the sparrow that falls. Don’t let your conscience get hard, every life makes a difference. And what does God say bout a woman’s right to choose? Biblically He says, “I am pro-choice. Every woman has the right to choose to be intimate with a man or not!” You see the choice is not to kill the unborn but whether or not to participate in the practice that might result in conception. Is it any wonder that the Bible teaches that sexual intimacy is to be only reserved for marriage? God says that children are a reward from Him, a heritage to be honored not killed. You say, "Yes, but Tim what about all the unwanted pregnancies in today’s culture. Is it fair to bring an unwanted baby into the world?" In America there is no such thing as an unwanted baby. There are 3 million couples who wait every year unsatisfied for a baby to adopt.
You see, every life matters to God. Whether it’s perfect or deformed! He’s the one that is the author and Creator of life! And when God works for days and weeks to create life what do you think His reaction is when we destroy it? He told the children of Israel, then His chosen people not to imitate the Ammonites because their treatment of infants was detestable to Him. Abortion is detestable to Him now.
God thinks differently then the world thinks....To him every life is precious, and life begins in the womb at conception and is manifested outside the womb at birth.
III. HOW THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD THINK: BIBLICALLY
Well, we know what the world thinks and what God thinks and it’s obvious they are contradictory; what should we think and do? The thinking part of the question is easy in the light of the scriptures. To a Christian, a follower of God’s ways, abortion is WRONG. It is unscriptural and anti-scriptural, it is sin. But what can we do? I mean after all, Biblical thinking on this issue is obviously counter-culture. How can we make a stand without alienating the very people we need to help?
Well, let’s look back at what God wanted the Israelites to do in their cultural environment. (1) He said in vs:9- “Do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there..” I.e., Don’t do what the Ammonites do. We are not to imitate the world. Rom. 12:3 tells us not to be “conformed to the patterns of this world..” Don’t have an abortion, don’t counsel someone to have one. And let’s raise our children to know that the only "safe-sex" God recognizes is sex within marriage! I get real tired of people telling our kids that they can have sex as long as its “safe sex” because they are using some sort of contraceptive. That’s the Ammonites way of thinking, not God’s. Do you know that condoms have a 16% failure rate for pregnancy? That’s 1 out of 6.. The same odds as putting a bullet in a gun and playing Russian roulette. But beyond that we as Christians are responsible to teach our children through our words and our examples that they are to be morally pure.
(2) They were to be blameless within the culture and before the Lord. Vs:13- “You must be blameless before the Lord your God.” The word blameless comes from the Hebrew here that means to “stand for right.” Matt. 5:14- "You are the light of the world.....(don’t) light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead put it on a stand for all to see." Captain Lewis after he had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima looked back at that mushroom cloud and said six words, "My God what have we done?" And I don’t know about you but I don’t want to stand before God someday and hear him say, "Tim Smith, you lived during the years when there were over 50 million babies killed in what they called abortion. What in the world were you doing?" May it at least be said that we stood up for God’s values!
So, what can we do practically to make a difference? Let me close by very briefly making 5 suggestions that you can do as Christians that respect the Sanctity of Life. 1) Repent. If you have had an abortion, if you have counseled someone to have one, or maybe even participated in the operation. Don’t gloss it over don’t pretend because society accepts it or because its legal that it’s okay. 1 Jn 1:9- "If we confess our sins to God, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse from all unrighteousness." David committed adultery and murder and in Psalm 51 he pleaded with God to cleanse him and God did. Please understand that being a part of Discovery and standing for Godly values means offering God’s forgiveness and acceptance to those who wish they could take it all back. Eph. 4:15 tells us we are to speak the truth, but speak it in love. In an audience this size statistics tell us that there are probably several who have gone through this. I want you to know today that you are loved, that you have not committed the unpardonable sin. That there is help and we want you to have it. Please, please don’t be so guilt ridden that you turn away from the One who offers to cleanse you from your sin and guilt!
2)Pray. James 5:16- "The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." Pray that this will stop and that we will have opportunities to stop it.
3)Take a stand that is non -violent. Ours is a spiritual fight not a physical. That means we don’t get into fist fights with Pro-Choicers or bomb abortion clinics. We don’t have to become inflammatory, we don’t have to call people murders, we don’t have to get red in the face. 1 Peter 3:15 says be prepared to give a reason for your hope but "always do it with gentleness and respect." So, counsel with Scripture. The tendency is to respond to an emotional issue with just emotion. But when you talk to someone say, "I’m opposed to abortion because the Bible says..” Let people know where you stand Scripturally when the topic comes up.
4) Communicate what you can to those who can make the changes. I challenge you to be a one-issue voter. Don’t give someone or any party who stands on a platform that says abortion is permissible. This is NOT a political issue, it is a moral issue. I encourage you to let our current politician know how we feel. Write letters, sign petitions, let them know the way that you want them to represent you on this topic. In fact, our hand-out that was in last Sunday’s bulletin gives you just such an opportunity.
5)Help provide positive alternatives. A lot of women get abortions because they don’t any alternatives, they think there is no way out. But thankfully here in the Springs there is an alternative. It is called Life Network. I want you to see some of what they are doing. (DVD 6:20 describing work of local pregnancy center)
There is literature you can pick up and even cards where you can volunteer at Life Network. If you want to do something positive this is the place. If you sign a card let us have it and we will get it to Life Network. Someone once said, “The only thing it takes for evil to win, is for good people to do nothing.”
God didn’t just sit back and do nothing. All life, your life is so important to Him that He’d rather die than live without you. He gave up His life so that we would know that every life sacred.
