When Abortion Suddenly Stopped Making Sense

"For that was another disturbing thought: Abortion means killing not strangers but our own children, our own flesh and blood. No matter who the father, every child aborted is that woman’s own son or daughter, just as much as any child she will ever bear.

We had somehow bought the idea that abortion was necessary if women were going to rise in their professions and compete in the marketplace with men. But how had we come to agree that we will sacrifice our children, as the price of getting ahead? When does a man ever have to choose between his career and the life of his child?"

- Frederica Mathews-Green

You can read the whole National Review article here.

Asleep in the Light

Years ago Keith Green sang in his song "Asleep in the Light":

Oh, can't you see it’s such sin?!
The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church just can't fight,
'cause it's asleep in the light!
How can you be so dead?!
When you've been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave,
And you! You can't even get out of bed!
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead!
Come on, get out of your bed!

Regarding the issue of abortion, the church has largely been apathetic, careless, or as Green put it, "asleep in the light." And the world has made good use of our somnolent state and has, in a very short span of time, taken abortion from, "safe, legal and rare" to a rite to be embraced, admired and celebrated. Celebrated? Surely not celebrated. If you don't believe it, then watch this video and weep.

GH

My Life for Yours

Many of today’s headlines share a common theme: A wrong has been committed and a sacrifice is required to put things right. Sometimes the “sacrifice” is death or imprisonment; sometimes it is the loss of money, status or public office. But in virtually every case some sort of sacrifice is demanded to right the wrong.

But interestingly, our books and movies abound with storylines where the hero interposes his or her self as a willing sacrifice to put things right. The bestselling book, The Nightingale, contains one such story-arc, and I (like many others) wept as I read how one of the characters willingly spent his life to save the life of a loved one, and put past wrongs to right. We Christians see these sorts of heroic substitutions as echoes of the “Gospel” or “Good News” of the Bible wherein Jesus Christ offered himself as a willing sacrifice to put right what was horribly wrong with the human race. In truth, the Christian Gospel is neatly contained in these four words, “My life for yours.”

And this is why many of us Christians cannot, and never will, “trust” Planned Parenthood. Not because Planned Parenthood does not convey a message consistent with the Christian Gospel, but because we believe that it encourages and facilitates what we consider to be an anti-Gospel message and worldview. For when the unfavorable condition of an unplanned pregnancy is discovered, Planned Parenthood (in effect) acknowledges that a sacrifice has to be made in order to put things right, and then (in effect) encourages the woman to say to her unborn child, “Your life for mine.”

Abortion, indisputably, stops a beating heart. What is hotly debated is whether or not the woman, by virtue of her size and development, has the right to end the life of a smaller, less developed being. In a world where “Might makes right” is increasingly invoked to justify self-serving agendas and goals, I invite everyone to answer Jesus’ call to believe, embrace and live out the good news of his glorious, “My life for yours.” This is our only hope.

GH

A Board Certified OBGyn Doctor Weighs In...

Until very recently, science, and even Planned Parenthood, agreed and taught that life begins at conception, i.e. the moment when sperm and egg become a single-celled living entity. The changes to this understanding have been driven by philosophy and ideology, and not by science. The science, if anything continues to affirm the miraculous beginning of life as the sperm penetrates the egg.

But don't my word for it, read what a board certified OBGyn doctor has to say about it here.

GH

Abortion, Straight Up

Pastor Toby Sumpter with some straight talk on abortion with some very helpful action items. You can read it here.

Wenatchee Right to Life Rally

Since the Roe vs. Wade decision in January of 1973, here in America nearly 60 million babies have been killed in the wombs of their mothers. Our annual "Right to Life" rally will be happening on January 20th, and we invite you to come to celebrate the sanctity of human life with prayer, encouraging words and singing.

Mandy Bush will again be our MC and leading in the singing. Prayers will be offered up by Pastor Adam James of Grace City Church and Pastor John Smith of Evergreen Baptist Cashmere. Dr. Lisa Petersen will be speaking on her medical experiences. The rally will end at 1pm with a short march to the library and back.

Where: The Chelan County Courthouse steps (facing Memorial Park)

When: Saturday, January 20th, 12 noon to 1pm

Come join us as together we lean hard against the culture of death by celebrating life and him (Jesus) who is the life.

If the Foundations Be Destroyed

Gathering of Pro-Life Pastors NCW
October 18, 2017

(Genesis 2:21–25) So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

If you were charged with the task of toppling a tall office building, would you attempt to do so by shooting out the topmost windows with a BB gun, or by blowing up the foundation upon which the building rested?

This is what we call “a rhetorical question.” Of course, you would topple the building by demolishing its foundation.

The first ten chapters (especially the first three) of the Bible are foundational for everything that follows, including, and especially God’s triune nature and the meaning and import of salvation. Our enemy knows this to be true. And so, it is no coincidence that he has devoted much energy to attacking the Biblical principles concerning gender, marriage and the taking of human life.

A plain reading of Genesis indicates that God created his image bearers “male and female” accompanied by a charge to multiply their numbers within the protective covenant of a monogamous and heterosexual marriage. In the beginning of chapter four, Cain takes the life of his brother, Abel. And before the close of the chapter Lamech is boasting that he has outdone Cain’s bloodshed by a factor of eleven! These murders were, no doubt, a part of the “continual evil” that provoked God to flood the world in judgment. And the reason why God specifically prohibited murder when he renewed His covenant with Noah in chapter nine.

Recently, a large number of faithful, Bible-believing, Christian theologians, leaders and pastors signed their names to a document entitled, “The Nashville Statement” upholding what the Scriptures clearly teach about gender and marriage.

This document, along with the Christians who authored and signed it, were almost immediately denounced, deplored and abhorred by people without, and sadly within the Church. And all in the name of love, tolerance and exegetical superiority (i.e. the assertion that their newly-minted interpretations of Scripture overrule what the vast majority of God’s people have believed and taught for millennia.)

But make no mistake here. The issues of gender and marriage, coupled together with the issue of abortion; specifically, who gets to define gender and marriage, and who gets to determine who lives and who dies, are foundational issues. And they are foundational because everyone involved in the debate understands, at least at some level, that whoever decides and determines these issues is God.

Little by Little...

Some helpful observations by Pastor Douglas Wilson on the good and bad of "Incrementalism."

But, but, but...

Jesus loves the little children, *all* the children...

Abortion, Courage and Blood Money

Kyperian Commentary interviews Pastor Toby Sumpter here. Enjoy.

New Pro Abortion Law in Oregon

Albert Mohler's commentary on the new abortion law in Oregon, from the August 3, 2017 episode of "The Briefing." You can read ABC News' explanation of the new law here.