I Used to be Pro-life

 

I used to be pro-life.

Less than ten years ago I thought I was “pro-life.” I was supportive of local crisis pregnancy centers and could not imagine how any mother could abort her baby. I was usually present for the annual visit to our church from the local pregnancy center. I even remember filling those baby bottles with coins for a few weeks each year.

Then, the Lord opened my eyes to the fact that abortion is murder. A new friend was always talking about the “killing of millions of babies.”

One time as my eyes were being opened, I encountered a woman stomping the area for a politician. I asked what the politician’s stance on abortion was. I had not heard this before but apparently it is a frequently used statement to try to appease everyone; she responded that the politician was in support of abortion being, “legal, safe, and rare.”

This was when I knew I was no longer “pro-life” because my immediate response was, “Safe for whom? A baby always dies in an abortion! It is never safe!” The woman was dumbfounded and walked away (without my vote).

I had become an abolitionist. I could see that any legislation that ended, “And then you can kill the baby” was complicit in murder. I do not even need a heartbeat. If the pregnancy test is positive there is a fetus, a living human being in that womb and no one can “legally” take its life – regardless of what man’s “law” says.

Sadly, abolitionists have the reputation of being “radical.” The truth is that they are being biblical.

Incrementally lowering the number of weeks at which we can kill the baby, still kills babies. Pro-lifers need to see the truth that murdering babies at any point after conception is the truly “radical” position.  Our man-made laws that don’t conform to God’s are a reflection of our radically deficient view of Who He is.  Only when the people change, can the laws change.

This weekend I talked to people who had been at the “Abolish Abortion” rally in Harrisburg, PA. I was told by those who go to the abortion clinics and try to present the gospel to the women on their way into their abortions that well over 60% of the women claim Christianity, believing God will forgive them.

The biblical penalty for murder is death (Exodus 21:12). True repentance will bring forgiveness but (I have said this before), “planned repentance,” as in, ”I will repent as soon as I have committed this sin,” is intentional sin. Why would God look forgivingly on such a presumption of His grace?

Much of the Church has lost her way with regard to teaching the truth that God gives life, God opens and closes the womb, and God will bless obedience and curse disobedience. We can blame it on the schools or the churches as we seek to entertain our youth more than teach them. But, the bottom line is that parents are responsible for the teaching of their children (Deuteronomy 6:6-8). Marriage, family, and the precious gift of a child have all had war declared against them.

We need a whole new generation of Christian abolitionists.

I came at a late age to this truth of the need to abolish abortion rather than incrementally change the point of time at which we may still kill the baby. In our families and in the Church of Jesus Christ we must make sure that this need is taught to our next generation at early ages.  How can we best make known the value of life beginning at conception?  How can we end this holocaust of helpless children?  We cannot just stand by.

For a good teaching comparing abolition and incrementalism (pro-life) watch this with T. Russell Hunter:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7d5X8e9a6c&t=30s