| "You have slaughtered My children, and offered them up unto idols by causing them to pass through the fire." (Ezek 16:21). What an incriminating charge to make! Israel had borrowed the abhorrent practice of offering up their children in sacrifice to the idols of the heathen nations around them. But notice how God refers to their children as "My children"! As the innocents were slaughtered in ritual, and the pagan celebrations continued with feasts and immorality, who thought that God would take it all so personally? It was just a party. I suppose that even the most vile of acts can become acceptable when "everybody" starts doing it. Get some movie stars, journalists, clergymen and politicians on the bandwagon and any wickedness can be "proven" right and any righteousness can be "proven" wrong.
These people of Ezekiel's day must have really been dreadfully depraved to have partaken in such horrible practices! Didn't they love their children anymore? How did they feel toward human life? How did they feel toward family and friends? Were they so far gone that even the most natural of human affections seemed foreign to them? Tragically, for the most part, that society had plunged over a waterfall from which there was no return without a complete overhaul.
I am fearful that we are today rapidly approaching the same waterfall. Already, the current may be too swift to stop without a major breakdown of our society. Don't we love our children anymore? How do we feel toward human life? Toward family and friends? Are the most natural of human affections becoming foreign to us? Before you answer, please know that over twenty million innocent, living unborn human babies have been slaughtered in our nation since 1973.
THERE IS NO "EMBRYO" OR "FETUS" IN THE BIBLE
"And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb..." (LUKE 1:41). Isn't it interesting that a "baby" leaped in Elizabeth's womb rather than an embryo or a fetus? I'm not against using these terms, but sometimes they are used to dehumanize the child yet to be born. It is important to know that God never makes this kind of distinction between the born and the unborn. He uses the same word, "brephos" for the infant whether several months before birth (LUKE 1:44) or after the birth (LUKE 2:12). As far as the God is concerned, a baby is a baby from conception, so to abort one calls for the same charge God made long ago: "You have slaughtered My children".
HUMAN FROM CONCEPTION
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. and before you were born I consecrated you..." (JEREMIAH 1:5). There has been speculation as to when human life begins. Some say that a fetus is human only when it is able to survive outside the womb. Others say only after taking its first breath of air. Some set arbitrary times such as at three months or six months. The Bible places personhood at conception.
Isn't it amazing that our system allows the following to occur every day in our country? Two rooms at a hospital side by side. Two women admitted to the hospital in the same condition; they are each pregnant. One woman is due in four months but has gone into labor. Emergency measures are taken, the baby is born and thanks to modern technology the baby survives and even flourishes. No one questions the fact but that a human life has been saved! But in the other room the baby is due to be born in three months. However, the woman has decided to have an abortion. Her baby is more developed than the baby in the other room, but she is assured that her baby is not yet a human being! How can such make any sense at all to any rational mind? As God has said, "You have slaughtered My children".
SOME REASONS FOR ABORTION
"For My people are foolish, They know Me not; They are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, But to do good they do not know" (JER 4:22). The people of Jeremiah's day were "shrewd to do evil". The Lord has warned, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness...who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight!" (ISAIAH 5:20,21). There is a reason abortion advocates use terms like "family planning" to describe their business. The whole slant they use is deceiving. Truly they are "shrewd" about it, referring to anyone who believes in the sanctity of human life from conception as "evil". If a man opposes abortion it is charged that it is only because "men don't have babies". The task is to get people thinking in any direction but the fact that when an abortion takes place, a human life has been taken.
Most abortions are performed as a birth control measure. Most of these are because having a baby at that time would be inconvenient. The mother may be ill equipped to raise another child. Or her lifestyle may be cramped. Or the father may be unsupporting. She may fear that the child will be handicapped in some way. The parents may simply want the child to be another gender. Less than one per cent of abortions performed are a result of rape, incest or possible birth defect! The abortion advocate always fails to mention that! Remember the words of the Lord, "You have slaughtered My children".
HOW FAR WE HAVE DECLINED ALREADY!
"For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." (PSALM 139:13,14). It is by the Lord's design and plan that each baby is formed and matures to birth. It is an amazing and wondrous design. And we have already seen that God's plan for us is already at work from conception. How far beyond the ability of an abortionist to grasp the preciousness of human life! How blind our nation is becoming as respect for our fellow human beings continues to plummet! What kind of heritage are we leaving for those of our children who survive this first threat of their lives, the threat of abortion?
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