(Tim, w/thanks to David L.) This can't be said often enough. Human life begins at conception.
This should not be debated but simply asserted. No high school diploma is needed to rebuke the Ph.D. who denies it. It's simply true and to state it is no act of faith but a simple observation. This truth is so obvious, so universally recognized, so non-controversial, so pure in its science that only the highly-educated are able to convince themselves otherwise.
The instant the sperm pierces the egg and the two become one, a new man made in the Image of God exists. And concerning that little man or woman, God Himself has decreed whoever sheds his blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the Image of God He created him (Genesis 9:6).
Death is the punishment commanded by God for those who murder the life in the womb. From the instant of conception.
Now if you feel overwhelmed by the bloodshed that surrounds us and want to escape this truth, I don't blame you. Life is much easier when we have a morality play a few decades removed from us to point to, proving we are defenders of life and will not tolerate those who destroy it...
Hitler and the Third Reich serve us well in being the whipping boy of our time. We could also mention Pol Pot and Stalin; and maybe even Chairman Mao, although it's a bit dicey given his great popularity in China today, combined with the proportion of our national debt this bloody behemoth owns. But at all costs, we must not speak the truth of the true holocaust whose victims now number just shy of 1,000,000,000.
Yes, that's one billion human beings made in the image of God that we , our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, next-door neighbors and union brothers, hairdressers and presidents, nieces and pastors, doctors and mailmen, husband and wife have slaughtered.
Make no mistake: God sees it and He's keeping perfect count. His eye is on the sparrow because He cares for the sparrow. If He tells us we'll give an account for every idle word, we should tremble to think of His wrath at what we have done to these little ones, each of whom bears His Image.
Maybe you ask, "What's this 'we,' white man?"
This "we" is you and me--not one of us can claim we have no blood on our hands. We have paid for our own child to be slaughtered. We have accompanied our roommate to the abortuary. We have prescribed, filled prescriptions for, and used the birth control pill, IUD, or Depo-Provera while denying their abortifacient properties. Refreshingly blunt is this statement by world renowned morning-after pill advocates, James Trussell PhD, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Director, Office of Population Research, Princeton University, and Elizabeth G. Raymond, MD, MPH, Associate Medical Director, Biomedical Affairs Division, Family Health International in their paper, "Emergency Contraception: A Last Chance to Prevent Unintended Pregnancy:"
To make an informed choice, women must know that ECPs—like all regular hormonal contraceptives such as the birth control pill, the implant Implanon, the vaginal ring NuvaRing, the Evra patch, and the injectable Depo-Provera, and even breastfeeding—may prevent pregnancy by delaying or inhibiting ovulation, inhibiting fertilization, or inhibiting subsequent implantation of a fertilized egg. [Note to the wicked: Don't even try to equate breastfeeding with the intentional use of abortifacient drugs. If you do, I'll delete your comment.]
The offense must come, but woe to the man by whom the offense comes.
We have chosen not to preach warnings against this bloodshed. We have remained silent when Planned Parenthood received tax grants from our city fathers. We have allowed this slaughter to be spoken of approvingly at our Thanksgiving meals and summer family reunions. We have voted for Barack Obama relegating this bloodshed to a position subordinate to our intense desire to prove how progressive or tolerant or reasonable we are to the bloody hordes surrounding us.
As I live with my dear wife, children, grandchildren, and beloved flock at the beginning of this twenty-first century, two things keep me trembling.
First, that our holy God judges those complicit in child-sacrifice as if they themselves were the ones killing their offspring:
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “You shall also say to the sons of Israel, ‘Any man from the sons of Israel or from the aliens sojourning in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name.
If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his offspring to Molech, so as not to put him to death, then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the harlot after him, by playing the harlot after Molech. (Leviticus 20:1-5)
Did you notice that second paragraph--the part warning us against "disregarding that man when he gives any of his offspring to Molech?" Do we see that God promises to "set (His) face against" those of us who refused to expose and oppose the child-sacrifice going on in our own nation and cities in the names of our national idols of self-determination, convenience, the escape of suffering, autonomy, and greed? The man who sacrifices his unborn child and the man who turns to avoid seeing his neighbor's slaughter--both together come under God's judgment. God sets His face against both. God cuts both off from His covenant people.
This means Thursday morning when we drive south on College Avenue past Planned Parenthood's abortuary where babies are being slaughtered, and we turn up the radio and look to the right at some imaginary sight to avoid seeing the signs held by Josh and David and Carole and Glen and Varuni and Rachel and Clint who are there faithfully exposing and crying out for an end to the bloodshed--that very moment we turn away we have become guilty of the same crime ourselves. We have "disregarded that man when he gives ...his offspring to Molech."
Second, I tremble knowing God's Word tells us the ground will give up its blood--all of it.
So
you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the
land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is
shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. (Numbers 35:33)
For
behold, the Lord is about to come out from His place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the earth will reveal
her bloodshed and will no longer cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:21)
Men of God, think on these things and tremble.
