The Inevitable End of Abortion as We Know It
Though it is difficult even to report or give a link to it, last week a mother in New Jersey set her newborn child on fire and left her in the middle of a road. A neighbor who witnessed it rightly called it a "nightmare." Those who are reporting on it are calling it "disturbing" and "shaking the community." Residents have begun to assemble a makeshift memorial to the baby girl.
Sadly, so few see that this very scene is happening 4000 times a day in communities all across our land. Mothers, with either the support of or acting out of the neglect from the fathers, are burning or cutting their little boys and girls to death. Yet because it happens in the womb instead of a few minutes after birth, far too many people in our land do not recognize the nightmare all around us.
So it is vital as we enter this week of the forty-second anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that we continue to erect a memorial to this tragedy so that this disturbing practice will be brought to an end. I believe that one day it inevitably will be.
A number of years ago, I heard Dr. Rich Ganz, a pastor in Ottawa, give an impassioned sermon on ten reasons why abortion will ultimately be defeated. Though I cannot remember each of the individual reasons he gave, that message impressed me and stayed with me. In a similar vein, based on truths from Psalm 94, which speaks of the Judge of all the earth rising up against those who harm the innocent, fatherless, and widow, I want to offer the following ten reasons you can anticipate the end of the abortion practice in our land. These are offered to urge you on in this fight.
The Abiding Witness of the Conscience
They say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive."
People know that abortion is wrong for, as this psalm states, they try to convince themselves that God does not see it. Yet as it says in Romans 2:14-16, "For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus." Ultimately the conscience of our nation will be awakened and erode the false defenses men put before God regarding these issues.
The Timely Rise of Technology
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
It was not until the early 1980's—at least a decade after Roe v. Wade opened the abortion floodgates - that Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC) began using ultrasound in their clinics. At least 200 CPC's nationwide now provide the service, and others among the estimated 3,000 CPCs across the country are converting themselves into medical clinics that offer ultrasound and other diagnostic pregnancy-related services. In addition, even secular experts recognize that 4-D Ultrasounds, with their ability to capture the incredible detail and facial features of the fetus in the womb, are changing the landscape. Even mobile vans are being equipped with this technology and driven right to abortion centers. As people see what God has knit in the womb, minds are being changed.
The Incredible Testimonies of Survivors
When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
Like Auschwitz survivors, amazing stories of people such as Gianna Jensen and Melissa Ohden who have survived abortion attempts and have the courage to speak about it humanize this awful practice. They and others travel the country to speak and appear in the media, with their experience and Christian testimony of love and forgiveness having a powerful effect on those listening to them. Surely this display of God's incredible grace is one way he is overturning the abortion tables.
The Sure Fall of Planned Parenthood
Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve!
O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in the United States, doing just under one-third of all American abortions. But the billion-dollar abortion giant faced a tough year in 2013 as it saw abortion centers close at a high rate. When I was a pastor in Indiana, five Planned Parenthood clinics shut down in one year after losing state funds. The very arrogance of those who have boasted about providing "women services" while destroying innocent lives insures their inevitable downfall, for "God is opposed to the proud" (I Peter 4:5).
The Covenantal Curse on the Wicked
He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the Lord our God will wipe them out.
Related to the previous reason but more generational in nature, the Bible promises that those who continually exalt themselves against God will be destroyed. Though the modern American church has grown uncomfortable with the imprecatory prayers of the Bible, that still does not erase their hard truths. "The LORD loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off" (Psalm 37:28). Sadly, those committed to the cause of abortion are killing their own progeny, and in so doing are removing the natural spread of this godless philosophy.
The Growing National Hatred of Racism (verse 15)
Justice will return to the righteous, __and all the upright in heart will follow it.
Though recent events in Ferguson and New York have our nation embroiled in racial controversies once again, clearly the large majority of us hate the idea of racism. This fact alone should stir hearts against abortion. Not only because it is practiced with a higher rate in minority populations, with African Americans accounting for 13% of the population but 39% of abortions and over 90% of abortion providers located in urban neighborhoods where they predominantly reside. Rather, the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a documented racist. In a letter to Clarence Gamble in 1939, in discussing "The Negro Project," she spoke these words that express both here hate and strategy, "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Fortunately, Sanger's strategy is failing as African American ministers and others are being raised up who are boldly speaking against the abortion culture.
The Incredible Power of the Gospel
If the Lord had not been my help, __my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
Norma McCorvey was the real name of the plaintiff Jane Roe in Roe v. Wade. She sued to give women the right to abort, and over the years worked in the abortion industry, ending up in a clinic located in North Dallas. Providentially, Operation Rescue Director Flip Benham had opened up an office right next door to this clinic. Norma begin to see him and the others who worked there demonstrating compassion to her. In particular, a little girl of one of the workers, Emily MacKay, befriended her. Emily would hug Norma, tell her she could be saved, and prayed for her. In her own words, Norma eventually "jumped off the poster of being the poster girl for the pro-choice movement and into the arms of Jesus." She tells her story in the book _Won by Love. _The gospel can overcome the hardest of hearts.
The Slow Awakening of the Church
He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
In history, the church is often called “The Sleeping Giant" for its tendency to grow comfortable, lazy, and fearful in addressing societal matters. When the church falls asleep, it grows more liberal and then begins to suffer the consequences - God's rebuke - before waking up. With more vigorous efforts in recent years by believers to educate, publish Christian teaching, and care for the hurting, are we seeing the encouraging signs of God's Spirit awakening the church? As the psalmist says, "It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken" (Psalm 119:126).
The Faithful Training of a New Generation
The Lord will not forsake his people;__ he will not abandon his heritage.
Another hopeful sign of the church's awakening is that clearly the trend among the younger generation is that it is now more pro-life than ever. As we have shown previously, young people are becoming more vocal and creative in addressing their generation and changing perceptions. We know of many Christian parents who have taken more responsibility for the education of their children to insure they grow in the fear of the Lord, and this clearly impacts this moral issue. As Norma McCorvey's story reminds us, "Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger" (Psalm 8:2).
The Tenacious Perseverance of the Righteous
The Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.
As history shows through people like William Wilberforce, great evils can be overturned when believers remain true to the Lord and his ways. The Scriptures encourage us to never tire in doing good, for we know that the Lord will overcome. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our toil is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58). Churchill's famous quote should be ours:
Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Abortion in this land will come to an end. So never give in.
Then pray you and I live to see it.
