Unhappy Birthday, Roe V. Wade

Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe V. Wade. This unhappy birthday means that over 55,000,0000 lives have been terminated in the US alone since the ruling.

Although the US population is evenly split on their opinions about abortion, there must still be a concentrated effort to end abortion. The problem now is that abortion is just part of the landscape now, and we have accepted it as a continual reality.

The gruesome irony of this has been seen so horribly recently, at the Sandy Hook Elementary school. Americans were shocked by this, that someone would murder 20 innocent children and six adults. The incident has highlighted the national divide over moral issues, as liberals raced to seize the crisis to forward their agenda of gun control and conservatives raced to forward their claims of Second Amendment freedoms.

One newscast I heard said that most of the Sandy Hook school victims still had their baby teeth. But what about the thousands of children murdered that day whose baby teeth hadn't chewed anything yet? I wonder how many Americans paused to consider that while those 20 children were slaughtered mercilessly that day, over 3000 children were slaughtered mercilessly that same day, and every day since, through the horror of abortion.

So it comes down to this: abortion will never end in this country until people are so outraged by it that they are willing to sacrifice something (maybe a lot) to make it end. And that will only come by offering the world a moral proclamation based on something that is much higher than public opinion.

The prevailing culture is demonstrating daily that morality relies on the largest voting block. Take for example the inauguration. Instead of having Louie Giglio pray the prayer at the event, Giglio was disinvited because of comments he had made many years ago about homosexuality being a sin.

Said Addie Whisenant of the Presidential Inaugural Committee:

 “We were not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection, and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this inaugural. Pastor Giglio was asked to deliver the benediction in large part because of his leadership in combating human trafficking around the world. As we now work to select someone to deliver the benediction, we will ensure their beliefs reflect this administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans.”

Uh, translated, that means that the official state religion of the United States is now summed up in just a few words "talk about sin (especially homosexual sin) is completely forbidden in public discourse. If you have talked about it ever, you are voted off the island."

What this means is that the proclamation of God's law, unlike Presidential Inaugurations of the past, will never be the same. God's law is a no-no. Talk about anything you like but God and His absolute moral standards.

So the world has said, "not interested, not going to listen." Unfortunately, that is where the church is as well. That is why the church is not outraged, and that is why abortion will never end in this country on our current theological and ecclesiastic track.

Two Forces of Prophetic Voice that are Needed

The prophetic voice must state two equal forces to the church and in the world - the force of law, and the force of the gospel. It is interesting to me, that the church has for the most part on the topic of abortion, (and many others) abandoned both. It's also important to hold out the idea that God rules in two kingdoms - the kingdom of social and governmental institutions, and the kingdom of the church. 

This is not about the separation of church and state, this is about the proper roles and distinction between them. God rules in both kingdoms, but his rule is different in each kingdom. Luther called this the "left hand" rule of God and the "right hand" rule of God. God's "left hand" rule over men in social and government established authorities means that God's moral law should be held up by the government as the standard to enforce so that the evil estate of men could be restrained. 

Left Hand Kingdom - Social and Governmental Authority

So, in the abortion issue, God's moral law (which is the foundation of natural law, which used to be the legal standard in the U.S.) states unequivocally that the taking of an innocent life is forbidden, and the penalty for murder is death.

Exodus 20:13 ¹³ “You shall not murder.

Numbers 35:30-31 ³⁰ “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ³¹ Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death.

The current cultural winds on abortion state that "abortion is not murder, because it's just a fetus, it's not a human being." (Interestingly the word "fetus" is from the Latin word that means offspring or bearing children.) To say that an baby in the womb of her mother is not a human being is not an argument based on reason, science, or logic. It's just wishful and stupid thinking.

Furthermore, the Bible demands that that "thing" growing in a woman's womb after conception is a human child. In reference to pregnant women, the term "with child" occurs twenty-six times in the Bible. There are no other Biblical descriptions of pregnancy. Always, the mother is "with child." Psalm 139 is clear about this. Psalm 51 speaks on it.

In Luke 1:36 & 41, we are told that Elizabeth conceived a "son" and that the "baby" leaped in her womb. This word translated baby is the Greek word Brephos. This is the exact same word that God uses to describe Christ in the manger after He is born (Luke 2:12, 16). Luke also uses this word to describe the children who came to see Jesus in Luke 18:15. The Holy Spirit inspired Luke to use the same exact word for a pre-born baby and a post-born baby. They are both living human beings! Every one knows this except those who want to defend abortions.

So that's the Law, and in the left hand kingdom that God rules through his moral law, natural law, and even reason, this Law needs to be proclaimed and defended, because God most certainly is the ruler of that kingdom. If a judge were to find evidence convicting someone guilty of murder, would the judge be considered just if he let the murderer free without harsh penalty? That's the Law. That's the left hand kingdom. That's the prophetic voice that must be raised and defended. 

Unfortunately (and I am talking to myself here), we have been afraid to talk about God's rule and natural law and the moral law, because, well, it's not polite to discuss. It's taboo to say that anything anyone is doing is "wrong," because our culture has decided that "wrongness" is determined by popularity, not by God's revealed Word. People want to have abortions because they want to have sexual license without any responsibility.  That's why God ordained marriage, so that men and women could have the law of obligation and responsibility connected to the marriage act.

Right Hand Kingdom - The Church

But God's rule also reigns in the "right hand" kingdom of the church, whose central message is that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that sinners could be forgiven of their sins and declared righteous through faith alone in the atoning work of Christ. So in the abortion issue, God's Word states unequivocally that those who have murdered children by having abortions should put their trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  

Because of God's "great mercy," they will be "made alive in Christ" even though they were "dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Jesus Christ died on the cross so that murderers of any kind can be forgiven. While this gospel is the central, historic message of Christianity, it is shocking how many churches are not teaching consistently and faithfully the gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, a large majority of churches are teaching a psychobabble gospel of self-help moralism.

If you combine the church teaching self-help moralism with American political correctness, what you have left is a church that will never even make a dent in abortion or any other issue. Neither will the church call anyone to faith in Jesus Christ.

However, if the church is careful to keep the left hand and right hand kingdoms distinct, proclaiming both God's law and His gospel loudly, clearly, and with commitment, we could through the proclamation of the terrifying Law and the precious Gospel from the words of Scripture, make abortion be seen as the horrific crime that it is.