More resources and
links may be added as this post is revised.
New resource: Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation, by President Ronald Reagan: http://coryhcollins.blogspot.com/2018/01/abortion-and-conscience-of-nation.html
New resource: "Speaking the Truth: Ani's Oral Report" gives a great example of what a student in a public school can do.
http://www.epm.org/resources/2001/Jul/16/speaking-truth-anis-oral-report/
New resource: Colson Center's "21 Days of Prayer for Life." Download here:
http://www.breakpoint.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/FINAL-2018_21-Days-PDF_v1_sm.pdf
These are sermon notes, not written in a polished or finished manuscript form. To see the video of this and other sermons:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4zUK_ahzdiU15PL6dcAXA/videos
Ps 139:13 For You formed my
inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to
You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my
soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was
made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. 17
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18
If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still
with You.
January 22, 2018, is
the 45th anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade
that legalized abortion on demand in our country. Since then, approximately 57 million lives
have been lost to abortion as a result of that deadly decree. Let’s consider
and recommit ourselves to the biblical case for the value of preborn human
lives. “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight!”
January 22, 1973 –
The U.S. Supreme Court, in
Roe v. Wade,
legalized abortion on demand.
To date about 57
million lives have been taken.
Planned Parenthood’s
2017 death toll: 321,384.
What does God say
about that? What do you?
You knitted me
together in my mother’s womb.
I praise You, for I
am fearfully and wonderfully made!
Ps 139:13-14
God’s Plan: Marry,
Conceive, Bear
Ge 1:27-28 He created man (male
and female) in His image. He blessed them. “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the earth, and subdue it …”
Ge 2:24 Leave – cleave –
one flesh.
Ge 4:1 Now the man knew
his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have
gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.”
Ge 4:25 Adam knew his wife
again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has
appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
God’s Gift: Life at Conception
Heb 11:11 By faith even (Abraham’s
wife) Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper
time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.
Ge 25:21-26 Isaac’s wife
Rebekah was barren. Isaac prayed. She conceived. Twins! The children
struggled within her. God: “Two nations are within your womb.”
Ge 29:31 … the LORD … opened
[Leah’s] womb (enabled her to conceive), but Rachel was barren.
Ge 30:22 Then God opened
[Rachel’s] womb.
Exodus – Pharaoh ordering death of Hebrew males.
What if he had ordered them aborted ten minutes before
birth?
Would that be any different in the sight of God?
God’s Gift: Life at Conception
1 Sa 1:19 … Elkanah knew (had
relations with) Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. 20
It came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave
birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of
the LORD.”
John the Baptist: at
Conception
Lk 1:15 John to be “filled
with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.”
Lk 1:24 … Elizabeth became
pregnant … 25 “the Lord looked with favor upon me, to take away my
disgrace among men.”
Lk 1:36 “And behold, even
your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in
her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Lk 1:41 When Elizabeth
heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and
said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43 “And how has it happened …, that the mother of my Lord would
come to me? 44 “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my
ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.”
The ancient Greeks
knew! βρέφος (brephos)
- “baby,” whether preborn or newborn. Cf. Lk 2:12.
Mary: the Virgin Conception
Mt 1:18 Now the birth of
Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
20 … an angel of the
Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be
afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in
her (that which has been begotten in her) is of the Holy Spirit.”
The male “begets”
that which is “conceived.”
What Our Loving God
Hates
Pr 6:16 There are six
things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18
A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A
false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.
What Our Loving God
Commands
Pr 24:11 Deliver those
who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to
slaughter, Oh hold them back.
Tertullian’s Apology (defense)
Tertullian, a church
leader in the second century, wrote in his Apology in AD 197: “But with us,
murder is forbidden once for all. We are not permitted to destroy even the
fetus in the womb, as long as blood is still being drawn to form a human being.
To prevent the birth of a child is a quicker way to murder. It makes no
difference whether one destroys a soul already born or interferes with it
coming to birth. It is a human being and one who is to be a man, for the whole
fruit is already present in the seed.”
The Didache, an
early Christian document which dates to the 2nd century AD, states quite
plainly: “You shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill them when born.”
Romans engaged in
exposure, putting unwanted newborn babies out to die.
Will Durant
estimates that 99 families out of 100 made it a regular practice to abandon all
daughters except the first one to die.
Eventually,
Christian influence led to laws in the Roman Empire which prohibited abortion
and criminalized the practice of abandoning unwanted infants.
Even as late as
1961, National Council of Churches adopted a Statement on Responsible
Parenthood which proclaimed: “Protestant Christians are agreed in
condemning abortion … The destruction of life [which has] already begun cannot
be condoned as a method of family limitation.”
The Right to Life:
Religious – or Also
Constitutional?
Declaration of
Independence: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness …”
The right to life –
for all human life!
Nature and Logic
Hippocratic Oath
Named after
Hippocrates, c.460-c.370 B.C., Greek physician, recognized as the father of
medicine.
“First do no harm.”
Book by Williams, Obstetrics,
suggests that an obstetrician can treat the unborn infant as a “second patient.”
Bumper sticker: “Of
all the patients that enter abortion clinics, only half come out alive.”
Dr. Paul A. Byrne of
St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, CT, wrote: “I have never read a
medical text, or heard of a medical doctor writing or stating that what exists
at conception is not a new human life ... Abortion destroys human life. Simply
stated, before abortion there is life, after abortion there is death.”
California medical
journal, just three years before Roe V. Wade, said that the social acceptance
of abortion is a “defiance of the long-held Western ethic of intrinsic and
equal value for every human life, regardless of its stage, condition or status.” Reagan, p. 25
Malcolm Muggeridge,
the English writer: “Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or
intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some
cases the one, and in some the other.”
Yet now we have come
full circle, back to the values of Rome before Christianity’s influence.
Early Development of Babies
Abortion ends a
pregnancy by destroying and removing the developing child. That baby’s heart
has already begun to beat by the time the mother misses her period and begins
to wonder if she might be pregnant (about 31 days after the mother’s last
menstrual period or LMP). Surgical abortions are usually not performed before
seven weeks, or 49 days LMP. By that time, the baby has identifiable arms and
legs (day 45) and displays measurable brain waves (about 40 days). During the
seventh through the tenth weeks, when the majority of abortions are performed,
fingers and genitals appear and the child’s face is recognizably human. Source:
"Abortion: Some Medical Facts", NRLC Educational Trust Fund
pamphlet, 1996.
Brainwaves in babies
have been detected as early as 40 days after conception.
An unborn baby can
feel pain at least in the 3rd month.
About 3 weeks, one
day after fertilization, when the heart first begins to beat, the sound of the
little heart is too soft to hear. Very soon thereafter, they can see the motion
using ultrasound technology. http://www.ehd.org/dev_article_unit4.php
Dr. Beverly
McMillan, an obstetrician and gynecologist, writes: "The baby is human
from the moment of conception. When the one cell it is made of has
characteristic 46 chromosomes of the human species, it is unique from that
moment. Eighteen days after conception your baby's heart is already beating,
probably pumping a different blood type than yours. This is almost at the time
you would miss your menstrual period. Ten days after conception the baby has
planted him or herself in the wall of the uterus and stops your menstrual flow.
Forty days after conception (doctors) have recorded brain waves. If you touch a
little baby's nose at that point it will draw its head back, so there is
definitely some sensation at that time. You can see little arm buds showing up
than. By eight weeks we can even hear the baby's heart beat with an ultrasound
stethoscope. In abortions done after that time you can see identifiable body
parts." http://www.friendsoftheunborn.org/abortion-facts.html
So … What Happened?
The Fourteenth
Amendment (ratified in 1868) guarantees various rights to “persons” in the U.S.
But by a 7-2
decision, the 1973 Roe v. Wade USSC declared that the unborn are not persons
and therefore have no guaranteed rights or privileges!
Thus they legalized
abortion on demand! Against all legal, historical, cultural, and moral
precedents.
Seven judges - just seven people! - ruled without
any vote from the American people, any law from the U.S. Congress, or any
signature from a U.S. President.
Abortion became a
multi-million dollar business.
Planned Parenthood,
the #1 provider, runs nearly 600 clinics and receives millions of our tax
dollars.
They advise women to
abort their own offspring.
The pro-abortion
lobby is forceful, well-funded.
Political leaders,
even whole party platforms, promote “freedom to choose” death for babies.
The Democratic Party
has continued to proclaim that the unborn child has no right to life or other
guaranteed rights. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, speaking April 3,
2016, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said, “The unborn person doesn’t have
constitutional rights.”
But nature, logic,
science and the conscience all cry out with one voice: babies deserve to live!
Babies now even star in
their own movies. They are called ultrasounds!
Be Informed!
“Abortion.” “Fetus.”
“Pro-choice.” “Anti-abortion.”
“Abortion” is a
neutral-sounding term that refers to the taking of human life.
“Terminating a
pregnancy” sounds better than “terminating a life.”
“Pro-choice” sounds
better than “pro-death.”
“Fetus” sounds more
scientific and neutral than “baby,” but “fetus” is simply the Latin word than means “baby.”
Carol Everett, a
former abortion clinic manager who supervised the killing of over 35,000
babies, said the main question they were repeatedly asked was, “Is it a baby?”
And the uniform answer they were to give was, “No, it’s only a glob of tissue,
[like a tumor or an appendix].”
Fetus is Latin for “unborn
baby!” Not neutral. Semantic game.
“It’s my body”
misses the fact that the unborn baby is NOT the mother’s body.
“My right to choose”
means “my right to end a preborn human life.”
My rights end where
another’s rights begin.
Rape, incest and
threat to the mother’s life account for 1% of all U.S. abortions.
In 1972 (before Roe
vs. Wade) 39 U.S. women reportedly died from illegal abortions.
All who favor
abortion have already been born.
About 1 in 3 women –
abortion by age 45.
About 85% in the
U.S. – unmarried women.
Man’s immoral
“solution” to a moral crisis.
Pleasure without
consequences. Men walk free.
Yet there are many
unintended consequences.
Abortion imposes a
death sentence on the victim.
85%-plus will change
their minds after seeing an ultrasound.
“I hope it’s a girl!”
Take Action!
Don’t fight or flee.
Instead pray, vote, and engage.
What the Church and Each Christian Can and Must Do
Know the
Scriptures. Learn how abortions are
performed. Teach your children. Win your neighbor to Christ.
Locate and
contribute to your local Crisis Pregnancy Center. Lack of funds and volunteers.
Affiliate with
pro-life organizations.
Promote
alternatives, including adoption and caring for those pregnant out of wedlock.
Tell your
representatives in Congress and the Senate of your convictions.
Support pro-life
legislation, including a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution.
Pray for the unborn
and for God’s hand to protect them.
Pray for abortionists,
that their consciences will be pricked.
Distribute
information to others.
Ask questions that
prompt thinking and discussion.
“Who – or what –
gives human life its value?”
“Is the unborn fetus
human, one of us?”
“What is the value
of human life, and why?”
“Why was abortion
illegal before 1973?”
“Could your mother
have rightly aborted you?”
“If one can be
‘pro-choice’ about taking unborn human life, can one be ‘pro-choice’ about
taking other human life?”
Take Action!
“Is partial-birth
abortion morally acceptable?”
“If so, could you
assist with this procedure?”
“If not acceptable,
why not?”
“Is abortion in the
third trimester morally right?”
“If abortion, why
not infanticide and euthanasia?”
“How is the value of
human life to be measured? By size? Maturity? Brain capacity? Habitat? Degree
of dependency? Contribution to society? If so before birth, why not after
birth and in old age?”
The unborn baby is
not a “what” but a “who!”
Report from Texans for Life:
Felony ban on partial birth abortions that Texas can enforce
Ban on dismemberment abortions
Ban on sale, donation or research of fetal remains from elective abortion
Humane disposition of fetal remains required
Felony ban on forced abortion in connection with sex trafficking
Clinics required to post sex trafficking hotline in restrooms
Alternatives to Abortion fund doubled
Conscience protection for foster families not wanting to assist with abortion
IVF patients to be informed of embryo adoption option
Hospitals required to report abortion complications apart from maternal health complications
Ban on insurance coverage of abortion
Expanded reporting of minors' abortions
DNR reform to protect patients' rights
- http://www.texlife.org/single-post/2017/How-did-we-do-prolife
