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If
You Must Err, Err on the Side of Life!
Introduction Do you remember the comedy “Monty
Python and the Holy Grail”? At the beginning of
the movie you see a man with a large cart holding
corpses going through town crying out, “Bring
out ‘yer dead!” Apparently there was a plague
going on. Well they bring out this one guy and
he’s very much alive and protesting “I’m not dead!”
but I guess they wanted to get rid of him, so
when he keeps kicking and shouting, they knock
him over the head and throw him on the pile. Did
I mention it’s a somewhat dark comedy? In ages
past, before the advent of the wonderful medical
advances we enjoy today , people went to great
lengths to make certain someone was dead and not
just comatose or even just unconscious before
they conducted a funeral and buried them. That’s
an error no one could afford to make. So if you
had to err, you erred on the side of life. You
presumed the spirit of life resided in a person,
you presumed that life to be precious and as such
you guarded that life! Only when death was certain
did burial take place. Last year the attention
of the entire nation focused on a nursing home
in Florida, as Terry Schindler Schiavo was starved
(dehydrated) to death by court order. It was packaged
as a “right to die” issue, but it came down to
one or two activist judges. Terry’s “husband”
Michael had already demonstrated his undying devotion
to her by fathering a child by another woman,
whom he intended to marry once Terry was dead.
Michael conveniently remembered (coincidentally
about the same time the monies he stood to inherit
began to seriously dwindle due to Terry’s medical
costs), that Terry had once told him she didn’t
want to be kept alive by feeding tubes. No signed
document to prove it, but he was after all her
legal guardian. A more glaring example of conflict
of interests couldn’t be contrived in fiction,
but the mainstream media conveniently ignored
that aspect of the story. It degenerated into
a media circus. Jesse Jackson managed to insert
himself into the fray. A nine year-old boy was
handcuffed and put into a police car for having
the audacity to try to bring a cup of water to
Terry. Tempers ran hot. I saw some of the most
hate-filled and sickening posts on internet bulletin
boards; lacking any humanity at all. How did we
as a nation descend to such depths of barbarism?
It was not overnight. As though scripted by the
great Apostle Paul in his letter to the believers
in Rome, it began precisely when we refused to
acknowledge God as God – as the Giver of life.
Our hearts began to be darkened. We dispensed
with the Bible and prayer in school. We excluded
God (more specifically Yeshua) from our public
discourse. We began to scoff at the idea of moral
absolutes. We stopped talking about the sanctity
of life and started debating the “quality of life”.
Those were major steps down a slippery slope of
moral relativism. This is precisely the direction
that former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop
and the late Francis Schaeffer predicted we would
go in their collaborative writing of the book
Whatever Happened to the Human Race?
It would only be a matter of time before elective
abortion gave way to infanticide; infanticide
to euthanasia and euthanasia to government mandated
“euthanasia” for the “collective good”.
The
problem stated - the horror of abortion
This morning I want to talk to you about the sanctity
of human life; human life - in all its stages.
I’d like us to see what the Scriptures have to
say, and then discuss what our response should
be. Before we do that, however, I am constrained
to speak for the next few minutes candidly and
somewhat graphically about abortion (advise parents
w/kids to take them out). Does anyone doubt that
abortion is the most pivotal moral issue of our
generation? Is there any other issue which elicits
such contention and passionate debate as this
facing our country? Every other issue, every other
point of practical or philosophical debate takes
a back seat to the question of when human life
begins. I specify human life, because in our collective
rush toward insanity, you can today be fined $5,000
for intentionally harming the egg of a bald eagle
- [1], $1,000 for shipping
a pregnant lobster
-
[2], and in the state of
Massachusetts you are violating an anti-cruelty
law if you award a goldfish as a prize. According
to the statute, it is meant to protect against
“acts which may be thought to have a tendency
to dull humanitarian feelings and to corrupt
the morals”
-
[3]. And yet, in spite
of all this, you are entitled by law to have
your baby suctioned out of your body, or chemically
poisoned and then extracted, or dissected
limb from limb while he or she is still in
the womb and the parts then removed. Add to
this the procedure known in clinical terms
as Intact Dilation and Extraction, but better
known as “Partial Birth Abortion” where the
baby is actually delivered alive by the use
of forceps, feet first, including the feet,
legs, torso, arms and shoulders - all but
the head is brought out. Next, using blunt-tipped
surgical scissors, the abortionist punctures
the back of the baby’s skull, through which
he or she then inserts a vacuum catheter,
suctioning out the brains, causing the skull
to collapse and the baby is then delivered
dead. In the 17 and 18th centuries the evil
to be confronted was slavery, in the mid-20th
century it was Naziism and Communism. In the
latter half of the 20th century and now at
the outset of the 21st century it is most
certainly abortion. This is not an issue over
which we can simply “agree to disagree”. Lives
are at stake. At the current rate of the number
of abortions being performed in the United
States, in the time since I began speaking
this morning, approximately 40 babies have
been put to death. If ever there was an issue
about which all believers in Yeshua need to
unite in agreement and activism it is this.
Statistics Since abortion through
all nine months of pregnancy was legalized
on January 22, 1973, 33 years ago tomorrow,
45 million babies have been put to death in
the United States. Bear in mind, however,
that according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute
- the public relations arm of Planned Parenthood,
about 10% of known abortion providers don’t
even submit reports, so the adjusted number
of casualties is closer to 58 million. I’d
like to be able to present as encouraging
the fact that between 1996 and 2004 the annual
number of abortions in Michigan dropped 15.5
percent. But all that means is that the number
of murdered babies each year declined from
30,208 to 25,512. I am not very encouraged.
25,512 - that is very nearly the equivalent
of annihilating every man, woman and child
in the city of Oak Park. On average, every
day in our country nearly 4,000 babies are
put to death through elective abortion. History
Abortion is known to have been practiced among
pagan peoples as far back as the Patriarchal
Period and even earlier. Judaism, from the
beginning, rejected abortion outright, knowing
full well that life originates with God and
as such is sacred. Our people understood
that from the time a baby is conceived it
is our neighbor, and to cause harm to our
neighbor is to violate the second great commandment.
Understand, then, the revulsion our ancestors
felt in seeing their Moabite and Ammonite
neighbors throwing their babies alive into
fire pits, sacrificing them to their detestable
false gods. Satan has been a murderer from
the beginning, and it isn’t beneath him to
use the religious realm to promote it. Whereas
Plato and Aristotle advocated abortion as
a means of population control, both Judaism
and, later, Christianity continued to regard
it as murder. John MacArthur writes: “Abortion
was used even in New Testament times among
pagans to conceal illicit sex. If you could
remove the evidence, you could remove the
stigma of illicit sex. Rich women also didn’t
want to leave their wealth to children fathered
illegitimately, so while they might have wanted
to have an affair with a “lower class” man,
they didn’t want to have to support his child,
and so abortion was a way to deal with that.”
-
[4] The Didache The Didache
is, in all probability, the oldest surviving
piece of extra-biblical literature from the
time of the early Church, consisting of instructions
for believers derived from the teachings of
Yeshua. Most scholars agree that it dates
back to the middle of the 1st century, sometime
in the 60’s. It is divided into three major
sections, consisting of sixteen chapters in
all. Listen to some of the words of the very
first chapter: Two ways there are, one of
life and one of death, but there is a great
difference between the two ways. The way of
life is indeed this: First, you will love
the God who made you; secondly, “you will
love your neighbor as yourself.” Now all the
things that you do not want to have happen
to you, you too do not do these to one another…
And it goes on to say…Now the second precept
of the teaching is: “You will not murder.
You will not commit adultery.” You will not
sodomize young boys. You will not have unlawful
sex. “You will not steal.” Do not practice
magic. Do not practice sorcery. Neither murder
a child by abortion, nor will you destroy
what is born. So, from the very beginning
of the Church, Yeshua’s people were forbidden
to practice abortion, which was regarded as
murder. In Romans 1:26-27, Paul taught that
one of the consequences of unnatural sexual
practices is disease. Sin has consequences.
Illicit sex leads to unwanted pregnancy. The
act of abortion is tantamount to forcing the
baby – the innocent third party – pay the
price! In our own day, we can trace the rapid
proliferation of abortion to the sexual revolution
of the 1960’s. Morality was cast by the wayside.
It’s been said that “freedom isn’t free”.
Sexual freedom certainly wasn’t. Consider
the price tag: broken hearts, broken families,
new and more deadly sexually transmitted diseases,
the massacre of millions of innocent and defenseless
children, and the searing of our nation’s
collective conscience. Consequences Apart
from the judgment of God which such barbarism
invites, and about which we’ll talk a little
later, there are devastating consequences
to both individuals and society on account
of abortion. The devaluation of the worth
of human life has produced a generation of
people less empathetic to the suffering or
needs of those around them. After all, if
we adopt the secular view we dismiss the sacredness
of human life. Now, don’t get me wrong, I
love animals! I happen to believe that the
people of God are called to a higher standard
in ethics in every category. But listen to
the words of Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of
P.E.T.A., “There is no rational basis for
saying that a human being has special rights.
A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” I’m sorry,
Ms. Newkirk, human beings, unlike every other
being on earth, are created “in the image
of God”. While we’re talking about consequences,
consider this: we have efficiently eliminated
a substantial segment of the potential workforce,
many of whom would be in their mid to late
20’s and early 30’s had they simply been allowed
to live. Whatever you may think of the Social
Security system, we have, in effect, annihilated
an entire generation of those who would, at
this very moment, have already for years been
contributing to it. The potential physical
and psychological damage to women who have
had an abortion is immense. There is a statistically
proven increase in the likelihood of miscarriage,
cervical damage and/or pelvic infection, an
increase in the occurrence of placenta previa
and clinical depression arising from tremendous
guilt. Babies are not the only ones victimized
by abortion. Nevertheless, it is not on account
of practical consequences that we denounce
this practice. We do so because it is a moral
evil. Some who are compassionate but misguided
are straddling the fence. Not wanting to put
restrictions on women, they are still ambivalent
about abortion on account of the question
of pain being inflicted. Those who argue on
that basis might suggest that because a 4-6
week old intrauterine baby has a less developed
nervous system, you are not causing pain,
per se. However, that leaves unaddressed the
central question to the entire debate, and
do not miss this: Is human life purely the
result of arbitrary biochemical processes
or is it the creation of God? Let’s see what
the word of God has to say about human life.
I.
The Bible teaches that God created human life
and that life is sacred “But ask
the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds
of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to
the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish
of the sea inform you. Which of all these does
not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:7-10)
I present Job to you first, because although Genesis
is the first book of the Bible in the order of
its compilation, the book of Job is considered
by most scholars to be the oldest book of the
Bible, possibly pre-dating even the patriarchal
period. And from the get-go it is a matter of
plain fact that God is the author of all life:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image,
in Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish
of the sea and over the birds of the air, over
the livestock, over all the earth, and over all
the creatures that move along the ground.” So
God created man in His own image, in the image
of God He created him; male and female He created
them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful
and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue
it; Rule over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the air, and over every living creature
that moves along the ground.”… And God saw all
that He had made, and it was tov m’od – very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the
sixth day (Genesis 1:26-28, 31). The sixth
day. Everything else had been created in advance
of that moment. In other words, God created the
sun, moon, stars, planets – the very cosmos -
the earth and all its plant and animal life -
all in anticipation of what would be the pinnacle
of His work: mankind. And only of humanity is
it said they were created in God’s image.
For that very reason, human life is sacred. After
the great Flood, when Noah emerged from the ark
with his family to begin humanity anew, God made
a covenant with him, and God made clear the sacredness
of human life with these words: And for your
lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting …whoever
sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood
be shed, for in the image of God has God made
man (Genesis 9:5-6). What is important to
understand here is that God is the Creator of
every man and woman, not just of Adam and Eve;
and every human being bears that image. Clearly
this has more to it than physical appearance.
That we are made in the image of God means our
entire composition: our physicality, our emotions,
our creative ability to imagine and abstract and
synthesize, our capacity to distinguish sounds,
colors and textures, to ascribe differing valuation
to material and moral issues, our faculty to make
moral choices – all these are part of what it
means to be made in His image. So I ask you, at
what point is each human being imbued with these
qualities? Use your God-given intuitive capacity
to answer that question. It is in that very flash
of light at the moment of conception. At that
very instant, everything about you from the color
of your hair to the color of your eyes to your
natural talents and gifts is there; everything
from your emotional disposition to your particular
love of music or art or animals or horticulture
to your particular craving for a piece of gefilte
fish - all is encoded in you within that nanosecond
of conception. From that very instant you bear
the image of God, and as such are a sacred life.
II.
The Bible teaches that life begins in the womb,
not the delivery room King David wrote, For
You created my inmost being; You knit me together
in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are
wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was
not hidden from You when I was made in the secret
place. When I was woven together in the depths
of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in Your
book before even one of them came to be (Psalm
139:13-16). David also wrote, Yet You brought
me out of the womb; You made me trust in You even
at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast upon
You; from my mother's womb You have been my God
(Psalm 22:9-10). Job declared, Did not
He who made me in the womb make them? Did not
the same One form us both within our mothers?
(Job 31:15)God said to Jeremiah, Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you
were born I set you apart; I appointed you as
a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).
The Scriptures are clear that an unborn baby is
a human life deserving of our protection and nurturing
and has the full legal status of human being.
Sadly, elitist and godless ideologues in high
places, through their representatives in our universities
and major media, have brainwashed us into thinking
that if you can’t see the baby, it isn’t a baby.
It’s described as a “product of conception,” which
in itself is laughable. What else would a human
being conceive? I’ve yet to meet a woman who conceived
and gave birth to a platypus. So irrational has
become the defense of a “woman’s right to choose”
(to kill her baby), that even when you can see
the baby, as now we can using ultrasound and intrauterine
photography, they still argue that it isn’t a
human being. When is that life a human life? How’s
this for extreme? Sen. Barbara Boxer a few years
ago went on record as saying she doesn’t consider
a baby a human being until the parents take
it home!
III.
The slaughter of innocent children is nothing
new Pharaoh slaughtered thousands upon
thousands of Israeli babies in his quest to keep
power. Who was behind it? Herod slaughtered thousands
upon thousands of Israeli babies in his quest
to keep power. Who was behind it? The Canaanites,
Ammonites, Moabites – all sacrificed their own
children in perverse religious rites to Molech,
Chemosh, Ashtoreth and Milcom - their false gods.
Who was behind it? You know who: the one who was
a murderer from the beginning; the one whose cruelty
knows no limits, who is utterly without mercy;
pitiless and ruthless. He is the same one who
in ancient times inspired the Amalekites to attack
Israel from the rear, killing the elderly and
the young children – the weakest and most vulnerable
of our numbers; the one who would snuff out the
life of innocent and defenseless children; the
one whose judgment is prepared from ancient times.
And do we want to be in league with that one?
I’m afraid that is exactly what we are doing when
we look the other way and allow the slaughter
of innocent human beings; we align ourselves with
the purposes of Satan, and will we not be judged
for it? Deuteronomy 27:25 reads: Cursed is
he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.
I cannot think of a more apt description for an
abortionist. The abortionist is accepting money
to murder an innocent person. Please don’t deceive
yourselves into thinking that they got into this
industry because they care about teenage girls
who otherwise would have to become mothers before
they’re ready. This is a multi-billion dollar
industry, and it has made millionaires out of
those who, once upon a time, swore upon Hippocrates’
charge: First, do no harm. You might
wonder how they can live with themselves. How
can someone who does this kind of thing sleep
at night? How can anyone justify this? The answer
is disturbing. As a matter of fact, may I digress
for a moment and tell you what slave owners, Nazis
and abortionists have in common? In each case,
the only way they could justify the horrible things
they perpetrated on their fellow human beings
was to tell themselves (and their critics) that
their victims were not, after all, entirely human.
Slave owners argued through propaganda that the
black people were not quite human. The Nazis argued
through propaganda that the Jews were not quite
human. And today abortionists and their advocates
are arguing that the baby inside the woman is
not a human being. Those of conscience in the
17th and 18th centuries didn’t buy the lie of
the slave traders; Those of conscience in the
1930’s and 40’s didn’t buy the lie of Nazism or
National Socialism. And those of conscience today
aren’t buying the lie of the Abortion Industry.
That life is human, and it is precious, and deserves
our protection.
IV.
Because human life is sacred, we are
charged to nurture, protect and defend it Psalm
41:1 says, Blessed is he who has regard for
the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.
This goes along with the teaching of Yeshua, “Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”
(Matthew 5:7). Those who are willing to be
inconvenienced and even risk their own safety
for the sake of the defenseless and weak, will
receive the very same regard from God. Psalm 82:4
admonishes: Rescue the weak and needy; deliver
them from the hand of the wicked. This theme
reverberates throughout the Scriptures. There
have always been those in society who are weak
and vulnerable, and likewise there have always
been ruthless opportunists lying in wait to profit
from it. We are not to stand idly by and let it
happen. The psalmist charges us with their defense
and rescue. Remember, too, these words were written
to the people of God. I don’t expect worldlings
to take up the cause of the weak and defenseless,
but you and I are most definitely expected to
do so. Toward the end of WWII, after Germany was
delivered from the clutches of the Nazis, and
the scope of the horror and atrocities committed
against the Jews became apparent and were broadcast
across the world, many German people said they
hadn’t known it was happening. Never mind the
systematic extermination of the Jewish people
had already been in process for years; the smoke
ascending from the Nazi ovens in the various camps
seen for miles in every direction. Never mind
the train boxcars filled with crying human beings
crossing through the German countryside. And,
of course, there was a lot of talk. Yet many Germans
pled ignorance. As though anticipating such excuse-making,
the author of Proverbs declared: Rescue those
being led away to death; hold back those staggering
toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing
about this," does not He who weighs the heart
perceive it? Does not He who guards your life
know it? And will He not repay each person according
to what he has done? (Proverbs 24:11-12)
I am convinced that we will be held accountable
if we remain silent in the face of the systematic
slaughter of millions of the most defenseless
“neighbors” of ours, the unborn. They are most
certainly our “neighbors”. They are the most vulnerable
members of the human family, and they cannot speak
for themselves. Proverbs 31 admonishes us: “Speak
up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak
up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the
poor and afflicted." Some of the change that
ultimately brought about the abolition of slavery
was achieved from pulpits and street corner preaching
- appeals to people’s consciences. For others
it took a war. Even afterwards, some change had
to be wrought through the legal system. That’s
the difficult thing. Some people learn through
conscience; others have to have morality legislated
in order not to do the wrong thing. Understand,
then, that the present evil we are confronting
needs to be fought on several levels. We need
to appeal to the conscience of men and women that
human life is created in the image of God and
is sacred. That’s what we’re doing here this morning,
and that is what is being done by the all too
few faithful who are counseling young women on
the sidewalks outside the abortion mills, pleading
with them to choose life for their babies. We
need to volunteer our time and energy at local
crisis pregnancy centers. We also need to use
the marvelous legal system this country was endowed
with, which has been perverted by those with a
hideous agenda. Our voices of moral protest need
to be heard by those who claim to be our representatives
in government. If until now you have done nothing,
resolve to begin to do something. If you’ve already
done some things, resolve to do more. I think
that’s not only reasonable, but very much a part
of our calling. Before we conclude, let me say
something very important here. In any gathering
of this size, there is likely to be someone, perhaps
several people who have had an abortion, or in
some way contributed to it. Please hear this:
there is forgiveness; there is forgiveness in
the blood of Messiah Yeshua; there is forgiveness
when we openly confess our sins to Him. Guilt
is a God-given thing, to bring us to repentance,
so that we may live. Rabbi Paul would remind us,
There is therefore now no condemnation for
those who are in Messiah Yeshua. If you have
confessed these things to Him, you are forgiven.
If you have not, this morning is as good a time
as any. Talk to one of us after the service. Phil
Keaggy sang, “Who will speak up for the little
ones, helpless and half abandoned. They’ve got
a right to choose life they don’t want to lose.
I’ve got to speak up. Won’t you?”
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn Harris
[1]
Federal Wildlife Laws Handbook: Bald Eagle Protection
Act, 16 U.S.C. 668-668d (see attached) [2] MacArthur,
John The Biblical View on Abortion c. 1993 (www.biblebb.com/files/mac/abort.htm)
[3] Knox v. Massachusetts S.P.C.A., 425 N.E.2d
393, Mass. App., 1981 (http://bear.cba.ufl.edu/hoch/animallaw/readings_3.htm
(see attached) [4] MacArthur, pgs. 5-6 (of 24)
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