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In the
Torah, Moses presented the Jewish people with
God’s commands. After he gave them to us,
Moses told us that there would be consequences
for obedience or disobedience to His commands:
“I call Heaven and Earth to witness
against you today, that I have set before you
life and death, the blessing and the curse. So,
ba-char-ta ba-cha-yeem - choose life in order
that you may live, you and your descendants”
(Deuteronomy 30:19). If we do what our good Creator
tells us to do, we will have life and blessing.
If we choose to disobey the Lord and His good
commands, we will experience bad consequences
like judgement, punishment and death.
For four
thousand years, in both Jewish and Christian society,
having an abortion has been considered a violation
of one of the most important commandments - you
shall not murder. Yet, in spite of this, “on
January 22, 1973, seven of the nine justices of
the United States Supreme Court, disregarding
prior legal traditions, overwhelming biological
evidence and the ethical traditions of a majority
of the American people, struck down the abortion
laws of all fifty states. Their action made abortion
on demand, at virtually every stage of pregnancy,
legal throughout our country. (From One Share
In Life Campaign, Right to Life of Michigan).
About
50 million children have been murdered by abortion
since 1973. Over a million babies will be killed
this year - about 3,000 children each day. That
means that the same number of Americans are killed
each day as were killed in the attack on Pearl
Harbor or on 9-11! If we are horrified by
the deaths of so many on those days, why aren’t
we equally disturbed by these many deaths each
and every day? Abortion is the supreme moral issue
of our day. Why don’t we do more to stop
it?
How do
we know the baby in the womb is a human life?
We have three witnesses. First, we have the witness
of nature. Second, we have the witness of Messiah’s
Holy Community Of Jews And Gentiles - the Church.
Third, we have the witness of the Word of God.
We
Have The Witness Of Nature
If you
ask a cattle rancher: “When does the life
of one of your cows begin? At what stage of it’s
development is it alive? When the fetus is at
one month, two months, or six months? At birth?”
The rancher would say: “That’s simple
- the life of all of my cows begins at conception.
Any fool can tell you that!” And you know
what? It’s no more complicated for humans!
A human life begins at conception. If processes
that God has put in place are not interfered with,
a human being will be born nine months after conception,
a human being made in the image of God, with unique
DNA, so that no other being in the universe is
like it, a being that is capable of knowing God
and living with Him forever. Therefore we have
no right to interfere in this life process.
There
is no question that it is a human life that is
growing in the mother’s womb. From a very
early stage, if you look at pictures of a child
that is developing in his mother’s womb,
you will know that it is a human being. That’s
why the pro-abortion crowd doesn’t like
to show pictures of children in various stages
of development, or what happens to a baby that
is aborted. That would deter too many people who
are pro-abortion, since the developing baby is
so obviously human.
At 30
days the unborn child’s heart pumps blood
through the circulatory system. At 40 days brain
waves are detected. At 2 months, all organs and
systems are present, with several organs already
functioning. The baby is sensitive to and responds
to touch. He is sucking, kicking, swallowing and
moving. At 3 months the baby sleeps, turns, opens
and closes his mouth. His palm, when stroked,
will make a tight fist. At 4 months the baby is
8 to 10 inches long and weighs a half-pound. His
ears function. The mother begins “to show”
the baby externally. At 5 months the baby will
display a startle reaction to loud, sudden noises.
He can suck a thumb or finger and stroke parts
of his own body. At this point, with modern medicine,
many babies can live outside the womb. It makes
no sense that a baby that is viable at 5 months
can be killed. At 7 months, the senses of vision,
hearing taste and touch are functioning. He can
recognize his mother’s voice. At 8 months
the baby can flex his limbs and has a firm grasp.
Weight increases to over 2 pounds. At 9 months,
the baby is ready for birth, weighing 6 to 9 pounds.
Currently in the United States, at any point in
this process, the baby can be killed in the most
horrific ways. (The above information comes from
Life Cycle, September 1999, from Wisconsin
Right To Life).
We
Have The Witness Of Messiah’s Holy Community
Of Jews And Gentiles
The Didache
(probably written by Messianic Jews toward the
end of the First Century to teach new Jewish Believers):
"You shall not kill a child by abortion."
Clement
of Alexandria (15O-22O AD), maintains that "If
we should but control our lusts at the start and
if we would not kill off the human race born and
developing according to the divine plan, then
our whole lives would be lived according to nature."
The Alexandrian theologian goes on to make the
very perceptive statement that "women who
resort to some sort of deadly abortion drug kill
not only the embryo but, along with it, all human
kindness." (Abortion - The Early Church
Fathers And Abortion, by Larry V. Crutchfield,
Ph.D, www.all.org/issues/ab99x.htm).
Athenagoras
said in 177 AD, "What reason would we have
to commit murder when we say that women who induce
abortions are murderers, and will have to give
account of it to God?...The fetus in the womb
is a living being and therefore the object of
God's care" (A Plea for the Christians,
35.6).
Tertullian
(150-225 AD) said, "It does not matter whether
you take away a life that is born, or destroy
one that is coming to the birth. In both instances,
destruction is murder." (Apology, 9.4, quoted
by Casey Carmical, Is Abortion Biblical?,
www.carmical.net/articles/biblical.html).
John Calvin
(1509-1564) made a very significant observation
concerning abortion in commenting on Exodus 21:22-23:
"The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of
his mother, is already a human being, and it is
a monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has
not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible
to kill a man in his own house than in a field,
because a man's house is his place of most secure
refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious
to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come
to light." (John Calvin, Commentaries
on the Four Last Books of Moses, translated
by Charles William Bingham, 4 volumes, Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950, 3:41-42).
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer (German pastor and theologian who was
hanged by the Nazis in April, 1945): "Destruction
of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation
of the right to life which God has bestowed on
this nascent life... And that is nothing but murder.
(Ethics, pp. 175-176).
We
Have The Witness Of The Inspired
And Authoritative Word Of God
Whenever
we consider any subject, our thoughts should turn
to God and His inspired Word, to see if He has
revealed His mind on that subject. When the Word
of God speaks clearly on any subject, that is
the final authority and must be obeyed. The Word
of the Living God does speak clearly and authoritatively
on this matter of “ba-char-ta ba-cha-yeem
- choose life.”
The Word
of God tells us that the Creator is in charge
of the issues of life and death. “It
is the Lord who kills, and the Lord who makes
alive” (1 Samuel 2:6). God creates
life, and He defines when a life starts, and it
starts in the womb.
God is
involved in the entire process of life, starting
with conception. Psalm 139:13: For You formed
my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made.
It’s
not just the father or the mother who is involved
in the creation of a new human life. God is very
much involved in the process, and He is the One
who enables us to give birth to a new human life.
Genesis 30:1-2, 22: Now when Rachel saw that she
bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of
her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give
me children, or else I die.'' Then Jacob's anger
burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am
I in the place of God, who has withheld from you
the fruit of the womb?''... Then God remembered
Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her
womb.
Every
human being is a unique creation that comes from
God. Every child is a reward, a gift from God,
made in His image, higher than the angels, and
just a little lower than God - which is a very
a good thing. No child is a “mistake.”
Psalm 127:3: Behold, children are a gift of the
Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
God has
plans for human beings that begin long before
birth. Ephesians 1:3-5, 11: Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who
has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in
the heavenly places in Messiah, just as He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
In love He predestined us to adoption as sons
through Messiah Yeshua to Himself, having been
predestined according to His purpose who works
all things after the counsel of His will.
Clearly, abortion is an attack against these sovereign
plans of God.
God is
involved in the process of forming us in the womb,
and already has plans for us before we are born.
Jeremiah 1:4-5: The word of the Lord came to me
saying, "Before I formed you in the womb
I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated
you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.''
To murder a child in the womb is to attack God’s
plan for the life of that child.
Paul,
like Jeremiah, was set apart to serve God while
he was still in His mother’s womb. Galatians
1:15-16: But when God, who had set me apart
even from my mother's womb and called me through
His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me
so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
It was
a baby who was in Elizabeth’s womb, and
this baby was able to experience some kind of
knowledge, emotion, Divine activity and God’s
presence. Luke 1:15, 36-44: He will be great
in the sight of the Lord.. And will be filled
with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s
womb... Elizabeth conceived a son in her old age;
and was in her sixth month... And Mary arose and
went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city
of Judah, and entered the house of Zechariah and
greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's
greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And
she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed
are you among women, and blessed is the fruit
of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that
the mother of my Lord would come to me? For
behold, when the sound of your greeting reached
my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.
Isaiah
49:1, 5 is a prophecy about Messiah Yeshua. It
tells us that God made plans for His Son to accomplish
our salvation while yet in Mary’s womb:
Listen to Me, O islands, and pay attention,
you peoples from afar. The Lord called Me from
the womb; from the body of My mother He named
Me... And now says the Lord, who formed Me from
the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back
to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him.
Can you imagine if Joseph encouraged Mary to have
an abortion to cover up their difficult and embarrassing
situation?
There
is no question that it is a human being, a human
life, that is in the mother’s womb: Listen
to this ancient Jewish law found in Exodus 21:22:
If men struggle with each other and strike
a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage,
yet there is no further injury, he shall surely
be fined as the woman's husband may demand of
him, and he shall pay as the judges decide.
This teaches us that a baby is its mother’s
womb is a “yeled” - a human child,
not a unhuman tissue mass.
What
about abortion in the case of rape or incest?
Children are not to suffer for the sins of their
father, even in the case of rape and incest. Deuteronomy
24:16: Fathers shall not be put to death for
their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for
their fathers; everyone shall be put to death
for his own sin. Ezekiel 18:4, 20: Behold,
all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as
well as the soul of the son is Mine... The soul
who sins will die. The person who sins will die.
The son will not bear the punishment for the father's
iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment
for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the
righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness
of the wicked will be upon himself. Children
are not to suffer for the sins of their father,
even in the case of rape and incest. If I could
rephrase Moses and Ezekiel for our day, “You
don’t kill the child because the father
is a jerk.” Right To Life Of Michigan’s
Policy Statements make the following observation:
“Abortion is not the answer to a pregnancy
which is the result of sexual assault. When a
woman is raped and becomes pregnant, the woman
and the unborn child are the victims. Using abortion
to end a crisis pregnancy does nothing to alleviate
the rape. It merely allows society to forget about
the rape and pretend that justice has been done,
leaving the woman to deal with the emotions of
the assault and abortion, often alone. In the
case of incest, abortion actually protects the
perpetrator of the crime by concealing the incestuous
act. Incest represents a family situation where
help is needed.”
What
about in the case of birth defects? Exodus
4:11: The Lord said to Moses, "Who has
made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf,
or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
The Lord makes us the way we are, including birth
defects, and therefore we don’t have the
right to kill a deformed child.
Is
Abortion Ever Right? “When the
life of the mother is in danger, many times a
doctor can treat both the mother and the unborn
child separately. Because of medical advances,
it is rare that the child’s life cannot
also be saved. In those rare cases, the intent
is not to kill the child but to try to save both
lives if medically possible. Before the 1973 U.S.
Supreme Court decisions legalizing all abortions,
the standard abortion law, including Michigan’s
had an exception for the life of the mother”
(From Right To Life Of Michigan’s Policy
Statements).
Parallels
With The African-American Experience Of Slavery
The United
States Constitution granted freedoms and protections
to all persons, but unfortunately and unjustly,
for almost 100 years African-Americans were not
considered to be full persons entitled to the
same rights and protections that were guaranteed
to other Americans. It took another 100 years,
abolitionists who organized and struggled to ensure
constitutional rights for all, a bloody civil
war, and a courageous president, Abraham Lincoln,
to recognize that all men were created equal and
full persons entitled to those constitutional
protections. We too must struggle to secure constitutional
rights for the unborn. We need to create federal
recognition of a fetus as a separate person. On
April 26th, 2001, the House of Representatives
approved a bill that would establish criminal
penalties for harming a human fetus during the
commission of a federal offense against a woman.
It would grant a new legal status to the fetus.
The bill is called the Unborn Victims of Violence
Act, and it criminalizes violence against the
unborn.
Parallels
With The Jewish Experience In Nazi Europe
How could
the German people, who were among the most educated
and cultured in Europe, allow 6,000,000 Jewish
people to perish in the Holocaust? One technique
used by the Nazis was to dehumanize the Jews.
They portrayed us as sub-human. We were allegedly
from a less-than-human race. We were compared
to animals. These rationalizations made it easier
to kill us, since supposedly, we were not fully
human. Pro-abortion leaders have used the same
technique. They use terms and slogans designed
to dehumanize the human life in the mother’s
womb. Instead of “unborn child,” or
a “human being in development,” or
a “baby in the womb,” they use terms
like “fertilized egg,” “zygote,”
“embryo” or “fetus." While
these may be valid scientific terms, they are
also used to make the unborn child seem less human.
Don’t use their terms and slogans! Don’t
call evil good, and good evil! They want to use
“pro-choice” since nobody wants to
be against freedom of choice. However, murdering
a human being is not a viable choice. They are
really “pro-abortion,” “pro-murder”
and “baby-killers.” When it comes
to a “woman’s right to choose,”
is that right absolute? The answer is no, of course
not! We limit a woman’s right to choose
to sell her body as a prostitute. A woman can’t
choose to use her body to commit a crime. If we
see a woman about to kill herself, we would intervene.
No woman has a right to murder a baby developing
in her body. It is impossible to make into a “right”
something that is a “wrong.” We have
no legitimate right to do wrong!
Parallels
With Sacrificing Children To Idols
Psalm
106:37-38: They served their idols, which
became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their
sons and their daughters to the demons, and shed
innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their
daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of
Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood.
Why did we sacrifice our children to idols? For
protection and for prosperity. Is killing a unborn
child, for the sake of the parent’s convenience
and prosperity, any different? The Land of Israel
was “polluted with blood” when we
sacrificed our children to demons. That means
that our nation is likewise polluted, defiled
and dirty. I don’t care how much wealth
we have, or how much our technology has enabled
us to advance, or the power of our army, or the
influence we may wield in international politics,
we are no longer a great nation. We are not even
a good nation. One way to judge a nation is by
how that nation treats the weakest among them.
By those standards, we are barbarians, uncivilized,
a criminally immoral society.
Myths
And Facts About Abortion
Myth:
Women need abortion for health reasons.
Fact:
95% are done as a means of birth control. Only
1% are performed because of rape or incest; 1%
because of fetal abnormalities; 3% because of
the mothers’ health problems. (Facts From
the Dayton Right To Life Society, 1994).
Fact:
Nationally, 77.8 percent of women obtaining abortions
are unmarried. The statistics strongly suggest
that abortion is used as birth control. (From
Abortion Myths, Right To Life Of Michigan
Educational Fund, 1991).
Myth:
Abortion is an unfortunate necessity and doesn’t
happen often.
Fact:
About 1,100,000 babies will be killed this year,
which is about 3,000 children each day, the same
number as were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor!
Myth:
We need abortion to reduce child abuse. Wanted
children will not be abused children.Fact: Abortion
has done nothing to reduce child abuse. Statistics
show the overall change from 1976 to 1992 has
been a growth of 331 percent in child abuse cases
in the United States. (From Abortion Myths,
Right To Life Of Michigan Educational Fund, 1991).
Myth:
The typical woman who gets an abortion is a poor,
minority teen.
Fact:
More than one-half of women getting abortions
are between the ages of 20-29 and statistics show
nearly two-thirds of abortions are performed on
white women. (From Abortion Myths, Right
To Life Of Michigan Educational Fund, 1991).
Myth:
Abortion is safer than childbirth.
Fact:
“Last summer, government researchers in
Finland announced that a woman's risk of dying
within one year after an abortion was four times
higher than the risk of dying following childbirth
or miscarriage. The study flies in the face of
claims made by abortion advocates, who insist
that abortion is much safer than childbirth.”
(BreakPoint with Charles Colson, January
29, 2001, Templates and Truth: The War of the
Worldviews).
Fact:
The average abortion procedure takes 5 to 10 minutes.
The average wait for adoption takes 2 to 10 years.
Approximately 2,000,000 couples in America are
currently ready and waiting to adopt. Only 50,000
babies are placed for adoption each year. (Facts
From the Dayton Right To Life Society, 1994).
What
Is Our Responsibility?
Abortion
is the supreme moral issue of our day. We must
act! We must not ignore it. We are warned that
we will be judged if we don’t. Proverbs
24:11-12: Deliver those who are being taken
away to death, and those who are staggering to
slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, "See,
we did not know this,'' does He not consider it
who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it
who keeps your soul? And will He not render to
man according to his work? The all-knowing
God holds people responsible for rescuing those
who are in mortal danger. We must not dodge our
responsibility by claiming ignorance, and that
we did not know. It is our duty to help them,
even though it may mean inconveniencing or even
endangering ourselves.
On the
positive side, to motivate us to act, the Lord
promises light - victory and salvation and blessedness
to those who help the afflicted. Isaiah 58:10:
And if you give yourself to the hungry and
satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your
light will rise in darkness and your gloom will
become like midday.
Psalm
41:1: How blessed is he who considers the
helpless; the Lord will deliver him in a day of
trouble. Let’s consider the most helpless
among us - the baby in the womb. We in turn will
be blessed and delivered by God.
Abortion
is the supreme moral issue of our day. We can’t
be for abortion. We can’t be neutral. On
this issue, if we do not choose life, and reject
murder, we are against life, against what is right,
against God. Do we have a right to stop others
from killing innocent babies created by God in
His image? We not only have a right, but the duty
to do all that we can to end abortion.
We should
pray that these illegal decrees are reversed and
this Holocaust comes to an quick end.
We should
educate ourselves and others on the abortion issue.
We should
make our views known to politicians and the media.
We should
vote for pro-life candidates. How did we get to
this evil state where abortion is legal? Christians
allowed those without a Biblical world-view to
take over in the political and judicial arenas,
and in the media. We must get involved and vote
for God-fearing men. In my opinion, the pro-life
issue supersedes all other political or economic
concerns. People who are not pro-life are not
fit for higher office. Think about it: what good
is someone who can the make the trains run on
time, if he has no regard for the sanctity of
life? In a democracy, the people are the government,
and God will hold each one of us responsible for
voting for people who are pro-life or pro-murder.
We should
support pro-life legislation and legislators.
Can we impose our morality on others? A resounding
Yes! Many laws impose morality on others (“morality
comes from “mores” - the common values
shared by a group). Rabbi Paul in 1 Timothy 1:9
tells us that “law is not made for a
righteous person, but for those who are lawless
and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for
the unholy and profane, for those who kill their
fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral
men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and
perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound
teaching.”
We should
volunteer our time and money to good pro-life
organizations. We should explore alternatives
to abortion and support them, like Crisis Pregnancy
Centers, and adoption.
We should
remember that sexual relations outside of marriage
are wrong and a major contributor to abortion.
We should
help those who are suffering after having had
an abortion. Remind them that no one is beyond
the reach of God’s forgiveness.
(The above
suggestions come from A Christian Response
To Abortion, by Paul Broughton, 1990).
Remember,
“I call Heaven and Earth to witness
against you today, that I have set before you
life and death, the blessing and the curse. So,
ba-char-ta ba-cha-yeem - choose life - obedience
to God and His Word, in order that you may live!”
A
Final Prayer
God of
Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, righteous
and holy Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah,
the just and true Judge of all the Earth, we come
before You, interceding for the innocent and the
defenseless, praying for those who cannot cry
out on their own behalf. O Dayan Ha-Emet, the
true Judge, we pray that you would judge truly
and righteously.
Adon Olam,
Master of the Universe, You rule below and above;
You cause death and You cause life; You bring
down to the grave and You raise up. The life of
every being is in Your hand. You are the Father
of the fatherless, the Husband of the widow, and
the Strength of the oppressed. We pray O Lord,
that You would deliver those who are the weakest
among us, and being severely oppressed! O You
who are full of mercy, have compassion on the
children in the womb. End this Shoah, this Holocaust
of the babies in the womb. Reverse these evil
decrees and spare the innocent. Let not the wickedness
of man prevail!
Finally,
O Lord our God, inspire us to continue to fight
the good fight. Re-energize us to do what we can
to protect the babies growing in their mothers’
wombs. Baruch Ata Adonai, Elohaynu Melech HaOlam,
Dayan Ha-Emet. Blessed are You O Lord our God,
King of the Universe, the true Judge.
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