By His grace – For His glory

Let us be silent no more!

January 25, 2008 at 10:24 am (Sanctity of Life)

Throughout history, when conquering forces have subjugated the native people, the conqueror has attempted to silence the Church. They did this because churches historically have been centers for truth dispersal. If a church were allowed to spread the truth to the people, the conqueror’s propaganda would have been compromised.

Tyranny usually needs to silence the church because God tells us how to live as free men. Christ purchased the chains of our slavery and set us free. Just as Tyranny demands silence from the Christians, freedom demands holy living as taught in the Scriptures. When the church’s voice is silenced our freedom is lost.

In 1835 the French philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote Democracy in America. Based on what he had learned from visiting the United States and studying her government and social constructs, de Tocqueville wrote, “Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot…. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?”

Whenever the forces of evil have held the church under their thumb, heroes have arisen. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these heroes have refused to bow to the authority of a ruler who opposed and despised God. These men and women of character and principle have spoken the truth when tyrannical rulers attempted to suppress that truth.

The churches of our nation have chosen to remain silent

In America we have grown so accustomed to our freedoms that recent generations have forgotten that these freedoms were won by supreme sacrifice and commitment. That which the forces of tyranny have failed to accomplish in the past has been accomplished in the United States by generation after generation living under the freedoms provided by our forefathers. Each successive generation has grown more complacent and has increasingly taken for granted the freedoms our ancestors enjoyed because they worshipped and served God. The voice of the church has been silenced.

We are no longer a Christian nation. But in the midst of increasing sinfulness the churches of our nation have chosen to remain silent. Within the walls of the Church we repeat the old doctrines and creeds but we do not live holy lives—we do not stand when the enemy says “bow.” We do not lay our lives on the line to save the life of another. The legal community uses a phrase that would be good for us to understand and inculcate in our daily lives—”He who is silent is understood to consent.”

The Christian songwriter Keith Green wrote, “The world is sleeping in the dark that the church just can’t fight because it’s asleep in the light.” We know the truth but we have ceased to proclaim it.

This is a call to our religious leaders and to each of us who knows the truth of Jesus Christ. We must proclaim the truth with a loud voice. We cannot let our society continue down the path of destruction known as abortion, euthanasia and infanticide. While God’s little ones are being slaughtered in the streets we cannot sit inside our pristine cathedrals and congratulate one another with prayers such as “God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are” as the Pharisee did in Luke 18. We must shout from the pulpits and then from the streets, “God be merciful to us—we are sinners.” We must proclaim the truth that human life is sacred. We must become the “salt of the earth” so that God can use us in His war against evil.

Although this post is aimed at our church leaders, we all need to do our part in this battle. God has called us to be heroes. As the apostle Paul said in Romans 10:14–15: 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

Let’s determine right now to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the pulpits of this land, and in so doing send the people of our churches to preach this truth in the streets. Our voices must not be silenced any longer.

Our future depends on it.

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Let us be silent no more!

January 25, 2008 at 5:24 am (Sanctity of Life)

Throughout history, when conquering forces have subjugated the native people, the conqueror has attempted to silence the Church. They did this because churches historically have been centers for truth dispersal. If a church were allowed to spread the truth to the people, the conqueror’s propaganda would have been compromised.

Tyranny usually needs to silence the church because God tells us how to live as free men. Christ purchased the chains of our slavery and set us free. Just as Tyranny demands silence from the Christians, freedom demands holy living as taught in the Scriptures. When the church’s voice is silenced our freedom is lost.

In 1835 the French philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote Democracy in America. Based on what he had learned from visiting the United States and studying her government and social constructs, de Tocqueville wrote, “Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot…. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?”

Whenever the forces of evil have held the church under their thumb, heroes have arisen. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these heroes have refused to bow to the authority of a ruler who opposed and despised God. These men and women of character and principle have spoken the truth when tyrannical rulers attempted to suppress that truth.

The churches of our nation have chosen to remain silent

In America we have grown so accustomed to our freedoms that recent generations have forgotten that these freedoms were won by supreme sacrifice and commitment. That which the forces of tyranny have failed to accomplish in the past has been accomplished in the United States by generation after generation living under the freedoms provided by our forefathers. Each successive generation has grown more complacent and has increasingly taken for granted the freedoms our ancestors enjoyed because they worshipped and served God. The voice of the church has been silenced.

We are no longer a Christian nation. But in the midst of increasing sinfulness the churches of our nation have chosen to remain silent. Within the walls of the Church we repeat the old doctrines and creeds but we do not live holy lives—we do not stand when the enemy says “bow.” We do not lay our lives on the line to save the life of another. The legal community uses a phrase that would be good for us to understand and inculcate in our daily lives—”He who is silent is understood to consent.”

The Christian songwriter Keith Green wrote, “The world is sleeping in the dark that the church just can’t fight because it’s asleep in the light.” We know the truth but we have ceased to proclaim it.

This is a call to our religious leaders and to each of us who knows the truth of Jesus Christ. We must proclaim the truth with a loud voice. We cannot let our society continue down the path of destruction known as abortion, euthanasia and infanticide. While God’s little ones are being slaughtered in the streets we cannot sit inside our pristine cathedrals and congratulate one another with prayers such as “God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are” as the Pharisee did in Luke 18. We must shout from the pulpits and then from the streets, “God be merciful to us—we are sinners.” We must proclaim the truth that human life is sacred. We must become the “salt of the earth” so that God can use us in His war against evil.

Although this post is aimed at our church leaders, we all need to do our part in this battle. God has called us to be heroes. As the apostle Paul said in Romans 10:14–15: 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

Let’s determine right now to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the pulpits of this land, and in so doing send the people of our churches to preach this truth in the streets. Our voices must not be silenced any longer.

Our future depends on it.

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Have we made any progress?

January 24, 2008 at 9:46 am (Sanctity of Life)

What the statistics are saying: “Christians are winning!”

What the Abortion Industry is Saying: “We are losing!”

1. “A little more of this and doctors just won’t do abortions. Would you? (Abortionist Warren Hern, full page ad in Rocky Mountain News, July 23, 2005, referring to Operation Save America’s National Event in Denver, July 2005).
2. “This is a crisis, it’s increasingly impossible for women to get a service (abortion) that’s absolutely legal.” (Melinda Dubois – US News and World Report, 1998)
3. “Hate and harassment clearly inhibit women from access to abortion. It is more difficult now to get an abortion than it was five years ago.” (Gloria Feldt of PPFA, 1997)
4. “Abortion opponents will achieve their goal without ever having to overturn Roe v. Wade.” (Kate Michelman of NARAL, 1997)
5. “The number of abortions in this nation has dropped twenty-nine percent in the last six years.” (Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General, 1998)
6. “The anti-abortionists are winning without really winning. They scare off the younger doctors.” (James Pendergraft, Abortionist – The Associated Press, 1998)

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Have we made any progress?

January 24, 2008 at 4:46 am (Sanctity of Life)

What the Abortion Industry is Saying: “We are losing!”

1. “A little more of this and doctors just won’t do abortions. Would you? (Abortionist Warren Hern, full page ad in Rocky Mountain News, July 23, 2005, referring to Operation Save America’s National Event in Denver, July 2005).
2. “This is a crisis, it’s increasingly impossible for women to get a service (abortion) that’s absolutely legal.” (Melinda Dubois – US News and World Report, 1998)
3. “Hate and harassment clearly inhibit women from access to abortion. It is more difficult now to get an abortion than it was five years ago.” (Gloria Feldt of PPFA, 1997)
4. “Abortion opponents will achieve their goal without ever having to overturn Roe v. Wade.” (Kate Michelman of NARAL, 1997)
5. “The number of abortions in this nation has dropped twenty-nine percent in the last six years.” (Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General, 1998)
6. “The anti-abortionists are winning without really winning. They scare off the younger doctors.” (James Pendergraft, Abortionist – The Associated Press, 1998)

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What if it gets this bad?

January 22, 2008 at 12:44 pm (Sanctity of Life)

I have often wondered if the generation before us had stepped up to the plate when abortion was made legal and had cried out with a loud voice: “This is not right! We will not allow this to happen.” How much different would the world be today? How many diseases may have been cured had millions of potential doctors not been slaughtered? How many wars might have been stopped had the millions of potential diplomats not been killed? How much different might the world be if our nation was not murdering her children at the rate of 1.5 million per year?

It’s easy to point the finger at those who went before us and did not make as much of an outcry against this terrible sin. But what are we doing to stop it now? Because it’s not going to get better on its own.

What if your children have to view ads like this because you did not get involved in the fight for every life of every innocent unborn child?

Permalink Leave a Comment

Maybe we shouldn’t be killing babies in the first place

January 22, 2008 at 11:11 am (Sanctity of Life)

Many years ago, when I was in college, I was encouraged that the media elites and many in academia had begun to notice the hurdles that the abortion proponents had to jump at every turn. An article in the Chicago Tribune dated October 10, 1983, reveals the recognition of these hurdles:

If Abortion Becomes Murder

Surely when the Supreme Court decided more than a decade ago that women had an almost unrestricted right to abortion, the justices never foresaw the kind of tragedy that led, last week, to a physician being convicted of murder in connection with the termination of a pregnancy.

Dr. Raymond Showery was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges that he drowned an infant in a bucket of water and dropped the body in a plastic bag after the baby survived a hysterotomy abortion. Although the mother was reported to be 24 weeks pregnant, witnesses described the newborn as weighing 3 to 5 pounds. The bag was apparently thrown away; the infant’s body was not subsequently found.

Dozens of other infants have been born alive as a result of abortions. Most are too small and too damaged by the abortion process to survive for more than a few minutes or a few hours. Most states have laws requiring that such infants be treated as other premature babies and every effort made to keep them alive.There have been other instances in which physicians have been tried on charges of killing a baby who survived abortion. Dr. Williams Waddill, accused of choking to death a 2 pound, 14 ounce girl following a saline abortion, went through two long trials, but charges were finally dismissed when neither jury could reach a verdict. Dr. Kenneth Edelin, who allegedly stalled in completing a hysterotomy abortion to make sure the baby was dead, was found guilty of manslaughter, but the Massachusetts Supreme Court reversed the decision. It is a tragic irony that physicians can be charged—and in Dr. Showery’s case, convicted—for murder in killing a baby outside his mother’s womb just minutes after it is perfectly legal to kill the same infant inside his mother’s body. It is even more ironic that the infant who can be killed legally is probably healthy and normal; the abortion survivor who must be kept alive no matter what is almost certainly damaged by the abortion process, may suffer serious, lifelong handicaps as a result of being born so prematurely, and has parents who tried to end his life because they so intensely didn’t want him.

The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision legalizing abortion rested on assumptions about scientific facts that may have been dubious even at the time. Since then, new medical technology and new neonatal intensive care centers have made it possible for babies to survive after much shorter pregnancies than envisioned a decade ago. The inevitable result will be that more infants are going to survive abortion, although the odds are high that they will have serious handicaps as a result and taxpayers and health insurers will not only have to pay for expensive neonatal care for them, but perhaps lifelong institutionalization as well.

The Supreme Court isn’t likely to reverse the basic thrust of Roe v. Wade, the case that made abortion legal. The court has already overturned many state and federal laws that sought to put restrictions on the access to abortion….

As Franky Schaeffer said regarding this article in his book Bad News For Modern Man, “The Tribune, while clearly seeing the absurdity of doing everything possible to kill babies in the womb at one moment and then at the next moment turning around and doing everything possible to save those same babies when the “abortion procedures” don’t work, fails to make the simple, logical connection—that maybe we shouldn’t be killing babies in the womb in the first place.”

May God have mercy on our nation.

Permalink Leave a Comment

What if it gets this bad?

January 22, 2008 at 7:44 am (Sanctity of Life)

I have often wondered if the generation before us had stepped up to the plate when abortion was made legal and had cried out with a loud voice: “This is not right! We will not allow this to happen.” How much different would the world be today? How many diseases may have been cured had millions of potential doctors not been slaughtered? How many wars might have been stopped had the millions of potential diplomats not been killed? How much different might the world be if our nation was not murdering her children at the rate of 1.5 million per year?

It’s easy to point the finger at those who went before us and did not make as much of an outcry against this terrible sin. But what are we doing to stop it now? Because it’s not going to get better on its own.

What if your children have to view ads like this because you did not get involved in the fight for every life of every innocent unborn child?

Permalink Leave a Comment

Maybe we shouldn’t be killing babies in the first place

January 22, 2008 at 6:11 am (Sanctity of Life)

Many years ago, when I was in college, I was encouraged that the media elites and many in academia had begun to notice the hurdles that the abortion proponents had to jump at every turn. An article in the Chicago Tribune dated October 10, 1983, reveals the recognition of these hurdles:

If Abortion Becomes Murder

Surely when the Supreme Court decided more than a decade ago that women had an almost unrestricted right to abortion, the justices never foresaw the kind of tragedy that led, last week, to a physician being convicted of murder in connection with the termination of a pregnancy.

Dr. Raymond Showery was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges that he drowned an infant in a bucket of water and dropped the body in a plastic bag after the baby survived a hysterotomy abortion. Although the mother was reported to be 24 weeks pregnant, witnesses described the newborn as weighing 3 to 5 pounds. The bag was apparently thrown away; the infant’s body was not subsequently found.

Dozens of other infants have been born alive as a result of abortions. Most are too small and too damaged by the abortion process to survive for more than a few minutes or a few hours. Most states have laws requiring that such infants be treated as other premature babies and every effort made to keep them alive.There have been other instances in which physicians have been tried on charges of killing a baby who survived abortion. Dr. Williams Waddill, accused of choking to death a 2 pound, 14 ounce girl following a saline abortion, went through two long trials, but charges were finally dismissed when neither jury could reach a verdict. Dr. Kenneth Edelin, who allegedly stalled in completing a hysterotomy abortion to make sure the baby was dead, was found guilty of manslaughter, but the Massachusetts Supreme Court reversed the decision. It is a tragic irony that physicians can be charged—and in Dr. Showery’s case, convicted—for murder in killing a baby outside his mother’s womb just minutes after it is perfectly legal to kill the same infant inside his mother’s body. It is even more ironic that the infant who can be killed legally is probably healthy and normal; the abortion survivor who must be kept alive no matter what is almost certainly damaged by the abortion process, may suffer serious, lifelong handicaps as a result of being born so prematurely, and has parents who tried to end his life because they so intensely didn’t want him.

The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision legalizing abortion rested on assumptions about scientific facts that may have been dubious even at the time. Since then, new medical technology and new neonatal intensive care centers have made it possible for babies to survive after much shorter pregnancies than envisioned a decade ago. The inevitable result will be that more infants are going to survive abortion, although the odds are high that they will have serious handicaps as a result and taxpayers and health insurers will not only have to pay for expensive neonatal care for them, but perhaps lifelong institutionalization as well.

The Supreme Court isn’t likely to reverse the basic thrust of Roe v. Wade, the case that made abortion legal. The court has already overturned many state and federal laws that sought to put restrictions on the access to abortion….

As Franky Schaeffer said regarding this article in his book Bad News For Modern Man, “The Tribune, while clearly seeing the absurdity of doing everything possible to kill babies in the womb at one moment and then at the next moment turning around and doing everything possible to save those same babies when the “abortion procedures” don’t work, fails to make the simple, logical connection—that maybe we shouldn’t be killing babies in the womb in the first place.”

May God have mercy on our nation.

Permalink Leave a Comment