Billy Graham was known to say, “teach with your Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Sound advice, for without a newspaper, it’s hard to know what people are thinking, and without the Bible, it’s impossible to convey what God is thinking.
“Sunday sermons” will be my take on the issues of the day from a Bible-informed perspective, and that perspective is influenced by my generation (Boomer), gender (Male), and denominational background (Baptist). I have no shortage of personal opinions, and inevitably those ideas will creep into this column.
I have presuppositions, and I want you to know them upfront. I believe that the Judeo-Christian God created everything, knows everything, and ultimately has a plan for everything. I also believe that the Bible is a reliable source of wisdom from God that we can depend on in this modern era. I am politically a Conservative, and when it comes to sports- I root for Boston teams.
Listen, I know there are religious skeptics and people with other belief systems. I am just sharing my thoughts. I am not seeking to launch a theocracy or coerce you into my patterns of belief. My belief in Soul Liberty would make me a poor religious tyrant.
We might as well start with a big one. Whoopi Goldberg recently asserted on The View that God supports abortion. She backed that up by saying, “As you know, God doesn’t make mistakes. God made us smart enough to know when it wasn’t going to work for us. That’s the beauty of giving us freedom of choice.”
Freedom of choice is indeed God-given. We are not pre-programmed. We can choose among courses of action. However, that does not mean all choices are equally pleasing to God. Some choices are sins. Sins, if you paid attention in Sunday school, are what separate us from God. The consequence of sin is eternal separation from God.
As a sidebar, we are all sinners and already separated from God. He eagerly wants us to seek forgiveness and for us to be restored, and that’s another column for another day, but the only way to be reconciled to Him is a relationship with Jesus his Son.
But free will, as proof that God smiles on abortion, does not work. Sorry, Whoopi.
Here are some points of scripture to help shape your thinking: Exodus 20:13 says, “you shall not murder.” Murder here refers to an unjust taking of innocent life. It does not condemn capital punishment, defending your family against an intruder, or fatalities in war.
Proverbs 6:16-19 list “six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him,” among them, we find “hands that shed innocent blood”. This is clear, babies are noted for their innocence.
There are verses that state that God knew us in the womb, knitted us together before we were born, and in Luke, we hear that, before he was born, John the Baptist reacted to the presence of Jesus… he had a spiritual encounter. Familiarity with scripture leads us to accept a baby as a person even before birth.
This is a critical difference between pro-life and pro-choice people because abortion proponents insist that an abortion is not murder but a medical procedure that removes not a person but simply a “cluster of cells.” They argue that a woman’s choice to control her own body supersedes any rights a merely “potential” life may have.
We seldom have had a better opportunity to persuade undecided people to adopt our way of thinking on this topic. Triumphant posturing will not win hearts and minds. Prolifers, at least the ones I have met, have zero interest in forcing women into reproductive slavery. Nor do we want a return to barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen as a lifestyle for women.
As a matter of fact, prolifers want to preserve human life and uphold the rights of all of us.
So, Whoopi, I believe God is firmly against the murdering of innocents. And yes, I believe that includes preborn children. One of the common responses we hear from the left is that Republicans are not pro-life but only pro-birth. Their idea is that Republicans should bear the responsibility for raising the babies we want rescued from abortion.
Guess what? I agree with that assessment at least as far as Christians are concerned. The Bible repeatedly describes believers taking care of widows, orphans, and immigrants. For our part, believing as we do, my wife and I have fostered 36 kids and of those, adopted eight.
Editors Note: Future Installments of “The Sunday Sermon” will appear… on Sunday.
