Background:

Note:  December 28, 2013.  This is a significant update to an article first posted on October 14, 2012 … support for the Sanctity of Life continues to spiral downward.  Christian, read and weep!

Have you come to a peaceful co-existence with evil?  In today’s permissive society it is often difficult to tell the difference between what is “good” and what is “evil”.  For example, what was once called the sin of sodomy is now called sexual orientation … and we have passed legislation to elevate that to being “normal”.  Over time, our modern-day society has perverted the definition of what is good to the point where more and more evil is defined as good.  Many churches walk a fine line between God’s way and man’s way making it difficult to distinguish them from the world.

Sadly, our world is full of “misguided” people … those who are hooked on drugs, those who fall into a life of crime, those who take the decisions of life and death into their own hands, those who falsely believe they can work their way to heaven, those who don’t believe there are earthly consequences to their sin,  those who … you continue the thought.  Even many of God’s born-again children are misguided in their understanding of God’s will and God’s ways.

Tragically, far too many religious leaders wrongly lead their flocks into error by misusing, misquoting, and misapplication of God’s Word.  In many cases, the religious leader has another agenda other than supporting and promoting God’s truth.  Most times the leader is simply following the dogma of their misguided religion.  Extremists and terrorists give themselves over to suicide missions in the name of their “god,” senselessly killing innocent men, women and children while following the perverted teachings of their zealous torchbearers.

I Was Made In God’s Image – how could you abort me?

Under pressure from ardent lobbying groups or immoral leadership, governments all over the world have passed laws under the pretense that they are doing what is right and best for the populace.  In past generations this led to the legalization of slavery and segregation and sanctioned as “good” many things that were actually “evil”.  Modern day governments all over the world have legalized the killing of unborn babies (nearly 57 million in the USA alone since Roe v. Wade, 1973; 1.3 billion worldwide since 1980 according to the US Abortion Clock) supposedly protecting a woman’s right to control their own bodies, without interference from anyone.  Those same governments prosecute women for the same crime after the child is born.

Source: usabortionclock.org

China has adopted and is enforcing a one child policy which has resulted in an untold number of abortions and has only recently sent signals that they may be easing that policy.  Chinese parents are forced by the government to abort their baby simply because they already have one child.  Many choose to abort their baby simply because it is the wrong sex.  Girls are aborted more than boys in China so families can continue their bloodline through their sons.

In all of the cases mentioned above, man is attempting to redefine what is “good” and what is “evil” to suit his own desires, bypassing God’s definition of righteousness. God and His Holy Word, The Bible, have a lot to say about those who insist on Calling Evil Good.

Scripture: (all New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted)

Isaiah was one of the latter prophets who lived and prophesied in the eighth-century BC Kingdom of Judah.  The primary message of the book of Isaiah (meaning the salvation of the Lord) is that salvation comes from God — not in any way or by anything of man. Salvation is the free gift of God.  Praise God who is our Savior, Ruler and King.

In Isaiah 5:20-21 the prophet speaks “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil…”  The word “woe” means a condition of deep suffering from misfortune, affliction, grief, ruinous calamity and in this case the prediction of the great suffering Judah would face at the hand of the Babylonians.  Isaiah is passing along God’s judgment on Judah for their excesses and for repeatedly disobeying His Word.  Man cannot escape God’s righteous judgment.  Through Isaiah God said “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!”  Wisdom is a gift from God.  Man might think he is wise, but without God’s gift man is greatly deceived about his supposed wisdom.  God pronounces the consequences of those guilty of such sinfulness by saying “So their root will be as rottenness, And their blossom will ascend like dust; Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 5:24)

How could God make it any plainer for us?   God is the author of all “good” and Satan is the great deceiver and the author of all “evil.”  There are consequences for evil.  Evil is sin.  There are earthly and eternal consequences for sin (see my  related articles Sin’s Earthly Consequences and When God Has Had Enough.  I tend to over-complicate things at times so let’s just reduce it to this:  Doing right is good, doing wrong is evil.  Hosea 14:9 asks “Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.

The Biblical principle of sowing and reaping can be applied here as well.  In Galatians 6:7 Paul warns the Christian church at Galatia “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

Reflection:

Glen Crisler Teaching His Sunday School Class at Pine Lake Baptist Church

I have often had discussions with my dear friend in Christ, Glen Crisler.  Glen runs a successful drywall installation business providing gainful employment, even in these difficult economic times, to a host of people.  Glen is now 80 years old and still going strong.  He and his faithful wife, Mary Elizabeth, drive over 50,000 miles each year visiting his job sites.  Yet Glen and Mary Elizabeth are always in the house of the Lord at every opportunity.  Glen unselfishly partners with his Pastor and church to further the cause of Christ and build the church body regularly visiting prospects on a weekly basis.

Glen is a passionate soul winner having led so many to salvation and positively influenced so many others.  Glen is a Godly man of integrity, honesty and compassion.  Glen’s leadership skills are remarkable.  He has served as the Chairman of the Deacons in my home church for many, many years.  In difficult situations Glen and I have often discussed options.  Our conclusion in every instance over the years has been that we must do what is right in the sight of God, what is consistent with God’s Word, no matter the consequences.  Somehow that makes difficult situations much easier to handle. I love Glen and Mary and my wife Charlotte and I will enjoy an eternity in Heaven with these dear friends.

Dr. Charles Stanley speaking in his sermon about America’s Future says that “Essentially, as a nation we have said, ‘We don’t need You, God.‘”  Dr. Stanley goes on to say that “Man can pass laws legalizing ungodly behavior, but God’s principles don’t change.”

The Bible clearly teaches that it is the Christian’s responsibility to sow what is right, oppose what is wrong, and to leave it up to God to do what is within His Holy will.  This is without regard to what the government legislates.  Doing what is right in the sight of God is not an option … it is a mandate.

As a Christian, are you doing all that you can to oppose the modern-day tragedy of abortion, the scourge of our times?   World War II was the deadliest war in history in terms of the number of military and civilian casualties  with estimates ranging from 50 to 80 million.  That number pales in significance to the 1.3 billion children aborted worldwide since 1980.  Most Christians have stood on the sidelines and let this happen without a whimper.  Many Christians have even bought into the arguments of those supporting “a woman’s right to control her own body.”

Christian, our nation is in grave danger of going the way of Israel and Judah and suffering the “woe” (the condition of deep suffering from misfortune, affliction, grief, ruinous calamity) of God Almighty.  May God help us!

Note:  Listed below I have included some shocking statistics dealing with the USA abortion tragedy that reveal “the rest of the story” on abortion.  You can look them up for yourself at  ABORT73.com.

(The following selected statistics are for USA only)

WHO HAS ABORTIONS?

• In 2009, 85% of all abortions were performed on unmarried women (CDC).
• Women living with a partner to whom they are not married account for 25% of abortions but only about 10% of women in the population (NAF).
• In 2009, 55.3% of abortions were performed on women who had not aborted in the past; 36.6% were performed on women with one or two prior abortions, and 8.1% were performed on women with three or more prior abortions (CDC).
• Among women who obtained abortions in 2009, 40.2% had no prior live births; 46.3% had one or two prior live births, and 13.6% had three or more prior live births (CDC).
• Women between the ages of 20-24 obtained 33% of all abortions in 2009; women between 25-29 obtained 24% (CDC).
• In 2009, women aged 20-29 years had the highest abortion rates (27.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 20-24 years and 20.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 25-29 years) (CDC).
• 50% of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25; women aged 20-24 obtain 33% of all U.S. abortions and teenagers obtain 17% (AGI).
• In 2009, adolescents under 15 years obtained .05% of all abortions, but had the highest abortion ratio, 785 abortions for every 1,000 live births (CDC).
• Black women are more than 4.8 times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.7 times as likely (AGI).
• The abortion rate of non-metropolitan women is about half that of women who live in metropolitan counties (NAF).
• The abortion rate of women with Medicaid coverage is three times as high as that of other women (NAF).
• 37% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 28% identify themselves as Catholic (AGI).
• At current rates, nearly one-third of American women will have an abortion (AGI).

WHY ARE ABORTIONS PERFORMED?

• On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 3/4 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner (AGI).
• Only 12% of women included a physical problem with their health among reasons for having an abortion (NAF).
• One per cent (of aborting women) reported that they were the survivors of rape (NAF).

WHO IS PERFORMING ABORTIONS?

• The number of abortion providers declined by 11% between 1996 and 2000 (from 2,042 to 1,819). It declined another 2% between 2000 and 2005 (from 1,819 to 1,787) It has remained stable between 2005 and 2008 (1,787 to 1,793). (AGI).
• Forty-two percent of providers offer very early abortions (during the first four weeks’ gestation) and 95% offer abortion at eight weeks. Sixty-four percent of providers offer at least some second-trimester abortion services (13 weeks or later), and 20% offer abortion after 20 weeks. Eleven percent of all abortion providers offer abortions past 24 weeks (AGI).
• Most abortions in the USA are provided in freestanding clinics; in 2005, only 5% occurred in hospitals, down from 22% in 1980, and only 2% took place in physician’s offices (NAF).

ABORTION AND MINORS

• 40% of minors having an abortion report that neither of their parents knew about the abortion (AGI).
• 35 states currently enforce parental consent or notification laws for minors seeking an abortion: AL, AR, AZ, CO, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI , MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WV, and WY. The Supreme Court ruled that minors must have the alternative of seeking a court order authorizing the procedure (AGI).

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To read more of more related articles on the topic use the following links:

• America’s Future – Dr. Charles Stanley, In Touch Ministries
• US Abortion Statistics
• US Abortion Clock

Other articles by Jim Davenport related to this topic include:

• Sin’s Earthly Consequences
• When God Has Had Enough
• So Where Is My Choice? A Father’s Day Message on the Sanctity of Life
• On the Sanctity of Life and Abortion
• Lifestyle Choices and Biblical Truth
• On Child Sacrifice
• Let Us Reason Together