Does Carrying Signs Really Save Babies?

Article by Sean DeMars

Topic: Abortion

Most of us have noticed that guy on the side of the road holding
the repent and believe sign. I bet he makes you uncomfortable,
doesnt he? I understand. As someone who has a decent amount
of experience with street evangelism, I still feel a slight twinge
in my chest when I see that guy. Maybe its because Ive seen it
done wrong so many times. Or, maybe its because hes out there
doing something I should be doing. So, rather than thank the
Lord for the work hes doing, I find a way to pick it apart to ease my conscience.

Another possibility is that Im more gifted at relational evangelism, and the good ol fashion preaching of
repentance and faith in the town square is too far out of my comfort zone and skill set for me to appreciate its
value. Either way, I think we need that guy. Evangelism is both-and, not either-or. Theres no need for
juxtaposition here; we can love and appreciate both approaches, so long as they are being done well.

What about the people holding up signs outside of abortion clinics? The signs read Babies Are Murdered
Here. While you likely agree with the words on the signs as you drive by the people holding them, perhaps
they make you feel uncomfortable. Is this the best way to stop abortion? Does it actually work? And even if
it does, is there not perhaps a more efficient way to use our time, talents, and treasures to save babies?

We Are at War
I was a combat medic in the US Army. From 2009 to 2010, I was in Mosul, Iraq. Bombs blasted on a daily
basis, mortars fell on our base, and the sound of machine guns was an ever-present, ambient reality. When we
think about war, those are usually the things we think of guns and grenades, tanks and tears, blood and
bullets. But war is so much more than that.

War is espionage men going about in the shadows collecting data and planting false information. War is
psychological and spiritual sending out good will agents to win the hearts and minds of the people in the land
we are destroying. And yes, war is blood and bullets and boots on the ground fighting. We need all of those
things taking place if we want to have any chance of winning in the end. The war must be fought on every front.

My four-year-old daughter asked me where I was going the other day as I grabbed my megaphone and headed
towards the car. Im going to try to save babies from people who would do them harm, my love.

People want to hurt babies, daddy?

Yes, my love. Very bad people want to hurt babies. But your daddy, like Jesus, loves those babies very much,
and is going to go fight to save them.

Are you going to kill the bad men with your sword daddy?

I have a sword, my love, but its not like the sword youre thinking of. And I dont have to kill them, for they
are already dead. The sword that daddy uses, Lord willing, might bring them back to life.

Make no mistake, brothers, we are at war. And much like the Cold War of days gone by, this war has no
battlefront. But we still need boots on the ground.

We need wise men and women to work in our legal systems in order to bring about legislative change that will
protect the lives of the unborn. We need communities saturated with the gospel to make a social impact in the
poverty stricken neighborhoods where abortion clinics tend to thrive. We need adoption agencies and families
who are willing to adopt or foster unwanted children. We need crisis pregnancy centers, sonogram machines on
wheels, and abortion education and awareness programs. But, we also need people with megaphones and
Babies Are Murdered Here signs.

Boots on the Ground

We need people with boots on the ground, who will stand at the door of these death mills and proclaim the truth
to these women (and the men who may have brought them), as they walk the one hundred feet from their cars to
the front door of the clinic. We need people standing on the sidewalk screaming Please, dont do this! Thats a
human being in your belly! They will kill your baby! Please, come talk to us, we will help you do whatever it
takes to raise that baby; well even adopt him or her, but oh God, whatever you do, dont go in that building and
let them kill your baby!

We need weeping prophets, people who will cry as they see the mother of a freshly aborted baby walk to their
car, broken and ashamed, having just committed a terrible crime against God and her child. We need someone to
offer hope; to tell them that guilt doesnt have to be the last word, and that Christ can heal them and forgive
them, even after an abortion. We need someone to cry out to the doctors, nurses, and aids in the abortion clinics,
proclaiming the truth that they are like the men of Ezekiel 22:12, who take bribes to shed blood, . . . take
interest and profit and make gain of [their] neighbors by extortion.

Uniquely Gifted
You dont have to go out and hold signs or preach on the sidewalks. You can pray. You can get involved in the
legal system. You can volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center. You can open up your home and display the gospel
of God to the world by adopting a child. God has made you with your own unique set of talents, abilities and
characteristics. Use them in whatever way you can to fight the fight against abortion.

As you do so, dont look down on your brother or sister standing in front of the death mill, sign in hand,
preaching with all their might. Pray for them, because what they are doing is a hard thing, but it is good. They
are our last line of defense, standing a few steps from the front door, in a war where the only ones who die are
babies.

Sean DeMars (@seandemars) is a father, husband, artist, and child of God. Sean and his family
served three years in the jungles of Peru, taking the gospel to the unreached people groups
there. Sean is currently finishing up his degree in Biblical Counseling at Boyce College

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/does-carrying-signs-really-save-babies

God Was Placed in a Womb

Why Abortion Is So Grievous

Article by Mark Jones

Topic: Abortion

In death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? (Psalm 6:5)
 Jesus, the Lord of glory (James 2:1), the beautiful and glorious
one (Isaiah 4:2), the radiance of Gods glory (Hebrews 1:3), full
of grace and truth (John 1:14) is the person for whom God does
all things. Everything was created for Christ (Colossians 1:16).

This truth must be where we begin and end any biblically

grounded discussion on a question of morality.

On a recent trip to Chile, I was able to have lunch with a

presidential candidate, a senator known as a conservative, particularly on the issue of abortion. We had a chance
to share with one another our perspectives on abortion, and he led off with a remarkably eloquent defense of the
pro-life position. Now it was my turn what was I to say that he had not already heard and read?

Most Precious to God

I asked the senator, What is the most precious thing to God in the universe? Instead of answering, he waited
for me to continue.

I said, The Son of God, Jesus, is the most precious thing to God in the whole universe. And where did God
place his most precious possession? In a womb.

God did not send his Son to earth in the form of a grown man to live and die for our sins. Instead, God began
with conception in the womb of the virgin Mary. The safest place in the world for Jesus was his mothers womb.
God so values the womb that he put his beloved Son there.

Perhaps we fail to grasp how incredible this truth is. God was placed in a womb. It is as shocking as the truth
that God lay in a tomb (in both places he was given physical and spiritual life). Killing children in the womb is
therefore tantamount to entering a safety zone created by God and ransacking the things he loves most.

Robbing God of Glory

God loves the womb of a woman. He created the womb for his Son to dwell in at the most vulnerable stage of
his earthly life. By extension, God has done the same for each of us. The womb is Gods designated place of
safety, but now it has become, tragically, the most unsafe place in the world.

God also created the womb as the place from which he would bring people into the world for his Son
(Colossians 1:16). When an unborn child is killed, it is not just a sin against God but also a sin against Christs
glory. Why? Because that eternal soul will never have the opportunity to glorify Christ in this world.

Each abortion potentially robs Christ of an embodied, living worshiper the kind God seeks to glorify both
himself and his Son. Abortion is so wrong because it robs God of his highest prerogative in this world: a
creature made in the image of Christ who worships God by the Spirit.

If theres anything that should grieve us about abortion and there are many things it should be that Christ
has been robbed of his glory.

We want children to have life. But more than that, we want children to have life in Christ the life he came to
offer by entering this world in the womb of a virgin.

Pastor Mark Jones (@MarkJonesPCA) is the senior minister of Faith Vancouver Presbyterian Church and
author of Knowing Christ (2015). He is working on a new book, due out in 2017, God Is: A Devotional Guide
to the Attributes of God.

Seven Reasons Men Have a Right to Speak Out

Against Abortion
 Article by Daniel Hoffman

Topic: Abortion

In the fight over abortion, some claim that men have no right to
an opinion on the matter. This is about a womans choice and
health, they say; men have no grounds to speak into the issue
like women.

However, from a biblical standpoint, such a claim lacks

foundation. Moral duty is not an arbitrary social construct but based on Gods commands and character, and the
judgments we must make based on these have nothing to do with whether we are male or female. If abortion
qualifies as murder (and it does), then men and women alike have a responsibility to oppose it. To refrain from
having an opinion on the matter is not an option.

In todays society, the surface-level emotional appeal of this argument is understandable. It appeals to our sense
of tolerance, liberty, and minding ones own business. Dig any deeper, though, and the sentiment falls flat. Even
without explicit reference to biblical reality, there are good reasons why men should have a say when it comes
to public policy on abortion. Here are seven reasons why men have a right to speak out and should not
capitulate into silence.

1. Men bear an enormous part of the responsibility for creating an

abortion culture.
Negligent men/fathers are a huge factor behind the astronomical abortion rates, and so part of male public
repentance must involve speaking against and shouldering much of the responsibility for abortion. Men have a
role to play in abortion, at least insofar as their failure to commit to and support the children they have fathered
drive many women to feel as though abortion is their only option. These men should repent and show the fruit
of repentance by opposing abortion and caring for their children and the mothers of their children.

2. We were all once in the womb.

Men are not simply male. Their maleness is only one aspect of their being. They are also human: fathers,
sons, brothers, children, adults, and former infants. It is unclear why this one aspect of maleness should trump
other aspects, which may be relevant. For example, all males were once infants in utero. All males were once
potential victims of abortion, and many abortion victims are, in fact, male. Why should these realities not impart
to men a right to speak on the matter? Why should it only be that their maleness precludes them?

3. Every aborted child has a father.

A child is an extension of the father as well as of the mother. This is true objectively and scientifically as it
concerns the source of genetics and DNA, and it is recognized socially and legally with regard to last names,
dependence, custody, inheritance, and in other ways. The Bible assumes and affirms this reality as well (Genesis
5:3; Genesis 44:30; Micah 6:7). The child to be aborted is not an isolated unit but the fruit of both a mother and
a father. Surely the father should have some say in what happens to the baby.

4. We are part of a society that is being deprived, annually, of

hundreds of thousands of people.
Human life never exists in a vacuum, we are inherently social beings in relationship with each other. Over fifty
million babies have been aborted in America since 1973 close to a sixth of the American population. There is
inherent value and dignity in each of these individuals, and it is mind-boggling to think of all the potential
contributions to society and culture that this lack represents. If society generally is of public concern (and
clearly it is), then men should have some say on whether such massive numbers of those coming into it should
simply be snuffed out, or allowed to participate.
5. Taking a human life is always a public issue to some degree
(homicide, manslaughter, war, capital punishment). There is no good
reason why abortion should be different.
If abortion is indeed the taking of a human life, that fact demands a judgment from society at large. Taking a
human life may involve homicide, which demands public trial and accountability before civil authorities. It may
be negligent manslaughter, which likewise demands public evaluation and judgment. It may be war, which
requires a declaration by public authority. It may be capital punishment, which is a public, civil penalty. It may
be pure accident, which still calls for some kind of third-party determination to discern.

In any case, taking a human life can never be a purely private matter, and there is no good reason to restrict men
from taking part in judgment on it.

6. Part of masculinity is speaking for the vulnerable.

Our society today will be less persuaded by appeals to masculinity. More and more the whole idea of
masculine is seen as an arbitrary gender construct. This is an important issue in its own right, but at the very
least, we should be able to agree that the stronger should protect the weaker. None are so weak as those in the
womb, and so common decency (chivalry, some may call it) calls for their protection from any who are able
including men.

7. Possession of a uterus has zero to do with making moral judgments.

A final point to consider is that the objection that men have no right to speak against abortion because they
dont have a uterus is completely arbitrary. What relevance does that have? How does having or not having a
uterus affect ones ability to make valid moral judgments?

Sin finds refuge in unreason. The claim that men should refrain from condemning abortion for what it is simply
because they are male is not a reasonable claim. Its rather a facade, which can appear enlightened at first
glance, but is, in fact, a refusal to honor God and his image in man and darkens the understanding (Romans
1:21).

Daniel Hoffman teaches history and Bible at Cherokee Christian School in Woodstock, GA. He
graduated with an MDiv in 2012 from Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, MS).

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-was-placed-in-a-womb

We Know They Are Killing ChildrenAll of

Us Know

Article by John Piper

Topic: Abortion
 One biblical principle of justice is that the more knowledge we
have that our action is wrong, the more guilty we are, and the
more deserving of punishment (Luke 12:4748). The point of
this blog post is that we know what we are doing all
America knows. We are killing children. Pro-choice and Pro-
life people both know this.

But before I show that, lets clarify what the Supreme Court did
forty years ago today. In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court in
effect made abortion on demand untouchable by law. The way
this was done was with two steps.

One step was to say, laws may not prevent abortion, even during the full nine months, if the abortion is to
preserve the life or health of the mother. The other step was to define health as all factors physical,
emotional, psychological, familial and the woman's age relevant to the well-being of the patient.

For forty years this has meant that any perceived stress is a legal ground for eliminating the child. We have
killed fifty million babies. And what increases our guilt as a nation is that we know what we are doing. Heres
the evidence that we know we are killing children.

1. Anecdotally, abortionists will admit they are killing children.

Many simply say it is the lesser of two evils. I took an abortionist out to lunch once, prepared to give him ten
reasons why the unborn are human beings. He stopped me, and said, I know that. We are killing children. I
was stunned. He said, Its simply a matter of justice for women. It would be a greater evil to deny women the
equal right of reproductive freedom. Which means women should be no more encumbered by the
consequences of an unplanned pregnancy than men. That equal freedom from the burden of bearing unwanted
children is the basis for abortion that President Obama refers to again and again when he talks about equal
rights for women. We know we are killing children.

2. States treat the killing of the unborn as a homicide.

We know what we are doing because 38 States (including Minnesota) treat the killing of an unborn child as a
form of homicide. They have what are called fetal homicide laws.

It is illegal to take the life of the unborn if the mother wants the baby, but it is legal to take the life of the unborn
if she doesnt. In the first case the law treats the fetus as a human with rights; in the second case the law treats
the fetus as non-human with no rights.

Humanness is defined by the desire of the strong. Might makes right. We reject this right to define personhood
in the case of Nazi anti-Semitism, Confederate race-based slavery, and Soviet Gulags. When we define the
humanness of the unborn by the will of the powerful we know what we are doing.

3. Fetal surgery treats the unborn as children and patients.

High risk pregnancy specialist, Dr. Steve Calvin, in a letter some years ago to the Arizona Daily Star, wrote,
There is inescapable schizophrenia in aborting a perfectly normal 22 week fetus while at the same hospital,
performing intra-uterine surgery on its cousin. When the unborn are wanted, they are treated as children and
patients. When they are not wanted, they are not children. We know what we are doing.

4. Being small does not disqualify personhood.

The five-foot-eight frame of a teenage son guarantees him no more right to life than the 23-inch frame of his
little sister in her mother's arms. Size is morally irrelevant. One inch, 23 inches, 68 inches does not matter. It
is morally irrelevant in deciding who should be protected. We know what we are doing in killing the smallest.

5. Not having developed reasoning does not disqualify personhood.

A one-month-old infant, nursing at his mother's breast, does not have reasoning powers. But only a few dare
argue that infanticide is therefore acceptable. Most know better. Outside and inside the womb the infant cannot
yet reason, but is a human person. We know what we are doing.

6. Being in the womb does not disqualify human personhood.

Location or environment does not determine a right to life. Scott Klusendorf asks, How does a simple journey
of seven inches down the birth canal suddenly transform the essential nature of the fetus from non-person to
person? We know what we are doing.

7. Being dependent on mommy does not disqualify personhood.

We consider persons on respirators or dialysis to be human beings. The unborn cannot be disqualified from
human personhood because they are dependent on their mother for food and oxygen. In fact, we operate on the
exact opposite principle: The more dependent a little one is on us, the more responsibility we feel to protect
him, not the less. We know what we are doing.

(Those last four observations, #4-7, were summed up by Scott Klusendorf under the acronym SLED: Size,
Level of development, Environment, Degree of dependence none is morally relevant for the definition of
human life.)

8. The genetic make up of humans is unique.

The genetic make up of a human is different from all other creatures from the moment of conception. The
human code is complete and unique from the start. Once that was not known. Now we know.

9. All the organs are present at eight weeks of gestation.

At eight weeks of gestation all the organs are present. The brain is functioning, the heart pumping, the liver
making blood cells, the kidney cleaning the fluids, the finger has a print. Yet almost all abortions happen later
than this date. We know what we are doing.

10. We have seen the photographs.

The marvel of ultrasound has given a stunning window into the womb that shows the unborn, for example, at 8
weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. Watch this four-minute video of the
developing unborn child. We know that they are children.

11. When two rights conflict, the higher value should be protected.
We know the principle of justice that when two legitimate rights conflict, the right that protects the higher value
should prevail. We deny the right to drive at 100 miles per hour because the value of life is greater than the
value of being on time or getting thrills. The right of the unborn not to be killed and the right of a woman not to
be pregnant may be at odds. But they are not equal rights. Staying alive is more precious and more basic than
not being pregnant. We know what we are doing when we kill a child.

For Christians who believe the Bible, we could add at least ten more reasons why we know what is happening
in abortion, and why it is wrong. But the aim here is threefold.

1. To make clear that we will not be able to defend ourselves with the claim of ignorance. We knew. All of
us.

2. To solidify our conviction to resist this horrific evil.

3. To intensify our prayer and our preaching toward gospel-based soul-renovation in our land, because
hardness of heart, not ignorance, is at the root of this carnage.
John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College &
Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is
author of more than 50 books, including A Peculiar Glory.

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/we-know-they-are-killing-children-all-of-us-know

Why I Was Not Pro-Life

Article by Kristin Tabb

Topic: Abortion

True confession: I was not truly pro-life until recently.

Although I was disturbed by the reports I heard regarding

abortion its methods, its victims, its very nature, its utter
disregard for the dignity of human life I did relatively
little to actually be pro-life, from the heart, with my hands and
feet and mouth and money. Until God graciously opened my eyes.

First, I read Uncle Toms Cabin and saw the demoralizing effects that treating people as property can have on an
entire society, as the leaven of sin works its way in so thoroughly that consciences begin to dull.

Then I watched the movie Selma and realized that during the Civil Rights Movement (of which most
conservative Christians today heartily approve), the conservative white church was relatively absent. (The
forerunners of the Civil Rights Movement were typically theological liberals.)

Next, enter an increasing awareness of the tortuous effects of abortion on babies, and women, through the
videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress, and I had to recognize that in the midst of this veritable
holocaust, I was making history in absentia by saying and doing nothing. Why?

This Is Our Problem

I was awakening to the fact that I had been asleep in the same way those living in the countryside of
Germany during World War II were asleep to what was happening in the nearby concentration camps. And yet
the problem wasnt that I didnt know. It was that I didnt particularly care. Abortion was a big problem, sure,
but it wasnt my big problem. I didnt see it as my responsibility to be part of the solution.

In 1945, pastor Martin Niemller wrote,

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didnt speak up because I wasnt a Communist. Then
they came for the Jews, and I didnt speak up because I wasnt a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didnt speak up because I wasnt a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didnt speak up
because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

We bear a moral responsibility toward one another as human beings. While most of us agree intellectually, far
too often we stop short of allowing this knowledge to change us.

When Tolerance Breeds Fear

In a society where tolerance is regarded as the reigning virtue, this thought process is not terribly difficult to
understand. That I believe a moral action is wrong does not give me grounds to interfere in any way with others
who may make a different choice, so goes the line of thought. It can become an easy excuse for disengagement
with others, both personally and in the public square.
This disengagement can be an easy breeding ground for fear. As we distance ourselves, we know less and less
of the other until we feel we are so unalike that we really have nothing to offer that could be of benefit. We
feel that unless we have an opportunity to thoroughly understand the other, we really have no place to speak
into the public square, or to reach out in personal relationship. Or perhaps we do try and are rebuffed. We
disengage further, afraid to appear as if we are making judgment calls on those unlike us, whose lives seem so
different than ours.

We fear being perceived as judgmental in a culture of tolerance. We worry we may unwittingly wound others
who have suffered with what we say or do if we speak truthfully or stand outside the clinic, so we stay silent
and keep to ourselves. We want to look approachable. The result is that we find ourselves lacking opportunities
to speak words of honesty, hope, and redemption to struggling women, even while others outside our circles
begin to speak up in agreement with the very views we are afraid to voice.

That is the by-product of such so-called tolerance, but the Living Word calls me, as a disciple of Christ, to
higher ground. Love your neighbor as yourself. It is not our cultures idea of tolerance, but rather love that I
am seeking, because I myself have been loved (1 John 4:19).

Love Enough to Cover

My God got messy, was broken, laid out, because of his great love for me (1 John 4:10). He engaged with me,
when I had no desire for him, when I was in fact his enemy (Romans 5:8). He suffered on my behalf, that I
might live with him joyfully forever (1 Peter 2:24). He rose that in him I might rise to life everlasting (John
6:40). He interceded for me when I had no choices, no options, and no way out of my sin. He intercedes for me
still (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).

How deep and how wide and long and how high is his love? It is so great that we will never know the half of it
this pursuing, eager, leaning in, reaching out, lifting up, intercessory type of love. This gospel love is so far-
reaching that it covers my faltering attempts as I engage.

Because of this great love, I can love my neighbor in the way I would desire to be loved if I were scared and
alone and felt I had no other options.

I can pray really pray for my unborn neighbor, because Gods heart beats for the voiceless and
unprotected.

I can speak the truth in love in the public square, engaged, with a smile, leaning in, listening, and responding to
the concerns and differing thoughts of real people.

I can stand outside the clinic and intercede, both in prayer and with words and literature, offering to those who
want it, as well as those who dont, an opportunity to miss out on a potentially devastating decision.

I can give generously of my time and money to individuals in need and organizations that will support their life-
giving choices.

I can take a few minutes to engage with my government regarding my unborn neighbors and their parents,
believing with all my heart that every life is valuable and that God himself wields the gavel and holds the clock,
while I am free to simply speak the truth in love to those with ears to hear and I never know who they may
be. People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

I can consider foster care or adoption as ways for my life to say that no child is ever truly unwanted.

I am learning to be pro-life.

Kristin, her husband Brian, and their three children make their home in the Twin Cities, where her husband
teaches at Bethlehem College and Seminary.

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-i-was-not-pro-life

The Blind Eyes of Abortion

 Article by John Knight

Topic: Abortion

The human eyeball is an amazing creation. More than 120

million photoreceptor cells help us see. Some of those
photoreceptor cells even help us sleep. An evolutionary scientist,
writing in the journal Neuroscience, describes it as an
exquisitely complicated organ.

Volumes of poetry have been written about eyes and the sublime
experience of looking into the eyes of a lover. The bridegroom in
the Song of Solomon refers to his brides eyes several times: Behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves
(Song of Solomon 1:15).

And when it is violently ripped from the body of a baby, apparently it makes some people laugh, as it did during
a panel discussion at the National Abortion Foundations Annual Meeting on April 7, 2014. An eyeball just fell
down into my lap, and that is gross! But, I say to myself, this abortion is going well and is going safely . . . The
rest of the sentence is unclear as the audience erupts in laughter.

Like most who have seen the video, I was sickened and offended by the reaction of so-called medical
professionals to the cruel destruction of a baby. But it went deeper than that for me personally.

You see, my oldest son was born without eyes. It is a rare condition, and many people will go their entire lives
without meeting someone like him. And his lacking of eyes didnt just make him blind. He needed multiple
surgeries because of how our eyes impact our cranial-facial development. His sleep, like many who are totally
blind, runs in some pretty difficult patterns. The eye is important beyond its primary function.

I longed for him to have eyes.

So, the abortionists light-hearted comment about an eyeball opened up memories of deep personal
disappointment and hurt. For years, I perceived my sons disability as causing useless pain, and my own hurt as
having no purpose.

Then God opened my spiritually blind eyes and began to help me see the truth: We are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them
(Ephesians 2:10).

The intimate knitting together of little ones in the womb (Psalm 139:13), including those with disabilities
(Exodus 4:11), points directly to a great purpose. We are not just his workmanship, which is incredible in itself.
We were created for good works prepared by God himself!

And even suffering has an eternal, good purpose: This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal
weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are
unseen (2 Corinthians 4:1718).

In light of that eternity, abortion is an insane practice. Abortion, rather than being a solution to difficult
circumstances, leads only to physical or spiritual death for those involved.

Yet its defenders, blinded by the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), persist in believing their own lies. For
decades we were told that abortion was nothing more than removing cells from a womans body, and more
recently that an unborn child isnt really a person and doesnt feel pain. Today we see that some abortionists
profit twice, first by selling the abortion procedure and again by selling the body parts of the child they just
killed. These are all evidences of spiritual blindness coming from Satan himself.

I also feel deep pity for the abortionists and their defenders. They will be without excuse when they stand before
King Jesus. Someday, abortion will end. But a life of unrepentant slaughter of little children will result in
eternal, painful consequences beyond anything light-hearted.
It is tragically ironic that their laughing response to a slaughtered babys eyeball reveals their own utter
blindness. In Gods spectacular grace, may it also reveal the power of Christ. Pray that the eyes of their hearts
(Ephesians 1:18) would be opened to their desperate need for Jesus and his surpassing greatness.

The killing ends when heart-eyes are opened and stony hearts, which champion abortion, are turned to flesh
(Ezekiel 36:26) and find the practice unthinkable.

John Knight is Director of Donor Partnerships at Desiring God. He is married to Dianne, and
together they parent their four children: Paul, Hannah, Daniel, and Johnny. Paul lives with
multiple disabilities including blindness, autism, cognitive impairments, and a seizure disorder.
John writes on issues of disability, the Bible, and the church at The Works of God.

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-blind-eyes-of-abortion

Living the American Nightmare

Article by Jonathan Parnell

Topic: Abortion

The crying woke me up again.

With that classic newborn sound, working itself into a cadence,

my sons callow voice finally punched through my snoring to tell
me he wants breakfast. I reached over for my phone to check the
time oh, a news update a bomb in Baghdad has just killed
dozens.

I wiped the sleep from my eyes. Time to enter back into the nightmare.

But its not the nightmare of violence in the Middle East, or the generic nightmare of life in a fallen world. Im
talking specifically about the American Nightmare the one where millions of us are murdered, and their body
parts are sold for profit, all by an organization our government keeps saying we should appreciate.

We know ISIS is sadistic, but at least its over there we embarrassingly assure ourselves. Nightmares, on
the other hand, have proximity. Nightmares are horrors brought home, in our heads, at our doors, standing by
our kitchen sinks.

Its possible, I suppose, that I could doze off and have a bad dream of a middle-aged abortionist, as wide-eyed
as Cruella de Vil, driving a yellow Lamborghini packed tight with the severed limbs and organs of aborted
babies. I suppose I could imagine her speeding recklessly through my hometown, weaving down a well-worn
road I never knew existed, her hands stained with blood as she grips the steering wheel and laughs at how stupid
the rest of us are.

I suppose I could fall into a terror like that in my sleep, but I havent, and I dont have to.
We can find enough horror like that when were awake, here in the American Nightmare.

What Was That?

Humanity has long seen depravity, but weve not all seen nightmares like this the Millennial generation
hasnt anyway. Worldwide atrocities abound, but none are this appalling and socially defended. None are this
close; none this loud. Its the difference between watching fireworks on the Fourth of July, and then suddenly
hearing an explosion in our backyards. One is to be expected, if were paying attention, but the other makes us
all jump and ask in a panic, What in the world was that?

So we tiptoe around for a bit, and then carefully crack the blinds to see whos there. But thats when we see an
image of ourselves standing in our backyards, loving what we love, doing what we do, or not loving and doing
what we dont love and do. Thats when we figure out were actually living in this nightmare, which is partly
what makes it a nightmare, and partly what confuses us about what to do next.

We may share a few articles on Facebook. We may drop a few outrage tweets, sign a couple petitions, perhaps
even email a government official. We get angry, scratch our heads, and then, well, just do those same things all
over again. Meanwhile, blood is still spilt and an intact liver just went for $75.

Our Own Gods

Now we have seven videos, and in case you havent figured it out, most people dont seem to care.

We still want them to care, and we still take immediate action. Keep reading, sharing, tweeting, and emailing.
Keep calling this what it is. And get ready for the long-haul, because nightmares like this dont change
overnight.

Beyond our immediate actions, which are necessary, there is the upstream warfare for the human soul, which is
also necessary. In fact, its our abdication or past incompetence in that part of the river which has led to
this trickling down of sewage, recognized in part as our general ambivalence toward butchered babies.
Something else, at some other point, has captured the American soul, and therefore, something else has formed
our imaginations.

Secularism is the all-caps title for what that something is. It means life reconstructed with the contrived absence
of God. More specifically, its what Charles Taylor calls expressive individualism, and most of us have
bought in, to some degree. Its that way of seeing the world which believes, as Taylor writes,

each one of us has his/her own way of realizing our humanity, and that it is important to find and live out ones
own, as against surrendering to conformity with a model imposed on us from the outside, by society, or the
previous generation, or religious or political authority. (A Secular Age, 475)

In other words, we are our own gods, and we want everyone to know it. Whether it means our sexuality, or our
sense of fashion, or the stickers we put on the back of our cars, we get to define who we are. Everyone is
screaming at everyone else to take notice at how different they are from the others screaming. Thats the Kool-
aid weve been served, and everybodys been drinking.

If Were Awake
We have mistaken this kind of individualism or underdetermined personhood, you might call it as
freedom. No restrictions. Optional responsibility. Endless choices. I do what I want to do which includes, of
course, the right for a woman to execute another human being growing inside her. We are our own gods,
remember, and that means we decide the kind of selves we want to be, which sometimes requires a little murder
here or a little murder there.

Saddest of all is that, as a society, we thought this was the ticket to happiness. We thought this kind of autonomy
meant living the good life. But its not, and eventually everyone will know its not.

And thats what we must keep saying.

We must keep pointing out the absurdity of it all, and we must expose this empty promise of pleasure for the
sham that it is. Trying to be our own gods is pandemonium, literally, and killing our children wont bring the
happiness we crave, no matter what Molech says.

We must speak the light of truth into the darkness, and then hold up a better way. We must return upstream and
fight again for the soul. This is a hedonistic war, after all, and there is a happiness deeper than what we can
manufacture for ourselves, a happiness of which far too many have yet to hear.

So we have work to do in this American Nightmare, and if were awake, the crying wont let us sleep for long.

Jonathan Parnell (@jonathanparnell) is the lead pastor of Cities Church in Minneapolis/St. Paul, where he lives
with his wife, Melissa, and their five children. He is co-editor of Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts
Men and Women, Identity and Practice.

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/living-the-american-nightmare

Is Abortion a Human Right?

By Susan Milligan | Staff Writer Dec. 2, 2015, at 5:10 p.m.

A protester holds a sign in Northern Ireland in 2012. A judge's

ruling this week could ease the country's abortion's
restrictions, which are among the strictest in Europe. Peter
Muhly/AFP/Getty Images

The abortion wars in America are typically cast as a battle

between choice and life, with one side arguing that a woman's
decision about her own body is paramount, and the other, that a
developing baby's life trumps all.

But in Northern Ireland where abortion laws are among the strictest in Europe a judge has attached new
rhetoric to the procedure: human rights. And Amnesty International, which argued for the change in policy,
hopes the limited ruling issued earlier this week will lead to a new approach to the issue in the law and in public
opinion. Women's rights, says Tarah Demant, senior director of the Identity and Discrimination Unit for
Amnesty International USA, ought to be seen as human rights.

"It's a sad statement that human rights have not become extremely politicized," with both political parties in the
U.S. working to advance human rights around the world. Instead, "women's rights have been politicized. That's
an indictment of our political climate here," she says.

The British parliament passed a law in 1967, The Abortion Act, which made the procedure legal up to 28 weeks'
gestation. But the law did not extend to Northern Ireland, even though it is part of the United Kingdom. Until
the decision this week by a Belfast judge, abortion in Northern Ireland was legal only to save the life and health
(including the mental health) of the pregnant woman or girl. Those who perform illegal abortions face up to life
in prison, while the patients can be sentenced to 14 years behind bars.

In his ruling this week, judge Mark Horner bemoaned the lack of action by Northern Ireland legislators, and
said denying abortions to female who are victims of rape or incest or who are carrying fetuses with fatal
abnormalities represented a "gross interference with her personal autonomy." Further, he said, the law violated
the European Convention on Human Rights, which stipulates baseline rights for signatory nations.

"In the case of a [fatal fetal abnormality], there is no life to protect. When the fetus leaves the womb, it cannot
survive independently. It is doomed. There is no life to protect," Horner ruled.

Ann Scheidler, vice president of the Chicago-based antiabortion group Pro-Life Action League, says the notion
of human rights has been terribly twisted in the Northern Ireland case, ignoring, she says, the rights of the child-
to-be.
"It is a sad fact that courts in both the United States and in European countries do not consider the unborn child
a human being worthy of protection under the Human Rights provisions of the various nations," Scheidler
remarks. "The courts have chosen to take these children's dignity away by rulings that permit the killing of the
child either because he does not reach a particular bar of health or development or because his father is a
criminal. This is grossly unfair. The life of a child in the womb should be protected by laws aimed at preserving
human rights."

The Republic of Ireland has its own ban on abortion, with the procedure allowed only when the female's life is
threatened (including being at risk of suicide). That has led at least 163,514 women and girls, between January
1980 and December 2014, to travel to another country to get an abortion, according to the Irish Family Planning
Association. Those numbers are likely underreported, the group says, since patients may claim UK residence to
get the procedure paid for by the National Health Service, or may hide their Irish addresses for privacy reasons.

The Belfast ruling does not ease the law in neighboring Republic of Ireland, but theoretically might make it less
onerous for an Irish woman to travel for an abortion, says Gemma Murphy of the Royal College of Midwives.
But "it's a huge cultural and professional change for midwives and women in Northern Ireland," Murphy says.
"Midwives in Northern Ireland have said they will now be able to treat pregnant women with the 'appropriate
care and support' without fear of prosecution, following this landmark ruling."

Amnesty International clarified its position on abortion in 2007, Demant says, to say that the procedure should
be decriminalized and allowed when a female's health or human rights are in danger. The group did not endorse
universal access to abortion. That announcement drew a rebuke from the Vatican, which urged followers not to
contribute to Amnesty International anymore.

In the United States, pro-abortion rights activists have not pushed the "human rights" moniker, largely because
all American states, while having varying abortion laws, meet the base standard advocates want for abortion
rights.

But abortion rights supporters are asking for another politically loaded phrase to be added to the debate:
domestic terrorism. Several reproductive rights groups have asked the Department of Justice to conduct a
"domestic terrorism" investigation of the recent incident in Colorado springs, where a man is accused of
opening fire in a Planned Parenthood clinic, killing three and wounding nine people.

"We're hoping the investigation will not only bring justice [in] this specific shooting .. but also reframe the way
we talk about these atrocities in our society," Ilyse Hogue, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told
reporters in a conference call.

Planned Parenthood is under fire on Capitol Hill, where mostly Republican lawmakers are seeking to deprive
the family planning clinic of federal funds after videos highly edited, Planned Parenthood says show a group
official discussing the price for the transport of fetal tissue to research centers. Under existing law, no federal
funds can be used for abortions, but critics say the videos show criminal activity selling human body parts
by Planned Parenthood, a charge the group vehemently denies.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed last month to hear its first major abortion case since 2007, a challenge to
a Texas law that requires, among other things, that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at
nearby hospitals. Foes of the law say it places too onerous a burden on doctors, greatly limiting access to
abortion.

Susan Milligan Staff Writer

Susan Milligan is a political and foreign affairs writer and contributed to a biography of the late Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy, "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy." Follow her on Twitter: @MilliganSusan

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/12/02/is-abortion-a-human-right

VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H50KC3C0ok&feature=youtu.be
Why Is Abortion Wrong?
Do You Know?

Since 1973, more than 56 million preborn babies have been destroyed due to the legalization of abortion in the
United States. Thats more people than the entire population of Spain.

Given the current abortion rate, 1 baby is aborted every 30 seconds and 120 babies are aborted every hour. That
means that by the time you finish reading one of our anti abortion articles dozens more preborn babies will be
lost. And thats just in the United States. The volume of death represented by abortion is staggering.

Abortion is killing on a genocidal scale.

Abortion Kills Mothers

The procedure of abortion is highly unregulated compared with other invasive medical procedures. The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention reports [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6311a1.htm?
s_cid=ss6311a1_w] that from 1973 to 2010 over 400 women who underwent legal abortions in the U.S. were
killed by the procedure. You may read our abortion articles to learn more.

Dr. Janet Daling and her colleagues conducted a study funded by the National Cancer Institute to explore the
connection between abortion and breast cancer. They found [http://www.aaplog.org/position-and-papers/partial-
birth-abortion/aaplog-statement-on-the-association-of-induced-abortion-and-the-subsequent-development-of-
breast-cancer/] that a womans risk of developing breast cancer was 50% higher if she had had an abortion. If a
woman had had an abortion in her teenage years, then the risk was 100% higher. Get more details on the
abortion-breast cancer link from our articles on abortion.

Clearly, if the number of women who have lost their lives to breast cancer that developed as a consequence of a
past abortion were included among maternal deaths owing to legal abortion, the death toll for mothers who
choose to terminate their pregnancies would be much higher.

http://www.abortionno.org/abortion-articles/

10 Reasons Why Abortion is Evil & Not a "Pro-Choice"

By TFP Student Action

Since the legalization of abortion in 1973, over 57 million unborn children have been killed, more than the
entire population of Spain. That's 155 babies per hour. About 1 every 24 seconds.

By the time you finish reading this article, 4 or 5 more innocent lives will be lost. Gods plan
for them will be ruined forever.
Can we remain indifferent to such immense human slaughter? NO. So please read the top 10 reasons why
abortion is wrong and must be opposed:

http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/politically-incorrect/abortion/10-reasons-why-abortion-is-evil.html