The Battle for Life
(Abortion)
I.
Introduction
A.
The worlds
association of scientist decided, that finally they didn’t need God anymore. So
they select one of the scientists to break the news to God. The scientist goes to God and tells him that
they have discovered everything there is concerning the creation of life, and
they just didn’t need him anymore. God tells the scientist, “O.K., show me how
to create life”. The scientist reaches down and gets a hand full of dirt, but
God stops him and says, “GET YOUR OWN DIRT!”
a.
We laugh at
this because we understand that it’s more than just life that God has created.
b.
But it’s
not so funny to consider that this same ridiculous attitude is real!
c.
B.
There
is a great battle for life.
1.
Unfortunately
we are losing the war.
2.
Satan the
great deceiver is convincing the world that life is cheap.
C.
If human
life is devaluated then the next logical step is to accept the destruction of
life as natural and that there is no consequences.
1.
This is
happening NOW!
D.
There is no
greater devaluation of life than through the acts of:
1.
Abortion: Murdering of innocence
children.
2.
Euthanasia: Assisted-murder.
3.
Suicide: self-murder.
E.
Why has the
destruction of life become a viable option to our problems?
1.
The
inconvenience it causes.
2.
the burden
on others.
3.
Depression.
4.
Pride.
5.
The lack of
faith in God.
F.
The cost of
losing is unacceptable to God, for you see He has paid the ultimate price for
our souls.
G.
God's
View of the Value of Life
1.
Created:
Genesis 1.26-27
a.
Then God
said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over
the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth." 27 So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he
created them.
2.
In Him we
live and move and have our being: Acts 17.28
a.
for
"'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own
poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'
3.
God forms
the spirit of man: Zechariah 12.1
a.
The burden
of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord , who
stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man
within him:
H.
Modern
Views of the Value of Life
1.
William
Gaylin, Professor
of Psychiatry and Law at Columbia University.
a.
Told a conference of the American Association
of University Women on February 17, 1972:
1)
"It
used to be easy to know what we wanted for our children, and now the best for
our children might mean deciding which ones to kill" (as quoted in Paul
Marx, 1975).
2.
Joseph
Fletcher of
situation ethics fame.
a.
Suggested
that any individual with an IQ of 20 or less is not a person, and that anyone
with an IQ ranging from 20 to 40 is only marginally so (as quoted in Lygre,
1979, p. 63).
3.
Bentley
Glass
a.
Recently
went on record as stating that:
1)
"no parents will in that future time
have a right to burden society with a malformed or a mentally incompetent
child" (as quoted in Lygre, pp. 68-69).
4.
Francis
Crick, Nobel
laureate
a.
Urged that
"no newborn infant should be declared human until it has passed certain
tests regarding its genetic endowment, and...if it fails these tests, it
forfeits the right to live" (as quoted in Howard and Rifkin, 1977, p. 81).
5.
Leo
Alexander
a.
a man who
had worked for the Chief Counsel for War Crimes after World War II, examined
the initial causes of the Holocaust.
b.
July 14,
1949 New England Journal of Medicine stated:
1)
The
beginnings, he stated, were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in the basic
attitudes of physicians.
c.
It started
with the belief-which is common today in the euthanasia movement-that there is
such a thing as "life not worthy to be lived."
d.
The Nazis
often described the patients that they were killing as "useless
eaters."
e.
Ernst
Wetzler
1)
A doctor who helped start the Nazi killing
mentality.
2)
was the
inventor of an incubator for children born prematurely.
3)
In
commenting on his gruesome acts he called his participation in the murder of
disabled infants in Germany "a small contribution to human progress"
4)
(as quoted in Smith, 2000, p. 43).
6.
Leo
Alexander, just before his death in 1984, warned that these same lethal
attitudes were taking root in this country.
7.
It hardly
is surprising, in light of recent attitudes here in the United States,
8.
Amil
Shamoo Biomedical
ethicist agrees.
a.
He stated: We in the United States don't have
systemic atrocities
b.
we have
compartmentalized atrocities.
c.
But the intellectual underpinnings are the
same as they were once in Germany:
1)
For the
good of science;
2)
Advancement
of knowledge;
3)
The benefit
of society;
4)
The
national interest (as quoted in Smith, p. 47).
I.
Ignorance
sustained by denial is crippling our nation.
J.
This Sunday
we will examine abortion, and next Sunday euthanasia & suicide.
II.
Abortion
A.
Eve
Conceived! Genesis 4.1
1.
Now Adam
knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten
a man with the help of the Lord."
B.
Abortion
defined.
1.
Abortion.
The termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely
followed by the death of the embryo or fetus: as.. a : spontaneous expulsion of
a human fetus during the first 12 weeks of gestation compare MISCARRIAGE
C.
Abortion
Statistics:
1.
Every year
1,000,000 babies are aborted by doctors. (Consequences, 2003)
2.
Since 1973,
43,000,000 babies have been aborted in the United States (Consequences, 2003)
3.
Each year,
about 46,000,000 occur worldwide (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2002).
4.
More than
20% of all babies conceived in the US are killed by abortion (Finer and
Henshaw, 2033, p. 6).
5.
One year
after the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, statistics revealed
that there were more abortions than live births in Washington D.C. itself.
6.
Reasons for
abortion:
Inadequate finances 21%
Not ready for responsibility
21%
Woman’s life would be changed too much 16%
Too young; not mature enough 11%
Children are grown; woman has all she wants 8%
Fetus has possible health problem 3%
Woman has health problem
3%
Pregnancy caused by rape, incest 1%
Other 4%
Average number of reasons given 3.7
a.
They are
focused on self and not the other life.
b.
References
1)
Alan
Guttmacher Institute (2002), "Induced Abortion," [On-line], URL :
http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.pdf
2)
"Consequences
of Roe v. Wade " (2003), National Right to Life, [On-line], URL : http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/pbafacts.html.
3)
Finer,
Lawrence B. and Stanley K. Henshaw (2003), "Abortion Incidence and
Services in the United States in 2000," [On-line], URL : http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/3500603.pdf.
D.
A
significant number of Americans consider abortion to be an acceptable option.
1.
"Politically
correct" agenda of the social liberals for decades.
2.
The highest
court in the land has weighed in on the matter, making abortion legitimate by
means of the power of "the law."
3.
The medical
profession has followed suit, lending its prestige and sanction to the practice
of abortion-in direct violation of the Hippocratic oath.
a.
“I Will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for
it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a
woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my
art.”
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_classical.html)
E.
Scientific
Evidence of life of babies
1.
The baby's
heart starts beating 18-25 days after conception.
2.
By the age
of two months
a.
the heart
beats so strongly that a doctor actually can listen to it with a special
stethoscope.
b.
Brain
activity can be recorded by use of an electroencephalogram.
c.
Brain waves
are readily apparent.
d.
Everything
is "in place"-feet, hands, head, organs, etc.
1)
Upon close
examination, fingerprints are evident.
e.
Though less
than an inch long, the embryo has a head with eyes and ears, a simple digestive
system, kidneys, liver, a heart that beats, a bloodstream of its own, and the
beginning of a brain.
3.
The unborn
child hiccups, sucks his or her thumb, wakes, and sleeps.
4.
The unborn
child responds to touch, pain, cold, sound, and light.
F.
Biblical
Evidence for Life: led to the sl life in the
blood
1.
God's
creation: Ecclesiastes 11.5:
a.
As you do
not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with
child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
1)
bone 6106;
a bone (as strong); by extension, the body; figuratively, the substance, i.e.
(as pron.) selfsame:--body, bone, X life, (self-)same, strength, X very.
2.
We
have life & identity before birth.
a.
Job:
Job 3.11, 13-16; 10.11-12
1)
Job 3.11:
"Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
2)
Job
3.13-16: 13 For then I would have lain
down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the
earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves, 15
or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden
stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
3)
Job
10.11-12: You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones
and sinews. 12 You have granted me life
and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.
b.
David:
Psalm 139.13-16; 51.5
1)
For you
formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I
praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was
being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your
book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as
yet there were none of them.
c.
v. 15)
refers to development in the womb.
d.
Note
pronouns, referring to himself as a live human being.
e.
Psalm
51.5: Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
3.
God
knows us before our birth
a.
Jeremiah
in the womb: Jeremiah 1.4-5
b.
Now the
word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were
born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
c.
Paul
set apart before born: Galatians 1.15
d.
But when he
who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
e.
Isaiah
called from the womb and named: Isaiah 49.1
f.
Listen to
me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me
from the womb; from the body of my mother he named my name.
g.
John
the Baptizer in the womb: Luke 1.41-44
1)
And when
Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42
and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43
And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to
me? 44 For behold, when the sound of
your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
h.
Elizabeth's
pre-born baby is being represented as a living human being.
1)
One with
emotions.
i.
"baby"
used in verses 41 and 44 to refer to the pre-born John is the exact same term
that is used in chapter two to refer to Jesus after His birth as He laid in the
manger (Luke 2:12,16).
j.
So in God's
sight, whether a person is in his or her pre -birth developmental state, or in
a post -birth developmental state, that person is still a baby!
k.
In Luke
1:36, John the Baptist is referred to as "a son" from the very moment
of conception
1.
And behold,
your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is
the sixth month with her who was called barren.
l.
Hosea
speaks of children from time of conception: Hosea 9.11-12
m.
Ephraim's
glory shall fly away like a bird- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up children, I
will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them!
4.
James
observed: "The body apart from the spirit is dead" (2:26).
a.
Consider
the consequence to such a statement.
b.
If the body
is alive, then the spirit must be present.
c.
The babe in
the womb is unquestionably alive.
d.
Thus, the
spirit must be present.
e.
Destruction
of the baby is destruction of that which is living as a result of having been
given a spirit by God.
5.
Accidental
injury of a pregnant woman: Exodus 21.22-25
a.
"When
men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out,
but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's
husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay
life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth
for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25
burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
b.
The text is
envisioning a situation in which two brawling men accidentally injure a
pregnant bystander. The injury causes the woman to go into early labor,
resulting in a premature birth of her child.
c.
If neither
the woman nor the child is harmed, then the Law of Moses levied a fine against
the one who caused the premature birth.
d.
But if
injury or even death resulted from the brawl, then the law imposed a parallel
punishment: if the premature baby died, the one who caused the premature birth
was to be executed-life for life.
e.
This
passage clearly considers the pre-born infant to be a human being, and to cause
a pre-born infant's death was homicide under the Old Testament-homicide
punishable by death.
1)
Scott
Peterson
f.
Notice that
this regulation under the Law of Moses had to do with injury inflicted
accidentally.