Sanctity of Life

Open: Parent asking the teen-age student: “have you finished your homework?” The student’s reply: “I finished my essay on the causes of the American Revolution, and I finished my math sheet on quadratic equations.”

Has the student really answered the parent? What if the essay AND the math sheet were due last week? Has the student answered honestly?

Transition: The careful selection of words to present a favorable position while not being entirely truthful has a name. It is called paltering. According to the Merriam - Webster online dictionary the word means to “act insincerely or deceitfully; to equivocate.”

The Bible also has a word for this same condition. The Bible’s word is much more blunt and to the point: it calls it lying. And, according to Biblical standards lying is a sin (Exodus 20:16)

Groups such as Planned Parenthood are masters at paltering. It is even within the name of the organization. It is more than ironic that the nation’s leading provider of abortion services has the word ‘parenthood’ in its name. Now, you won’t hear of PP using the term abortion in public; instead they are the ones promoting pro-choice and staunch defenders of a woman’s right to reproductive health. I mean, really, who would be such a cave-man to stand in the way of women’s rights?

The reality of murder cannot be disguised through the clever choice of words, at least for those who have the eyes to see the truth. The truth is that the culture of death will go to any extreme to protect its ability to continue the deliberate murder of unborn life.

This is a worldview issue of the greatest importance. It is not about opinion polls, swaying public opinion, and the buying off of political hacks to support their mission. This is the stark division between life and death, and there is no middle ground.

This morning I am going to lay out the biblical support of life from the womb to the tomb, and argue that Christ-followers should be ardently and unashamedly pro-life in all aspects of life.

Believers are called to the pro-life position because God is pro-life

a. God is the Creator of all things, but He created humans in His image (Genesis 1:26-27)

Humans are the crown and pinnacle of God’s creative work. We are not just the highest form of animals; we are the only created beings made in His image. Only humans are candidates for salvation. Only humans have within them the imago dei. Jesus did not come to die for Rover or Spot or Whiskers.

When sin entered the world through Adam’s choice to disobey, the entire created order was cursed and changed in many ways. One such change was that God gave man permission to kill and eat animals instead of just eating plants and berries and such (Gen 2:16)

BUT, while God gave man the right to kill animals for sustenance, He never gave man the right to kill other humans.

b. God declares that murder is sin. (Genesis 9:5-6; Exodus 20:13)

God is very clear about the sin of taking another’s life. After the Flood, God distinctly declares to Noah the sacredness of human life. God tells Noah that if a person deliberately takes the life of an another, that one who murders will in turn be executed as punishment.

God also identifies the sinfulness of the taking of human life in the Ten Commandments when He declares “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13). The Hebrew word means to “murder, strike down, to slay.”

At this point in the argument, one needs to pay attention to the meanings given to words. This is because Abortion advocates attempt to create a vast different in categories of life. Many, if not most, would agree that the murder of a man or woman, or even of a boy or girl is wrong and deserving of punishment.

The advocate for abortion will simply state that this standard does not apply to the fetus in the womb. They claim that the fetus is not life, but is simply tissue and if a person wants to get rid of tissue, what’s the big deal?

First, let’s look at terms: The word fetus is a Latin word that used to simply mean “life, offspring, bearing young, breeding, conception, young while still in the womb (using search terms: latin meaning of fetus). Look up the word now, and you will find additions such as “in humans after the end of the second month of gestation.” (dictionary.com meaning for fetus)

This discussion brings us to the third point:

c. God identifies with unborn life (Jeremiah 1:4-5, Isaiah 44:2; Psalm 139:13-16; Luke 1:35)

God declares that He knew Jeremiah before He formed Jeremiah in the womb. (Jer 1:4-5)

The Prophet Isaiah declared that the LORD was the One who made and formed the Israelites from the womb (Isa 44:2)

The Psalmist declares that God “formed my inward parts” and that God is the One who “knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps 139:13)

And if that still leaves any doubt about how God views unborn life, let’s look at a remarkable passage in the NT, Luke 1:35. This text clearly states that the Holy Spirit placed the unborn, 2nd Person of the Trinity as life in Mary’s womb. As my OT professor proclaimed, “The Messiah didn’t identify as protoplasm!”

The Biblical position is that life begins at conception. It is taking science a while, but they are being drawn to the same conclusion as technology advances, even if the abortion advocates don’t like it.

This is why those who support abortion do not want an abortion-minded woman having an ultrasound. You can use all of the words about choice and rights and other nonsense, but when that mother sees her baby on the screen, the majority of them realize they are being complicit in the murder of human life. Many of them will choose life, and the others will deal with the guilt of knowing what they have done. Once a person knows something, they cannot then not know it.

Illustrate: Doritos 2016 superbowl commercial with the pregnant mom having an ultrasound while the dad is munching on Doritos. The baby on the screen starts following the Doritos. The Abortion industry went bonkers on that one!

A final thought when discussing the sanctity of life. All life is sacred to God, and ALL stages of life are sacred to God. Christians must stand for the value of pre-born life, but we must also stand for the value of persons at the end of life. Believers are to reflect God’s position of the sanctity of life from the womb to the tomb.

d. God is the Maker AND the Finisher of our days ( Psalm 139:16; 1 Samuel 2:6; Deut 32:39) so that means He is against euthanasia

When a person gets older, he or she is not able to contribute in terms of productivity to society. How a society views life in such conditions is important. With the medical technology available people are living longer lives but at a greater cost. The same medical condition that most-likely resulted in death 40 or 50 years ago, now can be treated and life is prolonged.

There are many facets to end-of-life decisions and the quality of life argument is powerful. God’s standards are unchanging - He is the One who creates and gives life; He is the One who determines when life is over. Believers need to proceed with caution about making decisions to end life OR to pass that decision-making to the state.

The state had that kind of control in Nazi Germany and a variety of categories sprang up for the designation of those undesirable of continued breathing. We think mainly of the Jewish people under the Holocaust, and rightfully so, but we dare not forget the Nazis killed off their own. The Nazis killed off over 70,000 of their own citizens by 1940. Categories included the mentally ill, alcoholics, the deaf, and those who were genetically disabled (Google Nazis Action T-4)

For those that think we as a civilized American nation would never stoop to such vileness, consider the rise of so-called “selective abortions.” These abortions are not because the couple doesn’t want a baby; the baby is killed because the couple wanted a boy, not a girl (or vice-versa).

The outworking of such depravity was seen in a CBS report in May 2017 that heralded the success of Iceland in the eradication of Down’s Syndrome children. Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary responded with this in 2018 on his daily briefing: “The Everybody Loves Raymond actress Patricia Heaton tweeted that 'Iceland isn’t actually eliminating Down syndrome. They’re just killing everybody that has it. Big difference.'” That is remarkable, even stunning, moral clarity and the statement bears repeating. I quote it again. Iceland isn't actually eliminating Down syndrome. They're just killing everybody that has it.”

Application for a Pro-life Believer

Pray against the continuance of the Abortion Industry in America. We as citizens are guilty by association, and we need to repent of this sin of deliberating murdering over 60 million lives.

Pray for those pregnant women who are abortion minded. Pray for them to choose life.

Support the Pro-life position. You can do this by financially supporting your local Pregnancy Care Center (Our local center is Caring Hearts) and/or volunteering

Vote for candidates who support Life. This issue of legislation IS a moral issue, not a political party issue.