On Sunday in my sermon I mentioned that 70-90 % of abortion-minded women choose life if only they see an ultrasound of their baby. That's a pretty amazing statistic.Along those lines is an interesting article that I came across via Kevin DeYoung's excellent blog. Here's a quote from the article:
Many abortion providers have been converted by ultrasound technology. The most famous example is Bernard Nathanson, cofounder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, the original NARAL. By his own reckoning Nathanson performed more than 60,000 abortions, including one on his own child. But over time he began to fear he was involved in a great evil. Ultrasound images pushed him over the edge. “When he finally left his profession for pro-life activism, he produced The Silent Scream (1984), a documentary of an ultrasound abortion that showed the fetus scrambling vainly to escape dismemberment.”
Read the whole thing.
Hey Larry,
ReplyDeletehave you heard of the Tim Tebow, focus on the family ad for the super bowl. Its a celebrating life ad showing how Tim Tebow's Mom was advised to have an aborting because she had health issues and was in the Philipines but chose not to and then out comes Tim Tebow. CBS was under a lot of pressure from women's rights groups to not air the ad. Anyway good story for your blog you should research this and give us your take.
Btw been reading your blog for awhile now, great stuff encouraging and challenging at different times.
John Mosely
John,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement. I did read that about Tim Tebow on another blog I check out.
I'm looking forward to checking it out, and will post it if it pops up on Youtube after the Super Bowl.
Larry
And yet the opposite is true in India, where ultrasound is used to identify the sex of the baby. If the baby is a girl, the baby is aborted. I would not place too much credence on ultrasounds as a reliable way to avoid abortions. Yes, women may be 'frightened' into not having an abortion when they see an ultrasound, but other pressures may bear upon them to have an abortion. Pregnant women already know that they are carrying a living being without any ultrasound. The embryo grows, and kicks!
ReplyDeleteThe best bet in avoiding abortions is to 'indoctrinate' others about the wrongness of it all, and the blessings/privileges of carrying a child.
I think the church must also carry a lot of the blame for abortions. It is the very church doctrines that stigmatizes an unwed mother that drives many of these mothers into a sense of shame, and cause some to seek out abortionists. The modern church has fallen far away from the proper Biblical response to unwed mothers. It is a general misconception in the church that unmarried women who engaged in sex outside of marriage, in the Bible, were always stoned to death. The offending male would be required to marry the woman and pay monetary damages, or if the father of the woman felt the male would not make a good husband, the father could refuse to give his daughter into marriage, but still take the monetary award. Read your Old Testament and see how this was handled.
The onus was on the male, not the female! The male had to step up to the plate and accept responsibility. If he did not, he was ostracized for harlotry (possibly stoned to death for his harlotry).
Yes, in India most things run contrary to how things work in America! However, I don't think in America knowing the sex of the child would persuade someone to go on with the abortion. Although women can eventually feel a baby kick this doesn't usually happen until after many abortions are already performed. Usually all that you feel in the beginning of a pregnancy is SICKNESS!!!
ReplyDeleteI also just wanted to praise God that in our church and I pray in many other gospel-based churches women who become pregnant out of wedlock are not shunned but shown the same grace and mercy that is available to all sinners alike! So, if indeed this is not the case in the modern church at large then we should certainly pray, pray, pray!!!!
~Lindy
Knowing the sex of a child might not cause someone to have an abortion in America, but knowing if the child has a birth defect might. Ultrasounds are used to detect birth defects, which may cause parents to decide to abort.
ReplyDeleteChurches need to have better support systems for unwed mothers. Just treating them "with grace and mercy shown to all sinners alike" is not good enough. In the Bible, a woman who got pregnant out of wedlock was not punished, but got the full support of her family and the baby's father (if he became her husband). The woman's family was awarded monetary damages for the sexual infringement by the man.
The church needs to treat unwed mothers as persons who were violated, and who now need our support to make things right. The male if known, should be held accountable.
Hillary,
ReplyDeleteCould you give us some of the Scripture references you are speaking of? I'm not saying they don't exist, I'm just not familiar with them.
The first thing that comes to mind is the way Joseph was prepared to deal with Mary before the angel visited him, and then the situation of the women caught in adultery in John 8 (though a lot of people, myself included, don't think that was originally a part of John's Gospel).
Larry
woman, not women, caught in adultery.
ReplyDeleteHi Larry, certainly. I will cut and paste so I don't misquote!
ReplyDeleteBIBLICAL WAY TO HANDLE PRE-MARITAL SEX (and its consequences)
Exodus 22:16-17, NIV
16 "If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. 17 If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.
Deuteronomy 22:28-29, KJV
28If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
29Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
Damages were awarded to the woman's family for the defilement, which was the equivalency of the bride-price for dowry. The man must become the woman's husband, but if the father of the defiled woman refuses to give his daughter into marriage, the man must still pay for damages. No punishment for the woman, only the man.
Now if the woman 'slept around', that is, practiced casual sex, then she would be stoned to death. See next post.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21, KJV, emphasis mine:
ReplyDelete13If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,
14And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid:
15Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:
16And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;
17And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
18And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;
19And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
20But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
21Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, TO PLAY THE WHORE IN HER FATHER'S HOUSE: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
The woman stoned to death because she engaged in casual sex with men, prior to her marriage. The above law applies only to women who should have been virgins. If the woman had been married before or was a widow, and therefore not a virgin, then the above law does not apply.
Married women who slept around were also stoned (adultery). Divorced and widowed women who slept around were also stoned (harlotry). The woman caught in adultery in the New Testament must have been married. Adultery can only be committed by married people. It certainly was not unlawful for a man to have a wife and concubines, but it was definitely unlawful for a man to sleep with another man's wife. The Bible is clear, if a man sleeps with a woman, the man becomes responsible for that woman. He cannot walk away from the relationship. He is obligated to that woman. So, therefore if a man does not want to end up with multiple wives, then it was best for him to avoid sleeping with women other than his wife. If he slept with women and did not make them his wife, then he would have been guilty of the sin of harlotry.
Polygamy is unlawful in our country, therefore young men need to be careful about their sex lives. They may end up supporting a woman, whom they are not married to, with child payments for the rest of their lives!
I hope this helps. It was a pleasure sharing this info. with you, and I am humbled that you asked me. Please let me know what you think.
Blessings,
Hillary
Hillary,
ReplyDeleteI don't think you go far enough:
Matthew 5 - “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
According to the law, we should all be stoned or thrown out of the congregation, women and men included.
Where's the hope? Oh, help me, God! If the people in my congregation were held to the law you quote above, there will be no one left to stone anyone else! We can't even be obedient in that!
Oh Lord Jesus, please remind us why you died for us!
Romans 3 - "21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
Ahh...that's the Gospel I know. Now, knowing that I didn't get the penalty I deserved, I am free to offer Grace to women considering abortion, women who have had abortions, men who have slept with these women, homosexual people, murderers, drug addicts. For "such were some you". I have been all of these things. But I have a great savior, one who has borne the penalty for this wretched sinner so I am justified before God and free to love those whose hearts are just as black. Praise God!
Will
Dear Will,
ReplyDeleteWe are so thankful for God's grace. Without God's grace we would all perish (including myself). The law serves to point out the sins in our lives. It makes us aware of our sinfulness so that we can realize our need for a Savior - Jesus.
On a side note: In the passage in Matthew 5 about adultery, Jesus was showing that the sin of adultery began in the heart.
Men cannot judge the heart and condemn you for your thoughts, but they can judge your actions and condemn your actions, which are the fruit of your inward heart/thoughts.
BTW, just because we are saved by 'faith alone' does not negate our responsibilities to each other such as walking justly with our fellow man, treating others with love and respect, and taking care of the weak and unfortunate.
ReplyDeletePure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world (James 1:27).
Peace.
Will wrote:
ReplyDelete"According to the law, we should all be stoned or thrown out of the congregation, women and men included.
Where's the hope? Oh, help me, God! If the people in my congregation were held to the law you quote above, there will be no one left to stone anyone else! We can't even be obedient in that!"
------------------------------------------------
Will, you make it sound as it fornication and adultery is prevelant in your church. Is that the case?
Just because we are saved by 'faith alone' does not mean we are free to sin or do whatever we want to do. We are still accountable to God. Jesus came to save us FROM sin - not save us TO sin.
Peace.
Hillary,
ReplyDeleteYes. We have all been idolators, fornicators, covetors. We sin every day in thought, word, and deed. The breaking of one law is the breaking of all of them.
Here is the attitude of worship in our church:
Luke 18:13 - "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’"
I know that I shared the Gospel correctly because you made this comment:
"Just because we are saved by 'faith alone' does not mean we are free to sin or do whatever we want to do. We are still accountable to God. Jesus came to save us FROM sin - not save us TO sin."
Paul faced the same challenge, so I'll just give his answer:
Romans 6 "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"
Those who are truly Christians will not do these things, but it's not through the law that this happens--it's through the free Grace offered in Jesus Christ.
Will
I'd put it like this Hillary:
ReplyDeleteAs Christians, we have been set free from the penalty of sin.
We are progressively being set free from the power of sin and being renewed into the image of our Savior.
And we eagerly anticipate the day in which Jesus comes again, we see Him as He is, and thus we will be set free from the very presence of sin entirely.
Larry,
ReplyDeleteAmen!