PASTORAL PONDERINGS

January 2007

by Pastor James Berger

      January 22 should be a day of grieving for Christians. Thirty-five years ago our nation began a descent from which she has never recovered. On that day the Supreme Court, using mental gymnastics and even bold-faced lying, declared the Constitution of the United States gave a woman the right to choose to abort a child.

      Despite the fact that both women who sought to have their cases decided that day have since declared that their charges were fraudulent, despite the fact that one of the former leaders of Planned Parenthood who represented them has declared the facts he presented were false, despite the fact that the numbers of women who died of illegal abortions was vastly (by more than a multiplication of 100) over reported, we have not as a nation repented of this action nor sought in any meaningful way sought to undo it.

     A few politicians have sought to turn away from the sin besetting our nation. But when push comes to shove most secretly believe it is in their best interest to preserve abortion on demand, declaring at best that they want to make it safe and rare while not accomplishing either. If you don't believe me, I ask you, "Why is partial-birth abortion still legal, when it is a barbaric and cruel act? Why has the legal system protected an abortion clinic that does abortions on girls under the age of 16 without reporting the crime of statutory rape? Why have we allowed 40 million children to be killed before they could even draw a breath?"

     The population in Western Russia is in a total state of collapse. The population of all of Western Europe and Japan are shrinking at an alarming rate with it now requiring two of its citizens to support every one retiree.

It will be declared that this is caused by birth control. Yes, and the favorite form in Russia and the West is abortion. 

     It has been affirmed by some in the church that this is justified because every child deserves to be wanted and live in a comfortable life-style. Where does the Bible state this?

 The people of Israel and Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done-they, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, They turned their backs to me and not their faces, though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. They set up their abominable idols in the house that bears my Name and defiled it. They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin."

Jeremiah 32:32-35

 Is there a guarantee in God's creation that this should be so? Abraham Lincoln suffered from birth defects and bouts of depression. Winston Churchill's parents treated him as a nuisance all of his childhood. Allow Jesus to be born resulted in the death of the innocents of Bethlehem. Would it not have been more convenient and better to allow their parents to abort them? Logic would seem to require it.

     I know  a man who at age eight had his father put him his mother and younger brother out on the street, as his father had done to him. He swore before God he would not do the same and has grown to be a loving husband, father and grandfather, church deacon, good friend and who, when his father grew old, took care of him when no one else would. I know a woman whose parents were mentally retarded. Certainly they should never have been allowed to have a child. Only, the daughter grew up as an A student and last I knew works as an engineer in a nuclear power plant.

     In the eyes of the judgmental world their lives should have been forfeit. By the grace of God they have become part of the work of His world.

     Charles Dickens wrote in the Christmas Carol, "Man, if man you be in heart, not (steel), forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus (population) is, and where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child."

     Israel sacrificed their children in the flames to try and bribe the gods for a good harvest and favorable outcomes. We sacrifice our children to the god of self-desire and turn out backs on the potential for life in each child. Israel was judged for her sins. Can we expect anything else?

     Pray that in the year ahead God will give us a chanced to repent of our greed and take up His Gospel of life. If we don't we will not survive as a nation, a church or a people. He is the God of the second chance. May it not yet be too late!