Calvary Baptist Church

I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian.  I attended church since I was a small boy.  We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people today in this country, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place.  What could anyone do to stop it?

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track.  We became disturbed when one Sunday we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by.  We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews.  They were like cattle in those cars. 

Week after week that train whistle would blow.  We would dread to hear those wheels because we knew that the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed our church.  It was so terribly disturbing!  We could do nothing to help these poor miserable people, yet their screams tormented us.

We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns.  By the time the train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices.  If some of the screams reached our ears, we would just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. 

Years have passed and no one talks about it much anymore.  but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep.  I can still hear them crying out for help.  God forgave all of us who called ourselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene.

Now, so many years later, I see it happening all over again in America.  God forgive you as Americans for you have blocked out the screams of millions of your own children.  The holocaust is here.  The response is the same as it was in my country--SILENCE!!

Since 1972, our nation has seen more than sixty million abortions. The holocaust is here.  The response of many Christians is, indeed, silence. I cannot sit by and say nothing.  I cannot sing the songs louder to drown out the cries.  We cannot sit in silence.

The national discussion took a drastic change in 2022 when in the Dobbs decision the supreme court put the issue back into the lap of individual states.  Now across our country states have enacted far-ranging laws.  Some states have welcomed abortions at almost any stage of pregnancy and for almost any reason.   This blog addresses three Biblical truths and their applications as Missouri continues our dialogue.

First Truth: God Forms a Beautiful Life in the Womb

God speaks very clearly about the fact that He forms life.  (Psalm 139:13-18)

 

¹³ For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. ¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! ¹⁸ Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

God has much to say about the value of life.  The quintessential passage, the pinnacle of Scripture’s statements comes from the lips of David as he reflects on God’s knowledge of him.

We believe God has created humanity and is aware of the life of every person.  He is intimately involved in forming us inside of our mother’s womb, knowing about every day of our lives before we are even conceived. 

It is truly a miracle.  Two cells come together.  Six hours later a marvelous display of multiplication begins.  Nine months later, a baby is born. 

The wonder of science today has made those truths even more apparent.  We can now see the face of our yet to be born children in images that are absolutely astounding.  It is profound to see the new 3D images.  Let us review the miraculous journey.

The wonder of science today has made those truths even more apparent.  We can now see the face of our yet to be born children in images that are absolutely astounding.  It is profound to see the new 3D images.

The beginning

• One egg and one male cell meet. Six hours later a fabulous multiplication of cells is in progress.
• The newly fertilized egg contains the plans for every detail of human development, including his or her sex, hair, eye color, and height.
• 21 days later a heart starts to beat although the baby is only 1/6th of an inch long.
• The baby has a heartbeat at 2 and 1/2 weeks.  The baby has a detectable brain wave by 40 days.  The child has its own fingerprints, DNA, heart, and blood stream. 
• The baby is a unique individual with unique genetic makeup and often a different blood type from the mother. 
• The newly conceived child has all the genetic information it will have when fully developed as an adult.
• 5 weeks after conception the buds that are to become the arms and legs are formed.
• 6 weeks the first brain waves can be detected.
• 7 weeks later the infant is 3/4this of an inch in length but has already grown 40,000 times more than the original cells.

Eight Weeks-Eleven Weeks

• 9 weeks the baby’s body is nearly complete.  Internal organs are present and functioning.  Changes after the ninth week are primarily changes in size rather than appearance.
• 11 Weeks from the beginning the body is entirely formed.  Everything is in place-now the child just must mature.  The baby is now three inches in length.
• The contents of the uterus is called a fetus when the embryo reaches week eight of development. ("Fetus" is the Latin word for "young one" or "offspring.")
• Everything that will be found in a fully developed adult is now present. Elbows and fingers become evident.
• The heart has been beating for more than a month, the stomach produces digestive juices, and the kidneys have begun to function. Forty muscle sets begin to operate in conjunction with the nervous system.
• The fetus' body responds to touch and the vertebrae in the neck can bend; the trunk is able to straighten. However, the woman carrying the fetus will not be able to feel movement until the fourth or fifth month.
• In other words, the fetus feels the mother, but the mother does not feel the fetus.
• This is an awesome and beautiful experience.  To watch a child come into a world, take its first breath on its own, begin to cry and to respond to the first touch from its mother.

Development at 12 Weeks-15 Weeks

• After 12 weeks of development, the fetus is about two inches long. It has recognizable sleep patterns by this time, and when it is awake, it exercises its muscles by turning its head and curling its toes.
• Also, at 12 weeks, the fetus will open its palm and make a tight fist when stroked. If it could, the fetus can hold its mother's hand.
• 14 weeks-the baby begins to move.  Now there is almost constant motion.  Now you can tell the sex of the baby.  The heart is beating rapidly.

Fetal Development at 16 Weeks-21 Weeks

• By the end of the fourth month, the fetus may be eight to ten inches in length and weighs a half pound or more. She has begun to use her reflexes; sucking, swallowing, and blinking. And an experienced sonographer might be able determine if your baby is a boy or a girl.
• The ears are functioning, and there is evidence that the fetus hears quite a bit — the mother's voice and heartbeat as well as external noises.
• The fetus listens to its mother's voice and heartbeat every day.
• 18 weeks-the baby responds to things outside (the mother's movement or loud noises cause the baby to move).

Development at 22 Weeks

• The embryo is now about twelve inches long, and the mother feels fetal movement on a regular basis. Eyelids and eyebrows are fully formed. Fingernails have grown to the end of the fingers.
• If a sound outside is especially loud or startling, the fetus may react with a sudden movement. If you talk, read, or sing, expect her to hear you.
• The baby can now feel pain, possibly as early as 18 weeks. In fact, from now until about 32 weeks, pain is felt more intensely than any other time in development.
• 28 weeks-the baby's eyes are open in a dark world.  The baby is viable-able to live outside the womb.
• 40 weeks-the baby begins what will be a traumatic and painful birth process into the world. 

A simple question.  If that life is not a baby, what is it?  Is it a duck? A pig?  A Cow?  A vegetable? Some people who counsel for abortion say it is like a small fish.  The truth is it is neither a vegetable, nor a witless tadpole as some say.  The baby is as real as if it was wrapped in a blanket in its crib, instead of wrapped in its mother.

It is simple.  Life is sacred and of great worth.  The life of a baby begins long before he or she is born.  A new individual human being begins growing in the mother’s uterus at fertilization, and if the baby’s life is not interrupted, he or she will someday become and adult man or woman.

God has invested each human life with sacred meaning and priceless value.  It is God's intimate involvement with human beings that imparts to human life its sanctity, value, and uniqueness.  God is pro-life.  All lives matter to him.

There are other passages that speak of the value God places on life.

• Hannah was anxious to welcome a child.  After asking God to give her a child for so long she considered the baby she carried as a gift from God.
• Luke’s gospel emphasizes that a preborn baby is, indeed, a child.  The preborn John reacts to the preborn Savior.   Elizabeth calls Jesus brephos which is the word for child.
• God tells Jeremiah that the young prophet had been formed in the womb.

In short, every human is formed in the womb in God’s image.   Every life matters, including those who have not yet been born.

Second Truth: God has Something to Say About the Taking of Life in the Womb

“We hold these truths to be self-evident…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  With these words the declaration of Independence sets out our guiding principles.  We have a right to life.  The 1973 “Roe vs Wade” decision by the Supreme Court opened the door to that life being taken with utter disdain for its value.  Based on data from the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute, National Right to Life now estimates that 64,443,118 abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973.

More than 50% of pregnancies among American women are unintended; half of these are terminated by abortion.  At current rates, an estimated 43% of women will have at least one abortion by the time they are 45 years old.  Never-married women obtain twenty-three percent of abortions.

In the months following Dobbs, several states have moved to enact laws designed to provide maximum protection from abortion to unborn children and their mothers.  Surprisingly in August, the national average of abortions per month exceeded 100,000 for the first time since that supreme court decision.

Scripture condemns the taking of life.

^{Proverbs 6:16} There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

God judges the Ammonites for Taking Unborn Life Amos 1:13 

This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not relent.

Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders, ¹⁴ I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah that will consume her fortresses amid war cries on the day of battle, amid violent winds on a stormy day. ^[1]

This reference was to the practice of disemboweling pregnant women in a demonstration of power and brutality.  It served to cut off the birth of children who would be the hope of the future.

Exodus 21:22-25 speaks about the status of the unborn.

²² “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. ²³ But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise^[2]

This passage refers to the damage caused by a pre-born infant if a fight occurred, and the mother was hurt.  We are not under the Old Testament law of punishment, but this passage is hugely significant.  It shows that the life of the unborn is valued and is to be protected.

Third Truth: God Demands that His People Take a Stand for Life

We have a Choice Between Life and Death (Deuteronomy 30:19)

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live^[3]

God holds the communities where innocent blood is shed responsible (Leviticus 20:1-5)

The Lord said to Moses, ² “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him. ³ I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ⁴ If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, ⁵ I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek. ^[4]

God will not hear our prayers because of the blood on our hands (Isaiah 1:15)

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! ^[5]

God commands us to rescue the innocent. (Proverbs 24:11-12, Psalm 82:3-4)

^{Proverbs 24:11} Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. ¹² If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?^[6]

^{Psalm 82:3} Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. ⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. ^[7]

The Proposed Amendment

The state of Missouri has an enormously important constitutional amendment before us on election day.  Amendment Three will, if passed, forever altar the respect for life in our state.  To fairly evaluate this amendment, the entire text is printed below:

Section 36. l . This Section shall be known as "The Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative."

1. The Government shall not deny or infringe upon a person's fundamental right to reproductive freedom. which is the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care: including but not limited to prenatal care. childbirth. postpartum care. birth control. abortion care. miscarriage care. and respectful birthing conditions.
2. The right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied. interfered with. delayed. or otherwise restricted unless the Government demonstrates that such action is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means. Any denial. interference. delay. or restriction of the right to reproductive freedom shall be presumed invalid. For purposes of this Section, a governmental interest is compelling only if it is for the limited purpose and has the limited effect of improving or maintaining the health of a person seeking care. is consistent with widely accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine. and does not infringe on that person's autonomous decision-making.
3. Notwithstanding subsection 3 of this Section, the general assembly may enact laws that regulate the provision of abortion after Fetal Viability provided that under no circumstance shall the Government deny. interfere with. delay. or otherwise restrict an abortion that in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.
4. No person shall be penalized. prosecuted. or otherwise subjected to adverse action based on their actual. potential. perceived. or alleged pregnancy outcomes. including but not limited to miscarriage. stillbirth. or abortion. Nor shall any person assisting a person in exercising their right to reproductive freedom with that person's consent be penalized. prosecuted. or otherwise subjected to adverse action for doing so.
5. The Government shall not discriminate against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care or assisting another person in doing so.
6. If any provision of this Section or the application thereof to anyone or to any circumstance is held invalid. the remainder of those provisions and the application of such provisions to others or other circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
7. For purposes of this Section, the following terms mean:

(I) "Fetal Viability" - the point in pregnancy when. in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case. there is a significant likelihood of the fetus's sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

(2) "Government" -

a. the state of Missouri or

b. any municipality, city, town, village, township, district, authority, public subdivision or public corporation having the power to tax or regulate, or any portion of two or more such entities within the state of Missouri.

The Ballot title asks:  

establish a right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, with any governmental interference of that right presumed invalid; remove Missouri’s ban on abortion; allow regulation of reproductive health care to improve or maintain the health of the patient; require the government not to discriminate, in government programs, funding, and other activities, against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care; and allow abortion to be restricted or banned after Fetal Viability except to protect the life or health of the woman?

This amendment would repeal every restriction in Missouri’s books.  It allows for all abortion until the baby can survive without extreme measures.  There would be no law restricting minors from receiving abortions without the notification of their parents.  Existing laws related to the health and safety standards at abortion clinics would be eliminated.

Should there be a problem with an abortion, this law would eliminate the ability of women to sue abortion clinics or doctors.  Restrictions limiting the taxpayer funding of abortion clinics would also be invalidated.

The only exception listed in this proposed amendment would be rules restricting abortion if a fetus is viable without extreme measures.  And those restrictions are defined by the very people being paid to perform the abortion.   The amendment also says the government cannot interfere with a person’s decisions about things including, but not limited to, prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, miscarriage care and respectful birthing conditions.

In summary, even if you disagree with the restrictions currently in place this amendment would have the opposite effect.  It would provide no protection for life whatsoever.  I humbly encourage you to vote AGAINST this amendment.  Further, I challenge you with seven guidelines for taking a stand.

• First: Pray. 

Pray that society will open its eyes to the evil of abortion. Call upon God's resources and power.  Pray for those who feel trapped by an unwanted pregnancy. 

Pray for churches and individuals who are working to provide alternatives to abortion.  Pray for leaders at all levels of government in working for public policy which upholds the sanctity of human life and encourages alternatives to abortion.

Ask for wisdom as to how you can get involved.

• Second, Become Educated/Educate Others

Make informed statements.  We do great harm when we make incorrect assertions.  Accurately study the Bible for insights and principles which can be applied to questions about abortion.  Base our stand on God’s truth.

Know what the laws say.  Gather literature that is accurate and truthful.  Be willing to educate yourself and others.  Speak out from the depth of knowledge gained.  Be courteous and factual.

• Third, Walk with those who Stand for Life

Get involved in a church that takes a stand.  Organize others of like concern. Offer to help plan a Sanctity of Human Life service for your church or life group.

Find out the opinions of your doctors and medical professionals.  Tell them of your stand and align with those who stand with you.

• Fourth, Be involved in the Legislative Process

Support candidates for office who will work for legislation and\or a human life amendment to the constitution.  Vote.

        Learn who your senators and representatives are.  Learn their voting records on abortion and family issues.  Write to your senators and representatives asking them to initiate or support legislation on life issues.  One letter is worth thousands of opinions.  Remember, if they are elected, they work for you.

• Fifth, do something to support the alternatives.

First and foremost: keep the focus on people.  Numbers serve only as background.  What matters is people.

Volunteer at a local center helping young women in crisis pregnancies.  Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Birthrights need help in every area-from sorting and mending baby and maternity clothes to counseling. 

Many abortions would be stopped if women just knew that they had a haven of encouragement and support from the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Many see abortion as their only alternative.

Offer your professional services, such as plumbing, carpentry, personal computers, graphic design, writing, etc. to your local crisis pregnancy center.  Offer Economic Support.   Help families who see no way to support another child.

Support adoption services. Help place babies in caring, Christian homes.  Our state convention has one of the best children's homes for women amid struggles with an unwanted pregnancy.  In short, find a need and meet it.

• Sixth, Support Single Parents

We cannot be pro-life while ignoring the struggles of those who already have a child and those children who were saved.  The feeling of being alone and helpless is what drives many young mothers to abort their children.

Do practical things to help them.  Baby sit for a single parent in your neighborhood or local church.  Invite a single-parent child into your home for holiday or weekend activities. Sponsor a single parent child in a local after-school or sports activity.

• Finally Accept and Extend God’s Grace to Those Who Have Experienced Abortion

God offers grace to you if you have participated in abortion at any level.  He is still a God of mercy and grace. 

That person did not know.  She probably does not know that abortion is not just a fast, easy procedure without long term complications. Rather, research and personal testimonies of millions of women show that abortion can have emotional and medical repercussions that can last a lifetime.

Your friend may have the false view that anyone who is pro-life is mean, uncaring, judgmental or a religious fanatic. However, with love and care, you can help change her perspective and lead her to safer and wiser options than abortion.  Genuinely care about her. 

Does God forgive those who have had abortions?  The Guttmacher Institute recently reported that one out of every four women in churches on an average Sunday has had an abortion.  If that is you, you need to hear from God. This is not an unforgiveable sin.

Acknowledge that it was sin.  Do so without defensiveness, excuses, reasoning, or logic.  Agree that it was wrong.  Genuinely repent.  Forsake the act.  Reverse it.  God will honor a broken and contrite heart.  Claim the cleansing he offers.

Do not allow the enemy to hold you down or accuse you in your Spirit. Accept the grace that is freely given.  Know that the great God who cradles the whole universe in His hand now cradles your little one in His hand and will hold him safely until you get there.