Oct 24, '08 8:19 PM

No topic has more galvanized the conservative right nor angered the liberal left than the subject of abortion rights.  When I ran for Congress, my Republican primary opponent was pro-abortion, and yet a professing born-again, committed Christian.  Because the two positions -- pro-abortion and pro-life -- are at such diametric odds with each other, I came to the conclusion that either my opponent was ignorant of the Word of God on the subject of abortion, or her "professed Christianity" was nothing more than a political ploy to gain the support of conservative Christians in our congressional district.

My longtime friend and political colleague, Tony Smith, sent my opponent an email outlining some critical Scriptures on the topic of when life actually begins.  About that same time, following one of our debate forums, I had the opportunity to talk to my opponent, Becky Klein, about the subject and to help her to understand how God views this issue.

I'm pleased to say that between Tony's email and my in-person discussion on the topic, Becky woke up to the fact that she had been holding an opinion she simply couldn't hang onto and still call herself a Christian.  After she beat me in the primary, she went on to espouse a pro-life position during the general campaign, and her conversion to that understanding was genuine -- not political.

For the next few minutes, I'd like to take you through some very crystal clear pictures in the Word of God which define when life actually begins, and why the liberal left position of "choice" is nothing more and nothing less than the politics of cold-blooded murder.

Before we start, however, let's grab the French Press and pour some of today's blend -- a mix of San Francisco Bay French Roast, and Cascade Mountain's Double-Roasted French.  If you look around, you might even find a "vitamin" or two in that Safeway box.

God gave to David a revelation of the origins of life -- a revelation which he outlined in Psalm 139:13-16.  Although the traditional English versions -- and the KJV -- do a fair job of translating these verses from the Hebrew, the original Hebrew text provides an expanded picture that even the Amplified Version misses.  Both Hebrew and Greek languages -- and they are distinctive from all other languages in this respect -- are picture languages which include remarkable color and depth of understanding.  I took the time to translate these verses myself and include some descriptive pictures that the Hebrew language incorporates.

"For you have created, taught and instructed my mind, my brain and vital organs; you have entwined and protected me in my mother’s womb.  I will extend my hands to you in adoration and worship: For I am reverently fashioned [in such a manner as to distinguish me from all other beings]: great and miraculous are your actions, your labors and results thereof; and that my very breath and soul recognizes and understands.

The very substance which binds my spirit, soul and body together was not hidden from you when I was made and fitted together [spiritually, mentally and physically] without anyone else knowing or seeing, being colorfully fabricated in and from the very materials that make up the inner part of the earth.

Your eyes saw and discerned my embryo; and you wrote the very plan and essence of my existence in the day I was being determined, formed and molded prior to [my] actual creation."  (RAC Amplified)

Jeremiah picks up this same theme as he reveals the Word of the Lord which came to him (see Jeremiah 1:5).  Again I'm using my own translation and amplification from the Hebrew text to draw out the full meaning.

"Before I determined, formed and molded you in the womb, I knew, designated and instructed you; and before you were brought forth out of the formative matrix, I consecrated and set you apart, pronouncing you holy; and I anointed, equipped and commissioned you, giving you to the masses of people, and in particular the foreign nations, as my gift: one who would deliver and declare My Word through prophetic song and discourse."  (RAC Amplified)

It takes no rocket scientist to figure out what God is saying through these Words.  He breathed Himself into the very pre-existence of our beginnings.  David makes clear in Psalm 139 that God purposely and with forethought fashioned and formed us -- EVEN BEFORE FERTILIZATION AND CONCEPTION IN THE WOMB!

Jeremiah likewise hears the Lord say to him that God knew him before he was formed in the womb -- that his birth was not simply the result of a union between his father and mother.  His birth was preordained while Jeremiah was scarcely a thought in the minds of his parents.  He was given life and purpose -- EVEN BEFORE FERTILIZATION AND CONCEPTION IN THE WOMB!

Are you seeing this picture?  Life begins even before fertilization in the womb.  To suggest that life does not begin until a child comes out of the womb is nothing more than creating a means of justifying the killing of that child.

In 2004, Della and I were both delegates to the Republican Party (RPT) Convention in San Antonio, Texas.  During a county convention, when it became clear that we were both headed to the state convention, Della was part of a discussion among local county delegates concerning the state party's platform on the subject of when life begins.

The state (and national) party platforms had both previously designated the beginning of life "at conception."  Because of the tricky wording that embryonic stem cell cloning advocates used in defining the beginning of life "at conception," a decision was made to introduce a change of wording to the state platform which designated the beginning of life "at fertilization" instead.

Della took that change to the state convention where it was voted on and ratified in the state party's platform, and subsequently added to the RNC's national platform which President Bush adopted and ran on.  It may seem that the wording is almost academic, but the legal implications are strong.

Fertilization, speaking forensically, is the actual union of male sperm and female cells.  Conception, on the other hand, is the emergence of a fetus after fertilization.  The wording change in the political platform was intended to enshrine in policy (and eventually in law) the fact that the beginning of life is a divine act -- not simply the (unintended) biological byproduct of sexual intercourse.

It is a divine act which occurs before intercourse!  The creation of new life is God's means of perpetuating mankind so that there will come into being a corporate body of people who will choose Him -- and the fellowship He desires with His people.  There is no other purpose for the human race.  Our existence on planet Earth is not random or accidental.  We were chosen by and for Him before the world began.

To suggest (as the far left has done) that women somehow have the "right to choose" to abort their unborn child is the same as saying that God's plan and purposes for that unborn child are irrelevant.  It is a usurpation of God's authority and the elevation of man's choices as being superior to God.  In simple terms, this is Secular Humanism.  No, on second thought, there's nothing "secular" about it.  This is the elevation of man above God.  This is the religion of "man-worship."

As my Democratic friend and former Alaska Lt. Governor, Red Boucher, used to say, "Abortion -- in any instance -- is the taking of a human life.  That makes it murder."  It is in fact premeditated, cold-blooded murder.  It elevates the "convenience" of not carrying the unborn child to term over the value of the life of that child.  It sacrifices the sanctity of life on the altar of "choice," as though somehow that "choice" is more valuable than life itself.

The fact that the far left has enshrined this as somehow being "a right" under our U.S. Constitution when there is absolutely nothing in the Constitution -- the Roe v. Wade ruling notwithstanding -- to justify such a concept has turned this into a religious political issue.  Folks, this is the politics of murder.  There's just no other way to say it!

Am I stirring things up in you?  Good!  Let me stir the pot even more.

Life begins before fertilization in the womb.  Life begins before conception.  Life begins in God!  Life begins -- sorry, to have to put it this way, folks! -- even before a woman is raped or forced into an incestuous relationship.  The child conceived in the womb as a result of those activities didn't choose to come into the world that way, but that doesn't negate God's plan and purposes for that child.  Rape or incest do not somehow negate the gift that God plans to give the world in the child who is being formed in the womb.

One quick example.  The story has often been told of a woman many years ago who was violently raped and became pregnant as a result.  She was in poor health anyway, and her family doctor strongly advised her to abort the child.  As the pregnancy progressed, it became clear that the unborn child would likely be born with defects.  Both the woman's husband and her doctor pressured her to have an abortion.  She steadfastly refused saying that just because the unborn child was the result of a rape did not mean it was the child's fault.  She believed God could use the child as it grew and become a blessing to others.

For the remainder of the pregnancy she continued to declare that the child would be a blessing.  Little could she know.  When the child was born on December 16, 1770, Maria Magdalena Keverich gave the world a musical prodigy in the form of Ludwig Van Beethoven.  Beethoven's music has inspired the world for more than two centuries -- a gift from God filled with revelation the likes of which only a very few others like him have also shared.

Think of the loss to the world had Maria Keverich Beethoven yielded to the pressure to abort.  Now, consider the enormity of the losses the world has suffered as a result of the felonious Roe v. Wade decision with 50 Million children in America being brutally and premeditatedly murdered before God ever had the opportunity to show the world what He had in store through them.

That, my friends, is the politics of murder.

When you vote, therefore, in the coming election KNOW where the candidates stand on the issue of life.  Whether you realize it or not or whether you've ever thought about it in this context, when you support a candidate for office who believes that abortion is OK, or that candidate supports the so-called "pro-choice" stance, you become complicit in murder and an accessory to the continuing murders of the unborn.

That may come across and very blunt, but there's no other way to say it.  Every politician who continues to advocate the pro-abortion position is an advocate for murder; and they are accessories to murder.  Your support of them and placing them in elected office makes you also an accessory to murder.

Think about it, folks!  Choose wisely.  God holds each of us accountable for our vote.  It is a responsibility He has given us, and if we choose to place people in office who oppose His Word and His plan, we become recipients of the judgment that follows that choice.

"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.”  -- President Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters."  -- Samuel Adams (Drafter of the Articles of Confederation following America's Declaration of Independence)

"The moral precepts delivered in the Sacred Oracles form a part of the law of nature, are of the same origin and of the same obligation, operating universally and perpetually."   -- James Wilson (Signer of the Declaration of Independence)

"If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.” -- Samuel Adams

The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow!  (Proverbs 10:22)  Be blessed!