Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

I remember when Christians in the U.S. were actually hopeful that abortion would soon be outlawed. What went wrong?

The Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion was passionately debated for years. By the mid-1980s, Christians earnestly supported many organizations whose key rallying point was the end of abortion. Every January, millions of ordinary dads and moms joined together to “march for life.” It was a show of support too significant for reporters to avoid. Success was always just around the corner.

But something changed. Something big. Christian leaders stopped pointing to the Bible as the basis for their conviction that an unborn baby is human, and they started referring to microscopic cells instead. With the Bible out of the discussion, everyone soon got confused by competing interpretations. Pro-abortionists defined the cells as cells. Pro-lifers defined them as human.

Dale Mason, Publisher

The biblical basis for when life begins, passages like Genesis 1:27 and Psalm 139:13-16, were avoided because non-Christians didn’t want to hear them and Christians didn’t want to be seen as unscientific. So we argued about cells, and the all-important biblical basis was eventually ignored, even by believers. With that strategic switch, the battle for babies was effectively lost.

Today the issue of the sanctity of life is bigger than ever, but we have not learned our lesson. Our failed past efforts depended on human strategies rather than the truth of the Bible (Jeremiah 17: 5–7). We have voluntarily placed God’s Word, the only authoritative, powerful argument, on the shelf.

The Bible is clear. We are told repeatedly to stand against injustice and to rescue the weak, the needy, and the fatherless. We should still make every effort to change evil laws and judicial decisions. But we must first rely on the Lord and the power of His Word to change hearts.

We should integrate God’s Word into every area of our conversations—one-on-one, at local crisis centers, in peaceful protests, and ultimately in our efforts to change laws.

We should depend on God’s Word, and leave the results in His hands.

All for Him,

Dale T. Mason, Publisher