Anybody Listening ?

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.

And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh

and give you a heart of flesh."

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV

by Dr. Ray Dunkelberg, MD, PPL Board Member

Scripture is God's truth. Truth is another term for reality. God’s reality. We ignore scripture at our own peril. We live in dangerous times. We have snuffed out the lives of over 65 million American children and continue at a rate of over 1 million a year with our chemicals and our technologies. And the church remains largely silent. But has it ever occurred to you that how you deal with the murder of over 65 million Americans might affect your eternal destiny? Even if you say you are committed to protecting unborn children, what is the evidence? Dallas Willard said, "We don't believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true.” It has been pointed out that many of us Christians act as “functional atheists” in that our actions are indistinguishable from non-believers.

When we keep our heads down, do we tell ourselves that we are just keeping the peace and purity of the church? Did Christ preach peace at the expense of truth? I think not. Christianity has always been countercultural. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34) and “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10:38).

What he did preach was that children had a front row seat in God's kingdom, and that kindness to and protection of children was a foremost truth. "When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me" (Mt. 25:40) and "if anyone prevents one of these little ones from coming to me, it would be better for him if he had a millstone wrapped around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt. 18:6). One author has said that “what Jesus actually said was that it would be better for you if you tied one of these around your neck and jumped in the ocean than what He’s going to do to you."

He certainly did not preach inaction. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan the religious leaders (the priest and the Levite) passed by on the other side of the road. They kept their heads down. Didn't want to get involved. Too messy. Too busy.

Keeping your head down and not speaking or acting was what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap Grace." He pointed out that "not to speak, is to speak and not to act, is to act." What we don't do and what we don't say is perhaps more powerful even than what we say and do.

Snuffing out the life of the unborn child is certainly murder. The sixth Commandment is “do not kill” (Hebrew: “murder”). It is wrong to take innocent human life. Abortion takes innocent human life. Even in the secular world it is acknowledged  that human life begins at conception - pick up any Embryology textbook. Secular science says that human life begins at the moment of conception. It’s a fact. There is nothing more precious than human life; it's loss is final and irreplaceable. The loss of an innocent human life alters the entire universe. We are all diminished.

Scripture says we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). And Jesus pointed out that even though I "cast out demons in (His) name … I never knew you; depart from me, …” (Matt.7:22-23). Even though we have our eternal salvation through faith in Christ, we live in a moral universe and there is also judgment. Consider how you might feel if somehow God shared with you the plans and purposes he had for those 65 million Americans killed on our watch.

Or consider just your earthly legacy. When America finally wakes up and, filled with horror and shame at the inexplicable carnage, your grandchildren may ask, “Grandpa, what did you do during this time?” What did you say? What did you do? Did you share your Christian belief with other Christians? If you were a pastor, did you preach so that the people in your congregation knew the truth of scripture, teaching that God knew us even before he created the universe (Psalm 139:16, Jeremiah 1:5, Ephesians 1:3-4), that he knew each of us by name, that He himself knitted us up individually and made us in his image, bestowing purpose, dignity, and value, and loved us enough to die for us? What will your story be?

What can you do?

1) Repent of willful ignorance and apathy - neither are virtues. Educate yourself; there are dozens of life-affirming, pro-life organizations out there. Presbyterians Protecting Life (PPL) has an excellent website. Organizations like the Colson Center (consider becoming a Colson Fellow - you and your church). Focus on the Family has an excellent website. There are dozens of excellent pro-life organizations with informative and encouraging websites.

2) Repent and support some of these life-affirming organizations and your local women's care center with your gifts, time and prayer.

3) Repent and with courageous faith, preach and share the truth of the gospel.

4) Repent and encourage the Church to be the Church. The Church is the only institution that has the moral authority to speak truth into culture, but it not only has the moral authority, it has the obligation.

5) Repent and share the truth of the gospel with patience, humility and gentleness, but do not soft-peddle truth. 

6) Repent of your comfort and false security. Be courageous and be prepared for pushback.

The serious part of this is, again, that we are all accountable in some fashion. This is happening on our watch. We are not here by chance. God has put each of us here in this civilizational moment for his purposes. We are all busy, but perhaps with God's help, we will find the time and the energy and the vision for meeting this great evil. And it's OK to get politically involved. We, the people, want to believe that laws are good and true, but sometimes they are not. As Martin Luther King, Jr., pointed out in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "that everything the Nazis did to the Jews was perfectly legal." Consider writing your elected representative and, if they are pro-abortion, tell them that you have great difficulty in voting for anyone who advocates the killing of unborn children. Changing laws is important as it can change our vision of right and wrong. But more importantly, we need to change people's hearts so that abortion will again be unthinkable.

This struggle is cosmic – against the forces of darkness, against Satan who, Christ pointed out, lies, deceives, and murders (John 8:44). And remember, we are all in this together. You are not alone. We all sin and fall short of our better angels (Romans 3:23).

And in our regrets, deep sadness and in deep repentance,

those of us deeply wounded have only to run to the

open arms of Jesus who welcomes us, taking us all in for repairs 24/7.

He is merciful and loving and patient and kind and is our deepest friend.

We need to pray that what breaks God's heart, breaks our heart. We need to pray that our hearts of stone will be changed into hearts of flesh; to repent of our willful ignorance; repent of our pathetic apathy. Pray for courageous faith. And may God have mercy on us all.

Pexels photo - Roman - Ziomka