"And they build the high places of Baal,
which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom,
to cause their sons and their daughters
to pass through the fire unto Molech;
which I commanded them not,
neither came it into my mind,
that they should do this abomination,
to cause Judah to sin."
(Jeremiah 32:35)
which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom,
to cause their sons and their daughters
to pass through the fire unto Molech;
which I commanded them not,
neither came it into my mind,
that they should do this abomination,
to cause Judah to sin."
(Jeremiah 32:35)
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| Exhibit 1 |
In the Fall of 1986 I attended a prominent right to life conference in which leaders were gathering to plan strategy before the U.S. presidential campaign of 1988. The right to life issue had suddenly become the number one issue motivating voters.
Late the second night I was walking down the hotel hallway talking with a friend. Suddenly we came upon a couple entangled in a passionate embrace in the doorway to the woman's room. It was apparent they had been drinking heavily as they had abandoned any sense of restraint. We quickly walked on but when we got back to our room we broke down in tears. The couple in the embrace were not married - to each other - and they were high-profile leaders. They didn't see that their sin of adultery was part of the problem!
The next day after I returned home I got a phone call about midnight. It was from another leader in the movement, someone who had been overseeing my state work. She demanded that I immediately deny that I had seen what I had seen. That would mean telling a lie. I told her I could not deny what I had seen with my own eyes, but that I had no intention of broadcasting gossip about what I had witnessed. She then told me that she would do everything in her power to destroy me. And she began to work on it. A few months later I resigned from my position because it became clear that in her attempt to destroy me she was ruining an entire organization.[1]
By Sarah H. Leslie
It has been my contention for these past three decades that the right to life issue would not be won by political action but rather through repentance from the sexual sins that lead up to the sin of abortion. The sexual sins within the church are so pervasive that it neutralizes the witness and corrupts the message of both the Old and New Testaments: "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (Lev. 20:7, 1 Peter 1:15-16), and to "abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:1). These sins can include "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft...." (Gal. 5:19-20). Because Jesus said that "whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5:28) this includes pornography. And sexual abuse and exploitation in recent years have made headlines as sins within the church.
In a 2001 article "How Can There Be Revival Without Repentance?" my husband Lynn and I wrote:
In the early 1980s we were led by the Lord to work in the right to life movement. From the beginning we knew that we could not become entangled in the popular Dominionist ideal of saving America through politics. But we had discovered through our research that the public had not been told the truth about abortion: its history, its methods and procedures, and its consequences. This was due to a well-documented conspiracy of silence on the part of the mainstream media and medical community. We naively thought that it would just be a matter of education – if people knew the truth they would repent.
Doors opened and opportunities presented themselves to us, in ways that we could have never dreamed. We stood before governors, presidential candidates, senators, representatives, pastors, doctors and other leaders. The Lord charged us to plainly present the truth. We quickly learned that speaking the truth made us a lightning rod. Some hated us because of our message. Some realized their sins and repented. We stood on a spiritual fault line - one could not be neutral in the face of life and death truth. A decision had to be made after hearing the truth.
But what came of our efforts? Why have you heard of no revival where multitudes repented during the mid-‘80s in a midwestern state? There was no revival.
There can be no revival without repentance.
When we told Christians in the churches the truth about abortion we began to hear stories:
Professing Christian women went to the abortionists, some more than once. One Christian woman explained that she had to cover up the sin of adultery. She feared harm to her reputation in her small town community. Another Christian woman asserted that her career, and the career of the baby’s father, would have been damaged if their affair had become known.
A highly respected evangelical leader, who had been a prayer partner of ours, shared that she had previously worked in an abortion clinic. Startled by this admission, we inquired about her repentance. She believed that this was a ministry, she said, because she held the hand of the lady undergoing the procedure and prayed for the baby that was dying. Another abortion clinic worker told us that she was helping women who were needy. She felt we were in the wrong by being so “judgmental.”
One day a troubled minister confessed that he had taken his girlfriend to an abortion clinic because he thought it was his duty as a good man to support his woman during this time of trial. It had never occurred to him that he had directly assisted in the killing of his own child. He was devastated for many days, but later backslid into the same sins that had led to his original act of immorality – pornography and fornication.
We heard reports of Christian mothers who coerced their daughters to undergo abortions to camouflage their promiscuity. In several churches elders relied on abortion to cover secret sins in the church leadership. There were Christian counselors and pastors who recommended abortions. Some were simply silent. They didn’t speak out to defend the baby’s life, following the humanistic model for non-directive psychology.
Occasionally we counseled women who had undergone abortions, but who had never been told the truth. Many of these women were emotionally devastated and experienced great loss. This included Christian women who had relied on IUD’s, abortifacient birth control pills, or otherwise consented to a medical procedure which caused their fertilized embryo baby to die before implantation in the uterine wall. Despite the obvious loss of life, we knew of only one Christian doctor who didn’t routinely prescribe these abortifacients. Other Christian doctors made referrals for abortions. One doctor privately told me that she feared the pressure of her medical peers.
Christian teachers in public school classrooms believed it was their duty to teach children the intimate details about sexuality, including abortion -- how to obtain one and the location of the nearest clinic.
We searched for answers. Gradually over a period of many years we began to understand that abortion was merely the tip of a massive iceberg. What was underneath the church’s participation in abortion? Some Christians were engaging in flagrant sins such as adultery and fornication. Lurking under those sins was often concupiscence, lasciviousness, uncleanness and inordinate affection. But we also found other, more troubling answers. [Keep reading this original article HERE][1]
Abortion as a "Sacred" Rite
Flagrant sin entangles Christians and prevents the body of Christ from being salt and light to the world. This was the case in the Old Testament, when the prophet Jeremiah asserted that the people "have only done evil before me from their youth" (32:30) and "have turned unto Me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by My name, to defile it" (32:33). [emphasis added]
Jeremiah's reference to abominations is idolatry. The pagan idols were grossly sexual and vulgar, and the forbidden spiritual-sexual practices of the Canaanites culminated in the horrors of infant sacrifice, literally burning live babies in the fire - "they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb" (Ezekiel 20:26). Furthermore, Ezekiel 16:20 tells the scandalous story of sexual immorality culminating in the slaying of "thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto Me, and these has thou sacrificed unto them [gods, idols] to be devoured." And Leviticus 20 details the Old Testament laws regarding any "that giveth any of his seed [children] unto Molech... to defile My sanctuary, and to profane My holy name" (v. 2-3).[2] Molech was a hungry god with an insatiable appetite who demanded human babies.
Abortion is increasingly being referred to as "sacred," and in this context we began writing about it on Herescope. No longer was it just an issue of immorality and injustice, but it is now being treated as a religious rite. The late Pastor Larry DeBruyn and I published an article warning about this on September 23, 2017 titled "Oprah Magazine: God's 'in' Abortions?" and Pastor Jim Jenkins followed up with his December 2, 2017 article "Un-Sacred Spaces: Theology to Justify Abortion."
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| Exhibit 2 |
New York's Shameful Act
It therefore seems no accident that upon the signing of the new abortion law in New York that a phallic symbol would be lit up atop a prominent skyscraper. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo lit up the One World Trade Center in pink to celebrate the passage of a New York's so-called Reproductive Health Act. The newly passed abortion law in New York allows non-doctors to perform abortions and repeals legislation that would have protected babies all nine months from being killed, including permitting infanticide! The bill's horrifying consequences were described in an Open Letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo:
Contrary to what its proponents say, the RHA goes far beyond Roe vs. Wade in its aggressive extremism. Granting non-doctors permission to perform abortions does nothing to advance the security and health of women. Condoning coerced or involuntary abortions by repealing criminal sanctions even in cases where a perpetrator seeks to make his partner “un-pregnant” through an act of physical violence does not represent any kind of progress in the choice, safety or health of women. Removing protection for an infant accidentally born alive during an abortion is abject cruelty, something most people of conscience would deem inhumane for even a dog or cat. Finally, allowing late-term abortions is nothing less than a license to kill a pre-born child at will.[3]
The signing of the bill into law was accompanied by a celebration, laughing, smiles and applause. Clearly some hope that this bill will pave the way towards a new era of abortion rights/rites in which even fullterm babies "accidentally" born by abortion can be murdered. It has been asserted that this law "'would make the crimes of Kermit Gosnell legal."[4] Gaylene Goodroad wrote about this prominent abortionist doctor in her October 28, 2018 article "Innocents Lost."
Upon signing the bill, Governor "Cuomo called it 'a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values' on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States."[5]
Make no mistake about it. Despite the assertion that this is "progressive," abortion is an ancient pagan brutality, a bloody and barbaric practice. It is a violent solution to a complex human problem. It sheds the blood of an innocent human life for any reason. It is inhumane and cruel. It is not compassionate, not gentle, not loving.
Against all reason, abortion is still going on despite the advances in medical knowledge and technology that have increased exponentially since Roe v. Wade in 1973. These scientific developments should have rendered abortion obsolete. There is no rational explanation for murdering a helpless, fragile baby. The irrational reason is even more scary - the belief that abortion is not just a right, but a rite, a sacred rite. A pagan ritual.
New York, New York
New York has been Tim Keller's backyard. Is it time to acknowledge that his grandiose "Center Church" psycho-social engineering plan hasn't worked?[6] That his Neo-Kuyperian "Movement" is failing? That his grossly contextualized theology isn't reaching people's hearts with biblical Truth, leading them to repent of their sins? That creating a leader-driven multiplication "movement" for building urban churches has compromised the voice of the church? That merging church with corporate business and State ("three-legged stool") for money and power does not further the Gospel of Jesus Christ? That the convergence of church with culture has only created more social change - for the worse? That accommodation with the culture dilutes the salvation message? That the trouble with utopian city transformation schemes is that they don't get to the root of the matter in people's hearts - i.e., sin?
What will work? The Gospel of salvation. There can be no revival unless there is real repentance.
These programs that make the church acceptable to the culture are easily susceptible to being undermined. Any monies that the church accepts from the world in social services programs come with strings attached. He who pays the piper calls the tune. The church can only be acceptable to the world when it doesn't speak out the Gospel Truth. As long as the church plays the game, jumps through the bureaucratic hoops, endorses situational ethics, and keeps silent, it will be liked.
But once the church openly proclaims the Gospel, and speaks out loudly for real morality, and calls out sin by name, there is very real possibility of persecution. Speak out and face the consequences. Here is one portentous scenario:
I shudder to think of the consequences this law will wreak. You [Gov. Cuomo] have already uttered harsh threats about the welcome you think pro-lifers are not entitled to in our state. Now you are demonstrating that you mean to write your warning into law. Will being pro-life one day be a hate crime in the State of New York?[7]
The Truth:
"No man, when he hath lighted a candle,
putteth it in a secret place,
neither under a bushel,
but on a candlestick,
that they which come in may see the light."
(Luke 11:33)
putteth it in a secret place,
neither under a bushel,
but on a candlestick,
that they which come in may see the light."
(Luke 11:33)
In 2001 we concluded our article with the following admonition:
It is time to return to a simple faith and trust in your first Love, Jesus Christ, who died on a cross so that your sins might be forgiven. Read the Bible every day employing traditional methods of Bible study... take each verse and ask the Lord to show you in your heart where you need to apply it to your life. What is God plainly saying? Are you convicted? Do you need to ask the Lord for forgiveness? Do you need to make some changes in your life? Even if you look “peculiar” in the eyes of a worldly church? Are you willing to walk the narrow way, even if you are very alone on that path? "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Ps. 119:105)
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served
that were on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites [Molech, e.g.],
in whose land ye dwell;
but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
(Joshua 24:15)
choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served
that were on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites [Molech, e.g.],
in whose land ye dwell;
but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
(Joshua 24:15)
Endnotes:
1. Lynn and Sarah Leslie, "How Can There Be Revival Without Repentance?" originally published in the Discernment Newsletter, Sept/Oct 2001 (Vol. 12., No. 5), and now posted online at http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/revivalwithout.html
2. Quoting these verses should not be construed as an advocacy of returning to Old Testament capital punishment law, which many Dominionists have suggested.
3. Rev. Edward B. Scharfenberger, "Bishop writes open letter to Gov. Cuomo," The Evangelist, Saturday, January 29, 2019, https://evangelist.org/Content/Default/Homepage-Rotator/Article/Bishop-writes-open-letter-to-Gov-Cuomo-/-3/141/27245 This is an open letter from a Catholic bishop which stands against abortion as a matter of church doctrine.
4. "'Gosnell' star Dean Cain: New abortion protection 'would make the crimes of Kermit Gosnell legal'," Fox News, January 25, 2019, https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/gosnell-star-dean-cain-new-abortion-protection-would-make-the-crimes-of-kermit-gosnell-legal
5. Caleb Parke, "New York 'celebrates' legalizing abortion until birth as Catholic bishops question Cuomo's faith," Fox News, January 24, 2019, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-celebrates-legalizing-abortion-until-birth-as-catholic-bishops-question-cuomos-faith
6. https://www.redeemercitytocity.com/centerchurch/
7. Scharfenberger, Ibid. Quoting this bishop is not an endorsement of Catholicism, but it needs to be pointed out that Catholics openly proclaim their stance against abortion when sometimes, to our shame, evangelical leaders are passively silent. Because of this boldness Catholics have often borne the brunt of persecution.
Exhibit 1 is a screenshot of a baby on the UNICEF website Every Child ALIVE: https://www.unicef.org/every-child-alive/ Despite this nice slogan and beautiful newborn baby picture, UNICEF is not pro-life.
Exhibit 2 is a screenshot of one of many images that have been widely disseminated across the Internet, including: HERE.