Blow the Trumpet for the Least of These

The first to be kiled in Nazi Germany were the infirm, the senile and mentally retarded, and the aged and defective children (mid-1930s). Eventually, as WWII was approaching, the doomed undesirables included epileptics, children with badly modeled ears and even bedwetters (late 1930s). Transportation of patients to killing centers was carried out by a charitable transport company for the sick. The plan then was to kill all Jews and Poles and to cut down the Russian population by 30 million.


We are all struck by this great Holocaust and wonder how it ever could have happened. Leo Alexander, who was consultant to the Secretary of War and on duty with the office of Chief Counselor for War Crimes in Nuremburg, says that what happened in Nazi Germany “all started with the acceptance of the beautitude that there is such thing as life not worthy to be lived.” (See Gen. 1:26-28 & Psalm 139:1, 13-16)


A Baptist preacher in Minneapolis, John Piper, reveals in his book that he preaches “on the horrific sin and injustice of abortion and on the glory of the cause of life” at least once a year. He calls on his people to “dream of ways of being sacrificially involved in the pro-life efforts to make abortion unthinkable in our nation.”


Today is the 48th anniversary of a famous U.S. Supreme court case, Roe v. Wade. 50 million+ lives taken. This infamous case opened the floodgates for permissive abortion by striking down the criminal abortion statutues of all 50 states, declaring that a “just discovered right of privacy” in the Constitution served to strip the unborn of any legal protetion under law, notwithstanding that many criminal abortion state statutes had been the law since the 1850s and 1860s. The effect of that decision was to deprive the unborn baby of personhood under the Constitution, even as the Supreme Court in 1857 (Dred Scott decision) declared the black person to be only chattel (property) and not a person deserving protection under the Constitution.


Economic convenience was the hidden rationale for the court ruling that runaway slaves must be returned by law to their owners in another state. Economic and selfish reasons are in the background to the slaughter of the innocents today. Yet, there is a “slippery slope” that our culture is presently sliding on. Locations on that slope move from abortion to euthanasia to infanticide. And so, our 21st century culture has been growing increasingly receptive to “death by someone’s choice” at all stages of life: unborn, imperfect newborn, elderly, crippled middle age. From God’s word, we’ll look at the ultimate basis for life, ethics and active Biblical/moral stand against the evil of our day.


Theologian Ronald B. Alan asserts that “Man originates from the very heart of God. We have therefore an ascending line: At the tip of the pyramid is man, for he alone of all creatures is the closest to God. His creation alone is preceded by a solid decision in God’s heart.”


Not only is man created by the decision of the heart of God, he is made in the divine image. It is precisely this: it is man fashioned in the image of God that makes the concept of the majesty of man Biblically appropriate. Man’s majesty is derived from his intimate association with his creator, for no creature is closer to God than he. Before God, he is the center and goal of creation.


Our text tells us that the formation of the life of a person in the womb is the work of God, and it is not merely a mechanical process, but a work on the analogy of wearing or knitting. John Piper explains that, “The life of the unborn is the knitting of God, and what He is knitting is a human being in his own image, unlike any other creature in the universe.” And so, Psalm 1:39 emphasizes God as the primary workman, nurturer, fashioner, knitter, creator - in this time of gestation. Though mothers and fathers can contribute some impersonal egg and some impersonal sperm, only God creates independent personhood. Piper says, “What is happening in the womb is a unique person, forming work of God, and only God knows how deeply and mysteriously the creation of personhood is woven into the making of a human body.”


This was the high view of God, the Judeo-Christian worldview that laid a foundation for a high view of all human life in concept and in practice. It was given expression in Psalm 82: “Give justice to the weak, the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” This high view of God and man has been under attack since the early 20th century.


A worldview based on the Bible caused people to view human life as unique...to be protected and loved...because it was known that each human being was created in the image of God. Yet in two short generations, perhaps from the year of my birth (1942) to the present, we have moved from a generally high view of life to a very low one. Why has our society changed? The late Francis Schaeffer tells us the answer is clear: “The consensus of our society no longer rests on a Judeo-

Christian base, but rather on a humanistic one. Humanism makes man the measure of all things. It puts man rather than God at the center of all things. And so, in my lifetime, humanism has replaced Christianity as the consensus of the West. This has had and continues to have, these results: 1) people’s views of themselves have changed, with Darwinian evolution taught, 2) people’s attitudes toward others have changed.


Illustration: It was a beautiful summer evening about July of 2000. My wife and I were in my father-in-law’s home in Newport, VT, relaxing, and the phone rang with a “firebell message.” My mom was telling me that my dad’s heart problem had resulted in his being placed now in an ambulance with a 12 mile ride to the Newport hospital. My wife, our eldest son, and I were with Dad until nearly 3 a.m. at the small Newport hospital. It was at that time that Dart I, a medical evacuation helicopter, airlifted Dad to the large regional medical center at Hanover, NH, which had superb cardiology and heart treatment resources. Why 8 hours delay? A low view of human life...even for 78 year old dad, longtime community leader, and at that time, president of the local cemetery association...much discussion with the three doctors in attendance, to especially dad’s own doctor...is this a life in its present condition that’s worth salvaging, expending the extra resources, using the superior medical technology 110 miles away? Eventually, Doctor B. got on the phone, Dart I was on the way, and my dad productively enjoyed nearly two more years of life and involvement in his community.


Based on the truth of the inerrant inspired and full word of God, the Bible, we must live and act and teach, both in our individual lives and as responsible citizens, on the fact that “every human being has unique value as made in the image of God.” This must be so from a child just conceived in the womb to the old one with their last gasping breath and below; for we as believers know that all people will spend eternity somewhere, with God or not, depending on their relationship with Christ as Savior. My dad had an impatience toward the Scriptures; usually a laconic Vermonter who preferred not to talk about his faith; even the next a.m. at the hospital, he did not want me to read Scripture to him. But two years later, at the Homestead, FL hospital, he was eager. “Stephen, read that again.” Now it was evident, Dad’s surrender to Christ.


Since our culture has increasingly taken a lower and lower view of the value of human life, and we as believers understand that life is sacred at all stages, and that we are created and called to live and consecrate our lives through God’s purpose, how shall we then live?


Daniel 11:32: “The people that know their God shall be strong, and shall stand firm and take action.” In the context, this statement of Daniel’s is introduced by “but” and is set in contrast to the activity of the “vile person” who sets up the abomination that makes desolate and corrupts by smooth and flattering talk. This shows us that the action taken by those who know God is their reaction to the anti-God friends which they see operating around them. While their God is being defied or disregarded, they cannot rest; the Holy Spirit prompts them to do something; the dishonor done to God’s name goads them into action. Here are a few of Scripture’s mandates, for the strengthening of our convictions from the Word of God.


God commanded: “You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13 The word for murder (or kill) in the Old Testament Hebrew is Rahaz, used 43 times and always meaning violent, personal killing that is actualy murder or is accused as murder. It is never used for killing of war or killing by judicial execution. Rather, a clear distinction is preserved between legal putting to death and illegal murder.


So, when God’s Word speaks of killing that is justifiable, it generally has in mind God sharing some of his rights with the civil authority. When the federal government or a state acts in its capacity as God’s ordained preserver of justice and peace by executing a Timothy McVeigh or a Charles Rodman Campbell, it has the right to bear the sword as Romans 13:1-7 teaches. And yet this right of the state is always exercised to punish evil, never to attack the innocent. Therefore, thou shalt not murder (or kill) stands as a clear and resoundign indictment of the kiling of innocent unborn children and the destruction of conceived human life - whether embryonic, fetal or viable - is an assault on the unique person formed by a work of God.


Aborting unborn human beings falls under the repeated Biblical injunction against shedding innocent blood. In the 20 times the phrase innocent blood is used in the Bible, it is always in the context of condemning those who shed this blood for warning people not to shed it. The Psalmist confesses Israel’s sins in Psalm 106: “They serve their idols, which became a snare to them, they even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. And shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, who they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood.” Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people then he gave them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them. The prophet Jeremiah puts it in a context with refugees, widows and orphans, “Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.” Is the blood of the unborn as innocent as any blood that flows in the world?


God’s Word instructs us in Psalms and Exodus to “give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.” Rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” It is a sin of presumption to justify abortion by taking comfort in the fact that all these little children will go to heaven or be given full adult life in the Resurrection. This is a wonderful hope when the heart is broken with penitence and seeking forgiveness but it is evil to justify killing by the happy outcome of eternity for the one kill. The same justification could be used to justify the killing of a newborn, a one-year old, or any heaven bound saint. The Bible asks, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? And why not do evil that good may come? Romans 3:8 The Apostle Paul in Romans answers each question with a resounding NO! It is presumptuous to step into God’s place and try to make the assignment to Heaven or Hell. Our duty is to obey God, not to play God.


The word for infant in Luke 18:15 is the same word Luke uses for the unborn infant in Elizabeht’s womb in Luke 1:41,44, “Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked him. But Jesus allied them to him saying, “Let the children come to Me, and do not hinder them, or to such belongs the Kingdom of God.” Luke 18:15-16 It is the right of our God, our Creator and Maker to give and to take human life. It is not our individual right to make this choice. Job tells us, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Birth and death are the prerogatives of God. God is giver and taker in this awesome affair of life. Our duty is to care for what God gives, and use it to his glory. And, for whatever part that any of us may have had in this in the past, saving faith in Christ Jesus brings forgiveness of sins and cleansing of conscience and health through life and hope for eternity. “In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7


How shall we then live against the evil of our day? How may we, like Daniel of old, stand firm and take action? John Piper said, “Commit yourself to God, draw near to him.”


1) Live by the power of His grace. Let him shape your desires rather than the world and the feisty, self-centered temperament of our culture. Let your life and your mouth bear witness to the real delights of knowing and trusting and obeying and being shaped and guided by the Creator of all things who loves us and gave himself for us. Be a Christian, and a visible and audible one for the world needs us so badly.

2) Pray, pray, pray: For a wakening and revival in Christi’s church...locally and then to spill over to state and nation, to worldwide evangelization of the lost.


3) With our prayers, time and money, we can support alternatives to abortion, for example, Crisis Pregnancy Centers.


4) Use of our freedoms in our democratic republic: free speech, contact legislators, state and national.

5) Onward Christian Soldiers it is a battle for the least of these in our society and on the other hand, providing the loving care of people as individuals.

6) Do you have a vision that later in the 21st century people would look back on these three past generations with the same dismay that we look back on the then-legal slave laws of the land and on the hideous concentration camps maintained by the Nazis during WWII? William Wilberforce in England almost singlehandedly brought about abolishment of slavery and the slave trade in the British Empire, Abraham Lincoln led the overcoming of slavery in the U.S. while preserving the Union.


It can happen again.


Will you put the trumpet to your lips? For the unborn? The infants? The crippled? The elderly? For all of these, the least of these?


Let us pray:

Father in heaven, we thank thee this morning for the gift of life, for making us, knitting us in thy image, from thy word we know that all human life is sacred, from conception to the final breath. We know that our lives are a trust from you, and therefore should be dedicated and lived to achieve your divine purpose. By your Holy Spirit, give us strength and courage to live out our days evidencing reference for all human life, especially toward the least of these. And for any of us who have spoken or acted toward other human beings in disregard for the sanctity of life, we ask for forgiveness and cleansing according to the richness of the grace and mercy. In Jesus’s name, Amen.


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