"The Unborn are Next!"

"The Unborn are Next!"

A few months before the May 3rd leaked opinion of Roe vs Wade I was praying for God to act on behalf of the littlest ones in the womb. I prayed for God to defend them, to do something to protect them. The answer came to me one day as the Spirit of God dropped in my spirit these words: "the unborn are next." I picked up on those words as I had at other times God had prompted me. God was going to do something to protect the unborn. I took the entirety of the insight this way: God is moving, and just as He had brought to light how people should not be mistreated because of their ethnicity people will now see Him move on behalf of the unborn. Because the answer was clear to me I put it on my Facebook feed on April 14th. Growing up helping women in crisis pregnancies to fundraising for crisis pregnancy centers, I have seen strides in the pro-life cause and many setbacks. This, however, was unlike anything I had ever experienced. After a few weeks nothing happened. There were no reports in the news of major changes in laws, no changes in public opinion, not even a hint of new undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood's abortion industry. After some time I recall praying, 'God you said you were going defend these little ones but nothing has happened.' The very next day the Roe leak hit the news! Major headlines shocked the world: "LEAKED DRAFT OPINION SUGGESTS SUPREME COURT MAY OVERTURN ROE V. WADE." I was stunned. How is this happening? It didn't make sense because it was all behind closed doors. God had already been moving and the prayers of many were going to be answered. The unborn were going to be decided in favor of in a major way. They were next.

Reversing Roe is God's Work and God's Test

More than Roe's reversal, which happened almost 6 weeks later, I believe something greater was going on, something bigger. Through this partial but major move on the unborn's behalf God was testing the world. I firmly believe I discerned this through the Holy Spirit as an application of Revelation 3:10. Let me explain. According to that verse, God promises to keep His followers who persevere in His word from "the hour of trial, the hour that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth." The "hour of trial" is likely that worldwide test which precedes the return of Jesus to earth and includes the final judgment. Similarly, the words "about to" in Revelation 3 and all other places in that book always refer to events before the second coming of Jesus. The phrase "kept from" relates to God's protection of His people when He pours out His judgments but likely at least refers to the final judgment we are shielded from. The "test" could point to God putting the world through trying circumstances to reveal their heart toward Him.

So what does that 'testing' have to do with the Roe reversal? Also impressed upon me by the Holy Spirit was that the test and the response to the test is a way God reveals hearts toward what He values. Under the umbrella of 'The Test' is 'a test' about the value of human life. God does something momentous to see how people respond and their response reveals people's hearts toward Him. In this case, the reversal of Roe is God's tool to reveal if people value and defend life in the womb, or will they continue in their evil ways. Will they repent or continue to oppose God? My hope is that the world does not end up as it says in Revelation 9:21, "nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts" (NIV).

Did We Pass the Test?

As amazing as the decision was, Roe's reversal did not make abortion a thing of the past in our land. It put the decision back to the states. Women in the U.S. can still obtain abortions if they so desire. But how did people respond to the test? Did they pass? World leaders and celebrities decried the reversal. Former presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren stated that the reversal of Roe was a "stripping away of a constitutional right [to abortion]" and that she would be "committed to protecting the right to abortion using every policy tool available." Michelle Obama was "heartbroken' because of the ruling. President Joe Biden called the day of the reversal a "sad day" and said, "now, with Roe gone, let’s be very clear: The health and life of women in this nation are now at risk." No, Mr President, women can be cared for and assisted, and have been for decades through pregnancy centers, but not choose what you are promoting.

For the most part, the world outside of Christ was outraged. They took to the streets demanding their right to abortion, sometimes in grotesque and graphic fashion. As inhumane as that was, Christians should come to expect that from the world. But what about the church? How did they do? For the most part and from what I saw, everyday Christians took to social media to post in celebratory fashion statements of gratitude to God commemorating the moment. The simplicity and sincerity of their faith shined in those posts. Some pastors also uploaded videos discussing the historic decision. Unfortunately, this response was not shared by some prominent pastors and thought leaders in the church. They did not seem to see this as a blow to evil, nor was there much celebrating. In fact, the opposite was the case. Many were silent and some shockingly lamented the reversal. Their social media posts were strikingly different with many containing multiple qualifications that would make one wonder if the same historic moment was being discussed. One video showed a pastor finishing the worship segment during a church service with a smile on his face only to frown once he began to read a statement on the Roe decision. Another pastor said, "I know abortion is a sin, but the Bible doesn’t tell me the best political policy to decrease or end abortion in this country, nor which political or legal policies are most effective to that end … [W]e are allowed to debate that and so our churches should not have disunity over debatable political differences!" The problem with that line of thinking, as one political expert put it, is that it fails to understand that almost nothing can be done through other means (i.e. state restrictions on abortion, other Supreme Court decisions, changes in public opinion) until the Roe precedent is overturned. The only way for the Roe precedent to be overturned is through the appointment of justices on the Supreme Court who see no right to abortion in the Constitution. The only way to get those kind of justices on the Supreme Court is to vote for pro-life presidential candidates who appoint those justice and Senators and Representatives who would affirm those justices. Besides that line of reasoning, Steven Begakis insightfully points out, "Would he [that pastor] say the same thing about murder or slavery" if those words were inserted into the places where the word 'abortion' is in that quote?

So, why was there such a whisper by Christian voices? Was it that we as the church are unfamiliar with God's ways so as to miss it by that much? Had we not read where God worked through flawed leaders to accomplish His will in the past? Did we not know that God used pagan kings like Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar to deal out His retributive or restorative will on behalf of Israel even if they exhibited major character flaws in public? Surely we recall that Samson, who violated much of his covenantal obligations, was an extension of God's hand against the evil Philistines and even appears in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. King Cyrus was called "My Anointed" by God and used to rebuild the city and walls of Jerusalem. Is our biblical ignorance at such levels that we can't connect the dots to see that God used a flawed president to appoint 3 Supreme Court justices to reverse Roe? From the' Biden White House's own website it currently reads, "It was three justices named by one President — Donald Trump — who were the core of today’s decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country. Make no mistake: This decision is the culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law. It’s a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court, in my view." Is the opinion that unborn human beings should not be put to death' an 'extreme ideology?' Is the Biden Administration's take on what happened the final word or did they forget to consider that God might use a controversial president to answer the 50-year intercession of God's people? Was God's providential hand at play when three justices died and had to be replaced during his 4-year term and these would be life-affirming judges who would tip the balance in favor of the unborn? The point of this article is not to promote Donald Trump. If you thought that you missed the point. But if you recoiled at God using Him you might want to take a second look. Don't let your dislike of Trump make you dislike what God is doing. A failure to understand the times and not perceive what God is doing through unlikely people could put us at odds with what God is doing, or at best cause us to be apathetic toward it. Nothing is outside the sovereignty of God.

Is there a Lesson to be Learned?

Maybe this article doesn't put it all together for you. Perhaps you disagree or you're just not interested. Maybe you are new to the discussion. Not everyone is up to speed on every issue. That is understandable. For some, something else may be at play. Perhaps there is a latent desire to maintain the approval of the world, a world is that is opposed to Christ. For me, there is a lesson to be learned and I can't help but wonder if we, the church, desire the respect of culture so much that we missed a historic move of God on behalf of the most defenseless people on the planet, the unborn. If this is the case, what other moves of God will we strike out on for that same reason? Before I published this post I sent it to a friend I have known for nearly 15 years. Within a day he texted me back saying, "A doctor told my mom that I had Down Syndrome and that she should get an abortion. She said 'No' and I don't have Down Syndrome." He is currently married with multiple kids of his own and has adopted several children as well. I can't help but think of the Christian influence in the church that informed his mother in making the God-honoring decision for life which so many today are might shy away from. May we be people after God's own heart, a heart that protects life in the womb.