To The Editor:
I just recently had an opportunity to speak with an old friend who I knew well about 20 years ago. I have written this letter in response to our conversation and also because last week was the anniversary of “Roe verses Wade” the decision that made abortion legal in America.
This lady was a great help to me in many different areas in my life at that time. She was helping teach the Singles Sunday School at the time and she even asked me to teach the Sunday School Class for her one Sunday. She is one of the reasons that I stayed in the church I was attending and eventually I was saved. Imagine that I was substitute teaching a Sunday School Class and I was not even saved. Yikes! She told me that she was a big supporter of women’s rights when I spoke to her recently.
While I was attending that same church, I was saved and met another lady who had been involved in the National Right to Life movement. I had always believed that life began only after birth, I had been taught well by the television programs that I had watched that there was nothing but a blob of flesh in the womb before birth. This young lady quickly confronted me about this issue and showed me the procedure that is used to do “the partial birth abortion.” I could not believe what she showed me! The procedure to do the partial birth abortion was nothing but brutal wickedness, I could not believe that a country that proclaims freedom would actually let something like this happen. I would have to call that procedure legalized MURDER!
A few years after that confrontation with that lady I started to read the Bible. I could not believe what I was reading in the word of God. How can a person, a woman or a man, who claims to be a Christian not support the protection of innocent human life? If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and believe the Word of God is His Word and you support abortion or vote for those who support abortion, I beg you to open up your Bible with me and learn what God has to say on this subject.
First of all, God loves every person on the face of the earth regardless of race! The Bible gives this reason in Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion… Because we are created in the image of God, human beings are God’s very special creation! In fact, when God had created us He said in Genesis 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good… The reason that God said “it was very good” was because God had made humans His very special crowning creation. The reason why human life is precious is because we are made in the image of God.
Second God hates the shedding of innocent blood! Proverbs 6:16 These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: 17 A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood.
The words “innocent blood” are written together 19 times in God’s Word! And they were written as a warning to those who were killing innocent people or to those who might be thinking about taking an innocent human life. After Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives had come off of the ark, God gave them a command about protecting human life. You will find this in Genesis 9:5 “Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood will be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” The point is that if a person kills an innocent person, unless it is an accident, the person who murdered that person should be killed. Also, if an animal kills a person that animal is to die, also. The reason the murderer is killed is because he or she took an innocent human life and also that innocent life was made in the image of God.
Third is that life begins at conception. When the Lord called Jeremiah the prophet to follow Him and speak God’s word to others this is what the Lord said to him. Jeremiah 1:4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying: “5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Notice the wording “before I formed you in the womb I knew you” my point is that before God had ever formed Jeremiah God knew Jeremiah. Therefore, in the eyes of God Jeremiah was already a person even before he was in the womb! So, personhood starts well before even conception! Not only that God is the one who should have the right to determine the length of that person’s life. The Bible says that God already knows how long we are going to live even before we are born. Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book, they were all written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” It is also clear from Psalm 139:13 “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.” When an innocent life is taken in the womb, the life that God has created is being destroyed. The safest place in America for a child should be in the womb of the child’s mother.
Fourth is that God will bring severe consequences on individuals and on nations that take innocent human life. We have seen from our second reason that those who kill a person in cold blood their lives should be taken from them, that is what God’s word says. But there are also national consequences. The children of Israel were living in Israel, their Promised Land, and the Lord would send His prophets to speak to them, these are some of the words that Jeremiah the prophet said, Jeremiah 7:6 “If you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave your father forever and ever.” In verse 6 all of the people listed are helpless innocent people and also notice the words “do not shed innocent blood,” they would not listen to the Lord but kept on killing innocent people. So, the Lord had the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to come and take the Israelites captive from their own countries because of their sins against Him. In 2 Kings 24:4 the verse is telling why the children of Israel were taken away captive in that verse “innocent blood” is listed twice.
Why is there so much cold-blooded murder in America? Why did a killer shoot out his window in Las Vegas killing fifty-nine people and injuring five hundred people? Why are our police officers in peril every day? Why is there endless killing in our cities and even in our smaller towns? Why are men walking into churches and opening fire? I will tell you why because innocent human life is no longer protected in America. All Christians will give an account to the Living God at the end of our lives, it is called “the Judgment Seat of Christ.” We will give an account to God for what we have done for the kingdom of God, for whom we have voted for and the policies that we have promoted or supported. In today’s world the only way a person can know the truth and what to support is to read the Word of God.
According to Scripture absolutely no one has the right to shed innocent human life for any reason it is called murder in the Sixth Commandment. According to God no woman has the right to take the life of her innocent unwanted child that is still in the womb, that child is being knit together by God Almighty. And I am convinced that the killings that are taking place all over America are a result of America’s policy of abortion and euthanasia that has taken place ever since “Roe verses Wade.” If your church is supporting abortion for any reason, be a champion for Christ and ask them to stop murdering our children. If they refuse you need to find another church, one that will tell you truth from God’s Word and that truth will set you free. God Bless.
Pastor Bert Petty (PGBC)
1617 HW 57 South
Dillon, S.C. 29536
