Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Nations have declined when they choose a culture of death over life.
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[Steve Myers] This week marks the 39th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade—the decision that ultimately allows abortion in the United States. It's not just a United States issue. This is an issue that's around the world and it has changed the world. The death of these infants, these fetuses has been remarkable. People in the United States have estimated 58 million or more have been aborted since that ruling came about. It's really been a devastation and the effects worldwide cannot be minimized.
[Darris McNeely] Yesterday we mentioned that this passing of the 39th anniversary puts us into the 40th year and 40 in the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is always been associated with a period of testing or trial or judgment. And one has to wonder if this is a significant thought for us as we look at this passage here because history shows us any civilization that has practiced infanticide at that level ceases to exist in time. Archeologists have uncovered cemeteries in the ancient city of Carthage on the North African coast where it was very clear were buried the skeletal remains of infants who had been killed in some type of a ritual sacrifice connected with pagan antiquity. And Carthage was destroyed. In the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. we find where even one of the kings of Judah at one point set up an altar to the god Moloch near Jerusalem and sacrificed children. That sin, great in the eyes of God, accelerated the downfall of His own nation, Israel, Judah at that time. And so the lessons of history are very important for us to consider and the scriptural teaching to choose life is extremely important.
[Steve Myers] And I think governments that allow this sort of thing will be held accountable to God. And so can we just rely on some governmental decision to impact our personal lives or are we personally responsible as well? And I think when you bring it down to a personal level, we can't ignore what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 30 because we have a great God who is on our side and He is a God who stands for life. Deuteronomy 13 (chapter 30) and it says, and verse 15, it says "I have set before you today life and good, death and evil" (Deuteronomy 30:15). And the amazing part about our God is He just doesn't say, "Well, good luck deciding what to do." He tells us, "Therefore, choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). Choose life, God says. Don't choose the cursing. Don't choose the destruction, but choose life. And that's what God wants for all of us, to choose that life that He has in mind for us.
[Darris McNeely] Now we are not going to exhaust this subject in our Beyond Today Dailies , but we do want to cover one more aspect of this and that is how to deal with someone who has had an abortion and how they should understand themselves in their relationship with God today because we certainly want to give some hope on that regard so our next one we will cover that subject.
[Steve Myers] Alright. That's BT Daily . We'll see you next time.
