Abortion: The American Holocaust

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to thank you for joining us today. You know, God has blessed us and allowed us to be on hundreds of stations around the nation declaring the uncompromising truth of His Word. What a wonderful privilege and honor it is to do that and I want to thank you for your generosity because only with your help are we able to stay on these stations and hopefully go on more stations with enough giving by our partners and our friends.

So go to lonsolomonministries.com and everything there you need to know is on that website. And now, let's get to the Word of God. As you well know, the issue of abortion has become one of the most hotly debated and emotional issues of our day. And after the historic Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade, legalizing abortion in America, the debate is actually more heated, I believe, than it's ever been before. The Abortion Rights Group have embarked on an all-out lobbying effort to keep Roe vs. Wade from being changed in any way, to keep restrictions from being applied in any way to abortion.

You'll be hearing and reading much about that. This morning, what I want us to do is to take some time to talk about what does the Word of God really have to say about abortion. Is it wrong? Is it absolutely right or wrong? Can we decide that?

And then, once we've decided that, what are we going to do in terms of reacting to it for the sake of Jesus Christ? Now, with regard to what the Bible has to say about abortion, the key issue is that the Bible declares that life begins at conception. In Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court proceeded to legalize abortion. What I want to know and what I want you to decide is, are the facts really as inconclusive as the Supreme Court implies?

Are they really that inconclusive? Let me talk to you about science and medicine first. Scientists tell us that when a sperm and an egg unite, when there is fertilization, they become a complete genetic package programmed to develop into a mature adult. There is nothing else that is added to that fertilized egg other than time and nutrition. And neither a sperm alone nor an egg alone individually, neither one have that kind of continuity.

But once they come together and once they fertilize, once they are combined, they become a distinct individual with a distinct personal destiny. And the development of this fertilized egg comes very, very early, much earlier than most of us realize. For example, a baby's heart begins beating between 14 and 28 days after conception, oftentimes before the mother even knows that she's pregnant. The foundation for the entire nervous system is developed by the 20th day. By the 30th day, almost every organ has started to form. By six weeks, the baby can move its arms and legs.

At 42 days, the body and the skeleton are complete and reflexes are present. There are electrical brainwaves present as early as 43 days of development. By eight weeks, the baby has its own unique fingerprints. It will jerk its head backwards.

If it's tickled, it can urinate. By nine to ten weeks, the baby will squint their eyes. If you put light into the uterus, the baby can move its tongue and the baby can make a fist if you stroke its palm. By eight to ten weeks, we know for certain that the child in the womb can feel pain. And by 11 to 12 weeks, all bodily systems are up and functioning at 11 weeks.

And once you get to 11 weeks, folks, there is nothing else that's added but time and nutrition. Everything else is done in the formation of this child. The scientific and the medical evidence confirm a very high level of development very early in the life of an unborn child. And far more importantly than that, there is no scientific evidence, there is no medical evidence anywhere which either proves or even implies that life begins at birth rather than conception.

You understand what I'm saying? There is no medical evidence anywhere that in some way even implies that suddenly when a baby is born and comes out of the womb, life begins. Now, let's look at the Scripture, Psalm 139, and let's see what the Scripture said. Now, here in Psalm 139, we're looking at David, and David is writing about what it was like to be in his mother's womb. Now, he didn't remember that, obviously, but he's reflecting back as the Spirit of God gives him inspiration, and he is writing about what it was like to be developing inside of the womb, and he says, beginning at verse 13, For you did form my inward parts, you did weave me in my mother's womb. Verse 13 tells us that when a woman is pregnant, God Himself is at work forming or weaving that child within her. Verse 14, I will give thanks unto thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are thy works, and my soul knows it very well.

This word here, wonderful, is a very difficult word to translate from Hebrew into English, but it basically means something that is supernatural as opposed to something that is natural, something that is miraculous as opposed to something that is simply ordinary. And so what David is telling us here, what the Spirit of God is telling us through David, is that the formation of a child in the womb is not simply a natural process. It is a supernatural process. It is not just an ordinary biological process, but it is also a miraculous process in which the hand of God plays a major role.

Verse 15, My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. In other words, when that formation was going on in the womb, God knew all about it. From the day that sperm and egg met, God knew all about it.

It wasn't hidden from Him. Pregnancy is a sovereign act of God, my dear friends. The Bible testifies that there are cases where God closes the womb. Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 1 was one of them, where God supernaturally prevented her from conceiving. And then there are cases where the Bible says that God opens the womb and enables fertilization and conception to take place. He did this with Sarah. He did this with Rebecca.

He did it with Hannah herself. People may look at a pregnancy and think it was an accident, but it was no accident. People might look at a pregnancy and think, oops, we made a mistake. But you didn't make a mistake, because every act of fertilization, the Bible declares, is in the sovereign control of Almighty God.

There is no such thing as fertilization, any fertilization being an accident in the plan of a sovereign and Almighty God. Verse 16. This is one of the most incredible verses in all the Bible.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance. In your book they were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. Do you understand what David is saying here? What he is saying is, before I was born, before I came into the world, before I had lived one single day outside of the womb, on the face of this earth, God had already written down everything that was going to happen in my life. He had already planned everything that was going to happen in my life.

He had already ordained everything that was going to go on in my life. It was already written down in the book while I was still in the womb before I lived one day on the face of this earth. Now that is incredible that David, a shepherd boy, could have that kind of theological understanding. But it wasn't really him writing this, it was the Spirit of God telling us how God sees a fetus.

God has plans for fetuses folks. He has it all written down in the book before they ever come out of the womb. He said the same thing to Jeremiah. He said to Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Now we could talk about that and what that means, and I don't have the slightest idea what that means, but it does say, and before you were born, while you were still in the womb, I consecrated you and I appointed you to be a prophet to the nation. While Jeremiah was still in his mother's womb, God knew him and had his whole life course charted out for him.

How about John the Baptist, Luke chapter 1? God said to his father, you're going to have a son, and you're going to name him John, and he'll be great in the sight of the Lord. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while he is still in his mother's womb, and he's going to turn back many Israelites to the Lord their God. And God distinguished the futures of Esau and Jacob while they were still in the womb. And what all this tells us is that God deals personally with human beings, not only after they're born, but even while they are still in the womb, while they are fetuses, as we would call them. God knew fetuses. God has loved fetuses. God has named fetuses. God has planned the life of fetuses. And God has even filled fetuses with the Spirit of God. And folks, God does not fill dead, empty, lifeless cells with the Spirit of God.

He only fills people with the Spirit of God. God dealt with fetuses in a unique, personal way because they were people, little people, little people. In fact, the Scripture makes no distinction between babies in the womb and babies out of the womb. In Luke chapter 1, Luke refers to a baby in the womb as a brephos, as an infant or a child. And then the same author in the same book uses the same word in Luke chapter 18 to refer to a baby outside the womb that they brought to Jesus and sat on his lap so they could bless him. As far as Luke was concerned, as far as the Spirit of God was concerned, a baby in the womb and a baby out of the womb, there's no difference. They're both a baby.

And so let me summarize. God declares in the Word of God that he is in sovereign control of every act of human fertilization and that the process of formation inside of the womb is a supernatural as well as a natural process that God oversees. Number two, God tells us that he relates personally to the unborn child considering that unborn child to be a real human being even before that child becomes able to sustain life outside of the womb. And therefore, if we're going to answer the question where does life begin, we have to pick up the Word of God and we have to say that God's Word stands absolutely firmly, that the Word of God is clear, that absolutely life begins at conception. Life does not begin at birth, but life begins upon fertilization and upon conception and that that little bunch of cells and that little person in the mother's womb as far as God is concerned is a real living human being. And as to the question of whether or not a fetus is a person, we have to answer with a definitive yes.

If God names fetuses and consecrates them to himself and plans their whole lives and fills them with the Holy Spirit, they're people, folks. God declares that fetuses are alive and that they are their own unique persons from the moment of conception. Now if that's true, if all of that's true, then it means that abortion is killing. Abortion is not simply a medical procedure, if all of that's true, abortion's killing. Abortion is not simply the disposing of some unwanted cells. If all of this is true, abortion is killing.

And if murder means to take somebody else's life without their consent or their knowledge or their desire, then abortion is murder. It is to take the weakest and the most innocent and the most helpless member of the human race and to kill it. It is to take a person for whom God has a unique plan, a person that God knows, a person God has a purpose for, and not only destroy them, but also rob them of the opportunity to live and fulfill God's special plan for them on this earth.

It is the cruelest of all punishments and it is perpetrated on somebody who has done absolutely nothing to deserve it and upon somebody who can do absolutely nothing to defend themselves. Therefore, I declare to you that abortion is morally wrong. And I declare to you, based upon the truth of the word of God, abortion is morally evil. And I declare to you, based on the truth of the word of God, that abortion is a crime against another human being and it is a crime against all of humanity because it cheapens the value of human life and robs the world of people that God intended to come into this world and accomplish things for the betterment of mankind. That is the position of God on abortion. And I hope that's your position on abortion. I don't see how anybody who names the name of Jesus Christ and reads the scripture, even if you didn't know what I told you before today, hearing it today, I don't see how anybody who calls Jesus Christ Lord can hold any other position on abortion than this one. It is morally evil. It is wrong. Now, there's a lot of objections raised to my position.

Let me give you some of them and see if I can respond to them. Number one, what about if a woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape or incest? You don't really mean God wants her to have that baby, do you? In responding, may I say to you, first of all, rape and incest practically never result in pregnancy because of the trauma involved. In fact, the number of pregnancies due to rape or incest in the United States of America represents less than 1% of all pregnancies reported. But even in those cases where pregnancy does occur, I believe we've got to acknowledge that that is under the control of an absolutely sovereign God and that such a turn of events have to be accepted as being from God. Besides, it's a strange sort of logic that would kill an innocent child for a crime that the child had nothing to do with. Now, I'm not minimizing the trauma of rape.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not minimizing the trauma of incest particularly when a pregnancy results. But I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ must stand and declare that with the supernatural help of God, that kind of situation can be transformed into a blessing for that family or even if that family doesn't want to keep that child, it can be transformed into a blessing for some other family who adopts and raises that child.

Well, how about this objection? What about abortion to save the mother's life? Ever since gynecology began, physicians have agreed that abortion is acceptable in those cases where it is the only option available to save the mother's life. But we must understand today that with all of our modern medicine, a pregnancy almost never threatens the life of a mother. See Everett Koop, Surgeon General of the United States, and I quote, "'Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smokescreen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother's life.'"

How about this objection? Well, is it really fair to bring an unwanted child into the world? I mean, doesn't that just lead to more child abuse? Actually, the unwanted baby idea is a myth. Did you know that one couple in America out of six is infertile? Did you know that at any time there are approximately two million infertile couples in America pursuing an interest in adoption? That is more couples who want to adopt than abortions that are carried out in America. We've got folks left over who want to adopt babies. If we took every baby aborted and gave them to somebody, we still would have people who wouldn't have children that they want. With all of the resources for adoption in this country, there is no baby in the world that has to be unwanted more than nine months. And regarding this child abuse issue, proponents of abortion back in 1973 made a big deal out of the fact that if we would legalize abortion, we would see child abuse figures drop dramatically, because we'd be getting rid of all these unwanted babies.

And they sold that nonsense to the American public. And so we've legalized abortion. And for 16 years, we have killed almost 20 million babies total. And now what we find that rather than seeing child abuse going down, we are seeing child abuse on a dramatic rise.

The American Association for Protecting Children reports that the number of reported child abuse cases in 1976 was 669,000. And in 1986, 10 years later, was 2.2 million. That is a 228% rise in 10 years.

And I believe there is far more responsible for this rise in the figure than just that people are reporting it more now. I believe that when we legalized abortion in 1973, we delivered a message to our culture that we were cheapening the value of the lives of children. We were cheapening the value of children and life in general. And that as a result, we have seen much more violence being perpetrated upon children, not because we've got any more unwanted children, but because we have cheapened the understanding of the preciousness of children. How about this objection?

What about quality of life? I mean, what about a retarded child or somebody born with lots of congenital defects? Wouldn't it be better just to abort that baby or let that baby starve to death when it's first born and spare it all those years of poor quality life? There was once a mother who was pregnant, this is true, with her fifth child. Her husband had syphilis. She had tuberculosis. Her first child had been born blind as a result of the syphilis. Their second child had died. Their third child had been born deaf as a result of syphilis.

Their fourth child had tuberculosis at the time his mother was pregnant. Now if this woman pregnant with her fifth child and considering an abortion would have come to you and asked you what your advice was, should she have an abortion or not, what would you have told her? The overwhelming majority of people surveyed said, you better have an abortion. We recommend you have an abortion. And then after they had said that, they were informed that they had just voted in favor of aborting Ludwig von Beethoven.

Away with this nonsense. Let's abort them because they won't have quality life. Next of all, the classic one of all, a woman has the right to her own body. Margaret Sanger, a devout feminist said, and I quote, no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose whether she will or will not be a mother. And then she goes on to say that many feminists believe that nature has discriminated against them, women.

I better not say anything. Many feminists believe, I'll just read my notes, that nature has discriminated against them by making them the fertility bearers of society. And that the right to have an abortion on demand allows women to gain control over their lives equal to that which men have. And that's why they're for abortion. Now, so many times the people that are saying this, the women that are saying this are single women, divorced women, teenagers. In fact, do you know the percentages around America of the women who have abortions?

75% are unmarried, 32% are teenagers, and 20% are repeat customers. But many times it is these women who are saying all of this because what they really want is the freedom to go out and sleep around with whoever they feel like sleeping around. And then when they get pregnant, they want the quick fix of an abortion so they can go on and keep living the kind of lifestyle they've been living without any interruption or without any consequences for what they've been doing. Now, I am all for a woman having control over her body, believe me. But it seems to me that the time that a woman ought to have had control over her body was before she had the intercourse that produced the baby to start with. Once that baby is produced, we got a whole different ballgame folks. It's no longer a question of whether or not I have control over my body.

It is a question that I have two bodies now, one living inside of me, a real life. There's another innocent life at stake. And there is nowhere anywhere in human jurisprudence where we have ever agreed that a human being has an absolute right over their body if it means threatening the safety and the well-being of another human being. When they begin to do that, we have always, and what law is all about, is the curbing of those absolute rights over my body as those rights in their exercise begin to affect negatively other human beings around me. We have the right to tell a woman that she cannot have absolute control over her body if it means killing another human being.

And I'll stand on that and I hope you'll stand on that. I want women to have control over their bodies, but I don't want them to kill other people. Let me summarize and say, according to God, life starts at conception.

There's no medical or scientific evidence that says different. Number two, abortion is not just a medical procedure, it is killing a human being. None of the objections that are raised in favor of abortion can stand the test, I believe, of God's laws, can stand the test of the principles of the Scripture.

I don't even believe those objections can stand the test of good common sense. Consequently, I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ, you and I as Christians, we've got to stand up, folks. We've got to do everything in our power, folks. We have got to commit ourselves that whatever it takes, we are committed to wiping the scourge of legalized abortion out of our law books, out of our legal codes, out of our hospitals, out of our clinics, and out of the thinking of America once and for all.

And I believe if we'll commit ourselves to that, and we're serious, God will honor and God will take abortion away, the scourge away from America. You've been listening to So What with Dr. Lon Solomon. So What is an outreach of Lon Solomon Ministries. To listen to today's message or for more information, visit our website, lonsolomonministries.org. Thank you for your support. If you would like to contact us, please visit our website or call us at 866-788-7770. We hope you will join us next time when Lon seeks to answer one of life's most important questions, So What.