Persevere – Response to A.B. 2223

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Vanson Wong. I'm an OB-GYN physician.

I've been practicing here in Sacramento for 31 years. When I first read about this bill, I indeed thought that it was about preventing the prosecution of pregnant women who suffer from an innocent and heartbreaking death of their unborn child. But it was to my shock and horror, as I read the bill in more detail, a clear and gruesome intent can be gleaned from this. It's not the intention that we're arguing with. It is what's said in the bill that is problematic.

And the phrase, perinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause should not be investigated is problematic. Welcome to the program where we encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. My name is Brian Thomas, and folks, we are at a time in which we need those of us who put God first to be more active, more alert, and to be watchmen on the wall more so than ever, because we are at an unprecedented time in our nation in which immorality is being promoted, immorality is being passed into law unlike anything that we've ever seen before.

The voice that you heard in the opening was that of Dr. Vance Wong. He was given testimony at a hearing before the Assembly Health Committee in the state of California. There, he is giving testimony in opposition to a bill known as AB 2223. This is a bill that has been proposed. It has not yet been passed into law. It's going through the layers of legislation, but it is a law in which it allows for the taking of the life of a baby up to 28 days old.

You heard me right. This is a law that allows for what it is, is murder of a baby up to 28 days old. We need to call out to our Lord God for mercy for these things that are taking place.

Let us continue to hear the remainder of the testimony from Dr. Vance Wong again before the Assembly Health Committee in the state of California. First of all, as stated clearly in the bill, and I think we all agree that most perinatal deaths are, have really no etiology. Yes, there can be some explanations for it, but the most, the majority of these perinatal deaths are therefore unknown.

And how can you classify it as such? The second problem is that the most obvious pregnancy-related issue is that there's a baby. So if, I'm not a legal scholar, but if it says it's a perinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause, well the pregnancy-related cause was that there was a baby. And let's say if a gentleman gets his partner pregnant, he's unhappy that she is pregnant, and causes her to lose a pregnancy through an act of violence. There's a placental abruption due to a massive trauma, traumatic event.

He will claim on the court that, hey, you guys can't prosecute me. This was a pregnancy-related cause that led me to this action, because after all, what happened was related to a pregnancy. And it's really not, I'm sure you're thinking that the concerns of infanticide are paranoid and ridiculous. However, the moral acceptance of killing babies is gaining popularity, promoted most recently by Professor Peter Singer of Princeton University. He stated, of course, infanticide needs to be strictly legally controlled and rare, but it should not be ruled out any more than abortion.

The ambiguity of the bill is clear. However, a close inspection of this bill does allow for the legalization of the killing of innocent newborn children up to the age of 28 days. A yes vote is an unequivocal and complete approval of a legalized killing of a newborn baby.

And with all of my heart, I oppose AB 2223 and urge you to vote no. So as you heard Dr. Vance Wong point out that there are people in our nation that want infanticide to be legalized. And in this country, we have killed tens of millions of babies in their mother's womb for decades now. We've even put laws in the legislation in some states that says, well, if a baby survives an abortion to not give it care, that it's okay to just allow it to die. And now there are those who are pushing to say, well, we should be able to up to 28 days take the life of this child if the parent decides they don't want it. So this is a step in the direction of infanticide and we need to cry out for mercy to our Lord God for what is happening here in our nation. Another person who is also speaking on this that I want you to hear from is Pastor Jack Hibbs. He is also giving testimony at the same hearing. So here are the words that he had to say concerning this bill AB 2223. Yes, my name is Pastor Jack Hibbs, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, and thankfully represented about 3000 people this morning that were out on the Capitol steps. And my passion is more one of experience. I'm a survivor of an abortion, December 24, 1957.

I'm very glad to be here. But in light of all of that, what I'd like to draw to your attention and maybe appeal to the more moral side of you, not to take away anything from what was said. The fact of the matter is we're talking about a human life. We're talking about this legislation that if it's passed that the perinatal meaning that it can be defined or not defined is very loosely open. I assume that all of you have read the bill that we're talking about in a sense legalizing murder because nobody can investigate if you've read that. Nobody can determine how this child died. It was mentioned a moment ago that a woman could be depressed or confused after pregnancy. And during that time, the child is dead. Why?

We need to find out why. It's not to prosecute or to bring anything against anyone, but it's the value of human life. And what my argument is, is to acknowledge the fact that we are going down a road that is not only one that could be criminal. I mean, personally, I, with my high view of life itself, that those that are supporting this bill, they're supporting a bill that legalizes the termination of a born child, a child that is now beyond the age of debate. Is it life or is it a blob or is it whatever? This is a living, breathing child.

And in the case where there's a stillborn, we have mitigated these things for centuries as a culture, but we're going down a path that is dangerous and that is an affront. And again, today's display at the Capitol Steps is something that all of you, I beg of you to take notice of. And I understand Mr. Rodriguez, we live in the same, almost the same neighborhood. I understand that it's time for him to retire.

Thank you for your service. But this is something that is critical. It's not going to go away no matter how it's voted upon, because this is a hill for moral people to die on. And I'll leave you with this. The Bible says in Proverbs 31, defend those who have no voice and those who are destined to be crushed.

That's a 3000-year-old proverb that sounds like it was written yesterday. And I would ask you to consider that rather than bring something about that would weigh upon not only your conscience, but with all due respect, it's not your conscience I'm concerned about. It's that child that should have a right to live.

And all of you are going to have that on you. And as citizens, we must hold you accountable to defend life as one who had a life defended. I'm happy, was happy, still am happy to be able to be alive and to testify before you today. I urge you, please, on behalf of the citizens of California to oppose AB 2223.

Thank you. So you hear the urgency and the passion and the voice of Jack Hibbs. And as he stated, this is a moral hill that we as believers in Christ should be willing to die on because we should be in defense of the lives of these innocent children that people are saying that, well, we should be allowed to, to take their life, not only in the womb of the mother, but now 28 days following their birth from the womb.

That is where we are in this nation. And so Jack Hibbs, he is the senior and founding pastor of Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills located in Southern California. So the day following this hearing, he gave a sermon to his church in which he addressed this matter. So I want to share some excerpts from this sermon in which he, he begins by talking about the need for perseverance, for endurance and light of loss.

And he's going to open by giving more background on this bill. Church tonight in light of our loss last night, this is a temporary loss. I want to talk about perseverance and I want to talk about endurance tonight. I want to encourage you.

I want to do what Sam Adams did in 1777. I want to speak to you and anyone else who's concerned about this that's viewing this service right now about what's going on in California. And for that matter, what's going on in the nation. Had a conversation today. I was pleased to get a phone call, Dennis and his wife, Susan, Dennis Prager and his wife, Susan, they were on their way to someplace in LA and Dennis called and said, tell me what's going on. What happened in Sacramento?

And so what's really great is that Dennis is a researcher. So he's researching and he's getting ready to put things together to blow the lid off of what this bill is all about. Friends, we're talking about assembly bill 2223. And for those of you who do not know about it, it is something that directly involves the book of Genesis, the Bible, the existence of God and the Christian witness in the state. In other words, politics and politicians have invaded the realm of theology and that realm of theology that they've chosen to invade is the description definition and the view of a child's life. We're not talking about abortion. No, we've gone way beyond abortion.

This is beyond, beyond that. And I want to, I want all of you to hear me loud and clear because the media spin is out there. The lies are flying from the woke generation and they're saying, this is not infanticide. This is not infanticide. Conservatives have made it up. Interestingly enough, the author of the bill, Buffy Wicks, she was offended by lawyers and attorneys and firms and people who read the bill instantly concluding what the bill was, infanticide that she wound up making an amendment and using the word perinatal.

Perinatal means to that you can kill a baby after it's born, technically all the way up to 28 days. This is, this is what they, they, listen, if you're, listen, you need to have some, you need to have some fortitude tonight. That goes for all of us that are here and the many more that are viewing right now tonight, you need to have some fortitude. You need to think and you need to choose a side. Well, as you heard the pastor say, you need to choose the side folks.

We are in a time in this nation where you cannot just stay on the sidelines and say, I'm not going to get involved. It doesn't involve me because there is going to come a day in which we have to stand before our Lord Jesus Christ. And we will have to give an account as to whether we did anything to try to bring a stop to the wickedness that we see taking place in our world. And so I commend pastor Jack Hibbs. He is definitely one of the warriors on the front lines of the faith who is standing for the truth of God's Holy word. And he goes on to talk about what should be our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ. The key is for you and I to persevere and to act or to conduct ourselves worthy of heaven.

We are not of this world. We are only luminaries in this world for the kingdom of God. We are to be giving the gospel and shining the light. We are to preach the gospel to every creature and all the while go about doing good.

Why? For the glory of one, Jesus Christ. We just celebrated his death and resurrection and he's worthy quite frankly, of our commitment to the things that are good.

Absolutely. Our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of our commitment and he died for us folks. So we should be willing to stand for him, stand for his truth, stand for the life of these babies. We're going to pause for a brief announcement, but please don't go away. We're going to hear more from pastor Jack Hibbs on the other side of the break.

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Here's the fortitude part. The vote went right down party lines in Sacramento. The Democrats said, it's legal, let's move it forward to the health committee. And the Republicans said, it's not legal, it's unconstitutional, and we don't want it to move forward. But there's more of the Democrats up there than there are Republicans. I'm speaking pure truth, and I'm speaking non-political bias.

I'm telling you the facts. It moved forward to the health committee. And on the health committee, out of that entire committee, I forget the number.

Hang on, I can, hang on. I think there's 14. I may be off. 14?

There's 14 members. All of them are Democrats except three. So as you heard Pastor Jackie upstating, he's speaking facts, folks. He's just speaking truth. And you may get upset when you hear these matters if you are a Democrat, but he's just speaking the truth and stating that down party lines is how this vote goes. And we see it happening through so many issues in our nation where I just have to be honest with you and say the Democrat party is the party of death.

The Democrat party is a party in which it advocates for the killing of the unborn and in more times than not, it is the party that is on the wrong side when it comes to morality as it is through the Bible. And that is our mission here to encourage you to put God first while looking at life through the window of the Bible. And so I just urge people, and let me just say this real quickly, that I used to be a Democrat many years ago and the Holy Spirit challenged me.

The Holy Spirit opened my eyes to things because I was born into it. As a black person, you are born into the idea that, well, we as blacks are supposed to be Democrats because, well, the Democrats are for the minorities or for the poor, the unfortunate, and the Republicans are for the rich and the whites. But as I began to really get involved with things politically and I began to be active, to really shine my Christian light into the world, the Holy Spirit showed things to me and challenged me and caused me to realize that what I'd been feeding is not true. Because when I looked at the Democrat party and when I saw that it is in favor of taking the life of unborn children, and then I look at the Bible and it says, God hates the shedding of innocent blood. When I look at the Democrat party's platform, which states that we should divide the nation of Israel.

And then I look at the Bible and God's word and he says that he will bring judgment upon those who divide the Holy land. And so I had to leave the Democrat party. And I, again, I'm just stating just like pastor Jack Hibbs is stating is what is factual. In this matter, it is the Democrat party that is pushing for this bill, which is to allow provision to take the life of a child up to 28 days old. And so I was called as an expert witness, as was a physician with me. And we testified before the state assembly yesterday and we gave them the truth. The doctor gave truth as of the fact that medically this is defined as a murder. I simply said that based on the law and based on God's law, that if this bill passes, all of you should be held liable for premeditated murder. If you pass a law to kill a child, now you got to remember something. There are some people who will say, well, you know, if the child was born down syndrome and you decide that you after seven days decide, I don't want to put up with that. I mean, that's not what I bargained for. I want to, I want to, you know, I want a perfect kid like Adolf Hitler wanted.

Any defects, I don't want them. So let's call it a mercy killing. Or if you're somehow pressured because you know what, maybe your dad pressures the young girl because he doesn't like the boyfriend that got you pregnant. Call it whatever you want. We have now entered into the realm where we have elected people who play God. And we don't need to get worried about that. We just need to do what Sam Adams said, and that is continue to conduct ourselves worthy of heaven. We have elected people who are playing God and folks, we are going to have to give an account for that. And that is why I speak on these matters to challenge people that your vote matters when you go in and you vote for a candidate. It has repercussions. Lives are literally at stake and the day is going to come when we have to stand before God and give an account of how we voted, how we lived our lives according to his truth and his holy word. And so for someone to decide to kill a child that is completely viable, they named this perinatal death.

And in the bill, the bill reads that it cannot be investigated by law enforcement, by the coroner's office, nor can there be prosecutions in such a situation. Thank you. One of the assembly members, forget her name, I should have gotten her name. If anybody watched the hearings on TV, she was the one with the blonde hair, the only Republican to speak up. Say her name. Marie Wilton. Waldron. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say it again, and I want to say it publicly.

Marie Waldron. I don't know anything about her previous voting record, but I thank God for what she told the committee last night. She said, when are we going to learn that when we do dumb stuff like this, we always wind up getting embarrassed because it's overturned by the US Supreme Court. She said, I urge my colleagues to vote no on AB 2223. That is what we must do. We must vote no to these things.

And you may be saying, well, that's in California, that doesn't affect us. Well, we're going to talk about it and Pastor Jack is going to address it in what we all can do, the part that we all can play and so that we should not have these flippant attitudes towards the life of babies as he speaks on in the next clip. There was somebody to her left, to her right, my left, I'm going to get her name. She's sitting there, she's got to be a whopping 25 years of age, and the entire time testimony is taking place regarding the issue of life and death, she had her phone keys set to sound. You know when you hit the ABCD 714, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, the entire time. And I'm going to get her name and we're going to have all of those guys made known publicly.

And she sat back and she's giggling and carrying on, texting her friends and making expressions and going and having a great old time, pay no attention to the state's business, completely ignorant in many ways. We must not grow weary at well-doing. You cannot give up.

Where it goes now, now it goes to the assembly floor where all assembly members get a chance to vote on it. It's not over. And biblically, we cannot. It is impossible biblically for us to stay silent on this issue.

Anyone who stays silent on this issue of murder is complicit with the act. Priest, pastor, pew, atheist. Oh my goodness. I wanted to jump up. I was sitting there at the table. There was a young woman from, she came up, she came up, I don't remember her name. She came up and let's just say Susie Q. I'm Susie Q. I'm from San Francisco. I'm an atheist and I am opposed to this bill.

And she marched off and I just wanted to give her a hug. If you stay silent on this issue, you are complicit to murder. Those were the words of pastor Jack. And I agree with it totally because folks, we have to stand for the truth.

We have to be willing to stand up for God's truth and protect the lives of these innocent babies. As you heard him say next, it goes to the assembly floor for vote. Then it would go to the Senate. And if it passes there, then it goes to the governor, Gavin Newsom for him to sign or veto.

And we know what he will do. So here's the thing. Maybe you are not in the state of California and you say, well, this doesn't involve me. Well, well you can, you can speak to your family.

If you have families in the, in the state of California, or if you have friends, tell them to contact their assembly members and to vote no. So we're going to pause for this week, but please come back next week. I'm going to continue this with part two because pastor Jack has a lot more to say that I want you to hear in how we need to make a difference in this matter. So I want to leave you with Proverbs chapter 31, verses eight through nine, open your mouth for the speechless in the calls of all who are appointed to die.

Open your mouth, judge righteously and plead the calls of the poor and the needy folks. We have to open our mouths. We have to make a stand. And thankfully there are a lot of people in the state of California who are standing up, who are voicing their disapproval, but there's a fight on our hand. And you may say, well, again, that's in the state of California, but trust me, if it passes in the state of California is coming to your state eventually.

And whether it's in your state or not, though, you should want to protect the lives of these babies who at the tender age of 28 days, their lives can be taken all for selfish purposes. So again, we're going to pause for this week as we're all out of time, but please come back next week as we will hear more from pastor Jack Hibbs on this vital subject of AB 2223. Until next week, we encourage you to remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel. And until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher, Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website, Godfirst.org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.