LIFE, LOGIC and LOVE-CHRISTIAN ACTION-PETER HAMMOND

[Nat Quinn]

LIFE, LOGIC and LOVE

CORNTRADICTIONS AND CONTRASTS
While crime and violence continues to plague South Africa, and chase away foreign investors – the response of all too many in government has been counter-productive. Rather than fight crime, government policy seems increasingly to legalise previous crimes (such as gambling, pornography, prostitution, perversion and abortion) and to criminalise law abiding citizens (such as pro-lifers and registered gun owners)! We now have the ridiculous situation where even mass murderers can benefit from amnesties yet someone who wants to prevent the murder of an innocent, helpless baby is threatened with a 10 year prison term! The Right to Life clause in the Bill of Rights is interpreted to mean that guilty murderers cannot be executed, yet innocent babies have no right to life and can be aborted! The justice system seems incapable of effectively dealing with violent hardened criminals with illegal AK47 assault rifles, yet they would like to deprive law abiding citizens of registered pistols!

THE CURSE OF CRIME
Crime is a reality that affects every one of us. Burglaries, car break-ins, muggings, car theft, car hijacking, armed robberies, murder and rape are daily experiences for all too many South Africans. What makes this explosion of lawlessness particularly distressing is that so many of the crimes are being committed by convicted criminals who should have been behind bars – but who had been released early on parole or by the repeated amnesties!
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace they do not know . . .” Romans 3:15-17
The Scripture declares that God detests those who acquit the guilty (Proverbs 17:15).

GUILT
“Whoever says to the guilty “You are innocent” – peoples will curse him and nations denounce him. But it will go well with those who convict the guilty.” Proverbs 24:24-25
The Bible is very clear that the priority for civil government is “to punish those who do wrong” 1 Peter 2:14, protecting life and property as “an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” Romans 13:4
“Why do people commit crimes so readily? Because crime is not punished quickly enough.” Ecclesiastes 8:11
If South Africans sincerely want to restore law and order and respect for life and property then we need to turn to God in repentance and humble prayer. And we need to return to the Biblical Law of Restitution for all theft of, or damage to, property and execution for all premeditated murder (Exodus 21 and 22). This is the Law of God.

JUSTICE
The taking of a murderer’s life is akin to the amputation of a diseased limb in order to save the rest of the body. The clause in the Bill of Rights which upholds the right to life is meaningless if law abiding citizens are not protected from such wholesale violence. Those who show contempt for the lives of others by wilfully depriving another of their life forfeit their own right to life.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man .” Genesis 9:6
Capital punishment is necessary for justice, for the rule of law and for the protection of the innocent (Proverbs 11:10).
“When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” Proverbs 21:15
The shocking escalation of crime and violence since the death penalty was suspended (and later abolished) and tens of thousands of violent criminals released, highlights the disastrous consequences of rejecting the Law of God. Even more outrageous is that those who have worked for the abolition of the death penalty for murderers have campaigned for the introduction of the death penalty for preborn babies! In other words: Kill the innocent, protect the guilty!
“They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters . . . the land was desecrated by their blood.” Psalm 106:37-38
Abortion is a modern equivalent of child sacrifice. Just as God’s people opposed Pharaoh’s decree to murder new-born boys in Egypt (Exodus 1:15-22), so we need to protect preborn babies from abortion today. Just as King Herod sought to kill the babies in Bethlehem (Matt 2:16), so abortionists are attempting to butcher babies today.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.” Proverbs 31:8

IT IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
The sanctity of life is an essential article of the Christian Faith. The Bible makes it clear that life begins at conception (Ps 139:13-16; Isa 44:2; Jer 1:5; Luke 1:41). The unborn baby is then genetically, physiologically and organically, a distinct person. At that moment life begins. At about 3 weeks after conception the baby’s heart beat can be detected. Six weeks after conception, the baby has its own life-long brain wave.
If the absence of a brain wave is considered a sign of death, why then is the presence of this brain wave not accepted as a sign of life? Birth is not a magical act that turns a non-human into a person. Birth is only a change in environment for a life that began many months before. Every abortion stops a beating heart. Every abortion ends a brain wave. Every abortion is the murder of a helpless and innocent human being.

IT IS A MATTER OF LOGIC
It is of the utmost hypocrisy for us to denounce atrocities committed under apartheid, or to condemn those who stood by and allowed previous holocausts to be perpetrated if we allow the abortion holocaust to continue in our own country. How incredible that South Africa has replaced apartheid with abortion. In the name of Human Rights, “pro-choicers” deprive pre-born babies of the right to life. Instead of discrimination based upon race, they advocate discrimination based upon age. Can we condemn discrimination based on race, while allowing discrimination based on age? Of what worth is human dignity if babies are denied to right to life? The right to life of preborn babies is one of the most basic, urgent and important issues confronting society today (Matt 18:5, 10, 14; Isaiah 44:24; 49:15).

What kind of convoluted logic and mental gymnastics can interpret the “Right of Life” clause in the Constitution to protect guilty murderers from execution, but not prevent innocent babies from receiving the death penalty through abortion? If the Right to Life of the most helpless and innocent members of society – preborn babies – is not upheld then the Bill or Rights is a worthless piece of paper. A society that is capable of burning, smothering, poisoning, or dismembering little babies deserves the wrath of God. How is it possible that a highly trained and experienced judge – after careful deliberation of all the evidences and arguments, presented by both prosectution and defence, in the calm, objective enviroment of a court of law – cannot choose to impose the death sentence upon a duly convicted murderer. Yet a young teenager without the permission, or even the knowledge, of her parents can make an emotional and spur of the moment choice to have her innocent unborn baby killed through abortion! A tragic decision she may regret for the rest of her life.
By making the murder of pre-born babies legal, easy and tax-payer funded, the “Choice of Termination of Pregancy” Bill defies all logic.

IT IS A MATTER OF LOVE
The heart of Christianity is love. Love for God and love for our neighbour (Mark 12:30-31). The golden rule by which all believers must live is:
“In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you . . .” Matthew 7:12
If you as a mother would not like to be attacked and torn to pieces – then don’t allow it to be done to your baby.
If you as a doctor would not like to be poisoned to death – then don’t do it to a baby.
If you as a member of Parliament would not like to be snatched from your home and dismembered – then don’t legalise and finance such violence against babies: “do to others what you would have them do to you.”
If we do not stand up and oppose the legalisation of abortion then the blood of those innocent babies will be upon our heads. (Ezekiel 33:1-6).
Christians must love their neighbour – and this includes our pre-born neighbours. Caring for the fatherless, protecting the helpless, defending the innocent and speaking up for the voiceless is true Christian love in action.
“Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this, does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will not He repay each one according to what he has done?” Proverbs 24: 11-12
South Africa needs to rebuild respect for life. Everyone made in the image of God has the right to life – irrespective of their degrees of awareness, health or development. Everyone has been endowed by the Creator with the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty – except where they have forfeited that right by unlawfully taking, or posing an immediate threat to, the life of another.
“Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts . . . let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” Amos 5:15,24

Sunday, 1 October, is International Life Chain Sunday
Life Chains have been held every year since 1992 in South Africa. Life Chains are one of the positive and practical ways we can stand up for the sanctity of life and speak up for the right to life of pre-born babies. If you are in, or near, Cape Town, we certainly hope that you will make the time to join us at the entrance to the Waterfront, opposite the Cape Town International Convention Centre, in Buitengracht Street, downtown Cape Town, on Sunday 1 October from 2pm to 4pm. https://www.christianaction.org.za/index.php/component/jevents/icalrepeat.detail/2023/10/01/252/-/life-chain-sunday?Itemid=101 Please View and Share our new pro-life video: Stand for Life https://vimeo.com/750279079
“Wisdom calls aloud outside, she raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gate in the city, she speaks her words.” Proverbs 1:20-21

 

Dr. Peter Hammond Africa Christian Action PO Box 23632 | Claremont | 7735 | Cape Town | South Africa Tel: +27 21 689 4480 website | email

 

See the special photographic celebration of Christian Action magazine online: Celebrating 30 Years of Africa Christian Action

View and share the Life Chain video here.
View the March for Life video, here.
Stand For Life on Vimeo
View the inspiring new pro-life film, “What Is It?” here: https://livingwaters.com/world-premiere-of-pro-life-movie-from-living-waters/?fbclid=IwAR0oSArPCozLEsfGmFHmLePcdoDIiwL05EpwqOMdqBqXsBZORg2pxyrEwVk
Contact Africa Christian Action for advice and resources, or to organise a Life Chain in your area.

“Could you not watch with Me for one hour?” Matthew 26:40

See also:
An Indictment on Many Churches
UN Attempts to Promote Abortion in Africa
Abortion is Murder
Christians Can Abolish Abortion
Life Chains – What Difference Can I Make?

RESOURCES FOR REFORMATION
Christian Liberty Books stocks a wide selection of books which every Christian dedicated to Reformation and Revival needs, including: Fight for Life — a ProLife handbook for Southern Africa; Biblical Principles for Africa; Porndemic – Finding Freedom from the Pornography Plague; Holocaust in Rwanda and We will not be Silenced.

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