The Bloodiest War

In commemoration of Sanctity of Human Life Week, January 21-28, 2007, I want to call your attention to an excellent commentary from Paul Heil's "The Gospel Greats" newsletter. Paul Heil's “The Gospel Greats” radio program is the a syndicated Southern Gospel music radio program. Click here to learn more about “The Gospel Greats” program and subscribe to his free weekly online newsletter.

Paul's Epistle...
"The Bloodiest War"

The war rages. The killing goes on unabated. Innocent victims of the most heinous terror are shedding their precious lifeblood daily. Atrocities are being committed in the name of freedom. Millions of the most defenseless of mankind are dying gruesome, painful deaths, hacked apart, slaughtered by merciless invaders, armed with their bloody weapons of death.

"Paul, did you say 'millions?' Because I haven't heard that the war has claimed millions of lives. Many thousands, perhaps, but not millions."

Yes, millions. Because I'm not talking about THAT war. I'm talking about a war that, according to Dr. D. James Kennedy, has claimed more human lives than all of the traditional wars of human history — right up to the present day — combined.

The war I'm talking about is the war on the most innocent and defenseless of all human life — the pre-born. We have another name for this warfare: "abortion."

Oh, yes, it is war! And the death toll is staggering. Since the U. S. Supreme Court's infamous Roe. v. Wade decision of January 22, 1973, more than 46 million surgical abortions have been conducted in the U.S. And the American Life League says an estimated 1.3 million more babies are killed annually through surgical abortion. (The numbers are many times this large if "chemical" abortion totals are added.) Note that this is the total in the United States alone. Abortion is even more common in many other parts of the world.

Imagine, if you would, a terrorist attack that would completely annihilate the entire populations of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina. Not a person left alive! The entire Southeast would be gone! What would be our nation's response to such an attack? All-out war!!! And yet the total population of those states, based on U. S. Census Bureau figures, roughly approximates that 46 million total of pre-born infants killed since 1973. Americans themselves have killed, through surgical abortion, as many pre-born children as the entire total population of those states!

Where's the outrage? Where is the mobilization for battle? In the immortal words of the cartoon character Pogo, "we have met the enemy and he is us."

It is impossible to consider the abortion issue without considering the spiritual component of this matter. Abortion (and its widespread acceptance and promotion) is readily identifiable as the result of sin. What is sin? Sin is anything that goes against God. What caused (and causes) sin? Selfish pride. It's the foolish belief that one can put one's own desires, pleasures and ambitions ahead of God's precepts. Indeed, polls indicate that, by far, the most common reason for abortions is simply that the child would interfere with the mother's lifestyle. My, my. We can't have that.

"What's in it for me?" "My desires, my 'freedom,' my 'rights' trump those of anyone else -- including those of God." What utter rubbish. That's what got Satan kicked out of heaven and Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden and started this whole sin-mess.
Scripture makes it clear that God is the giver of life. "For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb.... My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought... 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." (Psalm 139:13-16, excerpts, NKJV.) And in Galatians, Paul says that "God chose me before I was born. By His loving-favor He called me to work for Him." (1:15, NLV.)

Dr. Bill Maier of Focus on the Family recently wrote, "In God's eyes, every life has inestimable worth and value -- from conception to the grave. Each of us is made in God's image... That means abortion is never a compassionate option, regardless of the circumstances. It is the deliberate taking of human life -- a life that is loved and cherished by God."

The abortion death-war is the antithesis of a life of peace. Mother Teresa once said, "The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love but to use any violence to get what they want." What does that say about our society and our nation?

Chuck Swindoll, in his book "Sanctity of Life," noted, "Medical authorities determine a person to be 'alive' if there is either a detectable heartbeat or brain-wave activity. With that in mind, it is eye-opening for some to realize that unborn children have detectable heartbeats at eighteen days (two and one-half weeks) after conception and detectable brain-wave activity forty days (a little over five and one-half weeks) after conception. What is so shocking is that essentially 100 percent of all abortions occur after the seventh week of pregnancy."

Well, that's the bad news — and there's plenty of it. But there is some good news from the front. Abortions in America have declined more than 28 percent since their peak in 1980, according to Planned Parenthood's own Alan Guttmacher Institute. And there has been a one-third reduction in the number of clinics, hospitals and private physicians who perform abortions. Perhaps the tide is slowly turning.

The even better news for anyone who has had an abortion is that God can forgive even this sin. (See Ephesians 1:7.) And God's forgiveness is total. What's more, Christian crisis pregnancy centers are becoming more readily available, offering counseling and life-affirming alternatives to abortion (such as adoption).

January 21-28, 2007, is Sanctity of Human Life Week, spanning the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Many churches will have special sermons or programs about this theme. Each of us needs to be aware of the warfare against life fostered by the abortion industry and to resolve to stand firm, in Christian love, against this sinful and destructive practice.

- Paul

PS: Here's an excellent resource site regarding abortion: http://www.heartlink.org/beavoice/

END – The Bloodiest War

Read this story out the UK titled – The Crowded Womb. I have posted *3 photos in the above article from this remarkable story revealing scans which are a highly developed form of traditional ultrasound where very high frequency sound waves are used to produce images of what is inside the body.

Photo 1 - New 4D scans reveal how twins and triplets bond before birth: He's my brother: A silicone model of fraternal twins, also aged 20 to 30 weeks old. Unlike identical twins, fraternal twins have their own placenta and amniotic sac, which prevents them from actually touching each other.

Photo 2 - Inside view: By the end of the second trimester, triplets are usually too large to be captured on one scan. This computer-generated image is a rare chance to look into the triplets' world.

Photo 3 - Womb for love: A twin kisses the cheek of her sister. Such affection, believed to help fetuses develop, may be mirrored in how the twins interact once they are born.