abortions

Couple would have aborted daughter if not for botched test saying she was healthy, & other news

Posted on March 11, 2012 by elizabethprata

Some news for you this morning.

What is there to say about this first story? Except that God hates when parents pass their child though the fires to Molech, (Leviticus 18:21) and that each child is a gift from God. (Psalm 127:3). The parents say they are receiving death threats over this.

Victory for couple who said they ‘would have aborted daughter if they knew she had Down’s syndrome’ as jury forces hospital to pay $2.9million following botched test
“A couple who sued a hospital for not telling them their unborn child has Down’s syndrome has been awarded a $2.9million payout. Ariel and Deborah Levy, who say they would have had an abortion if they had known the child would be disabled, claimed they needed the money to pay for their daughter Kalanit’s lifelong care. And a jury agreed, deciding on Friday that Oregon’s Legacy Health hospital had been negligent in failing to diagnose the condition in a pre-natal scan. The hospital is considering appealing the verdict, but the Levys’ lawyer urged them to ‘let this case finally come to an end’.”

As we awaken today and prepare for congregational worship, it is a sad reality that a quarter of a million school children in Israel have had school canceled due to the number of rockets that have been shot at the southern end of the country. Worse, officials now fear an escalation that would include targeting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. If the Military officials in Israel have good grounds to fear this, then they have good grounds to fear this. They are not Nervous Nellies over there, and so we need to use our prayer time for Israel today.

Gaza terrorists might target Tel Aviv
“Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip continued Saturday night, and police are expressing concern that the current round of fighting could escalate. Police fear that terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip might use weapons that have not yet been seen – long-range rockets that could reach metropolitan Tel Aviv. The police and the IDF Home Front Command are not taking any chances, and are planning for the worst case scenario. A senior police official told Hebrew daily “Ma’ariv” that there are serious concerns that terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip might use weapons not yet employed.”

One thing I’ve noticed is that churches have become overextended lately because they inadvisably hopped on the Youth culture bandwagon. Suddenly the churches around where I live are renovating or adding on so that their youth can have a space like a darkened loft where The Beat Generation used to hang out and jam to Kerouac poetry. These building additions have fancy lighting, sound stages, concert quality amplifiers, couches to hang out on etc. All some of these places need is a booth and Phil Spector creating a Wall of Sound. Here is an essay/video interview from the Gospel Coalition on “The Idolatry of Youth Culture in Worship”. In the 17 min interview they talk about the current entrapments of youth in America, whether it be fashion or music or celebrity culture etc. and how they get into a hamster wheel of always needing to be fresher or onto the next new thing. Sometimes the next new things means spending a lot of money to satisfy the wants and lusts of Youth in the church space to make it sensuous rather than worshipful.

The Idolatry of Youth Culture in Worship
“Worship leaders often talk about the tension between performance and worship. It’s easy to get drawn into the spectacle of music in the church, with our primary examples and role models being professionals—often young, beautiful, and enormously talented.”

Sunday is the Lord’s Day. He sent us a letter from heaven to read, to fill us with truth, to establish us as His own, to provide spiritual food. Once we believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we understand that He is the Word and that His word is not only authoritative, but inerrant.

“The Eternal Word: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5).

Do you believe the bible is truly God’s word? That everything in it is authoritative and useful for our lives? (2 Timothy 3:16). Or do you pick and choose what you want to believe, saying “Well the flood surely is allegorical…well Jonah surely wasn’t swallowed by a big fish…”?

If you are not sure, here are some resources for you to read and then pray to the Spirit to help you understand that the bible is sure, perfect, and all we need for understanding of God’s ways and His Son.

Christian Research and Apologetics Ministry:
Are the Scriptures Sufficient?

GotQuestions:
Is the bible truly God’s word?

Answers in Genesis:
Is the bible authoritative and inerrant

Tim Challies:
What does inerrant mean?

John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
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abortions, daily klos, personhood initiative, pride

According to Daily Kos, the poor have no right of self determination

Posted on October 10, 2011 by elizabethprata

Originally posted at the progressive-extreme liberal media site The Daily Kos, and re-posted at a blog called Reality Check, the following statements were made regarding the Mississippi ballot initiative seeking to define a person as a person from conception I wrote about earlier today: this profane headline speaks to the anger generated when any movement even approaching God’s standards is proposed:

“Occupy My Uterus. My Ass! Fertilized Eggs Are NOT People!”

You’d almost think that it was Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas’s uterus at stake (if he had one).

“Eggs Are NOT People.”

“But, time is running out to fight this, and I’m confident The Great Orange can help reverse the cone of silence around Amendment 26. Mississippi has an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent (9th worse in the nation), consistently ranks in the lowest in education, 17.6 percent of Mississippians have no health insurance, and 21.8 percent of its citizens live below the poverty level. Yet, these yahoos think it’s important to focus on further degrading women by making it impossible to get an abortion instead of taking real action to improve the living conditions in their state. This is also the state that has the strictest abortion TRAP laws of any state. And, this is the state that has only one remaining abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization.”

What the progressive extreme liberals are saying is that we need to help the poor by intruding into their lives unasked until and unless they do something that opposes what the progressive elite believes to be right. Then, the poor do not have the right of self-determination. Their right to self-determination suddenly vanishes and evaporates, and people with more money (and by definition, more brains?) will make the decisions for them. In addition, the uneducated, the poor, and the sick by virtue of their being poor, uneducated and sick, do not have the right to prioritize their ballot initiatives. The Liberal elite will do that for them. Finally, simply because the state has high incidences of poverty, uneducated and the sick, it must also mean that there are NO smart, well, and rich people in the state on a par with the progressive elite.

Do you see how unfounded their arguments are? How angry they get? Why do they get so angry? Anger is a work of the flesh (Gal 5:20). Any person not saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christs is a work of the flesh. We’re all born that way. We are born sinners, blind, fleshly and following the works of the flesh until and unless we are born again. Then Jesus gives us a new spirit and a new heart. Anger is connected to pride, (Proverbs 21:24) which is the first sin and is a sin at the root of all sins. (Is 14:13-15). Pride is a hindrance to seeking God. Psalms 10:4 says “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” Their anger is born from their foolishness, for if they were wise, they would turn away wrath. (Proverbs 29:8).

It’s heartbreaking to think that their passion for a cause is so misplaced, but before I was saved I was the same, proud, angry, blind. We can and we should pray for God’s will to be done and that His will includes opening the eyes of the blind so they may see His glory, and the glory of Him in children. Children are graciously given to us (Genesis 33:5). The fruit of the womb is not a lifestyle choice to be destroyed for personal convenience. It is His reward. (Psalms 127:3). The anger we see from people opposing abortion restrictions is from that everlasting struggle between pride of life and submission to His gifts and His will. It is the children caught in the struggle though, literally torn apart in the fight.

I pray for the rapture for many reasons. One is so that all the children will be safe. Another is that all of us saved humans will honor God’s will with one accord. When that struggle and strife between the flesh and His will is removed, what a gracious gift that will be! Until then, we live among anger and hatred against God, encapsulated in the political football that is called abortion.

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abortions, mississippi

When is a person a person? Mississippi Personhood Initiative will define that

Posted on October 10, 2011 by elizabethprata

The 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision at the Supreme Court held that a “person has a right to abortion up until viability. The Roe decision defined “viable” as the baby being “potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid,” adding that viability “is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks.” In effect, the Court laid its laurels on the Constitution’s 14th amendment concept of personal liberty (for the mother). By default the baby had no rights to personal liberty until it was “viable.” (my interpretation).

‘Viability’ also goes to personhood. If a baby cannot live on its own outside the womb, it is not really a person. Dehumanizing a child was a stroke of genius for the abortion proponents, lawyers, and judges, because if a person is not a person, you are not murdering him. Though the Court sought to be precise, leaving wiggle room of that month between the 24th week and 28th week shows just how foolish it is that humans attempt to define the creation, growth, and viability of life. Only God can do that.

Mississippi wants to change the definition of a person through a proposed Constitutional amendment.

Ina proposal to change the State’s constitution, the Personhood Initiative seeks to define someone as a person from the moment of conception. “The amendment seeks to define a “person” as beginning at the point of “fertilization,” and Mississippi could become the first state to successfully adopt it. Both major party candidates for governor and attorney general are backing the effort, as well as other state officials and candidates.”

Opponents immediately challenged the initiative all the way to the Mississippi Supreme Court, but “The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the proposed amendment can be on the ballot in November.” Opponents say “This is not about pro-life or pro-choice. It’s not about abortion,” said Stan Flint of Mississippians for Healthy Families. “It’s about allowing politicians to reach into personal family decisions.”

However, the Government already reaches into families for personal decisions by deciding on a point that a baby changes from a non-human to a human, defining that a baby is human (viable) after 28 weeks, as Roe V Wade asserted. In the MI Clarion Ledger article, opponents say “But some medical and legal experts say the initiative could have unintended consequences that reach beyond outlawing abortion. “Part of the concern is that it’s not entirely clear what will happen if this passes,” said Mississippi College School of Law professor Jonathan Will, who leads MC’s Bioethics and Health Law Center.”

Of course, where were the thoughtful sober and grave legalists when Roe V Wade changed the law for all the United States and attempted to determine human life’s ‘viability’, 40 years ago? And with the advancement of science, viability has dropped from 28 weeks to in some recent cases, 23 weeks.

The battle in Mississippi is heating up. Depending on how the November 8 proposal to amend the Constitution vote goes, “The measure could appear on ballots in up to 16 states next year, including Arkansas, Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma.”

Man is blinded by his sin nature and thus is foolish concerning the things of God, until and unless he is saved by faith in Jesus the Savior. At that time the blinders fall off, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ez 36:26) At that time a person lives his or her life according to the standards God laid down in the bible. However, even those people who are not born again are still responsible for their actions and their crimes against God. Ignorance of God’s standards is no excuse.

So what does the bible have to say about it? The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (CARM) points out:

“The Bible does not specifically mention the word abortion, but it has a number of significant things to say about unborn children. These Biblical statements indicate that the unborn are persons. Therefore, abortion is wrong since it is killing a human being. A simplified form of our argument is the following:

Premise #1: It is wrong to murder a person.
Premise #2: The unborn is a person.
Conclusion: Therefore, it is wrong to murder the unborn.

Premise #1: It is wrong to murder a person.

There are few objections to the notion that it is wrong to murder a person. Murder is the unlawful taking of someone’s life, while killing is the lawful taking of someone’s life. For just a small sample of the Biblical passages forbidding murder, see Gen. 9:6; Mt. 15:19; 19:18; Mk. 10:19; Lk. 18:20; Jn. 8:44; Acts 3:14; and Rom. 1:28-29; 13:9.

Premise #2: The unborn is a person.

It is this premise which is disputed by many in our culture today. However, the Bible clearly teaches that the unborn is a person due to the following reasons.

Possession of Personal Attributes

First, the unborn possesses personal attributes such as sin and joy. In Psalm 51:5, David says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” In Luke 1:44, “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.”

Described by Personal Pronouns

Second, the Bible also uses personal pronouns to describe unborn children. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Matthew 1:20-21 states, “But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’”

Jesus: A Baby at Conception

Third, regarding the conception of Jesus, Matthew 1:20 says, “But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’” The fact that the angel tells Joseph that “the Child who has been conceived” is “of the Holy Spirit” indicates that Jesus certainly was a person at the moment of conception.”

Called Children

Fourth, the unborn are called children. Luke 1:41 states, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (1:44).”

Protected by the same Punishment as for Adults

Fifth, perhaps the strongest argument against abortion from Scripture is the fact that the same punishment is applicable to someone who kills or injures an unborn child as for one who kills or injures an adult. Exodus 21:22-23 states, “If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life . . . .” This strongly indicates that the Mosaic Law viewed the unborn as persons worthy of the same protection and rights as adults.

Called by God before Birth

Sixth, the unborn are even called by God before birth. Almost echoing the prophetic commission of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5, Isaiah 49:1 says, “Listen to me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar, the LORD called me from the womb; from the body of my mother He named me.”

Known Personally by God just like any other Person

Seventh, the unborn are known personally and intimately by God in the same way He would know any other person. Describing David, Psalm 139:15-16 says, “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written; the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” Describing the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Conclusion

The Bible definitely teaches that the unborn are persons because the unborn possess personal attributes, are described by personal pronouns, Jesus is called a child at conception, the unborn are called children, are protected by the same punishment as for adults, are called by God before birth, and are known personally by God just like any other person. Since abortion is murdering a person, abortion is morally wrong (Gen. 9:6; Rom. 1:28-29).”

—-end CARM apologetics——-

Please pray for discernment and God’s will about the Personhood Initiative. I believe the bible shows us that a person is a person immediately upon conception. I believe that God’s will is for us to know Him and abide by His standards and morals. I believe killing an unborn child is morally wrong. I pray that the people of Mississippi and other states make this stand as well through voting for the Personhood Initiative.

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