back to indexBerean Community Church Abortion Seminar 5/28/2023
00:08:20.000 |
All right, well, thanks for coming and attending this special seminar. 00:08:29.000 |
Number one, I am gonna be giving almost just a solid hour of material 00:08:35.000 |
covering specifically the top common arguments from the pro-choice side. 00:08:42.000 |
And giving both a sensible and then hopefully also a biblical response to them. 00:08:51.000 |
And so at this juncture, if you haven't already submitted it on the form, 00:08:55.000 |
you can text me directly and my number is on the handout that I gave you. 00:08:59.000 |
Pertaining to the handout, for those of you guys who signed up, registered, 00:09:06.000 |
I sent you an email with an extended handout that has one, a lot of Bible text 00:09:15.000 |
But is going to support the main portions of the argument from the sanctity of life 00:09:21.000 |
and how God values life from conception to death, right? 00:09:26.000 |
What's more, in that handout, there's going to be various resources 00:09:31.000 |
and links that I put in there related to videos you can watch, books that I recommend, 00:09:37.000 |
and also just sources that may come in handy for you, okay? 00:09:40.000 |
As you know, this is not a topic that, let's say, you know, there's like scanty resources on. 00:09:47.000 |
If you even did a preliminary search, a lot of what I'm gonna be presenting 00:09:52.000 |
has been encapsulated into certain material like articles and videos already. 00:09:57.000 |
But my goal was to try to filter through as many of the arguments that I hear 00:10:08.000 |
And I wanted to make it a little bit more narrow to what are some things that I've been seeing 00:10:12.000 |
that maybe Christians could sway and also adhere to falsely. 00:10:17.000 |
And so we're gonna be tackling in that kind of fashion, okay? 00:10:20.000 |
For those of you who didn't get a handout, we ran and made some more copies. 00:10:26.000 |
So soon at the back, we'll have additional handouts that we'll have available to you in just a moment. 00:10:31.000 |
Let's take a moment to pray together, ask God to bless the time that we have together. 00:10:38.000 |
Heavenly Father, number one, we always want to thank you, God, in every scenario. 00:10:45.000 |
Lord, when we look at the current state of the landscape, God, we can see essentially decay in the society. 00:10:55.000 |
We can see hearts of people growing cold, perhaps even angry. 00:11:00.000 |
But you have already warned us that you have called us to be saved from a perverse generation. 00:11:07.000 |
And so, Lord, in that way, God, we always thank you that you have granted to us sight and vision 00:11:15.000 |
What's more, God, we thank you for your sovereign hand. 00:11:18.000 |
We thank you for the authority found in your word. 00:11:21.000 |
We thank you for the power that is in your spirit, that you would lead our lives towards your grace and towards your holiness. 00:11:28.000 |
It is our prayer that as we do so, that we will become lights, lights by our own conviction, 00:11:34.000 |
lights by our proclamation and confession, and lights by the way that we live and conduct ourselves. 00:11:40.000 |
We thank you for the time that we have to learn together and pray that you would grant to all of us understanding, 00:11:47.000 |
And God, would you use this time to bless us? 00:11:54.000 |
So, as we think about this both controversial to the majority of the country, 00:12:06.000 |
and also even within the Christian world, perhaps a complex issue where there are various voices on either side. 00:12:14.000 |
If you're wondering and you haven't done, I guess, the statistical research of how many people in America 00:12:20.000 |
believe that abortion should be permitted versus prohibited, it literally is almost an even divide. 00:12:28.000 |
From the people who take these surveys, you would see something very similar to 55% versus 45%, something like that. 00:12:36.000 |
The surveys aren't lopsided. It's actually very evenly divided. 00:12:41.000 |
And so in that way, it's hotly debated and in some ways contentious. 00:12:47.000 |
But for us as believers, with a lot of these ethical topics, a lot of social questions that are posed to us, 00:12:57.000 |
Is it the case that we should say, you know, because the country is divided, 00:13:02.000 |
or because there are good and godly people on either side, that I guess it's a complex issue and we don't know. 00:13:10.000 |
Obviously, I'm going to argue to you that that is not the case. 00:13:14.000 |
As a matter of fact, some things within the scriptures are very, very clear, and God wanted us to have clarity about them. 00:13:21.000 |
It's just that unfortunately, and I say unfortunately very purposely, 00:13:26.000 |
sometimes there are tragic results, tragic consequences of there being so many voices in the world, 00:13:33.000 |
so many opinions that are outside of the Word of God. 00:13:37.000 |
I believe we have come to a juncture in our culture, in our society, and perhaps in our churches, 00:13:42.000 |
where there are a lot of people who have experienced the tragic deception that yes, 00:13:47.000 |
this is such a large and complex issue that maybe I can't input my opinion into it. 00:13:53.000 |
And that's a tragic situation then because you can have a scenario where the result consequence 00:14:00.000 |
is that people are making grave decisions that have incredibly severe consequences. 00:14:07.000 |
Take for example even thoughts like two people who are dating, in love, having a romantic relationship and living together. 00:14:16.000 |
Should we have clarity about that? Or should we say, "Well, wait a minute. How soon is their wedding? 00:14:21.000 |
Well, wait a minute. Are they really in love? Wait a minute. Do they, you know, intend at least to get there at some point?" 00:14:29.000 |
That should be something very clear to us. The Scripture says in Hebrews 13, "The marriage bed must be kept pure." 00:14:36.000 |
Yes? Now, there are a lot of people though that say, "But love is love." 00:14:42.000 |
And they even use that, let's say, to the topic of homosexuality. 00:14:46.000 |
Is a marriage between a man and a man something where we can describe it in the way that God describes it? 00:14:52.000 |
Is it something forbidden? Or would we say, "Yeah, I'm not sure if that's my place 00:14:58.000 |
to judge." Scripture does talk about us not judging the outside world. 00:15:03.000 |
This is true. Scripture does talk about that. Is it complex? It is. 00:15:08.000 |
Does it have a lot of personal stories of pain and suffering? It sure does. 00:15:13.000 |
That community, so to speak, individuals who practice homosexuality, 00:15:17.000 |
have they been the target of a lot of ridicule, a lot of rejection? 00:15:23.000 |
Do they have painful stories to tell? They do. 00:15:27.000 |
Does that make it, therefore, a subject that we can't talk clearly about? No. 00:15:32.000 |
The Word of God says to us that God forbids and sees as an abomination 00:15:39.000 |
when the created beings do not properly stay within their created confines, 00:15:44.000 |
but rather exercise a perversion of their own. It's godless behavior. 00:15:54.000 |
Why would I not be allowed to say it when God says that's the way he sees it? 00:15:59.000 |
So, in that way, when we talk about the topic of abortion, 00:16:04.000 |
in some sense, not in every single sense, but in a way, 00:16:09.000 |
you can imagine actually this seminar being very, very brief. 00:16:13.000 |
That abortion is just wrong in the eyes of God because God values the life he creates. 00:16:20.000 |
It's his. It's underneath his love. It's underneath his sovereignty. 00:16:26.000 |
And though it may be an individual who is not a saved Christian, 00:16:29.000 |
though it may be an individual who is outside of his saving grace, 00:16:32.000 |
he is still underneath God's creative common grace of bearing the image of God. 00:16:39.000 |
And therefore, we dare not end it. We dare not touch it. 00:16:44.000 |
Rather, we're obligated to protect it. Period. 00:16:48.000 |
But unfortunately, as you know, there are so many voices around us, 00:16:52.000 |
there are so many voices out there, and then sometimes there are so many voices 00:16:56.000 |
within the broader Christian community where we need greater Christian clarity. 00:17:02.000 |
And so the focus today is going to talk about then what is a sensible way to think about, 00:17:06.000 |
specifically I'm going to use this term a lot, elective abortion. 00:17:11.000 |
Nowadays, the term elective abortion is seen as a derogatory term 00:17:15.000 |
and people will get offended very easily. Why? 00:17:19.000 |
Because to say it's elective abortion, they're going to say, 00:17:22.000 |
"What are you trying to imply? That it's just a preference? 00:17:29.000 |
And so we're going to go ahead and just specifically use the term. 00:17:33.000 |
We're talking about elective abortion, and rather than talking about it in any angry 00:17:37.000 |
or combative terms, we'll talk about it in terms that's sensible, 00:17:41.000 |
and we'll talk about it in terms that's biblical. 00:17:47.000 |
I forgot to change the slide. That's my intro. 00:17:54.000 |
That it's been complicated by a lot of things, circumstances, hardships, agendas abroad. 00:17:59.000 |
But first, we're going to talk about pro-choice argument number one. 00:18:03.000 |
The pro-choice argument number one that is most significant 00:18:07.000 |
and can be summarized into one simple phrase is the argument, 00:18:14.000 |
This is perhaps the area in which we can give no ground. 00:18:20.000 |
If there was, let's say, a cap on my seminar today, 00:18:24.000 |
and I just needed to end it real early, I would make sure to hit this and nothing else. 00:18:31.000 |
AKA, a lot of the other ways that this argument is presented 00:18:42.000 |
trying to use terms that just typically preside in the hospitals, etc. 00:18:47.000 |
But when you look into it, the fetus actually is a Latin term that means child. 00:18:54.000 |
People will talk about it as, "This is actually a part of my body." 00:18:57.000 |
If the woman was talking, the mother was talking, she would say, 00:19:00.000 |
"Wait a minute, this is like an appendix. This is a part of my body." 00:19:03.000 |
And therefore, it's not life yet because it's just a piece. 00:19:08.000 |
What's more, sometimes people will call it uterine matter. 00:19:14.000 |
if you go now and search YouTube and look up any sermon, any talk on abortion, 00:19:22.000 |
"The NIH, the National Institute of Health, defines abortion as a safe medical practice." 00:19:29.000 |
What is it, and who will define it as? Let me read it to you. 00:19:32.000 |
"This is NIH, National Library of Medicine, and abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy." 00:19:43.000 |
Because they would never say, "Abortion is a procedure that ends the beginning of a human life." 00:19:50.000 |
They would use broad terminologies, terminologies that are, yes, scientific and medical, 00:19:55.000 |
but it just only begs the question, "What, then, is a pregnancy to you?" 00:20:02.000 |
Why don't you just go a step further in specificity to say, "What is that pregnancy?" 00:20:14.000 |
A lot of proponents of the pro-choice agenda will use broader categories, 00:20:20.000 |
broader terms to include as much as they can. 00:20:24.000 |
If they use something to the extent of, "It's just a choice," what is the choice? 00:20:33.000 |
It's only a pregnancy. Define for me pregnancy. 00:20:37.000 |
What they want to hide underneath that is to say, is to avoid the idea that that is an actual child. 00:20:46.000 |
I want you to imagine if you have a little brother, and your little brother calls you and says, 00:20:52.000 |
He texts you. He doesn't even bother to call. He texts you and says, "Can I get rid of this?" 00:21:05.000 |
What if he said, "I just want to get rid of my dog." 00:21:12.000 |
Anything to us that has value, we would just immediately ask the question, 00:21:16.000 |
not only, "What is it?" but, "How are you going to do it?" 00:21:18.000 |
"What are you going to do with that?" and, "Why?" 00:21:21.000 |
But, unfortunately, within this spectrum, there is no opportunity to scrutinize the definition. 00:21:27.000 |
For us, it just goes to beg the question and ask, 00:21:32.000 |
"Well, rather than just take it, where people assert and argue that's not a baby, 00:21:41.000 |
Does God see life as sacred and valuable in the womb? 00:21:51.000 |
Again, I sent over to the email list an extended list of the passages. 00:21:56.000 |
I'll go ahead and post it later for those of you guys who don't have. 00:21:59.000 |
But in this question, take a look at Psalm 139. 00:22:03.000 |
Not only does God see it this way, He sees it in such a personal, invested way. 00:22:10.000 |
God personally sees a distinct personhood in the womb. 00:22:15.000 |
In Psalm 139, it says, "You form my inward parts. 00:22:24.000 |
I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." 00:22:28.000 |
"Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. 00:22:35.000 |
Did you notice so far, I'm going to take a moment to pause, 00:22:38.000 |
that He's walking through every part of Himself. 00:22:46.000 |
He's talking about even prior to Him having a form. 00:22:49.000 |
Now He's talking about His frame and structure. 00:22:54.000 |
When I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth, 00:23:00.000 |
In your book were written the days that were ordained for me." 00:23:05.000 |
When you think about this, King David realizes the truth 00:23:11.000 |
that it's not just simply that God acknowledges something. 00:23:14.000 |
It's that God has personal, intimate knowledge of him. 00:23:20.000 |
He says, "Oh, my goodness, how wondrous are your thoughts of me. 00:23:25.000 |
If I were to even try and count your knowledge of me, 00:23:27.000 |
if I were to try and even count your thought of me, 00:23:38.000 |
And then to ask then, does God see value in that? 00:23:43.000 |
What's more, God legally sees a child in the womb. 00:23:47.000 |
It's one way to see something personally, but it's another thing to put into law that value. 00:24:06.000 |
And then it says here in Exodus 21, verse 22, 00:24:34.000 |
And if there was any further injury that that unborn child was hurt, 00:24:39.000 |
was injured in any way, this is when the lex talionis, 00:24:43.000 |
look, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth comes into play. 00:24:52.000 |
And so when we think about the sanctity of life, 00:24:55.000 |
we're not just talking about like, oh, in my own personal thoughts of a philosophy of life. 00:25:02.000 |
We're really thinking about God's value system, His worldview in His created way. 00:25:08.000 |
He has invested into every human being a unique representation of Himself. 00:25:33.000 |
Does an honest observation, basically a scientific observation, 00:25:37.000 |
science is good because you're supposed to make objective observations in reality. 00:25:43.000 |
Therefore, you can make objective predictions of what's going to happen. 00:25:46.000 |
And if you did it a thousand times, it would always be. 00:25:51.000 |
When you observe the pregnancy, that is always the beginning of human life. 00:25:58.000 |
And I want to highlight something for you, which is there is an individual named Dr. 00:26:05.000 |
Remember that name, Guttmacher, because in America, 00:26:09.000 |
the primary statistic gathering institution for abortion is the Guttmacher Institution, 00:26:16.000 |
named after this individual who was an ardent proponent of abortion. 00:26:20.000 |
He wrote the book on pregnancy and birth and the expectant parents for reproduction. 00:26:25.000 |
And he was one of the president, the earliest presidents of Planned Parenthood. 00:26:30.000 |
He fought for legal abortion for a long time. 00:26:35.000 |
He said a facet that makes obstetricians' burden unique in the whole field of medicine 00:26:43.000 |
He simultaneously cares for two patients, the mother and the infant, if you use that word. 00:26:50.000 |
The essential step in the initiation of life is by fertilization and a penetration 00:26:54.000 |
of the ovum by a spermatozoon in the fusion of two cells into one single cell. 00:27:02.000 |
There is a silly assertion currently in this whole debate that says science is divided on this 00:27:10.000 |
because America is divided on this 50/50, maybe 60/40 in some surveys. 00:27:18.000 |
As a matter of fact, more recently there was a scientific study done by-- 00:27:24.000 |
it's in the NIH National Library of Medicine by Stephen Andrew Jacobs. 00:27:29.000 |
He surveyed over 5,500 scientists across the board, no matter what political affiliation they have. 00:27:38.000 |
What he found was that biologists from 1,058 academic institutions around the world 00:27:45.000 |
assessed surveyed items on when a human's life begins, and overall 96% of them affirmed the fertilization view, 00:27:52.000 |
meaning when you have conception, you have a unique human life, a unique individual. 00:28:01.000 |
If you take the scientific graph and you ask somebody who is an embryologist, 00:28:05.000 |
he will say, "Of course. What else are we looking at?" 00:28:09.000 |
Then two entirely--a human being with his own set of DNA, separate and distinct from the mother, 00:28:18.000 |
such a degree that you can test the cells of the mother and the cells of this new body, 00:28:26.000 |
Whether you talk to a biologist, a geneticist, any scientist who is actually honestly looking at the situation 00:28:33.000 |
will not throw their towel and be like, "Yeah, I don't know." 00:28:36.000 |
They'll say, "Of course it's a lie. That's the way it's been for years." 00:28:43.000 |
The reason why I bring this up is because obviously there's a denial of reality. 00:28:50.000 |
I'm spending a lot of time on this first one because this is where the rubber meets the road. 00:28:57.000 |
This is where if you accept the reality that by God's design of humanity, 00:29:03.000 |
every single human experiences--each human being experiences being in the womb, being conceived. 00:29:13.000 |
And then if you think about it, Jesus Christ our Lord, when he said in Hebrews 2 00:29:18.000 |
that God desired to come to the aid of mankind, and he literally said, 00:29:23.000 |
"I have to be made like the brethren in every single way," 00:29:39.000 |
Each individual is unique with the genetic makeup and bears the image of God. 00:29:44.000 |
And when you take this reality and accept it, then every other argument that you have heard 00:29:50.000 |
about, "What about this unique case scenario? What about crisis situation? 00:29:55.000 |
What about more suffering? What about population? What about this and this?" 00:30:00.000 |
Now they're on a different category. Why? We're not talking about preferences. 00:30:04.000 |
We're not talking about what's effective, what's utilitarian, what's going to be good economics. 00:30:09.000 |
We're talking about an ethical issue of life. 00:30:13.000 |
This predicates actually every other thing. You understand what I'm saying, right? 00:30:17.000 |
But the problem is--here is my exhortation to you. 00:30:24.000 |
There is deception, and the deception always has been to subtly slide that, 00:30:29.000 |
where they will distract you to talk about everything and anything, 00:30:33.000 |
so that you just automatically assume, "Oh, maybe it's not." 00:30:38.000 |
We have questions all around about, "Well, what about the woman's rights?" 00:30:42.000 |
"Well, what about in situations that are really difficult?" 00:30:45.000 |
"What about these case scenarios about rape and incest, etc., etc.?" 00:30:50.000 |
Those are difficult, but if you actually believe and not for a moment let it slide, 00:30:56.000 |
but we're talking about a baby. We're talking about a category of a human being. 00:31:02.000 |
Small, yes, but we never discriminated people on size. 00:31:06.000 |
We didn't take a short person and say, "Not yet," right? 00:31:10.000 |
We didn't take a person who lived in a certain arena just because they happened to be here or there 00:31:15.000 |
and say, "Not yet. Not yet human." We never did that. Why? 00:31:23.000 |
It becomes the make it or break it for all of the arguments that we will face. 00:31:27.000 |
The deception is, "I believe Satan is using your humility to dupe you." 00:31:35.000 |
What I found in my internet search, I didn't want to necessarily name Christians, etc., etc., 00:31:41.000 |
but prominent pastors, "Oh, you know, the humble position is to be like, 00:31:46.000 |
'Oh, we don't know. I'm not a scientist. There are literally millions of people on either side of the aisle. 00:31:53.000 |
Who am I?'" Satan is using your humility to not say what God says. 00:32:00.000 |
He's also using this tactic scheme of your sympathy. 00:32:04.000 |
"Oh, but what about these scenarios and that scenario and this story and that story?" 00:32:08.000 |
Aren't you sympathetic? Aren't you, as a Christian, supposed to be loving? 00:32:12.000 |
100% you're supposed to be loving. We're supposed to be marked by true love. 00:32:16.000 |
We're supposed to be a people shining love so that the world will know that you're children of God. 00:32:22.000 |
But the love we practice is always faithful, truthful, loyal to Christ. 00:32:29.000 |
But right now, the schemes of the devil and the deceptions that are going around, it pokes at you. 00:32:35.000 |
"Aren't you going to be sympathetic?" "Of course I'm sympathetic. I am sympathetic." 00:32:41.000 |
And then all of a sudden, they'll throw in their coin and their lot with the group. 00:32:48.000 |
Here's a side note. So right now, this very first point, I'm taking the extended time and saying, 00:32:54.000 |
the child in the womb has intrinsic value because of the way God has made it. 00:33:04.000 |
I know that maybe in a previous generation, people would blow up pictures of an aborted baby. 00:33:10.000 |
You know what I'm talking about? A baby that's been dismembered, body parts. 00:33:15.000 |
And then people have said, "Ooh, let's not do that. It's just too offensive." 00:33:21.000 |
Well, here's my take. If you're offensive, then you're offensive. 00:33:25.000 |
But the pictures themselves shouldn't offend us. 00:33:34.000 |
The very problem is you're not looking. And then people not looking should offend us. 00:33:40.000 |
People rejecting the reality of the photo should offend us. 00:33:43.000 |
Why are we turning a blind eye to literally the voiceless, the helpless? 00:33:52.000 |
Any attempt to cover those pictures should offend us. 00:33:56.000 |
Now, I don't need to be offensive and combative as a personality. 00:34:01.000 |
But it is okay to stare at the atrocity and the reality because that is what's happening. 00:34:08.000 |
Certain babies are being drowned, medicated, in some ways burned, dismembered. 00:34:16.000 |
And that's not something Christians are so afraid of. 00:34:19.000 |
But rather, in truth, we can say horrendous things have been done underneath convenience and various idolatries of mankind. 00:34:28.000 |
I'm not shocked by the atrocities that sinful men, sinful women can do. 00:34:35.000 |
So I just want to make a slight note of that. 00:34:39.000 |
And there's an individual, his name is Dr. Anthony Levatino. 00:34:51.000 |
He's an individual who has performed over 1,200 abortions. 00:34:55.000 |
And his testimony is heartbreaking because he says at a certain point he was just doing his abortion. 00:35:05.000 |
And in order to make sure that the patient, the mother, doesn't get infection, that he doesn't leave anything in there, 00:35:13.000 |
every piece of the baby that he dismembers he places on the table and he makes sure he counts. 00:35:22.000 |
And he said one day, by the grace of God, he looked down and then his eyes got opened and he said he was shaking. 00:35:29.000 |
After 1,200, he looked at the body and that's when it just pierced him. 00:35:45.000 |
From that moment, he said he completed it and then he was done. 00:35:49.000 |
And in repentance upon repentance, he wanted to clear his name. 00:35:52.000 |
Now he's one of a great, great voice and advocacy for pro-life. 00:35:59.000 |
But by the grace of God, if we lie and hide, our souls decay. 00:36:05.000 |
If we ignore and we don't accept the reality, then we get seared in the face. 00:36:11.000 |
But when we take a hard look, then we get humbled, broken, and there's grace of God. 00:36:18.000 |
But Christians, we're not afraid of the guilt because through the path of brokenness, there is great, great mercy. 00:36:25.000 |
Now, as we transition into the next arguments, I do want to highlight something. 00:36:30.000 |
I think it would be always good for you if you're in an argument, not necessarily an argument, but a debate, a discussion, a trying to do a winsome argument. 00:36:40.000 |
Do not let this argument of the baby in the womb pass you by. 00:36:46.000 |
Now, that being said, is it always the case that so long as you show them it's a baby that they will turn? 00:36:55.000 |
R.C. Sproul, in his book, he has a great book that I referenced for you in the handout in the digital form. 00:37:01.000 |
It's called "Abortion, a Rational Look at an Emotional Topic." 00:37:07.000 |
He says after writing it, he was doing an interview with his son. 00:37:11.000 |
He said, "You know, I wrote that," and he does a beautiful argument, and you know, he's such a smart man. 00:37:18.000 |
And then he said in that interview, "I naively believe that if we simply prove that the child in the womb was in fact an infant in the womb, we would completely overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion would be eliminated, and people would turn." 00:37:30.000 |
And he just sat there and said, "It's not the case. It's not the case." 00:37:39.000 |
That's something we want to acknowledge that just simply the argumentation and the case will not do. 00:37:45.000 |
Because the Spirit of God has to illuminate, and that we pray for. 00:37:51.000 |
Next, the pro-choice argument number two is going to be one of health care and well-being. 00:37:59.000 |
What do I mean by health care and well-being? 00:38:02.000 |
The general well-being argument is going to sound like if I have this baby, I'm going to be poor. 00:38:12.000 |
What's more, I don't just simply see a future hardship. 00:38:21.000 |
Other arguments that sound like this are in case of child disability, the quality of the child's life is not going to be good. 00:38:32.000 |
And then the extreme version of this is in the instances of incest or rape, the quality of the woman's life, 00:38:39.000 |
bearing a child as a result of a heinous sin. 00:38:44.000 |
And sometimes if you think about it, what's the argument is she is going to have to live with a reminder, 00:38:51.000 |
an indication of the rape and the suffering that she endured. 00:38:57.000 |
The deception here, though, for us, when you think about the theme of Scripture, 00:39:04.000 |
is suffering at any time a validation for any kind of harm done to self or others? 00:39:12.000 |
Is hardship any kind of validation or excuse to disobey the Word of God? 00:39:18.000 |
Is hardship the number one thing that I should avoid and run away with, that I should take such a risk, 00:39:24.000 |
even if you aren't convinced that it's a life, even if you have some doubts and you say, "It could be." 00:39:29.000 |
And the reason why I say that is because you know that the vast majority of Americans, 00:39:33.000 |
if you ask them, "Do you think the baby is -- the child in the womb is actually a child?" 00:39:39.000 |
They'll kind of say, "Well, I don't know. I don't know when viability is." 00:39:42.000 |
And right now that's the issue, and that's one of the problems is a lot of Christians will say, 00:39:46.000 |
"Because I don't know exactly when viability is, maybe it's after first trimester." 00:39:52.000 |
So what is second and third trimester? Do you know? 00:39:55.000 |
And if you say, "I don't know," what a risk you take ending the life, ending the pregnancy. 00:40:05.000 |
My point is, would you take such risks just because you feared suffering? 00:40:15.000 |
What's more, I want to make highlight of this, that if you look at research, 00:40:20.000 |
"Understanding Why Women Seek Abortion in the U.S." by Antonia Biggs, 00:40:24.000 |
this is a recent survey done again by -- this one is an organization called NCBI, 00:40:30.000 |
and it's reported in the NIH, National Institute of Health. 00:40:33.000 |
I tried my best just to get government organization research to present to you guys. 00:40:38.000 |
If you think about what are the main reasons why, 00:40:41.000 |
it's not going to be something shocking to you because you already know. 00:40:45.000 |
The vast majority talk about interference with education, job, and career. 00:40:50.000 |
A lot of the worries are finances. I cannot afford having another child. 00:40:58.000 |
If the partner doesn't want the relationship between a man and a woman, they're not getting married. 00:41:02.000 |
If the partner is not supportive, if the partner is not going to be there 00:41:06.000 |
and a woman thinks she's going to be a single mother. 00:41:09.000 |
Or an older lady may think, "I'm already done having children," 00:41:16.000 |
Underneath this, when you think about things like medical emergencies 00:41:21.000 |
where second, third trimesters, there's some complication that threatens the life of the mother, 00:41:26.000 |
rape instances, incest instances, how close do you think they are in terms of reasons? 00:41:34.000 |
In most states, most states -- because I think you guys know when doing research statistically on this topic, 00:41:41.000 |
state to state varies quite a bit. In most states, less than 1%. 00:41:47.000 |
So it's pretty wild to me that proponents of abortion will use that 00:41:53.000 |
when they can look at their own data and say, "Wait a minute, but 99% of this is actually out of fear." 00:42:01.000 |
Now, am I saying like, "Your fear is not valid. Your fear is not real. Get over it." 00:42:09.000 |
Support, love, help, guidance, counseling, all necessary. 00:42:16.000 |
I can't imagine the weight of fear and burden on somebody who is in a situation, 00:42:22.000 |
especially let's say if the lady is young, anticipating the progression of their life, 00:42:28.000 |
now taking on a great, great responsibility that they don't think they can do. 00:42:35.000 |
They need encouragement that even if they feel deficient, motherhood is celebrated. 00:42:41.000 |
This calling to care and have a burden of love for a child is beautiful even if you feel deficient. 00:42:48.000 |
Even if you need and have to cry out for help, this is one of the strongest things you will do. Yes? 00:42:55.000 |
Why is it that we have to say, "No, no, no, your greatest calling is to be financially secure"? 00:42:59.000 |
We don't need to say that. And so that's what we're talking about here. 00:43:03.000 |
What's more, I want to highlight that instance of somebody saying, "Well, what about the baby? 00:43:09.000 |
What if the individual has Down syndrome? What if this individual has a disability?" 00:43:14.000 |
Now, again, I'm preaching to the choir here. Obviously, you guys know that does not fly. 00:43:21.000 |
God says every life belongs to him and it is him. 00:43:25.000 |
God said, "It is he who has made man's mouth. It is he who has made man deaf or mute or seeing or blind. 00:43:32.000 |
Is it not I, the Lord? Is it not God, for perhaps his glory in John chapter 9, that he would make one blind? 00:43:40.000 |
For his own good pleasure, that he would pour out his grace on an individual who has a physical disability?" 00:43:47.000 |
Yes, to the physical world, to a humanist, that's like the worst thing possible because you're deformed. 00:43:54.000 |
But to God who desires the redemption of the soul? We can never say that. 00:44:01.000 |
Something I want to highlight to you is there is a quote here by Margaret Sanger. 00:44:09.000 |
In 1921, she became the founder of the American Birth Control League and that became eventually Planned Parenthood. 00:44:18.000 |
She was praised as an amazing nurse who was an advocacy for birth control and women's health. 00:44:28.000 |
But unfortunately, she also had a lot of wicked ideologies. 00:44:32.000 |
In an interview, and you can actually find the recording, it's very eerie because she says it with such confidence. 00:44:38.000 |
She says it with such conviction. She claimed to be Episcopalian, by the way. 00:44:44.000 |
She said, "I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world that have disease, 00:44:49.000 |
that have no chance in the world to be a human being practically, delinquents, prisoners, 00:44:54.000 |
all sorts of things just marked when they're born." 00:45:04.000 |
That is about the purest definition of an ego and pride that goes above and beyond God. 00:45:12.000 |
Because God says, "Yes, even those who are immune are mine." 00:45:17.000 |
I hope you guys know that there is a capital C child of God who has been unified with the precious blood of Christ 00:45:27.000 |
and therefore fellow heir, co-heir with Christ, yes? 00:45:31.000 |
But there is a little KC where God says, "My creation is mine." 00:45:36.000 |
You don't get to do that with them. You don't get to say what's valuable and what's not. 00:45:41.000 |
It's a great, great offense to the Lord God Almighty. 00:45:45.000 |
What's more, what about instances of rape? What about instances of rape? 00:45:50.000 |
We don't have time to go at depth and length into this, but we would say rape is an incredibly heinous sin. 00:46:00.000 |
I believe that rape actually should be punished to a greater extent than it is now. 00:46:06.000 |
If you look at our current legal statutes in California and compare how many years will a man go to jail 00:46:14.000 |
for a white collar crime, let's say he did extortion, maybe he did some bribery, maybe he did a false stock exchange, 00:46:21.000 |
maybe he did some kind of shady business and he stole $20 million from his company, 00:46:26.000 |
how long will he go to jail versus a man who raped a young woman? 00:46:31.000 |
My point is the sin of the rape is so heinous it has great, great consequences. 00:46:38.000 |
But I have this passage up here that says basically that fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, 00:46:44.000 |
nor shall the sons be put to death for their fathers. Everyone shall be put to death for his own sins. 00:46:50.000 |
What are we doing if we say, "Yes, I believe the child in the womb is a child, 00:46:55.000 |
but since he bears the mark of his father, we need to end it." 00:47:00.000 |
You can't say that. That is not in the ethical and the moral law of God Almighty. 00:47:07.000 |
What's more, Ezekiel 18, 19-23, I don't have it on there, but I'm going to read you a larger portion. 00:47:16.000 |
Listen to this, okay? He says in Ezekiel 18, "Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the punishment of the father's iniquity?'" 00:47:24.000 |
He asks the question. "When the son has practiced injustice and unrighteousness, 00:47:29.000 |
has observed all my statutes and them, then he shall surely live." 00:47:32.000 |
Okay, listen to this, "The person whose sins must die, the son will not bear the punishment of the father's iniquity, 00:47:41.000 |
nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity. 00:47:45.000 |
The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. 00:47:51.000 |
But if the wicked man turns from all his sins, which he has committed and observes all my statutes and practices justice, 00:48:02.000 |
The reason why I bring this up is because God is a redemptive God. 00:48:10.000 |
God is a redemptive God, and you know that he brings precious diamonds and jewels from ashes. 00:48:19.000 |
We live in a generation right now where the culture says, "Your forefathers and your fathers sinned, now you owe me." 00:48:25.000 |
That's not redemptive, that's vindictive. Yes? It's vengeful. 00:48:32.000 |
That is not the way of God. God says, "For us, we don't exercise our morals and ethics that way. 00:48:40.000 |
Leave vengeance and justice to him because he will judge perfectly, but we will never do that." 00:48:46.000 |
Now again, with love, care, we're going to handle any individual who has experienced great suffering 00:48:53.000 |
with wise guidance, care that they may become stronger. 00:48:58.000 |
But they can never see this as an option to escape the realities or an option to avoid the pain. 00:49:14.000 |
The argument from the pro-choice side, you've probably heard this one the most, "My body, my choice." 00:49:21.000 |
Another way of thinking through this is arguments you've probably heard of, "But what about bodily autonomy?" 00:49:29.000 |
That I am my own, I have sovereign control over my agency. 00:49:34.000 |
What about private decisions between a woman and her doctor? 00:49:37.000 |
Reproductive rights, constitutional rights, reproductive freedom, trust her choice, that kind of stuff. 00:49:44.000 |
The deception in this ideology is we live in a culture that says, "My freedom means that I am sovereign actually in every way 00:49:54.000 |
and that I am outside the influence of God Almighty, influences of others in the community, free from consequences, 00:50:00.000 |
and free also from moral deviant consequences." 00:50:04.000 |
We live in a strange, strange generation where people believe, like, "I should be able to do what I want and bear no consequences." 00:50:15.000 |
And one of the deceptions within this is you take decisions that are moral and then you stick it into this preferential thing 00:50:26.000 |
where you can say, "Hey, if it's my body, my choice, you don't get a say as to which doctor I choose. 00:50:31.000 |
You don't get a say as to which school I attend. You don't get a say as to which man I marry. 00:50:36.000 |
You don't get a say as to whether I have a baby." 00:50:42.000 |
It sounds good. It's like, "Yeah, that's right. I don't want to force you to do what you don't want to do." 00:50:47.000 |
Every single thing that argument said in the beginning were all preferential decisions. 00:50:52.000 |
We're not talking about preferential decisions. 00:50:54.000 |
I would just sit there and say, if you're having a discussion, I would say, "I actually 100% agree with you. 00:51:00.000 |
I would never tell you what candy to eat, what food to eat, who to marry. That's not my job." 00:51:09.000 |
I'm going to bring out my child and say, "If you're saying, 'My body, my choice,' can I do whatever I want with this boy?" 00:51:20.000 |
Obviously not because he's 12 years old, right? 00:51:24.000 |
But what if the baby is six months old in the womb? 00:51:34.000 |
You just stick it into one of your other choices and you say, "You don't have authority over that, so you don't have authority over this." 00:51:41.000 |
If any man in this room goes home today and in the privacy of your backyard, you beat your dog, you can go to jail. 00:51:50.000 |
I actually looked up the California Penal Code number 597. 00:52:00.000 |
You could intentionally maim, mutilate, torture, wound, kill a living animal. 00:52:04.000 |
This violation can result in three years in prison, a fine up to $20,000. 00:52:12.000 |
So with your body, you can just do whatever you want? 00:52:15.000 |
Is that not a moral decision where the government has a vested interest to protect the life of your animal from your whims and your decisions? 00:52:25.000 |
Yet somehow they stuck that in there, and in some sense that's why I think it's very deceptive, intentionally deceptive. 00:52:34.000 |
To stick that in there, like the same decision as you would pick your flavors, is a gross, gross deception, intentional. 00:52:44.000 |
And so one of the things I want to highlight to you is in a lot of the arguments, they talk about reproductive rights and constitutional rights. 00:52:55.000 |
How many of you guys in here, just by a raise of hand, do you guys actually know the Roe v. Wade decision and how it was made? 00:53:04.000 |
I've got to confess to you guys, I kind of knew, and I kind of thought, "Man, I've got to study that." 00:53:11.000 |
And then about during COVID time, actually, is when I started really digging, because I was like, "I kind of know, but I don't know." 00:53:19.000 |
Because I knew something about, yeah, I mean, you know how there's confidential rights between lawyer and client? 00:53:28.000 |
And there's confidentiality rights between patient and doctor? 00:53:33.000 |
They'll say Roe v. Wade protected the confidentiality between doctor and patient. 00:53:39.000 |
Did you know that Roe v. Wade as a decision is horrendous because, number one, they pointed to Amendment 9 and they said, 00:53:46.000 |
"What we're going to point to is the enumeration that there are rights that we have that's not always explicitly spelled out in the Constitution, but still are rights." 00:53:57.000 |
And one of those rights, and then they pointed to Amendment 14 and said, "We have the right to due process of law." 00:54:04.000 |
Amendment 14 has five different pieces to it. 00:54:10.000 |
At the top is just this idea that everybody is entitled to due process. 00:54:18.000 |
Where is the language of you have a right to abortion? 00:54:22.000 |
Not only that, hey, wait a minute, where is the language that you have a right to such privacy that no government, none of your community, 00:54:29.000 |
no other legal entity can inquire into what you just decided with your doctor? 00:54:37.000 |
Additionally, where in the Constitution did it state that the government in that decision had the right to determine for the rest of the country when viable life is? 00:54:50.000 |
In that decision was horrendous because that decision said, "Well, it does make sense that trimester two and three, there is some viability of life, potential life nevertheless, 00:55:03.000 |
so states can regulate it, but in trimester one, the woman has all right to privacy." 00:55:11.000 |
Those weren't doctors, scientists, theologians, or anybody who made that decision. 00:55:17.000 |
I wanted to inform you because when they say, "It's a constitutional right," ask them, "Which amendment are you talking about?" 00:55:32.000 |
Which article? Which amendment? It's not there. 00:55:36.000 |
That's why, praise the Lord, it got overturned. 00:55:39.000 |
In a passage in Ephesians, it says, "Let no one deceive you with empty words." 00:55:44.000 |
Here and now is prime examples of empty words. 00:55:48.000 |
Reproductive rights, please tell me what that means. 00:55:53.000 |
You just got to trust me with my decision. Please tell me what decision you're talking about. 00:55:58.000 |
Constitutional rights, which constitution are you talking about? 00:56:02.000 |
There are so many empty categories that are being thrown around. 00:56:05.000 |
I just wanted to make sure you're aware of them. 00:56:08.000 |
Bodily autonomy, it's like, "Baby's body or your body? Which body are we talking about?" 00:56:15.000 |
There are so many empty terms out there. You have to be careful. 00:56:19.000 |
It says, "Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 00:56:26.000 |
"You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." 00:56:33.000 |
"For the fruit of the light consists of all goodness and righteousness and truth." 00:56:40.000 |
"Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them." 00:56:46.000 |
"For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret." 00:56:52.000 |
When they say certain things, there is--and I want you to understand there are different categories of people. 00:57:00.000 |
But for strong proponents of abortion, they will try to cover that decision in these categories. 00:57:10.000 |
And that leads us to the final one and the fastest one, which is, "Hey, keep your religious views to yourself." 00:57:16.000 |
The argument that is being pushed as hard as possible right now is, "It's you Christians." 00:57:21.000 |
And I think you guys have probably heard politicians say that. 00:57:24.000 |
"This wouldn't be a problem if you Christians would just stay quiet." 00:57:28.000 |
"The Bible is for you. Don't put it into the Constitution." 00:57:32.000 |
"Your religion is for you. Good for you. You read your Bible." 00:57:38.000 |
"Separation of church and state, remember?" That's what they would say. 00:57:42.000 |
What's more, they'll say, "Limited government." 00:57:44.000 |
"You have to trust the woman and her doctor to make their own decisions." 00:57:48.000 |
"You just have to trust the governing bodies, but this is a false dichotomy." 00:57:52.000 |
My views of Scripture are my views of all reality, and I never actually distinguished the two. 00:58:00.000 |
Because God has opened my eyes, I can see things as they really are. 00:58:09.000 |
There was a wise philosopher once who said, "You know, what's really interesting is people have this great, great reverence for science." 00:58:19.000 |
"We're empirical, meaning I can touch, I can feel, I can test, so you've got to trust me." 00:58:26.000 |
And then he said, "Yeah, you can do your research, but what obligates you to tell the truth?" 00:58:37.000 |
What binds your conscience to be truthful with your findings? 00:58:44.000 |
What authority are you under that you would be always consistent? 00:58:57.000 |
And that's why when you walk through the book of Judges, when there is no king in the land, when there is godlessness in the land, 00:59:06.000 |
So, the scheme of Satan today will be to try to push you and say, "Oh, I guess it is my own personal views." 00:59:15.000 |
"I guess the noble thing is to keep church and state separate." 00:59:19.000 |
No, the noble thing is to make sure that we do not stand with the mockers, that we not sit with the scoffers, 00:59:25.000 |
that we make a great, great defense for the worldview that is God's. 00:59:30.000 |
This, to me, is just a classic effort to silence the opposition, to insist that you're just a fanatic, you're just a conservative, 00:59:37.000 |
you're just a hocus-pocus guy. We believe in science, so shh. 00:59:48.000 |
So here in Psalm chapter 1, it describes to us, 00:59:52.000 |
"We have for us our feet firmly planted by the streams of water that is God's Word." 00:59:58.000 |
I never actually—praise God we are in America—it's a privilege. 01:00:04.000 |
And I'm going to make the admonition to you, you can. 01:00:08.000 |
You can make your opinions, you can make your convictions known, 01:00:14.000 |
because that's the privilege we have currently, right? 01:00:18.000 |
And what's more, is there a sense of duty to speak out about this? 01:00:22.000 |
Well, Proverbs says, "Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate." 01:00:27.000 |
"Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy." 01:00:33.000 |
I'm not going to say that it is your duty to go march, contribute money, go volunteer, etc. 01:00:41.000 |
But this worldview currently, we do have an obligation never to say, "That's a pagan ideology." 01:00:51.000 |
It's as clear as day, and we don't need to call it complicated. 01:00:56.000 |
Proverbs 24, "Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter." 01:01:05.000 |
"If you say, 'See, we did not know this,' does he not consider it who weighs the hearts?" 01:01:12.000 |
"And does he not know it who keeps your soul?" 01:01:15.000 |
"And will he not render to man according to his work?" 01:01:20.000 |
So, when I think about this, people have different types of applications of what they believe is going to be the most effective way. 01:01:30.000 |
In some sense, one of the most easiest things is just to vote because we live in a country where you can vote. 01:01:37.000 |
And although, yes, the church should not be politicized, we shouldn't turn a blind eye to things that are bad policies, bad laws. 01:01:49.000 |
As a matter of fact, it's an okay position, let's say, if you're here today, you say, "You know, because I didn't know a lot of this, I just don't know." 01:02:03.000 |
And what's more, because we live in a country where the voting then affects the policies, and the policies actually has incredible consequences. 01:02:11.000 |
Judges have consequences. Laws of the land have consequences. 01:02:15.000 |
California has its own constitution, and as you guys know, the legislative branch, the Senate branch, the judicial branch, every branch of California leans incredibly left. 01:02:26.000 |
They want to embed into the California's constitution that abortion would be a right never to be repealed. 01:02:33.000 |
And if that happens, it will make incredible, incredible consequences for the number of abortions that are done, but even for us who hold this position. 01:02:47.000 |
Don't vote for an individual who says, "I'm going to do it as much as I can and make sure that a woman will always, no matter how old the baby is, have the right to choose." 01:02:58.000 |
Because there are politicians who run on that platform. Don't vote for them. 01:03:03.000 |
Okay. I didn't know whether I should do it or not, but I have a quote. 01:03:08.000 |
This is Representative Hillary Shultz, and the reason why I put her name and not a lot of others is because I was flabbergasted. 01:03:17.000 |
She was inside of a judicial hearing, and she's a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and she quoted the Bible in the chamber. 01:03:26.000 |
And she said, "Jeremiah 1.5 says, 'I knew you and placed you in your mother's womb.'" 01:03:32.000 |
Okay. That is a direct quote from Jeremiah 1.5. 01:03:35.000 |
And then she goes on to say, "It doesn't say the government's womb, the mother's womb. 01:03:40.000 |
I, one, believe life is precious, but I reject the idea that if I embrace sanctity of life, then I must be forced to accept the government's intervention, and for the government to regulate it. 01:03:51.000 |
We must protect the most personal decision of our life." 01:03:55.000 |
And then she went on to say—there's a reason why I highlight it—that the Born Alive Act should be denounced. 01:04:04.000 |
Did you know that currently in California, because back in September of 2022, the statute that if a baby was born alive after a failed abortion, there's actually up to 20 days in which the mother can still decide to terminate that life. 01:04:21.000 |
The Born Alive Act was something that was in the House. 01:04:25.000 |
She made a stance according to Scripture to say we should reject that law. 01:04:30.000 |
That kind of stomach-turning stuff is happening in legislation. 01:04:36.000 |
And I'm not saying it's every single one of our duties to go sign off on a position, etc., but if we're not making a sensible decision to say these laws, judges, and policies have incredible ramifications for years to come, then we're being foolish. 01:04:56.000 |
By way of summary—just right now, one hour, thanks for hanging in there—by way of summary, I want to say this. 01:05:05.000 |
Those are four lump categories of the pro-abortion argument. 01:05:10.000 |
And by way of summary, I want to make sure that we understand there are many different people within this topic of discussion. 01:05:20.000 |
There are some people who are young ladies who, by lack of discretion, youthful passion, whatever you want to call it, sinful desire, they find themselves in a dire situation. 01:05:35.000 |
You wouldn't talk to that person the same way you'd talk to a politician. 01:05:39.000 |
There are fellow church members who are looking into this whole topic. 01:05:43.000 |
You wouldn't talk to that person like you would talk to this congressmember. 01:05:48.000 |
There are people who, the Christian culture, who don't have understanding, but they just side with the crowd, so to speak. 01:05:55.000 |
And then there are individuals who are politicians. 01:05:57.000 |
They stand on a platform and they push an agenda. 01:05:59.000 |
And then there are certain people who are on the far, far left. 01:06:03.000 |
Where I read an article, and I wondered whether I should quote it for you or not, but I ran out of time. 01:06:09.000 |
This individual says, "I believe life begins at conception, but so what? 01:06:16.000 |
There are people writing today who will literally say, "There are some lives not as worthy as mine." 01:06:28.000 |
But I pray we would have the discretion to talk to people and understand where they're at. 01:06:34.000 |
Sometimes, I will confess, if I'm just on the internet, I'll talk like I'm talking to that article writer, the wicked individual who sees nothing but murder in their hearts. 01:06:48.000 |
We should have wisdom to talk in different ways. 01:06:52.000 |
But in summary, the core of it, again, comes down to some simple truth. 01:06:57.000 |
Parenthood is 100% celebrated in the Bible because it's a lifelong responsibility, a burden of love that incredibly expresses the love of God the Father. 01:07:09.000 |
We would encourage every young woman, every older lady, no matter how old you are, and if you are already a mom who's a veteran mom, we honor you. 01:07:22.000 |
Because in some sense, you're the greatest protector of the baby. 01:07:25.000 |
I read in an article that it's pretty astounding that the womb should be the place of greatest safety. 01:07:32.000 |
She's literally protecting the baby with her body. 01:07:37.000 |
Sad state of affairs has become a dangerous place. 01:07:43.000 |
But God's designed us for the preservation of life. 01:07:46.000 |
And the sanctity of life is not just because we had a scientific observation. 01:07:50.000 |
It's not because I was holier than thou, but because only and because of God's good pleasure. 01:07:57.000 |
God saw it fit that when he made man, he said, "Let us make man in our image," and he embedded with it, then something unique. 01:08:06.000 |
And therefore, all human life should be treated with dignity and reverence for God. 01:08:12.000 |
Because life is God-given, it is precious in his sight and therefore ours. 01:08:17.000 |
Let's take a moment to pray over the things that we covered. 01:08:24.000 |
God, I pray, Lord, that we would not be moved by fear. 01:08:31.000 |
We would not be moved simply by our emotions. 01:08:34.000 |
But we would be moved by the light of your word. 01:08:37.000 |
I pray, Father God, that we would have discretion to know how to have compassion and sympathy in a lost world. 01:08:44.000 |
I pray that we would have empathy without being manipulated by the schemes of our enemy. 01:08:52.000 |
And God, that we would have clear eyes to see. 01:08:55.000 |
I ask, God, also you would give us boldness and courage. 01:08:58.000 |
What you say and how you judge, I pray that we would be carriers of that as well. 01:09:05.000 |
Lord, we are carriers of your gospel, the redemptive message of Christ. 01:09:10.000 |
I pray also that we would continue to carry the lordship and the kingship of our Savior. 01:09:16.000 |
We do pray, God, that in our country, in our communities, there are people, Lord, stuck in decisions, having moments of crisis. 01:09:24.000 |
We pray, Father God, that we would be able to highlight the path that is narrow but faithful. 01:09:30.000 |
Lord, help us and the entire church to be lights into this world. 01:09:39.000 |
So what we're going to do now at this point is I'm just going to go two minutes if you need to use the restroom, etc. 01:09:48.000 |
What's more, I'm just going to set up a mic up here so I have two options. 01:09:53.000 |
Open mic is kind of dangerous, but this is a topic maybe that sometimes requires a little bit of explanation. 01:09:59.000 |
So, one, I have up on the screen my phone number. 01:10:04.000 |
I was going to present that at the Q&A part of it. 01:10:07.000 |
My phone number, and you can directly text me other arguments you've heard, other things you didn't know how to answer because there are many, you know. 01:10:17.000 |
Everything from, hey, when is actual viability and do we have a proof of this and that? 01:10:22.000 |
But also, if you just have questions of more so how to talk to somebody in your life, etc., those are also all warranted as well. 01:10:30.000 |
So I'm going to literally give just like one, two minutes, and then I'll come back up to answer those questions. 01:12:49.000 |
So one of the things I wanted to highlight for you guys is, you know, as you guys know, there are opportunities to essentially get involved to some degree, 01:13:01.000 |
and I want to just give the exhortation to get involved in various ways that you can, and sometimes it's good to just get involved in ways that are close to you too, 01:13:11.000 |
i.e., if you already have friends who are doing something, etc. 01:13:14.000 |
There are various organizations like Focus on the Family, Live Action, you know, various pro-life organizations that do videos. 01:13:24.000 |
They're always trying to garner support so that they can continue to spread the message, get involved with policymaking, and that's good. 01:13:33.000 |
I wanted to just highlight some things that are close to our vicinity though, and some of these you guys have heard before. 01:13:40.000 |
You know, one of the things I will say is there are various individuals that we would want to assist, and we mentioned that there are the young ladies who are actually getting pregnant, 01:13:51.000 |
as opposed to politicians just pushing for a policy, and sometimes the best way to help them is to provide services where they can see the ultrasound or they can get the counseling. 01:14:03.000 |
And so are pregnancy centers good for that cause? And the answer is yes. 01:14:07.000 |
I think what's kind of interesting is in Orange County there is a lot of Catholic churches and there are a lot of Catholic organizations that have funding to do pregnancy centers. 01:14:19.000 |
Those are good, but what I did was just highlight the ones that I know are Protestant Christians. 01:14:24.000 |
They're led in their leadership by Protestant Christians, and therefore there's a greater safety in terms of being like-minded in the efforts. 01:14:31.000 |
So a couple of these, Living Well Pregnancy Center, you guys know that during Christmas time we would have baby bottle drives, fundraising, 01:14:39.000 |
but if you look on their website there are more opportunities to volunteer as well. 01:14:43.000 |
You can volunteer to come in. There is sometimes opportunities to do peer-to-peer, just conversation. 01:14:48.000 |
There are volunteer opportunities just to help the center do cleanup, do stocking, supplies, et cetera. 01:14:55.000 |
Agape Pregnancy Centers are also similar to that, and Obrea, I want to make a mention of that. 01:15:01.000 |
So there is Obrea Santa Ana, and that's not the same as Obrea plus WCPP in LA. 01:15:08.000 |
WCPP in LA and Whittier, Pasadena, and Compton, they put out the very front, like, 01:15:13.000 |
"We want to spread the idea of life affirming as opposed to just woman-affirming," or something like that. 01:15:21.000 |
And they also very readily present themselves as Christians. 01:15:26.000 |
So they do very similar- a lot of the things here do very similar things, 01:15:30.000 |
providing free ultrasounds and pictures so that once they see, hopefully they're stirred. 01:15:38.000 |
The other is a couple of our members, they do just individual outings to Planned Parenthood and Orange. 01:15:45.000 |
And so you can reach out to Sean, and in the document that was emailed, the information is there. 01:15:53.000 |
So they go out for just about an hour and a half to two hours to try to be winsome, give pamphlets, 01:15:59.000 |
give information, and use certain material like that to persuade. 01:16:04.000 |
And then as you guys know, periodically we would do fundraising for Baby Box, et cetera, et cetera. 01:16:09.000 |
And if you wanted to find more information, I just linked the website in there 01:16:13.000 |
so that you can continue to find out more of what they're doing. 01:16:16.000 |
It sounded like the last time they came, they were trying to show the model of what they're doing 01:16:21.000 |
to various states and various policy makers as well. 01:16:24.000 |
So if that gets going, there will be great opportunities to come in the future. 01:16:30.000 |
So I wanted at this time to make sure I walk through some of the questions. 01:16:37.000 |
If you have a burning question and you want to just walk up to the mic, you get priority from me going down the list of texts. 01:16:44.000 |
Okay? And the reason why I did that was because, again, sometimes just -- it doesn't come in a simple sentence. 01:16:50.000 |
There's like some back story, especially on a topic like this. 01:16:55.000 |
Otherwise, I'll go through some of the questions that are here. 01:17:04.000 |
Someone did ask the question about what about abortion when the mom's life is at stake? 01:17:19.000 |
Like if you do the statistical analysis, again, NIH actually has a lot of interesting articles, 01:17:25.000 |
but you can look up in the NIH library how many pregnancies have that kind of life-threatening situation. 01:17:33.000 |
And then they'll break it down for trimester. 01:17:36.000 |
What they'll say is if you're talking about second to third trimester, the percentage is almost nothing, which was really shocking to me. 01:17:45.000 |
Like the doctors and the survey actually says the percentage is almost nothing. 01:17:49.000 |
In our scenarios early on, let's say -- I think it's called the POC pregnancy where it doesn't actually go to the uterus 01:17:59.000 |
And so what ends up happening is that already is going to -- it's not going to be something that will continue in the progress of pregnancy, 01:18:06.000 |
even on its own, but it does nevertheless threaten the life of the mother. 01:18:11.000 |
And so it's a reversal, and therefore in that kind of situation, it wouldn't even be necessarily classified as, oh, we did an elective abortion. 01:18:19.000 |
And that's why I remember I said we have to keep some of these terminologies in line because that's not the way that you would describe that. 01:18:28.000 |
So I think what I'm saying is within both what is happening currently in terms of the numbers 01:18:35.000 |
and then also the specific medical procedures that you do, it wouldn't be in that classification. 01:18:45.000 |
I just felt like that would be a lot more fun. 01:18:53.000 |
Yes, so this is an important question about the viability. 01:18:57.000 |
There are some people that say viability doesn't start until the baby can survive outside of the womb. 01:19:05.000 |
And then what's more, it's only because of modern-day technology that the viability measure has moved left and right. 01:19:14.000 |
And then so I want to talk about that a little bit because -- so there are different criteria for talking about viability. 01:19:26.000 |
And honestly speaking, don't let anybody tell you that, oh, viability is based on size, viability is based on age, 01:19:36.000 |
viability is based on level of development, viability is based on how cognizant you are. 01:19:44.000 |
Because none of those measures will actually account for you then being not a viable human being. 01:19:52.000 |
I mean, the infant who was born, my son was a tiny baby. 01:19:55.000 |
He was five and like -- he was just around six pounds, like less than six pounds. 01:20:00.000 |
When the doctor did the whole like, hey, let me check your baby's growth and weight against the rest of, you know, America, he was at 2%. 01:20:08.000 |
And then three weeks later, he dropped off the chart. 01:20:11.000 |
And then she was like, oh, this is because you're Asian and let me check it against the rest of the world. 01:20:17.000 |
So she flipped the map around and then she was like, you know what, never mind, don't look at this chart anymore. 01:20:22.000 |
My baby was so small, she kept telling us, like, all right, we're going to need to just supplement like crazy. 01:20:29.000 |
Well, if we're going to talk about size, if we're going to talk about response time development, a young girl, she actually -- let's say a young girl is one years old. 01:20:41.000 |
She hasn't fully developed like a 21-year-old. 01:20:44.000 |
Some of her organs haven't developed, especially the reproductive organs. 01:20:52.000 |
It's not going to be sentient because you have people who have Alzheimer's, you have people who are in a coma. 01:21:04.000 |
The question wasn't to you what was valuable. 01:21:13.000 |
God has embedded the DNA of that embryo, the zygote. 01:21:17.000 |
It takes all the DNA makeup to grow into a full human being. 01:21:26.000 |
And then can it be -- so you have these parameters of just the question of is it life, and the answer is 100%. 01:21:32.000 |
And so that's why every medical individual who's talking about when does human life begin will say conception, and they're not actually talking about viability. 01:21:42.000 |
So I hope that helps on that question of viability. 01:21:48.000 |
You know, I had just one argument that was really interesting. 01:21:52.000 |
This physician -- I can't remember his name all of a sudden. 01:21:58.000 |
But what he did was he operated on a baby inside someone's womb. 01:22:02.000 |
But because operating on the baby inside someone's womb got complicated, he actually removed the baby majority outside of the womb, and then after the surgery was successful, placed the baby back. 01:22:18.000 |
Then that will throw a loop to all these arguments about viability and also when does life start? 01:22:25.000 |
Because then that just means that he went from human, not human, to human. 01:22:30.000 |
So again, none of those things will actually work. 01:22:38.000 |
I want to get through as much as I can until about 3.15. 01:23:03.000 |
What about the genetic testing that's pretty widespread now? 01:23:09.000 |
So my older brother, it was really interesting because now to a certain degree the physician doesn't even ask you. 01:23:20.000 |
And then they ask you if they want to do a more thorough exam, you know? 01:23:24.000 |
So my older brother has three beautiful girls and the middle girl, Mina, she has very severe Down syndrome. 01:23:31.000 |
And three weeks after she was born she had to have heart surgery, you know? 01:23:37.000 |
But what was really interesting about this scenario was that, you know, to him the doctors had asked, "Do we have high percentage that this could be the case? 01:23:48.000 |
And he just asked the doctor the question, "Why?" 01:23:53.000 |
And the thing about it is it was appropriate for him to ask the question because he knew exactly what was coming after that. 01:24:00.000 |
Even though the doctors say that they're kind of neutral, actually I don't think that's the case that they're neutral. 01:24:07.000 |
They will give you options, but a lot of the option is being pushed towards, "I don't know if you really want this," and they'll push the option of abortion. 01:24:15.000 |
So when it comes to genetic testing, can you do it? 01:24:20.000 |
That's not necessarily a sin, but in the category of exercising wisdom, for what purpose does that serve? 01:24:26.000 |
Can you do it to prepare your hearts, be prayerful for you and your wife to be on the same page and say, "We're going to gear up for this. 01:24:33.000 |
We're going to love this child and we're going to make sure we're getting the whole family involved, the love bomb, this young baby." 01:24:42.000 |
But if it's for the purpose of adjusting cases or the other options that the hospital will actually present before you, there's just this question of why even do that. 01:24:53.000 |
There's a mic right there on that stool for you. 01:24:58.000 |
Okay, so one argument that I've heard fairly often is that a baby is a parasite, especially in the context of rape in young girls. 01:25:14.000 |
Since as Christians we're supposed to value all life, at what point does the mother's life – if she's so young that she's not able to come out of the pregnancy successfully, 01:25:28.000 |
then what I've heard is arguably it's suicide to send her into the pregnancy. 01:25:44.000 |
Okay, similar to that question is the whole, "Hey, is it fair if, let's say, you get into an accident and then from that accident, because you were the one driving and it was your fault, the person needed blood transfusion. 01:26:00.000 |
And lo and behold, from the accident, when you come to, they've already stuck the blood into the other person." 01:26:06.000 |
And you're sitting there kind of like, "That wasn't my choice, right? Is that fair?" 01:26:13.000 |
And that's the line of thinking through the whole parasite analogy. 01:26:17.000 |
Maybe you guys have actually seen a video that circulated that was viral, which is, let's say somebody was a beautiful violinist, but she had a terminal disease, and then again, they used your body in order to support, to be basically a life support for that individual. 01:26:34.000 |
Well, the reason why none of that works is because sometimes when you use analogies, it's kind of like our interpretation of parables. 01:26:42.000 |
You can't just take two stories and be like, "See?" 01:26:48.000 |
When, let's say, for example, the blood transfusion and your kidneys and you need to donate to somebody else, you have to have one-to-one correlation. 01:27:00.000 |
Are we talking about just an accident where the accident can actually result in a number of things, a myriad of things, broken arm, loss of hearing, etc., etc.? 01:27:13.000 |
But the simple act of intercourse, it always ends because that's the way God has created it. 01:27:22.000 |
What's more, we're talking about organ donating and is this fair? 01:27:26.000 |
That's not a one-to-one either because the sole purpose of the reproductive organ was to reproduce. 01:27:34.000 |
So the way that we would think of it is, yes, there is a sacred protection over intercourse, and when a man violates it, that's an absolute crime. 01:27:44.000 |
But the consequence of that, are we going to now label that something entirely different than the natural course in which someone gets pregnant and has a baby? 01:27:53.000 |
Do we now use a different term like, "No, that's parasitic"? 01:27:57.000 |
It's still in the realities of the way God has made it. 01:28:00.000 |
So that's one. You don't just take two stories and just make them equal. 01:28:04.000 |
Secondly, you don't take different terminologies for cause and effect and say, "Oh, since this caused this, this is now a parasite." 01:28:13.000 |
You would have to actually then argue, not just assert that. 01:28:17.000 |
Now, the other part of it too is in the natural course of things. 01:28:23.000 |
We mentioned that when we look at everything in terms of the sheer statistics, the vast majority of all the abortions that are happening are the result of individuals having intercourse or having a baby. 01:28:42.000 |
And so the nature of me as a human being, I have ten fingers. 01:28:46.000 |
But if it so happened that an individual has an eleventh finger, does that mean now that, oh, in this extenuous or, I guess, exceptional case, it's always a parasite? 01:29:00.000 |
So I hope you guys kind of follow my logic there is just by moving the category to parasite, we're saying then that that leaves actually the opportunity for anybody to label or categorize an infant in the womb as a parasite. 01:29:17.000 |
Again, when it comes to these situations of rape and incest, what I would say is this is there cannot be, because of one horrific sin, the excuse for another horrific sin. 01:29:33.000 |
Rather, if there was a horrific sin, we recognize the consequence and situation of that and seek to empower, help, and come to the aid of the individual that this sin does not carry on. 01:29:45.000 |
And so in that way, the way that it's like painted, we just have to make sure we're not using analogous terms to some degree, but then we place it into an entirely different category. 01:30:07.000 |
Pastor Mark, can you, like, in the course of maybe like the past two, three years, the abortion issue was confusing in this sense. 01:30:18.000 |
We had a lot of what we would refer to as celebrity pastors weigh in on the issue, and they kind of, you know, on a subjective level quantified abortion with candidates and, you know, I'll vote for neither, I'll vote for this one or whatever else. 01:30:36.000 |
And different celebrity pastors have said different things. 01:30:41.000 |
Can you just kind of give us commentary in terms of how to think through these things and how we should weigh these things scripturally? 01:30:52.000 |
So just you want me to comment on what I saw in Christendom and then help us think through, like, what's biblical, you know? 01:31:05.000 |
Again, if you caught my drift earlier, what I really saw actually not just simply in abortion, but the generic thought of, like, social justice, right? 01:31:23.000 |
There was a huge push for people to draw lines, and then by doing that, they would essentially bolster up their stance that they're the sympathetic, caring, and loving individual. 01:31:37.000 |
I felt like that's what I saw so many times among celebrity pastors, right? 01:31:42.000 |
A desire to be sympathetic and a desire to be, quote, unquote, loving, they gave credence to people's opinions and ideology without asking what is it that they really want, you know? 01:31:55.000 |
Without asking how far do they want to go, and then without even asking where is my sympathy actually landing, you know? 01:32:03.000 |
And so, because let me ask you this interesting question, right? Let's say you went on the internet and you went on Facebook and you said, you know what? 01:32:10.000 |
I want to be so sympathetic to the LGBTQ community. Where is that sympathy landing? To who? 01:32:19.000 |
And if you said, you know what? I actually am in support of women's rights to choose. Where is that sympathy landing, you know? 01:32:26.000 |
And so, with that kind of more inductive and precise language, we are actually holding our sympathy and our loyalties very close and dear, okay? 01:32:37.000 |
I think one of the dangers that we saw was that actually a lot of us are driven by fear, fear of judgment, fear of rejection, you know? 01:32:48.000 |
And I really felt like people weren't taking a willing stance on some of these issues because it's purely that, you know? 01:32:55.000 |
So, I would say when it comes to just generically speaking, commentating on this stuff, earlier I mentioned there are certain issues in the scriptures where the scriptural is very, very clear. 01:33:08.000 |
Don't be afraid to call it exactly the way God calls it. 01:33:12.000 |
If God calls something an abomination, now I didn't present it this way, but I have like a long list of when God says in the book of Deuteronomy, 01:33:20.000 |
"You shall not offer your children as sacrifices." That's an absolute, abject abomination to God, yes? 01:33:27.000 |
Don't be afraid to say certain things that God judges the way he judges. 01:33:32.000 |
That's not us being arrogant. I believe the most arrogant thing to do is to not say what God wants you to say and saying what God never told you, right? 01:33:42.000 |
And so with that kind of fidelity to scripture, start asking questions of where are the boundaries? 01:33:49.000 |
And I think in today's day and age when people, with the social media, people are like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm for this, I'm for that." 01:33:57.000 |
Just be very wary that your sympathies also then end up becoming your loyalties. 01:34:03.000 |
Guard that, right? Guard your loyalties, guard your affections, because for us as Christians, we don't just like give it out free nilly-willy 01:34:11.000 |
because we have one God who is deserving of every loyalty, yes? 01:34:19.000 |
I hope I answered your question, Elder James. 01:34:28.000 |
That was very helpful. That was very helpful, and especially the last part about our sympathies becoming our loyalties. 01:34:35.000 |
I guess I want to take it just one step further is with respect to politics and the Christian, how should we actually think about voting for candidates that are pro-abortion? 01:34:51.000 |
I've heard different people say, "I'm not a one-issue voter, so everything is on the table." 01:34:56.000 |
How should I weigh, like if one party might be, in theory, one party might be pro-abortion, but better with the homeless. 01:35:05.000 |
I'm not saying that that's the case, but in theory, how should the Christian weigh these things? 01:35:13.000 |
I think that, so Scripture calls us to be really sensible, right? 01:35:19.000 |
Book of Titus, like every man, older ladies, younger men, we have to be really, really sensible. 01:35:25.000 |
Today we talked about the fact that right now there is in place a policy where starting from 1973, this graph on how many children were aborted was like this. 01:35:37.000 |
And at the peak around 1998, it was like 1.6 million abortions in America. 01:35:42.000 |
Right now it's at around like 600,000, right? 01:35:48.000 |
To me, I was upset when an individual said, "Oh, you guys are celebrating about the overturn of Roe v. Wade, but when are we going to celebrate Black Lives Matter or the racial social justice issue?" 01:36:03.000 |
So I'm going to get to you answering your question, but look at the value. 01:36:07.000 |
You have 600,000 lives that are being terminated, and you're talking about social justice issues where, "Oh, because certain individuals don't have as much opportunities or they don't have enough finances." 01:36:20.000 |
Those two things shouldn't weigh that hard for you, right? 01:36:25.000 |
For those of you guys who are one voter issue, do it. 01:36:29.000 |
At one point, would it be okay if you just lined up 600,000 people, let's say Black people, and said, "That policy is inexistent today, 01:36:36.000 |
but because of economics, I don't want to do that." 01:36:41.000 |
Again, this is not "Thus says the Lord," this is my ideas to you. 01:36:46.000 |
And what's more, right now, it's not as though—I'm just going to be pretty blunt with this—it's not as though politicians are really, really sly about what they believe. 01:36:56.000 |
We have individuals who stand on platforms where they're 100% for promiscuous sex, they're 100% for homosexuality, 01:37:01.000 |
they're 100% for confusing male and women identities, and they're 100% dedicated to abortion. 01:37:09.000 |
It doesn't make sense that everything that is in existence as vile, degrading passions in Romans chapter 1 is a platform for a politician. 01:37:18.000 |
And we're like, "Does God really say that we should vote one way or the other?" 01:37:24.000 |
And then the other part, too, is there are some celebrity pastors where they will say, 01:37:35.000 |
"You know, the Scriptures doesn't actually give us a whole lot of instructions on how we should deal with government." 01:37:40.000 |
Then I would say, "You know what? You just missed a whole ton of the Old Testament. 01:37:44.000 |
Do you know how many times the Old Testament talks about good governance, good ruling, good managing, righteous leadership, righteous kings?" 01:37:53.000 |
And there's a huge chunk of it in the New Testament, too. 01:37:56.000 |
And what's more, I don't need an exhaustive game plan and policymaker on, "This is the way you should vote." 01:38:02.000 |
There are things that I see clearly, and I'm allowed to move on that. 01:38:07.000 |
If you can't give a defense of why I voted this way in all of its exhaustive features, don't be afraid. 01:38:13.000 |
What you know, be able to say and have the humility to say, "The other parts I actually haven't researched yet." 01:38:27.000 |
So I think you've been pretty thorough about the principles, and thank you for that. 01:38:34.000 |
So can you comment on anti-abortion policies that cause doctors to refuse treating pregnant patients in fear of terminating the baby and facing criminal charges? 01:38:50.000 |
So I actually read the articles from the Texas Tribune on that. 01:38:58.000 |
And so his question comes because upon Texas saying the heartbeat law, number one, I also read the law on that. 01:39:09.000 |
And it says that where the mother's health is in jeopardy or the doctor deems it necessary, it's permissible. 01:39:18.000 |
But you will have hospitals who will not take the risk, and so they won't actually service the woman that comes to the hospital. 01:39:35.000 |
Well, let me mention just a bit more on that. 01:39:37.000 |
I don't want to be without sympathy on that because then, yes, whenever we make a change in law, there can be repercussions where people, because of the change in law, now have to start adjusting. 01:39:53.000 |
The Texas law to reduce abortion by that much is a huge win, right, is a huge win. 01:40:01.000 |
These repercussions now we have to deal with on the other side. 01:40:04.000 |
But it was interesting to me because that Texas Tribune article, you guys can tell I wasted this one evening, and I just went down like a rabbit trail. 01:40:13.000 |
If you look at who sponsors them, it's so funny to me that Planned Parenthood sponsors that newspaper. 01:40:20.000 |
They were using this to say, "Oh, look at this insensitive, like they didn't think through this. 01:40:26.000 |
There were four ladies who pre-brought this lawsuit, and I'm thinking, "Why are they trying to push this part of it? 01:40:31.000 |
Why don't they just go sue the hospital?" is my immediate reaction, right? 01:40:38.000 |
And if there are implications where they're not able to get the procedure and they're not able to get the help they need, then, yes, the individuals who are just saving their own behinds, they should be the one at fault and not the policy makers. 01:40:52.000 |
Now it's 3.30, so what we're going to do is I'm going to pray, and then any of you guys who want to stay for more questions, I'm going to hang out here, and then Elder James has all the answers for you. 01:41:07.000 |
Heavenly Father, we really do pray, God, that you would grant to us wisdom. 01:41:16.000 |
Lord, some things, yes, are so clear, black and white, and we can tell, and then other things, God, you tell us that you want us to grow in understanding, discretion, and wisdom and all knowledge of Christ. 01:41:29.000 |
I pray, Father God, that our eyes would be set upon you, what you want, what you desire, and what you're pleased by, so that, God, our hearts not be swayed by what the world wants, what I want, or anybody else. 01:41:40.000 |
Lord, for this topic, we do pray for the country. 01:41:45.000 |
We do pray for young ladies who are in the thick of decision-making. 01:41:49.000 |
Lord, would your spirit minister and guide in truth.