So Where Ae We Headed?

Last week Marlys and I were down in sunny Dallas sharing some time with our grandkids there.  What fun to sit beside their pool soaking in the sun!  Around us were the evidences that spring will soon be in Texas.  What an awakening as we flew back into Minneapolis to more snow and more cold.  I am beginning to understand the mindset of "snow birds."  So, in the midst of time in Texas, I did not get a blog written last week.  But I want to share some important news with you . 


When the Roe v Wade decision of the United States Supreme Court was enacted back on January 22, 1973, the lines were drawn concerning abortion.  How late into the pregnancy could an abortion be performed?  When would the developing baby reach the point of viability?  But the ultimate question was when does life truly begin?  For many life only begins when the baby is delivered and is outside of the womb.  For others, life begins when a fetal heartbeat can be heard.  For those of us who are followers of Christ, life begins the moment of conception.  Over the succeeding years, tens of millions of babies have been aborted - many of them for the reason of convenience. 


But a new "low" was made public in the state of Virginia.  Gary Bauer, in a posting at The Patriot Post website, shared portions of an interview between Virginia Delegate Todd Gilbert and Delegate Kathy Tran, the author of a bill that would permit abortion up to the point of birth: "Under questioning from Del. Todd Gilbert (R), Tran acknowledged, 'I don't think we have a limit in the bill.'  Gilbert pressed further, asking Tran if a woman who was 'dilating' and about to give birth could still request an abortion.  Tran answered, 'My bill would allow that, yes.'"  (www.patriotpost.us/opinion-60873-promoting-infanticide).


When Virginia Governor Ralph Northam was asked about the bill - which was defeated, by the way - he argued, "If a mother is in labor ... the infant would be delivered.  The infant would be kept comfortable.  The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and mother." (www.patriotpost.us/articles/60893-the-macabre-leftist-culture-of-death).


Friends, we have now reached the point in the abortion debate where we are sliding down the slippery slope toward infanticide - the willful murder of children outside of the womb.  This is what the ancient Romans did.  A child would be born.  He or she would then be brought to the father who would determine whether the child would be accepted or rejected.  If the father rejected the child, it would be left to die.  Perhaps there were any number of reasons why a baby would be rejected: the hair color was wrong, the ears were too big, it was a girl and not a boy. 


In his article, Gary Bauer asks this question: "Why stop at birth?  On what moral basis can the left say that if a mother gets depressed 24 hours later, she can't change her mind and be allowed to kill her baby then? ... If an abortion is okay after 20 weeks, why not when the mother is dilating and the baby is beginning to crown?  And there isn't much of a difference 24 hours later."


I had the privilege to share with a group of men this morning that I believed that our culture was descending rapidly into the quagmire of paganism.  If you read the descriptions of those Canaanite cultures that God instructed the people of Israel to completely destroy, and if one reads the account of Paul about the Roman culture in which he lived, there is great similarities with our culture today.  I believe we have advanced past the "post-Christian" culture to the "anti-Christian" culture. 


Yet, my friends, we should not despair.  It was in the midst of that depraved, pagan Roman culture that the Church grew so phenomenally.  And why was that?  I believe it was because Christians truly were set apart from that culture.  This has always been God's plan - to use a separated people to minister His truth into a pagan culture.  That was God's original design for Israel as they crossed the Jordan River into the land of the Canaanites.  That was God's original design for the Church.  But what happened to the people of Israel?  They compromised with the culture.  They adapted to the culture around them.  They absorbed that culture into their own.  As a consequence, their testimony became distorted and ineffective.  What has happened to the Church?  They have followed in the pattern of ancient Israel.  As a consequence, the Church has lost its distinctive edge. 


Is there still time for the Church to have another awakening?  Perhaps, but I believe that time is running out at a more rapid pace than we even imagine.  It is time for each one of us to shake off the apathy and spiritual drowsiness that have infected us.  It is time to go to war.  It is time to do what Jude declares: "snatch others from the fire and save them" (Jude 23). 


Another sign of the times is the increased focus upon the worship of planet earth.  This became evident these past few days with the increased publicity of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "new green deal."  Within ten years, no more airline travel.  (I wonder how I will get tour groups to Israel then, pretty long bridge!)  Within ten years, no more meat.  (I had lunch this past week with a farmer and he said that I should enjoy that steak because cows will soon be no more).  Within ten years, no more gas-fired furnaces, no more backyard bar-b-ques, no more gas-powered cars.  Friends, it will take lots and lots of money to pay for all this.  And where will the money come from?  Yep, you guessed it: from your pockets and from mine, along with a rapidly escalating debt that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will inherit. 


Yes, this is an amazing planet that God has given to us.  But His instructions were NOT to worship it, but to superintend over it.  Can we and should we do a better job of superintending our planet?  Absolutely.  But when we worship our planet, then we have descended, once again, into paganism.  Friends, "green" is beautiful, and about this time of year here in Minnesota, "green" becomes something we long for.  "White" is good, but "green" is better! 


Friends, let's wake up because our Redemption is soon to arrive.  Are you ready for when that trumpet blows?