The Dark Places and the Habitations of Cruelty

The context of abortion, by Matt Vogan

The issue of abortion in relation to Scripture has been very ably considered within the pages of Christis; this article, although having no direct link with the author of that piece (or with any organisation) would seek also to illuminate the issue with further light from God’s Word. I must openly confess that much of this article, as extensive quotation indicates, is derived from an article by Prof. David Engelsma. You may if you wish regard it as merely expansion on his thoughts.

“Abortion is a striking, appalling instance of the abounding of lawlessness in the last days forecast by Jesus in Matthew 24:12.” It is the “spirit of anti-Christ” who attempts to change “the fundamental laws of God, made known both in Scripture and in nature, as God’s prophet foretold in Daniel 7:25 and Daniel 11:36.” The law of God prohibits and condemns murder, (Genesis 9v5, Exodus 20v13) — for man is made in the image of God and the person is continuous from conception onwards (Psalm 139v13–16). The rulers and the peoples of the nations set themselves “against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”(Psalm 2v2–3). Thus rejecting and perverting the absolute standards of God as fetters, they lust after permissive ethics that will permit and sanction their evil. God is opposed in outright rebellion, and his authority in law-giving usurped and denied, which, as 2 Thessalonians 2v3–4 describes, is the spirit of the “son of perdition”, “the man of sin”. The guilt of a mounting holocaust hangs over our nation and many nations of the world: from the legislators to the doctors to the parents, the law of God is defied and God-ordained responsibilities thrown off. “The creature plays Creator” in its capricious seeking to control the giving and taking of life.

“Be astonished O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate.”

(Jeremiah 2v12)

Do we understand where abortion comes from? Behind it is the further lawlessness of fornication. “Abortion is the final solution to the problem caused by sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility.” (Society) “promotes the enjoyment of the pleasure of sex outside the bond of marriage. Every aspect of our society encourages fornication: music, books, television, movies, advertising, and education. The result of fornication is unwanted babies. The solution? Kill the babies!” The creation-ordinance of marriage is thus everywhere despised; fewer than ever in our nation now obey it and 60% of these yet dishonour it with their prior co-habitation (recent Joshua Rowntree foundation report). “Even where marriage is used there is no recognition of the calling to have children or of the responsibility to receive and rear the fruit of the sexual union. Marriage is merely a means of sensual self-gratification. To get rid of the hindrances abort!”

“… when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

(James 1v15)

Behind both fornication and abortion, is that philosophy of lawlessness which everywhere holds dominion: that all is relative, that in the field of morals there can be no absolute judgments, if the mother feels it right to kill then it is, choice is the absolute. Whatever keeps the majority happy is justified. We must recognise that this is based on a view of the origin of the universe, in which the arbitrary impersonal of chance, time and probability, and the fortunate concourse of atoms is supposed to have given rise to what is. We must further see that if this is true then such an amoral system of ethics is absolutely correct. But the God of the Bible does exist and his law is established as firm as the universe he has created.

Christians must not be narrow or inconsistent in their concentration, but stand against this whole chain; and our “testimony to the world must condemn the unchastity and the dishonouring of marriage that give birth to abortion.”

We see “Babylon the great” and that “all the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication”, and we hear the clear call of God:

“Come ye out of her, my people, that ye may not have fellowship in her sins, and that ye may not receive of her plagues.”

(Revelation 18v2–4)

The believer obeys this call “not by any physical removal to a remote place or to another country, … not by any revolutionary behaviour, but by living antithetically in the power of the Holy Spirit.” He refuses to amuse himself with the world’s pornography; he keeps himself from the television programmes, movies, and books that entertain by means of violence; he will not allow (his children to be taught) ... the goodness of adultery, the lawfulness of abortion, and the necessity of the deifying of man; he sees to it that his thinking on sex, marriage, children, state, justice, killing and bearing (rather than escaping) responsibility is formed exclusively by Holy Scripture; and he … flees the church that is unable unequivocally to condemn abortion, as well as the sexual unchastity for which abortion is the world’s panacea. In this separation is nothing of pride. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures …” (Titus3:3).

Grace rescues us from this present, evil, aborting, heaven-storming, perishing world. “Only grace.”

“The depravity of which abortion is a glaring expression is not a matter of illiteracy, poverty, and social deprivation, but of sinful human nature.” God will not let the guilty go unpunished yet in mercy compassion commands “all men everywhere to repent, because he set a day in which he is about to judge the habitable world in righteousness” (Acts 17v30–1). The command is to “Repent therefore and be converted for the blotting out of your sins.” (Acts 3v19). Those who remain guilty are those who cannot part with their guilt for they will not part with their sins. The covenant promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit is proclaimed “unto you, and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” God has entered into a covenant of grace to deliver sinners from the guilt, power and punishment of sins by a Redeemer. To be “apart from Christ” and “strangers from the covenants of promise” is to be without hope “and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2v11). Therefore; “Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty” (Psalm 74v20).

Matt Vogan

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Continuing the debate …

By Matt Vogan

The issue of abortion in relation to Scripture has been very ably considered within the pages of Christis; this article, although having no direct link with the author of that piece (or with any organisation) would seek also to illuminate the issue with further light from God’s Word. I must openly confess that much of this article, as extensive quotation indicates, is derived from an article by Prof. David Engelsma. You may if you wish regard it as merely expansion on his thoughts.

“Abortion is a striking, appalling instance of the abounding of lawlessness in the last days forecast by Jesus in Matthew 24:12.” It is the “spirit of anti-Christ” who attempts to change “the fundamental laws of God, made known both in Scripture and in nature, as God’s prophet foretold in Daniel 7:25 and Daniel 11:36.” The law of God prohibits and condemns murder, (Genesis 9v5, Exodus 20v13) — for man is made in the image of God and the person is continuous from conception onwards (Psalm 139v13–16). The rulers and the peoples of the nations set themselves “against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”(Psalm 2v2–3). Thus rejecting and perverting the absolute standards of God as fetters, they lust after permissive ethics that will permit and sanction their evil. God is opposed in outright rebellion, and his authority in law-giving usurped and denied, which, as 2 Thessalonians 2v3–4 describes, is the spirit of the “son of perdition”, “the man of sin”. The guilt of a mounting holocaust hangs over our nation and many nations of the world: from the legislators to the doctors to the parents, the law of God is defied and God-ordained responsibilities thrown off. “The creature plays Creator” in its capricious seeking to control the giving and taking of life.

“Be astonished O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate.”

(Jeremiah 2v12)

Do we understand where abortion comes from? Behind it is the further lawlessness of fornication. “Abortion is the final solution to the problem caused by sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility.” (Society) “promotes the enjoyment of the pleasure of sex outside the bond of marriage. Every aspect of our society encourages fornication: music, books, television, movies, advertising, and education. The result of fornication is unwanted babies. The solution? Kill the babies!” The creation-ordinance of marriage is thus everywhere despised; fewer than ever in our nation now obey it and 60% of these yet dishonour it with their prior co-habitation (recent Joshua Rowntree foundation report). “Even where marriage is used there is no recognition of the calling to have children or of the responsibility to receive and rear the fruit of the sexual union. Marriage is merely a means of sensual self-gratification. To get rid of the hindrances abort!”

“… when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

(James 1v15)

Behind both fornication and abortion, is that philosophy of lawlessness which everywhere holds dominion: that all is relative, that in the field of morals there can be no absolute judgments, if the mother feels it right to kill then it is, choice is the absolute. Whatever keeps the majority happy is justified. We must recognise that this is based on a view of the origin of the universe, in which the arbitrary impersonal of chance, time and probability, and the fortunate concourse of atoms is supposed to have given rise to what is. We must further see that if this is true then such an amoral system of ethics is absolutely correct. But the God of the Bible does exist and his law is established as firm as the universe he has created.

Christians must not be narrow or inconsistent in their concentration, but stand against this whole chain; and our “testimony to the world must condemn the unchastity and the dishonouring of marriage that give birth to abortion.”

We see “Babylon the great” and that “all the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication”, and we hear the clear call of God:

“Come ye out of her, my people, that ye may not have fellowship in her sins, and that ye may not receive of her plagues.”

(Revelation 18v2–4)

The believer obeys this call “not by any physical removal to a remote place or to another country, … not by any revolutionary behaviour, but by living antithetically in the power of the Holy Spirit.” He refuses to amuse himself with the world’s pornography; he keeps himself from the television programmes, movies, and books that entertain by means of violence; he will not allow (his children to be taught) ... the goodness of adultery, the lawfulness of abortion, and the necessity of the deifying of man; he sees to it that his thinking on sex, marriage, children, state, justice, killing and bearing (rather than escaping) responsibility is formed exclusively by Holy Scripture; and he … flees the church that is unable unequivocally to condemn abortion, as well as the sexual unchastity for which abortion is the world’s panacea. In this separation is nothing of pride. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures …” (Titus3:3).

Grace rescues us from this present, evil, aborting, heaven-storming, perishing world. “Only grace.”

“The depravity of which abortion is a glaring expression is not a matter of illiteracy, poverty, and social deprivation, but of sinful human nature.” God will not let the guilty go unpunished yet in mercy compassion commands “all men everywhere to repent, because he set a day in which he is about to judge the habitable world in righteousness” (Acts 17v30–1). The command is to “Repent therefore and be converted for the blotting out of your sins.” (Acts 3v19). Those who remain guilty are those who cannot part with their guilt for they will not part with their sins. The covenant promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit is proclaimed “unto you, and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” God has entered into a covenant of grace to deliver sinners from the guilt, power and punishment of sins by a Redeemer. To be “apart from Christ” and “strangers from the covenants of promise” is to be without hope “and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2v11). Therefore; “Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty” (Psalm 74v20).

Matt Vogan

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