This Thursday, 18th October, an abortion clinic in Belfast will open its doors. The clinic will be the first on the island of Ireland to offer abortion. Located on Great Victoria Street, it will perform medical abortions in cases up to nine weeks gestation. Its services will be available where there is a “permanent, long-term and serious risk to the physical and mental well-being of the woman” according to the Maris Stopes centre’s director, Dawn Purvis.

The Scripture speaks unequivocally of the sanctity of human life. The Old Testament records the poignant word of God to Jeremiah: Before I formed thee… I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5). One of the most highly-acclaimed poems of Israel’s psalmist, King David says no less. David waxes eloquent about God’s involvement in the intricacies of conception and gestation in Psalm 139.

The abortion clinic in Belfast specializes in aborting human life. Marie Stopes website provides details on the procedure termed medical abortion. Pharmaceutical drugs are used to wrestle life from the foetus and end the pregnancy. While the terms used may be couched in “tender” language, the intent is clear. Human life is ended by the poisonous activities of human hands. Murder occurs.

Scripture defends human life by prescribing a penalty for murder. In the same passage which lays the foundation of Western civilization’s approach to civil government, Genesis 9, God speaks unequivocally. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). The aborting of human life, the murder of innocents, is here linked with assault on God. Why? God  made man “in his own image,” with peculiar likeness to himself. God made man to reflect and proclaim his glory. To attack man, then, and murder him, is to brazenly deface God’s image. Some have phrased it as an “attempt to kill God himself.” The penalty prescribed, then, is reasonably the ultimate one. Life for life has served as a broad framework in which the Western world historically penalized murder.

The glory of salvation through faith alone in Christ brings with it a fresh reverence for the sanctity of life. All major New Testament writers affirm its sanctity, condemning murder. Jesus Christ characterized his arch-enemy the devil as a murderer (John 8:44). Paul charted mankind’s demise into murder-filled ways (Romans 1:29) and delineated the function of the law as being laid down “for murderers” (1 Tim. 1:9). The Apostle Peter instructed the early Christians to part with murder (1 Pet. 4:15). Likewise, the Apostle John pointed to the hate at the heart of murder (1 Jn. 3:15) and pitted it against the true love exhibited by those in Christ.

The abortion clinic in Belfast is a travesty of justice. Its presence should not be acceptable in a society where live is prized. It is an attack on the Christian ethos of life. It is an assault on God himself, according to the Christian doctrine of the imago Dei. May its doors be shut before they are opened.

To arrange a protest against the abortion clinic in Belfast, you can contact Precious Life here. Also, you can contact your local politician in either the North or the South and express your shock and dissatisfaction. Please let us know how you get on by commenting below.

Copyright C4C 2012. All Rights Reserved. The Abortion Clinic in Belfast and the Travesty of Murder

Christians are doers. Political activists. Like William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury. Social justice pioneers. Like Elizabeth Fry and George Mueller. Spiritual reformers. Like Martin Luther and John Wesley. Informed, energised, and involved. And rightly so.

© Elainerich | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

This reality, however, is always under threat. Some weeks ago I published an article on Deputy Michelle Mulherin’s “Fornication Fiasco” in Dáil Éireann. Underneath the colourful particulars, the net worth of her speech could be summarized in one word: monastic. Have religious convictions? Sit down. Shut up! Stay quiet. Paint the walls and ceiling in your monastery. But don’t attempt to ruffle the outside world.

Nothing could be more unscriptural. Why?

1. The whole canon of Scripture calls men and women of faith servants of God, especially the Old Testament. Moses was a servant of God who led the Israelites out of slavery to a dictatorial dynasty. Joseph was an economic strategist who brought life and health to the beleaguered nation of Egypt. Daniel served as an arch-adviser in four different political realms: two Babylonian kings and 2 Medo-Persian kings. Their enduring influence has inspired generations of Christians to leave a mark for the God they love in they society they live in.

2. Jesus Christ summarized the activity of the Christian life in a single dynamic phrase: the kingdom of God. In the most action-packed gospel of all, the Gospel of Mark, Christ’s first recorded words are: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mk. 1:15) Recognition of the benevolent kingship of God injects in the redeemed a passion for social justice as well as spiritual truth. The late Professor of New Testament Language, Literature and Theology at Edinburgh University, James S. Stewart, declared:

“Jesus…came with his master thought, glorious and thrilling, world-shaking and world-transforming: ….the kingdom of God.[...] He headed no social revolution, and he legislated for no current social problems; but he brought and imparted a spirit that was bound to set men crusading against social injustice everywhere. It is in this way that Jesus has been the driving power of all noble social service for nineteen centuries.” (p.126, The Teaching of Jesus Christ)

3. James presents a clearer case than any other New Testament epistle that faith works. Picture, he says, a dead corpse. That, he says, is what faith without works looks like: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26) Living faith is a living body. It moves. It acts. It crusades. It campaigns. Its alive! Faith works. It cannot but work. Why? Because of what God as already done. As bestselling Christian author Timothy Keller says, truly understanding Christianity “will profoundly reshape our lives. We will not be able to live in a selfish, cowardly way. We will stand up for justice and sacrifice for our neighbour. And we won’t mind the cost of following Christ when we compare it to the price he paid to rescue us.” (p.122, The Prodigal God)

Ultimately, the reason Christians are doers is because God is a doer. He not only created the world, he sustains it (Col. 1:17). He not only created man and placed him on the earth, He sent him a Saviour. “In him,” the Apostle Paul declared, “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:29). He is the great and only Initiator. Prolific writer F.W.Boreham quipped: “Nothing delights God more. He is an inveterate beginner. Having once fashioned a beginning, it became His divine habit. He is always doing it. He begins again with every morning, with every Spring, with every baby born.” (Dreams at Sunset)

Christians do. Why should the pioneering, engineering, transforming, radiating spirit of true Christianity die?

Copyright C4C 2012. All Rights Reserved. Faith Works: Why Christians are Doers

Pro-Family Poster from a Protester in Defense of Christian Ethics at Dáil Éireann on Tuesday Last

Almost every Irish news bulletin in the last month has included a major headline concerning the abortion saga. Savita Halappanavar died on 28th October in University Hospital Galway following a miscarriage. Many suggested that her death came as a consequence of Ireland’s strict anti-abortion laws.

Before any details regarding the specifics of the case had been established, pro-abortionists had hijacked the case. Incessant demands have been made that Irish law’s prohibition on abortion be changed. Pro-abortion organizations have mobilized their resources with vigour in an unprecendented attack on Ireland’s protection of the unborn. 

In swift response, a pro-family protest from Co.Offaly was held at Dáil Éireann on Tuesday 27th November. The protest recognized the Christian ethics upon which our nation is founded and has advanced and the utter incompatibility of proposed abortion legislation with such ethics. It represented further the strong current of resistance in the country against the present effort to advance the cause of evil.

In the face of a furious onslaught, Ireland’s conviction concerning the value of all human life has re-asserted itself. Concerned and respected individuals from parents to medical specialists to TDs and Senators have spoken out. Life is a gift from God. It is not ours to take away. Rather, it is our moral responsibility, and chiefly that of our leaders, to continue to protect and preserve it.

In the present scenario it is commendable that truth not fall in the street (Isaiah 59:14). Remember also that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” (Edmund Burke).

Truth is under attack in every generation. The protection of the life of the unborn is among the challenges the upright face today. May we not prove unfaithful.

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point that the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ and to be steady on all the battlefield  besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

Martin Luther (Luther’s Works. Weimar Edition. Briefwechsel, vol. 3, pp. 81f.)

Copyright C4C 2012. All Rights Reserved. Pro-Family Protest at Dáil Éireann & the Abortion Saga