Murder and Abortion

RV141-02

The sixth trumpet judgment, which we are now considering, which God sets forth upon the tribulation world, has released an army of 200 million horsemen. These horsemen have been released by four demon angels which have been holding them back at the Euphrates River up to this point in time. The riders on these horses are human, though they are under demonic control. The horses themselves are demon-possessed, and they have an unnatural appearance. The demonic horses have, we are told, mouths like the mouths of lions, from which they dispense death to the humanity in the tribulation world. They do this by means of fire from these lion-like mouths; by means of smoke (asphyxiating people); and, by burning sulfur (brimstone) – a poisonous gas. Furthermore, we are told, the horses have tails that have serpents' heads at the end, with which to inflict injury and suffering.

This army of Twilight Zone-like creatures inflicts death upon one-third of mankind which is still alive on the earth at this latter part of the tribulation seven-year period. That means that since the tribulation era has begun, 50% of all humanity has been executed by God. Part of the process at that time is that God is beginning to flush believers off from the planet earth, in preparation for beginning the Millennial Kingdom, when all who are alive on the earth at that time will be believers.

The survivors of this latest divine execution on the earth, however, do not learn their lesson. We're told by John that they refuse to repent, and to turn to Jesus Christ for salvation. In fact, they deliberately continue to worship their idol gods, which they have made for themselves. Of course, while worshiping those idol gods, they are, at the same time, of necessity worshiping the demon power which is behind every idol God. Vast numbers in the tribulation will openly be Satan worshipers. So, this will not be an uncommon thing for people to be worshiping idols and receiving the power from the demon of that idol. The current popularity of Eastern mysticism in our day is preparing Americans and people of the world for this tribulation time of the worship of demons.

As we pointed out, the heavy metal rock groups are a major promoter of demon worship and of personal wickedness of the vilest kind. Rock music is not just a simple, innocent, little preference that some people have. There is no such thing as Christian rock. Rock music is a definitive form of expression devised by Satan, and it is accomplishing the preparation for a degenerate society. It does that by the monotony and tastelessness of its music; by the emphasis of its jungle-like beats; and, by the corruption and degradation of its lyrics.

They do not Repent

Four Sins

Murder

As God's law of capital punishment is abandoned by godless people in our society today, the result is that there is less restraint upon the evildoer. In fact, we have come to the point now where the murderer is not blamed for what he does, but his act is attributed to something that was imposed upon him by society. ...

So, with no fear of the death penalty today, in many circumstances, murder is more easily resorted to, and justice is prostituted. For this reason, we remind you that a godly biblical Christian will make this a touchstone concerning people who want to go into public office. You should never, as a Christian, vote anybody into public office who will not forthrightly say, "Murder is wrong by the moral code of God, and should be dealt with by the appropriate penalty that God himself has ordained; namely, the murderer paying for his crime with his life." If you find a politician who is against capital punishment, you will know automatically that this is a man or woman who is destined to threaten the freedom of your society, and to threaten the freedom and the well-being of your nation. With God, murder is a very serious thing.

As family life is destroyed in the United States, and as we get these increasing horrible statistics about the large number of single parent families, you can just expect that the children who are being reared in that atmosphere, unless by the grace of God they have an overriding influence either in grandparents or a Christian school that they're in, those children are going to grow up without the sense of understanding, both of salvation and of God's moral code. Their hatreds that will be flowing from their sin nature will very naturally express themselves in murder.

So, we pause here to take a little look at exactly what the Bible has to say about the illegitimate taking of a person's life – killing which is not legally constituted. Way back in the moral code of the people of Israel, in Exodus 20:13, we had a very short statement. In the Hebrew, it's just two words. It simply just says, "lo ratsach." That says, "You shall not murder." This is one of about ten Hebrew words that there are for "killing," and I point out to you that this word used here in Exodus 20:13 in the moral code of the Ten Commandments is a word which means only premeditated homicide. It is a Hebrew word that exclusively means "murder."

Legitimate Killing

Murder, of course, is the ultimate threat to human freedom. It permanently denies a person the exercise of his volition. And that is what's happening in the tribulation – people denying others the free exercise of their wills. Satan, of course, is the father of all murder. The Bible tells us this in John 8:44. He is constantly going about to see whom he may destroy in the human race. Among the people who are on the top of Satan's hit list are of course, believers. The more oriented you are to the Word of God, and the more oriented you are to Bible doctrine principles and actually practice them, I can assure you the higher priority target you become for Satan. If it were not for the protective hand of God, many believers would indeed be destroyed by agents of the devil. It is his intention to go about, the Bible says, "As a roaring lion, seeking whom he may destroy." He is out to get believers. He wants to silence them. He, as a matter of fact, would like to destroy the whole human race, so that there would be no human beings for God to be able to establish a millennium on the face of the earth. 1 Peter 5 tells you about that intention of Satan to seek those who he can murder.

Capital Punishment

Execution of a person under properly constituted civil authority is enforced against murderers within a nation by the police and the judicial powers. It is also enforced against murders externally to the nation by the military forces. When a country comes to attack your country, they are murderers, and for that reason, they are on the list of execution by God's judgment.

Governments

Hate

Superstitious Fasting

Maintaining Physical Health

Suicide

Drunkenness

Gluttony

Drug Usage

Carelessness

Rage

Satan is very clever, and Satan is a murderer. Recently, there was the lady who walked into a second-grade classroom, started shooting up kids in the classroom. You may listen to those idiots who are the psychologists and psychiatrists, who are trying to analyze why the person would do this. The reason the person does this is because the individual has a sin nature under the control of Satan, the all-time great murderer, and who is now executing people through anybody that will be willing to permit that.

Abortion

Do you see where that goes? There's no end to the insanity. Any time you hear that (especially from somebody who is supposed to be a preacher), you know that you are certainly listening to someone who has a forked tongue. He is lying, because he does know better if he's ever read anything in Scripture.

For example, let's look at Exodus 21:22. Here we have two men who get into a fight. A pregnant woman is standing by. The child is well on its way in development. What is it that actually exists in the womb of this woman? Is it a piece of non-essential protoplasm flesh nothing – just a glob of living cells? Exodus 21:22: "If men strive, and hurt a woman with a child so that her fruit depart from her (that is, that they precipitate a premature birth), and yet, no mischief follows (that is, that the child does not die, and the mother's life is not destroyed), He shall be surely punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine."

In this case, if the child has survived and the mother has survived, they will have a judgmental action brought against this man, which is satisfactory to the woman's husband, in the matter of a fine. That's all that will happen.

However, verse 23 says, "If any mischief follows (that is, the baby dies, or the mother dies), then you shall give life for life." If the mother or the child dies, then the soul of the guilty one is given for the soul of the victim. We have here an abortion that has been precipitated. So, what does this tell us about an unborn fetus? It is very clear, here in the Old Testament moral code, that what existed in the womb of that mother was a bonafide human being, and to kill it, even unintentionally, was an act of murder. Accordingly, the matter would be dealt with in that way.

Abortion is Murder

Conception is a Gift of God

Eve

Sarah

Leah and Rachel

Ruth

So, my point is that conception of a human life is something that only God can bring about as per His sovereign wisdom, and He has a design when He does that. It is not left to the will of man to destroy the design of God. Furthermore, it is very clear that when God gives that conception, God is also guiding the development of that life that He has brought into being. Therefore, to terminate that life at any point, I reiterate again, is a pure act of murder. And I'm not going to try to soften that because somebody might say, "Hey, you might be talking to someone (or someone might hear this tape) who has gone through an act of abortion, all in the sense of ignorance." Well, our hearts must go out to someone like that, but I can tell you that you will someday get into heaven, and you will discover that there's a child waiting to greet you as the mother who had aborted that youngster.

The Development of the Fetus

You see, Job thought that he was going to die. His suffering was now so intense that he didn't think he was going to survive. So, he's now talking to God and he's wondering, "God, why are You doing this? After all, You made me." Now, that's interesting. When did God make him? In the womb. That's where God came into the picture. He brought about a conception, and then very definitely developed the child from that conception.

Verse 9: "Remember, I beseech You, that You have made me as clay;" that is, God molds a shapeless fetus. And when you do look at a fetus initially, it is very shapeless. But as clay can be molded by human hands, so this fetus is molded by God's hand. And it takes place without the knowledge or cooperation of the fetus. It is the work of God alone. It is not the work of the parent. Job says, "Remember, I beseech You, that You have may me as the clay, and will You bring me into dust again?" Job says, "I, as a baby, was the result of divine power and wisdom. Oh God. Are you going to send me back to the dust?

Verse 10: "You have poured me out as milk." This is a poetic expression referring to the sperm of the male which is involved in the conception: "And curdled me like cheese." Watery cheese was now curdled, and began to take substance, and this referring to the forming of the fetus into human shape.

Verse 11: "You have clothed me with skin and flesh," describing the process of the development of the embryo to a full grown infant: "And has fenced in with bones and sinew." The word "fenced me in" means "You have woven me together." Who has done this? It is the work of God. So, when you walk into that abortion clinic, you're bringing in with you (within the womb) a work of God which is in progress. It is a life appointed by God for a certain purpose and a certain destiny. You cannot terminate that life without an act of murder being committed.

Verse 12: "You have granted me life." As a matter of fact, the Hebrew here says, "You have granted me lives:" plural. "You have given me spirit, and You have given me soul: "You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit." It is the care of God which protects the human spirit of this child. The human spirit which indicates that it is a bonafide human being.

So, here is a picture which that makes it very clear that what is happening in the development of a child is an act of God.

King David

So, David says, "For You have possessed my inward parts. You have covered me in my mother's womb." "Possessed my inward parts" means "You have created my emotions – You have given me emotional reactions." Remember that when the mother of John the Baptist came into the presence of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the child John leapt for joy within his mother's womb. How could he do that if he was not a human being with a soul? A soul is necessary for you to be able to have emotions.

So, here David says, "I have emotions." Verse 14, says, "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows right well." Indeed, the creating of a child is an awesome thing – that it takes place in such precise procedures.

Verse 15 says, "My substance was not hidden from You." "Substance" means "bones:" When I was made in secret, and intricately wrought in the lowest parts of the earth," which is a poetic expression for the womb." "The lowest parts of the earth" is referring to the womb. "Your eyes did see my substance, being yet unformed." He says, "When I was but a fetus in the process of development, You saw me:" "And in Your book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned." God has written a plan for this life of this baby. He has written in His book a plan of life for every fetus. Now, that's a powerful statement. Every child that has ever been aborted has been denied the plan of life that God has written down for him: "In Your book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

So, abortion is the destruction of the work which God is performing.

There's one other psalm of David that is worth our considering when we look at this issue of abortion. This is a hot potato in the political realm. It is it is evaded in a variety of ways. And it is always evaded on the justification that the Bible doesn't say anything about this, and that we don't really know what is going on. But we do know what is going on. In Psalm 51:5-6, David says, "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin my mother did conceive me." David said that he was sinful from the moment of his conception, which indicates that he was something more than just a body, since the body is not evil in itself. Why was David sinful even before he was born? It was because he had a human nature, and human nature is sinful. The old sin nature was right back there in that little fetus.

Notice verse 6: "Behold, You truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, You shall make me no wisdom." Even in his fetal state, David says that the moral law of God was present with him. How? In his soul. "The inward parts" and "the hidden parts" are referring to the mother's womb. The words "the covered over parts" are referring to the bottled-up place (the hidden part) – that which was hidden within the womb.

Mental Capacity for Learning

So, Psalm 51:5-6 is strong evidence that the image of God is already present in the fetus, and that the living soul is there.

When we look at the practice of abortion, there are a lot of justifications for it. It is always associated with some kind of problems and agonies with a woman who is pregnant. However, the Scriptures we have shown you must lay this basic principle before us: Whatever the problems are of the one who is pregnant, what she is pregnant with is a life made in the image of God. It is a bonafide human being. Whatever else you do about it, you have to start with that understanding.

A Woman's Right to Control he Body

So, the consequence of a conception that God has brought about is for that child to be born. Abortion itself is a tricky business. It often has some very serious physical consequences. I can assure you that I've had enough agony with dealing with people, such that it has a very strong conscience and soul consequence of people who have done this, not realizing what was involved at the time. Can you imagine the effect on children who grew up in a home, and find that a mother says, "Before you, I had two other babies that I aborted?" She won't use the word "murdered." This child might say: "You might have done that to me." That's why I say when you talk about abortion, just think of one of these little kids we have running around here, and understand that that's what you would have destroyed. That puts it in clear perspective.

The murder which is involved in abortion also has the serious problem of: who is to decide who can terminate another person's life? When you have disposable babies, it's only a short step to disposable human beings. That is where we are coming in our society today. It's easy to dispose of your political enemies by rubbing them out. It's easy to dispose of people that you think are the wrong color by killing them. It's easy to dispose of people who are the wrong religion. It's just easy once you have accepted the principle that abortion is acceptable.

So one's conception takes place, whatever the reason, it is an act of God. It is a gift from God, and you cannot spurn it by executing what God has given. The sad thing about this is that doctors, who once were sworn to preserve life, and to maintain life at any effort, are psychologically conditioned now to be willing to take a life?

I remember a few years ago when they passed the law that you could turn right on a red light. Previously, when I saw a red light, I had always been used to stopping and sitting there, just like all of you had been. Then, when it turned green, I would go. Now, I found, after I overcame my initial resistance to turn right on the red light. On subsequent occurrences, it was easier and it was easier to turn right on a red light. One day, I was driving along, thinking about something. I looked up; saw the red light; and, drove straight through it (not a right turn). And I said, "Now why did I do that? I don't drive through red lights." Then I thought to myself, "It's because you've become acclimated to moving on a red light. Up to now, red light meant stop, but now you can turn right. After turning right so often, now you think it's all right to go straight through it.

A doctor who has been geared to saving life now finally accepts snuffing out lives. Then you wonder how, farther down the line, he's not really particular about your life when it needs his best, and it needs is a little ultimate effort to preserve it.

There are many gross reasons given for abortions, and I need not remind you of those: "We need a new TV set. We need the money for a vacation trip, not a baby. I need to preserve my figure, and babies are murder on figures. It's going to restrict my social life." Evils of the worst kind are used to justify the murder of children.

Capital Punishment

One of the things that God says that He hates worst of all is taking innocent lives. He says, "I hate the sin of murder, and I will bring judgment upon a society, and destroy it, because the blood which is shed will scream out from the very ground for justice. And I will bring justice if the people of that society will not execute that justice. ...

I want to close with reading Numbers 35. God was trying to teach His ancient people of Israel the consequences to them if they did not execute justice as per His pattern of capital punishment for those who are guilty of murder, and if they did not protect people from murder, which included the abortion of the unborn child. In Numbers 35:29, God had this to say to his people, and the principle is still in effect for us today: "So, these things shall be for a statute of your judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwelling. Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. But one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die." It's not enough for one person to say, "I saw him kill that person." That person might be lying. The Bible says, "You cannot execute capital punishment on the basis of the testimony of only one eyewitness:"

"Moreover, you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall be surely put to death." You will not take a payment instead of the punishment. You will not give a substitute punishment for murder one. That is what the Scripture is saying. The only punishment is the death of the murder.

Verse 32: "And you shall take no ransom for him, who has fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land until the death of the priest." This was a provision of the cities of refuge in Israel for those who were guilty of manslaughter (the inadvertent taking of a life). They had a refuge city that they could go to until the high priest died.

Here is the point, in verse 33: "So, you shall not pollute the land wherein you are, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Therefore, do not defile the land which you shall inhabit wherein I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the children of Israel." What the Word of God is saying here is that your land (your country) is defiled when you do not deal with murder as the heinous crime that it is. God says, "There's only one penalty that is justified for first degree murder, and that is the death of the murderer."

The modern view of society is that someone else is guilty, and you can blame them for what you do. That view is at fault, and is not justified by the Word of God. But when the act has been clearly established by competent eyewitnesses, then that's the only answer. You cannot argue and say, "Well, it's not going to keep other people from committing murder." Perhaps not, but it will most certainly keep that person from ever committing murder again, and that is the point that God is making. God is saying, "I will see to it that this individual cannot ever again be guilty of such a heinous crime."

So, in the tribulation, murder will be rampant, and the blood of people will be crying out from the land, many of them martyred believers who will be screaming out to God for justice. And God is going to bring that justice in a terrible way. It is amazing just to read that these people will not cease from this evil act, when we realize how clear it is that what is happening is the work of God who is there. By that time, you would think that they would have had enough sense. But then we, as a nation, have had a great and wonderful Christian heritage. Why don't we have enough sense not to permit such a thing as the abortion practice? It is a paganistic, crude, offensive act imposed upon us by the evil men of the Supreme Court, in spite of the fact that most of the people in our society were repulsed by that concept, and whose Christian heritage made it clear to them, as we have read here in the Scriptures, that indeed a child, from the moment of conception, is a bonafide human being, and therefore, to take its life is murder of the first degree. And God help us to sound forth the caution to those who will listen.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1984

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