God Will Forgive': Using Grace to Defend Abortion

ANATOMY OF A 'CHRISTIAN' MURDER

By: Rolley Haggard
BreakPoint

Ask any sidewalk counselor. Odds are he or she has heard some version of this from those heading into the abortion clinic: “I know it's wrong. But I'm a Christian and I've prayed about it and I know God will forgive. His grace is greater than all my sin.”

What's wrong with this picture? (Other than the fact that a baby is about to be deliberately put to death.) Most Christians instinctively sense something's desperately out of whack here. But what?

Sadly, few seem able to put their finger on it. Sadder still is that after they sift through their own thoughts on the matter, nine times out of 10 they wind up less sure that, from a biblical standpoint, there really is anything substantially wrong with such statements. They know murder is wrong, but they also know the Bible teaches that God can forgive any sin.* Their reasoning often runs along these lines:

“It is true God can forgive any sin. And it's true Christ died for all sins, past, present, and future. And it's true God will forgive anyone who truly repents and asks for forgiveness. And this person really does seem to be a Christian who's in a difficult situation. So, even though it's terribly tragic that they feel the need to abort their child, technically they are correct: God will forgive them.”

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Rolley Haggard is a feature writer for BreakPoint.

The Largest Unreached People Group

WHERE ARE THE MISSIONARIES?

by Rolley Haggard
BreakPoint

Most evangelicals, consciously or unconsciously, gauge the spiritual health of a given church or ministry at least to some extent by its emphasis on missions, which is to say, on reaching the unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And rightly so. As Oswald J. Smith judiciously opined, “No one has the right to hear the gospel twice while there remains someone who has not heard it once.” Compassionate justice for all is a fundamental Christian instinct and the natural companion to evangelistic zeal.

Yet there is a people group—the largest by far on the planet—that is altogether neglected by virtually every church and mission-sending agency in the world. So large is it that in 2008 alone, almost 44 million people in this worldwide demographic slipped into eternity without hearing about Christ.

One would expect there to be a reasonable explanation to account for this anomaly: extreme geographical isolation, for example. But the sad fact is, there isn't. The vast majority of these people aren't way off in the inaccessible mountains of Himalaya or the steaming jungles of South Asia or the remote islands of the Seven Seas. They're in our own cities and neighborhoods, very often in our own churches and homes. Yet for all intents and purposes they might as well be on Neptune.

Who are these unreached people? They are the victims of abortion, pre-born children whose lives are ended violently before they have a chance to hear about Jesus.

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Rolley Haggard is a feature writer for BreakPoint

Are Those Being Aborted Our Neighbors?

IF SO, ARE WE LOVING THEM AS OURSELVES?

by Rolley Haggard 

BreakPoint.

The apocryphal story is told of a man who, hearing Christ's reply to the Pharisees regarding the Greatest Commandment, and having purer motives than they, subsequently went to Jesus for further clarification.

“Master,” he said, “I really do want to please God. I want to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and might. How, practically speaking, do I do that?”

As the story goes, the Lord looked at him and, perceiving that he really was in earnest, said, “The First and Greatest Commandment is fulfilled by obeying the Second Commandment, which is like the First. You demonstrate that you indeed love God when you go and love your neighbor as yourself. The one who says he loves God whom he has not seen, but does not love his neighbor whom he has seen, deceives himself. In truth he loves neither. But the one who, for God's sake, loves his neighbor as himself, loves both his neighbor and God. For God loves your neighbor—indeed, He loves even your enemy—and if you also love your neighbor, then you honor God by loving what He loves. But if you do not love your neighbor like God loves him, then neither do you love God. That is why I said the Second Commandment is like the First, and why I said on these two Commandments hang all the Law and prophets.

A purely apocryphal story, to be sure. But as related scriptural truths are incorporated into the account, it provides illuminating commentary on one of the most important ideas in all the Bible: that God really wants us to take this “love your neighbor as yourself” thing seriously.

Which brings us back to the question: Are the preborn American babies who are being aborted at the rate of 3,500 per day our “neighbors”?

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Rolley Haggard is a feature writer for BreakPoint.

The Essence of Christianity

by Rolley Haggard
BreakPoint

The apostle James wrote that the essence of Christianity—that which epitomizes “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father”—is to care for “orphans and widows in their distress.” (James 1:27, NASB)

Babies aborted are “orphans” in the truest sense of the word, for they have been abandoned, by those entrusted to care for them, to the uttermost, even to death. The sheer number who have been led to slaughter with virtually no opposition even by churches who call themselves pro-life ought to give us pause before we conclude what we have been practicing is, in the sight of God, “pure and undefiled religion.”

As to where James came up with his definition of Christianity—divine inspiration, to be sure. But it also appears he knew his Bible:


Deuteronomy 10:18: He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.

Exodus 22:22: You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.

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Rolley Haggard is a feature writer for BreakPoint.

Ending Abortion: Is There a 'Silver Bullet'?

Let's Fire the Gun and See

 

By: Rolley Haggard
BreakPoint


In a recent Life Report podcast, esteemed colleagues Steven Ertelt (founder and editor of LifeNews.com) and Josh Brahm (director of education, Right to Life of Central California) took issue with the notion there can be a “silver bullet” to ending abortion. The discussion centered around one “silver bullet” in particular: something I proposed in a 2012 BreakPoint piece titled “We Could End Abortion 'Overnight'—If We Really Wanted To.” The plan I proposed is called The One-Minute Strategy to End Abortion.

Responding to the article, Ertelt stated, “We can't, unfortunately, end abortion right now, even if we wanted to, and many of us do.”

Brahm concurred. “My concern,” he said, “was [the strategy] doesn't deliver on the promise. . . . I agree with [Haggard] against apathy. . . I'm just concerned with the way the article is written because it basically says if every pastor spent one minute on Sunday morning talking about abortion, like, the church would unify, and we would raise up, and . . . end abortion . . . 'overnight'. . . What if everybody rose up; then what?”

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Unpreaching the Gospel

It's What We're Doing by Staying Silent on Abortion

By Rolley Haggard

for BreakPoint 

A recent article in “World” Magazine titled “Still-silent shepherds” summarized the top reasons evangelical pastors give for not preaching against abortion. Among them is that “preaching on the issue might politically stigmatize the pastor or politicize the pulpit, scaring seekers off.”

Aside from the fact that such reasoning is purely pragmatic—concerned with results (what works) rather than principle (what's right)—it is also severely problematic in three of its underlying assumptions:

One, that pulpits should avoid moral issues with controversial political overtones;

Two, that silence is justified on issues that may “scare seekers off”;

Three, that ignoring issues like abortion won't adversely impact gospel ministry.

I submit that pulpits operating on these assumptions are undoing the very work they hope to do. To varying extents, they are “unpreaching” the gospel.

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Rolley Haggard is a feature writer for BreakPoint.

BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life.

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