I will confess.

I have never been a huge pro-life activist. I have never donated to pro-life causes. I have never been to a pro-life march. Yes, I have always been pro-life but never understood not only the importance of the issue in and of itself, but how the position one takes – or society takes – will determine your position on almost everything else.

That has changed, and while I am late to the movement, it is better late than never.

Perhaps you are the same way that I was. Perhaps you are pro-life but do not yet understand how important the issue is. If so, I would like to challenge you to think this through with me.

There is one premise we must agree upon, because if we don’t then it would make sense that one would be pro-abortion. The premise?

God. Pro-life is in the domain of God. If there is no God, then abortion is entirely fine. Survival of the fittest, right? Kill or be killed. Whoever is powerful will make decisions, including decisions on who lives and who dies, even if it is the life inside of you.

I am reminded of a debate I got into in college with a secularist professor. I usually sat in the front row of the huge auditorium where he regularly badmouthed Christians and Christianity (ironic considering this was a “Christian” school. There is a difference between a Christian school and a “church” school), and repeatedly declared that there is no God. One day, however, I was late and found myself sitting in the very last row at the top of the auditorium. The professor was talking about how evil animal testing was, particularly using monkeys for testing.

Soon my hand was raised and the professor called on me. “Yes?” he asked.

“You can’t take the position of being against animal testing given your worldview.”

“Why not,” he prodded.

“Because you don’t believe in God. If there is no God, then it is just survival of the fittest, most powerful animal gets to do what it wants. The Frog eats the fly, the lion eats the antelope, and humans can eat – or test – whatever they want. We’re just lucky to be at the top of the food chain. However, if you were a Christian, then you could be against animal testing – or could at least make an argument against it – because God makes us stewards of the earth and we would have to deal with the ethics of animal testing. Concern for anything is predicated on a belief in God.”

The class was silent, waiting to hear what he would say in return. What could he say though? It is an airtight argument and he was in the corner because of it.

“Point well taken,” he said and quickly moved on to another topic.

If there is a God and if God is involved in the affairs of humans, as orthodox Christian teaching teaches, then we must ask, “What is God’s role in human life?” And the answer has far-reaching consequences.

Christianity teaches that God creates life. Conception is not merely a biological function. When sperm collides with egg, God infuses it with life.

See where we are? If you don’t believe in God, then abort the cluster of cells. Survival of the fittest. If you do believe in God, then abortion is a rejection of His work and the life that He created.

Think through with me some of the scriptures that teach us about God and life:

Psalm 139:13-15 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.”

God created us.

He knit us together – that’s active.

We were made and woven together.

Galatians 1:15: “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace.”

Before we were born He had set His plan in place for us.

Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;”

He formed us.

He consecrated us.

Now, I imagine that most of us here agree with much if not all of the above, but what about my main contention that everything else stems from one’s position on life?

Let’s start with this. Remember the phrase from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

What can we derive from this simple statement? What are the facts we can take away?

The truths are self evident. Anyone who doesn’t see them is not looking at reality.

All men are created equal. “Men” is obviously being used her like one would use “mankind,” as a word for everyone. This includes, well, everyone, including the unborn life.

We have unalienable rights. They cannot be taken away or removed. The dictionary defines unalienable as “Not to be separated, given away, or taken away.”

These rights are granted to us by God Himself. The government does not determine our rights. They protect our rights that are given to us by God.

The three rights listed here are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

So I ask, is it possible that these three are listed, in that order, for a reason? Of course it is. If you don’t have life, you cannot have liberty and if you do not have liberty, there can be no pursuit of happiness. That’s obvious. But again, what of my contention that what you believe about life is how you will believe about anything – or everything.

In order to be pro-abortion you have to get rid of a few things:

God.

Unalienable rights.

The right to life.

My question is this: If you can reject God, deny unalienable rights, and kill a child in a womb that God created, what would you not do? Where do you possibly go from there?

Well, you can imprison people for anything you want to. You can support the Chinese even when the have millions of slaves and political prisoners. You can engage in free sex (which is never really free), resulting in unwanted pregnancies that you simply get an abortion for. You deny the idea of absolute truth, allowing you you to foist almost any idea you want on a public that now rejects God and absolute truth.

Yes, once you cross the line, there are no more lines that can’t be crossed. When you do not respect and honor the very basic premise of the value of life, there is no value left at all.

Yes, they will try to use mental gymnastics to make sense of it, but if you are grounded in truth, it makes no sense at all. How about this one? Why is it that if a woman goes into an abortion clinic four months pregnant and terminate her pregnancy, it is totally fine for society, but if that same woman were walking into a bank at four months pregnant and a bank robber was leaving the bank and shot her and killed both her and the baby, she would be charged with two murders? This is completely and totally intellectually disingenuous. The only difference for the baby is who killed it. Either way it is dead, yet one person – the mom – is lauded for her “choice,” while the other – the robber – is sent to prison.

So, I challenge you to think through these things. If you have already been fighting for life, I applaud you and I apologize for being late to the movement. If you are like I have been in the past, join me in thinking – and praying – about this issue that is the foundation for everything else.

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