From Pro-life Catholic to Abolitionist

Being raised as a Roman Catholic, I went to church every Sunday. I received an education in classes centered on catechisms and I participated in parish life. Adulthood afforded me to take more notice of socially charged issues like abortion and human trafficking. I was eager to put my time and talents into ministries that engaged them, so I started getting involved with Respect Life, which is a ministry adopted by most Archdiocese in America and is the organization that maintains all of the Catholic crisis pregnancy centers. I assisted with Baby Bottle Campaigns, where parishioners present donations in baby bottles at an altar call during Mass, which is used to fund the organization. I helped coordinate the 40 Days for Life prayer vigils, in which Catholic participants signed up for shifts for forty twenty-four hours and stood outside of surgical abortion clinics to pray the Rosary for the abortive mothers and aborted children so that they would stay out of Purgatory. Respect Life held the Walk for Life at the Seminary every year and had their annual fundraising luncheons in great ballrooms of fancy hotels. After a few years of participating in these activities, I was invited to serve as the Committee Chair for the Church Parish Council Advisory Board. The board served to make the major decisions for the parish, and was consisted of clergymen and the board of directors. I served in that ministerial capacity for four years.

It was at the end of the fourth year of that ministry that I discovered Abolitionism and realized that I had made a huge mistake and had been living in unrepentant sin. I will be eternally grateful to my abolitionist brethren for taking the time and energy to labor and reason with me in truth and in love to repentance and faith. They challenged me with questions such as:

‘Where do the hundreds of thousands of dollars go from the pro-life fundraisers?’

‘Why do Catholics pray to Mary and why do they do it at the surgical abortion clinic mainly during hours it is closed?’

‘Why avoid preaching the Gospel in the Respect Life CPCs?’

‘Why participate in pro-life walks around the seminary?’

‘Why vote to merely regulate infanticide?’

‘Why passively ignore child sacrifice when not engaged in these short intervals of eventism?’

The answers to these questions were eye-opening. The pro-life fundraisers mainly served to maintain the buildings and pay the salaries of the employees and talking heads. My esteem for the Rosary was idolatry, and I did not have to pray to dead people to intercede against abortive mothers, when I could preach repentance to them.
In fact, my first time sidewalk counseling after I had repented I was attempting reason with the murdering parents patronizing the clinic, when a Catholic woman interrupted me to say I had been offending everyone else present. I encouraged her to consider that those who follow Christ as Lord need not be offensive because the Gospel of God is offensive enough to those who would reject it. In addition to my answers, I realized that donations for the Walks for Life were only paying for more salaries and lining the pockets of the Archbishop. The same Archbishop that encourages the voting habits of local Catholics, thereby keeping infanticide both a little more than a voting issue and perpetuated by its regulation as opposed to its abolition.

Probably the most important of my realizations came with my broken heart. There was as much, if not more blood on my hands as the hands of someone who was pro-abortion and unashamedly Godless. For example, I had been promoting, with my vote, exceptions to abolition such as those children conceived in rape and incest. The first time the concept of the Imago Dei was presented to me in regards to these exceptions and regulations, it was like a blow to my gut. Upon these realizations, I had no other course of action then to repent of my own personal abortion apathy.
After having repented, I wanted nothing more than to be obedient to God. I stopped participating in pragmatic activities that only keep the abortion industry in business. Now, I actively oppose child sacrifice by agitating the culture that has made peace with this evil. I stand in front of surgical abortion clinics, the homes of assassins of children, pro-choice and ‘pro-life’ churches, high schools and on street corners. I regularly use signs depicting rhetoric about repentance and destroying misinformation, and with graphic images of abortion victims, all while proclaiming the practice as murder and sin and preaching obedience to the Gospel of our Lord Christ Jesus. I understand that I must expose evil (Ephesians 5:11), abhor it, and cling to what is good (Romans 12:9), and stand firm in truth and righteousness (Ephesians 6:14), while provoking my Christian brothers and sisters unto love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24) in an effort to be obedient and love my neighbor. I seek to preach repentance of participating in, and being apathetic towards the evils of hormonal birth control, In Vitro Fertilization and all methods of decriminalized child sacrifice that are in fact just bad fruits of a hypocritical Christianity.

Once I repented of my abortion apathy, there was no way I could not repent of Catholicism. My own apathy had been bad fruit of unbiblical ‘theology’ and bad ecclesiology. I came to the realization that my beliefs were apostate, pagan, and demonic and therefore did not honor God. In fact, it did the reverse. It offended Him. He hated my idolatry. The Roman Catholic system, fighting abortion, was just a house divided against itself. The pragmatism of this false religion which is pridefully at the forefront of the abortion ‘fight’, has been keeping abortion ingrained into the culture for forty three years. When praying to demons disguised as the dead, and putting one’s salvific faith in their own works, and looking to a Vicar to absolve one of their sins, no wonder this counterfeit Christianity was not prevailing against the gates of Hell.
In contrast to the practices of well-meaning Catholics, abolitionists believe that Christians are to be evangelical and therefore spread the commands of Christ, so that the dying world may repent and embrace eternal life.

Abolitionism is a movement that is completely reliant on God’s providence and not the pragmatic and flawed ways of Catholic crisis pregnancy centers, alluring offers of help like free sonograms or gift baskets to murderous women that all just turn out to be cathartic displays of lip-service. The work of abolition is Gospel centered, the true Gospel that inspires performing miracles and walking in obedience, not the false works-saved salvation that is maintained in Catholic dogma. The Gospel is the only cure for sin, and it should never be hidden for the sake of a false peace. Being an Abolitionist should be a work of God’s called-out Assembly. Abolitionism is nothing more than constantly being a bright and salty Christian in a world that practices disobedience. As a catholic, I did little more than sit there and write a check and was contented in falsely believing that I had performed my obedience. I voted for regulative bills and pragmatic candidates and I had thought that I had done a righteous thing. I was drowning in apathy and taking deep breaths as though I was safe on shore.
Abolitionists are instructed in James 1:27 to care for the widow and orphan, and not just to give monetary donations and ballots to buy us a little piety at their expense. We are to be personally active in loving our neighbor and not outsource our commanded responsibilities to non-profit organizations like National Right to Life or the local pregnancy resource center. No one should get paid by Christians to be Christian for them. Furthermore, Abolitionists require that abortion be abolished immediately and not through incremental steps maintained by Catholic effort. The ideology opposes all pragmatic, self-refuting ways of the pro-life movement that lead to the perpetuation of pre-natal infanticide. The over 200 pro-life legislative steps that have had millions of dollars and man-hours poured into them that were pushed by catholic lobbyists are not saving many children. Also, they are iniquitous decrees that God explicitly says he hates. If all of that energy was put into abolishing abortion by bringing the Gospel into conflict with this culture of death, we may just see the greatest evil of our time abolished in our time. Incrementalism and pragmatism will never work. Hacking away at the branches of evil will only make them grow back stronger and healthier. Abolitionists endeavor to strike at the root. Pro-life mentality is historically a bad fruit of the pagan false religion of Catholicism and Catholicism is bad fruit of man playing God by obeying Satan.

I pray daily that unrepentant Catholics repent of their dead religion and dead opposition towards abortion, and then seek after Christ’s Kingdom by taking up their crosses. Nothing has broken me more than having found out that I thought I had worshiped God my whole life when, in reality, I knew nothing of Him or His ways. My heart grieves me for all those I led astray while part of Papism and the Pro-Life Movement. I pray they will turn to Scripture and discover the same truths that I have learned. May they stop following their traditions of men and start to question it for themselves. May the scales be removed from their eyes so that they stop being blind to the truth, and realize that they cling to their pagan beliefs which prevents them from ever clinging to Christ. May they adopt the grace of God that comes by faith, which leads them to walking in narrow obedience. Amen.

~ Abolitionist Deanna Evans

The UMC supports abortion: Part 2

The UMC supports abortion: Part 1

My ministry to the Jews

May, 1944

  Despair increases steadily as does the terrible hunger, the like of which mankind has never yet suffered. With complete assurance we may say that they have not left us even a jot of that which is called body or soul.

  In truth, the world deserves only that we spit in its face…Sudden death, hunger, deportation, interrogations, labor, queues, etc., etc. wreak havoc on the ruined vineyard of Israel, among the poor remnant. Will you O God, keep silent? How can you, having seen it?

July 31, 1944

  My…heart is cut to pieces when I perceive how terrible my little sister is tormented. She lost literally everything- no stockings, no clothes…no tenderness. O you poor orphan, and what you have to suffer by my unjust treatment, because of my destroyed nerves. You, poor being, must help yourself with substitutes: instead of stockings some rags, instead of boots some wooden contrivance…God seems to have abandoned us totally and left us entirely to the mercy of the heartless fiends. Almighty God, how can you do this?

August 3, 1944

  When I look at my little sister my heart is melting. Hasn’t the child suffered its part? She has fought so heroically the last five years. When I look on our cozy little room tidied up by the young, intelligent, poor being I am greatly saddened by the thought that soon she and I will have to leave our last particle of home.

  Oh God in heaven, why didst thou create Germans to destroy humanity? I don’t even know if I shall be allowed to be together with my sister. I cannot write more. I am resigned terribly and black spirited.

  That was a few entries from the diary of an unknown Jewish boy orphaned, along with his younger sister, by the Nazis. The children lived in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland where they were forced into slave labor. After the war his diary was found written in the margins of an old French novel. Both of the children were murdered.

  Even though the Jews were forced to live in the confines of the ghettos, people, often children, would sneak through the borders and scavenge for food to bring back to their families. The Gentiles (Goyim as the Jews called them) were not allowed to mingle or assist the Jews in their plight…but some did anyway.

  Imagine for a moment that this was happening in our country. Our Jewish population was being dehumanized and confined to bordered ghettos in YOUR city. Imagine that we lived in a country that taught us through the school system, media and court rulings that the Jews were not human like you or I because of their race. Evil propaganda spread like wildfire on the internet assuring us that annihilating the Jews was for the betterment of our civilized society. The Gentiles justified their murder by calling it “choice” and “rights.” Imagine also that 80% of your fellow Americans supported this discriminatory ideology.

  Can you picture it? You were born in a country this way. You aren’t even surprised anymore when you see the smoke rising from the crematoria. That’s how it’s always been…well, at least since you can remember. You are disgusted at the racist barbarism but just try not to think about it too often. During the elections you faithfully vote for the candidate you think will help make the Jewish people a bit more comfortable. You are satisfied with the fulfillment of your duty. You stand for what is right with your vote! I mean, just two months ago a provision was voted on in your state that allowed the elderly Jewish people 85 and older to live outside of the ghettos. Not only that but it actually passed! Life is good…or is it?

  Imagine once more that you need to head into town to pick up a few groceries. No big deal. You hop into the car and head strait for the supermarket. Your day is busy but this will only take a few minuets. Zipping absentmindedly around traffic you make a left turn and speed down 7^th Street. Less traffic down here. A long razor-wire fence stretches the length of the road, an ancient brick building looms beyond the boarder. Dark billows of smoke curl like a wicked smile from a blackened chimney. It’s the Ghetto hospital were the Jews go to get “taken care of.”

  Turning up the Christian radio station you try and ignore the place but are stopped short when two children dart from the curb and into the road. Quickly, you slam on the breaks and come to a screeching halt. The children are frozen in their tracks right in the middle of the road and stop to see what you will do. You know that they have just escaped from the prison-like ghetto.

  Reddened eyes stare back at you from swollen lids and tallow colored faces. Stained and tattered rags cling to the children’s sweaty, emaciated bodies. Hunger and fear are etched deep in their beings. Bitterness and resentment leap from the boy’s eyes. In one hand he holds his sister’s tightly and in the other an old book. Golden words grace the front of the hardback cover…are those french words? You don’t have time to figure it out.

  A piercing alarm rings out across the city. The children have been missed. A dog barks in the distance. A few shouts echo from beyond the ghetto fence. The children would never have a chance on their own. The city teems with police and people that are more than happy to turn over runaways for a promised reward.

  You love the Jews. You aren’t a racist. You see the “King of the Jews” in your mind’s eye with children sitting at His feet. You worship these young Jew’s Messiah. Startled, the children run to your window and plead with you to let them in. You can’t hear their faint, despairing voices over, “God’s so good” blaring from the stereo. Now you can really see their faces stained with tears. They beat on the window with their fists. Two guards appear on the hospital grounds, weapons raised. A German shepherd bounds forward with a menacing growl and slams his body into the fence just a few feet behind the children. Tension floods the air. Screams from the children, barking from the dog and curses from the armed men all scrambled into a chaotic frenzy. Your heart pounds against your chest in rhythm to the pathetic drumbeat of the Jewish children’s fists. Police units assemble on both sides of the streets.

  Oh, what was that? A faint sound hummed in your pocket. You look down. There is was again! Suddenly a burst of laughter irrupts from your mouth. Excitedly you whisk the phone from your pocket and glance at the screen. Incoming call. It’s Sammy! You answer, “Hey, what’s up?” A bouncy voice answers back, “Not much. And you?” You laugh and after a short pause look at the children. They’ve stopped screaming. The despondency in their eyes screams louder than their voices ever could.

“Um, nothing really…Just headed for the store.”

“Great! You have time for coffee?”

You look out your window and see the guards closing in.

“Yeah, I think so. I’ll meet you at Starbucks. Sound good?” You snap the car into gear and zoom off.

“Yep, sounds good. See you in a bit.”

You hang up the phone with a smile.

“Coffee sounds great right now.”

  You are free and it feels good to take a drive…even if you are busy. A few angry gun shots scream through the air but you don’t notice. You were just at the best spot in your favorite hymn and singing along.

  That would never happen, right? How could I ever be so hardhearted? If I saw another human in need I would stop and help, wouldn’t I? I would be brave like Corrie Ten Boom, Miep Gies, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

  After shopping you head strait to the coffee shop and meet your friend. You are having a wonderful time. Outwardly you chat about what is new and exciting in your life but inwardly you wrestle with accusing thoughts in your mind.

Should I have helped those children? Well, I am really busy this summer.

But you could have taken a bit of time out of your busy schedule to save a life.

They were going to die anyway and besides what could I do when thousands die everyday?

Don’t you think it is your moral obligation?

I know what you mean but that isn’t my ministry. I have never been led to help the Jews.

Do you have to be “led” to do what’s right?

Well…the Holy Spirit hasn’t given me a peace about it yet.

What about the peace of those children?

I’ll do it in my own way. I wouldn’t want to offend any of the guards.

They are murderers!

Jesus was loving and…

I know. So loving that He gave His whole life to save the lives of others.

But, that was Jesus!

Now it’s your turn.

  Nonchalantly you say good bye to your friend and drain the last drops of your mug. It was a long day and you hurry home. Out of habit you take 7^th again. The street is abandoned and lonely. In the center on the road you notice a small object. Is it a book? Gold letters gleam brightly in the sunlight of the evening golden hour. Carefully you pull alongside the book and open your door. The words are French on the cover. It is an old French novel. Your curious fingers reach down and scoop up the fragile book. Nothing extraordinary about it. Just an old book.

You gasp and recoil your hands in shock. The book falls, binding up, smashing the yellowed pages. Dark blood spots the back of the book. It is the boy’s blood. Hurriedly you slam the door shut and speed away from the sight of blood. The steering wheel feels sticky. No, it can’t be! There is blood on your hands.

Abolition work at North Idaho College

This is a group of students that we talked with at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Although they were flustered at times the conversation went well. One of the women argued that you don’t need the Bible to have an unfaltering moral standard. I tried to explain that if our morals are dictated by personal beliefs no life is safe. Who gets to decide the moral standard? Me? You? Hitler?

Biblical proof that the preborn are “persons.”

When are preborn human beings “persons”? When does the spirit enter the preborn body?

(This post was taken from http://ahanorthidaho.com/AbolitionArticles_01252015.html)

When we argue that abortion is murder, we are arguing that preborn human beings are made in the image of God and that they are fully human and are indeed persons with the same value as born persons. It is because of the fact that people are made in God’s image that He prohibits our murdering them (Genesis 9:6).

Many people in the past have tried to argue the personhood of preborn humans from scientific facts. These have included when the heartbeat begins (the heart starts beating and circulating blood only 2 to 3 weeks after fertilization), when there are measurable brain waves (synapses form in the spinal cord 5 weeks after conception, and an EEG can detect brain activity usually by the 12^th week of pregnancy). Then, there is the argument about when a preborn baby feels pain, currently argued as at around 20 weeks post fertilization.

But, the Word of God is said to be sharper than any two edged sword and is the full counsel of God. What are the bible’s arguments as to when the spirit enters the body?

Some of the common arguments used from the bible include:

1) Psalm 139:13-16 – For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

2) Jeremiah 1:5 – Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

3) Every woman in the bible who is pregnant is said to be “with child”. For example, Genesis 16:11 – And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.

These are just some of the commonly used scriptural arguments.

In this article, I will focus on two less well known but perhaps more solid scriptural foundations for the fact that at conception, the human spirit indwells the human body (even if that body is only a handful of cells versus trillions of cells in an adult human body). First, let’s acknowledge what is the part of a human being that is made in the image of God.

Since God is a Spirit (John 4:24), then it is clearly not our bodies that are in His image. The bible talks generally about two parts to a man, the inner man and the outer man (or, more specifically the outer man being the body, or flesh). As to the inner man, that is the soul or spirit of the man, that which transcends the mortal body and is everlasting from the time of its creation:

Ephesians 3:16 –  that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

The contrast between soul and body can be seen in 1 Corinthians 5:5 “to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Two solid scriptural arguments for life at conception.

The two most solid biblical arguments for life at conception, for full personhood at conception, for a human spirit in the human body at conception….are found in James 2:26 and Luke chapter 1. Let’s examine them:

James 2:26 – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Although the main point of this verse is not that the body without the spirit is dead, it is making a comparison to this apparently obvious fact. The assertion is that if a body is alive, then the spirit is present. Abortions are obtained BECAUSE the baby’s body is alive, and is growing. If the body inside a woman’s body were dead, the woman would not consider surgical or chemical removal of the baby’s body, because her own body would naturally purge the uterus of the dead baby’s body.

If cells are reproducing, if there is motor activity in those cells, then that baby’s body is alive. And, based on James 2:26, if the body is alive, then the human spirit, that which is in the image of God, is present in the body.

It is a mind blowing fact to consider the human spirit, that part of us that will endure everlasting, whether with the Lord or in the lake of fire. How does one quantify the human spirit? It can not be seen, can not be measured, almost can not be comprehended. But, it is the essence of “who” we are. The body is its shell. The body is perishable, can be seen, felt, sensed, measured, yet the body is not that which has the most value according to God.

The second biblical argument that presents a solid case for personhood at conception is found in Luke chapter 1. In Luke 1, we see two persons, both in utero, and both at vastly different ages since conception:

Verses 24-31: And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

Here, we see that when Elisabeth was in her 6^th month of pregnancy with John the Baptist, an angel visited Mary and told her she would conceive Jesus. Watch carefully what happens next:

Verses 34-37: Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Note that the angel said to Mary that the Holy Ghost SHALL come upon her. He had not yet come upon her. At that moment of the saying, she was not yet pregnant with Jesus. Then, what did Mary immediately do?

Verses 39-40: And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

She left the presence of the angel and went WITH HASTE to the hill country to Elisabeth, who was dwelling in a city of Juda the scripture says. Judah is a district south of Jerusalem, and Hebron was the city at the center of it. Mary was dwelling in the city of Nazareth of Galilee, which was well north of Hebron by at least 80 miles. Scholars estimate a journey in that era to be of 3 to 4 days duration.

If Mary went with haste, she presumably started the journey soon after the angel’s visit, and thus almost immediately after conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost. Since she journeyed with haste, she probably arrived at Elisabeth’s house within a week of conception. In a normal pregnancy, conception happens as the egg travels down a fallopian tube. Then, within a week of conception in the fallopian tube, the fertilized egg implants in the lining of the uterus. During that week, the baby is multiplying cells at a phenomenal rate, starting with two cells, and rapidly expanding to 8, 16, hundreds, then thousands. The baby’s body is alive and growing rapidly.

Note, what the scripture says as to Mary’s arrival at Elisabeth’s house:

Verses 41-44: And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: and she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

By these scriptures, we see two main things. First, John, 6 months along in the womb of Elisabeth was cognizant of the presence of Jesus and leaped. Second, Mary is pregnant and is declared to be a mother by Elisabeth, and more specifically mother of the Lord. Meaning, the Lord was already accounted as present within the womb of Mary.

All that, within the first week of conception. What that confirms is that people are people from the moment of conception. Fully human, fully persons, with spirits present in the baby’s developing body.

And as such, EVERY abortion is the murder of an image bearer of almighty God.

And as such, all human abortion should be abolished to protect these innocent human beings and to comply with the laws of God.

(This article was found at http://ahanorthidaho.com/AbolitionArticles_01252015.html)

Why aren’t we persecuted?

 

  We stood on the quiet, narrow streets of downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Despite the overcast weather the quaint, brick walled shops were inviting and a trickle of foot-traffic rambled along the sidewalks, window shopping and going about their everyday business. It was an average day in this city of 45,000. Or was it?

  I stood on a street corner holding a sign. There was nothing extraordinary about that until you took the time to stop and read it. One moment I was a part of the ambling humanity around me and in another I had become a disturbance to a normally calm city. I was a voice for the voiceless. A voice of dissidence in a culture in love with death and destruction. Honestly it is a humbling place to be. No one wants to be awakened from their sleep. It is painful to be faced with a light after living contentedly in the dark for so long.

  My sign read, “CHRISTIAN. deliver those being drawn to death. ARE YOU?” A simple question with huge implications. This is the blinding light. This is salt in a wound. It is not condemning, it simply asks a question to today’s Christians. Their conscience condemns them for us. The conscience in on God’s side and all we do is awaken it.

  If you were walking down the sidewalks that afternoon you would have seen six abolitionist declaring unabashedly what the wages of sin really are. Your ears would have met with the sounds of two men preaching the Gospel of Christ. You who were lulled to sleep by the lies of the world would have been faced with the blood on your hands. The blood of 57 million babies murdered by abortion. Ignorance is no excuse. Being too busy is no excuse. Your conscience would pierce your heart. You would be awakened. Your evil works of darkness would be exposed.

  Coeur d’Alene was awakened that day and she lashed out in a desperate attempt at justification. An evil mindset, ideology or desire, when met with opposition often reacts with hatred. People hate the love of God because it reveals their own weakness and need. I saw the awakening, if for but a moment. The devil and his angels were affronted that day and they stared back in the stony faces and angry stares of the people that passed me by.

  I glanced to my left and saw a family approaching down the side street. The middle aged man gave me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and I knew he hated life. He casually pushed a stroller with his baby boy. His wife and teen aged daughter followed close behind. The girl looked amused. I looked at the man and said,

  “What is your opinion on the American Holocaust?” Without a moment’s hesitation he answered,

  “I think every baby should be aborted!” He said it with a smile. I shot a glance at the baby sitting quietly in the stroller unaware at the evil fate he had escaped by the mercy of God. I told the man that he would be judged one day by a righteous God. He just cheered and whooped and yelled trying to shut out the truth.

“God sees you as a murderer, Sir.” He walked right passed me, still cheering and mocking God. The woman didn’t say a word but the look in her eyes spoke volumes. She was lost in darkness. A broken heart.

  I think the majority of Christians never see this. They don’t understand the depth of darkness that envelopes the world. The Holocaust today is no different than that of Nazi Germany. I say this over and over again because no one seems to grasp it. It is true. Honestly, I don’t think that I even understand the enormity of what is happening. We are living during a Holocaust. What will awaken the apathetic Christian heart to this desperate situation? Would you be awakened by the sight of 57 million mutilated bodies? I’m beginning to wonder. I think we have lost the value of life. We have begun to live peaceably with death. Life has become about us or about what God can do for us. Maybe that is why the death of Jesus Christ has failed to move the Christians to action. We are more than willing to accept the death of Christ so we can live but we hesitate to lay down our own lives and become hated of all men; to speak out for the lives of others. The churches have become a safe haven for selfishness and hypocrisy.

  Christians love to talk about the “glorious days in the future when we will be persecuted for our faith.” Maybe we have never been persecuted because we have never given the world something to persecute us over. Maybe the church has become the world. The world is not at peace with Christ but it is with you Christian. Why? What has become more important than being one with God? Christ is the rock of offense, so would we be if He shown through us by our words and actions.

  The devil is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We are hated because He is hated. We are in a war Christian and the enemy has made another soldier of God ineffective every time he can slyly lull us to sleep and make us think the battle hasn’t reached us yet. Though Christ is the victor the battle isn’t over yet. For some, they haven’t even begun to fight.

  It is time to be a light. It is time to be hated. It is time to live Jesus publicly. The world is just waiting for you to speak. Some will be malicious toward you, others will run to the grace of God. Your neighbors are waiting to be loved as you love yourself. Some will be saved, others will still be lost. God is waiting for you to be obedient. He will bless you and keep you.

“I like being a baby killer.”

This is a young women so lost in the darkness of sin. Pray that she will see her wickedness and repent and trust in the loving grace of God. Our hearts should break for her.

Abortion Abolition at Sandpoint High School

This is a video of a young woman that I talked to at Sandpoint High School. At first she was really reluctant to talk but by the end thanked me for the conversation.

Faith in action

What does faith look like in action? We don’t have to fantasize or dream up an example. It really isn’t up for debate. The Bible makes it very clear. Christians find a lot of pleasure in discussing this subject as if it is some deep mystery. If you really want to know the answer you don’t have far to look. Most likely you have read it over and over again. Some of the greatest missing truths in the modern church today are hid right in the open. The problem isn’t that people don’t know the answer but that they are unwilling to act on the knowledge that the Lord has already given to them in His Word. My goal isn’t to always dis the churches but they haven’t given much to praise them for. For the most part the churches of North America are dead. They have the Bible. They people sit year after year in the pews and soak in the truths of His Word. People like to hear messages reaffirming the truths they already know. It feels spiritual to shout amen on the front row. An emotional tear for the lost satisfies our burden to speak the Gospel. A moving, motivational message is tucked neatly into our repertoire of good doctrine. We have become satisfied with hearing. We have become addicted to doctrinally sound sermons. The church has become a house of entertainment. Is it not true? Do not the majority of Christians feel their duty is done by listening intently to a Sunday morning message? Where is my proof for such a claim? The evidence is all around you! Where are the Christians willing to make their faith public? Why are not they decrying the evils of our land that they already know are wrong? Christianity has been confined to the church building. You already know that the church is not the building but often your actions cry, “Hypocrisy!” Am I condemning? No. You have condemned yourself. The Christian has bought into the lie that the world is at peace with the message of Christ. The only reason they hold to this false idea is the fact that they have never spoken the vibrant light of Christ to the sin depraved world around them. I’m not talking metaphorically. We have heard enough of that. I mean practically sharing the light of Christ right where you are; with your neighbor. I’m talking about faith in action. Christianity is NOT a private faith. But believing that isn’t enough. Don’t nod your head or amen in approval unless you are willing to live the life outwardly that God has commanded of us. It is our reasonable service. Reasonable.

That doesn’t mean going the extra mile for Christ. It’s just the expected action of a true Believer. You might as well stop reading this if you aren’t going to act on what you know because I’m not trying to fill your head with more information. I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I’m not trying to pressure you into action. I’m not even trying to convince you of your fault. You already know what you need to do. I’m just trying to leave you with no excuse for living a Christian life in the corner of a church building on Sunday. Some may be offended when they read this but I would implore you to look at the fruit in your own life and see if what I am saying is not true. We will use the Bible verse that says, “you shall know them by their fruit” to make judgments against others but it is time we turn that verse against our own lives. Where do we stand in light of this passage? Are we guilty or innocent? And will we act accordingly to the answer we will be forced to give? The thought is sobering. That is okay, it should be. This is serious.

So what does the church in action look like? Certainly not what we see in the majority of those that claim the name of Christ. The Bible says in James that “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this; to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” Is this just a suggestion for a nice church program or a standard that God has set for His church? I think the answer is obvious. This is the church in action. This is when faith works. A faith that isn’t working is no faith at all. Read it again, it’s Bible. I’m not going to apologize for the message. James didn’t. It is the Word of Almighty God. The example James gives us is a shocking resemblance of the churches today.

“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

This is practical faith in action. How horrifying the thought that James is writing of us. Why do we insist on clinging to illusions of piety? Is it enough just to believe? This isn’t a doctrinal debate. It isn’t about works vs faith. Why must they be in conflict? Faith must have works or it isn’t faith. There are no exceptions. If you disagree you’ll have to take it up with God. This applies strongly to abortion abolition and evangelism but really it applies to every area in our lives. We are to be “unspotted by the world.” If there is something in your life that is in conflict to the pure religion of Christ get rid of it. If there are no works accompanying your faith maybe it’s time to examine your faith. Don’t make excuses anymore. Don’t cover your sin with humor or complacency. We can’t negotiate with God.

Proverbs 21:13 says, “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” What are we stopping our ears at? What have we conveniently ignored? Might it be the unborn children being slaughtered at the rate of 3,500 a day? Maybe it’s the lost soul you call neighbor. Or that insistent sin that we just can’t give up to our loving Savior that died for that sin. Ask yourself the question. I think you already know the answer. Don’t let your preconceived ideas get in the way. There are no safe havens for sin in the Christian’s life, in God’s eyes. He sees. He knows. Don’t use “waiting on the Lord” as an excuse for inaction and apathy. You have before, so have I. Don’t let the devil win another victory. Your action may look different than your brothers and sisters in Christ but it must pass the Lord’s inspection. It must be pure religion. Not everyone’s works looks the same. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others.

I could write until the Lord returns trying to clarify about what I am writing and than apologize for sounding harsh but I’m not going to. I’m not going to apologize for the truth. You can take it or leave it. I am tired of Christians using the Bible to justify their apathy and sin. The Lord didn’t give us His Word so we could war against each other or to sit back in our comfortable click of Christianity. But it is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” I’m not condemning because if we aren’t living our faith we are condemned already.

I don’t want this to be a dramatic essay or emotional dissertation. This is a plea for those bought with a price to live like it. A living church will be salt and light. What good is light when it’s locked up inside your church building or home? Many have found a comfortable place of peace soaking in the blessings of God. So many embrace the love that the Lord has given them. So many live, to learn the Bible and pray. Good for them. The people walking down your hometown streets hate God. They spit in His face everyday and they’d spit in yours if you told them of God’s future judgment. The devil has gripped their hearts and blinded their eyes. We have learned to be at peace with those that deface the name of our God and live a quiet, private faith. We are more concerned about being the friend of those that embrace murder, fornication and hate than exposing them to the light of Christ’s redemptive grace and just punishment.

  This should break your heart. This should move us to action. This should draw us closer to Christ and forsake the evil relationships and desires we cling to with tenacity. Maybe you have never seen the evil in the heart of man. Maybe it isn’t real to you. Salt burns wounds but it also cleanses. The walk of the Christian can be painful at times. Lonely. Sacrificing. But there is joy and peace in serving our Creator. Taking the first step in a faith that works can be terrifying. But who can stand against us when God is on our side? You will have doubts cloud your judgment. You will face fear and rejection. You will be criticized by both the sinner and the saint. You will be called judgmental and hateful. Slander will become your companion. Welcome to the company of the first century Christians. I’m not saying we are heroes or martyrs.

No, this is just our reasonable service.