Jesus rightly described Satan as the Father of lies in whom there is no truth.

Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44  You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46  Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47  Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” John 8:43-47 (ESV) 

From the beginning of human history, we have shown a disturbing propensity for believing lies instead of God’s truth.

Satan convinced Eve that the simple command not to eat from the forbidden tree was overridden by several nice sounding arguments, the first being that it would not result in her death. The second was that it would make her like God, knowing good and evil for herself, and the third was that it looked appealing to her senses. Pride fueled her desire to be like God. The lust for that and wanting to “know” for herself what the fruit tasted like overcame any fear of God’s punishment she might have had. The rest is our sad history.

Today when I hear or read arguments supporting abortion, I am reminded of Eve’s folly. God’s simple command prohibits the shedding of innocent blood, or we will die.

And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. 6  If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image. Genesis 9:5-6 (NLT) 

I believe the sin of legalized abortion poses the most serious threat of our encountering God’s judgment upon the nation. Racism is indeed a very terrible evil, but our government does not sanction it. When it rears its ugly head, it is because of the sin and wickedness in human beings, which no law on the books can nullify. However, abortion has been enshrined in our legal code by lawless Supreme Court justices. Not only does our government now condone abortion, it pays for women to kill their own babies. Truly this is a national horror of the greatest magnitude.

The arguments supporting abortion are manifold, but I have tried to reduce them to four. I have to warn you ahead of time that I am not going to nuance things to death, as the devil does.

• The mother has the right to do with her body as she chooses. This argument is based on the presumption that the child in the womb is not really a child, but a “fetus,” an inconsequential, unfeeling, and inhuman blob of tissue. This is reminiscent of the argument used by slave owners to oppress their “property,” which was regarded as sub-human. It is a clever round-about way to sidestep God’s clear command. It’s a lie from the pit of hell, which any honest person knows. The basic right of the mother to “do as she chooses” does not include murdering another human being.
• It is more humane to kill a baby in the womb than to allow it to be born into an unloving environment. This clever argument justifies murder on the basis that it might prevent suffering down the road. It believes that a certain atrocity is better than the possibility of one.
• Babies in the womb who are the result of rape or incest or have physical abnormalities should not be allowed to live. I have known people whose lives began because of sexual abuse, and they were not less human or valuable than I. I know families who love and care for Down Syndrome babies, claiming that those children were or are an amazing gift from God. This lie from the devil devalues life based on our preconception of its relative worth, without considering that all life is a gift from God and inherently valuable. Usually the abortion argument starts here and moves toward absolute freedom to kill babies inside and out of the womb. That is why the lie must be stopped here.

And here is the one that I heard most recently. It was supposedly promulgated by “Christian” thinkers, which makes it even more abominable.

“WE BELIEVE A BIBLICALLY SHAPED COMMITMENT TO THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE COMPELS US TO A CONSISTENT ETHIC OF LIFE THAT AFFIRMS THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE FROM BEGINNING TO END…Poverty kills millions every year. So does lack of healthcare and smoking. Racism kills. Unless we quickly make major changes, devastating climate change will kill tens of millions. Poverty, lack of accessible health care services, smoking, racism and climate change are all pro-life issues…For these reasons, we believe that on balance, Joe Biden’s policies are more consistent with the biblically shaped ethic of life than those of Donald Trump.” (From article by Samuel Sey, “Pro-Life Evangelicals for Abortion?“)

Let me see if I can simplify this satanic argument.

• It is okay to overlook killing babies in the womb if it will result in our government adopting policies that might benefit people who are still alive. This is merely a re-issue of the lie in the garden. It first denies, by refusing to address, God’s warning that killing babies will bring his judgment down on our heads.  Just because God has delayed judgment upon our sins does not mean his warning is groundless. (Matthew 23:35) The article gives some really “good” reasons to give abortionists a pass. It proposes that the party of abortion will relieve the following ills of society: poverty, poor healthcare, smoking, racism, and climate change. Folks, you cannot make this stuff up. It reminds me of a story my mother told me about a woman who had appendicitis and was bleeding from her womb after childbirth. The doctor told his nurse to apply pressure to stop the bleeding, but she protested that it might burst the appendix. The doctor calmly told her that the possibility of bursting the appendix did not overcome the certainly of her bleeding to death if no pressure were applied. The certainty of God’s judging our nation because we kill babies is a much stronger rationale than the possibility of climate change killing us. Sadly, all the arguments made above are purely political, the assumption being that the Democratic Party has the best solution for poverty, healthcare, smoking, racism, and climate change. There is no proof that any of that is true, but there is 100% proof that abortion is evil and God will judge the shedding of innocent blood.

When we justify a known evil by trying to avoid possible evils, we have entered the fog of deception.

That is where our nation is right now, even the church, and unless God blows away the fog, the judgment that is already upon us will consume us. That is why we must pray.

Prayer

As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth. 14  He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (NLT) 

Father in heaven, we come to you on the basis of Jesus’ shed blood (Hebrews 12:24), which cries out to you for mercy. We recognize that the innocent blood of over sixty million aborted babies cries out to you for judgment. We stand in the gap for our nation, asking you to once again have mercy upon us. Forgive our many sins, especially that of being ashamed of you. Our nation has removed prayer and the teaching of the Bible from our schools in an effort to be more enlightened, but it was a descent into darkness. Forgive us for legalizing pornography and abortion, but criminalizing going to church during a pandemic. Forgive us for loving money more than you, for thinking we are smarter than the Bible, and even more moral than you. Forgive us for ramming homosexuality, transgenderism, and other forms of perversion down the throats of American youth, many of whom have never known a time when it was not okay for a man to use a woman’s bathroom. Truth has fallen in the streets (Isaiah 59:14) and in the halls of Congress and the Supreme Court. Professing ourselves to be wise, we have become fools of the worst sort (Romans 1:22). In America, because of our heritage, we should know better. Lord, we are a nation birthed on the ideals of Scripture, but we have sadly strayed far, far away. We ask you to blow away the fog of deception. Restore to America a love for the truth, the truth of God, the truth of the Bible, the truth of the everlasting gospel. Our hope, Lord, is that you loved us even when we were your enemies (Romans 5:8). Jesus, you died for us when we did not love you at all. You first loved us, that we might eventually love you back (1 John 4:19). Today, in many ways, America acts like your enemy, Lord. Thank you for loving us anyway. Keep us from utter destruction. Pour out your Spirit upon us. Turn us back to you. Let there be a sweeping revival across our land that brings millions to Christ. Do it, Lord, quickly, before mercy comes to an end for us. Amen.