Here I Stand . . . I Can Do Nothing Else

Yesterday morning I lingered at home in order to be able to watch the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. It was a somber reminder that when politicians try and speak of “religious things” the message is most always muddled at best, truth is out and out denied at worse.  I heard a lot about the “brotherhood of all men” (which is a denial of God’s truth) and that all religions have the “same basic tenets and goals . . . and the same wonderful and loving God” (again contrary to the truth of God’s word).  What really came through is that most people who live by political correctness do not have a clue as to what Christianity, nor what other world religions, really teach and believe.

There was a bright spot however, when Tim Tebow stepped to the podium to offer the closing prayer.  His first words were, “Dear Jesus . . .”.  No denial of truth there!  No compromising of the Gospel!  No political correctness to try and equate Jesus with all other “gods” which are idols and false. Thank you Tim Tebow, for standing firmly on the Gospel!!  And he closed it “in Jesus’ name.”

Speaking of Tebow, have you been following the “controversy” surrounding him and the TV ad that is to play during the Super Bowl this Sunday.  As you may know, when Tim’s mother was pregnant with him, she was advised “for health reasons” to abort Tim.  She choose instead to carry him to term and, well, the rest of the story is history, as they say.  What has been the most interesting thing to come out of this is that many of the “feminist” and “pro-choice” groups have proven that they are not pro-choice at all.  They are only pro-choice if that choice is abortion.  And that is NOT pro-choice, that is simply pro-abortion, or pro-death!!!

Even Sally Jenkins, the pro-choice writer for the Washington Post, has written a scathing article criticizing all the groups who are clamoring to have CBS cancel the ad because it goes against the liberal orthodoxy of the day.  I love her opening comments: “Let me spit this out quick, before the armies of feminism try to gag me and strap electrodes to my forehead:  Tim Tebow is one of the better things to happen to young women in some time.”

Jenkins goes on to close her article in this way:

Tebow’s ad, by the way, never mentions abortion; like the player himself, it’s apparently soft-spoken.  It simply has the theme “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.”  This is what NOW has labeled “extraordinarily offensive and demeaning.”  But if there is any demeaning here, it’s coming from NOW, via the suggestion that these aren’t real questions, and that we as a Super Bowl audience are too stupid or too disinterested to handle them on game day. (you can read her entire article HERE)

I am thankful for young men like Tim Tebow who are willing to take a stand for right and truth, when it would be easier to just remain silent.  The church in the 21st century could learn a lot from this young 22 year old.

Filed under: Pro-life, Worldview | Leave a comment »

There are many things that bring joy to a pastor’s heart, but one of those is the people you get to pastor and be involved in their lives.  In 1994 I had a couple join my church in Florida that was a first for me.  Roger & Annette Nicole became members.  When I introduced them that Sunday morning, I said, “it is not often that a pastor gets to have one of his theological heroes in his church.”  And Roger was, and is, that.  Today he is in his mid-90s and still a great joy when I get to see him.  Roger is probably the leading Baptist authority on the Atonement of Christ, having written extensively on the subject.

In 1994 Roger wrote a letter to Justice Harry Blackmun, on the occasion of the Justice’s retirement from the Supreme Court of the United States.  You may remember that it was Blackmun who wrote the infamous majority decision in Roe v. Wade.  I want to share that letter with you today.  Don’t miss the “P.S.”

April 13, 1994

Mr. Justice Harry A. Blackmun
United States Supreme Court
Washington, D.C.

Your Honor:

The Orlando Sentinel reports that in the prospect of your impending retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court you are wondering what you will be remembered for.

To my mind nothing else that you ever have done can approximate the impact of your support of the majority opinion of the Court in the case of Roe vs. Wade.

This has opened the door to millions of abortions…for the sake of expediency or selfish motives. It has encouraged millions of women and thousands of physicians to participate in this murderous course.

In 4 B.C. Herod the Great ordered the killing of perhaps a few dozens of babies, but his name remains famous for this “massacre of the innocents” (Matthew 2:16).

In the Civil War of 1861-65, one of the bloodiest on record in terms of the size of the armies involved, there were perhaps close to 500,000 casualties. But Roe vs. Wade has made already 30 million victims since 1973, and this number grows every day.

In World War II, the USA suffered somewhat more than 400,000 deaths due to the conflict: this is only 1/75th of the number of the abortion hecatomb*.

In the Viet Nam hostilities there were some 60,000 fatalities. You would need 500 Viet Nam walls, enough to encircle the whole of D.C., to record those put to death by abortion.

The infamous holocaust engineered by the Nazis brought death to some 6,000,000 Jews and other innocent people. The name of Hitler is inextricably associated with this monstrous atrocity. Yet Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Treblinka and others together exterminated only one-fifth of those whose life was snuffed out before birth by Roe vs. Wade.

The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor cased the death of 2,300 Americans, and President Roosevelt, who surely cannot be accused of being politically right wing, stigmatized this occasion by calling it “a day of infamy.” Now two “decades of infamy” have cost our nation a loss as great as 13,000 “Pearl Harbors.”

Rest assured, therefore, your Honor, that this legacy of yours will ever be remembered and that your name will be associated with it. And unless you repent, when you appear before the Supreme Court of God you may well hear the verdict, “Your brothers; [and sisters’] blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10).

Sincerely,
Roger Nicole, Ph.D. (Harvard)

P.S. If your parents had practiced what you believe, you might have been aborted, and the United States might have been spared this abomination. If my parents had practiced it, you would not receive this letter.

* hecatomb = the sacrifice or slaughter of many victims.

(HT: Bayly Blog)

Filed under: Pro-life, Worldview | 2 Comments »