God has entered the field – calling us to obedience, while there is yet chance to repent

A big thank you to all those who joined us at the Emmanuel Centre on Saturday for Missing Millions – Call to repentance. With Covid infection rates in the country once again spiralling out of control, it was humbling to have so many come together in person, while another 1000 joined us online. God is, without doubt, shaking the nations and, ahead of His return, He is urgently calling both Church and nation to repent.

There follows below a transcript of Lynda’s talk introducing the Call, but there were excellent presentations throughout the day, including from Andrea Williams of Christian Concern, Nick Szkiler of Issachar Ministries, Dave Brennan of Brephos, Christian Hacking of CBR UK, Rachel Mackenzie of Rachel’s Vineyard, and Sid Cordle, head of the Christian Peoples’ Alliance (CPA). In addition, powerful and Spirit-led worship was provided throughout the day by Brenda Taylor of Dovetail Shalom Ministries, assisted by her daughter Juliet.

Why abortion matters: Call to Church and nation to repent –
transcript of Lynda’s talk

Well, with Covid infections once again going up, war in Ukraine, a worldwide energy crisis, financial instability, economic hardship … you don’t need me to tell you the world is in a mess.  And, equally, I suspect you don’t need me to tell you there’s a spiritual battle going on between good and evil, and that evil seems to have grown increasingly strong over the last century.

More of that in a minute, but it’s important to say right at the beginning that this Call to repentance isn’t because a few of us got together and thought, given how bad things are, that it might be a good idea.  No, we believe that this is a direct Call from God.  We know that He’s shaking the nations and allowing the growing chaos ahead of His return (whenever that might be) – but the amazing thing is that His will is still to save, before it all becomes too late.  By our choices and actions, mankind has given allegiance to evil and because of that we’ve placed ourselves under judgment.   It’s as serious as that.  But, while time remains before that final judgment – which is coming and from which there’ll be no appeal – God still wants to help.  To save.   So He’s calling us to repent.

Let’s make no mistake.  Whatever is going on in the world, God is sovereign.
Nothing can happen without His permission.  But that doesn’t mean that all this chaos is His will, and that God is being nasty.  No, what’s happening now is because our choices have generated evil – and we’re suffering the consequences because God has withdrawn His protection.  God, if He wished, could deliver us in a heartbeat – but He won’t intervene while we remain in rebellion.  So He’s giving us a chance – to repent and be obedient … to come back under the safety of His banner.

This is life or death.  And if we fail to respond, there is infinitely worse to come, both in this life and in the life to come.

So, abortion…?  Why does this matter so much?  After all, it’s a woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body, and until a baby’s born it’s only a clump of cells anyway, so so what?

Wrong.  First of all, from the moment of fertilization, there is a new human being there.  Biologically, we know that from the moment the sperm joins with the ovum the complete genetic package that’s the future adult is all there.  Sure, the baby has to grow and develop – something that goes on throughout life – but there’s nothing else added.  Biologically, life begins at conception.

And that’s the view taken in the Bible.  In fact, the Bible goes even further.   Jeremiah 1:5, God says, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.’

That same idea is repeated over and over again.   Samuel, John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, Psalm 139.   Every child is special and known to God, from before conception.  Every child is loved by God, and every child has a unique destiny that only he or she can fulfil.

But the Bible says two other things that, for our purposes, are very important.   First, it unequivocally prohibits the taking of innocent life, which it brands murder (see Genesis 9:6; Leviticus 24:17), and which carries severe penalties, placing the perpetrator under a curse.  So, Genesis 4:11, when Cain slays Abel, God says to him, “… now you are cursed from the ground… it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”  Abortion is taking the innocent life of another human being, in this case an unborn child who, by definition, cannot defend him or herself.

Abortion is murder and, without repentance, it places those involved under a curse.

But there’s more.   The Bible explicitly forbids child sacrifice, which it labels abhorrent.  Leviticus 18:21, ‘You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God…’.

Why was this so bad?  How did sacrificing children profane God?

First off, sacrifice in the pagan world had spiritual significance and power.  It was made to please or appease, and feed, the demonic spirit to whom it was made.    Blood sacrifice was believed to be especially powerful, because blood was sacred – it was thought to be the seat of life and carried spiritual force.  So sacrifice was transactional.   The people making it wanted favour, and they got that by transferring power, through the outpouring of blood, to the demon to whom it was being made.

Don’t be misled by a woman’s so-called right to choose what she does with her own body.  A baby is another human being, entrusted in the womb to its mother, till it has developed enough to survive outside.  Abortion is murder of that child.  Abortion is child sacrifice/ blood sacrifice to the great god ‘Self.’

We’ve got a new religion in the world today.  Me.  ‘I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, and with whomsoever I want, without consequence … unless I choose.  It’s my right.’  Okay, it’s got a different name, but this is actually worship of Satan.  And it’s because of this worship that the demonic spirit behind sexual immorality and death has, over the last century, grown so strong, fuelling things such as sexual licence, promiscuity, pornography…  contempt for human life.

The numbers for abortion over the last 50 years have been horrific.  In 1967, when David Steel introduced the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill, he said, “We want to stamp out the backstreet abortions, but it is not the intention of the promoters of the Bill to leave a wide-open door for abortion on request.”  He estimated that there might be at most around 300 a year.

Since that time, in England and Wales alone, we’ve seen almost 10 million abortions, 98% of which have been carried out for what are called ‘social reasons’, meaning that for whatever reason, at the time, the baby simply wasn’t wanted.    But that’s only here in the UK.  Globally, over the last century and at a conservative estimate, we’ve aborted around 2 billion children – equivalent to around 7% of the human race.   All of this is rebellion against God, and it has fed the demonic.

And that’s why we’re seeing this disintegration of order, stability, and peace that’s bedevilling the world today.   We are inheriting the consequences of our choices … of our rebellion.   And because this is what we’ve chosen, God has withdrawn His protection.  Ahead of His return, when He’ll finally and forever deal with Satan, He’s letting it rip.  But He still loves us.    For our own salvation and to receive His help, we have to reject evil, and get back on the right track.

We have to repent.

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