“THIS WEEK CELEBRATES PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF OUR HUMANITY – LIFE ITSELF! YES, IT’S SANCTIFY OF LIFE WEEK, A TIME TO REMEMBER THE VALUE OF ALL LIFE, ESPECIALLY THE UNBORN.”

 I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about the what’s happening in our world, particularly our nation concerning the sanctity of life…

…This weekend starts our nation’s remembrance of the value of human life. We call it “Sanctity of Life Week,” and this Sunday begins the celebration. Why celebrate human life? Well the answer is obvious, it’s the most important thing all of us have. Nothing in our existence is more important than when life is threatened by crime, war, terrorism, or even lost health or old age – why we do anything to preserve it ¾ that is unless it socially doesn’t fit the mindset of a nation gone bad, in areas as the unborn, the handicapped, and permanently ill. Yes, it’s sad but today we have decided life is cheap and of little value for some folks in our nation and the world for that matter. Moreover, we’ve decided for them that their lives only have value as society determines it. So my friend after one more pause for a musical refreshment in song, I’ll return with today’s message on the sanctity of life…

…The biggest question that faces America today is – “Does an unborn baby have a right to life?” It’s one of those questions that can lead to passionate disagreements, angry voices and lost tempers. In America, it can destroy a politician’s career and even motivate violence and the murder. In fact, the answer turns on another question: “When does a cluster of living cells become a human being?” Is it at the moment of conception, even though the fertilized egg doesn’t resemble a person and doesn’t produce the electrical activity associated with brain waves? Is it at the moment of birth? Or do the cells become a person at some point during the nine-month pregnancy?  These indeed have been the questions since the U.S. Supreme Court since January 1973 determined that unborn life, even up to the moment of birth, is a non-person and has no rights under U.S. Law. As a result parents can kill their unborn decidedly at their whim, without any recriminations under societal law. How sad and wicked, how evil and deadly a decision and power continues to be granted to the fallen race of Adam. Yet here we are in the 21^st century in the year 2004, and are you aware this court decision opened the door to more death than America ever imagined? Yes, here are some grim statistics to consider…

U.S. Abortion Deaths Compared to U.S. War Deaths

Now the figures of death in all of America’s wars compared to the deaths of the unborn life in America should shock you. For instance we lost in the,

·        Revolutionary War - 4,435 deaths.

·        Civil War (both sides) - 498,332 deaths.

·        World War I - 116,708 deaths.

·        World War II - 407,316 deaths.

·        Korea - 25,604 deaths.

·        Vietnam - 58,168 deaths.

·        Abortion War - 45,630,000 (45 MILLION) deaths.

Did you catch that?

45.6 MILLION DEAD!
I tell you, how can anyone on the abortion side or pro-life side of things stomach that?

The fact remains America has chosen for over these 31 years now to kill more than 45 million of its unborn children since 1973. That means over 4,400 children a day are murdered all across America as women “choose” to kill their children before they are born. At least 30% of all pregnancies are now ended by abortion. For unmarried women, the figure more than doubles; 63% of pregnancies of unmarried women are aborted. For teenagers, 41-46% of pregnancies are aborted. More over, almost 50% of all abortions are repeat abortions, and according to pro-abortion Dr. Irvin Cushner of UCLA Medical school in a testimony before a Senate Subcommittee he stated, “98% of all abortions are done because women do not wish to be pregnant at this particular time.”

All this means that these forty five million human beings are also missing from the rolls of citizenship in America these past 31 years. As a result, devastating things are destined to happen to our nation. Some of it already has happened. I’d like to catalog a few for you to consider. Because we’ve killed 45 million of our citizens…

1. THE GENIUS & POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION OF THESE HUMAN BEINGS KILLED, HAS BEEN LOST TO OUR NATION – Have you ever thought about that? Think of the unborn life that if they had lived, the talents, genius, and marvelous contributions they might have made to our nation and the world. We’ll never know what scientists, doctors, statesmen, educators, poets, musicians and the like could have contributed. Maybe stunning medical breakthroughs have been lost,  such as the cure of all cancer, obesity and the like.  Think of the arts most treasured contributions, surely among forty five millon people destroyed, there would be some who would fit this bill! But thanks to abortion killings in America, they are forever lost to humanity.

2. THE WORK AND PRODUCTION CAPABILITIES TO AMERICAN LABOR HAS BEEN LOST TO OUR NATION BY ABORTION KILLINGS -  Forty five million dead and gone before they ever drew a breath, has caused our nation unbelievable loss as to the work force. Do you realize our economic woes especially our Social Security system is virtually soon to be bankrupt due to this one factor alone. We never realized that it is the work force of our children that virtually supports us in old age through the national pension system called Social Security. Yes, what we pay into it today as we work, supports our parents in old age, and what our children pay into it will one day support us – that is if enough children are there. But with forty five million dead and missing, we face the collapse of our Social Security system within 10-15 years or sooner. Yes, the adult generation today has not only killed its own children, but sealed our own fate in old age, a ruined nation lies ahead.

3. ABORTIONS CALLOUS DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE HAS SPAWNED FURTHER KILLING FIELDS SUCH AS “EUTHANASIA” – Look at what’s ahead and already being approved and sought in America. Those who are either severely handicapped or terminally ill and contribute little to nothing to societal wellbeing, well they are considered expendable. This year we will elect a new president of our nation. The Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean is a leading proponent of physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. He claimed last year, Florida Republicans should be "embarrassed" for intervening to save the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo, the partially comatose woman whom euthanasia supporters tried to kill. Thank God Florida legislators passed what was called "Terri's Law," which allowed President George Bush to have the 39-year-old disabled woman's feeding tube reconnected after it was removed under court order at her husband's request to have her killed.
Yet today, abortion rights advocates and other like the Hemlock Society are pressing for U.S. Law to approve the killing of the handicapped and terminally ill whom they feel contribute little to nothing to the value of society at large.

It won’t be long either, when our nation faces economic bankruptcy through the Social Security System failure or abuse,  coupled with the extreme taxation of the working class to support it, that the children of today, who have grown up with no thought of the value of human life, will think nothing of passing law to eliminate their elderly, sick and infirm parents. If you think this is not coming, you are a dreamer. We have so devalued human life that doesn’t fit our desires for societal comfort and freedom, we’ll join many in the rest of the world that simply eliminates the them.

But really is this so far from WW II and the Nazi doctors and death camps? It all began with the “humane” elimination of the terminally ill and severely handicapped. I remember some years ago meeting a man who served the Nazi’s in the early years before Hitler took extreme power. He was commissioned by the Hitler regime to visit the homes of terminally ill and severely handicapped people. He administered an injection by government law that put them to sleep like a dog in a veterinarian’s office, where they died. It didn’t stop there, and soon moved to the eradication of all Jews of Germany, young and old alike.

No one in Germany at that time would have believed it could go that far, but it did, and so will it be in America unless today’s generation turn away from the uninhibited killing fields of abortion. But now saying all that ¾ and of course the arguments from the medical and scientific world that clearly shows that unborn life is human and regardless of the place of residence  ¾ all life is sacred from the moment of conception and carries with it the value of human life.

As this is Sanctity of Life week, the most important thing any of us can do is realize that to kill another human being, unless it is for protection and preservation from the peril of life, is wrong, evil and has more than social consequences. For instance, the Bible tells us that taking human life apart from areas of God’s careful permission such as in a just war, self-preservation, and lawful execution of murderers – God will judge nations and people for this great sin. Listen to some Scriptures that tell us how valuable human life, especially unborn life according to the Creator of life:

1. GOD CALLS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY FOR SUCH MURDERERS - Gen 9:6 (NLT)  Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God’s image.

Amos 1:13 (NIV)  “This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders,”

Exo 20:13 (NIV)  “”You shall not murder.”

2. GOD’S WORD TELLS US LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION -Psa 139:13-14 (NLT)  You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it.

Eccl 11:5 (NLT)  God’s ways are as hard to discern as the pathways of the wind, and as mysterious as a tiny baby being formed in a mother’s womb.

Job 31:15.... "Did not he who made me in the womb make him and the same one fashion us in the womb?"

Jer. 1:5.... "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."

Gal. 1:15.... "And when he who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace."

3. GOD TELLS US ALL CHILDREN ARE HIS SPECIAL GIFT TO US - Psa 127:3 (NLT)  Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.

4. GOD TELLS US HE WATCHES AND JUDGES OUR OBEDIENCE TO THE SANCTITY OF LIFE - Prov. 15:3.... "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."

Isa. 5:20.... "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness."

5. GOD’S WORD TELLS US THOSE WHO PRACTICE MURDER OF ANY SORT WILL BE SENT TO HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY - 1 John 3:15 (NLT)  “…you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

Rev 21:8 (NLT)  But cowards who turn away from me, and unbelievers, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those who practice witchcraft, and idol worshipers, and all liars—their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

Deu 27:25 (NLT)  “’Cursed is anyone who accepts payment to kill an innocent person.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’”

I know many of you listening today have heard these verses in some form, but take them to heart. God is not going to spare individuals or nations from His righteous judgments against those who practice disobedience to His laws for life. America with its FORTY FIVE MILLION plus dead, will pay, and those who have performed and practiced this awful sin of bloodshed and murder will themselves become the victims. But then we must tell you, God is merciful and while we have life and our nation continues to exist, God calls out to us once again CHOOSE LIFE FOR ALL!

Deu 30:19 (NLT)  “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live!

Those last words are remarkable and important “Oh that you would choose life.” Yes, life for the unborn, for the handicapped, infirm, elderly and all. But note most carefully what promises God gives for those who do – “ that you and your descendants might live!” If America wants a true future, it must stop the open permission for the killing fields of abortion. It’s never too late, providing God continues to be long-suffering and delay His judgments that we might repent.

However, the greatest promise of all, lies in God’s love letter written by the apostle John who declared,

John 3:16-17 (NLT)  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

Yes, God is in the saving business, and right now wants to rescue all life, especially yours from a fiery eternity in Hell. We are all sinners born of the fallen race of Adam, and regardless of whether we have taken human life or not, God promises to forgive all who come to Him with a humble contrite heart. We do this by confessing our sins and calling upon God’s mercy and grace to forgive us through the substitutionary blood death of God’s Son Jesus Christ on our behalf.

Now, if you’ve had an abortion, and you now know how wrong it was to kill your own child, or if you have assisted in abortion killing stations as a nurse or even committed the act of abortion as a doctor – God can and will forgive you, if you confess this sin to Him and call upon Jesus Christ to forgive you. There is no sin so deep, nor wicked that God will not forgive and heal – if only we are willing to agree with God.

Our nation today still has time to turn away and around. It will require constitutional law, but also individual hearts to be changed. Both are impossible with men at this date, so God offers His love for all who embrace Him through Christ.

FORTY FIVE MILLION DEAD! It’s a travesty and holocaust! It’s an abomination in God’s eyes! It’s a nightmare that has come true! Yet, unless we turn around, this may become the year when God’s judgments will fall. It happened to Israel long ago and it became too late to change the moment God decided to move in. Listen to the Word of God on this matter.

2 Chr 36:16 (NLT)  But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words. They scoffed at the prophets until the Lord's anger could no longer be restrained and there was no remedy.

 Oh, would to God we will heed these warning this year and America does begin to turn around. Yet as God’s preacher, I must declare unless we repent we shall all likewise perish! God help us. Amen…

…This week will you consider doing something positive towards the promotion of the sanctity of life? Join a rally, write a letter to your legislator, a newspaper editor, speak to a neighbor co-worker or friend, stand up and be counted for life, all life and work for this until Jesus comes again.