On November 19 a very important ordinance will be brought to ballot in Albuquerque. It’s called the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance.” It does not represent everything we might desire for the protection of the unborn, but it appears to be a significant and politically achievable next step in the direction of justice.

That’s the specific occasion for this blog. But let’s back up a bit first and consider a Christian framework for thinking about abortion and acting in behalf of the unborn.

And lest this step be thought unnecessary, let us remember that as with many things that we can take for granted, if we do not self-consciously rehearse the deepest reasons for our opposition to abortion, we will grow vulnerable to bad arguments, unimpassioned indifference, and even quieted embarrassment for our position. There is even a term coined to describe those with pro-life convictions who have grown weary of speaking and acting for the unborn: “fetus fatigue.” Clearly, the question, “Why are we against abortion?,” is a question we need to answer with persevering conviction and persuasive clarity.

So, why are we against abortion?

First, we love babies and believe that abortion is the murder of an infinitely valuable human being. 

There are two questions that every person has to answer in determining the moral acceptability of abortion. We do well to ask them and answer them for ourselves and those we seek to persuade. These two questions make the issue of abortion surprisingly simple.

The first question is this: when do human beings begin? The answer is straightforward from the Bible and it is clear in nature. In Psalm 139, David reflected on God’s intimate knowledge of every part of his life, even his life in the womb. With David each of us can say, God has “knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (139:13). Biology teaches us that Homo sapiens begin at the meeting of egg and sperm with the creation of an entirely new organism, unique with its own DNA. Given a proper environment and time, that organism contains within itself all that is needed to direct its own growth from that moment until death. In other words, embryos are human beings. Standard biology text books agree, and even many in the pro-choice community are happy to grant this view of human life.

But if many in the pro-choice community are happy to grant the basic humanity of unborn life, then how can they also be for abortion?

It is for this reason that a second question is especially important: What makes human beings special? We step on ants and we eat cows. Why not human beings? One view says that human beings are valuable for the kind of thing we are as human beings. This is what Christians hold, and we believe it to be so because, as Genesis 1:27 reads, “God created man in his own image.” A two-year-old girl, a handicapped boy, and an accomplished violinist share the same humanity and, thus, the same human dignity. To understand the alternative view, the acronym, “SLED,” will come in handy. This view holds that human beings are more or less valuable depending on their size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency. When an argument for abortion is made on the basis of viability, for example, the logic of dependence is at work. An argument for partial birth abortion will assume an argument from environment. These are what separate a human being in the womb from a human being outside the womb. But there’s a problem that must be acknowledged. It’s precisely this logic that leads Princeton Professor of Bioethics, Peter Singer, to advocate for the infanticide of young children. Thankfully, most abortion advocates do not live according to the logic required by their position. And that is precisely why a conversation about the nature of humanity and human dignity is a good place to start in persuading our neighbors concerning the status of unborn human life.

But not only is abortion the murder of an infinitely valuable human being, abortion is the violent murder of an infinitely valuable and defenseless human being. For Christians, the utter dependence of a human being in the womb is actually a cause for a special measure of care.

We are against abortion because we are for human life, and especially human life in its most vulnerable stage.

Second, we fear God and are captivated with his life-knitting glory in the womb.

Listen to what David believed and how David felt about the scope of God’s sovereignty over his life:

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
—Psalm 138:14-18

That human beings are made in the image of God is one of the Bible’s especially significant doctrines and one of the most practical realities in the world, as we have considered. But it also represents how God has chosen to reveal his glory in the world. Meditation on God’s pervasive knowledge and care for us is a reason for wonder and praise. And so it should be no surprise that across the story of the Bible we find the violent death of children standard fare for God’s enemy, the Devil. We can’t help but think of Pharaoh’s order for the Hebrew sons to be thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22). Yet, as the story goes, “the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them” (Exodus 1:17).

What happens in the womb of a woman isn’t just about her. It’s not even just about her and the baby. It’s about her and the baby and the hand of God. When our hearts are in the right place, we revel at God’s masterpiece in humanity and revile the assault of abortion on his handiwork.

We are against abortion because we fear God, and we are for the display of his life-knitting glory.

Finally, we love our neighbors and long for sinners to come to repentance.

Yes, this is an important and not a peripheral reason to be against abortion.

Heaven will be populated with abortionists, with those who aborted their children, and with people like you and me who looked to Christ for forgiveness and for righteousness. But no one will be there who did not first see and confess the reality their sin and guilt before God. So, telling the truth about abortion is about repentance.

We do not help our unbelieving neighbors by speaking only of sins most decent people are comfortable denouncing: lying, cheating, spousal abuse, and child trafficking, for example. Just read some of the stories of 26 women who committed abortions, published this week in New York Magazine. Some of these women have been hardened. Many of them are haunted. All of them, we know, need the grace of God, grace which is greater than all of our sin. Satan assaults the glory of God through abortion, and through abortion he tortures those whom he has enslaved. Being honest about the evil of abortion is an important first step toward knowing the love of Christ for those who would commit an abortion.

Yes, preaching against abortion will mean that some—even many—will harden in their opposition to our cause for the unborn, and even our Savior. But such is the case with any sin, no matter how gracious our presentation. Jesus’ own preaching blinded some while it gave sight to others. That’s God’s way.

We are against abortion because we are for babies, we are for the glory of God, and we are for the salvation of sinners.

So, how does this look practically in our lives as Christians?

It looks like many things. We pray for the unborn. We organize ourselves for strategic practical and gospel ministry through the establishment of crisis pregnancy centers. We start adoption agencies and open our arms, our hearts, and our homes to children through adoption. We befriend our neighbors and love them with truth and help when they are in a crisis pregnancy. We seek to persuade our neighbors by writing, speaking, educating, and engaging in the public square, in the academy, and in our little spheres of influence wherever we find ourselves. And, of course, as the Lord grants us children, we love them, protect them, sacrifice for them, and enjoy them as gifts.

We also vote.

Which brings us to the occasion for this article.

Human government is an indispensable God-given means to human flourishing and voting is a means by which we help to bring our leaders and our laws into alignment with what is just and good and true. It’s a way we love our neighbors, born and unborn. While politics and our part in it can never meet our ultimate needs, it does meet truly significant needs and is an expression of our worldview as Christians.

Writing for the elders at Desert Springs Church, we encourage you to read up on the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance” and participate in the political process by voting on November 19.

Fatigue, Faithfulness, and the Faithfulness of God

Thankfully, as evangelical Christians, we aren’t the only people who are for life and, therefore, against abortion. As an evidence of God’s common grace in humanity, still forty years after Roe there is in our own nation a broad and persistent resistance to abortion, of which this ordinance is a part. But as Christians who seek to defend the unborn, we should want to answer the question, “Why are we against abortion?,” in a way that reflects the mind and heart of God and in a way that promotes his gospel.

Yes, there are reasons to be exhausted, but there are reasons also to be encouraged. And there are even better reasons to keep speaking and acting for the unborn: Human life is precious, God’s glory is great, and God’s grace saves sinners like us to love life instead of death.

Kevin DeYoung recently published a three part blog series, “How to Be Better Bereans” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Here’s how it begins:

The Jews in Berea, it is said, were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). How telling–for them and for us–that nobility is measured not by titles, land, parentage, wealth, or degrees, but by how we handle the word of God. Our approach to the Scriptures sets us apart as riff-raff or royalty.

So how do we become better Bereans?

That’s the question I recently posed to my congregation and the question I want to explore this week. How can we be more like the noble Bereans and less like the rabble from Thessalonica (Acts 17:5)?

Let me suggest ten ways . . .

Here are Kevin’s ten points:

1. Listen to the sermon with an open Bible
2. Don’t rush on from the Word of God to the rest of your life
3. Get in the Word as a way of life
4. We must approach the Bible with eager expectation
5. Be prepared to study the Word deeply
6. Be confident that you are able to study the Bible and discover the truth of God’s Word
7. Recognize that some things which claim to be from the Bible are not
8. Test difficult doctrines against the Scriptures before simply discarding them
9. Be humble enough to take the Bible at its word no matter who you are
10. Give the Bible the final say in every matter on which it means to speak

Read how Kevin unpacks each of these points here, here, and here.

To highlight God’s work among the Rabinal Achi, Karen Gregory recently published an article for TGC’s International Outreach, “Christ for Guatemala’s Mayan People.” It’s a wonderful article that will make your heart rejoice. Here’s how it begins:

Our group from Desert Springs Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, had taken a second mission trip to the town of Rabinal, in the Baja Verapaz region of Guatemala. We wanted to spread the Gospel to the Achi people, descendants of the once-mighty Mayan nation.

On that memorable day in 2004, we traversed a mountainside for two hours. We hiked alongside Pastor David Ixcopal, his wife Maria, and several of their 11 children, with the goal to share the Jesus film—the pastor’s only Western gospel resource at the time. A donkey carried the film, along with a generator and sheets that would serve as a movie screen. By evening the entire village of Patchalum viewed the movie; for many, it was their first exposure to the glorious Gospel of Christ.

For several days we accompanied Pastor David up and down steep mountains, taking paths between corn rows to reach the low, dark dwellings of Achi families.

I was overwhelmed by the Guatemalan pastor’s daily response to the call of Jesus, and the willingness of his family to ignore the seemingly impossible task to spread the Gospel. Their crushing poverty, amazing energy and boundless joy, in contrast to my many resources, paltry excuses and constant grumbling, made me weep. I returned home a broken woman.

Read the rest of Karen’s article here. To learn more about our Rabinal Achi Partnership, visit the DSC Global Missions Page.

To prepare for Missions Emphasis Week, which begins this Sunday, watch this short video by John Piper answering the question, “Who Are the Unreached?”

[RSS and email readers, click here to view this video]

By way of reminder, here is a list of what’s going on at DSC this week:

Sola Aqua | October 20-30

We’re in the middle of this! If you haven’t started already, fast from beverages except for tap water and pray for God to bring living water to the peoples of Native America, Guatemala, and North Africa. Then, donate the money you save to DSC’s water projects in Guatemala.

Special Guests on Sunday Morning | Sunday, 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM

At our Sunday Services, Matt Ellison will preach from 3 John and Philippians, a sermon titled, “Caring for Missionaries in a Manner Worthy of God.” Matt, a member at DSC, is co-founder and Chief Ministry Officer at Sixteen:Fifteen, a church missions coaching organization that has been instrumental in the formation of DSC’s vision for missions.

In addition, Rodrigo Barrera, our beloved missionary and Wycliffe Bible Translator, will share about he and his wife Carol’s ministry among the Mayan Rabinal Achi in Guatemala.

Dinner with the Missionaries | Sunday, 5:00 – 8:00 PM (Registration closes Friday at 11:59PM)

“Dinner with the Missionaries,” including a Q&A with Carol Barrera, Cindy Harper, and Mrs. G. Click here to for more information and to register. Enjoy a nice Pacific Rim dinner, free child care (12 and under), and access to the Silent Auction.

Silent Auction | Sunday Morning – Wednesday Night

The Silent Auction will be open Sunday morning at 8:00 AM, then on Monday and Tuesday from 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM, and on Wednesday from 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM, just before our Lord’s Supper service. Click here, here, here, and here to read about the various things and services that have been donated bye DSC members for this auction.

Lord’s Supper Service | Wednesday, 6:30 PM

Mr. G, our SNAP Team Leader will be sharing about the progress and upcoming transitions for him and his family. They look to launch to France en route to North Africa in January. Click here to learn more about the Sunrise North Africa Partnership (SNAP).

Also, swing by the Book Nook for several featured books on Global Missions.

It’s going to be a great week!

Here’s what D.A. Carson had to say about Tom Nelson’s fine book on Christian vocation, Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work:

“Not many pastors are adept at encouraging the Christians they serve to think deeply about the work they undertake during the six days when they are not gathering for corporate worship. So many of our applications and exhortations, as important and as faithful as they are, deal with prayer, Bible reading, family relationships, and evangelism, and not with the work that takes up much of our time and that we are called to offer up to God. I first heard Tom Nelson bring some clarity to these matters in some addresses at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and I am delighted to see his reflections expanded and put into print. This book is greatly needed.”
—D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

On Saturday, October 26, from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Hope Church will host a half day conference with Tom Nelson, “Work Matters: Integrating Faith and Work.” If you’d like to join, the cost is free, but you’ll need to register here.

If this subject has your interest, check out Nelson’s sermon, “Is Work a Four-Letter Word?,” this video interview by Crossway, and this written interview by The Gospel Coalition.

Tom Nelson is the Senior Pastor of Christ Community Church in Leawood, Kansas, and a council member of The Gospel Coalition.