THREE ARTICLES ON ABORTION
Dear Friends, this post is longer than usual because it contains three articles I wrote on the subject of Abortion: The Brutality of Abortion, Loss of Natural Affection, and Child Sacrifice. I encourage you to read them and pass them on to others.
I am re-posting these articles because of the seriousness of this issue, because of the case that is before the Supreme Court today (12/1/21), and because of the law recently enacted in New York allowing babies to be aborted even during the 3rd trimester, which would be right up until the time of birth. This law also allows them to kill the child if the aborted baby is born alive. This is a cruel and wicked abomination. It is these practices that will bring the judgment of God upon our nation. It is time for Christians to pray and for pastors to speak up in the pulpits. --- Billy Long
PART ONE
THE BRUTALITY OF ABORTION
BODIES IN JARS
Excavations of pre-Israelite Canaan uncovered a large number of jars containing the remains of children sacrificed to Baal. Other excavations discovered many jars containing the remains of infants who had been sacrificed to Baal during King Ahab’s time. These jars bring to mind the photos of garbage cans filled with baby parts at abortion clinics. I showed one of these pictures to a high school girl once. Her reply was, “That’s just propaganda.” She was not able to bring herself to face the fact she was looking at actual babies dismembered and thrown away. Her political position would not allow her to accept the fact that these babies went through torture and excruciating pain as they were being killed and taken from their mother’s wombs.
The religious rites of Baal worship were noted for their sexual and immoral indulgences and for child sacrifice. Our own culture with its rampant sexual promiscuity has produced over 60 million abortions. The sexual practices of Baal worship and the promiscuity of our own current culture show that unbridled sexual activity outside of marriage leads to the death of children, whether sacrificed in religious worship to a pagan god or dismembered inside a mother’s womb to the god of convenience. In either case, the remains of infants are left behind in jars and garbage bins.
Statistics show that a large percentage of women/girls who are allowed to see the ultrasound of their baby will choose not to go through with the abortion. They see a child in the womb and not a blob or mass of cells. That’s why the abortion industry lobbies so hard to block any legislation that requires them to show the ultra-sound to the mother. The child in the womb recoils in pain from the sharp instruments of the abortionist. One well-known video showing the ultra-sound of an abortion was appropriately titled “The Silent Scream.” If the same procedures were performed on a baby outside the womb the cries of that same child would be heart-wrenching.
The practice of partial-birth abortions proves the evil and callousness of the industry. It is absolutely astounding that any normal adult would not grieve and be repulsed at idea of partial-birth abortions. In this practice the live child is first pulled from the womb and into the birth canal, except for the head. The abortionist then punctures the base of the skull, suctions out the brains, and removes a dead baby from the mother’s body. If the entire body of the child were to be removed first, this practice would legally be considered murder. It is foolishness to say that location determines life. The practice of partial birth abortions proves that the debate over when life begins is a waste of time when dealing with avid abortionists. The evidence seems to show they do not really care.
Our culture has degenerated to the point that sexual promiscuity is prevalent, encouraged, and expected. In this atmosphere there will be growing numbers of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. The operative word is “unwanted.” Abortions are given not for medical reasons, but rather for the convenience of the mother and because of economic factors in her life. The mother does not want the child, and the abortion industry is making millions and millions of dollars.
Murder, whether it is on the street or in the womb, causes the land to be defiled and “guilty of blood.” The moral issues do matter. A godly and righteous nation might survive even with bad economic policies, but an immoral nation filled with ungodly practices will inevitably face the judgments of God, unless there is repentance. Where are the cries from the church and from the pulpit?
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. It is in the womb that God first breathes life into a person. We should stand in awe and reverence at this divine and mysterious process. We should also be afraid to trample upon that which is so sacred and wonderful.
Rulers and legislators should take note. God is the righteous judge, and all men must give an account to Him. This applies to those who make the laws.
“Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship with YOU?
They gather together against the life of the righteous, and condemn innocent blood.” –Psalm 94: 20-21.
Who is more innocent than the babies in the womb?
"WITH CHILD"
It is not insignificant that the Bible translators in the Old and New Testaments translated the Hebrew and Greek terms for pregnancy as being “with child.” The babe in the womb is a child…not a mass of tissue. The Bible says that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant had conceived a “son.” It was a son…not a blob of tissue. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit, even as a babe, in his mother’s womb. Elizabeth, when she heard Mary’s greeting, was also filled with the Holy Spirit, and the babe John leaped within her womb. He was a person even before birth, and he supernaturally responded to the presence of the Son of God in Mary’s womb. (Luke 1:15, 36, 44; Matthew 1:18; Matthew 1:23).
God is the Father of spirits. Human procreation produces a physical body, but the real person is the human spirit that God creates and breathes into us when we are conceived. Psalm 139 reveals that our spirit along with God’s plan and purpose are given to us even before we are born. The Lord forms our inward parts (our spirit) and covers us in the womb. The Psalmist tells us that God “sees our substance, being yet unformed. And all the days fashioned for us were written in His book when as yet there were none of them.” We are trampling on sacred ground when we assault the babe in the womb. It is God’s nursery, a place where He is at work. (Ecclesiastes 3:20; 12:7; Psalm 139).
Jesus clearly manifested His love for little children when they brought them to Him. He took them up in His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them. He also gave a stern warning. “Whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” These sobering words should cause us to stand in the fear of God regarding how we treat them, even in the womb. (Mark 10: 13-16, Mark 9: 36-37, 42).
LACKING NATURAL AFFECTION
One of the characteristics of the latter days is that men and women will lack natural affection. A people who forsake the Lord will at best become callous and indifferent, and at worse brutal, cruel, and barbaric. These adjectives describe abortion at any phase of pregnancy. How can killing a baby after it is born be anything but selfish, cruel, and brutal. A child is tortured and killed at any phase of pregnancy. It goes against nature to blind our eyes to this disgraceful procedure. 2 Timothy 3:1-3; Romans 1: 31
CRUEL
A society without God can be cruel, heartless, unfeeling, and sadistic with no love for family or neighbor and no compassion or sympathy for the suffering. The nation that can kill babies will eventually progress to euthanasia, killing the infirm and the elderly. A friend of mine once said, “The generation that approved and legalized abortion may be the generation that will themselves be the first victims of the nation’s approval of euthanasia,” which will lead to the killing of any person or group that society deems unworthy to live. (Deuteronomy 28: 50).
The Apostle Paul uses the word “perilous” to describe the latter days (2 Timothy 3:1-3). This same word is translated “Fierce” in describing the Gadarene demoniac who was wild in the tombs cutting himself and breaking chains (Matthew 8:28). There are many historical examples that show the Apostle Paul was correct in his description of man’s potential for evil.
The Nazis in World War II slew babies along with innocent men, women, and children in their prison death camps. Then when the war ended, Stalin allowed his soldiers and the civilian mobs in areas of eastern Europe occupied by the communists to kill innocent men, women, and children of German descent. These were innocent citizens who just happened to have German ancestry. The eastern European reprisals after the war were as bad as the murders that took place in the Nazi SS camps during the war. A documentary on the post-war slaughter that occurred is entitled “The Savage Peace.”
King Herod, being threatened by the birth of Jesus, sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to put to death all the male babies from newborn up to two years old. There are groups in our society today who advocate similar practice but in the respectable cover of the medical profession.
These examples show the potential degeneration and descent into cold, hard evil that any society is capable of when it starts down the “slippery slope.” Who knows how far this process will go in finding victims, and where will it stop? Without God, the heart can harden and grow in its beast-like propensities. Unless cultivated by an intimate relationship with Jesus through prayer and the written word of God, the Christian’s heart tends to harden. But an unbelieving person who does not know God and who despises His word has the potential to harden his heart, lose natural affection, and tolerate practices that are unspeakably callous. Governed by self-interest, selfishness, and self-centeredness people become desensitized to the pain and needs of others, and in arrogance and rebellion they become tools of the devil. This type of society tends to follow the Apostles Paul’s description of the progressive slide from passive complacency to the arrogant display and bold presentation of sin in its fullness. Abortion has progressed (or rather degenerated) from initially killing what they claimed was “only a blob of tissue” to the current brazen and shameless proposal to kill the baby at birth and even after birth. This is one mark of a society moving toward the “fullness of iniquity” referred to in the Bible.
THE FULLNESS OF INIQUITY
Biblical examples show us that God sends judgment when iniquity reaches its fullness. At that point the judgment of God is inevitable…unless there is nationwide repentance. The acceptance and approval of child sacrifice are among the abominations that will precipitate that judgment. When Israel entered the promised land, the iniquity of Canaan had reached its fullness. It was filled with every type of abomination including child sacrifice. Leviticus 18:25 says, “For the land is defiled; therefore, I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out it inhabitants.”
My guess is that unless there is repentance on a national scale, the judgment of God will fall on our nation for killing over 65 million babies in and out of the womb. The practice will then stop…but at great cost.
“Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 4:1
“For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?” Joel 2:11.
“Who shall not fear You, O Lord…For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments are made manifest.” Revelations 15: 4.
CHILD SACRIFICE
It is very strange that lawmakers were laughing and celebrating a law that allows them to kill babies even at birth. Abortion is a tragedy at any stage, but this new law exposes the real heart of the abortion industry and those who support it. They obviously don’t care when life begins. Everyone knows a child being born in the ninth month is OBVIOUSLY alive and is a person. This amounts to child sacrifice and is a blatant disregard for God and His word. The Lord spoke through Ezekiel the prophet saying, “You have slain My children.” He is not indifferent to these deaths.
Almighty God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the righteous Judge of all mankind calls it an abomination. He places the practice alongside witchcraft and the occult. The land is polluted by the shedding of innocent blood. God sets His face against those who practice it and gives a stern warning to those who close their eyes and ignore it. The nation is accountable for the abomination, and the church is accountable for its apathy, silence, and for not speaking up. The blood is also on the hands of ministers and pastors who have endorsed it, or who in the fear of man have remained silent in the pulpit.
“For after they had slain their children for the idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed thus they have done in the midst of My house.” Ezekiel 23:36-39
“And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man when he gives some of his descendants to Molech (offer his children in the fire)…I will set my face against that man and his family.” Leviticus 20:1-5.
We must remember that surely God will judge an unrepentant nation for the death of innocent children. But we must also remember that judgment begins at the house of God, and it starts with the leaders.
SECULAR RULERS WILL ANSWER TO GOD.
The blood of innocent babies cries out to God against government officials who enact laws permitting and supporting abortion. People generally expect spiritual leaders to be accountable to God. But secular rulers and legislators are not excluded. They will ultimately answer to God for the laws on which they place their name and stamp of approval. Individuals in legislative bodies mistakenly think they are hidden in the anonymity of the group, and they fall into the snare of thinking they are not personally accountable to God for the laws they make. But there is no such thing as anonymity. God not only sees “all,” but also sees “each”...and takes notes. He watches the halls of government, whether church or state. Leaders are commanded to rule in the fear of God, knowing He has placed them in their positions, and that He will come to judge the judges.
LEADERS WHO DESPISE GOD’S WORD
“Because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised my statues…therefore, I gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live…For when you make your sons pass through the fire (child sacrifice), you defile yourself with your idols.” Ezekiel 20: 24-26, 31.
Leaders who do not fear God will be given up to laws that are not good, laws that are perverse and based on the imaginations of their own heart. Such men will be controlled by selfish ambition and evil motives, creating a government that is corrupt, rife with lies, and given over to error, abuse, and hypocrisy (Isaiah 19:13-14).
When God is despised the nation and its rulers become not only corrupt, but also foolish. One minister said, “Man without God is insane.” We see this in the schizophrenic nature of our own legal system. One law based on divine order and respect for parental authority does not allow a school teacher to give an aspirin to a child without parental consent and permission, while another law completely disregards moral law and allows doctors to give abortions to minor children without notifying the parents.
TOPHET
The bodies of children sacrificed in the fire were buried in a place called Tophet. Jeremiah proclaimed that because they had filled this place with the blood of the innocents, God was going to send judgment and cause them to fall before the sword of their enemies. The burial place would not have room for all the bodies, and its name would be changed from Tophet to the Valley of Slaughter.
“And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the lord, to provoke Him to anger. Therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.” 2 Kings 17:15-18
Righteousness exalts a nation. Sin brings judgment, decline, and downfall. God will bring every work into judgment. The slaughter of over 65 million infants will not go unpunished, unless there is repentance on a national scale. Those who sigh and cry because of the abominations should be fasting and praying and calling on God.
“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. Revelation 20: 12-13.
May the Lord have mercy on our nation. May we repent before judgment becomes inevitable. ----Billy Long
PART ONE
THE BRUTALITY OF ABORTION
BODIES IN JARS
Excavations of pre-Israelite Canaan uncovered a large number of jars containing the remains of children sacrificed to Baal. Other excavations discovered many jars containing the remains of infants who had been sacrificed to Baal during King Ahab’s time. These jars bring to mind the photos of garbage cans filled with baby parts at abortion clinics. I showed one of these pictures to a high school girl once. Her reply was, “That’s just propaganda.” She was not able to bring herself to face the fact she was looking at actual babies dismembered and thrown away. Her political position would not allow her to accept the fact that these babies went through torture and excruciating pain as they were being killed and taken from their mother’s wombs.
The religious rites of Baal worship were noted for their sexual and immoral indulgences and for child sacrifice. Our own culture with its rampant sexual promiscuity has produced over 60 million abortions. The sexual practices of Baal worship and the promiscuity of our own current culture show that unbridled sexual activity outside of marriage leads to the death of children, whether sacrificed in religious worship to a pagan god or dismembered inside a mother’s womb to the god of convenience. In either case, the remains of infants are left behind in jars and garbage bins.
Statistics show that a large percentage of women/girls who are allowed to see the ultrasound of their baby will choose not to go through with the abortion. They see a child in the womb and not a blob or mass of cells. That’s why the abortion industry lobbies so hard to block any legislation that requires them to show the ultra-sound to the mother. The child in the womb recoils in pain from the sharp instruments of the abortionist. One well-known video showing the ultra-sound of an abortion was appropriately titled “The Silent Scream.” If the same procedures were performed on a baby outside the womb the cries of that same child would be heart-wrenching.
The practice of partial-birth abortions proves the evil and callousness of the industry. It is absolutely astounding that any normal adult would not grieve and be repulsed at idea of partial-birth abortions. In this practice the live child is first pulled from the womb and into the birth canal, except for the head. The abortionist then punctures the base of the skull, suctions out the brains, and removes a dead baby from the mother’s body. If the entire body of the child were to be removed first, this practice would legally be considered murder. It is foolishness to say that location determines life. The practice of partial birth abortions proves that the debate over when life begins is a waste of time when dealing with avid abortionists. The evidence seems to show they do not really care.
Our culture has degenerated to the point that sexual promiscuity is prevalent, encouraged, and expected. In this atmosphere there will be growing numbers of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. The operative word is “unwanted.” Abortions are given not for medical reasons, but rather for the convenience of the mother and because of economic factors in her life. The mother does not want the child, and the abortion industry is making millions and millions of dollars.
Murder, whether it is on the street or in the womb, causes the land to be defiled and “guilty of blood.” The moral issues do matter. A godly and righteous nation might survive even with bad economic policies, but an immoral nation filled with ungodly practices will inevitably face the judgments of God, unless there is repentance. Where are the cries from the church and from the pulpit?
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. It is in the womb that God first breathes life into a person. We should stand in awe and reverence at this divine and mysterious process. We should also be afraid to trample upon that which is so sacred and wonderful.
Rulers and legislators should take note. God is the righteous judge, and all men must give an account to Him. This applies to those who make the laws.
“Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship with YOU?
They gather together against the life of the righteous, and condemn innocent blood.” –Psalm 94: 20-21.
Who is more innocent than the babies in the womb?
PART TWO
THE ABSENCE OF NATURAL AFFECTION
"WITH CHILD"
It is not insignificant that the Bible translators in the Old and New Testaments translated the Hebrew and Greek terms for pregnancy as being “with child.” The babe in the womb is a child…not a mass of tissue. The Bible says that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant had conceived a “son.” It was a son…not a blob of tissue. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit, even as a babe, in his mother’s womb. Elizabeth, when she heard Mary’s greeting, was also filled with the Holy Spirit, and the babe John leaped within her womb. He was a person even before birth, and he supernaturally responded to the presence of the Son of God in Mary’s womb. (Luke 1:15, 36, 44; Matthew 1:18; Matthew 1:23).
God is the Father of spirits. Human procreation produces a physical body, but the real person is the human spirit that God creates and breathes into us when we are conceived. Psalm 139 reveals that our spirit along with God’s plan and purpose are given to us even before we are born. The Lord forms our inward parts (our spirit) and covers us in the womb. The Psalmist tells us that God “sees our substance, being yet unformed. And all the days fashioned for us were written in His book when as yet there were none of them.” We are trampling on sacred ground when we assault the babe in the womb. It is God’s nursery, a place where He is at work. (Ecclesiastes 3:20; 12:7; Psalm 139).
Jesus clearly manifested His love for little children when they brought them to Him. He took them up in His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them. He also gave a stern warning. “Whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” These sobering words should cause us to stand in the fear of God regarding how we treat them, even in the womb. (Mark 10: 13-16, Mark 9: 36-37, 42).
LACKING NATURAL AFFECTION
One of the characteristics of the latter days is that men and women will lack natural affection. A people who forsake the Lord will at best become callous and indifferent, and at worse brutal, cruel, and barbaric. These adjectives describe abortion at any phase of pregnancy. How can killing a baby after it is born be anything but selfish, cruel, and brutal. A child is tortured and killed at any phase of pregnancy. It goes against nature to blind our eyes to this disgraceful procedure. 2 Timothy 3:1-3; Romans 1: 31
CRUEL
A society without God can be cruel, heartless, unfeeling, and sadistic with no love for family or neighbor and no compassion or sympathy for the suffering. The nation that can kill babies will eventually progress to euthanasia, killing the infirm and the elderly. A friend of mine once said, “The generation that approved and legalized abortion may be the generation that will themselves be the first victims of the nation’s approval of euthanasia,” which will lead to the killing of any person or group that society deems unworthy to live. (Deuteronomy 28: 50).
The Apostle Paul uses the word “perilous” to describe the latter days (2 Timothy 3:1-3). This same word is translated “Fierce” in describing the Gadarene demoniac who was wild in the tombs cutting himself and breaking chains (Matthew 8:28). There are many historical examples that show the Apostle Paul was correct in his description of man’s potential for evil.
The Nazis in World War II slew babies along with innocent men, women, and children in their prison death camps. Then when the war ended, Stalin allowed his soldiers and the civilian mobs in areas of eastern Europe occupied by the communists to kill innocent men, women, and children of German descent. These were innocent citizens who just happened to have German ancestry. The eastern European reprisals after the war were as bad as the murders that took place in the Nazi SS camps during the war. A documentary on the post-war slaughter that occurred is entitled “The Savage Peace.”
King Herod, being threatened by the birth of Jesus, sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to put to death all the male babies from newborn up to two years old. There are groups in our society today who advocate similar practice but in the respectable cover of the medical profession.
These examples show the potential degeneration and descent into cold, hard evil that any society is capable of when it starts down the “slippery slope.” Who knows how far this process will go in finding victims, and where will it stop? Without God, the heart can harden and grow in its beast-like propensities. Unless cultivated by an intimate relationship with Jesus through prayer and the written word of God, the Christian’s heart tends to harden. But an unbelieving person who does not know God and who despises His word has the potential to harden his heart, lose natural affection, and tolerate practices that are unspeakably callous. Governed by self-interest, selfishness, and self-centeredness people become desensitized to the pain and needs of others, and in arrogance and rebellion they become tools of the devil. This type of society tends to follow the Apostles Paul’s description of the progressive slide from passive complacency to the arrogant display and bold presentation of sin in its fullness. Abortion has progressed (or rather degenerated) from initially killing what they claimed was “only a blob of tissue” to the current brazen and shameless proposal to kill the baby at birth and even after birth. This is one mark of a society moving toward the “fullness of iniquity” referred to in the Bible.
THE FULLNESS OF INIQUITY
Biblical examples show us that God sends judgment when iniquity reaches its fullness. At that point the judgment of God is inevitable…unless there is nationwide repentance. The acceptance and approval of child sacrifice are among the abominations that will precipitate that judgment. When Israel entered the promised land, the iniquity of Canaan had reached its fullness. It was filled with every type of abomination including child sacrifice. Leviticus 18:25 says, “For the land is defiled; therefore, I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out it inhabitants.”
My guess is that unless there is repentance on a national scale, the judgment of God will fall on our nation for killing over 65 million babies in and out of the womb. The practice will then stop…but at great cost.
“Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 4:1
“For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?” Joel 2:11.
“Who shall not fear You, O Lord…For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments are made manifest.” Revelations 15: 4.
PART THREE
ABORTION IS LEGALIZED CHILD SACRIFICE
“Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees.” Isaiah 10:1
CHILD SACRIFICE
It is very strange that lawmakers were laughing and celebrating a law that allows them to kill babies even at birth. Abortion is a tragedy at any stage, but this new law exposes the real heart of the abortion industry and those who support it. They obviously don’t care when life begins. Everyone knows a child being born in the ninth month is OBVIOUSLY alive and is a person. This amounts to child sacrifice and is a blatant disregard for God and His word. The Lord spoke through Ezekiel the prophet saying, “You have slain My children.” He is not indifferent to these deaths.
Almighty God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the righteous Judge of all mankind calls it an abomination. He places the practice alongside witchcraft and the occult. The land is polluted by the shedding of innocent blood. God sets His face against those who practice it and gives a stern warning to those who close their eyes and ignore it. The nation is accountable for the abomination, and the church is accountable for its apathy, silence, and for not speaking up. The blood is also on the hands of ministers and pastors who have endorsed it, or who in the fear of man have remained silent in the pulpit.
“For after they had slain their children for the idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed thus they have done in the midst of My house.” Ezekiel 23:36-39
“And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man when he gives some of his descendants to Molech (offer his children in the fire)…I will set my face against that man and his family.” Leviticus 20:1-5.
We must remember that surely God will judge an unrepentant nation for the death of innocent children. But we must also remember that judgment begins at the house of God, and it starts with the leaders.
SECULAR RULERS WILL ANSWER TO GOD.
The blood of innocent babies cries out to God against government officials who enact laws permitting and supporting abortion. People generally expect spiritual leaders to be accountable to God. But secular rulers and legislators are not excluded. They will ultimately answer to God for the laws on which they place their name and stamp of approval. Individuals in legislative bodies mistakenly think they are hidden in the anonymity of the group, and they fall into the snare of thinking they are not personally accountable to God for the laws they make. But there is no such thing as anonymity. God not only sees “all,” but also sees “each”...and takes notes. He watches the halls of government, whether church or state. Leaders are commanded to rule in the fear of God, knowing He has placed them in their positions, and that He will come to judge the judges.
LEADERS WHO DESPISE GOD’S WORD
“Because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised my statues…therefore, I gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live…For when you make your sons pass through the fire (child sacrifice), you defile yourself with your idols.” Ezekiel 20: 24-26, 31.
Leaders who do not fear God will be given up to laws that are not good, laws that are perverse and based on the imaginations of their own heart. Such men will be controlled by selfish ambition and evil motives, creating a government that is corrupt, rife with lies, and given over to error, abuse, and hypocrisy (Isaiah 19:13-14).
When God is despised the nation and its rulers become not only corrupt, but also foolish. One minister said, “Man without God is insane.” We see this in the schizophrenic nature of our own legal system. One law based on divine order and respect for parental authority does not allow a school teacher to give an aspirin to a child without parental consent and permission, while another law completely disregards moral law and allows doctors to give abortions to minor children without notifying the parents.
TOPHET
The bodies of children sacrificed in the fire were buried in a place called Tophet. Jeremiah proclaimed that because they had filled this place with the blood of the innocents, God was going to send judgment and cause them to fall before the sword of their enemies. The burial place would not have room for all the bodies, and its name would be changed from Tophet to the Valley of Slaughter.
“And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the lord, to provoke Him to anger. Therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.” 2 Kings 17:15-18
Righteousness exalts a nation. Sin brings judgment, decline, and downfall. God will bring every work into judgment. The slaughter of over 65 million infants will not go unpunished, unless there is repentance on a national scale. Those who sigh and cry because of the abominations should be fasting and praying and calling on God.
“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. Revelation 20: 12-13.
May the Lord have mercy on our nation. May we repent before judgment becomes inevitable. ----Billy Long
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