By Ralph V. Reynolds
“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good” (II Timothy 3:2, 3).
Some thirty years ago while I was ministering in Portland, Oregon, a shocking story was printed in the paper regarding a poor woman who had destroyed her two children.
Apparently, she had been living in Eugene, Oregon, and was having a lesbian relationship with a younger woman. She had two children and these she wanted to destroy. She drove all the way from Eugene to Madras, Oregon. East of Madras, she threw these two living children over a high cliff to their death upon the rocks below. It is very difficult for anyone that is normal to understand the thinking of such a deranged woman.
Paul described these days by calling them perilous. He said that in these perilous days, men would be lovers of their own selves, covetous, and without natural affections. Surely, these perilous days are here. Everywhere we see men and women who are motivated only by selfishness and egoism. They do not want their lifestyle disturbed, and they will not accept anything that will inconvenience them in the least.
While pastoring in New Westminster, British Columbia, I was called upon to officiate at a certain funeral. Irode to the cemetery with the undertaker in the hearse. On our return from the burial grounds, the undertaker invited me to go into the coffee shop for coffee. Here he began to talk about some things which were most astonishing. He told me that recently they had had a shipment of cardboard coffins. Soon funerals as we have known them will be a thing of the past. Frequently they receive telephone calls saying that Aunt Maggie or Uncle Joe has passed away. The body is at the morgue. Just pick it up, cremate it and send us the bill. I would think more of my pet dog than to give it a burial of that kind. One thing, though, you can be assured of. These same people will be there in the Lawyer’s office when the estate is read and the will is probated.
I remember only too well the funeral which I conducted -while pastoring the same church in New Westminster. The deceased had been a beautiful Christian brother, active in the church. His family had deserted him, and he died a lonely man. At the funeral, his widow and children sat there with big sneers on their faces. They wanted the funeral service over with in the quickest manner. The body was cremated, and months afterwards, the funeral director contacted me because no one had given him any instructions as to what to do with the ashes. However, that family was very diligent to be sure they got their share of this brother’s estate. Unnatural affections, twisted and perverted values, no sense of responsibility to others and little commitment, if any, to the responsibilities of life.
Yes, everyone wants to enjoy a relationship. They even talk today about meaningful relationships. But, how can a party enjoy a meaningful relationship without a commitment. There must be a commitment to the responsibilities of life if there is going to be true joy, peace and happiness.
Many times the unborn is destroyed simply because it is a matter of inconvenience. A young woman six months pregnant went to her Doctor and requested an abortion. She said that her vacation was coming soon and that she did not want it to interfere with her holidays. Thank God, this particular Doctor refused her request. True justice demands that a life can only be balanced by life, not a lifestyle.
It is true that every baby has a God given right to be wanted and loved. But if a baby is not wanted, there is still not excuse for an abortion. A Harvard Medical School study found that one-third of all pregnancies are unwanted in the early months. But, by the time of delivery, there isonly one percent that are unwanted. By the time the baby is born, the mother is wanting that child and with the birth of it springs forth a God given love.
Slaughter of innocent, unborn babies is only the tip of the iceberg, the thin edge of the wedge. Abortions open up the way for euthanasia or mercy killing. Just the other day, I read a story of a girl of seventeen who sat in the Doctor’s office with her mother. The mother with the Doctor persuaded her to submit to an abortion. At that particular time, the girl did not want to have one. She wanted to carry her baby and give birth, but the mother told her that as a young single girl of seventeen this would be inconvenient, so the girl submitted.
A short time afterwards, she married a fine young man and, in the-course-of time, became pregnant. Whenshe gave birth to this baby, she -heard her husband :and-the Doctor talking about the condition of the newborn baby. The child was crippled and would always be a matter of: great care. The husband listened to the Doctor’s advice. They agreed to leave the baby unattended, and it would die in just a few days. This again shocked the young girl. This was her final pregnancy. Froth this time on she was childless.
Years later when her mother was in her seventies, the mother suffered a stroke. The daughter and her husband consulted the Doctor. The mother would be unable to help herself, and it would mean a great inconvenience and much time in caring of her, possibly for years to come. With the past two experiences in her life, it was not difficult now for this girl to give consent for her mother to be given a needle and pass away in her sleep.
When a mother consents to the death of her unborn child, she is not only destroying the baby, but she is destroying her own conscience. So actually there are two deaths, the baby’s and the conscience of the mother.
Anyone who has any Christian values at all knows that abortion is murder. Condemnation and guilt follow women throughout the rest of their lives. The mother who consents to abortion will never be able to completely forget it. All of her life she will wonder about the life of the one she had destroyed.
In the church that I pastored in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, there was a kind sister, filled with the Holy Ghost, loved the Lord and lived for Him with all of her heart. She was a woman of prayer, dedicated to the will of God in her life, a fine wife and mother, and a faithful saint in the church.
In one particular service, I was wholly surprised when I saw this woman running to the altar, crying and weeping and requesting prayer. I could not understand why this precious saint of God could be so overcome with such feelings of guilt. I prayed for her and, for the moment, she received help. But this same thing happened on several occasions. I still could not understand until one day she confided in me her pitiful story. When she was a teenage girl, she became pregnant and destroyed the unborn baby. Now, over thirty years later, she was struggling with a sense of guilt and the results of her wrong doing. True, there is forgiveness for murder. Along with all the other horrible sins an individual can commit, murder may be forgiven. Forgiven, but never completely forgotten. This poor sister could not go back and retrace her steps as a teenager, but if anyone could talk to her, they would find out that abortion is a terrible evil.
The above article, “Twisted Values” was written by Ralph V. Reynolds. The article was excerpted from chapter seven in Reynold’s book, Cry of the Unborn.
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
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