Sunday, August 27, 2006

Bible reading du jour

From the American Bible Society's daily Bible reading site. I'm just pulling out what seems relevant to abortion, folks. This is not meant to be a thorough analysis, just some reflections.
2 Timothy 3:1-17 (GNT)
1Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days. 2People will be selfish, greedy, ... ungrateful, and irreligious; 3they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good; 4they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God;

That seems to be a pretty apt description of modern society.
5they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power.

Like the people who pretend that abortion can be defended on Biblical terms? They reject the ability of God to turn a seeming evil (unintended pregnancy) to good. God, in their view, is limited to smiling on whatever the woman decides to do, be it to nurture or kill, to trust in God or to act in fear.
6Some of them go into people's houses and gain control over weak women who are burdened by the guilt of their sins and driven by all kinds of desires, 7women who are always trying to learn but who can never come to know the truth.

I don't know about the going into their houses part, but when it relates to abortion Paul seems almost prophetic in noticing that women seem to have a particular vulnerability. I'd say it's because they do have that physical capacity to either bear new life or to take arms against that life and destroy it. This makes them a target for the Enemy. Sort of a power/weakness dichotomy. Because each new human being is nurtured within the body of a woman, it's natural that Satan, as a hater of humanity, would target women and attempt to kill in them any love they'd have for their newly conceived offspring, to turn women into destroyers of life rather than nurturers.

"Driven by all kinds of desires" isn't limited to simple lust. Listening to a lot of the NAF tapes, it seems like the desire that puts a lot of women on the abortion table is the desire to feel wanted, to have a man, some man, any man who will pay attention to them, even if a lot of the attention comes in the form of abuse. Then there's the desire for material success, for comfort, for security, for some sense of control. Politically, yeah, support for unfettered abortion may spring from a worship of casual sex, but in the trenches there are a lot of things that women want, that they're reaching for, that they're sacrificing their children to gain.
12Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted; 13and evil persons and impostors will keep on going from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.

No comment needed.

No comments: