Five Tenets of Abolitionism (G.A.T.E.S.)
Gospel-Centered
Why do people murder their own children? What would cause us, mankind, to slaughter the most innocent, vulnerable, and precious in our midst? The answer is sin. Sin that resides in every person’s heart. Sin that rejoices in lawlessness and wickedness. Sin that rebels against and rejects God’s perfect Son Jesus Christ and His word. It cannot be erased, and it cannot be forgiven outside of the blood of Christ. It is this same sin that drives us to commit murder, and it is this same sin that blinds our hearts and minds to the reality of what we are doing.
What if abortion were abolished tomorrow? Would all of our problems go away? No, abolishing abortion would not fix everything because the problem is not limited to this particular horror. It is much deeper than that. The abolition of abortion, at its heart, is what is known as a “gospel issue;” that is, abortion cannot be understood outside the context of the gospel. This gospel, namely, that we are great sinners, but Christ is a great Savior, bids us surrender our sin at the foot of the cross where our Lord sacrificed His Son Jesus so that He, Jesus Christ, could bear our punishment and save us from condemnation.
When a culture rejects Christ, it embraces sin. There are no two ways about it. This same culture becomes a culture of death where sin is celebrated, and the innocent suffer for it. A culture of death loves abortion. If we want to become a culture of life, we must turn from our sin, repent, and put our faith in Christ. We can’t do this corporately without first doing it individually. The gospel must be at the core of what we believe. If the gospel is repelled, then so is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Aligned Providentially
Can we reject God’s word and His justice and expect our problems to go away? Does anyone have a better idea of how to address and deal with sin besides God Himself? Does a solution to ending abortion exist in the natural mind of man, just waiting to be discovered by philosophy and ingenuity? No, in fact, quite the opposite. Wisdom says, “all who hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36). Not surprising, given that all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. There is no solution or strategy that is superior outside of God’s prescriptions found in His word, the Bible. To abolish abortion, we must follow God’s way on how to accomplish this very thing. To be aligned providentially, we must look to the Author of providence for answers. We must therefore reject any man-centered solution to this problem, knowing full well that it will result in even more death and destruction. “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain those who would build it” (Psalm 127:1).
Through the Church
No expectation can reasonably be placed on the heads of the godless to solve this holocaust. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Did you catch that? When push comes to shove, natural man thinks that God’s ways are “folly.” Christ does not identify godless pagans as storming the gates of hell, no, but He does say that His church will (Matthew 16:18). In fact, those who are not with us are ultimately against us (Mark 9:40) and therefore they cannot be expected to abolish abortion from society. This is especially true of our politicians.
The church has been complacent. The church has been apathetic. The church has retreated and has become a lover of walls. The Bible says “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” Rise up, you church of God! The spirit and the gifts are ours! We must rescue those being led away to slaughter.
Engaged Biblically
The full counsel of God is not confined to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We have 66 books, all containing the mind of God, His character, His justice, His righteousness, His mercy, His wrath, His grace, and His law. So how do we go about solving this problem? Grabbing people and smacking a Bible across their foreheads? Bombing clinics? Fear tactics? Getting the right Republican in office? NO!
To be engaged Biblically means to pursue the abolition of abortion the way God has taught us in His word. Speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), exposing wickedness (Ephesians 5:11), seeking justice and loving mercy (Micah 6:8), doing to others as we would have them do to us (Matthew 7:12), calling men to repentance (Acts 17:30), and importantly, living these things in ourselves and families first before we tell others to do it (1 Timothy 5:8) are all approaches to abolishing abortion in society. Maybe your role is not to stand outside of a clinic. Maybe your calling is not to write article after article with biting commentary and wit. But everyone must be engaged to this cause Biblically, as the body of Christ has many functions.
To be engaged Biblically also means to understand what we are up against. This is not a political problem. It cannot be solved with political Band-Aids. This is a sin problem, a gospel issue. We must be “innocent as doves and wise as serpents” (Matthew 10:16). This wisdom that we seek is only found in God’s word, the Bible.
Sought Immediately Without Compromise
“‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah 48:22). Any solution that does not have the immediate end of abortion in mind is dishonest and unloving to those children dying as you read this. God takes no prisoners in regard to wickedness, and neither should we. The ultimate goal is not success, but faithfulness on the part of the church in this matter. If we were to trade one sin for another so that abortion was in fact abolished in society, then this would be an absolute failure on our part. Results are secondary to our mission since we don’t live by results. The Bible says, “the righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).
Yes, we want an end to abortion, but compromise with sin is to embrace enmity with God (James 4:4), and this makes the problem worse. Taking baby steps to eventually abolish abortion in some unspecified distant future (we’ve been hearing this one for 40+ years now) has been a disaster, both Biblically and historically. Do you love justice, as God loves justice (Isaiah 61:8)? Do you desire to see it “run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24)? Do you love God’s law (Psalm 19:7-11)? Do you hate “hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17)? Consider Deuteronomy 16:19-20a, where God says “You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. You shall follow what is altogether just.” Does this sound like what we as a nation have been doing/seeking ever since Roe v Wade?
Oh that we would be faithful to Christ! Let us stand alone on His word and demand, right now, without compromise or consolation, a complete and total end to the murdering of child sacrifice in our society!
Thus we pray with conviction and humility:
Let God arise,
Let His enemies be scattered;
Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
As smoke is driven away,
So drive them away;
As wax melts before the fire,
So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
But let the righteous be glad;
Let them rejoice before God;
Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly.
