August 26, 2011
o
comprehend the enormity
of the evil practiced by the people of Israel in their pagan worship
of Baal
during the time God sent Elijah to them, it is noteworthy to read
from a secular historical point of view:
Unger’s Bible History, page 220; and
Halley’s Handbook, page 198.Both Israel and Judah actually sacrificed their tiny babies in death to Molech (another form of Baal worship)! Baby boys and girls were placed on the arms of this idol, whose metal arms were made in an outstretched position to cradle the little ones while they were being roasted to death:
"And they built the high places of Baal . . . to cause their sons and daughters to pass through the fire to Molech. . . .” (Jeremiah 32:35).
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Note the following quote:
“MOLECH – . . . Human sacrifices (infants) were offered up to this idol, the victims being slowly burnt to death in the arms of the idol, which were of metal, hollow, and could be heated on the inside. . . ." SMITH’S Bible Dictionary, page 205.
Loud religious music was played during this time so as to drown out the screams of the helpless and defenseless little ones! Sadly, there was no one there for them.
The 12th century rabbi Rashi, commenting on Jeremiah 7.31 stated:
“Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved.”
Plutarch wrote in De Superstitiones 171:
“. . . the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people.”
The Same is Being Practiced Today by Abortion
Though the identical abominable sacrificial pagan rites are not now being practiced by the Christian nations of this world, multiple millions are still being murdered, legally, by abortion! Though the unborn writhes in the extreme agony of pain as its life is being tortuously taken there is no need for music since it is yet inside the womb of its mother and any cries that could be made is unheard!
There is a need to repeatedly emphasize: there is no difference between the two periods of time, then, and now, as will be shown from knowledgeable and reputable sources in this writing.
Unrestricted abortion is yet legal throughout America right up to the very moment of birth, termed—partial birth; and it is done on a daily basis.
Though it may be unbelievable to some, it has been proven that these little ones experience agonizing deaths even greater than fully born babies!
Due to the lack of organized religion refusing to take a stand against these murders, abortions continue to take place with the tacit approval of virtually all of the Christian Churches (Leviticus 20:4-5). As far as is known the only exception is the Catholic Church which, despite their problems with many pedophile priests, speaks out against it.
Even the most publicized and best known evangelist in the Protestant world refused to touch on, what he terms, hot-button social issues!
I wonder if he ever thinks about how he will respond to God when he comes up in the Great White Throne Resurrection and is asked WHY he refused to “ . . . CRY ALOUD, SPARE NOT; LIFT UP YOUR VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET; TELL MY PEOPLE THEIR TRANSGRESSION” (Isaiah 58:1)?
Please note the following writings by the Catholic Church and President Reagan:
"Woman of the world, you have chosen to become murderers, killing your young. You defy the Eternal Father in your quest for luxury and pleasure. You have cast aside your role as women and have aligned yourselves with homosexuality and lesbianism, and as such you corrupt the young. Woe to a generation that has made sin a way of life." - Our Lady of the Roses, June 1, 1978
President Reagan's essay, "Abortion and the conscience of the nation"...
he
following article was written by President
Ronald Reagan in the spring of 1983:“The 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade is a good time for us to pause and reflect. Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy was neither voted for by our people nor enacted by our legislators— not a single state had such unrestricted abortion before the Supreme Court decreed it to be national policy in 1973. But the consequences of this judicial decision are now obvious: since 1973, more than 15 million unborn children have had their lives snuffed out by legalized abortions. That is over ten times the number of Americans lost in all our nation's wars.
Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the Constitution. No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the Court's result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended to create such a right. Shortly after the Roe v. Wade decision, Professor John Hart Ely, now Dean of Stanford Law School, wrote that the opinion "is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be." Nowhere do the plain words of the Constitution even hint at a "right" so sweeping as to permit abortion up to the time the child is ready to be born. Yet that is what the Court ruled.
As an act of "raw judicial power" (to use Justice White's biting phrase), the decision by the seven-man majority in Roe v. Wade has so far been made to stick. But the Court's decision has by no means settled the debate. Instead, Roe v. Wade has become a continuing prod to the conscience of the nation.
A
bortion
concerns not just the unborn child, it concerns every one of us. The
English poet, John Donne, wrote: ". . . any man's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never
send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life— the unborn—without diminishing the value of all human life. We saw tragic proof of this truism last year when the Indiana courts allowed the starvation death of "Baby Doe" in Bloomington because the child had Down's Syndrome.
Many of our fellow citizens grieve over the loss of life that has followed Roe v. Wade. Margaret Heckler, soon after being nominated to head the largest department of our government, Health and Human Services, told an audience that she believed abortion to be the greatest moral crisis facing our country today.
And the [late] revered Mother Teresa, who works in the streets of Calcutta ministering to dying people in her world-famous mission of mercy, has said that "the greatest misery of our time is the generalized abortion of children."
Over the first two years of my Administration I have closely followed and assisted efforts in Congress to reverse the tide of abortion— efforts of Congressmen, Senators and citizens responding to an urgent moral crisis. Regrettably, I have also seen the massive efforts of those who, under the banner of "freedom of choice," have so far blocked every effort to reverse nationwide abortion-on-demand. . . .”
President Ronald Reagan further made a notable and historic note regarding his personal thoughts about the loss of these little precious unborn lives, when he wrote:
"We cannot diminish the value of one category
of human life--the unborn--without diminishing the value of all human
life."--Ronald Reagan
[Abortion and
the Conscience of a Nation, 1984. pp 15-18)]
Please note another very meaningful statement by the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, regarding the sacred responsibility to protect human life.
"
The
chief purpose of government is to protect life. Abandon that and you
have abandoned all."
Thomas Jefferson [Harold
Lane, "Liberty, Cry Liberty!,
p. 31]
Sadly, these words by famous leaders go unheeded!
It should be realized that as terrible as the
sacrificing of those babies was during that time – what is now
being done in our time is just as cruel and barbaric! And it
is needful to emphasize this is being done by the multiple
millions – mostly to the god of convenience, as has been stated
by Judge Robert Bork in h
is
book (Slouching Toward Gomorrah, Page 180)!
With these horrors in mind, we can readily see why God led His prophet Malachi to write that unless there should be a turnaround in Israel, the real possibility would exist of God striking the earth with utter destruction (Malachi 4:6).
A turnaround did begin and continued to grow through the years of the ministry of Mr. Armstrong with a sufficient number of people obeying God which kept Him from bringing destruction on all of mankind at that time!
This was mainly due to the almost 150,000 who came to be members of God’s Church, along with many thousands of others who were associated with it.
Based on the words of God through His prophet Malachi, there also had to be enough people in Israel at the time of Elijah who made the needed turnaround from their wrong way to acknowledge the God of Israel as the One to be worshipped, and not Baal; as the result they were spared from destruction (I Kings 18:36-40).
However, even greater understanding as to why God spared the earth in this end time from total destruction can be found in the example of the meeting Abraham had with God prior to the destruction He brought on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham had pleaded with God to spare the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah who were going to be destroyed. God promised Abraham that if as few as 10 righteous people could be found living there He would spare those cities (Genesis 18:16-33).
Like the nations of Israel are today those cities were so completely absorbed with the existing evils that very small number did not exist! God then destroyed all of those people with the lone exception of Lot and his immediate family (Genesis 19:12-29).
Thankfully, there was a sufficient number found in our time to forestall it for a few short years before God deals with the unrepentant sinners in no uncertain manner.
Warnings from God
I
t
is necessary to continue to emphasize
that, true to His promise, God always WARNED
Israel and Judah through His prophets of the impending disasters
that would come upon them unless there was repentance –
meaning a real turnaround – that would save them from the
horrors, slavery and death.
Please note once again this promise from the ever-loving and merciful God: "Surely the LORD God does nothing (no major thing), UNLESS He REVEALS His secret to His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).
Though the prophesied Elijah did come in this end time and WARNED Israel for over 50 years, there was little real change in society for the better as a whole during his life and ministry. Since that time it has become increasingly worse!
As the result, terrible destruction, though not totally, is soon to come in our time just as it did on Israel some years after the death of Elijah when they again turned away from God (II Kings 17). God terms this coming time: “. . . the time of Jacob’s trouble!” (Jeremiah 30:5-7; Ezekiel 5:5-17).
NOTE: Since Jerusalem was once the capital of all Israel, God often uses it as a type in prophetic writings to reflect the punishment to come on both Judah and all of the tribes of Israel.
I
t
is very sad to realize there will only be a tiny fraction of the
tribes of Israel and mankind left alive after the Great Tribulation
that is to last three and one-half years, and then, Armageddon!
This final war will ravage
the planet earth:
“Therefore THE CURSE has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are BURNED (Nuclear Warfare), and FEW MEN ARE LEFT (Isaiah 24:6)!
A Respite Allowed for Reflection
G
od
allowed the years in between the removal of the Elijah then and the
Elijah of our time to give mankind a further opportunity to
consider what was heard and repent (Revelation 2:21).
Repentance did not take place then; and it has not taken place
today. It only became worse each time!
In the closing years of this age, this interval of time is also to fit in with God’s Timetable with the allotted time He has given mankind under the rule and deceptive powers of Satan the devil (Revelation 12:9; Ephesians 2:2; 6:12).
The Continued Murder of Millions of Tiny Unborn Babies Today
Newly Born baby - © Cover photograph by Michel Tcherevkoff
Now we will consider the magnitude of the evil legally practiced by the women of today and by so doing we should be able to understand more fully WHY God is going to deal severely with His people in our time just as He did with Israel in 719 -721 B. C.!
There is a most definite parallel in this time to that of the time of the Elijah in ancient Israel! And because of this terrible problem, Bible prophecy reveals this coming holocaust will be a most terrible time that will soon come down terribly hard on Israel.
What occurred in that time with the sacrificing of babies to death by roasting them on the metal arms of a gruesome so-called god, and what has been occurring since 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized the murdering of the unborn, is beyond any real comprehension of understanding!
One would think that millions of people would have cried out with heart-felt anguish about such terrible rulings that made possible the excruciatingly painful murder of these little ones; but they did not!!! And, sadly, they are still ongoing.
R
achel
Weeping
for Her
Children
Having in mind the multiple millions of unborn babies being mercilessly murdered by abortion, consider the brutal parallel of Herod having all the male children from two years old and under living in the Bethlehem area of Judea slaughtered by his soldiers while seeking to find and kill the newly-born Messiah (Matthew 2:16).
Then was fulfilled what was spoke by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: “A voice was heard in Ramah; lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they were no more” (Matthew 2:17-18).
It is significant that Rachel was the mother of the House of Joseph, America and Britain, as well as of Benjamin (Genesis 30:22-24; 35:16-19).
Though Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin in the beginning history of Israel, she figuratively continues to be pictured weeping for her innocent children in our time today just as Scripture reveals she did when King Herod put to death the male children by the sword shortly after the Messiah was born.
One could ask – what is the real difference between what King Herod did then and what is legally being done by the lawmaking bodies in our time? What is the difference between the sword and the methods used by abortion clinics today? When one considers the methods used to kill the unborn babies it is easy to see there is no real difference.
This was a type of the antitype that will also be fulfilled before Jesus Christ returns to this earth when the multiple millions of the House of Joseph, as well as all the other tribes of Israel, will be killed by nuclear bombing, and the rest go into captivity, and worse.
The people of Israel have moved so far away from the real God and His holy and righteous laws that when this takes place they will be wondering why God would permit such horrors to come upon them similar to the Jewish people who were murdered in one way or another during World War II.
Please note the following excerpts from a book written by a Jewish distinguished surgeon’s wife of her own experience in a death camp of the Nazis.
“God, where are Thou?” This was the anguished cry of this prominent Jewish woman after having her head shorn and being beaten with a whip by a Nazi officer in a death camp in Poland (Hitler’s Ovens by Olga Lengyel, page 24).
T
his
pleading cry was undoubtedly echoed millions of times during
those horrifying years in the death camps by the six million Jewish
people who experienced horrible deaths at the hands of the German
S.S. and the Gestapo during World War II. God was not to be found
for their deliverance.
Numerous books have been written of those terrible years by a few survivors from those death camps who wrote heart-breaking personal experiences of all they saw as well as what they had to undergo themselves.
Tragically, the Jewish people in Germany could see the warning signs of what was soon to take place with them, but they chose to ignore them for one reason or another.
As the result, 6,000,000 men, women, and little children, of all ages, perished in those death camps in one way or another by merciless German soldiers.
One little girl being carried in the arms of her mother to a large
ditch where they were to be shot with many others, asked, “Mother,
where are we going?” The mother replied, “To heaven.”
For over 50 years of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s life-time ministry, Jesus Christ used him to WARN the Church of God, and Israel, of what we are now seeing coming to pass! Sorrowfully, it seems most ministers and members are choosing to ignore his warnings.
The tragic history of World War II is to be repeated! Sadly, this coming one-sided war will cost the lives of hundreds of millions of people of the House of Israel and also many thousands of members of the Laodicean and Sardis Church eras, in horrible deaths. It will be far worse than ever before or ever will be again (Matthew 24:21; Daniel 12:1).
The Hardening of the Hearts of Israel
It is even more reprehensible that time after time over the ensuing years when this terrible legalization had been appealed it continued to be upheld by the majority of Congress and the Supreme Court!
The majority of the leadership and the people of Israel have hardened their hearts to the unheard anguished cries of the little ones as they are brutally killed without any compassion and mercy whatsoever!
Any nominee to sit on the Supreme Court is always questioned about any objectionable beliefs he or she would have to this law by representatives of Congress. They try hard to weed out any nominee that has strong feeling against this terrible law.
Former United States Court of Appeals Judge Robert H. Bork was not accepted some few years ago for they knew his strong beliefs against this terrible and tragic law.
The legalized murderous abortions of unborn babies take place from the beginning of conception to late-term pregnancies!
Certainly the parallel of the killing of the defenseless born babies in sacrifice to a pagan god during the time of Elijah fits exactly with the unborn who are murdered today!
The lack of real love for the born babies at that time is a real parallel to what is occurring in this time. The vast majority of women do this without any real love and consideration for the new life that is carried within her body, for the killing of it is largely done for the sake of convenience! (Once again, please read, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Page 180, by Robert Bork, former Appeals Court Judge).
They do not hear the unborn baby crying out due to it being still within her womb; therefore they have no compassion for it.
Life Begins at Conception
Both the born and the unborn are alive, for life begins at conception! The only difference is that one has already entered the world with its life intact; and the other will have its life taken away before it is born!
To enable us to better understand how early viable life begins, please read the following account about an unborn baby. (The medical doctor who photographed this most revealing picture graciously granted us permission to use it in this publication.)
A 21Week-old Baby
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“An amazing picture began circulating in November, 03 of a 21 week-old baby, named Samuel Alexander Armas, being operated on by a surgeon named Joseph Bruner while still inside the mother’s womb. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on little Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon’s finger.
In a Time Europe article highlighting new pregnancy imagery that show the formation of major organs and other significant evidence of human life after conception, Dr. Bruner was quoted as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.
The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, ‘Hand of Hope.’ The text explaining the picture begins, ‘The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother’s uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.’
Little Samuel’s mother said they ‘wept for days’ when they saw the picture. She said, ‘The photo reminds us my pregnancy isn’t about disability or an illness, it’s about a little person.’ Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. Now see the picture, and it is awesome . . . incredible.”
Partial Birth
Carrying the unborn baby to full term, and then aborting, is called – partial birth – meaning after the body of the baby is born, and it’s little head is still inside the womb it is then murdered! It is at this point that the one doing the abortion reaches inside the womb and punctures the back of the baby’s skull and sucks the brains out before it can be born!
One can better understand the callousness of this terrible act when it is realized that the sacrificial murder of her unborn baby is mainly due to the worship of her own body! Loving her own desires more than the life she has forcibly removed from her body! This means such women worship themselves!
God labels the taking of a human life as murder whether born or unborn (Exodus 20:13; 21:22-23).
With little unborn Samuel in mind, who reached out and wrapped his little fingers around the doctor’s finger, with hope for life, one cannot help but wonder how many millions of unborn children have reached out with their little hands trying to find someone who would care enough to spare them from an excruciating, painful death and make possible life for them outside their mother’s womb?
This is too horrible to even think about.
One cannot help but wonder how doctors and nurses who are involved in performing these abortions are able to live with themselves without feeling terrible pangs of remorse? The answer seems to be that their conscience has become so seared from killing these little ones it does not bother them that much, if any at all!
This is an attitude similar to the Nazis who tortured and murdered little Jewish children in World War II.
It should be emphasized that liberal lawmakers in Congress continue to do all they can to keep from nominating judges from serving on the Supreme Court of the United States who are against a woman’s right to have abortions. And there are enough of them who do have such a loud voice they rarely have little real opposition.
Some few years ago it was said on the news that one of the most vocal leading senators for abortion rights, Senator Ted Kennedy, planned on writing a book about little children! Can we imagine such a thing? In any case it never happened.
We are truly living in very sorrowful and hypocritical times.
The Aborted Millions of Babies
A Staff Writer for the DAILY NEWS makes known that for every 100 babies born in New York City, women had 74 abortions in 2004, according to newly released figures that reaffirm the city as the abortion capital of the country. Presently, there have been 91,700 abortions in this city alone.
47 Million Legal Abortions in the US Since 1973
A newsletter of the Baptist Press, published on bpnews.net, reported on January 24, 2006:
"In what can only be described as tragic, the United States likely experienced its 47 millionth legal abortion at some point in 2005, more than three decades after the Supreme Court issued its infamous 1973 Roe. v. Wade decision legalizing the killing of the unborn . . . Since 1975, the United States has witnessed more than 1 million abortions each year.”
Though Dead, the Elijah Still Cries Out Today
T
hough
the end-time Elijah has been dead since
January 16, 1986, it is important to realize that with the continued
advancement and use of modern technology of today his voice and his
writings have been given renewed life!
There are numerous web-sites in this nation and in other nations of Israel where his books, booklets, letters, articles, taped sermons (radio and telecasts) are available and are being listened to and viewed by many people.
Even though what is being offered on the websites is very different from Mr. Armstrong being seen and heard in real life, it is nevertheless amazing that the work God used him to do in life continues yet today!
This is as it should be, for he was the man sent from God for this end time, and no one else.
And contrary to the other much publicized and renowned evangelist who refuses to touch on the hot-button social issues, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong continually did as the reader can clearly see from the excerpts taken from a Bible study he gave about the horrors of abortion.
TRANSCRIPTIONS-HIGHLIGHTS
ABORTION
– 10/27/1984
Link
to Audio
BIBLE STUDY
BY HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
MR. HWA – Well Brethren, what if none of these little children and infants that were blessed here this afternoon had never been allowed to be born? What if abortions had been performed and their lives taken before they were born? Would that have been serious? I want you to think about that and just what is the value of these little human lives that have been blessed here this afternoon. And what is the value of unborn life – human life?
MR. HWA – This afternoon I am going to speak on a red hot subject! You may think it is a material subject, a political subject, it is a red hot political campaign subject right now. That is the subject of abortion. Is it a sin? Is it a crime? Let me give you a definition of each word. A sin is the transgression of the spiritual law of God. A crime is the transgression of a law passed by a human group of men.
Abortion has been a red hot issue in this Presidential campaign.
MR. HWA – I will go on TV soon and have a program on abortion, and it will be shown after the election, you can be sure of that. I imagine that the TV stations would not let it be shown prior to the elections as they would consider it political. It is not political, I assure you, it is very much spiritual. This program will shock a lot of people here in the United States and in Europe.
MR. HWA – And I imagine that there will be thousands of very irate women . . . that are going to want to see me dead . . . as a result. It is a very serious question.
MR. HWA – During the first presidential debate, the question came up as to whether abortion is the taking of a human life. When does human life start? The President, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan, said that he was not sure, but that he has not seen any information come forward that shows life begins after conception, and if that is true, then it is a MURDER. The Democrats’ candidate, Walter Mondale, said: “I DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION WHEN HUMAN LIFE BEGINS!” Basically, all three were saying they did not know. Many of them do not think it starts at conception but don’t know just when it starts. The Supreme Court of the United States is all mixed up on the question and they can’t decide.
That just goes to show you that not only just this question on abortion but on many, many other questions that humans are trying to decide between good and evil and they cannot decide! Judges can’t decide, lawmakers can’t decide, lawyers don’t know the differences between right and wrong. Judges don’t know the difference. It is about time we realized that!
MR. HWA – You have to go to the word of God if you want to have understanding of the difference between right and wrong. Humans themselves do not know or understand it. Now, that is true about this matter of abortion.
MR. HWA – I was quite interested in an article that was in a magazine called US. Art Gilmore will read an article from US Magazine – ABORTIONS – LIVING CHILDREN – MEDICAL ADVANCES RAISES A NEW QUESTION FOR DOCTORS AND WOMEN: WHAT IF THE FETUS IS ALIVE? (July 02, 1984, Article in US Magazine)
ART GILMORE – There are several techniques used for abortions such as injection of saline solutions, a chemical call Prostraglavine, and DNE (Dilation and Evacuation). DNE is preferred because it dismembers the baby in the womb and that guarantees no live babies. In 1983, there were 1-½ million abortions in the USA and 10 million abortions in Russia.
Mr. Gilmore – In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that a fetus was viable to be able to survive outside the womb. Before that, abortion was ruled as a legal right of a woman.
MR. HWA – Whenever the majority of people in a society accept ideas, good or bad, it is considered to be right and true. The public is beginning to accept homosexual behavior so it has been normalized and became acceptable behavior. Pre-marital sex for 13, 14, and 15-year children became OK and has become a common thing and other bad judgments by our society became OK. These things have been accepted by society but society is not God! Society does not know right from wrong!
MR. HWA – Let’s get on with this subject: When does human life begin? We have to go to the word of God to make sure and that is one thing I am doing on the television program. That is going to open the eyes of a lot of people because I think I can tell you that no other evangelist speaking on television is going to say what I have said and they would not dare to say it! Let’s go to the Bible.
MR. HWA – Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Gen 1:1 Bªree'shiyt baaraa' 'Elohiym 'eet
7225 1254 430 53
beginning created God
OT:430
'elohiym (el-o-heem'); plural of OT:433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:
Genesis 1:24-26 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." RSV
MR. HWA – But when we come to man, God made man to reproduce after the God kind. He was reproducing Himself after the man kind from the dust of the ground. God breathed the breath of life in Adam and he became a living being. And in other scriptures, the Bible says that the life is in the blood.
Lev 17:10-11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. NIV
Genesis 2:7 then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. RSV
Nephesh 5315 2416 a soul. living
OT:5315 nephesh (neh'-fesh); from OT:5314; properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very wi0dely in a literal, accommodated or figurative
God made man to reproduce man after the God kind. He became a living being, but only as a temporary life existence. But God offered man eternal life! God has immortal life! We read what God is in John: 4:24:
MR. HWA – John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. God is not from the ground, but He is spirit! In His spirit is life, Immortal life!
MR. HWA – THE TWO TREES
MR. HWA – God offered eternal life to Adam but he rejected it. Had Adam chose the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit) it would have imparted to him the right knowledge from God that would have taught man that homosexual behavior is wrong, premarital sex is wrong and when life begins, instead of mankind just floundering around trying to figure it out on his own.
God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree in the Garden of Eden that contained the knowledge of good and evil. Now, Satan was lurking in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, approached Eve and began to talk with her. Satan deceived Eve and convinced her to eat the fruit of this forbidden tree. A short time later, she convinced Adam to eat of that same tree. They both sinned because they both disobeyed God. They were held captive by sin. Adam and Eve chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil instead of The Tree of Life. Since man rejected God, He let mankind decide for himself what is right and wrong for the next six thousand years instead of being taught by God the right way. God calls the right way the tree of life. Man does not possess of his own ability the knowledge to choose correctly between right and wrong.
HWA – Jesus came to earth about two thousand years ago. Why did He come! He came so that we might have life, eternal life! The first Adam rejected eternal life, the second Adam came that we might have life and more abundantly.
John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
MR. HWA – The second Adam, Jesus Christ, had that life from conception. He was never conceived by a human father, but by God and through a human mother! He had the Holy Spirit from birth. He never did once sin. He could have sinned, but he resisted sin completely and did not sin. In one sense He could not sin only because He would not sin! . . . But He himself had decided He would not. And that is the position we all have to come to some day when we are born of God!
1 Peter 2:22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
But Jesus said, “I will build my Church.” The word Church means “called out.” We are called out to be firstfruits. Jesus said that no man can come to Me except through God the Father.
MR. HWA – John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
When the Eternal closed up the Tree of Life, He closed up any access to God the Father. And the people in the Old Testament never knew of God the Father. They only knew of the one person as God and that was the one who became Jesus Christ. Ancient Israel did not know anything about God the Father. They only knew of God as one person and the Jews today do not know anything of God the Father.
Mark 12:35 - 37 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: "`The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." ' David himself calls Him `Lord.' How then can he be His son?"
MR. HWA – Jesus came to reveal the Father. In Matthew 11:27, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” We in the true Church of God know the Father and Jesus Christ.
Now in the Epistle of Peter, Peter wrote that Judgment begins at the Church.
1 Peter 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
MR. HWA – In other words, we are being judged whether or not we can have eternal life or not! The rest of the world is shut off from eternal life for now. But the time is coming when they will have their opportunity for eternal life! This is after the judgment and judgment will come after the resurrection which for most will be the Great White Throne Judgment.
Hebrews 9: “And as for men it is appointed to die once, but after this the judgment,” NKJV
MR. HWA – 1 Corinthians 15:21-24 “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him. Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.” NIV
Revelation 20:11-12 “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” NIV
MR. HWA – Now, when does divine life begin? Because human life is merely the type, an exact type and picture, of the divine life of being born of God! Now, when does the life of God start? Does it start at impregnation, or does it start during gestation somehow, or does it start at birth? Well, we read in the eighth chapter of Romans, for example, in verse nine, that we are not even a Christian if we do not have the Holy Spirit of God!
Romans 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. NIV
MR. HWA – But, only those who have the Spirit of God are Christ’s and are Christians and we read in verse eleven:
Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
MR. HWA: Romans 8:11 will happen at the proper time at the second coming of Christ and at the resurrection. Then, we will be made immortal; God beings.
MR. HWA – In verse fourteen, Romans 8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” NKJV
MR. HWA – They are already children of God. Now I am going to show you later that they are not born yet.
MR. HWA – Now in 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” RSV.
MR. HWA – God life has been begotten into us. Brethren, I can stand up here before you and tell you that I have divine immortal God life within me in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit! Now the Bible says that is like an earnest payment.
2 Corinthians 1:22 set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. NIV
Ephesians 1:13-14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who (that) is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of His glory.” NIV
MR. HWA – An earnest payment is like a small down payment that you make on a piece of property when you buy it. It is not the full payment. It does not mean you are a possessor yet. I am not a possessor, I am not an inheritor, I am only a begotten heir to inherit at the time of birth. I am in the stage of gestation. The same stage that an unborn fetus is, whether it is an embryo or a fetus. It is an embryo for the first few weeks and when it takes on human form, it is called a fetus. But it is the child of its parents and that is the exact type of divine life and we, if we have the Holy Spirit of God, we already are the children of God! BUT WE ARE NOT YET BORN!
MR. HWA – The truth is going to go out whether they like it or whether they don’t! God says “Cry aloud and spare not” and “shew my people their transgression.” And I have been called as a watchman to warn the people of their sins. And I am sorry if it has to be the voice that is crying out the truth. I wish there were a thousand other voices crying out the truth! Why? Why, oh why is it, that the others simply go along with Satan the Devil and won’t get over on God’s side and come out with the truth.
Isaiah 58:1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
MR. HWA – There was the Pharisee Nicodemus – this was early in Jesus’ ministry when Jesus was on earth – who sneaked in to see Jesus late at night. He questioned this thing about getting into the Kingdom of God and he didn’t understand what it meant to get into the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus only understood physical life, not spiritual life.
John 3:3 – 5 Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus saith unto him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
MR. HWA – John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.”
John 3:7- 8 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
John 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”
MR. HWA – and now in verse 1 of Corinthians 15:50 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” In the twinkling of an eye we will be changed into spirit! You will have a totally different body.
MR. HWA – Now lets look in Philippians, the third chapter, verse 21 says that our vile, corruptible body will be changed into a body like the glorious body of Jesus Christ.
MR. HWA – Philippians 3:21 “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.”
1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” KJV
HWA – Now, what's His glorious or glorified body like? You read in the first chapter of Revelation that His eyes are like flames of fire and His face shines like the sun, full strength so strong that it'd put your eyes out if you were standing in front of Him and looked right at Him. And that's the way we shall be when we are born again.
MR. HWA – “That proves absolutely that God life was already in us from the time of begettal. The time of conception. And, so human life is the exact same type of it and human life starts at the very instant of conception. And anyone who takes it in an abortion is taking a human life. Now, taking a human life in that sense, the Bible calls MURDER! I have to call a spade a spade. I have to call it as it is. And that's what it is.”
MR. HWA – But now, why is it important brethren? Why is it important? Maybe it is not important to take a fetus like that . . . that little fellow that waved his arms and legs and had to struggle and took a little longer to die than they thought it would in an abortion. Why is it wrong to abort that life? What is the value of a human life? What is the value of lives of among these little children that were blessed here this afternoon?
MR. HWA – You know David, King David must have been out one night on a clear night when the sky was clear and you could see all the stars. He looked up and saw the whole universe and got to thinking. And he thought how great God was to create that vast universe. And he got to thinking how small he was and he must look less than an ant or something to God. And what is a man that God would be concerned about him.
MR. HWA – What about one of these little babies that were blessed this afternoon that God would be concerned about them? What is that unborn fetus that someone is going to operate on and KILL! and take Its life away before it can be BORN?
MR. HWA – Now that is repeated again in verse five, it’s an introduction of what it is going to speak on in the world to come, and the world to come will not be under the dominion of angels. So it speaks of the world to come:
Hebrews 2:5-8 “It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:”
MR. HWA – So it speaks of the world to come and says:
Hebrews 2:6-7 "What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet."
MR. HWA – What are these little infants who were blessed this afternoon that God is concerned? How important are they? I don’t know any of them that I can recall right now but just one: I know one young lady whose mother plays the piano for us and who directs the music for the Young Ambassadors. She is a cute lady just born a few weeks ago, but how valuable is that life?
Then again, that question is asked, “What is man?”, a human being, that God should be concerned when God is so great that he can form stars that are actual suns, hundreds and hundreds of times larger than our sun?
MR. HWA – And God created many planets much larger than this earth. Like Jupiter and Saturn are much larger than the earth but there are larger still in other solar systems and other milky ways. “What is man?” And it says that God has made us to have dominion over the works of His hands and the works of His hands are what you see out there in that whole vast universe. The great vast universe, it just keeps going on and on and on, and this earth is only a little speck in the whole universe, it is so great. And it says that God has given man the dominion over the work of His hands, and when He gives him dominion over the work of His hands, HE HELD BACK NOTHING THAT IS NOT PUT UNDER MAN’S DOMINION, ULTIMATELY! Then it says, we see not yet everything, the whole universe, under man.
Hebrews 2:8 “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.”
MR. HWA – But man is to be over and to be God over the whole vast universe. That’s how important is one single human life. THAT IS HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT LITTLE EMBRYO OR THAT FETUS THAT THEY MURDER IN AN ABORTION! IT'S A FUTURE GOD! It's ONE that can RULE OVER EVERYTHING!
And in Romans the eighth chapter,
HWA – Romans 8:18-21 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. NIV
MR. HWA – We are not born yet. We are only in the fetus stage at this time. That life is so important that we are going to rule over all the planets.
How are the planets now? I knew that if I could ever go to the planet Mars, I would not see any life there. I would see decay! Waste, emptiness and decay! I saw the first photographs here in this auditorium of the pictures of Mars along with Scientist from JPL. What we saw was decay and corruption. And the whole universe is in a state of decay waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, which are now human beings and we are in the gestation period as embryos or fetuses of the divine being of God. THAT IS HOW GREAT IS A HUMAN LIFE!
MR. HWA – Brethren, was I speaking on politics this afternoon or was I telling you about the purpose of God and salvation and the value of a human life? We need to wake up and realize how serious some of these things are. And as long as God gives me breath, I am going to try to shout this out to the world whether they like it or whether they don’t. I think God wants them to hear.
MR. HWA – You brethren, and brethren all around the world, are brethren that have gotten behind me as God has chosen you to accept me as a man to give a warning! And if I did not warn people, God would require their blood at my hands. But if I do, and if they heed the warnings, they will save their souls, and maybe they can become God in the family of God, in the great Kingdom of God, but if not, they have been told. And we have done our duty. Brethren, let’s carry on in the work of God; there is much to be done yet to get this wonderful message of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the world only hears the gospel about Jesus Christ and there is all the difference in the world; one of the gospel from Satan and the other is from Jesus Christ and God, the Father! THE END.
Additional Scriptures Focusing on this Grave Evil
Ezekiel 16:20-21) Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain My children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
Ezekiel 23:36-39) The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.
Genesis 4:10-11 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
Numbers 35:33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Psalm 106:38 And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
MEDICAL TERMS
Pregnant - carrying offspring within the body: carrying unborn offspring inside the body.
Gestation - carrying of offspring in the womb: the process of carrying offspring in the womb during pregnancy.
Embryo - human offspring in initial developmental stage: a human offspring in the early stages following conception up to the end of the eighth week, after which it is classified as a fetus.
Fetus - unborn offspring: an unborn vertebrate at a stage when all the structural features of the adult are recognizable, especially an unborn human offspring after eight weeks of development.
Trimester - Period of 3 months: a period of three months, especially one of the three three-month periods into which human pregnancy is divided for medical purposes.
When Does Life Begin?
A NOTED COMMENT FROM THE PERSONAL AIDE of Mr. Armstrong: “HWA [Mr. Herbert Armstrong] and I had some long discussions about this "at conception or first breath." If it was at first breath, then was Christ not the son of God till birth? Short form – He was from conception by God through the Holy Spirit. Why MOA [Mystery of the Ages] says what it says.”
The Mystery of the Ages, Page 110, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong: "The human spirit enters the human embryo at conception. It is this spirit that may, upon adult conversion, be united with the Holy Spirit from the great Creator God, impregnating that human with God-life as a child of the living God, in a state of gestation, though as yet unborn. To destroy an embryo or a fetus in a mother's uterus is to MURDER a potential future God Being. Therefore, abortion is murder."
To be continued—
Your servant and friend,
Don Billingsley
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