Volume 11 Issue 8 - August 1996 THE HAND OF GOD Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7) I’ve just recently perused a fascinating book called, "The Hand of God", written by Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson. For those of you not familiar with Dr. Nathanson, he was one of the leading advocates to ramrod the abortion ideology that eventually seduced our nation to accept the destruction of our own posterity. He helped architect the language that would convince Americans that giving our seed to the demonic altars of Molech was not only good for unsuspecting women, but their constitutional right as well. Crafting phrases, such as, "pro-choice", "reproductive freedom", and "women’s rights", he skillfully used American sloganeering to wrap up the slaughter of the innocent in the American Flag. Dr. Nathanson also personally presided over sixty thousand abortions during his tenure as one of the leading abortionists in our blood- stained land. Well, that was then and this is now. A wonderful transition has transpired in the life of the good doctor. In his book, he carefully documents his somewhat painstaking journey from death to life as one who, not only changed his mind about abortion, but eventually changed his mind concerning his relationship to God. At first, his conversion was just partial, from pro-choice to pro-life. As an atheistic Jew, it took science to convince him that pro-life was the proper, ethical stance to take. Through the marvelous technology of ultrasound, Dr. Nathanson saw the window of the womb opened and was confronted with the intricate mystery of human life. The more he observed children in the womb, the more he bonded with them and the more his heart was moved to actually feel love towards them. Eventually, the moral tension became so excruciating and intolerable, he quit the abortion industry and did his last abortion in 1979. When the reign of terror ended, Dr. Nanthanson’s final analysis can be summed up in this statement , "I had come to the conclusion that there was no reason for an abortion at any time; this person in the womb is a living human being, and we could not continue to wage war against the most defenseless of human beings." That conclusion led him to produce the video, "The Silent Scream", and thrusted him into the pro-life movement as a national speaker that debunked, denounced, and exposed the horrors of abortion. For years Dr. Nathanson endured the religious fervor that was the life source of the pro-life movement. At events, he would occasionally recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but the preaching of God’s word, the joyous hymns of praise and the prayers of the saints left him cold, with his eyes fixed and his lips unmoving. Though he was pleasant and civil with God’s people, he made certain they knew that, as an atheistic Jew, he did not share their beliefs, except in the shared detestation of abortion. Then something funny happened along the way as our good doctor continued in his journey from death to life. He describes it as a ten year "transitional time" that gnawed at his conscience. Listen to his own words as he masterfully articulates the conviction that came upon his soul, "I felt the burden of sin growing heavier and more insistent. It was as if the contents of the baggage of my life were mysteriously absorbed in some metaphysical moisture, making them bulkier, heavier, more weighty, and more impossible to bear. I found myself longing for a magical phlogiston, (to burn or inflame) a substance that would contribute a negative weight to my heavy burden." He goes on to describe what he calls "the hour of the wolf" which awoke him early in the morning, where he sat in the darkness and hoped (but not praying yet) for a message to acquit him before some invisible jury. Apparently, the message he longed for came at an Operation Rescue event in New York City in 1989. He was there to observe and write an article concerning the moral and ethical aspects associated with O.R.N. Little did he know on that bitterly cold day that he was about to see and hear things that would radically alter his atheistic views. The following is his testimony of what happened on that fateful day, "They (Christian rescuers) sat themselves down in rows in front of the clinic, effectively blocking entrances to and exits from the abortion clinic. They began to sing hymns softly, joining hands and swaying from the waist. I circulated on the periphery at first, observing the faces, interviewing some of the participants, making notes furiously. It was only then that I apprehended the exaltation, the pure love on the faces of that shivering mass of people, surrounded as they were by hundreds of New York City policemen. They prayed, they supported and encouraged each other, they sang hymns of joy, and they constantly reminded each other of the absolute prohibition against violence. It was, I suppose, the sheer intensity of the love and prayer that astonished me: They prayed for the unborn babies, for the confused and frightened pregnant women, and for the doctors and nurses in the clinic. They even prayed for the police and the media who were covering the event. They prayed for each other but never for themselves. And I wondered: How can these people give of themselves for a constituency that is (and always will be) mute, invisible, and unable to thank them?" He goes on to explain, "Now, I had not been immune to the religious fervor of the pro-life movement. I had been aware in the early and mid eighties that a great many Catholics and Protestants in the ranks had prayed for me, were praying for me, and I was not unmoved as time wore on. But it was not until I saw the spirit put to the test on those bitterly cold demonstration mornings, with pro-choicers hurling the most fulsome epithets at them, the police surrounding them, the media openly unsympathetic to their cause, the federal judiciary fining and jailing them, and municipal officials threatening them—all through it they sat smiling, quietly praying, singing, confident and righteous of their cause and ineradicably persuaded of their ultimate triumph—that I began seriously to question what indescribable Force generated them to this activity. Why, too, was I there? What led me to this time and place? Was it the same Force that allowed them to sit serene and unafraid at the epicenter of legal, physical, ethical, and moral chaos? And for the first time in my adult life, I began to entertain seriously the notion of God—a God who problematically had led me through the proverbial circles of hell, only to show me the way to redemption and mercy through His grace. The thought violated every eighteenth-century certainty I had cherished; it indicted me and convicted me of high crimes against those who had loved me, and against those whom I did not even know; and simultaneously—miraculously—it held out a shimmering sliver of Hope to me, in the growing belief that Someone had died for my sins and my evil two millennia ago." Praise God, Brethren, Dr. Nathanson came face to face with the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob and through it, he has become not just a pro-life champion, but more importantly, a champion for the Lord Jesus Christ. Every sacrifice made, every drop of blood, all the sweat, and tears that has been experienced by those in Operation Rescue are worth the testimony of this one man. Pray for that legacy to continue as we go to San Diego and continue to show the love of God by laying down our lives for the least of these. Proclamation to America! America, we are approaching a crossroad and even now our very future is being weighed in the balance. We have a crucial choice to make in 1996. Surprisingly, it is not a choice between Democrat and Republican, conservatism vs. liberalism, or choosing Bob Dole as a replacement for Bill Clinton. The essential choice comes down to, "Who is Lord?" and "What Laws should govern in the affairs of men?" Will we be ruled by the brilliance of God’s Law which leads to liberty or the darkened reason of man which leads to tyranny? Will we be led by the subjective experience of man or by the objective, time honored, eternal truths of God’s word? For the blatant reality comes down to this, Bill Clinton is not our problem, therefore Bob Dole is certainly not the solution. No! We have located the problem and it is us, the American people. A wise astute man by the name of Robert C. Winthrop, an American legislator, author, and orator in the nineteenth century, clearly maps out the critical choice before us, "All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet." Our public schools serve as an example of the hard truth articulated by Mr. Winthrop. In the early 1960’s, a misguided Supreme Court decided to remove the knowledge of God from the public schools, to strip the Ten Commandments from off our walls, and to silence the prayers of our children. And what, in our perverted logic, did we replace the knowledge of God with? Condoms, metal detectors, and police officers armed with clubs, who are prepared to slap up-side the head one of our children who would dare to act upon the lessons they have learned by our foolish policies. The God of the Bible warns us, "For the transgression (lawlessness) of the land many are the princes (bureaucrats) thereof..." (Proverbs 28:2). Simply put, the more lawless and irresponsible we become, the more we abuse our freedoms, the more we turn our liberty into licentiousness, the more we automatically increase the size and scope of civil government to intrude into our lives and crush our freedoms. The reason is self-evident, we have lost the moral restraint and fortitude to correctly handle the responsibilities associated with freedom. We must remember that true freedom is not the right to do what we want to do, when we want to do it, but it’s the power to do what is right in the eyes of God. Dr. Alan Keyes confirmed this truth when he stated, "We can no longer afford to worship our freedoms, we must return to worshipping the God who gave us those freedoms". Therefore I call upon the citizens of America to repent and return to the God of our fathers, to return to the covenant that declares, "In God We Trust", and to return to moral sanity, for the sake of our children and for the future of our nation. The truth is, we don’t need a new president, we need to return to our one true King, one called Jesus. He alone holds the answers and the power to heal our broken, wounded land, if we would meet the conditions. We must reject at once the lawlessness that has been established in the name of law by a renegade Supreme Court, a Federal Government lost in Messianic delusions, and a culture who loves it that way.. We must embrace again the righteous rules of Heaven by which we govern ourselves under God. This will insure that we will properly relate one to another (remember the Golden Rule?). We must renounce the assault on liberty that tries to craft moral wrongs into civil rights. We cannot tolerate what God deems intolerable. There is no nation, empire, or civilization who killed their own children (abortion) and allowed homosexuality to run rampant and then thrived as a people. The Bible is clear and history confirms that these two sins in particular unchecked and unchallenged will decimate a culture. This truth is indisputable, and yet, we continue down the primrose path that is forging the chains which bind us to a prison of moral chaos, violence, and perversion. America, we must open our ears before it is too late and hear the word of the Lord. "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19). This is the only legitimate choice set before us as Americans in 1996. All else is a broken cistern that can’t hold water. We can continue the current course that will ultimately revert us back to the horrors of brutal paganism and will result in either anarchy, or worse yet, iron fisted tyrants, or we can repent, humble ourselves, turn back to God and His precious principles that can restore the greatness of our nation. We can be a city set on a hill once again, a people of integrity who do not need a lawyer to keep our word, a beacon of light for all nations, if we would just choose wisely. LOCAL ABORTIONIST, MR. BRITTON "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18) A couple of weeks ago, I felt impressed of the Lord to write our local abortionist and send him a copy of "Reversing Roe". This video documents the glorious conversion of Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe vs. Wade. Please pray for this man and his family that the truth, power, love, and anointing contained within this video would leap off the TV screen and penetrate and permeate his hardened heart. Pray according to Psalms 40:2,3, "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." The following is the content of the letter that I sent to him.
WINSTON CHURCHILL: THE LESSONS OF LEADERSHIP Never Give In!
I believe the principles revealed below will provide the answers to George Grant’s question. They graciously grant us an insight into a man who was rooted in a Biblical worldview. A man who believed the battle was not simply between the Nazi’s and the rest of the world, it was, in his mind, a battle to see who would triumph and prevail, paganism or Christian civilization. In an age of spineless, frivolous, fluff that is being passed off as legitimate leadership, Winston Churchill bursts forth with a refreshing reminder of what true leadership looks like, what are the requirements of true leadership, and what devastation comes with the lack thereof . The following is a glimpse into the principles that defined the leadership of Winston Churchill. Pray that the Lord will raise up men with this caliber of insight, character, and courage today. Obviously this need is beyond description as our nation perishes for the want of true godly leaders.
IN KING JESUS’ SERVICE, Rusty Lee Thomas |