Joseph Parker: Abortion is First-Degree Murder

You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13).

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).

In the book of Exodus, chapter 20, the Lord gave us the Ten Commandments. These were 10 foundational truths that would bless us, our families, our societies, and our world if we would follow them and choose to live by the wisdom found in them. They were given for our good to make life better for us.

These commandments honor God and bless the people who live according to them. To violate them is to dishonor God and bring trouble, difficulty, and death upon the disobedient. It is in our best interest to hear, obey, and live by each of the Ten Commandments. Each one blesses our lives in a unique way.

The sixth commandment says, “You shall not murder.” This commandment, perhaps more than any other commandment, has extreme consequences when it is violated. One key reason is, when it is violated, a human being is taken out of this world. An individual made in the image of God is no longer in this world as a result of the actions of one or more other human beings.

Abortion is a form of murder, plain and simple. More specifically, abortion is first-degree murder. It is not accidental, but typically well-planned. Tragically, there is much deceiving, misleading, and lying surrounding abortion. Sadly, many who say they are believers are taking the word “murder” and seeking to substitute it with words like “abortion,” “reproductive rights,” and “euthanasia.” It seems that they want to believe that murder is acceptable if we rename it. Yet, whatever name you give the act of taking innocent life, it is still clearly wrong according to the Word of God. Abortion is murder. And it’s clearly against the Word of God and the will of God.

Sadly, because this specific kind of murder was repackaged and rebranded and sold to our culture with a new face and cover, so many have bought into it to the point where, according to a Guttmacher Institute study, one out of every four women is expected to have an abortion. We have become a nation of murderers.

That’s a very harsh way to put it, one might say. Well, sometimes the hard truth hurts. Sometimes it’s a very hard pill to swallow. Yet, sometimes being faced with the hard truth head on helps us to wake up and see where we are and what we are.

Now the God we serve is merciful and full of loving kindness and forgiveness. He clearly told us in His Word, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) We serve a wonderful heavenly Father who majors in forgiveness. Our job is to confess when we have done wrong, repent of it, and ask for Him to forgive us. And He will certainly do it. He always keeps His word.

So, is abortion really first-degree murder? Yes, it is. And there are already laws on the books against that. God’s Word never changed. We did. We allowed ourselves to be deceived and lulled to sleep.

What should we do? We need to be wise enough, bold enough, and committed enough to say that we have been wrong about the whole matter of abortion. It always has and always will be wrong to commit first-degree murder. God’s Word will never change.

Joseph Parker is Chairman of the Board of the Pregnancy Care and Hope Center and serves as Director of Outreach and Intercession with the American Family Association. He has been in the ministry for almost 40 years and hosts the radio broadcast, “The Hour of Intercession,” on the American Family Radio network.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.

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