I find it hard to understand. I've always thought that abortion in any capacity was wrong. That a child at the moment of conception is a child, a human being. Anything involved the ending of that life is anything short of murder. This is an unpopular opinion, but abortion in any capacity and for any reason is murder.
This post is not going to focus on the wrongs of abortion. Although, I could go on for days with reasoning behind this argument. This post will stand to take a look at instances in the Bible that would show us we shouldn't be surprised by the degradation of our culture and society.
First, I want to take a look at a few Biblical characters and their reaction to the societal decay around them.
Noah
We are first introduced to Noah in a patriarchal lineage in Genesis 5. In verse 32, we are informed about his three sons. Chapter 6 begins to account wickedness in the world. The Bible tells us here that "man began to multiply," and it also mentions that the "sons of God" were roaming the earth and marrying the "daughters of man." Now, I don't want to delve to deep into the identification of these sons and daughters. In one camp, people believe the "sons" are angels or fallen angels, in the other, the "sons of God" are identified as the men in the lineage of Seth, and the daughters labeled as the females in the lineage of Cain (in each camp the daughters are simply represented as human).
Whichever way you cut that (which is not super important to the point of my post), you see that the society is decaying in the following verses. Verse 5 tells us that "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Then if we skip down to verse 8, we see that "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." So what that tells me is, that in the midst of a society that was pure evil, Noah followed God. The rest of the narrative carried out that way. Noah put his faith in the Lord. He built a boat in preparation for a flood even before there had EVER been rain! Noah stayed faithful. He wasn't perfect, but he stayed faithful.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah
Then we can shift our focus to Daniel. Daniel and his entire country were taken into captivity by Babylon. Babylon was insane! If there ever was an evil society it was Babylon. When the Israelites were taken into captivity, the king of Babylon separated some of the young men and offered them some of the food that he would eat. The Bible tells us in the book of Daniel that Daniel "resolved not to defile himself with the king's food," and that God granted him favor in the sight of his captors.
Daniel and his three buddies (for those VeggieTale enthusiasts, Rack, Shac, and Benny), all were blessed by the Lord in many ways and were favored with the king. Their faith grew stronger in two different episodes, for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, while the rest of the country bowed and worshiped an idol, they refused and were throne into a burning furnace. They stood in their faith, in the midst of a skewed society. Daniel's faith saw him thrown into a lion's den for refusing to stop praying to God. Despite the decay around him, Daniel still stood in his faith.
The examples of these 5 Biblical figures should speak to us today. We are in the midst of a society that is crumbling around us. However, what we have got to do is stop watching it crumble and grumbling about why. I can scroll through my social media feeds at any moment and see posts declaring "what's wrong with society." The problem that I have with most of the things I see is that, I am not 100% sure we did things right before. That can be a whole new post for another day, but my point is, we must stand strong in our faith.
Standing strong in our faith is not posting pretty little Bible verses on our Instagram or Facebook. Strength is not found in talking about the "good ole days" or posting about how we need to "let" God back in our schools. Strength doesn't come from attending a church service or a weekly coffee group at the church. Finding true strength for our faith is found in truly pursuing God.
Our faith is not found in checking a box. All these things we've come to do as a "Christian society" is a load of legalism. We must seek to chase after who God is and become more like him. Romans 8:29 tells us that we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus. In Ephesians 4, we are called to live with "humility and gentleness...patience...bearing with one another in love...maintaining unity..."
We must begin to live out the actuality of our Biblical command, our lives would be completely transformed. We must be authentic in our relationships. We must be intentional in our actions. We must be Jesus.
Daniel and his three buddies (for those VeggieTale enthusiasts, Rack, Shac, and Benny), all were blessed by the Lord in many ways and were favored with the king. Their faith grew stronger in two different episodes, for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, while the rest of the country bowed and worshiped an idol, they refused and were throne into a burning furnace. They stood in their faith, in the midst of a skewed society. Daniel's faith saw him thrown into a lion's den for refusing to stop praying to God. Despite the decay around him, Daniel still stood in his faith.
The examples of these 5 Biblical figures should speak to us today. We are in the midst of a society that is crumbling around us. However, what we have got to do is stop watching it crumble and grumbling about why. I can scroll through my social media feeds at any moment and see posts declaring "what's wrong with society." The problem that I have with most of the things I see is that, I am not 100% sure we did things right before. That can be a whole new post for another day, but my point is, we must stand strong in our faith.
Standing strong in our faith is not posting pretty little Bible verses on our Instagram or Facebook. Strength is not found in talking about the "good ole days" or posting about how we need to "let" God back in our schools. Strength doesn't come from attending a church service or a weekly coffee group at the church. Finding true strength for our faith is found in truly pursuing God.
Our faith is not found in checking a box. All these things we've come to do as a "Christian society" is a load of legalism. We must seek to chase after who God is and become more like him. Romans 8:29 tells us that we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus. In Ephesians 4, we are called to live with "humility and gentleness...patience...bearing with one another in love...maintaining unity..."
We must begin to live out the actuality of our Biblical command, our lives would be completely transformed. We must be authentic in our relationships. We must be intentional in our actions. We must be Jesus.
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