Home Contact us   Return to The Bible & Abortion Page  The Bible & Abortion OF WORMS AND WOMBS By Dr. Peter A. Lillback This morning I would like to speak to you about worms and wombs. I know these seem to be highly unlikely topics for a sermon. In fact, they appear to be totally unrelated! But a careful reading of our texts for today will show that these were ideas that were closely linked in David’s mind. Please read with me Psalm 22:6-11: 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: 8 “He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver, since he delights in him.” 9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. 10 From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Following David’s lead, then, let us consider first that wonderfully wiggly topic of worms. OF WORMS Do you know what worms are? They are unformed creatures that live in the dark. They are speechless. They are helpless against invaders who enter their world from the outside. Little girls detest them, while little boys delight to cut them in pieces. And what good are they? They are good only for recycling garbage or for catching fish. Contrary to popular rumor, Ronald McDonald’s hamburgers are not enriched by their protein! Now we might ask, why would David identify himself with a worm? How could David be like such a lowly creature? Why would David declare in verse 6, “I am a worm and not a man”? The answers to these questions are found in David’s struggles with Saul. Psalm 22 is David’s anguished prayer uttered while he was fleeing for his life. David sees himself in Psalm 22 as an innocent victim enduring the attacks from King Saul, an enemy he had never provoked. So David’s words, “I am a worm and not a man” are his lament over what seemed to be his certain death. Verse 20 says, “Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.” In other words, David is saying, “I am as helpless and as valueless as a worm in the eyes of my enemies.” Since this is a Psalm of death, it is no accident that Psalm 22 was on the mind of Jesus as He was on the Cross of Calvary. When Jesus cried out in agony, “My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?,” he was quoting Psalm 22:1. Certainly, Jesus had read verses 15-18 that had for centuries before His death depicted the sufferings of His Cross: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” How we must thank God for allowing Jesus to die as our perfect substitute! His death has redeemed us from God’s just punishment that our sin deserves. By faith in His death and resurrection we can be right with God! But, let us look at this Psalm in another manner. Today, I would like to make a bold comparison. Because this is a Psalm of death, I would like to apply it to the life of the unborn child who is destined for death at the hands of an abortionist. Consider how striking the similarities are between a worm and an infant awaiting an abortion. For a period of time, both have no arms, no legs, no eyes Each are helpless Both live in darkness Neither can speak They are completely vulnerable to attacks from the outside of their worlds Little girls detest worms, and grown women detest their unborn babies when they refuse to give them life The little boys who once cut the worms in pieces have grown to do abortions and now cut the infants into pieces Both are destined for the garbage pile Both are exploited for human gain either to catch fish (worms) or to be used for cosmetics or for spare body parts (infants). Further, note the relevance of what is said in verses 6-8 with respect to the infant who will soon be aborted: “Scorned by men” - Here we see the father of the child saying he does not care whether the unborn child lives or dies. “Despised by the people” - This reminds me of the words of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. When speaking of a class of people that included the poor and religious who wanted large families, she said, “The procreation of this group should be stopped.” Our nation has so despised the unborn that now over 23 million unborn children have been destroyed. “Mocked” - The unborn child is a “fetus.” He is called a growth that lives off his mother’s body like a cancer cell. She is termed a parasite in a woman’s body. “Hurl insults” - The child is not a baby. No, it is dehumanized into “the product of conception.” “Shaking heads” - Here we see the mother saying “no” to the desire for life of her unborn baby. She says “no” to his right to life. She says “no” to his humanity. She shakes her head “no” to his will to be born and to be loved, by his mother. Finally, notice the taunt that is flung against the unborn. Verse eight says, “He trusts in the Lord, let the Lord rescue him. Let Him deliver him since he delights in him.” We might ask, “Who is saying this?” I believe this is what the Christian says when he chooses to be uninvolved in the defense of the life of the unborn children. By our indifference do we not say, “If God doesn’t want abortion, and if God really loves unborn infants, He’ll stop abortion without me and my help”? Are we not taunting the unborn by our choice to ignore their plight? Why is it that so many Christians take an attitude of indifference? There are many reasons why. Today, I would like to examine these reasons that we so often use and see if they really can withstand the scrutiny of Scripture and reason. We are too few to make any difference. Often we excuse ourselves by saying that there are too few of us in the face of the great legal, medical and financial support for abortion. What difference will one more voice make? But have we really forgotten that Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth? Two pounds of salt will preserve 100 pounds of meat. That is a ratio of one pound to 50 pounds. I believe that every Christian standing upon the authority of God’s law is worth 50 unbelievers at war with God’s will. It has been said that one man with God on his side makes a majority! Your small voice is not so small for all. Stand up and be counted. But being against abortion isn’t “nice”! Doesn’t every Christian want to be nice? If you reason this way, consider the searching words of Steve Brown: One sometimes gets the feeling that Christians stand against war, or abortion, or pornography because those things are not “nice.” May God have mercy on us if the blood of Christ was shed and the only result is niceness. I am reminded of H. Richard Niebuhr’s comment about modern Christianity and its theology of “a God without wrath who brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” The Christian faith recognizes the aggressiveness of the world. It creates heroes and heroines who will not bend, break, or compromise. It teaches that there is a lusty, materialistic paganism out to eat us alive unless we find something better than pious platitudes and nice news. I might add that that “lusty, materialistic paganism” has already begun to eat our lunches. Today we need more heroes and heroines that will stand for God’s will. The quality of life argument. Some would say that abortion is acceptable if the quality of life of the unborn child does not warrant its live birth. Many of our medical personnel reason this way today. But listen what Professor L.R. Agnew of the UCLA School of Medicine has to say. In speaking with his students, he posed the following question: “Here is the family history. The father has syphilis, the mother has TB. They have already had four children. The first one is blind, the second one died. Third is deaf, the fourth has TB. The mother is pregnant with her fifth child. The parents are willing to have an abortion if you decide they should. What do you think?” Most of the students decided on abortion. Prof. Agnew said, “Congratulations! You have just murdered Beethoven.” How many Beethovens have been aborted in our American abortion clinics since Roe vs. Wade? If Beethovens are “one in a million,” then 23 have already been killed. I personally know of two cases where parents were counseled to have abortions because of “birth defects.” In both instances, the infants were carried to full term. Both are completely normal and healthy babies! Uncertainty over the Beginning of Life. Others might object that it is unwise to oppose abortion since we are unsure when life really begins. In a moment we will consider several passages of scripture that address this matter. But this sort of reasoning is really illogical. Dr. Haddon Robinson of Denver Seminary put it this way, “To allow abortion because we cannot decide whether the fetus is human would be like refusing to search for a crippled ship because we do not know with certainty that the sailors are still alive.” Uncertainty demands caution, not recklessness! Would you drive your car into an intersection if you were unsure whether another vehicle was coming? If you were unsure, you would stop. So if one is unsure if the baby in the womb is alive, he certainly should stop any thoughts of an abortion. Child Abuse. But doesn’t the tragic fact of child abuse warrant the practice of abortion? I confess that once this argument made a great deal of sense to me. I shudder when I remember the stories I know of where parents have burned their infant’s feet in boiling water just to hear him shriek. I am sickened by the stories of children who endure physical beatings and several abuses. But what seemed to be a compelling argument, has become another fallacy, once instead of child abuse decreasing, the statistics for child abuse have increased exponentially since the legitimization of abortion. Instead of deterring child abuse, abortion has increased it. It is not perfectly consistent for a mother or father to think, “Why should I care for you now, I could have aborted you!” Further, think of the illogic of the position that says we ought to abort children since they are unwanted and so will be abused. Can we use this line of reasoning on born children? “You have been abused, so now to prevent further child abuse, we will kill you.” The absurdity here is obvious. The solution for the abused child is to remove the child from the home. Precisely the same solution awaits the unwanted pregnancy that might face abuse-remove it from the home by adoption. Adoption is the option, not abortion. Overpopulation. But must we not stop the overpopulation of the earth? Does not abortion prevent the world from being over-run by humans? The answer here is to understand how much we have come to believe the myth of over-population. In the last century, people predicted that the earth would run out of food. It was believed that food production increases arithmetically while the population increases geometrically. But the prediction failed, because men have continued to discover ways of increasing food production. A study done not too long ago claimed that if all the arable land in the world were farmed by American standards we could feed a population 5 times the present population. The study also argued that if the Japanese standards were used, the arable land could feed a population 17 times the present population. Further, are we really overpopulated? It has been demonstrated that all of the present population of the earth could stand without touching within the city limits of Jacksonville, Florida. Yet that is only a small part of a small state of a country that is but a small part of the Western Hemisphere. Yes, there are food shortages. But this is not due to too many people. It is due to wrong religions like Hinduism that will not destroy the pests that destroy crops; that will not eat food like beef that is readily available to them. It is due to human greed and political instability. It is due to false political theories like communism that destroy the productivity of human labor. To solve the food shortages we do not need abortion, but we do need the truths of Christianity that have allowed the great advances of Western culture. I am not advocating that every person must have as large a family as possible, this is a matter of one’s conscience. But I am saying that we must not control our population growth by murder. Harvesting Organs from Aborted Infants. But does not abortion allow us to harvest organs for the use of very ill people? Yes it does. Just days ago a Denver, Colorado surgeon implanted parts of an aborted infant’s brain into an Alzheimer patient’s brain. One woman has offered to have an infant for her sick father so that the infant might be aborted and provide him with a needed organ donation. Another woman with kidney disease is planning to have a baby so that she might have an abortion to gain a new kidney for herself. In fact, in Europe you can buy cosmetics that are produced with aborted infants’ collagen as a major ingredient. While all of this is going on, must we not ask where modern medicine has taken us? Is it not back to the jungles of New Guinea and Borneo? Have we not returned to the tribes of the Cannibals who destroyed other humans so that they might eat them for their own pleasure and benefit? To harvest organs from a willing donor is one thing, but to kill an innocent human being to cannibalize his body parts is another. For a man to willingly give up his blood, or a kidney, or later his skin and corneas at death is a noble thing. But it is not noble to kill an innocent life in order to steal its life and give it to another. Modern medicine coupled with abortion has brought our culture back to the ethics of the Cannibal. This can hardly be a very good argument for a Christian to use to stay out of the debate over abortion. The Freedom of Choice. But must we not maintain a woman’s right to choose whether she wants to have a baby? Does not the loss of the right of abortion take away a woman’s freedom? I believe that a woman does have a right to choose whether she will have a baby. But this right must be exercised before conception, by contraception not by abortion. The great Christian statesman of 17th century Great Britain, Edmund Burke, was correct when he said, “Men are qualified for Civil Liberties only to the extent that they are willing to put moral chains on their appetites.” We must realize that abortion is not a means of contraception. It is a means of destroying what is already conceived. The freedom of choice begins with the “moral chains” of birth control not with the freedom to kill a human life in a mother’s womb. If I desire to be free to play the piano, I must first learn the laws of the piano. If I simply think that I can just pound on the keys at will to make music, I shall actually destroy the music of the piano. But if I discipline myself to learn the laws of the piano, then I will be free to play any piece of music that has been written. So if a woman desires to be free, she must learn the law of life as God has written it. Then she will be free to make the choice of whether to have a baby or not, and in the process of choosing, she will not end the music of life. We must no longer let abortion be defined as “a noun meaning ‘an excuse for premarital sex.’” Extreme Anti-Abortion Activities. Some will argue that they do not want to be involved in the struggle against abortion, because they do not want to be extremists. Perhaps you feel that being arrested at abortion clinics is an extreme position, or attending a funeral for an aborted infant is extreme. Perhaps you are right. But, does the fact that people eat themselves to death everyday cause you to stop eating? Does the fact that people die every day from speeding in their cars cause you to stop driving? Extreme actions do not stop balanced and proper actions. Could you not avoid what you believe to be an extreme action by doing something that is not extreme instead? Could you not volunteer at a Crisis Pregnancy Center? Could you not attempt to vote for pro-life candidates? Could you not help educate people about the realities of what abortion is and what it does to unborn babies? Could you not provide food and clothing and perhaps shelter to a young mother who is facing a crisis pregnancy? Could you not pray daily that God will bring an end to this killing of unborn children? Could you not attend a non-violent pro-life march such as the Pastors’ Protest or the March for Life in Washington, D.C.? You do not have to take a position of extremism to be active in the fight for the Sanctity of Life. Reputation. Some of you are concerned about your reputations if you become active in the pro-life movement. As a response to your concern about reputation, allow me to share with you the words of the famous British Puritan Pastor of the 1600’s, Richard Baxter, “Imagine that thousands of you are in a leaky ship. Those who should be pumping out the water and stopping the leaks are disporting themselves or asleep. Now, would you not awaken them to their work and call on them to labor for their very lives? Would men think you wrong if you spoke sharply and urgently to the slothful? Would you not say, ‘the work must be done or else we shall be dead men? Is the ship ready to sink, and you talk of reputation?’ This is our case, brethren! The work of God needs to be done!” The ship of life is sinking, and we must forget what men might think of our reputations as we do the work of God. Far more important is what God will think of us if we do not do our part to protect the life that His holy law protects. The Unborn Are Unseen. Perhaps the reason we are uninvolved is because the life in the womb is unseen. But do not let its hiddenness and smallness deceive you. When the fetus is but 1/30th of an ounce it already has every internal organ it will ever have. On the 18th day after conception at a time a woman would not even yet know she is pregnant, the heart of the infant is beating. By the first month or so, the infant already has a set of unique fingerprints that will identify him for the rest of his life. Yes, the little life is unseen, but it is nonetheless a life. Abortion stops a beating heart. We have spoken of “worms,” let us now consider “wombs.” Of Wombs. When my wife was still in nursing school she told me a joke. She said that there was once a set of twins in their mother’s womb. In the dark they would on occasion shake hands. This happened at the third month of pregnancy, the sixth month and finally just before birth at the ninth month. After birth, in the brightness of light they turned and smiled at each other in their mother’s lap and gave each other a big hug and said to each other, “Hi womb-mate, it’s good to see you!” Now days, however, we must speak of many infants as “tomb-mates.” This is because the most unsafe place for a baby to be in modern America is in her mother’s womb. Frequently, one of a set of twins will be aborted because a mother does not want twins. If they are of opposite sex, the female will often be aborted. Sadly, sometimes both are killed. The extent of the killing is so bad today that there are several cities in the US where there are more aborted babies than there are live born children. This has caused some to call the “maternity room” the “eternity room.” Figures of Wars. Yet it is evident from verses 9 and 10 that the Psalmist believed that his life began in the womb. That in fact his spiritual life began in the womb. This is not true just of David and Jesus. I have had the privilege as a pastor to hear children who join the church telling me that they have never known a time when they did not trust in Jesus Christ. I believe that the Bible makes it abundantly clear that life begins at conception, and that there is real human life in the womb. Consider the following verses: Article by Council of Chalcedon The womb: Jeremiah 1:4,5 Genesis 25:21-23 Luke 1:15 At Conception: Luke 1 - Jesus Psalm 139 Psalm 51 In view of these remarkable passages, we cannot allow ourselves to have the casualness of accepting abortions as we find in the remark of the Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, “[abortions] should be available in the same way as, say, an operation for beautification of the nose.” Abortions do not beautify noses. They turn the beauty of life into the ugliness of death. Abortion robs the womb of its living fruit and replaces it with the stench of death. Today, we have considered “Worms” and “Wombs.” May I add one last point? Let us know consider the “Wishes” that the unborn child must certainly be crying out for in his silent scream. Verse 11 reads, “Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.” Of Wishes. Why should we be involved in defending the life of the unborn? Allow me to conclude our message today by giving you several reasons why you ought to be involved in the pro-life movement. Because of the danger of indifference. Dante once said, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in a time of great moral crisis.” George Bernard Shaw said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that’s the essence of inhumanity.” Because we ought to oppose sin. Billy Sunday, the great evangelist, once said, “I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. When I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to glory and it goes home to perdition!” Because Scripture says, “Do not kill.” We must never forget that one-half of the people who enter abortion clinics do not leave alive. Love neighbor as yourself. Jesus’ love for infants - Luke 18. Sinners are not idle. Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Civil rights - Negro College Fund, a mind is a terrible thing to waste, so is a whole life! How can a fetus be an heir, a plaintiff, a patient, but not a person? Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is correct when she says that Roe v. Wade is on a collision course with itself. We must insist that the Suprem Court’s motto, “Equal justice under law” is true for even the small. A kinder and gentler nation won’t abort unborn children. We must pray that the law of the Supreme Court will no longer stand in opposition to the law of the Supreme Being. Business - destroys your consumers and producers and laborers. Educators - How many Beethovens destroyed? Genocide - Naziism began with abortions. Hitler would have loved American Abortions. Feminism - Unborn women have rights too. Guilt, complications, infertility, females aborted first often in gender selection. The Score of every abortion is “One dead, and one wounded.” If you are a feminist, then insist that women cannot only handle the Presidency, but Pregnancy also. Retired people - If abort a loveable infant, will they protect the life of an incontinent old person? Animal rights - Be a hero save a whale, save a baby go to jail. Infertility - adoption. The aborted abortion. The least of Christ’s brethren done to Christ. We must not be indifferent. We must recognize what abortion really is. It is a mother killing her child, a doctor killing his patient, the world turning its back. Martin Neimuller was a German Pastor and a victim of the Nazi concentration camps. Listen to his words that remind us of the price of indifference, “In Germany, they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me-and by that time no one was left to speak up.” If we remain indifferent to the killing of the small and the helpless innocent, where will the killing stop? Dag Hammerskjoldt, the former Secretary to the United Nations, said, “You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal; play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth; play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.” Once the weeds of killing the innocent go to seed, no one can predict who will be safe. Indeed, the animal that learns to kill a human is likely to kill again. Conclusion As we conclude today, please let me read for you a poem entitled “Ballad of the Unborn” by Fay Clayton. My shining feet will never run on early morning lawn; My feet were crushed before they had a chance to greet the dawn. My fingers now will never stretch to touch the winning tape; My race was done before I learned the smallest steps to take. My growing height will never be recorded on the wall; My growth was stopped when I was still unseen, and very small. My lips and tongue will never taste the good fruits of the earth; For I myself was judged to be a fruit of little worth. My eyes will never scan the sky for my high-flying kite; For when still blind, destroyed were they in the black womb of night. I’ll never stand upon a hill Spring’s winds in my hair; Aborted winds of thought closed in on Motherhood’s despair. I’ll never walk the shores of life or know the tides of time; For I was coming but unloved, and that my only crime. Nameless am I, a grain of sand, one of the countless dead; But the dead that made me ashen grey floats on seas of red. Thomas Jefferson once said, “I tremble when I remember that God is just and His judgment will not tarry forever.” Will God’s judgment bypass an America that has aborted 23 million of its unborn infants? II Kings 24:3-4 says concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah, “Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord’s command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Mansseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgiven.” Will the day come when the Lord will no longer forgive America for her crimes against the unborn? Nearly fifty years ago President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood before an aghast nation to describe December 7th as a “day that shall live in infamy.” On that day, a Japanese surprise attack killed some 4,000 Americans. That treacherous attack was enough to bring America into World War II. But do you realize that each and every day of 1989, over 4,000 Americans are being killed by abortion. Indeed, every day is “a day that shall live in infamy.” But the question is, is it enough yet for you to join the war against abortion? Christian patriot can you hear the unborn infant formed in the image of God crying from the womb, “I am human, not a worm!”? ProLifeForum.org A Ministry of Proclamation Presbyterian Church 278 Bryn Mawr Avenue Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 Voice: 610-520-9500 Fax: 610-520-5240

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