Church, Suffering

4 Things You Need to Understand About Christian Persecution

Michelle Lesley

Originally published February 26, 2021

With the Minnesota church invasion story circulating, some Christians are calling for the need to respond biblically to persecution. I thought a rerun of this article might be helpful in that regard.

Persecution. It’s a hot topic in pop-evangelicalism these days in the wake of Pastor James Coates’ arrest in Canada (please don’t forget to pray for him, his family, and his church).

Though Pastor Coates’ arrest was heartbreaking, one good thing that has come out of it is that the online discussion about it has pulled back the curtain on just how much biblical ignorance is running rampant out there among professing Christians on the issue of persecution.

In a way, it’s understandable. American citizens (and many citizens of other Westernized countries as well) alive today have grown up with the guarantee of freedom of religion, codified in our Constitution. Until the last ten years or so, finding the proverbial needle in the haystack would have been much easier than finding an American who had experienced actual Christian persecution at the hands of her government.

To us, the persecution of Christians has always been something that happened thousands of miles away in far off, uncivilized, unsophisticated lands. “That could never happen here,” we mused thankfully, and promptly pushed the matter out of our thoughts.

But it can happen here. It’s already happening here. And it will increasingly continue to happen here.

And so, it’s a good thing that the issue has come to the forefront now, while we still have time to develop a biblical theology of persecution and prepare to act on it.

Let’s examine four popular misunderstandings about persecution, and what the Bible has to say about it.

1.
The degree of persecution does not equal
the definition of persecution.

“That’s not persecution. Persecution is being burned on sticks.”

I forget what the “that” was in this comment I recently saw on social media, but the “burned on sticks” part stuck in my memory. Whatever the “that” was, it some sort of unpleasantness aimed at a Christian for his faith, but it was much less intense than being burned on sticks.

But that diminished intensity doesn’t mean “that” wasn’t also, in fact, persecution. It only means “that” was less painful, less inconvenient, less life-altering, less terrifying persecution than the persecution of being burned on sticks.

I think maybe people don’t understand the difference between the definition of persecution and the degree of severity of persecution. Persecution is like stealing. Taking a paper clip from your office isn’t as severe as embezzling millions of dollars, and doesn’t garner as severe a consequence, but both are, qualitatively, and, definitionally, stealing. When you take something that isn’t yours, without permission that’s stealing, regardless of the value of what you take, and regardless of the consequences that follow.

The Bible doesn’t give a cut-and-dried definition of Christian persecution – i.e. there’s no one verse that specifically says, “Persecution is _____,” – rather, we glean the definition from looking at examples of it in Scripture. And, actually, if we look at it on a spiritual level rather than a temporal, tangible, earthly level, the definition of Christian persecution is rather simple: Christ is always right. Satan is always wrong. Any time Satan opposes Christ, that’s persecution.

Christ is always right. Satan is always wrong. Any time Satan opposes Christ, that’s persecution.

If you are obediently following God’s Word, standing with Christ and His Word, and you face opposition for that – regardless of the official reason given for the opposition (more about that in a sec) – you’re being persecuted, whether it’s somebody responding to your Christian worldview Facebook post with an “angry face” emoji or somebody executing you for sharing the gospel.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:12:

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

If the definition of persecution is being “burned on sticks” – martyrdom – then this verse of Scripture isn’t true. Millions of Christians living godly lives in Christ Jesus have lived and died without being martyred. Yet this verse says all will be persecuted. Since we know this verse of Scripture is true, that means persecution has to include lesser forms of mistreatment of Christians.

We should never say that somebody calling you a booger head for being a Christian is as bad as, painful as, or difficult as being burned at the stake, but both are, qualitatively, persecution, just in different degrees of severity.

2.
We must think about persecution
on a spiritual level, not a tangible level.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

We’ve simply got to wrap our minds around this concept if we’re going to properly understand persecution.

There is an entire, real spiritual realm that we cannot see, hear, or touch. And in that realm, Satan and his minions are constantly rebelling against God and attempting to, for lack of a better word, “attack” God and thwart His purposes. 

And what better way to really stick it to God than by using His own Creation against Him? People made by God in His image. People He loves so much that He sacrificed His only Son for them.

Because we can’t see Satan and his demons, he “puts on flesh” by using his children – his slaves – to do his bidding. 

So when we see, for example, governmental officials placing restrictions on the church and giving Covid as the reason, we’re not seeing reasonable, uninfluenced people altruistically doing what’s best to protect others. That’s just the deceptive window dressing Satan wants us to see. That’s his sleight of hand to distract us from what’s really going on in the spiritual realm: he’s attempting to attack God and His people and thwart God’s plan for the church. And he’s using God’s own creation – people and government- to do it.

In this whole debate about Pastor Coates and whether or not he should have obeyed the government’s Covid regulations, and whether or not he should have gone to jail for refusing to obey them, and whether or not his imprisonment is actually persecution, one of the things Christians are failing to grasp is that, in God’s economy, the government has no right or authority to place any restrictions on the church in the first place.

In God’s economy, the government has no right or authority to place any restrictions on the church in the first place.

Stop myopically looking at one itty bitty little tree, and back up and look at the whole forest: God is King of the Universe. He purchased the church with the blood of His Son. He founded it. He owns it. He is the head of it and rules over it. 

The government is God’s servant. A servant has no right to override his master’s commands:

  • God says:
    proclaim the gospel to the whole creation and make disciples of them,
    come, all who are thirsty, and
    whosoever will may come.
    He casts out no one who comes to Him.

    His servant, the government, has no right to issue an edict that only a select few may enter the church to serve the Lord with gladness, come into His presence with singing, enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise, when God has said, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.” God does not place capacity limits on who may come into His church. The government certainly has no right to do so.

Open your spiritual eyes, sisters. Look beyond what you can see in this tangible realm, and grasp the bigger picture. This isn’t about what your physical eyes can see. Persecution is about spiritual warfare.

3.
Satan is a deceiver.

Have you ever heard the old saying, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”2? Well, it’s true and he pulls that trick on various levels with various people. It’s not just on the macro level with atheists or lost people who are convinced Satan is just a mythological character. There’s also the micro level of the sleepy-eyed Christian who has forgotten that Satan is the underlying inspiration for every unholy act in the world. (And we’re all prone to that forgetfulness from time to time.)

That’s why Satan doesn’t march right up to Christians and say, “Hi, I’m the Prince of Darkness. Wouldn’t you like to sin against God today?”. He’s smarter than that. He knows if he presents himself to you as what he really is, and sin as what it really is, you’d see right through him and stay away from him. 

There may come a point in time in the West at which the government clearly and overtly says, “Christianity is against the law, and if you’re a Christian, you’ll be executed.”

But that time is not now. That’s the last leg of the race for Satan. And you don’t get to the last leg of the race without first having stretched, put on your running shoes, and run the first, second, and third leg of the race. And that’s where we are right now: at the beginning of the race.

At the beginning of the race, Satan has to con you into believing there are good reasons for the havoc he’s wreaking on the church, and he’ll even disguise himself as an angel of light and dress up his reasons in the costume of Christian-ese to do it. And that’s exactly what he has done as he has persecuted God’s church with Covid regulations3:

It’s for your safety…

It’s for the safety of others…

It’s loving your neighbor…

The Bible says you have to obey the government, no matter what…

And…

James Coates wasn’t arrested for preaching, he was arrested refusing to obey Covid regulations.

Again, put on your spirit realm thinking cap and your spiritual eyeglasses and see what’s really going on here. Satan doesn’t give a flying flip about Covid regulations, or the virus itself, or how many people it kills or doesn’t kill. His mission (though futile) is to destroy God’s church, and to  oppose, rebel against, and attempt to thwart God’s plans and purposes at every turn. And he will use anything he can get his hands on to do that – especially deception that veils what he’s really doing.

Don’t believe me? What capital crime did the Roman government officially charge Jesus with and execute Him for? It wasn’t for preaching or being a “Christian”. It was for insurrection. Because in Rome’s eyes, there was only one King of the Jews, and it wasn’t Jesus.

And what about the riot in Ephesus? When the Ephesian business men grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, they didn’t say, “We’re about to beat you senseless because you’re Christians.” Nope, it was, “It’s the economy, Stupid.” They were riled up at the Christians because they were losing money.

And when Paul was arrested in Acts 21, the reason given was inciting a riot, not his beliefs or practices as a Christian.

And when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace, the capital charge was not: “These men worship the one true God,” The official charge was that they refused to obey the king’s unbiblical law – which as the governmental “servant of God” he had no right to make in the first place, nor to punish God’s people when they obeyed Him rather than man. Selah.

Need I go on? Search your Bible. Search the nightly news. You’ll find many instances in which Satan sets the stage with elaborate props of perfectly logical sounding reasons why God’s people are being attacked, while backstage, he’s singing second verse, same as the first – I hate God and I want to kill what He loves.

He wants you to think pastors are being arrested and fined and sanctioned because of Covid regulations, or that Christian businesses and organizations that won’t get on board with the government’s sexual perversion agenda (let the reader understand) are violating anti-discrimination laws, but that’s not the real reason. They’re being arrested and fined and sanctioned because Satan wants to obliterate the church.

If you are walking in obedience to the Lord and you face opposition or restriction, that’s persecution, regardless of the “official” reason given.

4.
Knowing the consequences ahead of time
doesn’t mean it’s not persecution.

“James Coates had been warned multiple times that he was violating Covid regulations and he kept doing it, so he can’t cry ‘persecution’ now that he has to pay the piper.”

Um…seriously? Have you ever read your Bible? Persecution is not defined by whether or not you know what the consequences for your actions will be ahead of time. I would even argue that most victims of persecution in the Bible knew what they were in for, and they chose to obey God rather than evil men anyway.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew they would face the furnace.

Daniel knew the consequences for his prayers would be the lion’s den.

Jesus knew the cross was coming.

The Apostles had already been beaten and imprisoned for preaching the gospel, so they certainly knew they were in for more of the same when they went out and preached again.

Persecution is when Satan attempts to attack God and His people. It has nothing to do with whether or not the Christian being attacked knows what consequences his actions will bring.

Knowing the consequences ahead of time and obeying God anyway doesn’t mean you aren’t being persecuted, it means you’re a Christian.

There’s a lot of misinformation floating around out there about Christian persecution. If you’re a genuinely regenerated Christian, you will face some level of persecution at some point in your life. That’s a promise from Scripture. It’s important to be prepared for that so you can respond in a godly and obedient way, because responding to persecution by refusing to bow to man over God and doing so with a holy, humble, honored attitude is a testimony to the world, and an encouragement to your brothers and sisters, that Jesus Christ is King, and that He alone is worthy to rule and to reign.

1The Greek word for “church” in the New Testament is ekklesia. It literally means a gathering or an assembly. The church, is, by definition, a gathering together – in person – of “the called out ones” – Christians. Watching a church service online is a blessing when you are temporarily Providentially hindered from being there in person, but it is not the same as going to church, as we are commanded, and it is not a biblical substitute for going to church as we are commanded. It is not church at all, because where there is no gathering, there is no church.

2Quote attributed to 19th century French poet, Charles Baudelaire

3Please understand, I’m not saying that if you have to stay home from church temporarily to stay healthy that you’re automatically deceived or unsaved. Remember, we’re talking about the long term, big picture of Satan’s agenda here, not individual trees in the forest.

Additional Resources:

Persecution in the Pew

Why Pastor James Coates’ Imprisonment is Actual Persecution at The Cripplegate

Why are COVID restrictions on gathering size persecution, but fire codes limiting gathering size are not? Glad You Asked (~23:21) at A Word Fitly Spoken

I did not have an opportunity, before I wrote this article, to listen to James Coates’ last sermon before he was arrested, but he does a much better job of explaining the government’s roles and responsibilities, and exegeting Romans 13 than I ever could. Please give it a listen:

Romans 13 and James Coates | Justin Peters Ministries | February 21, 2021

Movies

Movie Time: A Thief in the Night

Michelle Lesley

Originally published September 10, 2019

You can also watch A Thief in the Night for free on Tubi.

 

Keep a sharp lookout, for you do not know when I will come, at evening, midnight, early dawn, or late daybreak. Don’t let Me find you sleeping.

Today’s Movie Time is a double whammy: evangelical pop culture and homework. A Thief in the Night was my generation’s Left Behind. It’s the reason Christians my age, who grew up in church experience a split second of terror when we walk into the house and it’s unexpectedly empty. (Did the rapture happen and I didn’t make it?)

So grab your Bible and your popcorn and experience Christianity of yesteryear. Look up the passages that are mentioned in the movie and read them in context. Does the movie rightly handle those passages? Do you agree or disagree with this eschatology? Why? Are movies like this helpful, or do they just scare people into becoming false converts?

And most importantly, whatever way you think the Lord is coming back, He is coming back. Are you ready?

For you yourselves are fully aware that
the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:2

Bonus!

Check out this review / reaction to A Thief in the Night from my friend, Pastor Keith Foskey:

Mailbag

The Mailbag: How can a security team protect my church from “protests,” attacks, and other threats?

Michelle Lesley

Kudos to the Center for Baptist Leadership for essentially breaking this story. If you’re still in the SBC, fighting back against the darkness at the national level, give them a follow. They’re doing the Lord’s work over there at CBL!

(I don’t know Brandon, but when I grabbed this, his was the only post I had seen with the video on the bottom. I’m grateful he posted it.)

Hopefully, you’ve seen this story by now. I would say “news story,” but, as you might imagine, the mainstream media (including my own local media) isn’t giving it much, if any, coverage.

I posted my thoughts about this on my Facebook and X accounts. Since my husband helps lead the security team at my church, that’s where my mind initially went. A Facebook follower had a few questions and comments that I thought might be helpful to answer and address in a public forum. Below, slightly edited, is our exchange. My words are in black, hers are in blue.

My original post: If your church does not have a security team, you need to get one in place, like, yesterday. If it’s not this, it’ll be something else. Don’t wait until something happens. Get some guys* trained to protect the flock NOW.

Just wondering what you think a security team could have/would have done with a large group of unarmed individuals all coming in at once. Besides try to stop them from entering the sanctuary, and calling the police. Surely proper security in a church does not involve drawing a weapon on unarmed people?

(My church does have security, but as I read all the comments that this is why churches need it, I can’t see how you could make these people leave without physical harm. Maybe you and others are encouraging security so the assembling would have been noticed outside and police called to remove them from trespassing, but that is not the impression I get from all the “don’t try this in the south” comments on X. As I watched it last night I wondered why the congregation didn’t stand up and start corporately singing “Amazing Grace” or something.)

My husband helps lead our security team at church. Different churches handle security in different ways, but in general, here’s what would happen:

1. The security team follows the local and national news, and stays in touch with law enforcement and government officials when necessary, so they know what kinds of potential threats are out there.

2. They train and drill regularly to respond to various kinds of threats. This includes training in de-escalation as well as the use of force, and immediately contacting law enforcement should a threat situation occur.

3. They patrol the grounds, the buildings, and the security cameras before and during services and other activities to be on the alert for potential threats.

4. During worship service and certain other events, all of the exterior doors are locked (that alone probably would have helped in the Minnesota situation), and, as I said in #3, security team members are patrolling (They’re also stationed by main entrances and exits in case, for example, someone needs to leave the worship service to run out to her car, and then re-enter.). There are also security team members seated in the worship service to implement security measures and instruct and direct the congregation if that becomes necessary.

5. I don’t want to say any more than I should in a public forum in order not to give away any security strategies, so I’ll just put it this way: If a trained, armed security team is in place and doing all of the above, those protesters are very unlikely to penetrate from outside to the sanctuary.

I would also add that the congregation singing Amazing Grace or anything else is not helpful in a situation like this. It adds to the chaos, it further angers the perpetrators, it distracts the congregation from paying attention to any instruction the pastor, security team, or law enforcement might give them, and it prevents them from hearing said instructions. The congregation should sit quietly and calmly unless instructed to do otherwise.

Yes. These are good things. Reading comments elsewhere, the implication is not so proactive, but rather reactive, involving force, which is not what we see with Paul in Acts 19.

“Reactive” isn’t good because it means nobody was prepared, alert, and ready beforehand, so you’re right about that. Preparing, training, and having a plan in place before something happens is much better and more effective, and it serves as a deterrent to keep things like this from happening in the first place.

But there is nothing wrong or unbiblical about using appropriate force, when necessary, to protect God’s house and God’s people (or anyone else for that matter), and you can’t correctly use the Ephesian riot in Acts 19:21-40 to argue against the use of force. That was a completely different situation.

Read the context and the text carefully. The Ephesian rioters did not attack a church. They were having their own large “meeting” (24-25, 40-41), whipped themselves up into a frenzy, thronged through the streets from the meeting place to the theater – throwing the entire city into an uproar in the process – and then dragged two of Paul’s companions into the middle of this riot (29).

Paul wanted to go into the middle of this chaos and preach/explain/fix things, but the disciples wouldn’t let him (30). Why? Not because they were trying to prevent him from using force – because that isn’t what he was going to do – but to keep him and Gaius and Aristarchus from getting killed by this mob of at least hundreds, possibly thousands. Three men against a whole city. Of course they weren’t thinking of using force – they were just trying to escape with their lives. This is completely different from what happened in the church in Minnesota.

The Ephesian riot also happened in a different country with a different government and different laws. In America, it is illegal to attack, disrupt, or damage a church, and it is legal to defend yourself and others, which, in the case of an attack on a church, also means it’s legal to protect the church property (i.e. prevent these criminals from entering the building).

Additionally, Acts is historical narrative. It is DEscriptive (a description of what happened) not PREscriptive (a command or doctrine to follow).

(I’ve discussed more about descriptive vs. prescriptive passages in this article.)

I would point out a couple of other descriptive passages that are much more applicable to protecting churches and congregations:

  • 1 Chronicles 9:17-27, 26:12-32 talk about the gatekeepers, doorkeepers, and guards of the temple. The “security team” of the temple, if you will. They’re even mentioned again in Acts 4:1, 5:24. God commanded that His house be protected and appointed people to do it.
  • Luke 22:35-38: Jesus is preparing the disciples to go out and start the New Testament church, and He tells them to take swords with them – even to sell their garments and buy one if they don’t have one. What were those swords for if not defending themselves if attacked?
  • The entire Old Testament is filled with accounts of Israel killing the enemies of God’s people – sometimes even “innocent” women and children – and this use of force was often initiated by Israel (in other words, they attacked the enemy; it wasn’t always self-defense).

God is OK with Christians defending ourselves and others with force if necessary.

*A couple of other followers mentioned or suggested women serving on the security team alongside men. If you have women church members who have professional experience or contacts with law enforcement, the military, relevant areas of government, etc., it’s fine for them to act as liaisons between the church and these entities, offer needed input appropriately behind the scenes, etc., but when it comes to actively engaging in protecting God’s house and God’s people, biblically, that’s a job for men, not women.

Furthermore – and this is anecdotal, but it’s worth thinking about – nearly all of the commenters on my posts who were objecting to the use of force, security teams, and offering bad “touchy feely” advice (such as singing Amazing Grace during a threat situation), were women. Generally speaking, God has gifted women in the areas of compassion, mercy, and nurturing, and those attributes are wonderful when exercised in the appropriate situations that call for those things. Protecting people against dangerous thugs is not one of those situations. Protecting people from dangerous thugs calls for men, whom God has graciously gifted in dispassionately killing people and breaking things when a threat, and the need, arises. All things considered, everyone is safer with men protecting them than with women protecting them.

Additional Resources:

Your Church Needs a Security Team – NOW by Dusty Deevers

No, You Don’t Have a First Amendment Right to Disrupt Worship at The Cripplegate

Shocking: Anti-Ice Mob Storms Baptist Church | Center for Baptist Leadership | Monday, January 18, 2026

This is an excerpt from the full video from CBL, above.

If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.

Abortion

Abolition or Pro-Life?

Michelle Lesley

Originally published June 8, 2022

Sanctity of Life Sunday is this Sunday, January 18.

Do you know the differences between the abolition movement and the pro-life movement? It’s a good thing for all Christians to be informed about.

Watch A Storm Comes Rolling Down the Plain, then listen in to our A Word Fitly Spoken interview with Brett Baggett, one of the key figures in the documentary.

The position of the abolition movement is that it should be spearheaded by the church, and so most of the leaders of the movement and activities are pastors and other men. But women play a vital role in the abolition movement, too. Listen in as Susan White tells us how to get involved.

I also thought this interview with Samuel Sey, Nathaniel Jolly, and Ekkie Tepsupornchai on the Truth Be Known podcast was insightful and helpful:

Additional Resources:

Basic Training: Abortion

Movie Time: Babies Are (Still) Murdered Here

Guest Post ~ On the Subject of Abortion

Rescue Those

Free the States

Abortion, Basic Training

Basic Training: Abortion

Michelle Lesley

For more in the Basic Training series, click here.

Sanctity of Life Sunday is this Sunday, January 18.

I rarely write on abortion. But it’s not because I don’t feel strongly about it. It’s because it seems like it should be a given. That Christians shouldn’t have to be told that we don’t support abortion any more than we have to be told to breathe or eat. When I think about writing about abortion, I think, “What could I possibly say that hasn’t already been said a million times, and by people who have more experience in this arena than I do?”.

But the more I look out over the landscape of contemporary Christianity, the more I realize we can’t take any aspect of theology for granted. Because when we take the basics for granted, they don’t get taught to the next generation and we end up assuming they know things they don’t actually know. And that’s on us – those of us who knew and didn’t properly and explicitly train those who came behind us.

So if you’re recently saved and you’ve just walked in to this brand new, unfamiliar, and counter-intuitive worldview of biblical Christianity, or if you grew up around some form of evangelicalism but nobody ever took the time to sit you down and teach you properly, let’s look at some of the basics about abortion.

🍼 Abortion is murder. When you intentionally and unjustly end an innocent human life, that is murder. Abortion takes a living human being (it’s not a chicken or a hippo or a platypus) and intentionally and unjustly causes the death (causes heart, brain, and all other organ functions to cease) of said human being. That’s not even a theological argument, that’s a medical fact.

🍼 A baby in utero is not part of the “mother’s body.” The pro-abortion side often makes comments like, “No one has the right to tell a woman what she can and can’t do with her body.” This argument is beneath the intelligence of most of the people who make it for a couple of reasons: 

First, we tell men, women, and children what they can and can’t do with their bodies all the time. Children can’t use their bodies to drive a car or serve in the military. Men can’t use their bodies to rape. Women can’t use their bodies for prostitution. People can’t sell their kidneys for transplant. See how that works?

Second, this isn’t the twelfth, or fifteenth, or eighteenth century. Modern science has left in the dust any notion that a baby is an appendage of his mother’s body like her arm or her liver. Pre-born babies have their own unique DNA, blood type, heartbeat, organ systems, and so on. When we say a woman shouldn’t have an abortion, we aren’t telling a woman what to do with her own body … except in the sense that we are telling her she can’t use her body to murder someone else. (Which, technically, is already a law that pertains to both men and women.) A pre-born baby may be dependent on his mother for food, shelter, and care, but so is her two-year-old, and, so far, no one is using that line of reasoning to suggest it’s OK to kill a child of that age. Yet.

And, finally, if you’re a genuinely regenerated Christian who is holding on to the “my body my choice” mantra, your body, your life, and your eternity were bought and paid for by Christ. He owns you, and He has every right to tell you what to do with your body. It doesn’t matter one whit what people say you can or can’t do.

If you’re a genuinely regenerated Christian who is holding on to the “my body my choice” mantra, you were bought and paid for by Christ. He owns you and has every right to tell you what to do with your body.

🍼 Abortion is never necessary to save the mother’s life. Numerous OB/GYNs and other medical professionals have stated this publicly. In cases in which the mother’s life and/or health are at stake (including ectopic pregnancies), the biblical and medically ethical approach is to make every attempt to save both the mother and child (which can often be done through early delivery, not abortion). If the child dies during the attempt to save him and his mother, that is a grievous tragedy, but it is not an abortion. Abortion is the intentional, proactive killing of a child.

Abortion is NEVER necessary to save the mother’s life.

🍼 Medical care for miscarriage and stillbirth is not an abortion. This is like saying that burying someone who has died is the same as murdering that person. In a miscarriage and stillbirth, the baby has already died in utero of natural or accidental causes. Abortion is proactively and intentionally killing a living pre-born baby.

Medical care for miscarriage and stillbirth is NOT an abortion.

🍼 Rape and incest are horrible sins that no one should ever be subjected to, but in the tiny number of pregnancies that result from these heinous crimes, we do not execute the child for the sin of his father. The Bible is clear on that. And the practical results of obeying this biblical mandate bear out its truth. The overwhelming majority of women who get an abortion after having been raped regret it and say it caused additional trauma, while women who go through with their pregnancies after rape do not.

The overwhelming majority of women who get an abortion after having been raped regret it and say it caused additional trauma.

🍼 Because abortion is murder, it is a sin. If you have ever performed, assisted in, encouraged, or received an abortion, you have committed the sin of murder. You are a murderer. It is good and right for you to feel guilty about that and to grieve over both the sinful person you are who has offended a holy God, and to grieve for the life of your baby. Don’t try to skip feeling your guilt and grief over this sin. It’s a vital part of the process of dealing with it biblically and in an emotionally healthy way.

🍼 If you’re counseling someone post-abortion, I know it can be painful to watch, but you must let her process through the guilt that comes with this sin. Don’t immediately skip ahead to forgiveness. She can’t get to repentance and forgiveness if she has nothing to repent of and ask forgiveness for. 

🍼 Also if you’re counseling someone post-abortion, do not just give her blanket absolution. I recently heard a pastor (with the best of intentions, I’m sure) stand in the pulpit and rightly call abortion a sin, and also rightly offer women Christ’s forgiveness of that sin. But he skipped the middle part where you have to confess and repent of your sin and ask Christ for forgiveness. That’s not a step that can be skipped for abortion or any other sin.

🍼 If you repent of the sin of abortion, Christ will forgive you and make you clean. He delights to cleanse the foulest of sinners and welcome them into His Kingdom with open arms of grace and mercy. Trust Him to keep His promise to forgive you.

🍼 Christians should support doctrinally sound anti-abortion endeavors. Volunteering at crisis pregnancy centers, donating to anti-abortion causes and services, adopting, housing and providing for pregnant women who need assistance, supporting Christian orphanages, etc. Just be discerning and check out the theology of the organization first.

🍼 Christians should not join with apostate “churches” or other religions in anti-abortion causes. The Bible is absolutely clear that we are not to partner in ministry endeavors with unbelievers, especially those who claim to be Christians or teach false doctrine. (Yes, this includes Catholics. They may be very nice people and they’ve been fighting against abortion for a long time, but Catholic doctrine anathematizes the gospel and biblical Christianity.) Partnering with unbelievers who claim to be Christians is an even more dangerous sin than abortion because it confuses people about what salvation is and muddies the gospel. It sends the message that you can believe things contrary to Scripture and still be saved, and that is a message that sends people to an eternity in Hell. Plus, it doesn’t make any sense to commit one sin in order to fight against another sin. That is not God’s way nor is it in keeping with His Word.

🍼 For Christians, abortion should be our highest priority litmus test when it comes to deciding which candidate to vote for. If you’re willing to have children murdered so you can get more money back in your tax refund, or better highways, or more social programs, or whatever, your attitude is anti-Christ. Where would we be if Jesus had had such a selfish, self-serving worldview? Christianity says, “I’ll lay down my life for you,” not, “You lay down your life for me.”. Besides, if your candidate is so ensconced in evil that he advocates murdering children, he won’t think twice about a lesser sin like breaking the very campaign promises that caused you to vote for him in the first place.

🍼 Pastors, youth pastors, and teachers in our churches need to clearly and proactively preach and teach what the Bible says about sex and abortion through the lens of the gospel. Having a largely regenerate congregation will prevent abortions primarily through girls and women getting saved, but having a gospel-saturated culture in your church will also encourage those who do sin sexually and get pregnant to reach out to a brother or sister – instead of an abortion clinic – for help.

🍼 God is the creator, sustainer, and giver of life. If He values life so much, how can we who claim to be His followers treat a human life as inconvenient, cheap, and expendable when it suits our own selfish purposes?

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139:13-16

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Psalm 127:3

Abortion is the murder of a human being. You cannot support that at any level if you truly belong to Christ. If you’re a Christian, you must submit your attitudes and actions regarding abortion to the teaching of Scripture, and obey God’s Word.

Additional Resources:

Guest Post ~ On the Subject of Abortion

Abolition or Pro-Life?

Rescue Those

Free the States