Magic Statistics

The Rev John Piper preaches from Psalm 106:32-48, which summarises the repeated sins and disobedience of Israel and the repeated judgment and mercy of God.  The psalmist focuses on the shedding of innocent blood when the people of Israel were seduced by idols of the Canaanites and offered their children as sacrifices to demons.

Rev Piper then connects the abominable practices decried in Psalm 106 to the present practice of abortion.  Here is his conclusion.

Abortion: Sacrificing Our Sons and Daughters to Demons

It is the sacrificing of our sons and daughters to demons. And someday we will see this. And we will be as amazed that it could have endured so long as we are that the enslavement of Africans lasted as long as it did. The issue is just as clear as that one was. And we are just as blind today as they were then. The big difference is that the babies can’t run away. The underground railroad is entirely dependent on you, not them.

The strength to stand up and make a difference in this cause comes not mainly from the raw horrors of abortion, but from the amazing grace of verses 44-45: “Nevertheless [that is, in spite of sacrificing their children to demons], he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” This is what Jesus Christ came to achieve for all who will receive it.

Take Up the Challenge

I pray that the horrors of abortion and the glory of God’s grace will move you to take up the challenge of prayer on the back of the worship folder and to extend yourself in other practical ways for life, both temporal and eternal. Amen.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the rights of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
(Psalm 82:3-4)

Amen, and amen!

h/t: Peter Ould at An Exercise in the Fundamentals of Orthodoxy

Previous related posts:

• “The Triumph of the Will”
• Clergy bless abortuary as “sacred ground”
• Moloch and abortion

On 27 December, Glasgow resident Sobia Wali secretly married a man her parents disapproved of.  She was three months pregnant at the time.

Ms Wali died last week under mysterious circumstances in Lahore, Pakistan, where she went with her family to attend her grandmother’s funeral.  The family says she died of an infection, but it has emerged that she was admitted to an abortion hospital and died shortly thereafter at a second hospital. She was 22 years old.

A police source in Lahore said Wali, from Crookston, Glasgow, was initially admitted to Najma Zia, understood to be a hospital, for a termination, but was subsequently taken to the Surgimed hospital in Lahore where she died.

Her husband, Usman Gulzar, 24, a shop assistant from Glasgow, has reportedly told friends she had sent him text messages from Pakistan asking for his help.

A day after sending the messages, she died apparently from food poisoning or a virus. A close friend of the couple told the Daily Record that Wali, who married Gulzar on December 27 in a registry office in Glasgow, had not told her parents of the wedding because they had banned them from seeing each other.

Some Scottish news sources are reporting that she died of complications following a forced, botched abortion.

Family members reject allegations that an abortion led to her death, saying that she fell ill and died tragically despite receiving the best medical care available.

Strathclyde Police are investigating the circumstances of her death.  Mohammed Sarwar, a Muslim MP from Glasgow, will speak to detectives tomorrow.  He is reportedly urging that Sobia’s body be exhumed for an autopsy.

Detectives in Pakistan and the British High Commission in Lahore are also investigating.