So-called “progressives,” I must rush to say, and in reality, they are “regressive” in their ultimate goal that their philosophies and policies would lead them.

How is that? Well, there are two opposing factions in the world—moral and immoral, good and evil, godly and ungodly, righteous and unrighteous, legal and illegal. Can you think of any more such contrary positions? These two opposing positions have their supportive followers, and the Scriptures tell us where the point of division rests. Look at Romans 3:10-18 for a description of one side of the stand-off:

As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”

“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit;”
The poison of asps is under their lips”
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
 destruction and misery are in their ways;
and the way of peace they have not known.”
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

These are all quotes from the Psalms and Isaiah, not a New Testament idea that Paul dreamed  up. Has the indictment taken on a better cast in the centuries since this was recorded by Paul? Honestly, no. The opposing viewpoint is found in Proverbs 9:10, centering on the “fear of God” concept:

Compare that last verse in the quote from Romans 3 above, with this proverb and think of what it implies: “Real wisdom is not present when there is no fear of God—no respect for His sovereignty over all things.”

 Why is that? The description of God’s wisdom in James 3:17 may be helpful:

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

The Amplified Bible version of the verse expands those words from the Greek more vividly:

“But the wisdom from above is first pure [morally and spiritually undefiled], then peace-loving [courteous, considerate], gentle, reasonable [and willing to listen], full of compassion and good fruits. It is unwavering, without [self-righteous] hypocrisy [and self-serving guile].”

It is a painful thing to watch a hard-core progressive liberal be interviewed on a Fox News program. The host can hardly get his or her questions stated for the over-riding, incessant chatterbox of the guest. It’s as if letting the host talk would be an infringement upon their existence, or certainly, on their self-affirmed intellectual dominance.

What is it that drives those people to ravage and destroy their own neighborhoods in rebellion and protests against the very changes that would bring them a better life? If they get what they claim they want—less law enforcement, open borders, no drug controls—the United States would lose its sovereignty and no longer be a nation. If that happens, there goes their government welfare checks, their free food stamps, their free medical services. Is there no common sense, at least?

There is another proverb that speaks to this issue very well, and especially to those who lead those of this mindset, once again in the Amplified Bible:

“Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained, but happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God]” (Proverbs 29:18).

It seems to me that any reasonable thinking person can see that those eight years of the Obama Administration were filled with a concerted drive to bring America down to nothing.

The fact that I have been repeating many times of President Obama’s casual, off-the-cuff comment at the Annual Correspondents’ Dinner last April 30, 2016, that “The end of the Republic has never looked better,” tells a hidden story. He really believed, then, that Hillary Clinton already had the presidential election wrapped up. What a surprise on November 8!

God does not respond to Man’s contrived circumstances; He creates the circumstances! (Even for the winners.)

The list of contrived failures and the destruction of the nation’s military, economy, infrastructure, social order, increase in impoverished citizens—indicated by the increases in food stamp recipients and increase in out-of-work welfare recipients—decreased prominence in foreign affairs, relations with Israel, as well as the obvious sympathetic attitude toward radical Islamic terrorism.

What did Henry Kissinger mean when he said of president-elect Barack Obama?: “He has been primed to lead us into a New World Order.”

That question I have asked over and over again since 2008. Yet no one has offered to take up the issue. It makes me wonder just who and how many there are who have no vision of the future and are playing both sides of the spectrum for their own self-interests. It is clear that their thoughts do not include thoughts of their eternal destiny.

Since there are only two controlling forces in the world, good and evil, God and Satan (as I mentioned earlier), then we have to conclude that the driving force behind this faction of the population is the force of evil. But I am not saying that all of the “good guys” do not fall under the pull of self-interest and impure motives.

The big picture is spelled out in Revelation 13:1-2 where John sees over the expanse of centuries all of the kingdoms that have risen and fallen until the one in which he is living, the Roman kingdom. Note what he declares is the driving force in those kingdoms through all of them, as well as that seventh head or kingdom that was in John’s future:

“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.”

In the prior chapter (not separated as such in John’s original writing), the dragon is identified as “a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems [crowns] on his heads” (Revelation 12:3). Note that he is a vital part of every head, or kingdom.  It is clear who owns those kingdoms, for when the devil tempted Jesus (Matthew 4 and Luke 4), they were his to give if only Jesus would bow down and worship him.

It is no wonder, then, that the resistance, the protests against law and order, moral integrity, fair and equal justice would be rejected by those under the control of the dragon. His goal is toward that New World Order, the one-world government of which he will become the eighth head (Revelation 17:10-11).

Otherwise, it makes no sense that apparently decent people, in many respects, would exhibit such hatred for anyone or any movement that would restore the well-being and dignity of their lives.  It is as if that element of our society has lost all mental self-control and is moved by a strange, mysterious worldwide force.

The clear distinction between the two opposing entities, Jesus and the devil, is made in John 10:10, where it is obvious who is the thief:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”   

But our goal, the goal of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, is “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). And what a wonderful goal that is!

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com

He can take it, though, for the final decision is in His hands. It is the issue of where is the beginning of life, personhood and a person’s future. Based on Scripture, particularly Psalm 139:13-16, the beginning of life and personhood can be no other than at the moment of conception:

“For You formed my inward parts; you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

That is why I am saying that any other claim that life does not begin at that point is a slap in God’s face! Another defining Scripture also indicates the source of that denial of God’s intimate creation of life in conception. It arises from the depths of Satanic darkness:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

When Thomas Jefferson framed the Declaration of Independence, and then the founding fathers endorsed it, they did not identify when life began, but the words parallel those of Scripture in Psalm 139 and John 10 above. The Declaration of Independence makes this statement:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness….”

Is it not uncanny that those who embrace the so-called “pro-choice” position on abortion are primarily those who also identify themselves as “more equal” than others? The egotistical elite, who make up the core of the women’s rights movement, have a hidden agenda, I suspect, that is more akin to the New World Order plans to reduce the population to a more manageable size of one billion or less on the earth. That means that over six billion people must be eliminated, and abortion addresses that very well.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—unalienable rights that are  a gift from our Creator, and the first one listed is Life. The claim is made that a woman’s health and well-being are issues that justify a choice of abortion. In 2016 I understand there were more than 100,000 abortions in America, alone. I cannot believe that a woman’s health and well-being was the justification for all of those abortions. Can you?

I can concede that there are such cases, as well as rape and incest situations, but it is more likely that the majority of the abortions were merely for convenience and a gruesome form of birth control. Of course, I am a man, and how could I know anything about a woman’s concerns, right?

I recall a lady in the community where I grew up who was helped in her first pregnancy with medical treatments—pain killers and medical assistance, but she wanted to see just how it would be in her second pregnancy if she endured it naturally. Perhaps she bore the child at home, I’m not sure. But the summation of it was that she “thought it was going to kill her!”

God did tell Eve, as punishment for her disobedience in the Garden, that she would suffer pain in childbirth. Modern medicine has made the prospect much more endurable, but even so, is there a possibility that some women are expressing defiance toward God in their denial of a right to life for their unborn? Can anyone honestly justify partial birth abortions?

Here is the capstone of the whole beginning of life and personhood issue, if the passage quoted earlier from Psalm 139 is rejected merely because one chooses not to believe it. During the Christmas holiday season I was looking at the passage in Luke 1 that ells of the angel Gabriel’s surprising visit to the young Hebrew maiden named Mary:

“Now in the sixth month [of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist], the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, ‘Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’

“But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.’ Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’

And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.  For with God nothing will be impossible.’ Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her’” (Luke 1:26-38).

The question to be answered in that passage is this: “When did life and Personhood begin for the conceived Son of God?”

Right away Mary visited her cousin, Elizabeth, to relay the good news and, no doubt, to confirm what the angel had told her of her cousin’s pregnancy:

“Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord’” (Luke 1:39-45).

This is a lengthy quote, but the full context is important to see that Mary’s conception by the Holy Spirit must have been almost immediately after being told of it, for she “arose with haste” and went to visit Elizabeth, and as soon as she greeted her cousin, the babies in both wombs were alive with instant recognition! There were no merely non-living, non-person fetuses in those wombs. They both were living testimonies of the God of the impossible!

If the Immaculate Conception was the beginning of mortal life for the Son of Man, Jesus, who has never been without life from eternity (John 5:26), what does that say about the beginning of life and personhood for all mortals? Therefore, I must say outright, it is a slap, even a backhand, in the face of God to claim that life and personhood do not begin at conception. And since it is so, all those who have been aborted will be waiting beyond the veil of this life to stand as witnesses to this truth.

Psalm 139:16 says, “He wrote them all down in His book of life.”

God’s indictment of the unredeemed, lost mankind is this: “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

End Note:  A prior article on this subject may also be of interest to you. Let me know by email below if you would like to have a copy sent to you.

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com