It is staggering to me now, looking back, how it is many so close after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did not among the many moral issues related to Civil Rights galvanize against abortion as it made its way to the 1973 Supreme Court decision. Who could be more disenfranchised than an unborn child targeted for murder? Important figures in the Civil Rights Movement actually endorsed and advocated for abortion to make it as it is to this day for them a matter of women’s rights. Like ancient Israel forced to turn back from entering the Promised Land and wander in the wilderness because of unbelief, so, the Civil Rights Movement turned left away from biblical morality on abortion and other issues into the spiritual wilderness of sin seeking allies of mortal flesh rather than God (Numbers 14:11-25; Proverbs 14:34).
Even the most casual reading of the Bible will yield the straightforward understanding that human life is precious to God, humanity’s Creator (Genesis 4:8-15; Exodus 20:13; Mark 10:17-19). So, in this edited 2010 Commentary I have combined with a similar 2012 blog, I declare that men in the lead and women are to protect their children whose existence actually begins in the mind of God long before conception which He is also intimately involved with (Isaiah 45:1-7)! Therefore, in a biblical worldview, not only is abortion murder for the guilty parents, but also all who advocate for and perform it as accomplices. They will be held accountable by God in this life and on Judgment Day unless they embrace their only recourse I write about in this post.
Originally Published January 2010
Here in Portland, Oregon, Planned Parenthood the birth control and abortion provider is soon to finish construction on a new facility in an area that has been traditionally populated by black Americans. This is strategic on their part since black females have more abortions than any other racial group.1 Yet, the silence of most black clergy and open advocacy of others has been shocking. In the peaceful protests I have attended it has been primarily our white brethren that have represented the very clear scriptural mandate to revere human life (Genesis 9:5-7); life that begins at conception in the handiwork of God our Creator (Psalm 139:13-16; Zechariah 12:1).
Abortion as a concept at its root is not a black or white racial issue nor is it about women's rights. Men and women from all hues should be vitally concerned about what is very thoroughly a spiritual and moral matter. Men--especially those that aspire to be strong men of God in Christ's image--ought to be deeply affected by the slaughter of defenseless human lives. God has wired us with a heart like His and holds us responsible to defend the defenseless (Psalms 68:5-6, 82:1-4). But with steely precision abortionists around this nation routinely kill the unborn men have fathered for the sake of parental convenience. I know all about the convenience thing.
As a teenage father before I came to Christ, I either pushed for or passively offered no objection to the killing of my children on a number of occasions with different females.2 Years later I still wonder at times how I could have been so selfish and deceived. Then I remember the deceitful craftiness of the god of this world and my own fallen nature as a sinner and come to my senses. Spiritually speaking, we kill our unborn because we are dead in our sins to God and purposely deceived. It is not rocket science to understand the matter-of-fact reason we do so either: if there is no baby, then there is no responsibility or possible change in life plans.
Satan’s deceptive spin last century that morphed abortion from an issue of biblical morality into one that has to do with a woman’s rights over her body is of the success he enjoyed with Eve in Eden (Genesis 3:1-6a; 1 Timothy 2:14). And if they are not the instigators, just as Adam did not intervene while Satan deceived his wife and passively followed her lead in disobedience (Genesis 3:6b), so, many men today are doing the same thing in the decision to kill their unborn children. But now, made alive by God to God through faith in Christ, I have received forgiveness and instruction from His Word to fulfill all of my responsibilities as a father to my children (Ephesians 2:1-10).
In a truth I fully explain in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, none other than God the Father Himself has shown us men what a father is and does.3 Besides initiating Adam's existence, the Father also led, taught, provided for and protected him. In protecting Adam, God put him in the Garden of Eden as a shelter among other reasons and watched over him (Genesis 2:7-18). Even when Satan came to the garden please note he was not allowed to touch Adam or his wife, but only to deceive them if he could (Genesis 3:1-6). If it had been left up to the devil he would have killed the two humans where they stood (John 8:44). But God protected them!
God has given all men the responsibility to protect the lives we initiate through our seed released in the sexual intimacy of marriage or otherwise as well as those that are adopted. Our responsibility begins the moment of conception and continues until the new or adopted life attains the age of majority and departs from under our protective care (Matthew 1:18-25 2:13-15, 19-23; Luke 2:41-52). When men demand or passively allow the death of their children through abortion, it is a purposeful rejection of the responsibility that God has assigned to and holds us accountable for. We may only drop them off at the clinic, but we are just as guilty as the women for the murder that takes place.
So now, in these latter days Satan has gotten us to do legally what he was forbidden to do thousands of years ago in the garden: murder human life! For the record, only the bodies of the unborn are destroyed. God takes their spirits and souls back to Himself in Heaven to await the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7). However, the parent's lives are eternally destroyed without repentance. Therefore, let every man and woman reading this who is guilty turn to God in all confession and repentance from your sins. By faith receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ believing that He died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day. All who sincerely do this will receive God’s forgiveness, healing, instruction, a restored mind and heart with eternal life!
Unlike in our former godless and selfish mindset, God expects His sons and aspiring strong men in the image of Christ to welcome the pregnancy of our wives with joy and thanksgiving to Him! His sons are never to father children out of wedlock. However, if this should happen, in repentance He wills that you embrace your child and the mother in marriage if possible. In all instances, we are to fulfill our responsibilities to our children to include protecting them with the wisdom, help and strength God supplies. Also, brothers, stand up like men indwelt by the living God and speak out against the slaughter of the defenseless unborn in the protecting responsibility He has given us. The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 "Abortion Number For African-Americans Rising," Life In Oregon, April-June 2008 Issue, p. 7. Also, see black Abortion Facts on theurbanprophet.org Web Site. The
facility referenced was completed and remains a hub of activity.
2 That God may always be glorified in His amazing work to save and transform sinners through my life; I share my shame at having been an unsaved, unmarried and ire-
sponsible teenage father of two children that lived, but others that were murdered in their mother’s wombs. I am not just some moralizing preacher who knows nothing
at all about the real fear and selfishness that goes into the decision to abort or after birth, abandon a child God has charged men in the lead with the responsibility to pro-
tect.
3 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the
Strong Man Store.
I will soon wrap up the series of posts the Lord Jesus Christ has led me to make since November 27, 2022 examining His foreknowledge then, literal experience of persecution to the death in God’s will as an instructional example to us Christians. Before this though, I want to revisit an event and a person in those posts that impact critical issues in our times. Today, on this Sanctity Of Life Sunday dedicated to urging every citizen in our nation to treat human life beginning at conception as from God and sacred (Psalm 139:13-16; Isaiah 44:24; Luke 1:30-35), I bring the Lord’s Word and a warning to those who continue to wickedly clamor for the right to murder the unborn.
The event that inspires this post is Herod’s massacre of the male children two years old and under in Bethlehem and its surrounding districts in his attempt to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ as a young Child he feared as a rival to his throne.1 Make no mistake about it; the dark and evil heart that could murder babies and toddlers out of the motives of fear and narcissism is the same one in those that would take out the unborn in their mother’s wombs. I know this from the forgiven guilt and shame of having been a teen father that gave consent as well as relieved endorsement to the abortion of my children before and during the days of Roe v. Wade as I wrote in previous posts and my book.2
The apostle Matthew is led by the Holy Spirit in his Gospel to comment on Herod’s massacre of the children that it “fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah; lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more,’” (Matthew 2:17-18, NKJV). At first glance, it seems that the Lord simply foretells this event over 600 years in advance rightly acknowledging the grief of the Bethlehem mothers figuratively represented by a woman named Rachel, but quite unfeelingly offering no explanation of why or comfort. However, deeper Bible study bears great fruit showing otherwise!3
Led by the Holy Spirit, a deeper Bible study involves examining the background of Rachel and God’s prophecy as it originally appears in context. Indeed, Rachel is the second of two wives of Jewish patriarch, Jacob, that were sisters when he was sent to get one by his father, Isaac, from his mother’s people (Genesis 28:1-5). He meets and falls in love with Rachel and works seven years per agreement with her father, Laban, to marry her. But Laban deceitfully sent in his older daughter, Leah, when it was time to consummate the marriage and gave Rachel to Jacob only if he served him another seven years--he did (Genesis 29:1-30). The women competed to bear him children.
Leah and her maid gave Jacob eight sons and one daughter, while the maid of barren Rachel bore him two sons. By God’s grace Rachel was finally able to conceive and bore Joseph to Jacob (Genesis 29:31-30:24). She also bore him the last of his twelve sons, Benjamin; dying in the process with great sorrow and was buried as the family made their way from Bethel to “Ephrath” “(that is, Bethlehem),” (Genesis 35:16-20, NKJV). Though she had borne him fewer children than Leah, Rachel is considered the mother of all Israel because Jacob loved her. Her burial location would prove significant in what are actually two future events involving Rachel’s children.
In Jeremiah’s day hundreds of years later, Babylon’s invasions of Judah as God’s judgment yielded captives that were marched in chains on the well traveled road northward from Bethlehem and other cities to various staging locations that included Ramah (Jeremiah 40:1-6). The Lord used Rachel as the mother of Israel to figuratively represent all the affected mothers weeping at their children being taken away. But this Word was given in the larger context of Jeremiah 30-33 as God spoke of a future day when He brings a remnant back to the land complete with Messiah their King and “a new covenant,” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, NKJV). So, He tells Rachel to ‘“Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears for your work will be rewarded…,’” (Jeremiah 31:16-17, NKJV).
There was hope for the future because God would bring Rachel’s children that were taken back as a remnant to Israel’s border (Isaiah 49:8-26)! But they are not all of them. As this prophecy is true in the natural, so too, in the spiritual and applies to the male children Herod killed instead of Christ. They live as does every unborn child ever aborted (Ecclesiastes 12:7)! The innocents killed by Herod died in Christ’s place so He could live and die for them and all mankind on the cross!4 As a result, the innocents will be raised at Christ’s command among all who have ever lived and with the saints, enjoy immortal glory (Psalm 90:3-4; Isaiah 26:19; Luke 20:37-38; John 5:24-30, 11:23-27). Woe to all the unrepentant murderers of the unborn (Genesis 9:5-6; Revelation 20:11-15)!5
1 Read the December 18, 2022 post, Christ Persecuted As A Child, under the category, Instruction.
2 Concerning previous posts see for example, the one on January 21, 2018, Protecting Our Children, under the category, Biblical Worldview. You can pick up a Soft or Hard Cover copy of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore and the Strong Man Store.
3 If you want to learn how to get the most out of your Bible study, I invite you to take the layman’s Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course the Lord led me to develop to help. Get an overview of the course in the introductory first session at https://youtu.be/uufAkc3aYSc on our Strong Man Virtual Institute YouTube Channel.
4 The unborn and young children are not without the nature and taint of sin from Adam (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12). So, it must be atoned for as Christ accomplished on Cal- vary. They are however, innocent of willful sin because of not having yet reached the age of accountability before God which is generally when they have the ability to un- derstand biblical right from wrong (Proverbs 20:11; James 4:17).
5 While I and to be sure, every other born again, biblically conservative Christian advocate for the unborn in America continue to rejoice in the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, the spirit of murder behind legalized abortion remains intact and influential throughout the land (John 8:44). This is evident in the protest marches and persecution of Christians to include attacks on associated properties such as churches, businesses and pregnancy resource centers that have erupted. It is also seen in the efforts State by State to retain legal sanction for murdering the unborn and once again grant it nationally, this time through congressional legislation. Let all deceived and led by the spirit of murder to kill the unborn recognize if you will that the Lord is being gracious to allow you the opportunity to give heed to His warning and repent now, since no such opportunity will be offered on judgment day (2 Corinthians 5:9-11)!
One of the saddest evil developments among many of Christianity since the first century is the form of it as a religion invented by men. I have had to contend with this powerless, manmade evil from my infancy in Christ and in accord with my calling, gifting and ministry from the Lord in over forty years of service; writing much about Babylon in this blog.1 Not only is corruption of and willful disobedience to God’s Word with confusion characteristic of it, but false piety ostensibly informed by Christian love and enforced submission to men as leaders acting in the flesh of whom Scripture is quite clear are not pleasing God (Romans 8:8). (Does God in Scripture really require unquestioned loyalty and obedience to disobedient leaders--2 Corinthians 1:23-24, 11:1-21; Galatians 1-2:16?)2
Leave it to children to show the way of God as even the Son of God affirmed they do in their natural behavior. In this edited 2011 post, I reference the Lord’s instruction of His pride and selfish ambition filled disciples using the naturally humble hearts of children as the example of impossible conversion apart from God’s supernatural work their own hearts would need to enter the Kingdom. Such genuine humility of heart is characteristic of a man converted through the new birth of biblical Christianity. Too, like a child’s heart displayed by the children around Dale Ostrander who prayed for him as he drowned, a converted heart is willing to believe God--not as the religious who eloquently pray out loud, but act in their own power to accomplish their will (Matthew 23:14).
This Thanksgiving I am grateful for the children who remind us of what biblical Christianity is and the God of my salvation who makes it possible for me to walk it out in the authentic power of His Spirit; the life of an aspiring strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ! Have a great Thanksgiving.
Originally Posted August 14, 2011
Speaking to men in Matthew 18:1-4, the Lord Jesus answered the question of His disciples, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” (NKJV)? He referred them to a child and indicated unless these tough guys were to be converted and become like “little children” in humility and faith, they could not “enter” or be considered “the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” That’s a hard one for proud men to swallow. But this past week the news was filled with a miracle story that verifies the humble and trusting heart of a child is great before and honored by God.
Dale Ostrander was on a beach outing with his youth group in Long Beach, WA. He got sucked under by a rip tide and pulled out over a hundred yards from shore. Another youth, Nicole Kissel, tried to help him back, but when she turned, Dale was gone. Rescuers searched for over 20 minutes for what surely would be and was the drowned, lifeless body of Dale. But while the rescuers were on their way and during their search for Dale, on their faces in the sand weeping and calling on the name of the Lord were members of Dale’s youth group. These children not only believed that God could save their fellow youth, but passionately asked Him to do so with the humble, trusting hearts of children. And what was the result?
Even the most cynical of newscasters throughout the TV News media called Dale’s return to life “a miracle.” But not only did Dale come back to life, he is expected to recover.3 God is receiving glory all over the planet because some kids had the audacity, humility and faith to believe God can do anything! In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics,4 I tell men in order to receive its contents they must have the heart of a child as Jesus teaches in Matthew 18:1-4. The Dale Ostrander August 2011 return to life on the prayers of children is overwhelming evidence of the blessings and benefits of why. To God be the glory and thank you children for reminding proud, self-reliant adults and men--religious or otherwise--in particular, of the heart that pleases God!
1 See for example, my August 23, 2015 post, Babylon Is Falling, under the category, Bible Prophecy and August 21-28, 2016 two-part, Christianity The Religion Of Men,
under the category, Instruction.
2 Protestants certainly cannot believe this without hypocrisy since our whole existence is a repudiation of corrupt 16th century Catholicism and its leaders famously galva- nized by heralded reformer, Martin Luther--a Catholic priest!
3 Dale Ostrander lives today and continues a progressive recovery from certain death.
4 The book is available in print or digital download formats at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only).
You can also get the Hard or Soft Cover print versions of the book in the Strong Man Store.
While I have a few critics, the Lord controls when and how I occasionally respond and does not allow that I should waste the precious time He has given me to run my life and ministry race doing so more often. However, this is one of those times. Indeed, because I am getting older and this Ministry has not garnered the kind of worldly defined success and support of many other Ministries (I don’t compare myself to others as Scripture warns--2 Corinthians 10:12-18), some would urge me to quit since I do not ever intend to soften the messages God gives me to proclaim or corrupt and compromise His Word seeking to get better results (Ezekiel 33:1-9; 2 Corinthians 2:12-17, 4:1-2).
Like the children I talk about in this short, edited 2011 post, my zeal and energy level remain high after over 40 years of service to the Lord to include thirty-four years leading Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. as its Founder/President. The children run with natural youthful energy; I run with the supernatural strength of Christ! Until the Lord takes away my strength or physical faculties, I intend to keep running my life and ministry race whether full or part-time until I finish with my last breath as is presented in the newest short video to soon be added to this Ministry’s fundraising platform dedicated to raising my 2020 full-time salary.1 I appeal to God’s faithful to come to my “aid” at this “opportunity” (Philippians 4:10-20, NKJV)!
Originally Posted October 30, 2011
Yesterday, I was pleased to fulfill part of my commitment as chaplain to the Alberta Park Panther Football Team by attending a couple of games. The 7th and 8th grade players had just finished winning a close game and yet, what did I see not long after? They were mostly out of their uniforms playing more football on adjacent fields. And then there was the 3rd and 4th grade level of the team. They were so eager, so teachable, so trusting as they listened to their coaches and were likewise full of seemingly boundless energy. As were these boys, so is the aspiring strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ of all ages (Mark 10:13-16)! Get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to learn more about how and why.2
1 Go to FundRazr Salary Campaign.
2 The book is available in print or digital download formats at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only).
You can also get the Hard or Soft Cover print versions of the book in the Strong Man Store. Additionally, listen to the recent energetic interview, Jim Ramos, Presi-
dent of Men In The Arena conducted with me about the book’s content on his Podcast.
This edited 2010 Commentary followed immediately after one I wrote as the Lord led challenging men as fathers to step up and accept the divine assigned responsibility to protect our children starting as they are unborn in the womb.1 Transparently owning my own shameful failure to do so as an unsaved teenager, I also urged fellow aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ to stand up for and defend the right of the unborn to live.2 Continuing in that vein, this post puts the failure of men guilty of not protecting our children in its proper spiritual context as part of the ongoing rebellion against God, His design and order of the family. It also warns about the unfolding consequences that will continue to intensify and calls professed Christian men to the cause and work of restoring men.3
Originally Published February 2010
A man's responsibility to protect his children from conception to the age of majority is bound up in God's design of the human family. We do the mothers of our children no favors to remain with them--it is God's will that we do so! He holds us accountable to walk in His design and fulfill the purposes of our creation plainly spelled out in His Book of beginnings. There, it is written: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…,'" (Genesis 1:27-28a, NKJV).4
Man and woman as husband and wife in the lifetime bond of marriage is God's original and enduring context for the bringing forth of children. Formal marriage of the first couple took place after God created the woman and brought her to the man (Genesis 2:18-23). He then presented His will through Moses: "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh," (Genesis 2:24, NKJV). Any doubts about whether the first couple was truly married or not is dispelled in the next verse, "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed," (Genesis 2:25, Emphasis mine, NKJV).
In the rebellion against God and His Anointed that has intensely gripped our world over the last generation, living together without formal marriage has become so common we have considered it normal. But man's rebellion does not alter God's original design. Therefore, every man and woman living together without the benefit of formal marriage is sinning against the Lord. Every man and woman having sex outside of marriage is also sinning against the Lord. This is so, whether they consider themselves Christians or not!5 Since God will never let sinful men mock Him, the harvest of consequences from the seeds of rebellion have long been showing themselves in our nation and world.
Never before heard of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS sprang up in the latter third of the 20th century in the heat of the so-called "sexual revolution." The trail of broken relationships and shattered lives through break up and abandonment circles the globe at this hour. Irresponsible men now, even brag about the number of children they have by different mothers. Meanwhile, fatherless children bear more fatherless children that are deeply bitter, hate-filled and ready to make everybody feel their pain! And this is all good? I don't think so! We are killing ourselves doing things our way and it is time to admit failure.
To reverse the present course of self-destruction we are on, mankind must turn back to God, our Creator and Judge--His will, way and Word while there is still time (Acts 17:24-31; 2 Peter 3:7-9)! This, of course, includes restoring marriage and family as He designed them. Whatever God does in the original is "very good" by His own testimony (Genesis 1:31). What we have done in one generation rebelling against God's very good way of marriage and family is not good at all. In fact, it is plain evil! Leading out in this turn back to God must be every man that calls himself a Christian and that aspires to be a strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-15).
Indeed, if you are like me, you had your time in the rebellion, contributed to the folly of today by fathering children out of wedlock and are filled with deep regret over the burgeoning consequences. I began to turn away from my participation in the rebellion when I became a Christian on Easter 1977 (Romans 6:21; Titus 3:3-8). Now, it's time we Christian men man up and lead the repentance charge back to God in all understanding that unless we do, our children may well be the generation that experiences the full outpouring of His foretold wrath on those in rebellion against Him (Psalm 2:1-5; Isaiah 13:11-13; Romans 1:18-32; Revelation 6:12-17). I am doing my part through this Ministry in seeking to restore men and their families as God designed. I challenge you to join me!
1 See the January 21, 2018 repost, Protecting Our Children, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
2 Learn about the strong man of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick
and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
3 Read the July 27, 2014 post, God Of Order and November 16, 2014, Christian Women And Restoring Men, both under the category, Instruction.
4 God’s purposeful design of male and female bodies to procreate is incontrovertible evidence of procreation being a part of mankind’s purpose shared in common with all
of the other creatures of this physical creation after their kind. See the May 1, 2016 post, Natural Bodies By Divine Design, under the category, God’s Creatures.
5 Read the two-part repost beginning February 11, 2018, Christian Singles Having Sex, under the category, Black History.
Let me begin by wishing any mother reading this a blessed Mother’s Day! In spite of the successful work of feminism over the past half century to diminish the high view of motherhood God instilled in humanity from creation, an aspiring great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ especially that has fully devoted herself to His assignment is still blessed by Him (Luke 7:11-17).1 Indeed, a mother’s love historically self-denying, patient, kind, sacrificial and protective to name a few excellent qualities is patterned after God’s own. Historical motherhood is remarkable given the intrusion of sin by Satan’s deceit, God’s judgment, life and death in a fallen world (Genesis 3-4).
In God’s image and by His design, a mother’s natural love for her children provides and cares for, manages, nurtures and protects them. It is typically a mother’s protective love that can cause her to stand up for and defend her children against harm at the risk of her own life though, this facet of love is plainly not active when she decides to abort her unborn or otherwise murder her child outside of the womb--instances of which fill these latter times. Jochebed, the mother of Moses in the Bible, is an outstanding example of a mother’s protective love as is a harlot in Solomon’s dilemma of wisdom. Both sought to protect the lives of their children (Exodus 1:22-2:10; 1 Kings 3:16-28).
No doubt, it is protective love that would cause a mother who does not truly know God or His nature and character presented in the whole Bible to react against the truth of His coming wrath upon her progeny as I was directed by Him to warn about in a recent post.2 While a mother’s protective love is commendable and appropriate in the right situations as we saw in the earlier biblical examples, to be willing to lash out against sound doctrine to the point of corrupting God’s Word to redefine Him and revise the truth is a great evil that without repentance, He will not leave unpunished. For in the falsehood, such a mother is seeking to create a made to order god of her own liking!
As I have encountered this diabolical falsehood inspired of demons and cherry picked from God’s Word, it insists that since God is love, He cannot possibly bring wrath upon any human being, but particularly children. Now, this statement sounds good at first glance because there is the New Testament passage that declares truthfully, “God is love,” (1 John 4:8, NKJV). In context, the apostle John is asserting the source and standard of love in the eternal nature of God that ought to exist in and among born again Christians because He lives in us by the Holy Spirit. We know Him so intimately and completely in love, “the day of judgment” holds no fear for us (1 John 4:4-19, NKJV).
The foregoing exclusively involves born again Christians who have been delivered from God’s coming wrath through repentance and faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ! His sacrifice to save us from our sins and wrath is a clear display of God’s love as John reminds us in the passage cited. But God in nature has other attributes besides love. Among His eternal attributes are also holiness, righteousness and justice from which flows His condemnation of and wrath toward mankind as sinners.3 His love delays carrying out the fullness of His wrath to give time to repent as in the days of Noah, Sodom and Judah (Genesis 6:5-22, 7:11-24, 14:1-17, 18:16-19:29; 2 Chronicles 36:15-21).
In the latter instance of His wrath, children are specifically mentioned among those that would perish as the Lord Jesus also warns the women weeping for Him on the way to the cross. This happens as God comes against the sin of their parents (Ezekiel 8-9; Luke 23:26-31).4 No mother could possibly love her children more than God does mankind or His Son yet, He gave Him up to His wrath and death on the cross for us all (Isaiah 49:5-6, 14-16; Jeremiah 31:1-3; Matthew 3:16-17, 27:45-50; Romans 5:6-11)! In His image (fallen as it is), mothers that love their children have had to discipline them for cause after any number of warnings. Surely, you understand God made His own Son to suffer His wrath so we would not have to and has graciously given the world time to repent!
God’s offer of pardon and a free pass from His wrath to mankind through repentance and faith in the Gospel of His Son is now, reaching its expiration date. Whether it is my progeny or yours (God does not show favoritism) all need to take full advantage of His grace. Otherwise, “the wrath of God abides on” them and no mother’s protective love can prevent this by force of will or corrupting Scripture to propagate a falsehood to somehow make Him over and take it away (John 3:36, NKJV). Just as there can be no made to order salvation, neither is there a made to order God!5 He is who the Bible as it is written fully says He is!6 For this reason, every professed Christian must study His whole Word for themselves to know what it actually says in totality to avoid being deceived.7
1 The blessedness of motherhood as the purposeful and exclusive assignment to females by God is taught from His Word by me in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and its companion Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study. Both are available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
2 Read the March 27, 2022 post, No Baby Boomer Free Lunch, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Call To Repent.
3 See the March 28, 2021 post, The Righteous Wrath Of God, under the categories Bible Prophecy and The Cause.
4 God is not out to get children or anyone else for that matter! However, taking Him seriously as they ought in His Word, parents are warned in the context of His prohibition of the practice of idolatry deeply offensive to Him: ‘“I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth gen- erations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments,’” (Exodus 20:3-6; Deuteronomy 5:7-10, NKJV). Sin- ning parents are the ones that in reality show a lack of love and regard for their own progeny by thumbing their noses at God’s Word and warnings about the conse- quences of disobedience (Ezekiel 18:30-32)! If you do not wish for your progeny to endure God’s coming wrath, be and live saved yourself. Then, proclaim the Gospel and witness Christ to them in the prayerful hope of their repentance, faith and salvation to escape!
5 See the May 1, 2022 post, Made To Order Salvation?, under the category, The Faith.
6 Read the May 31, 2020 post, Keeping It Real About God, under the category, Instruction.
7 Get sound help and encouragement to engage beneficially in the spiritual discipline of Bible Study by taking the Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course on our Strong Man Virtual Institute YouTube Channel. A Study Guide is available as a free download in the Strong Man Store to help follow along with the series of short videos.
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