Introduction
Hello, my name is Mike Harding, and chances are you’ve never heard of me. I don’t have a huge public following. I don’t have a radio show, podcast, or YouTube channel. I don’t have a Ph.D. in Pro-life studies. Honestly, I am no one special. I am just an average guy who loves Jesus. I am just a man with his Bible and a love for church history, standing on the shoulders of many, many men and women more qualified than I to write on this topic.
So why does an unknown man write another book responding to the abortion crisis in our country? Because the church has, unfortunately, been largely silent on the issue of abortion. I have noticed a disproportionate and unbiblical response from the church on abortion compared to her response to other cultural, societal, and theological issues today. I firmly believe that the church needs to come against this tragic reality unashamedly with the full weight of God’s Word.
Itis biblical to call for an immediate end to the senseless murder of preborn children. If we believe Jesus is Lord of all, we must be resolute in calling for a culture change. We must also aim to capture the culture for Christ’s glory through the relentless preaching of God’s Word and the faithful, sacrificial service of rescuing children out of the hands of the abortionist, the legislator, and their own fathers and mothers!
Unfortunately, there have been many men and women who have begun engaging on this issue but have compromised and now defend that compromise vehemently. Believers must stand uncompromisingly on the Word of God. In His Word, we are told that our mission isn’t primarily to change minds. Rather, our mission is to preach Christ so that He might be glorified, for it is God who changes the mind and heart of the unbeliever to desire what He desires.
Considering the premise of this book is about ending abortion biblically, my next statement might seem a little odd, but it is wholly necessary to approach the issue of abortion firmly on scriptural ground. It is my conviction that we need to be more concerned with Christ’s glory than with ending abortion. Don’t get me wrong, I have a desire and passion to see the scourge of abortion in our land end once and for all, but we have unfortunately experienced mission drift. In our zeal, we have neglected to abide within the grounds of God’s revealed will. We have made this fight about our special groups and who is in them or about using our approved language. By doing so, we have lost focus on Who should receive the glory. I want Christ to get all the glory for our victories. Ending abortion must not be about our name or group; it must be about Christ’s glory.
John Piper wrote the following theological gem in his thesis of “Let The Nations Be Glad.”
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. So worship is the fuel and goal of missions.
What Piper meant is that the driving factor for missions isn’t so much that there are poor people who haven’t had the opportunity to hear the Gospel, but rather that there are places on the planet that have yet to proclaim glory to King Jesus. The difference between those who work for the glory of Christ and those who work for their own legacy really is stark: one is God-driven and the other is man-driven.
Let that sink in as it relates to abortion. Our main aim isn’t actually rescuing babies! You might be thinking, “Wait. What did he just say? Our main aim shouldn’t be to rescue babies?” Nope, though if we love Jesus, we will most assuredly keep doing that. Rather, the driving force for this mission must be for God to get the glory. Itis only then that our mission to abolish the premeditated, ruthless murder of preborn children will be successful. Any other motivation will lead us to an “ends justifies the means” approach so that we look good. This has been our downfall up until this point. We have sacrificed biblical fidelity for convenience and opportunism. We have argued against the sufficiency of Scripture with our faithless actions. This mustn’t be so; we must be resolute to speak where Scripture speaks and be silent where it is silent. In doing so, we will be united by seeking to do what Christ has called every believer to do, which is to shine as lights in the darkness by pointing people to Him and His way.
When I sought clear direction on fighting abortion, I first looked to different organizations but quickly learned I had to wade through their internal politics to find anything useful. In this process, I discovered that even though I thought these organizations were, for the most part, meaning well, they were not always responding biblically to the opposition they met, and many were not biblical at all.
Maybe you are like me. You just want clear, biblical direction on how to faithfully sling stones at this God-defying, murderous giant! Friends, God has spoken in His Word and has left no ambiguity on the solution to this social crisis. We must trust that God will bring about the destruction of the cultural Goliath of abortion His way, once and for all, for His glory. When we resort to our methods and maneuvers, we far too often forsake the truth.
God’s Sovereign Work In My Life
I am daily reminded of the value of human life as I reflect on my God-given roles of husband and father. I am a husband to a wonderful wife who loves Jesus, and I am the father of three children: one miscarried baby and two beautiful daughters. We are praying for even more children if it’s God’s will. I feel the struggle to lead my family spiritually, feed my family, and protect them, but those pressures have made me a stronger and better man.
Ever since Christ radically transformed my life and as my walk with Him has deepened over the years, I have put away the old desires I once had to be in strip clubs and sleep around with women. I have done so because I have found my full satisfaction in Christ alone. However, those years of rebellion brought with them much pain and suffering. I now fully see and mourn over the death and destruction that my old life brought. (Rom. 6:23) I have learned over the years that God’ sway works, and when we ignore it, we make a mess of things. In fact, we typically make things worse than they were before. The Word of God explains the impact of my sinful actions.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes,
The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us upby his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor. 6:13-20)
What Paul is saying is that the person who sins sexually sins against his own body. I sinned against my own body for many years before fully surrendering to Christ as Lord. I even believe that it is possible in my recklessness and rebellion against God that I could have contributed the life of a child to the abortion industry. I will never know this side of eternity, but the thought haunts me as a father now.
Maybe that’s you as you read my story. Maybe you are one who still struggles with purity, or maybe you have a story like mine, a story that is plagued with failure and compromise. Maybe, like me, many of your sin struggles of the past have kept you from engaging on this issue with the fervor you should. My prayer for you in reading this book is that you would grow to stand on Scripture and proclaim the unadulterated biblical response to the abortion holocaust. My prayer is that you would grow to desire Jesus so much that the fear of your past being thrown in your face wouldn’t discourage your obedience, but rather propel you into further obedience as you embrace Christ’s mercy. To do that, you must come to a point of hating your sin, repenting of it, and loving Jesus more.
This is not a book on purity; nonetheless, the connections to the abortion industry are too vivid not to address. Many “Christians” find themselves compromised on the issue of abortion because they refuse to submit to the supremacy and sufficiency of Scripture in their lives. Their selfish addictions help fund the industry or aid human sex trafficking. Let me warn you that the dirty cistern you drink from in your rebellion against God is poison. You will never find life in the temptations you are giving into; there is only death in the soul-destroying clutches of pornography or sexual immorality. The living water you seek, the soul-edifying peace of God, is only found in Christ. Every moment we turn from Jesus to embrace our sinful inclinations, we choose destruction. Even if it may not make sense to you now, the way to victory on this issue of abortion and the way to victory when addressing any transgression of the law of God is Jesus.
See, we come to Christ with all our sins and failures in desperate need of His cleansing. He alone carries our burden. The broad way that leads to destruction is the way of self-righteous action. The narrow way is the way of total surrender to Jesus as Lord and Redeemer. For those in Christ are not lawless any longer; they are those who have been rightly broken by the law and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The way of Christ is the only way to peace and life. Jesus clearly declared to His disciples that this was the case in the Gospel of John when He told Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
May it be that after reading this book you have the knowledge to engage faithfully in this battle for the glory of God to be displayed in the ending of child sacrifice. For lack of knowledge leads to inaction, and lack of direction quenches fervor. May it be that within the following pages, you are set on fire to preach the Gospel and abolish abortion and are given clear, biblically directed action steps to do so.
1 John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993) 11.
.svg)
.svg)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
