PLYMOUTH, MI – Some of you who just read the title to this article had to race to the medicine cabinet because you had to take your blood pressure prescription in order to keep you from going into cardiac arrest. You can't believe that anyone would have the audacity to think that God would come down on the side of the pro-abortionist. Others of you may be saying to yourself or someone in your presence, "Now that's the kind of enlightened thinking I like to hear." But before any of you "blows a gasket" or enters into a joyous jig, you should consider what the title states and what it does not.
Your presuppositions have again taken over your thoughts before you know all the facts. You see, presuppositions are like wearing tinted glasses. Everything you see through those eye coverings effects and changes your perception of reality. Even though the change may be slight, nonetheless what you perceive is not completely accurate. The problem is that we get our presuppositions much like we contract the measles. We are not quite sure where they come from, but the evidence that we have been infected is without doubt. The question then arises, "Can we truly be without presuppositions?" The answer is no, but we can be aware that we are affected by them and adjust our actions, attitudes and decisions accordingly. It is vitally important that we see and understand things from God's perspective. That is, we must presuppose that God is the ultimate source of truth and knowledge. Such an issue to which we can apply this premise is that of "Pro-Choice vs Pro-Life".
First of all, I believe (presupposition! based on the fact of and faith in the living, personal, creative God) that He sets apart human life as unique and valuable since it bears His image. [Gen.1:26,27].
Secondly, He therefore preserves and protects human life as no other life on earth. [Psa. 8:4-5] We are not just plants and animals that are only pieces of an enormous floating ecosystem.
Third, that kind of life begins at conception and continues to develop in the womb where God is at work; shaping the child into the precise kind of person He desires it to be. [Psa. 22;9-10; Psa. 51:5; Psa. 139:13-16; Matt.1:18-20; Luke 1:41]
Fourth, since it is God's will that every child's life be protected after birth, (thou shall not kill) it is certainly His will that such protection applies to the child in his or her prenatal state.
It is my presupposition that we are ultimately responsible and accountable to God for our actions. If my logic and presuppositions are correct, then I understand God to be Pro-Choice. That is, He chooses life for all humans and so should we. We should especially do so for those who do not have the opportunity to choose for themselves, the pre-born.
"He chooses life for all humans and so should we."
The sanctity of human life is precious to God and thus must be precious to man. Those who do not choose life, but say that before birth the human within a mother’s womb is nothing more than a mass of lifeless tissue presuppose that God is not who He says that He is and that life within a womb is not precious. Their argument is based on the faulty presupposition that a woman’s right of choice, whether for convenience, health or circumstance must take precedence over the rights of the pre-born to choose life and the choice of God to give it. What we must do in addressing this or any issue is to honestly analyze our logic and reasoning, and decide whether or not we are presupposing there is a God to whom we are accountable or not. The man or woman who believes they are nothing more than animals, and that there is no God, will ultimately act and think as animals. The Choice is up to us.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Patterson is Executive Director/Treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. Elected unanimously in May of 2015, Patterson formerly served for 9 years as pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. He also served as trustee chair and national mobilizer for the North American Mission Board.