Another Day that Should Live in Infamy

Post date: Jan 22, 2018 3:02:06 PM

If we called December 7th , 1941 – a day when 2,403 Americans lost their lives in Japan's sneak attack at Pearl Harbor--- “a day that will live in infamy,” then what should we call January 22th, 1973 –of that miscarriage of justice known as Roe vs Wade which led to over 60 million Americans murdered in the womb? How does something like this happen?

Perhaps God can enlighten us through one of His Prophets, a fellow named Ezekiel. At the time of Ezekiel's prophetic ministry, God's people had gotten the idea because God had chosen them as His special people, they could do what ever they pleased.

Ezekiel 9:9 shows just what that was and what God had thought of it: “Then He [God] said to me [Ezekiel], 'The iniquity [moral evil] of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed [of the innocent], and the city full of perversity; for they say, The Lord has forsaken the land, and The Lord does not see!' “

The likeness of this verse to America's sin is uncanny. The sins are the shedding of innocent blood (abortion), perversion (including all forms of sexual immorality as defined by God in the Bible), and the rejection of God's authority.

How serious is all that? God said, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [and America] is exceedingly great....” In the next verse (Ezekiel 9:10), God says, “And as for Me also, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.” Ezekiel, chapter nine, began with a vision of this very thing.

Americans, and even the very church of God, think they can sin and approve of sin without any kind of serious consequences. But there are serious consequences – over sixty million of them, and the wrath of God.

Many Americans, as well as many church members, have lost a healthy fear of God (respect). We tolerate what was once considered immoral, illegal, inhumane, and ungodly. God's standard has not changed, but our hearts surely have. We have failed to heed the warning of Proverbs 4:23, which says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

America once held to a higher standard – God's standard. It honored God's words in Proverbs 14:34, which says, “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” God's people were salt and light, influencing the culture rather than shamefully following an evil culture.

What happened? Cowardice? Apathy? Selfishness? Perhaps all of the above.

God knows those who act like His people. We read in Ezekiel 9:4, “and the Lord said to him, 'Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.'” Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven abominations – things God hates – one of which is “Hands that shed innocent blood.” Abortion fits the bill. Its supporters try to dress it up in pretty clothes, but God calls it what it is – an abomination. And all the euphemisms in the world, like “a woman's right to choose” and “reproductive freedom, “ will not change the ugly reality of over sixty million lives snuffed out because of selfishness and sin. There is a thing called adoption, after all.

As Americans, we too often fail to connect the dots and see the big picture. You might say that we can't see the forest for the trees. The sins listed in Ezekiel 9:9 were shedding innocent blood, perversion and idolatry. Taking these in reverse order, we see how America came to the place of exceedingly great iniquity and the displeasure of God. Step one: Cease to respect and honor God as the supreme authority on all matters in life. Step two: Consider sexual freedom of greater importance than God, perverting His design. Step three: Shed innocent blood in an attempt to cover up sexual sin and avoid its consequences.

The Apostle Paul, in I Cor. 1:24, speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as the wisdom of God. Coupling this with Proverbs 8:36, we read, “But he who sins against me [Christ, the wisdom of God] wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me [Christ, the wisdom of God] love death.”

If 6 million dead Jews is a holocaust, what is over sixty million dead American killed through abortion? What difference would their lives have made? Yet we yawn, or even worse, give our stamp of approval. But God says, “... put a mark on the foreheads of the men [People} who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done....” Jesus said, in Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn....” We have much mourning to do … for souls, and for sins. Will we be a a culture of death or life?

In Jesus we find both wisdom and life, eternal and abundant. January 22, 1973, has my vote for the greatest day of infamy. How about you? The question yet remains, what will we do about it?