Only Jesus Saves (Really, It's True You Know)

The elections in America have come and gone and we have a winner. President Barack Obama has been elected for another four years. However, even though the elections are over, we understand that the nation itself is more divided than ever. The campaign in the run-up to the elections was said to be extremely divisive and negative and now that a winner has been announced, both of sides of the ideological divide are experiencing differing emotions. While the liberals on the left are basking in the euphoria of victory, the conservatives on the right are licking their wounds and smarting as they wallow in what is described as "the agony of defeat". From the differing emotions experienced by both sides and the violence of those emotions, one would think that the people thought the candidates they supported were some kind of saviour. It would seem that the people had invested their candidates with some kind of supernatural power to solve all their problems. You would be forgiven for thinking that the two candidates were some kind of supernatural human beings with the cure for all of the worlds problems, instead of human beings like you and I with their own problems, insecurities and the inherent ability to make mistakes. (Yes, you read that right. They make mistakes). And the fact that they think that their ideological leanings and their particular "vision" is the solution to all the problems in the world is the first mistake.

The Oxford Advanced Leaners Dictionary defines the word save as "to keep somebody/something safe from death, harm, loss, etc." In the end, only Jesus can save both spiritually and physically. There must however be a saving spiritually before there can be a saving physically. 3 John 1 v 2 makes us understand that a man's soul must first prosper before his life can prosper. And before a person can prosper spiritually, he must put his trust in God. The Bible makes it clear that putting our trust in man, instead of God is a futile thing. Especially in these times that money has failed, thinking that one man is going to solve all the problems afflicting us or the world is funny.

Now that the elections are over, I believe that the time has come for Americans to refocus. Regardless of whether you think you "won" or "lost", the time has come for everyone to let go of whatever bitterness, dissappointment or anger they feel and for the country to focus on what's important. I believe it is extremely important at this time that everyone comes together to support the man elected to lead the country. And by support, I mean praying for him because the task is enormous and the journey is long. If you not agree with his ideologies or policies then you need to pray for wisdom for him. He needs it. Like I earlier said, men make mistakes. To draw an analogy, America is like a bus and the president is like a driver. If the driver of the bus makes a mistake in his driving, everyone on board is in trouble. It is not in anyone's interest that the bus derails or that America fails.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. (www.westbowpress.com)

Abortion: Murder, the American Way (Part 2)

So, the question then is what is abortion?

I believe that in a society where government distrubutes contraceptives free of charge to girls as young as eleven or twelve and children as young as 15 or less can get abortions,  there is a fundamental problem. One of the fundamental problems with western society is the issue of identity. Thanks to the curriculum being taught in schools, children grow up being taught that they are nothing more than slightly more intelligent chimpanzees. As they grow older, Hollywood then passes across its own message that we are nothing more than dogs with urges. Urges that need to be acted upon. When you couple that with the overriding message of freedom, you have a distressing situation. Government is busy gleefully handing out contraceptives and can't be bothered to tell people that there is another way. Parents on the other hand don't have the moral authority ro tell their children what to do because when they were that age they did the same thing although they are now older and wiser. Which is why more teenage girls are getting pregnant at a younger age because no one tells them there is another way. The only message they are getting is that that they are free to do as they please.

Thanks to the pill, American women seem to no longer think that pregnancies are caused by sex. I really don't know whether they have gone back to the idea that storks bring babies, but thanks to the advance of science, American women now get shocked when nature asserts itself and they get pregant after sleeping with a man. They seem not to realise or want to accept that getting pregnant is a time tested consequence of sleeping with a man.

So back to the question. What then is abortion? If getting pregnant is a consequence of sleeping with someone, then abortion is a reaction to that reality. What liberals say is that abortion is a choice. That is disingenious and quite a blatant lie. When a woman meets a man, she has different choices. She can choose to wait before sleeping with him to find out if they are both ready for commitment so that she is not left holding the baby. Even if a woman were to decide to sleep with a man without knowing if either of them was ready for a commitment, either to themselves or a child, there is still a choice as to what contraceptive to use (of which abortion is not one as explained in my last post). However, from the moment a child is concieved, there can no longer be talk of "choice". Or at least not in the way it is used. The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines choice "as an act of choosing between two or more possibilities". When a child has been concieved, there can no longer be talk of choice with regard to contraception because life has already been concieved. There is an inevitability about the situation. The choice that arises at that moment is whether to allow the child to live or to kill it. To dispose of the life created like so much unwated baggage. Just because the parents who unthinkingly decided to create life no longer want the life created because it would cramp their style.

In that case, abortion is no longer about choice. Abortion then is a result of the fact that one person or the two people involved in creating life did not think through their choices before hand before creating life and the consequences of such choices. We live in a society where people nowadays are always trying to evade the consequences of their actions. Abortion is one way women have been evading the consequences of the actions they take. However it is quite sad that the millions of unborn children aborted over the years are the ones who have to pay the price of the fact that their parents didn't think.

Abortion: Murder, the American Way

As the election in America approaches, I have been struck by the genuine hostility between the two major camps in the election, especially the seeming hostility between the two major players. I have also been struck by how much lies are being peddled by the liberal wing in American politics over the issue of abortion.

I have come to understand that the issue of abortion is arguably the single most divisive issue in this election and the liberals are using all kinds of scare tactics to get women voters on their side. Like George Bush’s “War on Terror”, anyone who speaks out against abortion is automatically labelled a misogynist and someone who is waging a “War on Women”. I understand that writing about the issue of abortion might not be too popular but I believe the truth needs to be told.

Abortion: What it is not.

Supporters of a woman’s right to control the reproductive process and the right to determine when she gets pregnant or whether she even gets pregnant or not will tell you that abortion is a form of contraception. This is a lie.

Dictionary.com defines the word contraception as the “deliberate prevention of conception by any of various drugs, techniques or devices.” The etymology of the word contraception tells you that the word itself is made up of two words, “contra” and “conception”. The word contra in the sense in which it is used means “against” while conception in defined as the “act of conceiving”. So in the full sense of the word, contraception, or a contraceptive, is used to stop conception. It is against conception. I’m sure that even the most fanatical supporters of abortion will agree that abortion does not stop conception. The most prominent fact about abortion is the fact that it takes life after the life has been conceived. It is quite clear that abortion is not a method of contraception.

If abortion is then not a method of contraception, what is it?

That is a question we shall seek to answer in subsequent posts.