We are Pro-Life 

 

Statement of Faith regarding Abortion, Euthenasia, Assisted Suicide (sui+cide= kill/murder self), & Rationing Healthcare to end life...

 

• We believe that all matters of faith and conduct must be evaluated on the basis of Holy Scripture, which is our inspired, infallible, and inerrant guide. (2 Timothy 3:16–17).  Because Holy Scripture speaks to creation and human life, it is imperative that we correctly understand, articulate, and abide by what Holy Scripture teaches on this matter.

• We believe that God has created mankind in His image (Imago Dei) and that human life begins at fertilization. God, in his infinite sovereignty, uniquely formed human beings and gave them a special dignity, personal freedom, and individual accountability among all the works of creation.  Human beings have been made for relationship with God and to be good and faithful stewards of creation. God created each person’s inmost being, knitting each person together in his mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13). As God’s individualized and personal creation, each person is fearfully and wonderfully made.   (Psalm 139:14). God has ordained all the days of each person’s life before they came to be. (Psalm 139:16).

 

     Our Beliefs Are Based on Holy Scripture ~ therefore,  we believe:

• From the moment of fertilization/conception until natural death, every human life is sacred because every human life has been created by God, in His image and likeness.

• From the moment of fertilization/conception, every human life must be recognized, respected, and protected as having the rights of a person and the inviolable right to life.

• The right to life and physical integrity of every unborn human life is inviolable —it is not a concession made by society or the state, but is instead inherent to the unborn human life by virtue of its creation in the image of God.

• Because human life begins at the moment of fertilization/conception, it is against our religious and moral conviction to formally or materially cooperate in the termination of unborn human life.

• We are strongly committed to the preservation and defense of unborn human life, which compels our religious, moral, and ethical duty to defend unborn human life from destruction, whether by surgical abortion or use of drugs, devices, or services that have the intent, design, effect, or risk of terminating unborn human life or preventing its implantation and growth post-fertilization/conception.

• We are strongly commited to encouraging health and dignity at all levels of life, but are adamantly opposed to euthenasia, assisted suicide and the rationing of health care to induce death.  This includes the starvation of the ill, the refusal to provide water and food to any patient, and the choice to give pallative care only, when the patient and/or family expect a higher level of care.

• The Church and all her ministers and ministries should publicly witness to society and to the state regarding the intrinsic, inherent, and inviolable dignity of all human life, from fertilization/conception to natural death.

This youtube by a Watchmen Pastor explains our stance and why...  Matt Chandler, excerpt taken from his sermon, 'The Sanctity of Human Life.'

 

 

     Holy Scripture

In standing against abortion, euthenasia, assisted suicide, and reduction or removal of medical care in order to hasten death,

we share the following Holy Scriptures (in both the NIV and the KJV)...

•  Genesis 1:26-27 –

  • Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (NIV)

  •  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.   So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (KJV)

• Genesis 25:21-22 –

  • Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.  The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?”  So she went to inquire of the Lord.

  • And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. 

• Exodus 20:13 –

  • You shall not murder. (NIV)

  • Thou shalt not kill. (KJV)

• Psalm 22:9-10 –

  • Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.  From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. (NIV)

  • But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly. (KJV)

• Psalm 139:13-16 –

  • For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (NIV)

  • For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (KJV)

• ​Isaiah 44:1-2 –

  • This is what the Lord says: he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. (NIV)

  • Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. (KJV)

• Isaiah 49:5 –

  • And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength. (NIV)

  • And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. (KJV)

• Job 10:8-12 –

  • Your hands shaped me and made me.  Will you now turn and destroy me?  Remember that you molded me like clay.  Will you now turn me to dust again?  Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?  You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit. (NIV)

  • Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.  Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?  Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. (KJV)

• Jeremiah 1:4-5 –

  • The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (NIV)

  • Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (KJV)

• Luke 1:39-45 –

  • Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.  Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (NIV)

  • And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.  And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.  And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. (KJV)

 

 

    Early Church Fathers

“Thus, you read the word of God, spoken to Jeremiah: ‘Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee.’ 

If God forms us in the womb, He also breathes on us as He did in the beginning: ‘And God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life.’ 

Nor could God have known man in the womb unless he were a whole man.  ‘And before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee.’ 

Was it, then, a dead body at that stage? Surely it was not, for "God is the God of the living and not the dead."

—Tertullian, De Anima

 

“Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?  Where there are many efforts at abortion?  Where there is murder before the birth….  Why then dost thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter?”

—John Chrysostom, Homily 24

 

“[T]his lustful cruelty, or if you please, cruel lust, resorts to such extravagant methods as to use poisonous drugs to secure barrenness;

or else, if unsuccessful in this, to destroy the conceived seed by some means previous to birth, preferring that its offspring

should rather perish than receive vitality; or if it was advancing to life within the womb, should be slain before it was born.”

—Augustine, De Nube et Concupiscentia

 

“Therefore brothers, you see how perverse they are and hastening wickedness, who are immature, they seek abortion of the conception

before the birth; they are those who tell us, ‘I do not see that which you say must be believed.’”

—Augustine, Sermon 126

 

“Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born.”

—Barnabas, Letter