A Declaration of Life
Sanctity of Life Sunday

by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., March 6, 2002

The Bible tells us to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15b). The message of the Gospel is an inherently life-affirming message of hope, yet many Christians still struggle with the answers to the defining crime of our generation — abortion. The following declaration has been drafted to equip Christians to affirm and to proclaim a consistent life ethic in the midst of a dark generation.

Sufficiency of Scripture

WHEREAS, Christians are not to look to popular wisdom, the opinions of secular authorities, or personal emotions to resolve ethical issues, because the Bible is a complete and sufficient guide for all of faith and practice, including all ethical matters concerning life, conception, abortion, euthanasia, etc.; and

Satan at War With Children

WHEREAS, Holy Scripture declares that Satan, who has been a murderer and a liar from the beginning, has always been at war against the godly seed; and

Personhood at Conception

WHEREAS, the Bible affirms that the unborn baby is a person created in the image of God, possessing an eternal soul and bearing the nature of Adam at the moment of conception; and

Fruitfulness Commanded

WHEREAS, a primary purpose of marriage is the bringing forth of a godly seed, and God commands husbands and wives to actively seek to be fruitful, subject to the will and mercy of the Lord; and

Children a Blessing

WHEREAS, God declares children to be a blessing and a source of true wealth and happiness regardless of health, physical attributes, or gender; and

Children as a Tool for Societal Influence, Discipleship, and Dominion

WHEREAS, God’s Holy Word declares that the children of faithful Christians are a means of spreading the influence of the Church in society, of global discipleship and cultural dominion, and that the larger the population growth of Christians, the more effective will be our warfare against Satan; and

Inalienable Right to Life

WHEREAS, the human personhood of the unborn child is what distinguishes it from all other creatures and things, and is the basis for its inalienable legal and moral right to life; and

God the Author of Life

WHEREAS, notwithstanding the agency of men and women in the process of procreation, God is the exclusive Author of Life who determines when to open and close the womb; and

Life is an Inherent Good

WHEREAS, all human life comes from God, is possessing of an eternal soul, and such life is an inherent good, worthy of preservation; and

Quality of Life Arguments Invalid

WHEREAS, all quality of life arguments are inherently usurpatious and immoral, placing man in the position of God, and, consequently, no other human, parent, judge, or legislator has the right to determine which persons should live and which must die based on their perception of the quality of the life of those persons; and

Biblical Basis for Killing

WHEREAS the only biblical basis for taking the life of another is in the cases of self defense against a willful aggressor, defense of others, or capital punishment when acting under the jurisdiction of the State; and

Unborn Child is a Distinct Person

WHEREAS, the unborn child is an individual person at conception made in the image of God and possessing of biblically established legal rights distinct from that of its mother; and

Pro-Life, No Exceptions

WHEREAS those theories which justify the killing of the unborn child on the basis of the circumstances of conception (as in the case of rape and incest), or even the life of the mother (ectopic pregnancies) are completely false because they are based on unbiblical and humanistic ethics, unbiblical definitions of “self defense” theory, and a rejection of the personhood of the child; and

Continuing Relevance of All of Scripture

WHEREAS the Holy Scripture is a unity which reflects the unchanging righteousness of God and communicates His unchanging character and the perfect harmony of those principles which undergird His law as expressed in both the Old and New Testament dispensations; and

Abortion is a Capital Offense

WHEREAS, God has declared in His Word that whosoever wrongfully takes the life of an unborn child shall be guilty of a capital crime; and

Christians to Proclaim Righteousness to Civil Leaders

WHEREAS, from Jonah to John the Baptist, God has called upon the people of God to proclaim righteousness to the political leaders of the land, to urge them to repent for idolatry and immorality; and

Child Sacrifice a Basis for National Judgment

WHEREAS child sacrifice and moral perversion have always been two bases for national judgment on the part of our righteous Lord; and

Euthanasia Unbiblical

WHEREAS God not only gives life, but He takes it, and man does not have the right to consciously and prematurely terminate the life of another because of age, preference, inconvenience, or health; and

Civil Government Established to Protect the Innocent

WHEREAS, the first principle of lawful government as communicated in Holy Scripture is the preservation of innocent life; and

Definitions Must Reflect Truth and Reality

WHEREAS, battles are won or lost in the definition, and much of the battle to protect the life of the unborn has been lost by the redefinition of the political term “pro-life” by well-intentioned but misguided individuals who include in this definition those politicians who believe a mother has the right to brutally murder her child in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother; and

God’s Law Trumps Man’s Law

WHEREAS, no man-made or judge-interpreted law can ever trump the eternal will and moral law of God, and, consequently, any man-made laws which call for child sacrifice are to be rejected by private individuals, elected officials, and magistrates alike; and

The People of God Must Examine Themselves

WHEREAS, first, many Christians have adopted the anti-life, anti-child philosophies and practices of the age; second, many Church leaders have been reluctant to teach the whole counsel of God by communicating God’s love for all children, or to warn and exhort them, as commanded by Scripture, to resist the false philosophies and practices of the day; and third, some, professing to be believers bought by the blood of Jesus who have been elevated to legal and political positions of influence, have actively failed to stand on the side of the unborn, and in some cases actually facilitated the holocaust of abortion; and

Judgment Begins With Christians

WHEREAS, our first concern, over and above the wicked practices of heathen leaders and legislators should be with the actions, attitudes, and behavior of those who profess to be in the Church of Jesus Christ, because judgment begins in the House of God.

We do hereby call upon the people of God to:

1. Honor God as the author of life and seek to embrace a consistent ethic for life;
2. Repent and turn from any and all anti-child, anti-life philosophies and practices;
3. Accurately describe the position of political candidates who believe in a “woman’s right” to some abortions, but not all, as “pro-abortion with exceptions;”
4. Embrace all children as a blessing from the Lord and a godly seed as a primary objective for marriage;
5. Actively and self-consciously seek to obey the commands of Scripture to be fruitful and multiply; and
6. Stand on the side of the unborn by declaring that all intentional abortions, without exception, are murder in the eyes of the Lord, and to be opposed.

We do hereby call upon the leaders of this blessed nation to:

1. To acknowledge God as the only author and destroyer of life in the womb;
2. To acknowledge the personhood of the unborn child and their inalienable right to life, thus rejecting all forms of abortion without exception;
3. To publicly repent of and turn from our national sins of child sacrifice and patricide;
4. To publicly and actively oppose and diligently work for the termination of all forms of child sacrifice and harvesting within our nation;
5. To enforce the eternally binding law of God, appropriately summarized in our national charter, the Constitution, which declares “no person shall be deprived of life ... without due process of law;”
6. To refrain from appointing to any position of public trust any person who would facilitate, enforce, fund, or offer moral support to those people and organizations in the business of promoting abortion; and
7. Seek God, while there is yet time, that He would withhold his hand of judgment.