Response to Abortion Referendum result in the Republic of Ireland

Much of Ireland imagines they have joined the ranks of the liberated as a result of the demolition of its constitutional protection for the unborn. It does not seem to care that by the same action it has effectively delivered a death sentence on a significant percentage of its potential population.

Actions of this nature are the inevitable consequence of secularisation. As belief in God and awareness of His Word declines, so does resistance to abortion laws. It’s a matter of anthropology: when man believes himself to be a random event instead of a purposeful creation, he will inevitably draw the same conclusion about those both within him and around him. This will then enable him to weigh lives on utilitarian scales and so make distinctions about their respective value. 

The Bible makes it plain that God considers even the deliberate abandonment of one’s child as an extreme example of heartlessness (Isaiah 49:15); and does not distinguish between the value of the child in the womb and the child who has made it into the world, using exactly the same word to describe both (Luke 1:41&44; Luke 18:15). 

We are obliged to show compassion and offer care to the small percentage of women who are caught in extreme circumstances, though while the ‘Yes' campaign centred its focus on those emotive margins to gain its advantage, it is extremely disingenuous and dangerous to ignore the fact that the overwhelming majority of women who have presented themselves for abortion have done so for socio-economic reasons.

The result of this referendum is a terrible outcome for everyone. People who have celebrated this event with the kind of enthusiasm that is more typical of a pop concert may not even realise the extent of what they have done; declaring their freedom even as they are delivered into the chains of their own judgment. When men sin with abandonment, God gives them over to sin that they may be consumed by it. They pour the drink into the glass with gladness, but do not yet realise that they will be made to drink it with grief, every last drop.

Which is why the majority in County Donegal, plus the minority across the rest of the Republic of Ireland, who voted to preserve the lives of both mother and child, deserve our humble thanks – and all the efforts of those who are now determined to extend the stretch of the killing fields to Northern Ireland should be implacably resisted.

Rev. Ian Brown

Clerk, Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster

Ireland's Abortion Referendum

In 1983 after a referendum, Ireland added what is known as the "Eight Amendment" to its Constitution. 
The wording is found below-

"The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right."

Thirty-five years later the highly sensitive subject of abortion has been thrust into the spotlight due to the planned referendum to repeal this Eighth Amendment on the 25th May. 

By permitting the vote the Irish Government has not only pandered to political liberalism but also endorsed a process that, if approved, will lead to the deaths of an incalculable number of innocent children.

Recently, the Government was to be commended for their swift and unreserved condemnation of the murder of innocents in places such as Manchester and London, but this same Government clearly fails to recognise that life within the womb is also to be preserved and protected. 

Abortion transcends national boundaries and political ideologies. Life is not the creation of man but of the God of Heaven. God created man in His own image and breathed life into him so that man "became a living soul" (Genesis ch 2v7), thus setting him apart from the animal kingdom. As such, human life is precious, and a warning is given against taking this life, except in righteous judgement. 

Since Scripture clearly shows that God alone created life, it naturally follows that no human being has an absolute right over their own life or that of another. This prohibition also extends to the child in the womb. 

While some try to dispute the point at which life begins, the Free Presbyterian Church in Ireland totally rejects the view that the unborn child is not a living person. The Bible plainly teaches that life begins at conception.  

• The Psalmist David writes "for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139v14). 
• Job specifically says "There is a man child conceived",(Job ch 3v3). 
• It is said of Jeremiah the prophet "before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee" (Jeremiah ch 1v5). 
• Dr Luke records how Elizabeth rejoiced at the Virgin Mary's news and how that "the babe leaped in her womb" (Luke ch 1v41).

From the moment of conception, a new person forms within the mother, one who is genetically distinct and physically separate from her. So then, the issue of abortion cannot only be a matter of maternal choice because it involves purposefully taking away the life of another human being. In no other walk of life would this be considered either lawful or moral. 

While we recognize that there may be circumstances where both the life of mother and child cannot simultaneously be preserved and acknowledge that the support needed for each expectant mother can differ, it must be stressed that the deliberate act of abortion can never be justified. 

Government legislation may seek to accommodate the destruction of the body but it cannot destroy the eternal soul. For anyone to sentence the life of an unborn child to its physical death is an act of murder and rebellion against God the Creator.      

For these reasons the preservation of the Eighth Amendment must be maintained.

Sunday Sport

Tomorrow, the Lord’s Day 20th May, there will be a rugby match played at the Kingspan Stadium. While we rejoice that this is not a regular occurrence, we are nevertheless saddened to see the desecration of the Lord’s Day.

The fourth Commandment states “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

We are commanded that one day in seven is to be special unto God. While every day should be lived in obedience and honour unto our God, one day is to be kept “holy”. It is to “sanctified”, to be set apart unto God, in that we worship God and thank Him for His goodness and saving grace to a wicked world.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 60 asks - How is the sabbath to be sanctified?

The answer is given – “The sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.”

The command includes a responsibility to ensure that family, employees and visitors are not profaning this special day. 

For those that profess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour there is that duty and responsibility to keep this day unto the Lord and to be a witness to others.

The Saviour set an example to others, “and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” (Luke 4:16) 

Likewise it was also the custom of the apostles “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them,” (Acts 20:7)

Sporting fixtures are not works of necessity nor mercy but rather entertainment and ought not to have priority over the laws of God.

This Lord’s Day we would encourage men and women to forget about the sporting events and rather consider God’s love for sinful man in providing a Saviour and as we read in Matthew’s Gospel “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”.