Thou Art the Man :: by Ruth Anne Bare

I, too, have been listening in horror as the details about the selling of the body parts of dead babies have come to light. There has been quite a flurry of articles and interviews from many areas, condemning Planned Parenthood and all those involved. Even top supporters of infanticide have solemnly and almost piously expressed their strong disapproval of such actions.

There’s something terribly wrong with this picture, though.How can this revelation of depravity even begin to hold a candle to the legal slaughtering of millions and millions of babies in their mother’s wombs over the last forty-two years in America?

Isn’t it heinous enough for us that our children are being butchered alive, even as we speak?

These are graphic words, but are they not truthful? Have we grown so accustomed to this legal daily sacrifice to Moloch that it doesn’t faze us as much anymore? Where’s the recoil at this legal barbarity in a civilized country? Or is it civilized anymore? I don’t think so.If it takes this recent exposure of another tentacle of this hideous business to shock us, what is the condition of our hearts?

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:who can know it?”(Jeremiah 17:9).

It’s almost like this evil disclosure has provided a means to shift the guilt from our consciences to someone else, but the finger of God cannot be moved in this way.Remember, King David who went to murderous lengths to cover up his sin with Bathsheba. But he was quick to condemn the thief who had stolen the poor man’s lamb.

The Scriptures tell us David’s “anger was kindled.” He wanted that person put to death.Then he was rebuked by the prophet Nathan with God’s message, “Thou art the man” (2 Samuel 12:7). At that moment, we are told that David confessed and repented before the Lord. He did not try to justify himself. He knew he was “the man.” Could those words be true of many of God’s people today? Are we “the man?” Am I “the man?”

No, we may not be guilty of the crime, but have we in any way subconsciously accepted the legalization of murder and just moved on in our minds? Have we allowed our hearts to be desensitized? How much prayer do we really give this inexpressible iniquity? Do we weep for our nation’s children? If not, we must weep for our hardened hearts…

“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3a).

Along this same line, I have been reading about the trial of former SS Sgt. Oskar Groening, known as the “Accountant of Auschwitz” who was recently convicted on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder for his contribution to the hellish brutality of the Holocaust.

He said he knew he was wrong morally but didn’t think he had done anything wrong legally sinceall he did was collect and record the belongings of the prisoners, and send them where he was ordered to. He believes did not have any part in the actual death of the Jewish people. What kind of thinking is that? There’s only one thing that matters. Are we guilty before God?

In some way, though, is this man a scapegoat for others? Is he any more culpable than anyone else who took no stand against Hitler’s diabolic plans? How about all the German people who ignored the screams from the passing trains? The reports are that some would sing louder in their churches to drown out the cries.

Were these churchgoers Christians? If so, did they shed tears of repentance for this hellish inhumanity of Man? Did they do that?
“And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Ezekiel 9:4).

I do know there were those who gave their all. The God-fearing German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was sent to the gallows for his efforts.I, also, know that there were many other people in and out of Germany who did all they could do to save the Jews, and many were never recognized on this earth for their “blood, sweat, and tears”during that time of unspeakable cruelty. God knows every heart.

We know, too, the Germans were not the only ones who turned a blind eye to the smoke billowing from the ovens.How about the heads of state who refused to send help or intervene in any way? How did they get off so easily?The answer is they did not. Again, God knows the hearts of all those who were accomplices as well.In the court of heaven, all will give account for every sin not washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Tragically, this brutal scene is true of America, too. Forty-two long years, and still the babies are dying by the thousands each day. While I would not dare to diminish the prayers and great work of many who have been fighting valiantly and tirelessly to save the unborn, where are we as individual Christians in all this genocide?

We live our lives from day-to-day, even traversing the streets where the crime against our children incessantly takes place.Are we satisfied to be legally not guilty? If so, “Thou art the man.”

“If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works” (Proverbs 24: 11-12)?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s pray that true repentance will come forth from us. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”(1 Peter 4:17).

What about our silence and prayerlessness much of the time regarding all the abominations we see around us? Are we content to say that this is “just like the days of Noah” and then go on with business as usual? Would that amount to culpability like that of “the accountant of Auschwitz” or worse because we are the Church? Where are our anguished prayers over these atrocities? Have we been marked for our “sighing and crying?”

The Bible says, “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into the bottle: are they not in thy book” (Psalm 56:8)? There is nothing that the Lord does not know.

“For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27).

Instead of hiding our eyes in denial and disobedience, we must allow God’s searchlight to shine into the caverns of our own hearts, so that we might see “if there be any wicked way” in us (Psalm 139:24). The hour is fast approaching midnight, but God wants us to be salt and light in this dark world until that trumpet sounds.

If the shoe fits, we should repent for our dulled consciences, for the blood that is on our prayerless hands, and for all the abominations we see. Then we should prayerfully seek to take the God-fearing, uncompromising stand whenever we can, all the while “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15a). The Lord will show us what he wants us to do as we pray.

We must plead God’s mercy in the judgment that we know is coming. We should ask for a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we would be mighty witnesses for the Lord in these perilous times and that many of the lost would be saved. We need to pray for the grace to live for Christ in spite of the wickedness that is threatening to smother us.There is no other way to stand in this evil day but to humbly kneel.
Soon we shall see Him “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Let’s pray:

Dear Unbeliever, I plead with you and pray for you to “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).The hour is very late for you to “prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12). The signs are converging for the return of Christ. Surely, you, too, can feel the heat of the judgment fires beginning to burn around the edges of the Day of the Lord.

You have to be wondering just what is happening. The world seems to be spinning out-of-control just about everywhere one looks these days. The Rapture must be close. For that matter, death could be at your side even sooner than the Tribulation hour.Get into the Ark of the Lord Jesus Christ while there is still time.

There is a Saviour who “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our sins from us” Psalm 103:12. Time is short. There is a heaven, and there is a hell…..and… PRAISE GOD! There is a Savior who stands with open arms.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24, 25).

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Postscript: I pray that my words will not heap fresh guilt upon repentant and forgiven souls who may see themselves in the issues discussed here. God’s Word tells us, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:1a). We are all guilty sinners deserving of hell.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans3:23).

The good news is that Jesus paid the price for the sins of the entire world when He shed His own blood on the cross of Calvary.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Not only does God remove our sins from us, but He chooses to forget them, too.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).
It would be a good thing for Christians to pray for the “Accountant of Auschwitz,” the people at Planned Parenthood, and others; that God would open their eyes to see their need of the Savior before it’s too late. Remember that “such were some of” us (1 Corinthians 6:11). Are we not grateful for God’s mercy and grace in our lives?

“There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.” These words were uttered by the English pastor, John Bradford, as he saw a group of criminals being led to their execution in 1510, and hence the saying, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

He did not know that in God’s grace, he would later go to the fiery stake for his witness for Christ and for naming England’s sin of turning away from God.