The devil hates children
Young people are being targeted with lies and deception. Who is speaking out against the forces of the enemy?
Since the dawn of time in this world, children have been at the forefront of the Lord’s holy and righteous concerns. No surprise then, that the Devil takes the opposite view.
Why?
Recent TV images of baying crowds of young Irish people celebrating a supposed “right” to end the lives of unborn children has provided pause for thought.That some of those young people would themselves not even have been in this world had some of their parents had the same “right” to take life, seems not to have entered their heads! Looking at those baying crowds in Dublin, and then thinking of the equivalent legislation in the UK and what this has done to our population and demographic, leads to serious contemplation. Someone is a winner here, but it is definitely not the baby in the womb in Eire. It is noteworthy that the land known as Eire is named after a mythical pagan goddess of questionable moral standards. Perhaps pagan roots are reasserting themselves?
In the UK, we have only to think of Jimmy Savileand that appalling saga of sexual abuse, neglect and whitewash. Worldwide, so many abuses are aimed at children: Deranged gunmen in schools – a “harvest” for the bullet, abortion clinics “welcoming” terrified youngsters with open arms, online games and online abuse targeted at the young, Boko Haramstealing children and turning them into ‘child soldiers’. To a greater or lesser degree, each of these abuses is about stealing-away the childhood of the victim. It’s no wonder childhood mental disease is on the increase.
God’s perspective
At the very beginning, God revealed His good plan – His good pattern. In Genesis 1, God surveys all that He has made and declares it “Good”– a powerful and loaded word. In our terminology the word goodshould convey the idea of holiness. What has been created is perfect and in accordance with God’s good will. In Genesis 1:28, God tells Mankind to “be fruitful and multiply”– and this of course implies having children. In Psalm 8we learn the amazing truth that God establishes His power through children. Whilst it is not a good translation, the old 1984 NIV captures the essence of this rather poetically: “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise”. Children are born into original sin with an inevitable propensity to rebel against God, and yet when born they are an unspoilt blank page, that the enemy is determined to spoil – as much and as quickly as possible.
It seems that the devil hates children first and foremost because they are made in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 makes this clear “So God created man in His Own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”We see today the ultimate betrayal of the creation ordinance – and in this we are seeing something new, not experienced from the beginning of human history. Our modern culture is inventing “genders” seemingly by the day, and yet God’s word has already pronounced. As Mankind grows towards inevitable final and complete rebellion against God, the throwing back as it were into God’s face of His creation ordinance, this seems to be an ultimate betrayal of our humanity. Ultimate rebellion by our societies and modern cultures will eventually and inevitably be met with an ultimate sanction from our Holy God. We have only to think of the Tribulationthat is coming and the judgement that swiftly follows (Mark 13: 19-20, Revelation chapter 18).
In Pharaoh’s Egypt, young boys were marked for destruction (Exodus 1:15-22). We know of course there were political and demographic reasons, but the inspiration was demonic. It is notable that in this account midwives were brave and resisted an evil order. The few biblical references to midwives are all positive; to help bring a life into this word is a noble task. How tragic it is, that in our own day, the UK Royal College of Midwives has called for abortion limits to be increased to full term. This caused a media storm (in a teacup, sadly) and yet there has been genuine shock at this public stance that was adopted without consultation. The Daily Telegraph report 1 (16 May 2016) online gives the ugly picture:
The Royal College of Midwives tried to backtrack in a subsequent statement on its own website and described media reports as “sensationalist”. As far as your author can ascertain, the media reports were accurate and measured. To see the RCM’s current position, look on their website – their words have changed but the underlying philosophy has not. 2
God seems to have a special anger for killing of the unborn, as Amos 1:13 suggests. In the Bible midwives are celebrated and valued. In our modern world, in the UK at least, their “trade union” seems to have become a part of the abortion industry – or at least fully ‘sides’ with that industry.
Abortion
This article is not to explore the Christian perspective on abortion. Others have ably and thoroughly covered this ground. This article, by contrast, aims to ask serious questions about the causes and effects of abortion on what we might call the “macroeconomic” societal level.
Why is it that young women (not to mention old men) can get so excited and emotional about the prospect of killing the un-born (or perhaps we should say, about those who seek to prevent the killing of the unborn)? The mantra: ‘This is ‘my body’ and therefore‘my property’ looks, spiritually, like just another affirmation of rebellion against God. God is sovereign and He knits us together in our mother’s womb, in the words of the Psalmist (139:13). Yet today all too many perceive themselves as demigods, with the power of life and death. The assertion “I am sovereign”over my own body, is surely another way of saying “I am ‘god’ of my life and I will choose what I will choose, and ‘damn’ anyone who comes in my way!” At root this is spiritual rebellion. We can sense the sadness and confusion of many individuals who seek abortion ‘services’. Many do so with a genuinely heavy heart. Yet it is the ‘religious fervour’ of the abortion industry and those who support it that is so noteworthy. An acquaintance of the author mentioned that he was “proud”of the provision of abortion services in the UK. Strange what can make a man proud – killing the unborn: Snuffing out their future.
And this is seen as praise-worthy and pride-inducing! By contrast Proverbs reminds us that “pride comes before destruction” (16:18).Is destruction coming to our culture?
What has abortion achieved in the UK? When ‘legalised’ in 1967 following a campaign championedby theyouthful and energetic David Steel, it was on the basis that: Abortion would continue to be against the law unless a pregnancy is extinguished by a registered medical practitioner if two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion, formed in good faith that the pregnancy had not exceeded 24 weeks (heartbeat is detectable at 9 weeks) and certain other minimum criteria were satisfied. Yet today, we have the tragic situation that the law is honoured as much in its breach, as its observance.What was originally touted by ‘The Mother of Parliaments’ as an exceptional procedure, has morphed to become abortion on demand with killing on the grounds of gender (girls are generally the target – as a Telegraph investigation uncovered)3 available with no questions asked. Other cases have involved doctors signing blank consent forms. No prosecutions for these offences have been allowed. The UK Crown Prosecution Service declined to allow a private prosecution on this matter as being “not in the public interest”.This matter is now popularly known as the Aisling Hubertcase after the lady who sought to bring the prosecution.4
A Scriptural truth
Abortion in the UK has cost the lives of between 7 and 8 million babies since 1967. Strangely, in the same time frame, roughly the same number of immigrants – from largely alien, non-western (and indeed non-Christian) cultures, – have arrived in the UK. Could it really be that God is saying “every time you destroy one of My unborn I will progressively change your demographic – forever”? With a UK population of 66 million, this suggests that more than one in eight of our nation has been “terminated” to use a shallow euphemism. For every eight people you see, there is a ninth who ‘never made it’.
Demonic forces hate children because children are made in the image of God and they have a future that might pitch them against the Lord’s enemy. The devil of course wants them to suffer the same eternal fate as him, not perhaps because he is angry at them per se, but rather because God loves them and Jesus has already yielded up His life for them. What is Jesus’ verdict?
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. …whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. If anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!” (Matthew 18: 1-7).
Demonic forces hate children with vehemence. We know why. In our land today, children are being taught to doubt their gender – the way that God knit them together in their mother’s womb. And to object to, or challenge, such discourse is becoming legally fraught ground.Yet our Lord has spoken. He will not be silenced, nor ultimately avoided.
1 https://tinyurl.com/yaq5m73q
2 https://tinyurl.com/yavednw8