An Unnatural Slaughter
The gross evil of abortion has been brought once more into the public eye with the announcement that women from Northern Ireland will be eligible to receive fully-funded journeys at the NHS’s expense to abortion clinics in England. Abortion is currently illegal in Northern Ireland; exceptions include cases where the mother’s life is in jeopardy. At the same time, a BBC Scotland report recently characterised the lack of provision of late-stage abortions north of the border as “Scotland’s dirty little secret”; 180 women travelled to England to receive abortions last year, of whom 73 were within one month of the legal limit of 24 weeks.
This report, which appeared on the BBC website, was completely one-sided in its coverage of this dreadful subject and did not include any comment from pro-life sources at all. Scotland’s shame is not the failure to provide access to late-stage abortions but rather the fact that such an unnatural slaughter of unborn children was perpetrated about 12,068 times on Scottish soil in 2016. Equally disturbing in the BBC report was its suggestion that a medically-induced abortion was so traumatic that the surgical method might be preferable for many women at the later stage. Needless to say, there was no word about the barbaric nature of the surgical procedure, nor anything concerning the plight of the defenceless unborn child. Above all, there was no consideration that abortion is a moral outrage against God’s law, which says, “Thou shalt not kill”, and prohibits “the taking away of our own or our neighbour’s life unjustly”. We believe that when the cause of Christ revives again, future generations will regard abortion as one of the cruellest and most appalling abominations of our era. “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation” (Ps 51:14). AWM
Memorial Service for Gordon Wilson
The memorial service for the former SNP leader Gordon Wilson raises some very serious questions. It was held at St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee, at which Mr Wilson was a communicant member. Mr Wilson’s body had been cremated beforehand and the main ceremony or service was attended by important Scottish political figures and followed exactly the instructions that Mr Wilson had given before his death. It was led by the minister of the congregation, Rev David Robertson, who prayed twice and pronounced a blessing, with a third prayer from the Roman Catholic Bishop, Vincent Logan (all the prayers, incidentally, being read).
One question that the event raises is: Where is Mr Wilson’s soul presently? This might seem an inappropriate question to ask at such a time, but Mr Robertson and Bishop Logan openly disagreed on the matter, so the question is in the public domain. Mr Robertson has no doubt that Mr Wilson is in heaven, whereas Bishop Logan thinks that he is in purgatory. The present writer does not pretend to know the answer; but the fact that Mr Wilson wanted Bishop Logan to pray at his funeral shows that Mr Wilson did not have clear views on the way of salvation, through faith alone in Christ alone. Bishop Logan has made it his life’s work to promote a different and false way of salvation. Mr Wilson has left at best an indistinct testimony regarding his faith in Christ. A second question, often raised in this Magazine, concerns Mr Robertson’s religious beliefs. While disagreeing with Bishop Logan over purgatory, he describes him as “a man who has served Christ for many years”. But according to the ministerial vows Mr Robertson has several times taken, Bishop Logan’s religious views are false, and he has not served Christ, but opposed Him. Mr Robertson is once again the editor of the Free Church magazine, The Record, following the fearful fall and suicide of Rev I D Campbell, but how can Mr Robertson instruct others when there is such a discrepancy between his vows and his conduct? Is keeping one’s vows part of the Christian religion or not?
A third question arising from the memorial service is, Was it a Christian service? “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20), says Christ; but to what extent can one modify and dilute Christian worship with music, photographs, eulogies, anecdotes and jokes before Christ is no longer present? Again, we do not know the answer, but when Mr Robertson states in his blog that “the gospel [was preached] in front of the First Minister, the former First Minister and the government ministers responsible for Health and Education”, he is claiming more for the occasion than the truth warrants. A few aspects of the Christian religion were presented to the politicians, but with little solemnity, and they were not the aspects that they most needed to hear. There was nothing concerning sin, hell, repentance, or the cross of Christ. Had the tone of the service been more biblical, the politicians might have been less ready to stay and “chat” afterwards. Mr Robertson was obviously well pleased with the occasion, but it was a sad day for Scottish Christianity. It is sad that a communicant member of a church professing to be Reformed should enter eternity, and his circle of acquaintances should have so little idea of how to respond appropriately and how to lay to heart the lessons that God was teaching them by that providence. DWBS
Resignation of Mr Tim Farron
Mr Tim Farron has resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrat party because he found it “impossible . . . to be a political leader . . . and to live as a committed Christian”. One prominent homosexual member of the party denounced Mr Farron’s religious views as “outdated and frankly offensive”. Many other members of the party, however, were embarrassed at the obviously illiberal attitude of senior party members towards Mr Farron. The homosexual movement is deeply intolerant, especially towards Christianity, and the world is starting to realise this. Perhaps the earth will soon start to help the woman (Rev 12:16). DWBS
Islamic Persecution of Christians in Kenya
In Britain we are reeling from several recent attacks by Islamic extremists – and the UK is still on “severe” alert – yet there is evidently a global assault on Christianity. Barbaric followers of Islam are determined to dominate the whole world. The inspired Apostle Peter reminds us of Satan’s attacks: “The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Pet 5:9). Islamists have committed fearful atrocities in Kenya, a country where the Free Presbyterian Church has had an interest. Statistics indicate that Kenya remains professedly a Christian country, with around 80% of the population being Christian, at least nominally, a group that the Islamists are seeking to eradicate.
Elly Ojiema, a Christian teacher from a village in Garissa in north-east Kenya, was brutally murdered by Al-Shabaab militants – an Islamic terror group associated with Al-Qaeda. Around 9 pm on June 14, armed men broke into the school grounds. A worker for the Barnabas charity reported that “they found Elly under the bed and shot his leg, dragged him out and killed him by cutting his throat”. Another Christian teacher managed to escape.
Al-Shabaab, rose to power in neighbouring Somalia in 2006 and is determined to establish a fully-Islamic state in that country. In 2011 troops from Kenya were sent in to help their neighbours counter this escalating terrorist activity. Since then Kenya has been plagued by acts of violence, particularly against Christians. Playing a video of Jihadists at a “graduation ceremony” for militants in May this year, the terrorist group called on “graduates” to target Christians specifically, particularly in Kenya. A leading speaker urged the newly-trained Jihadists, many of whom are Kenyan, to return to their own country to conquer Christians. The Al-Shabaab leader claimed that Christians have “occupied” what “used to be a Muslim land”. The Jihadists’ mission is “to work towards the implementation of the sharia of Allah so that it governs the entire world”. They must “eliminate all other systems of governance and laws of Kufr [infidels] such as democracy, communism and secularism . . . and govern the land according to the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet”. Their objectives are brutally clear: “victory or martyrdom” and they “should not be content with anything less than that”.
In October last year, two assaults were carried out on Christians in the town of Mandera, in north-east Kenya. The first killed six people, the second 12. A spokesman for Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the first attack, on a residential compound. He informed the news agency Reuters, “We are behind the Mandera attack in which we killed six Christians”, adding that a police vehicle had also been hit by a roadside bomb. The second attack was on a guest house, with guns and grenades and was carried out by the same group. A resident said, “We, the Christian community in the region, are living in fear of attack. The security forces appear to be unable to protect us from these targeted attacks, two in a month.”
The worst single atrocity to date took place in April 2015, when 148 people were killed by Al-Shabaab at Garissa University. After entering a university block, gunmen shot students randomly before targeting the Christians. Mocking their victims, the militants separated Christians from Muslims. “If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot”, said a student who escaped. Witnesses said the gunmen beheaded those who could not recite the Quran. An aid worker reported, “There were bodies everywhere in execution lines. We saw people whose heads had been blown off, bullet wounds everywhere; it was a grisly mess.” A local church leader stated: “There were 13 Christian Union members in early morning prayers; all were slain with one dying on his knees”.
Such barbarism is unspeakably horrifying yet it shows the depths of wickedness in the human heart, if not restrained by God. As individuals, as a Church and as a nation we need to pray ever more earnestly: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10). KHM