Mississippi Still Burning – Consciences Seared

There is little doubt that this writer is convinced we are in the last days but just in case you don’t read long enough to read my usual scriptural addendum customarily placed at the end of my articles; I’ll put it first.

Paul warning his young disciple Timothy of conditions in the last days said, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” (1Tim 4: 1, 2)

The phrase “doctrines of devils” is why much of the responses in Mississippi newspapers and journals are saying that Mississippians would not be subjected to the fears of some religious rhetoric or God lore concerning Initiative 26 - Definition of Person - Ballot Issue.

I entered one blog only to say that the Bible’s message rather than being religious rhetoric is, life affirming, God-given revelation, that when boiled down to its essence, says that God actually intended humans to live and not to occupy the buckets and waste containers of medical clinics to the tune of 53,000,000 to date. This is pragmatism not prophecy, but in either case it is a testimony against our refusal to see the obvious.

The Sun Herald online news of Biloxi-Gulfport Nov 9, 2011 said “Proponents were likely falsely bolstered by polling data that wasn’t accurate because many residents weren’t giving pollsters their true opinions, some noted.” It here we might want to pause and ask the question of whether their consciences were pricked and perhaps that while unborn children can still be discarded in the Magnolia State it is a little harder to ditch that God-given mirror that warns when our viewpoints are pressing to the border of reprobation. In theological terms we call this the ‘convicting power of the Holy Spirit.’

To wit: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (Holy Spirit) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (Jn 16: 7, 8)

Mississippians told the pollsters one thing but down at the polls only 42 percent of them were still listening to their own conscience. Factors cited in most news outlets are much like those asserted by Huff Po’s Laura Bassett, Sept 9, 2011: “The measure could be interpreted to outlaw the birth control pill, for instance, because the pill can sometimes prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. They also say the measure could outlaw in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and emergency contraception for rape victims, as well as discourage doctors from performing a life-saving miscarriage treatment when a woman is suffering from potentially-fatal pregnancy complications.”

God forbid that Americans were actually forced to play around a little less and step up to humanity’s most basic responsibility to preserve life. With a simple addendum to the bill all of those fears could have been mitigated and that is why they are merely excuses parading as true concerns. It isn’t about words, it is about feelings; but to be far more accurate it is about the hot pursuit of pleasures. Again in a prophetic description of conditions that will prevail in the last days Paul said there would come a day when pleasures would trump all moral convictions, humanitarian concerns and God himself.

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come… Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” (2Tim 3: 1, 3: 4)

If Paul warned Timothy that the pursuit of pleasures would overtake the worship of God: what are a few million dead human beings all neatly tucked away in sterile waste containers and headed to waste dumps and stem cell farms? The party goes on!

In fact even while headlines are announcing that the pro-lifers were defeated the truth is that pro-choice advocates were summarily defeated because unborn precious souls are still being refused their chance at life and liberty. If judgment seems delayed, it counts for nothing; the inevitable will not be thwarted.

We are fast approaching the forty year period of ample proof which is a biblical teaching. It is seen in Moses’ forty years in the desert and Jesus’ forty days of fasting in the wilderness to name a few. It is also worthy of note that almost all Old Testament prophets were given about forty years to warn Israel, Judah and other cities of the impending judgments and decrees that God was declaring would come to them if they didn’t respond to the warnings. America will see the fortieth anniversary of Roe V. Wade in 2013. It is at this point I can safely say that we will on or around that time begin to receive the bill, not the one Mississippi failed to pass but the one from God marked “due in full.”

This is my forecast for America and it is one I did not initiate on my own, it contains only two words, poverty and scarcity. We are nobly trying to repair a crumbling economy even as we pursue every prurient interest the human imagination can conjure. Politicians, academicians and other experts can identify this moral dilemma or not; but the results will not be deferred. Struggling to fix the economy while the murder of the unborn and the pursuit of every deviant and unbridled pursuit of pleasure known to man go on unabated, is like trying to cure advanced stages of cancer with a regimen of aspirin.

The souls of these tiniest of martyrs, sacrificed on the altar to the gods of selfishness and indulgence, take their place alongside the very elect and cry for justice. The Psalmist asked the question “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?” (Ps 94:9a) The Lord of the Psalmist has given the answer for both him and us.

“And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18: 7, 8)