I asked a young man who grew up in our church and graduated from our high school what he thought about this issue. He said that in his opinion those who resort to such tactics represent a fundamental denial of the power of the Gospel because they have demonstrated by their actions that they do not believe that the Holy Spirit is at work making the Resurrection power unleashed at Christ’s raising efficacious in the world, effectively denying that Jesus rose from the dead. Then he went on to tell of an abortion Doctor back east who was invited to attend a Bible study in a home. He was afraid to go for fear that no one would receive him. His friends assured him that that would not be the case. After several weeks of attending, he came under deep conviction for his sin, repented in great contrition, received Christ and is now going to churches giving his testimony. I thought of those words of Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” [Romans 1:16] 

 

Would not someone have been justified in killing Saul of Tarsus? He said “And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.” [Acts 26:11]  He would have been the Adolph Eichmann of his day. But what if someone had killed him? Perish the thought. From the human viewpoint there would have never been a Paul the Apostle and the Gentile church, and you and I may have never been saved.

 

Believers have suffered untold torture and suffering throughout the 2,000 year church age. Our promise is very clear-The Lord’s disciple is called to a life of suffering:

 

 “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” [Romans 8:17] 

 

 “Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:” [2 Thessalonians 1:5]

 

 “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:”   [2 Titus 2:12]

 

When Stephen was stoned to death the church did not fight the authorities. In fact he prayed, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” [Acts 7:60]  He could have prayed for the believers to avenge his blood, but he did not. When Peter was in prison, the church did not send out commandos to try to break him out; rather they were praying. [Acts 12:12]

 

Can anyone recount a sadder scene than what our Vaudois believing ancestors experienced? They suffered, knowing that as Paul said, “…the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” [Romans 8:18]

 

The Earl Shilton Baptist Church in England knew the turmoil of persecution as early as 1626 AD. This church connected its existence back to the Waldenses. This terrible event that we relate took place on January 25, 1655 when the wicked Gastaldo drove them from their homes; and their persecution culminated in their horrible massacre on April 24 of the same year. Their slaughter is indescribable. “Little children were torn from the arms of their mothers, clasped by their tiny feet, and their heads were dashed against rocks or were held between two soldiers and their quivering limbs torn up by force. Their mangled bodies were thrown on the highways or fields, to be devoured by beasts. The sick and aged were burned alive in their dwellings. Some had their hands, arms, and legs lopped off and fire applied to the severed parts to staunch the bleeding and prolong their suffering…fathers were marched to death with the heads of their sons suspended round their necks.”  [This Day in Baptist History II - BJU Press Pg. 310]

 

This repression was not from the Catholics, but from the Presbyterian Parliament ruling at that time. Did a people ever have reason to retaliate? Obviously yes! However, they did not and suffered, while waiting in faith. The day came, some forty-five suffering years later, and the Toleration Act was passed in England. Out of their suffering, this act gave a large measure of Religious Freedom. Later, it gave full Religious Freedom, which resulted in great churches being built in the 18th Century, churches like Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle and many others. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” [Revelation 14:12]

 

In this country, there are many areas void of abortion clinics. These were once areas that held many. God still answers prayer; maybe we should try it and see. Pastor Ernie Sanders in Cleveland, Ohio goes out every week, rain or shine, cold or hot, and ministers at the abortion clinics along with pastors and laymen in his area. They have saved untold thousands of babies’ lives not counting those that have been reached for Christ. Of course we could name many more because their names are legion that are involved in the ministry to the unborn and also in the Crisis Pregnancy Centers, etc. 

 

In his May Newsletter, Pastor Butch writes, “The opposition to this seminar has been horrific!  We even lost two radio stations in Buffalo, NY because of one of the speakers and my strong stand against the murder of the unborn.” He continues, “orders have dropped by at least 80%.  Phone calls are down to three to four a day…”This so far it seems, will be the smallest turnout we have ever had for a seminar because of the controversy over most of our speakers.”

I don’t know about “most,” but I do know that there is controversy over one speaker and he is Michael Bray: the bomber of abortion clinics and author of the book A Time to Kill.  It is so tragic to see a good man, such as Pastor Butch Paugh, totally lose all perspective just because he has bowed his neck in stubbornness over this issue.

Pastor Butch announced recently on his broadcast that Sheriff Richard Mack has withdrawn as a speaker. He has said grievous things over his broadcasts about those of us who have opposed him on this issue. He has said that we are trying to sabotage his meeting. He has called us cowards, panty waists, that we have lace on our drawers and a number of other descriptive adjectives that are more fit for a back alley than from a preacher of the gospel. In subsequent broadcasts, he has said that if we are Christians then we are immature, still on milk and not meat. However, none of this is true, and in a letter to Pastor Butch, we told him that we were writing this paper and would be releasing it soon on the internet.

 

Paul the Apostle said, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” [Hebrews 12:4]  Pastor Butch uses this passage and says that this is his justification for the killing of abortion doctors, sodomites, rapists, adulterers, etc. This Biblical passage means just the opposite. It is referring to the blood of the Christian believer who is willing to shed martyrs blood in resisting sin and evil. We believe in non-violent resistance just as the disciples did in the N.T. when the authorities demanded that they take a license to preach the gospel “…Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” [Acts 5:29] Then the scripture says, “And when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.” [Acts 5:40-41] I will assure you that God received far more Glory through their actions than if they had taken weapons and fought against the Council. Abortion fighters that have been beaten and hauled off to jail have accomplished far more than the Paul Hills, Scott Roeders, and Michael Brays have or ever will accomplish. 

 

I have been arrested four times for standing against state tyranny. I spent 10 days in the Key Road facility in a hot Atlanta August without A/C.  I’ve been in the Federal Penitentiary in Chicago for not giving up the records of our church to a Federal judge. I was one of those who was hauled off to jail in Montgomery, AL when they took the Ten Commandments Monument away. I was with the 100 that were hauled out of Faith Baptist Church of Louisville, Nebraska on Oct. 18, 1982 over the school licensure issue.  Of course, this is nothing compared to what others have suffered for Christ, or their country.

 

I was also carried out of our church in Indianapolis when it was raided by 100 Federal Marshals after a 93 day siege on Feb. 13, 2001, because we believed that Christ was the head over His church and not the IRS.  We were criticized severely because we didn’t invite the militia to come to our aid with weapons. We were castigated in some quarters for not having a shootout with the Marshals. Those who talk like that don’t understand the nature of the Beast. That’s what the authorities wanted us to do. They can win a battle like that all day long, but they can’t win a battle against people whose weapons are spiritual and not carnal. We chose and still choose the “spiritual sword.” If we had succumbed to our fleshly desires, it would have cost the lives of untold numbers of our people.  But more importantly, it would have cast a black eye on the cause of Christ for which it may have taken years to recover.

 

There is only one simple answer to this question: AUTHORITY! God will hold those parents, the participants and the state responsible for the killing that goes on in the abortion clinics. We are responsible to do what we can do, but that does not include adding blood to blood. Until God is pleased to raise up a lesser magistrate for us to follow, who will put down this reign of terror, we have no choice but to use whatever means God has given to us to stop this carnage. This includes a wide range of things far too lengthy to discuss here. People may not like this answer but, in my humble opinion, there is none other from our divine Rule Book, The Word of God.

 

Thankfully, we have a clear example in the scriptures of another man that faced the same dilemma. His name is Moses. He saw far more atrocities at the heavy hand of Pharaoh’s wicked government than we have seen. Among his people Israel, he witnessed the slaughter of all the girl babies over a long period of time. How long we don’t know. Moses thought the problem of his people’s slavery and suffering could be solved by Force and not through Faith, so he slew an Egyptian who he saw “smiting” a Hebrew. If you examine the text closely, Moses used the same logic that the killers and bombers use today. Never the less it was murder, and Moses had to flee as a fugitive into the wilderness. The only reason God could allow him to return was because the statute of limitations had run out, after he had been in the desert those forty years, and there had been a regime change in Egypt. God delivered the Hebrews by force, but it was His Force and their Faith. “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” [Exodus 2:24]

I am now convinced that those who take the “justifiable defense” position are no different than the Moslems who support Jihad, but would never resort to participate in strapping bombs on their own body and walking into the midst of a crowded mall. They too believe in the “justifiable defense” and “collateral damage” theory and believe it necessary to save more lives in the long run.  But in the end, they will have to at some point be taking the place of God and making decisions as to who lives and who dies. On this issue, neutral you cannot be.

 

We need to go back and reread the great Hall of Faith, not Hall of Force, in Hebrews Chapter 11. It says, “By Faith” fifteen times. Paul said “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” [2 Corinthians 10:4]  Maybe God’s people should remember what we possess and try these powerful and effective weapons of spiritual warfare, before we resort to these carnal weapons that have been proven not to work. It would be better to use David’s five smooth stones of faith instead of Saul’s big sword and armor of flesh, which scripture has told us does not work?

 

Before ending this article perhaps we should remember two men who thought they should practice the “eye for an eye” principle by taking the law into their own hands, and by doing so did irreparable wrong. They were Simeon and Levi, the rebel sons of Jacob, who by treachery, to avenge the rape of their sister Dinah committed by Prince Shechem, slaughtered not only Hamor, King of the Hivites, but also all of the males of his nation.  When Jacob knew what his sons had done, he rebuked them and said, “Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land.” [Genesis 34:30] What a difference in those words and the instructions that our Lord Jesus gave the disciples at Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

 

I would encourage everyone who is interested in pursuing this subject further to read Dr. GaryNorth’s most moving Letter to Paul Hill dated September 29, 1994 at: http://www.reformed.org/social/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/social/let_2_ paul_hill.html. North admits to being a Christian Reconstructionist like Hill, but clearly rebukes him for killing Dr. Britton and his escort. 

How many more children are there like Paul Hill’s, who will grow up without a father, because someone thinks they are doing the will of God by taking the law into their own hands? Hopefully, this article will be helpful in putting this issue in proper perspective.