June 28, 2016

Life Quotes for the 4th of July

“God is the source and giver of all life. He has placed a special value on human life; therefore, we respect the sanctity with which God has dignified every human being (Genesis 1:26, Psalm 8:4-6, Genesis 2:7). This special and unique place of man in God’s creation is further emphasized by the fact that God has acted to redeem mankind by His own blood (John 3:16). This redemptive love of God is lifted up in [1 John 4:10]: ‘[H]e (God) loved us and sent [H]is Son to be the expiation for our sins.’” Rev. Dr. Duane R. Lindberg

“It is vital that we Christians realize that the many challenging situations we face in our world today are deeply spiritual problems … not … solved simply by having the right president in Washington or the right congressional representative. Surely, these are vitally important and we must all take our duties as Christian citizens much, much more seriously. But, in itself, the political process will not ‘solve’ the deep spiritual problems which lie at the heart of everything evil in our culture.” Rev. Dr. A. L. Barry

“The opening refrain of the Declaration of Independence affirms the necessity of an absolute standard upon which the rule of law must be based: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …’. Thomas Jefferson asserted that the ‘chief purpose of government is to protect life. Abandon that, and you have abandoned all.’” Gov. Mike Huckabee with George Grant

“To choose life is also a call to Walk the Walk, to put feet to our prayers and actions with our words. Certainly we should keep praying that the Supreme Court decision would be reversed and a human life amendment would be passed which protects life in the womb. Our prayers should include our government leaders, those who are in the forefront in crafting legislation that will diminish and ultimately defeat the abortion holocaust. And our prayers should continue for ministries that are seeking to be there when the choices are whether to choose life or death by abortion.” Dr. Francis Monseth

“The pro-life community does not advocate government regulation of reproduction. Women are free to reproduce or not reproduce as they will. But once having reproduced, they shouldn’t be free to kill their baby. That baby is entitled to the same human rights and personhood to which society is generally entitled.” Gregg Cunningham

“It is time for our nation to repent, to change its mind about the value of human life, when that value begins, and from whom that value comes. It is time for our nation to return to that self-evident truth that we are ‘endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” Rev. Dr. James I. Lamb

“We rejoice that our fundamental rights as human beings, including the precious right to life, come not from princes, not from legislatures, not from deals (‘mutual non-aggression pacts’) we cut with our fellow citizens; our rights come as gifts of God Himself—and they are, therefore, in no way revocable by any merely human authority.” Robert P. George

“The duty of those who wield authority on earth, rather, is to respect and protect the God-given moral order in which fundamental human rights – above all the right to life—have pride of place.” Robert P. George

“A Christian cannot debate the pros and cons of abortion any more than he can debate the pros and cons of rape or stealing or adultery. Abortion cannot be a ‘right’ for, in God’s sight, it is a fundamental wrong.” Rev. Dr. James I. Lamb

“If we have no ‘sanctity of human life’ principle, we become a self-destructive society.” Rev. Dr. Randy Shields

“Legalizing abortion actually alters the form of government we have … It abolishes the notion of a government that secures rights that are beyond its reach (because they are given by the Creator), and establishes one in which those rights are given and taken by government decree. That affects everything.” Father Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life

“O most glorious God … Direct my thoughts, word and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by the Holy Spirit … Daily frame me more and more into the likeness of thy Son, Jesus Christ … Thou gavest thy Son to die for me, and has given me assurance of salvation …”. George Washington

“Abortion is un-American … It baldly violates the first principles of the country, cracking the foundation on which all rights for Americans rest—the right to life. Unless the right to life is inviolable, none of the rights that presuppose it are inviolable either.” George Neumayr, Executive Editor, American Spectator

“Our Lord faced opposition, but He continued to bring the Word of life and healing to many. Though the pro-life community may suffer reverses … we cannot give up the effort to fight for the unborn so that all humans are recognized as persons, beings valuable in and of themselves.” Rev. Dr. Kevin E. Voss, Director of the Concordia Bioethics Institute

“We stand for the right to life, not simply because the state needs more people, but rather because each human being is a unique creation of God, endowed with personhood and the rights that attach to personhood from the moment of conception.” Colonel John Eidsmoe, member of the Lutherans For Life Board of Directors

“As Christians, let us pause this July 4th and give thanks above all for that liberty which stretches into eternity, our liberty in Christ. Jesus frees us from sin’s power and condemnation by forgiving us before the throne of God, pardoning us fully of all guilt. Through faith in Christ and His redeeming work on our behalf we are citizens of heaven.” E-mail devotion, www.redeemerclc.org/devotional.html

“I do not believe human society … ever has attained, or ever can attain, a high state of intelligence, virtue, security, liberty, or happiness without the Holy Scriptures; even the whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible.” William Seward, Secretary of State for the administration of Abraham Lincoln

“Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.” Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and the Morse Code

“One of the major signs of decadence in the Roman Empire was that its unwanted babies were exposed, that is, abandoned to die. Can we claim that Western society is any less decadent because it consigns its unwanted babies to the hospital incinerator instead of the local rubbish dump? Reverence for human life is an indispensable characteristic of a humane and civilized society.” John Stott, English Christian leader and Anglican cleric

“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever.” Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18, 1781

“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” President John F. Kennedy, 1961

“The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families … In vain are schools, academies, and universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years … The vices and examples of the parents cannot be concealed from the children. How is it possible that children can have any just sense of the sacred obligations of morality or religion if, from their earliest infancy, they learn their mothers live in habitual infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant infidelity to their mothers?” John Adams, 1778

“All law is enacted morality. Every criminal law says that a certain thing is right, and another wrong. Every law is thus a piece of legislated morality. Moreover, all morality represents a religion, as every system of law is an establishment of religion. Thus, there can be a separation of church and state, but there cannot be a separation of religion and the state because every system of law is a religion and a morality in action.” R. J. Rushdoony, philosopher, historian, and theologian

“We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic … Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, October 6, 1935

“The Declaration of Independence … claims … the ultimate source of authority by stating … they were … ‘appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of’ their ‘intentions’… The foundations of our independence and our Government rests upon basic religious convictions. Back of the authority of our laws is the authority of the Supreme Judge of the World, to whom we still appeal. It seems to me perfectly plain that the authority of law, the right to equality, liberty and property, under American institutions, have for their foundation reverence for God. If we could imagine that to be swept away, these institutions of our American government could not long survive.” President Calvin Coolidge, September 21, 1924