John Ensor’s book INNOCENT BLOOD dives deep into the issue of abortion, but not in a way that condemns those who’ve been involved in it in the typical Christian judgmental fashion. Though any talk about abortion in relation to God’s thoughts about it is assured to make many people uncomfortable and many people offended. In fact, Ensor implicates all of us in the bloodguilt of abortion. The book looks at the issue from God’s perspective, and explores several key Old Testament texts to reveal God’s heart toward not only the unborn, but all people. Human life is precious to God, therefore human beings have a responsibility to defend human life against anything and anyone that threatens it. Ensor makes the case that if we claim to be pro-life, yet do nothing to help protect the unborn, we may be pro-life in our declaration, but we’re pro-choice in practice. Suddenly the condemnation isn’t just on those who take part in abortion, but on Christ followers as well. Yet the greatest beauty is found in the cross where Jesus took on the bloodguilt of abortion and the killing of the innocent in our world.
I can’t cover all the insights of INNOCENT BLOOD here, but I would recommend all Christ followers to read the book. Ensor’s book is a call to love human life as God loves it, and love requires the defending of human life where possible. He also connects abortion as an attempt for the devil to stop the spread of God’s love to the world. After all, think what the world would have been like if the apostle Paul would have never been born.
I came away from reading INNOCENT BLOOD with a greater appreciation for God’s love of human beings, and it causes me to wrestle with what exactly I’m supposed to do about defending the innocent. Yet I know that I must if I am to help fulfill God’s hopes and dreams for the world. In light of what Ensor has revealed from the Scriptures, each time an abortion happens, God’s hopes and dreams for that person are snuffed out. If we understand God as the Creator of each human life, then when a child is conceived, it is not just the joining of a man and woman that initiates a human life; God is the determiner of a life beginning. God condemns the taking of human life in Exodus 20:13. In light of all this, abortion is a tragedy because it is the abortion of a life for which God initiated and had great intention for.
Read INNOCENT BLOOD, and love human life like you’ve never imagined.
I received this book for free for review from Cruciform Press.
What are some ways that Christians can morally stand up for innocent blood?
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