“Do you have bloody hands or a bleeding heart?”

While preparing for a small-group lesson on the  touchy issue of abortion, I tried to ingest as many articles and books on the topic as I could. This thirty-page, eight-chapter publication by David Alsobrook Ministries appears to be an early attempt at how Conservative Christians tried to put their pro-life views into words in the 10-15 years following Roe v. Wade. I state it this way, because I don’t think Alsobrook brought much clarity to the issue that a reader could reproduce within his own discussions of the topic.

In his Foreword, Alsobrook recalls how, one night on the highway, Christ opened the Scriptures anew to him regarding this terrible issue of abortion. He quotes Jeremiah 20:17 where the prophets acknowledges, “My mother might have been my grave.” He then delves into eight chapters that seek to make the issue simple for Christian readers to understand and (ostensibly) share.

He begins with a chapter on “Modern Molech Worship.” While I get it, there’s a valid comparison between ancient child sacrifice and modern abortion practices, this is also a sure-fire way to turn off one’s audience! Where’s the common ground? Where’s the compassion for lost, or possibly, for the terrified mother? Where’s the discussion of the innate value and personhood of the helpless baby? Alsobrook’s approach—poking his opponents in the eye—is akin to starting a conversation with one’s homosexual cousin with the Jonesborough favorite, “God hates f**s!” Granted, this book was published 35 years ago, but still. Did none from my parents’ generation recognize the importance of decorum? The terrified or selfish mother who’s contemplating abortion is misguided, and possibly quite arrogantly so. That doesn’t mean your attempts at convincing them of the moral crimes they’re about to commit should begin with comparing their actions to Satan worship.

In Chapter 2, he discusses from Luke 1:41 and 44 how Dr. Luke used the Greek word brephos to describe John the Baptist, six-months grown in the womb. This term means “living, breathing infant” and similar to how one might choose to call an unborn child a “baby” instead of a “fetus”. The first term humanizes the life inside the womb, while the second (although scientifically accurate) tends to dehumanize that life. He makes several points further in this chapter: that “Fruition proves the life principle has successfully completed its natural course” and that “Birth does not create life, but manifests a life already created.” (10)

In Chapter 3, Alsobrook delves into some common passages that describe how a person has been known by God since conception: Psalm 139:13-16, 17-18; Acts 15:18; Jeremiah 1:5; Exodus 21:22-24; and Luke 1:44. He then pulls out Zechariah 2:8, suggesting that to hurt an innocent child whom God planned and created is to poke the Creator God in the eye.

In Chapter 4, Alsobrook finally touches specifically on “the dignity and sacredness of life, and then continues in Chapter 5 with the Word’s promises that God will defend the Fatherless. Here he describes how “the life of the physical body is in the blood” and that “the shedding of innocent blood brings judgment.” (19) He ends this chapter with a discussion of how, in Ezekiel 9, those who wept for their nation were spared God’s judgment on the nation. While I fully agree that we should pray for nation and find great shame in what’s been legalized apart from the will of Godly people, I don’t think we can speak in terms of blessings and curses, judgment and sparing. This isn’t Old Testament Israel, and to draw such unnatural applications from history is a dangerous precedent—even though vengeance is God’s, and He will repay.

Alsobrook devotes Chapter 6 to those who have had an abortion, who are contemplating one, or who are grieved over this natural sin and want to see it stopped. For those who have ever had an abortion (and I assume he also means those who have encouraged it as well), he tells them to “Sincerely repent of having had the abortion. Confess this regrettable deed as murder!” and “Receive the Lord’s gracious healing balm for the wounds in your emotions as a result of the sin.” (22) Further, he encourages them to “Refuse to gaze back on this sorry episode knowing the aborted child is present with the Lord (see Luke 18:15-16; Philippians 3:13; Luke 9:62)” and to “Purpose to follow Jesus and let Him (re)make you!” (23)

For those who are tempted to have an abortion, he begs them to stop and ask themselves the following questions. “Am I willing to take an innocent life? Can I live with myself later? Are there others who would love to adopt my baby?” and “Am I willing to forfeit another’s life for my own convenience?” (24)

And finally, he challenges those who are grieved over this national sin to consider the following: 2Corinthians 10:3-6; Ephesians 6:12; “God loves the grossest of sinners”; “Abortion is the outward manifestation of an inward problem in the heart of many Americans”; “spend much time in prayer”; write “letters to your congressmen and elected officials”; and “use the Word of God in your reasons for opposing abortion.” (25).

In Chapter 7, he offers seven arguments that unbelievers might make in support of their right to abort their child, as well as super-simplistic answers a believer might give. And then in Chapter 8, he declares “There is hope!” I wish the hope he describes were more scripturally based, but instead he ends with an anti-climactic pseudo-numerological anecdote from a dinner with some precious old friends. It was a poor way to end a substandard book on this topic, but at least it ended.

I mentioned that I read whatever I could on the topic, so I don’t think it’d be fair to give this book a bad review without also mentioning the far-better books I’m comparing it to. These include:

• Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation by President Ronald Reagan
• Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Questions by Randy Alcorn

©2019 E.T.