Partial obedience

Banning late-term abortions: partial obedience is total disobedience

By Harlan Brown
Feb. 5, 2020

Last night, in the State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called on Congress to ban late-term abortion. He did this while drawing the country's attention to a living, smiling example of the children who could have been killed without criminal penalty had their mothers made a different "choice."

He said, "Every child is a miracle of life... Whether we are Republican, Democrat, or independent, surely we must all agree that every human life is a sacred gift from God."

Yet President Trump did not ask Congress to protect every child. He did not ask Congress to treat every human life as a sacred gift from God. He requested a ban on only late-term abortion.

Abolition vs. regulation

In the United States more than a million preborn babies are killed each year. Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade ruling in January 1973 more than 60,000,000 preborn babies have been killed. This is an Aborticide Holocaust. (Aborticide refers to induced abortion as contrasted with spontaneous abortion, or miscarriage; see "Conception, abortion, aborticide, and the obfuscation of truth")

Aborticide is a hideous evil that should be abolished, not regulated. As explained in "Oppose Abortion Regulations Because," pro-life abortion regulations have backfired and actually help sustain the abortion industry.

The bottom line is that any law that ends with "and then you can kill the baby," is immoral. God commands, "You shall not murder." (Exodus 20:13) God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:16-17).

The U.S. Constitution requires that all persons be given equal protection under the law and that no person be deprived of the right to life without due process. See "Article in Harvard Law Journal concludes: The preborn child is a constitutional person."

Partial obedience

At a Christian men's conference nine years ago, one of the speakers said, "Partial obedience is total disobedience." He showed from the Scriptures why that statement is true. Although he did not apply his statement to the issue of aborticide, I believe that it does apply.

King Saul of the ancient kingdom of Israel is an example of someone who obeyed God partially. God gave him explicit instructions, and he chose to compromise. Here's the story from 1 Samuel 15:1-23 in the World English Bible (with verse numbers removed and subheads and highlighting added):

God's instruction to Saul
Samuel said to Saul, "Yahweh sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of Yahweh's words. Yahweh of Armies says, 'I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way when he came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don't spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"
Saul's response
Saul summoned the people, and counted them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah. Saul came to the city of Amalek, and set an ambush in the valley. Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is before Egypt. He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, of the cattle, of the fat calves, of the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

God's response
Then Yahweh's word came to Samuel, saying, "It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments." Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night.
Samuel confronts Saul
Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and Samuel was told, saying, "Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, turned, passed on, and went down to Gilgal."
Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, "You are blessed by Yahweh! I have performed the commandment of Yahweh."
Samuel said, "Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?"
Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God. We have utterly destroyed the rest."
Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh said to me last night."
He said to him, "Say on."
Samuel said, "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel; and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' Why then didn't you obey Yahweh's voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight?"
Saul's self-justification
Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed Yahweh's voice, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the best of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal."
Conclusion
Samuel said, "Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh's voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh's word, he has also rejected you from being king."

King Saul chose partial obedience, and it cost him his life, his son's life, and his dynasty. Morality trumps politics because obedience to God trumps everything. Partial obedience is total disobedience.

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