Moral Outcry

The first Holocaust is the one most people talk about still. Hitler. Germany. The attempted extermination of the Jews. It was, inarguably, one of the greatest horrors in this history of the world. That will never change.

What has changed are the enemy’s methods.

In Rees Howell’s Intercessor, the chronicle of Howells’ fight against Hitler and the Nazis through prayer strikes a familiar chord to those of us fighting the current holocaust attempting to exterminate a generation through abortion.

A common accusation against people like me is that we exaggerate when we use terms like genocide or holocaust. First let’s look at those definitions.  According to the Random House Dictionary, holocaust meanings include: “any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.” Genocide means “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.”

With abortion totals in 37 years hovering around the 50 million mark, it’s hard to not say that it qualifies under definitions such as these. For more information on the direct relation of World War II and Hitler’s eugenics goals, see Bound4LIFE’s article here.

However, Howells’ quest opened my eyes to the enemy’s deceptive strategy. During World War II, people saw Hitler rise to power. Howells commented that “Hitler was Satan’s agent for preventing the gospel from going to every creature” (231) and “in fighting Hitler we have always said that we are not up against man but the devil” (231).

Who’s our Hitler? That’s the hard part. Those who could see rightly in World War II could see the evil epitomized in one man and his workers, but the enemy has gotten more subtle this time. The fact is, people who work in the abortion industry often attend church and PTA meetings with everyone else. If you recall, Dr. George Tiller was actually killed in his church where he served in leadership. Some of them are perfectly nice people, not menacing soldiers or possessed rulers.

And that’s a deception the enemy probably loves. We have 37 years of destruction, so whom do we blame? Where do we target our accusations of evil? How do we pray when we can’t just pray for the overthrow of a government?

The same underlying truth remains in both holocausts:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6:12-13)

Sometimes I hear people say that it’s impossible to overturn Roe v. Wade. They say that our elected leaders don’t matter because this is too big for one president or one senator to make a difference (arguable statements but popular ones). We look at World War II with a holy duh. We proclaim we would never allow such a thing to happen on our watch. This isn’t that.

Isn’t it?

Instead of one obviously possessed ruler, the enemy has instead possessed the conscience of a nation by subtly and systematically neutralizing the reality of abortion.

But we’re fighting the same enemy. His name is Satan.

Our battle is not against abortion doctors and clinic workers and politicians. We pray for them. We pray they will encounter Jesus and turn, as many have. But we never cease to pray against the evil this nation pursues.

Hitler didn’t rise to power overnight. We must “be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Our fight in intercession for Life should have the same tenacity and vision as Howells did against Hitler. “We are here until these Nazis are put out” (236), he said.

We are here until abortion ends.

What are your thoughts on this post? Sound off in the comments.