It's a case study involving a false teacher versus a true teacher of the gospel - and the comparison couldn't be more clear. To set the scene, last Monday, around 1:20 p.m. EST, hundreds of babies were being surgically dismembered, decapitated, poisoned, and otherwise violently killed inside abortion clinics around the country. Simultaneously, Hillsong Church NYC mega-pastor Carl Lentz had a platform from which to speak in their defense while a guest on “The View.” He refused to do so. In fact, he took the opportunity to suggest that their deaths can in some cases be justified and that the people killing them should continue living according to their own convictions.
When host Joy Behar asked directly whether abortion is sinful, he responded, “That’s the kind of conversation we would have finding out your story, where you’re from, what you believe. I mean, God’s the judge,” at which point the audience broke into raucous applause. “People have to live to their own convictions,” Lentz continued. “That’s such a broad question, to me, I’m going higher. I want to sit with somebody and say, ‘What do you believe?’”
This position might be received as a moderate stance on the issue or a lack of stance altogether. But in this case, to be on the fence is to be on the side of child sacrifice. “Live to your own convictions” is practically the slogan of the abortion lobby. Lentz might as well have said “My body, my choice,” or “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries.”
“So it’s not an open and shut case to you?” Behar asked. “Some people would say it is,” Lentz responded. “To me, I’m trying to teach people who Jesus is first, and find out their story. Before I start picking and choosing what I think is sin in your life, I’d like to know your name.”
This is a fantastic answer to the question of whether Calvinism or Arminianism is the more accurate interpretation of scripture. In reference to the biblical acceptability of child sacrifice, not so much. Scripture is unanimous and unambiguous in its condemnation of intentionally killing an image-bearer of God. There is no intellectually serious case to be made otherwise.
The abortion industry, with help from complicit institutions such as the mainstream media, academia, medical establishment, and others, is waging a propaganda campaign aimed at dehumanizing their victims. It’s a kingdom tragedy that a pastor of more than 7,000 Christians would join the ranks of those blurring the moral lines regarding the killing of preborn babies.
Check out the video below:
The fact is, with such demure, mealy-mouthed, mish-mash for answers, a "minister" shows themselves to be intellectually and convictionally unequipped to be a pastor and should resign.
Now contrast the obfuscation and imprecision of Carl Lentz with the clarity and conviction of Dr. John MacArthur. Notice how Dr. MacArthur accurately defines the sin of homosexuality, etc. and eagerly points back to the authority of scripture in every case.
Now hear Dr. MacArthur preach clearly on the topic of abortion and be reminded of Paul's injunction:
"I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." (2 Timothy 4:1-4)
