Ouachita Baptist Association Approve Resolution to Abolish Abortion

BREAKING NEWS: (October 10, 2020, Little Rock) Today the Ouachita Baptist Association unanimously approved a resolution calling on the Arkansas State government to immediately and totally abolish abortion in our state. The State Convention of Southern Baptists of Arkansas was cancelled for the year, but that convention had planned to consider a similar resolution. Ouachita Baptist Association consists of 21 Southern Baptist churches in western Arkansas. The full text of the resolution appears at the end of this article.

Among other statements, the Resolution recognizes that every human being is made in the image of God and possesses innate dignity, that equal justice should be established for all of God’s image bearers, that failing to provide equal protection under the law violates God’s standard of justice, that abortion is a gospel issue, and that whenever man’s laws conflict with those of the Almighty, civil legislators have a right and an obligation to obey God instead of man.

Similar resolutions were also recently approved by both the Arkansas and Oklahoma Free Will Baptist Associations.

We encourage you to follow Christ in this endeavor, and to ask your state representative and state senator to support the IMMEDIATE and TOTAL abolition of abortion in Arkansas.

Call your state representative at 501.682.7771. Search for your state rep here: www.arkansashouse.org

Call your state senator at 501.682.6107 Search for your senator here: senate.arkansas.gov

Ouachita Baptist Association Resolution on Abolishing Abortion

(1) WHEREAS, from the moment of fertilization, all humans are created in God’s image by, through, and for Jesus to the glory of God, and all souls belong to Him (Genesis 1:27; 4:1; 21:2; Isaiah 7:14; Colossians 1:16; Romans 11:36; Ezekiel 18:4), and

(2) WHEREAS, as God’s image-bearers, all humans both display His divine worth, power, and attributes, and possess the same objective worth before God, not varying on the basis of incidental characteristics; such as ethnicity, age, size, means of conception, mental development, physical development, gender, potential, or contribution to society (Rom 1:19-20; Gen 1:28; 9:6; Matthew 18:6), and

3) WHEREAS, all humans are created with God’s law written on their hearts, which works with their conscience to accuse or excuse them before God, and to undermine law and conscience is to ask, “Did God really say?” (Rom 2:14-16; Gen 3:1), and

(4) WHEREAS, to murder any preborn image-bearer is a sin, violating both the natural law of retributive justice as set forth in the Noahic covenant, as well as the sixth commandment forbidding murder, and as such, is ultimately an assault on God’s image, seeking to usurp God’s sovereignty as Creator (Gen 9:5-6; Exodus 20:13; Proverbs 6:17), and

(5) WHEREAS, God’s Word clearly declares that all human life is a sacred gift and that His Law is supreme over man’s life and man’s law (Psalms 127:3-5; 139:13-16; Rom 2:15-16; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 1 Corinthians 4:5), and

(6) WHEREAS, God commands His own people to “rescue those who are being taken away to death” and holds them responsible and without excuse when they fail to do so (Prov 24:11-12), and

(7) WHEREAS, God establishes all governing authorities as His avenging servants to carry out His wrath on the evildoer; and commands these authorities to judge justly, neither showing partiality to the wicked, nor using unequal standards, which are abominations (Psa 82; Rom 13:4), and

(8) WHEREAS, in 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered an iniquitous decision on Roe v. Wade, and in doing so deprived the innocent of their rights, and usurped God, who sovereignly ordained their authority (Isa 5:23; 10:1-2; Psa 2; Matt 22:21; John 19:11; Acts 4:19; 5:29, Rom 13:1), and

(9) WHEREAS, in the Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court of the United States subverted the U.S. Constitution namely, the Preamble, as well as the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments without any legal authority (Article 6, Clause 2 “Supremacy Clause”), and

(10) WHEREAS, governing authorities at every level have a duty before God to uphold justice asserting their God-ordained and constitutional authority to establish equal protection under the law for all, born and preborn, by intervening, ignoring, or nullifying iniquitous decisions when other authorities condone such injustices as the legal taking of innocent life (Daniel 3; 1 Kings 12; 2 Kings 11; Jeremiah 26:10-16; 36:9-31; 37:11- 21; 39:7-10), and

(11) WHEREAS, over the past 48 years with 60+ million abortions, traditional Pro-life laws, though well intended, have not established equal protection and justice for the preborn, but on the contrary, appallingly have established incremental, regulatory guidelines for when, where, why, and how to obtain legal abortion of innocent preborn children, thereby legally sanctioning abortion, and

(12) WHEREAS, since 1980, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Arkansas Baptist State Convention have passed many resolutions reaffirming the importance of human life at all stages of development, our repentance is still lacking as we consistently have stopped short of calling for the immediate abolition of abortion without exception or compromise, and

(13) WHEREAS, our confessional statement, The Baptist Faith and Message, according to Article XV, affirms that children “from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord”; and further affirms that Southern Baptists are mandated by Scripture to “speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death,” now, be it therefore

(14) RESOLVED, that the messengers of the Ouachita Baptist Association annual meeting on October 10th, 2020, do state unequivocally that abortion is murder, and we reject any position that allows for any exceptions to the legal protection of our preborn neighbors, compromises God’s holy standard of justice, or promotes any God-hating partiality (Psa 94:6; Isa 10:1-2; Prov 24:11; Psa 82:1-4), and be it further

(15) RESOLVED, that we will not embrace an incremental approach to ending abortion because it challenges God’s Lordship over the heart and the conscience, and rejects His call to repent of sin completely and immediately (Gen 3:1; John 8:44; Rom 2:14-15; 2 Corinthians 11:3), and be it further

(16) RESOLVED, that we affirm that the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law, and be it further

(17) RESOLVED, that we humbly confess and repent of our complicity in recognizing any exceptions that legitimize or regulate abortion, and of our apathy, in not laboring with the power and influence we have to abolish abortion, and be it further

(18) RESOLVED, that as churches of the Ouachita Baptist Convention we will engage, with God’s help, in establishing equal justice and protection for the preborn according to the authority of God’s Word as well as local and federal law, and call upon pastors and entity leaders to use their God-given gifts of preaching, teaching, and leading with one unified, principled, prophetic voice to abolish abortion, and be it finally

(19) RESOLVED, that, because abolishing abortion is a gospel issue, we will call upon governing authorities at all levels to repent and “obey everything that [Christ] has commanded,” exhorting them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance by faithfully executing their responsibilities as God’s servants of justice, and working with all urgency to enact legislation using the full weight of their office to interpose on behalf of the preborn, abolishing abortion immediately, without exception or compromise (Mark 6:18; Matt 28:18-20; Rom 13:4, 6