Sermon Tone Analysis

Ezekiel 20:21-44

The Unconfessed Holocaust

 

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mmigrants to Canada numbered 174,000 last year.

Elinor Caplan, our federal Immigration Minister, recently announced that Canada intends to accept up to 225,000 newcomers this year.

One of the major arguments advanced for increasing immigration numbers is that we need to increase the number of new Canadians in order to fund the legalised Ponzi scheme we know as Canada Pension Plan which Baby Boomers who are now approaching retirement age will shortly be receiving.

Another major argument for increasing immigration quotas is to permit Canada to sustain economic growth.

What is often overlooked in these arguments is the fact that nationally we kill upwards of 70,000 children by abortion each year.

That means that the immigration rate could easily be reduced by 70,000 people per year.

That figure represents one-third of the proposed immigration rate for the year 2000.

Simply by ceasing to kill the unborn we would reduce the need for immigration and secure our future.

Consider also the fact that disproportionate numbers of those immigrating to Canada during the decade of the nineties were of Asian origin.

This trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Many of these recent immigrants indicate that they fled China because of its official policy of one child per family.

In practical terms this means that these recent immigrants are likely to eschew aborting their young as do the native born residents of Canada.

The practical impact of this anomaly is an increasingly darkened complexion for the nation, ensuring that within a relatively short period of time Canadian culture could well be significantly altered through adoption of eastern religious~/moral concepts.

Ultimately, such transitions will have an impact on Canadian social institutions for better or for worse.

Perhaps such a cultural transition is inevitable, but one cannot help but lament the contradictory messages from government insisting on the need for greater population even as we slaughter those most naturally sympathetic to and supportive of our culture which was developed over the previous centuries underlying our heritage.

In 1995 70,549 infants were ripped from their mother’s wombs and disposed of through incineration or burial with other hospital waste.

That rate of abortion has been sustained throughout the remainder of the decade just past, so that in the past ten years over 710,000 Canadians were deprived of life without due process and without public outcry at the continuing massacre.

These children were sacrificed to the aspirations of parents and grandparents who have bought into a dream of greed and ease.

The sacrifice of innocents in Canada is not unlike the sacrifice of infants to the god Molech during the days when Ezekiel prophesied.

The number of infants slaughtered in proportion to the populace of the land is greater than the slaughter of people classified as subhuman by the Nazi hierarchy during the dark days of the Third Reich.

What I find to be more disturbing than the slaughter of the unborn is the silence of the church.

The paucity of outcry by godly individuals should give every Christian pause and bring us to our knees before the Living God.

I suggest that a day of affliction of our souls is mandated by the evidence of this unconfessed holocaust in our nation.

A day to confess our sin of silence, a day in which we humble ourselves before our God, a day for the affliction of our souls is demanded by the knowledge that throughout our land this slaughter continues unabated.

Yet I do not anticipate that I shall soon witness that day.

It is Holocaust Sunday … a day throughout North America when churches are asked to remember the death of the innocent.

It is a day in which Christians are asked to seek the face of God asking that He show mercy to those who have been merciless in rejecting His gift of children.

It is a day in which all Christians should hang their heads in shame at the thought that we have quietly participated in the adopting the worldview which despises children and exalts self.

In order to explore the enormity of our sin I suggest that we weigh the words of the Prophet Ezekiel and apply them to our own day and to our own world that we may be compelled to seek mercy from our God.

God’s View of Children — God loves children.

It is not without significance that Jesus was sought out by parents with little children.

You will recall the incident recorded of Jesus when /babies/ [*Luke 18:15*] /were brought to Him in order that He might place His hands on them and pray for them/.

The disciples thought they were honouring the Master when they rebuked the parents and attempted to stop the parade of children.

Jesus, however, rebuked His disciples.

/Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these/ [*Matthew 9:13,14; Luke 18:16*].

Then, He blessed them.

When the Saviour wished to teach His disciples the way to receive eternal life /He took a little child and had him stand/ among the disciples.

Taking the child in His arms, Jesus said, /Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My Name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the One who sent Me/ [*Mark 9:36,37*].

Entering the city as His Passion drew near, Jesus was confronted by the religious leaders who were indignant that children were shouting in the Temple Area.

Those children were joyously shouting /Hosanna to the Son of David/.

To the exasperated Jewish leaders Jesus responded: /Have you never read/,

/“‘From the lips of children and infants /

/you have ordained praise’?”/

[*Matthew 21:16,17*]

 

I recall an incident early in my time with the Valemount congregation when a soured saint turned and snarled because the children were too loud.

My sole regret is that I didn’t then rebuke her for her failure to rejoice in that which pleases God … the presence of children laughing and rejoicing in His presence.

When the disciples returned, rejoicing in the power they exercised over evil spirits, Jesus rejoiced with them.

Notice in particular His statement of joy.

/I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure/ [*Luke 10:21*].

Dear people, God loves children!

That should be abundantly clear to any Christian.

The church which does not go out of its way to welcome children is a church which is dying regardless of how many people occupy the pews and pass through the doors.

Such a brief excursus of the response of Jesus to the presence of children must only begin to touch the view of God toward infants as expressed in His Word.

Rebuking Judah and Israel through Ezekiel’s allegory in *chapter 16*, the Lord makes a startling statement.

Listen to His charge against Israel.

/Y//ou took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols.

Was your prostitution not enough?

You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols/ [*Ezekiel 16:20,21*].

The charge begins that the sons and daughters were born to God and sacrificed to idols.

Note the *twenty-first verse*: You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.

God views children as belonging to Him, as should be apparent from remembering the *127th Psalm*.

You will remember the latter part of that Psalm in particular.

/Sons are a heritage from the LORD, /

/children a reward from him.

/

/Like arrows in the hands of a warrior /

/are sons born in one’s youth.

/

/Blessed is the man /

/whose quiver is full of them/.

[*Psalm** 127:3-5a*]

 

In the first benediction pronounced on our first parents, the blessing was children.

Remember the words which are recorded in *Genesis 1:28*?

/God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number.”/

The presence of children is evidence of God’s blessing.

This is the reason I said that the presence of children in a church is evidence of God’s blessing.

Consider carefully and weigh the impact of the obverse of that statement.

The absence of children is evidence that God has ceased to bless a congregation.

One other passage which speaks pointedly to the issue of God’s view of children is that written by the Prophet Malachi in *Malachi 2:13-15*.

You will recall the context in which God speaks.

He is speaking against divorce and the casual view of marriage.

Though divorce is a grave social evil today, note the impact arising from broken homes which especially touches the heart of God.

Latchkey kids touch the heart of God!

/Another thing you do: You flood the //Lord//’s altar with tears.

You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.

You ask, “Why?”

It is because the //Lord// //is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant/.

/Has not the //Lord// //made them one?

In flesh and spirit they are his.

And why one?

Because he was seeking godly offspring.

So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth/.

Focus on the *fifteenth verse*.

A couple united in holy matrimony, a couple in Christ, belongs to Him.

Why should this be true?

Because He was seeking godly offspring.

God seeks godly offspring through Christian couples.

I am speaking candidly and pastorally when I say that Christians should anticipate having children because this is the will of God for you in your marriage.