We lack comprehension of Scripture.  For example, Jesus meant what He said, and He said that it would be better to die than to harm a child.  Commonly we pass over the millstone around the neck/thrown into the sea passage, but should we? Is it not important to understand the magnitude of that little statement about the fate of those who harm even one child and view with horror their and our potential fate?

Ours is a callous age. We execute infants placed in the womb by the participants in the reproductive act. This is not an invader, this is an innocent who exists by the willful actions of the adults involved.  Yet, rather than the adults paying the price for their actions and allowing the birth of the child and giving him into the arms of parents who will love and protect the child, the price for the inconvenient pregnancy is paid by innocent blood.

Historically it hasn’t been much better. In 602 AD the Eastern Roman Emperor Maurice was executed.  The usurper Phocas did not stop with the execution of his predecessor but also murdered his five sons.  He must have ignored the words of Christ, with whose words he presumably was familiar as an educated Christian, for he murdered a three year old child. I feel horror at that act and its implications for the souls involved.

Better to die a sudden death by drowning than to harm/kill a child is a powerful statement.  Hell must be the destination of such a person; be they a new emperor in 602 AD, or a Muslim extremist in 2014, their eternal welfare would be greater were they to die before harming a child. We ought to pity them and pray for them. For Jesus meant what He said, and their fate if they die without repenting is the complete loss of Heaven and an eternity in Hell.  The woman who grieves an abortion is in infinitely better spiritual shape than the terrorist who kills children or the ancient emperor who executes the children of his predecessor. She repents deeply and with great pain but did/do they?

Dear Lord, thank You for forgiving the women who repent of abortion, grant them healing and do not let them be reproached by anyone; please end violence against children and bring everyone who harms children to full and complete repentance so that they too might be saved. +Amen.