Pax Channel
This powerful exposé on the true horrors of abortion is narrated by the late Dr. Bernard M. Nathanson, who earlier in his career ran the world's largest abortion clinic. Convinced by science of the humanity of the pre-born, Dr. Nathanson became ardently pro-life and dedicated the remainder of his life to exposing the truth about "abortion on demand". This classic film is considered by many to be the launching point of the modern pro-life movement.
updated 10 years ago
Conceived as a sequel to the 1988 classic, The Massacre of Innocence, the new title, The Abortion Matrix, is entirely fitting. It not only references abortion's specific target -- the sacred matrix where human beings are formed in the womb in the very image of God, but it also implies the existence of a conspiracy, a matrix of seemingly disparate forces that are driving this holocaust.
The occult activity surrounding the abortion industry is exposed with numerous examples. But are these just aberrations, bizarre yet anomalous examples of abortionists who just happen to have ties to modern day witchcraft? Or is this representative of something deeper, more sinister and even endemic to the entire abortion movement?
As the allusion to the film of over a decade ago suggests, the viewer may learn that things are not always as they appear to be. The Abortion Matrix reveals the reality of child-killing and strikes the proper moral chord to move hearts to fulfill the biblical responsibility to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 24:11,12; 31:8,9).
It is here where we need to dispel the Hollywood image of the old crone of fairy tales such as Snow White or the Wizard of Oz. There is no doubt that many of those executed for witchcraft in the Middle Ages were innocent victims of gross superstition. Such terrible measures are to be condemned as being in complete opposition to the Spirit of Christ and the clear teaching of scripture. With that said, however, it is wrong to dismiss the genuine instances of demonically inspired activity history records.
20th Century Wicca
Dr. Gerald Gardner, an anthropologist, spent the early part of the 19th century studying groups that practiced magic around the world. At the time he believed that witchcraft as it had been practiced by pagan Europeans had been extinct for centuries. But in the 1930's Gardner discovered a group in Great Britain that was still practicing the "craft." Fascinated, Gardner was initiated into the coven, studied its rituals, and eventually became one of the foremost experts and advocates for the ancient religion.
At the time of Gardner's discovery, witchcraft was, in fact, on the edge of extinction. There were no known covens in the United States and some countries such as England had laws on the books outlawing witchcraft. On the publication of his book, Witchcraft Today, Gardner began to hear from other covens throughout Europe which had also survived. He spent the rest of his life writing on Wicca and promoting witchcraft throughout the world. Today, Gardner is regarded as the grandfather of modern Wicca and the primarily force behind its revival in the latter part of the 20th century.
One of Gardner's followers, Raymond Buckler, was initiated into the craft one year before Gardner's death in 1964. He introduced Wicca into the United States during the cultural sea change that was the 1960s. Buckler, like Gardner before him, believed that in modern-day Wicca, the rituals of the ancient earth religion had survived.
What exactly then, is modern Wicca?
Wiccans today draw their religious ideology from the Mother Earth cults of the Celtic and Nordic peoples of pre-Christian Europe.
The word "Wiccan" first appears in an early manuscript of an Anglo-Saxon scribe in the alliterative phrase: wyccan and waelcyrian, "witches and valkyries." The word in Old English denotes both men and women using magic arts. Modern Wiccans claim that their name means "wise one" and was the name of a matriarchal leader of a tribe skilled in healing, herbal lore and magic arts.
Although Wiccans deny using animal and human sacrifices in their rituals they do admit that they "pour out libations ... Some female Witches use their own menstrual blood in spells; other witches may prick themselves ... and offer a drop or two of their own blood. But the only blood a Witch has the right to offer is her/his own."
Do modern Wiccans view abortion as child sacrifice? To be fair, we must say that in our research we've received literally hundreds of letters and electronic communications from Wiccans around the world. The vast majority of Wiccans and Pagans deny that they have anything to do with human or animal sacrifice. They also deny that Wicca has anything to do with the abortion industry, nor do they view abortion as the sacrifice of the unborn in their rituals.
But all modern day Wiccans freely admit that the modern religion is traced to ancient Celtic and Northern German people, the very people who practiced human sacrifice.
Although the vast majority deny that they have anything to do with the practice of child sacrifice, Wiccans are hard pressed to explain a growing number of witches who argue that abortion is a witch's prerogative.
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. -- Genesis 1:27
"Whoever sheds man's blood,
By man his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God
He made man." -- Genesis 9:6
As horrific and hard to comprehend as it may be, one of the most widespread forms of worship among ancient peoples involved human sacrifice. Not only in Canaan, but also in northern Africa, India, Europe, and the Americas, the ancients believed that the blood of the sacrifice is what appeased the gods.
The pagan practice of blood sacrifice is actually a perversion of the rites given by God to His people, Israel.
To its priests He declared:
"For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11).
Sacrifice to any other god was condemned as idolatry:
"They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be as statute forever for them throughout their generations" (Leviticus 17:7).
As we look at the practice of human sacrifice in ancient times, keep in mind that, according to God's perspective, these sacrifices were made to demons -- the false gods of the pagan nations.
Carthage
The ancient city of Carthage was the capital of the Phoenician empire, one of the most advanced civilizations of their time. But recent archaeological expeditions have revealed another notable feature -- the incredibly high incidence of child sacrifice. Altars on which children were sacrificed and stone markers, which marked the burial place of their remains, have been uncovered -- along with the stone carvings on the markers that depict the children who were sacrificed. Clay jars were used to hold the remains. Burial grounds full of thousands of these ritually sacrificed children have been unearthed.
The Carthaginians were descendants of the ancient Canaanites and worshipped the same god, Baal or Moloch. Archaeologists have established that the primary deity that they children were sacrificed to was the goddess Tanet, the name being a regional representation of the more universal Ashteroth. Written accounts tell us that the priests of Baal would beat drums during the ritual sacrifice in order to drown out the cries of the grieving mothers.
As barbaric as all this may sound, we must remember that we are do much the same thing through abortion... with one obvious exception. Today we don't commemorate or bury the children we sacrifice.
It would be easy to attribute these ancient sacrificial rites to primitive superstition and believe that science and intellectual advancement would eventually cause this type of brutality to lessen and finally cease. But archaeologists have also discovered that over Carthage's history, the incident of child sacrifice, even in the face of considerable intellectual advances, actually increased... until it suddenly stopped.
And how did it end? When God judged Carthage. Roman armies invaded and destroyed the entire civilization, going so far as to cover the ground with vast amounts of salt so that the land could no longer be cultivated. The reason for this magnitude of destruction? The Romans, pagan though they were, were horrified by the degree of cruelty and evil that gave rise to these sacrifices and wanted to make sure that their civilization was completely obliterated.
To this day, the stark ruins of Carthage stand as a testimony that God is not mocked. This should also prompt us to ask ourselves a critically important question: How far are we from facing a similar judgment for our own commitment to rampant child sacrifice?
It's no wonder that on the basis of the scientific evidence alone, many experts in the field will echo the opinion of renowned geneticist Dr. Jerome LeJeune:
"Life has a long history but each individual has a very neat beginning: the moment of its conception."
But while genetic and other medical evidence certainly support the idea that human life begins at conception, the Bible, the very word of God -- and not science -- is our ultimate source for Truth. And the scriptures make it very, very clear that human life begins -- and is sacred -- from the very moment of conception.
In fact, it's a fascinating though little known fact that one of the very names of God points to the sanctity of life from the time it begins in the womb.
In the 34th chapter of Exodus Moses appears before the LORD and intercedes on behalf of His people, asking God to reveal "His glory." Part of the LORD's response was to reveal to Moses the divine Name as well as key aspect of His nature:
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord...."The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious." Exodus 34: 5
George Grant: "The Hebrew word that we translate here as "merciful" -- rachuwm -- has as its root racham -- meaning to love or have compassion. That word also serves as the root for rechem -- the word that is used in the Hebrew Scriptures for womb -- for example in the famous passage describing God's foreknowledge of Jeremiah and the manner in which he was lovingly knit together inside his mother:
Before I formed you in the womb (in the rechem) I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. Jeremiah 1:5
The womb then, in its original Hebrew context, was not only the matrix, the sacred place where a new human, an image-bearer of God was conceived, formed, nurtured and then born, it also was -- and should be treated -- as a place of mercy.
Jesus declared in Matthew 5:7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." But the converse must also be true. When people, for their own convenience, send their swords into that place of life and mercy, defiling the sanctuary of the rechem -- the womb -- they would do well to consider Christ's sober warning concerning the wages earned by those who use violence to accomplish their own ends:
"Those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword." Matthew 26:52
Among the most profound, world-changing truths we can ever contemplate is that Jesus, the promised Savior of the world, God Incarnate, was: "conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary" (Apostle's Creed).
When Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to conceive and give birth to the Messiah, she naturally asked how this could be — seeing that she was yet a virgin. The angel replied:
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)
Gabriel graciously went even further, citing the incredible pregnancy of her cousin Elizabeth as proof that supernatural pregnancies are no problem for God.
The once barren and old beyond-her-child bearing years woman was at this point six-months pregnant with her son John -- who would later be known as the Baptist. Mary responded with perhaps the purest expression of faith to be found anywhere in Scripture:
Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. (Luke 1:38)
But it is what happened next that provides us with the most powerful and irrefutable argument for the personhood and sanctity of pre-born life.
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1: 39-44)
Commissioned in 1484, the treatise repeatedly links witchcraft to abortion and child sacrifice: "Witches who are midwives in various ways kill the child conceived in the womb and procure an abortion."
During the reign of Louis XIV, for example, there was a network of occult activity involving abortion and infanticide that reached even into the King's courts. Investigating a series of suspicious deaths, the Lieutenant General of the police in Versailles was led to Madame de Montespan, Louis' favorite lover, and then to "La Voisin", a practicing witch and abortionist who had provided the poisons used in the murders. Upon further investigation, he learned that the abortion services connected with satanic rituals were also being performed -- primarily for female members of the aristocracy. The following is the testimony of la Voisin's daughter at the subsequent trial:
"At one of Madame de Montespan's masses, I saw my mother bring an infant, obviously premature, and place it over a basin over which its throat was slit, and its blood drained into the chalice."
Note that the child was premature, likely the victim of one of the many abortions la Voisin had performed.
"Then the cup filled with the baby's blood was lifted up to heaven and this invocation was given: 'Hail Ashteroth and Asmodeus, Princes of friendship, I conjure you to accept the sacrifice of this child in return for the favors asked of you.'"
Ashteroth was the goddess wife of Moloch. Asmodeus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name for a demon that is normally associated with lust. Aborted children, as well as infants purchased from the prostitutes and the destitute were being sacrificed in a satanic ritual designed to grant spiritual power to the practitioners.
"At her trial la Voisin confessed that no less than 2,500 babies had been disposed of in this manner...."
Historians debate whether these tales of Satanic Black Masses and rumors of ritual infant sacrifices are in fact reliable. Were they coaxed out of frightened witnesses by Gabriel De La Reynie, the Lieutenant General of Police in Versaille, who used torture as part of his interrogation techniques? Or were these simply folk rituals combined with elements of the Catholic mass that served to assuage the conscience of La Voisin as she came to terms with the moral implications of the many abortions she performed?
In the book, Affair of the Poisons, Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism in the Court of Louis XIV, author Anne Somerset offers this explanation:
"La Voisin appears genuinely to have believe in the power of magic but she combined this with an outward profession of piety. As the circumstances of her arrest suggested, she was a regular churchgoer, and her answers to her interrogators would abound with devout sentiments and respectful invocations of the 'Good Lord.' When she finally began to make significant revelations she would claim that she was doing so 'for the glory of the Lord,' who had commanded her to heed His will as she knelt in prayer. Earlier in her career her readiness to imply that she was in tune with the workings of providence had stood her in good stead, for clients were comforted by her apparent belief that her personal activities were compatible with Christianity. It may be that La Voisin herself was scarcely aware of any contradiction. Once, having assisted at an abortion, she was said to have wept tears of joy when the midwife in attendance baptized the fetus. Far from being troubled at having terminated the unborn child's existence, she exulted in having been instrumental in securing its salvation."
Witchcraft? Black masses? Infant blood sacrifice? It does seem far-fetched. It's no wonder that some historians are skeptical. But when we consider the culture of the time, the picture comes into sharper focus.
The French Renaissance saw the revival of interest in the Greek and Roman gods. King Louis XIV himself loved paintings with mythological themes and had a particular fascination with the sun god, Apollo. In paintings of that era, Louis is portrayed as the "sun king." La Voisin, no doubt, shared Louis' fascination with pagan gods and goddesses. She mixed this with a kind of folk witchcraft, herbalism, astrology, and the concoction of love potions and various poisons, including potions used to induce abortion. La Voisin's vocation as a poisoner is, in fact, the most documented element of the affair. The 1997 film, Marquise, depicts the story of a young actress, played by Sophie Marceau, who purchases poison from La Voisin in order to murder her husband so she might be free to marry her lover.
Likely in the minds La Voisin and others who practiced
Our primary enemy in fighting abortion is not the abortionist, the courts, or those who advocate for abortion-on-demand. Our enemy is the one who was a murderer from the beginning -- Satan and the spiritual forces under his command.
Throughout history, these spiritual forces have operated primarily amid pagan cultures, inspiring people to sacrifice human infants to their deities as part of a complex ritual to gain favors from them.
And while few involved in abortion today are consciously engaging in child sacrifice, we need to understand that in the end that is precisely what abortion is: the sacrifice of a human life for the convenience or needs of others. In this respect, it is no less barbaric than the human sacrifice practiced to ensure, for example, a successful harvest. But beyond this, there is a spiritual, satanically inspired dimension that gives frightening realism to abortion's identification with literal child sacrifice.
The Bible supports this idea as often we see a particular action viewed by God as a manifestation of another, more fundamental sin -- and sometimes one with a root in the occult. For example, Rebellion is called witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:23). Greed is likened to idolatry (Col. 3:5). Both lustful looks and desiring first the things of this world are equated with adultery (Matthew 5:28, James 4:4). Simply hating ones brother is akin to murder (1 John 3:15). And in the same way, abortion is simply a form of child sacrifice.
Lot and His Daughters
The biblical origins of child sacrifice can be found in the account of Lot and his daughters:
"And Lot went up from Zoar and stayed in the mountains with his two daughters...Then the first born said to the younger, 'Our father is old and there is not a man on earth to come into us after the manner of the earth'" (Genesis 19: 30, 31).
Now it so happens that there actually were men available not too far away geographically. But Lot's daughters had something different in mind. The "earth" throughout scripture is a symbol of the fallen, unregenerate realm, the arena over which Satan exerts his authority. James tells us, for example that there's a wisdom from above that is "pure and peaceable," but there's also a wisdom from below which is "earthly, natural and demonic" (James 3:15,17).
In the same way that many modern feminists want men purely on their own terms -- for example merely as sperm donors -- Lot's daughters wanted a man in this "manner of the earth."
"So they made their father drink wine that night and laid with him" (Genesis 19:29-38).
Through this gross act of rebellion -- against both their father and God -- both women became pregnant; the oldest with a son she named Moab. His descendents, the Moabites, ultimately became an idolatrous nation and one of the primary enemies of God's people -- Israel.
The youngest daughter's son -- Ben Ammi -- became the father of the sons of Ammon. In the Book of Kings we learn that Moloch was "... the detestable idol of the Ammonites" (1 Kings 11:7). The name Moloch in Hebrew means: "to ascend the throne" -- to, in other words, usurp God's rightful authority. Leviticus tells us that Moloch worship involved "giving one's children to him" -- an idiom meaning to offer them as a sacrifice.
"Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 20:2).
While the Ammonites primarily practiced infanticide -- sacrificing post-natal children -- it's no coincidence that it was the Ammonites that God condemned in the book of Amos for a particular form of blood-thirstiness:
"For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, and for four, will I not revoke its punishment, because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their borders" (Amos 1:13).
More than just expanding the boundaries of one's lands, "enlarging their borders" can also suggest pushing the envelope as far as what is considered acceptable human conduct. How common this still is today as what was once considered a crime against humanity is now accepted by our courts as a so-called right; as people insist that abortion is just a "choice" and pro-lifers are to keep religion -- meaning God -- out of sight and mind.
Baal and Moloch Worship
"And they built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch" (Jeremiah 32:35).
"They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons
(St. Augustine, Sermons, 261, trans. by Henry Bettenson, ed., The Later Christian Fathers: A Selection From the Writings of the Fathers from St. Cyril of Jerusalem to St. Leo the Great. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1970, 1977. p. 222.)
Augustine understood well what Paul had written to the church at Corinth:
"None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8).
By inspiring the Jews and Romans to crucify Jesus, Satan cut his own throat. The "law of unintended consequences" went nuclear.
Through the cross the once and for all sacrifice for sins was accomplished, setting God's people free from the condemnation and ultimate power of sin and its wages, death.
As a perfect keeper of God's law, Jesus didn't deserve death and so was soon vindicated by the Holy Spirit by way of the resurrection. This brought Him forth as the first-born from the dead and enabled us to follow wreaking all manner of disastrous consequences on the kingdom of darkness.
It put Jesus as a glorified man on the throne of heaven and earth and granted us sanctuary access -- again with all manner of awesome benefits in our battle against the world, the flesh and the devil.
We could go on and on ...
But God's plays fair; His blessings are always mirrored by corresponding curses. If the one who was a murderer from the beginning can, for example, get us to commit murder, then all Satan has to do is get out of the way and watch as God's holiness -- and corresponding wrath -- begins to burn.
Make no mistake about it: the Lord's anger burns against the hands that shed innocent blood.
"... the Lord hates ... the hands that shed innocent blood" (Proverbs 6:16,17).
"When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood" (Isaiah 1:15).
"And they have built the high places ... to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire ... Therefore ... the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth" (Jeremiah 7:31-33).
Throughout the rest of his book, Jeremiah issues dreadful warnings about the judgments God was bringing against Israel for its sins -- most notably the polluting of the land with innocent blood.
"... because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents" (Jeremiah 19:4; see also 7:6; 22:3,17; 26:15).
These judgments were fulfilled in 587 BC when the Babylonians sacked and destroyed Jerusalem, taking the wretched people who survived the holocaust into captivity.
On September 11th, 2001 AD, America froze in shock and disbelief as two planes took out the World Trade Center and 3000 people died. Cries of anger and vengeance arose that propelled America into wars that continue to this day.
Now, how do you think God feels when even more people die every day in America through abortion? And these deaths are not random acts of terror but are instead calmly sanctioned by our courts, protected by our laws and, for the most part, ignored by the church that God has commissioned to be salt and light.
How much longer do you think before the devil's mousetrap is fully sprung?
http://tektonticker.blogspot.com/2012/11/win-one-for-egypters-d-m-murdocks.html