Rally For Equal Protection At The Ohio Capitol

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All right. We are honored to have Bradley Pierce come and speak next. Bradley Pierce is a constitutional attorney and has been practicing for over 15 years.

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He has drafted legislation in more than 30 states supporting self -defense rights, parental rights, civil liberties, and the right to life, including drafting dozens of equal protection bills filed to abolish abortion.

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Bradley has been admitted to practice before the U .S. Supreme Court, where on behalf of 21 organizations and 20 state lawmakers from across the country, he filed a brief in Dobbs v.

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Jackson, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade. Bradley has spoken at the

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Founders Ministries National Conference, been a guest on Relatable with Ali Beth Stuckey, and is frequently interviewed by news outlets such as the

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Daily Wire, World News, the Republican Sentinel, as well as the New York Times, the

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Washington Post, NPR, NBC, Nightly News, and others. He is the president of both the

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Foundation to Abolish Abortion and Abolish Abortion Texas. Most importantly,

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Bradley is a believer in Christ. He is husband to his wife, Sydney, father of their 11 children, and member of his local church, and we're so glad to have him here with us.

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Thank you, Bradley. It's great to be with you.

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That's one of my favorite hymns right there. Very appropriate for this subject.

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The Supreme Court is not an excuse anymore. We've already heard this. The pro -life movement, our pro -life legislators, the

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Republicans can no longer say, well, our hands are tied, we can't abolish abortion, we can't provide equal protection because the

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Supreme Court says so. That excuse is gone. Dobbs overturned

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Roe v. Wade, and now they said, we're returning this to the people's representatives. So now we're here in front of our people's representatives demanding that they do what they have said that they want to do for 49, 50 continuing years.

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Abolish abortion. Provide equal protection. This is why we elected you.

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This is why God has established you. God is the head of every legislator, by the way, and the head of every governor, and the head of every government.

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The government are on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him, and he demands that you do justice to the fatherless civil officials, and that you do it without partiality.

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And under our Constitution, which is our governing authority of the land, God says be subject to the governing authorities. Our governing authority says no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

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And so we're here calling them to do their duty before God, and calling them to do their duty that they've sworn an oath to under the

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Constitution to provide equal protection. That's what we're calling them to do.

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Dobbs overturned Roe versus Wade. We're grateful for that. But there's a lot of people who think that the work is done, that we've attained victory, and a lot of the pro -life lobby is telling them that, celebrating that.

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The work is done. We've attained victory. We have now 14 so -called abortion -free states.

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That's what, hey, we in Ohio, we wanted to be an abortion -free state like those other 14 states that are not actually abortion -free, even after Roe's overturned.

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Abortion still continues there. We'll talk about it in a moment. But it's not the time, the work is not done.

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We just saw in the New York Times article six days ago that said that abortions are up, way up, way up than before they were before the

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Dobbs decision. In 2020, there were 465 ,000 abortions across six months in all 50 states and Washington DC.

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This year, the first six months of this year, 511 ,000 abortions, and that's just those recorded in 36 states.

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That doesn't even count the at least 50 ,000 abortions that we know are taking place in those other 14 so -called abortion -free states.

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That's more than 90 ,000, around 90 ,000 more abortions than there were before the

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Dobbs case overturned Roe versus Wade. Abortion's not dead. It's alive and well.

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It's flourishing. It's happening more than ever before. Roe did not overturn the hearts of those who demand the slaughter of innocent children and are willing to sacrifice them on the altars of their own convenience and selfishness.

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Roe did not abolish that. And it didn't even abolish, it didn't even, even the trigger laws in these 14 states don't even end abortion because we know that in every single one of those laws, there's an exception written into there that says, this doesn't apply to the mother.

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Well, wait, isn't that the one getting the abortion? Right? And most of the time, isn't that the one getting the abortion completely voluntarily, willfully, purposely with calculation and designed to quote

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Ohio law? Yes, it is. And yet we've written into our laws exceptions for the mother.

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And so even in those states, self -managed abortion that is do -it -yourself abortions are still totally legal.

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And even under the best pro -life bill you've seen in this state, the self -managed abortions would still be totally legal.

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So we haven't won a victory in any state, in Ohio, in Texas, where I'm from, in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, anywhere,

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Kentucky, anywhere across the country. There's still a lot of work to do.

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Do we really believe a fetus is a person? We already heard this bill that End Abortion Ohio is putting forward and it's calling on the legislators to carry, would provide equal protection under the law, which would be a personhood bill.

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That is, it would define personhood at the beginning of fertilization, because the U .S. Constitution says no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

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Pro -life movement has said for years a fetus is a person, but actions speak louder than words.

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Our bills have not treated them that way. This bill does. This bill does treat them like persons.

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Are mothers allowed to kill and murder their innocent one -year -old children?

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Of course not, not in this state or in any other state, for now, for now.

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And yet our, even the best pro -life bills we see allow for that, allow for mothers to do that.

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That's not personhood. That's not treating them like persons under the 14th Amendment. It's certainly not providing equal protection.

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Equal protection just means that the same laws that protect my life and your life should protect their lives.

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And guess what? There's not a class of people out there, thank God, yet that has a legal right to take my life, but there is for pre -born children, even in the best pro -life state in America.

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We've still got a long ways to go. That's why we need to wake up, wake up, stop living in our lives of, just stop living in these lives of selfishness and self -centeredness and realize that we're on track this year, including with self -managed abortion, for over 1 .1

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million abortions in this country, more than the last 13 years.

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The work is not done. We need to wake up, repent of our apathy, repent of being asleep, repent of just saying, be warm and filled, but not actually doing anything.

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Repent of passing by on the other side of the road, whenever our neighbor is lying there on the way to the slaughter and we're doing nothing to rescue them.

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We're not working with our hands, doing things. It's not enough just to say,

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I'm pro -life. It's not even enough to say, I'm an abolitionist. God's called each of us to do something for our neighbor who is in need, to rescue those who are being carried to the slaughter.

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And I can't tell you what you should do, but there's something that we can all be doing.

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My family, my wife and I are blessed. We're expecting our 11th child. Our oldest is 12 years old.

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We have a couple of twins in there. And so we've got a pretty busy house, but I'm grateful that, you know what, we're a team.

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My wife and I and our whole family, I even have my son here with me today. We're a team and we're in this work together.

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And even in the midst, even though my wife's already doing that, our family's already doing that, I couldn't be here without her being there.

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And yet still in the midst of everything she has going on, my wife will pick up the phone and she will call legislators' offices and she will rally other women to call legislators' offices.

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We can all do something. We can all do something and we all must do something.

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We must love our neighbors as ourselves. We must do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

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If I or you were being carried to the slaughter right now, what would you want the

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Church of God to be doing for you? People say, you know, what would you have done during the

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Holocaust or what would you have done during the chattel slavery in this country? Well, we know what you would do.

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You're doing it right now because we have these atrocities going on in this country and whatever you're doing now is what you would have done then.

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And if you don't like that, then change what you're doing now. Repent of that. Change your actions.

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Turn to God. Believe in him. It's simple, right? No condemnation, but we should have conviction and change our actions and take action.

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Equal protection means that the same laws protect us, protect pre -born children. That means there can't be exceptions from others.

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Even the Supreme Court recognized this 50 years ago in the Roe v. Wade opinion because there were most states at that time, even then, had total immunity from others.

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Some did not, but most did. And the Supreme Court, even in the Roe v. Wade decision, the majority opinion, you can go read this for yourself, they said when

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Texas argues, I'm paraphrasing this first part, that a fetus is a person under the 14th

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Amendment, Texas faces a dilemma because it was Texas in that case. And then the

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Supreme Court said, quote, if a fetus is a person, why is the mother not a principal or an accomplice?

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And if the fetus is a person, may the penalties be different. That's what the

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Supreme Court said in 1973 because they recognize, wait, if a fetus is a person, then they're entitled to equal protection, which means you can't have this mother's being immune or totally different penalties, which changes the value of human life.

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If they're a person, then they're a person, and they're a person, they're a person, they're a person, right? And you treat them like all other persons.

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That's all that this bill does. This bill doesn't even create new law. We already have law against murder here in Ohio.

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All this bill does is takes away the exception, it takes away the part of it that says, well, but this doesn't protect pre -born children from these people or these people or from their mothers.

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It just takes all that away. It just says that pre -born children are persons. We already have laws against homicide that protect persons, the lives of persons.

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And then guess what? They also protect these persons before they're born. That's what the bill does.

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That's simple. As Christians, especially, we should be united on that. That should be easy.

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And yet we're not. We hear even organizations like Ohio Right to Life that oppose this bill, just like they did last year.

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We've had 11 of these bills this year of equal protection to abolition across the country. Last year, we had a bill, among others, we had one in Louisiana that got through committee, got to the

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House floor, and 77 pro -life organizations sent a letter to the

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Louisiana legislator. And then they sent it to all the other legislatures in the country. And they said, no, no, no.

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No mother should ever be subject to any liability whatsoever for murdering her own child in the womb.

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Pro -life organizations said that. And guess who one of them was that signed on to that letter?

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The president of Ohio Right to Life. So that's why you're seeing opposition here.

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That's why you're seeing opposition. It's not just an issue of timing. They don't want equal protection. They don't believe in equal protection.

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They oppose it. They oppose it. And that's why we, that's why they're not here speaking of this rally, because they oppose this bill, this simple bill that even just does what the

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Constitution says or the Supreme Court says equal protection means. It just does that. But they oppose it.

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That's why we're here. And then why there may not be many of us here, but God doesn't need many.

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Do not despise a day of small beginnings, God says. He doesn't need many.

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But what he wants and what he calls for are faithful. And that's what we're calling on each, every person here to be, to be faithful to God and to his word as we've already heard it.

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We have to walk by faith. You got to walk by faith to go face all of the people in this building and all the organizations standing up against what we're doing here.

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Boy, if you don't have faith, you're gonna get blown away. If you're not built on a rock, then you're gonna get washed away here.

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But if you are built on that rock, then no matter how much the winds of pressure and persecution and laughter and mockery that may come against you, you'll stand.

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And that's why we have to be, this bill has to be, and Abortion Ohio has to be, abolitionists, we have to be built on the rock of God and his word.

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And we'll never be blown away if we are. But if we're not, we'll be washed away.

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Or our deeds, they may be with the right motivations, they'll be burned up in the judgment because they weren't the jewels of the gold and the diamonds and the precious stones of Christ and of God and of his word.

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So we've got a long road, a long road ahead of us that we need to buckle up for and be ready for, that everybody here needs to be ready for.

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Because the problem isn't just the people in this building. Right? We know that these people are just representatives.

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They're just representatives. And ultimately, they represent the people of this state.

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Not perfectly. But they ultimately represent the people of the state. Not that I'm saying everybody in the state or even majority disagree with abolishing abortion, although they probably do.

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But even those who do want abortion to be abolished and equal protection, where are they?

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Where are they? They're not here. So even though they may give verbal assent to this,

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I'm not saying everyone who's not here doesn't agree. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying there should be a lot more people here.

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But where are they? It's because the hearts of the people of Ohio, even the hearts of the Christians in Ohio, are cold towards our pre -born neighbors.

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And we ask that we need God, to cry out for God to revive us again. You know what's going to bring about God reviving us?

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We're not going to compromise our way into God's blessing. We're not going to compromise our principles into getting him to bless us.

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What's going to bring about revival is a firm, unwavering commitment to God's will, pushed by God's ways, with God's methods.

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Trusting him. Trusting him. You know what God wants? He wants the glory.

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He wants the glory here. Right here on this seal, right in front of me, the stones are crying out right here.

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It says, the great seal of the state of Ohio. And then it says, it's a big banner.

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This isn't even like small prints. With God, all things are possible.

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That's what it says right here. Do we believe that? Well, they may mock us.

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Yeah, but with God, all things are possible. Well, they're not going to pass this bill. Maybe not today, but with God, all things are possible.

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Just like we had the 12 spies went into the promised land, they got promised, got commanded. The 12 went in, 12 came back, 10 said, no way can we go in there.

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There's giants in there. We're like grasshoppers. They're basically saying they're going to smash us like bugs.

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But two prophets, or sorry, two spies did come back and they said, oh no, we're going to, we're going to win.

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Let's go in. God's got this. What, how did, how could they, did you, were we all looking at the same stuff?

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Actually they weren't. 10 people had their eyes on the circumstances.

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They were walking by sight. They had their sight on the circumstances, but two of them were walking by faith.

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They didn't have their eyes on the giants. They had their eyes on God. And I can look at the giants in this

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Capitol and the giants of Ohio rights of life, the giants of the pro -life movement. And you know what? I can look at my

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God. He's bigger than all of them. He's bigger than all of them.

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And with him, all things are possible. And every one of those organizations can either be blown away or their needs can be brought into submission to God and to his will and his ways.

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And that's what we want. That's what we pray for. We want Ohio right to life to be here next time.

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We want every other pro -life organization to be here next time with a unified voice.

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We want every church to be here with a unified voice crying out for equal protection. That's what we want.

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That's what we call for. That's my God. My God can make that happen. My God can do that.

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That's what I'm praying for. And maybe he doesn't do it tomorrow, but we don't give up.

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We don't lose our faith. You know, I recently heard someone describe zeal.

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Zeal is the perfect union of love and hatred.

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Zeal is the perfect union of love and hatred. God says the fear of the

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Lord is to hate evil. We don't talk about that enough.

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We're here because we love, we love our neighbor as ourself.

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We love these mothers who are carrying their children to the slaughter. And we want to say, turn back, have mercy on your child for them and for you, for your sake and for them.

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We have love for that child who's being carried and we want to love them as ourselves, which is why we want the same laws to protect us to protect them.

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But we also, we love God and we want to serve him.

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We want to see his name vindicated. Every single person who's being killed in the womb is created in his image.

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We want to see his image vindicated. Absolutely. We want that, but we also hate.

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God hates. We hate the hands that shed innocent blood because God hates the hands that shed innocent blood.

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We hate those who pervert justice because God hates that. We hate bills of partiality, bills of unequal weights and measures because God hates that.

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God says it's an abomination to him when people acquit the guilty and yet condemn the innocent.

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We hate that too. We hate that. We should hate that.

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We hate bills that do that. And that's what these pro -life bills that say, oh no, mothers are not guilty.

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They're totally immune. Well, we're just acquitting the guilty there and we're condemning the innocent, the preborn child.

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We hate that. And that's what we want to have. We want to have a righteous zeal, a righteous indignation, as well as a righteous love.

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And that's what I call us to have because that's what God has. That's his affections, which are righteous and perfect.

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The Bible says that God's, the foundation of his throne is righteousness and justice.

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He loves justice. We should love it too. And we should hate injustice. So that's why we're here today to rally, to rally.

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And today we're rallying and this is our number. We may rally again.

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Y 'all may rally again next year and the number may be the same or maybe dwindle, but we don't put our hope in numbers.

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We put our hope in the God who with him all things are possible. And we're doing this for his glory and because we love him.

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So that's what I call us to continue to do, to not give up, to walk by faith until every preborn child in the state of Ohio is provided the equal protection of the laws.

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Thank you. All right.

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Thank you. We will be all right. The Lord is on our side and he is indeed on our side.

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Well, next we have Lizzie Marbach speaking. She is a Christian wife and is due with her first child this

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September. She is an experienced conservative operative in Ohio who has worked on a number of local, state, and national campaigns, including former

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President Donald Trump's 2020 re -election campaign. Most recently, she served as the

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Director of Communications for Ohio Right to Life and we are thankful to have her here with us today.

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Well, hello everyone. First, thank you so much for having me. I am very excited to be here and very honored.

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And before I begin, can we just please give a round of applause for Nicholas and Austin and everyone who's been working diligently this past year.

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It really has been just completely amazing to see. Thank you.

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I'm a little bit shorter than the others. It's been completely amazing to see the way that God has really brought all things together for the good of those who love him this past year.

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And no one could have imagined the way that the events would have taken place the last month.

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But hey, there is God and he takes our plans that we think will happen and makes a joke out of them.

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So God knows obviously what is best and how his plan will play forward.

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So yeah, my name is Lizzie Marbach. I'm a born again Christian, wife to an amazing husband and mother of a precious pre -born baby boy.

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I'm due on September 24th. And as Nicholas said,

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I am also the former Communications Director for Ohio Right to Life. I've spent the last year and a half working inside the pro -life movement and doing my best to fight for truth every step of the way.

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It has not been an easy task by any measure. And at times it definitely has felt too big of a giant to ever overcome.

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However, the way that God has truly made all things work together over last month has been incredible.

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And my faith in Jesus and his ability to bring glory to his name has only grown.

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Some of you may know me from the recent events that happened in August, but for those of you who do not, allow me to catch you up on recent events.

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So last month I posted a rather innocuous tweet, or I guess post on X is what they're calling it now, that our only hope is having faith in Jesus Christ alone.

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And Ohio Congressman Max Miller, whose wife is also on the board of Ohio Right to Life, where I worked at the time, took issue with my post.

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He immediately responded, claiming that it was the most bigoted thing that he had ever seen, that it went against religious liberty, and then demanded that I delete it.

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It's worth noting that Max Miller is a Jewish congressman and bids himself to be a conservative voice for Ohio.

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He is not a moderate or left -leaning politician. He entered into office claiming to be a part of the

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MAGA fighter brand of Republicans. So rightfully so, the Twitter world was left confused as to why a supposed conservative would take such offense to the gospel message.

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And let me say, I hope that this event also opens everyone's eyes to the fact that the conservative movement is still a mission field.

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There are so many unbelievers that are within the conservative movement. There are so many people who have compromised and truly don't see the benefit of leading with the gospel in the conservative movement.

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And so we have to remember that. And I hope that this event with the congressman is a stark reminder that we have to continue to lead with the gospel first and remind our politicians and elected officials that they must submit to Christ first.

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And while there is a separation of church and state, there is never a separation of Christ and state.

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And so, two days after this Twitter exchange with the congressman, even more people were left confused when

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I was fired from my position with Ohio Right to Life. Now on the surface, it might seem as though I was fired solely in response to my exchange with the congressman.

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However, that was not the case. The exchange with Max Miller was simply a culmination of a year -long battle between myself and the

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Ohio Pro -Life movement. Since starting with the organization, I would often push back against the idea that we had to be moderate in order to win on this issue, that we had to placate to the mushy middle in order to ever get a win to push back abortion in our state.

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I had a very serious problem with that. The sad truth is that we must confront with full force that the conservative movement is just as hostile to the truth as the left is.

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They are equally uncomfortable with strong, bold messages that proclaim

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Christ and Him alone. This is especially the case within the Pro -Life movement. I would like to spend my time today exposing this.

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Excuse me if I repeat any points that have been made already by Nicholas or Bradley, but the truth is always worth repeating, so I hope that you'll hear what

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I have to say. We cannot abolish abortion if we spend our time compromising on evil.

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The more we give the benefit of the doubt to these organizations, the more we prolong justice for the pre -born.

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I began working for Ohio Right to Life in March of 2022, and when I started, I was aware of the differences between abolitionists and Pro -Lifers.

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I was aware of the different strategies called incrementalism versus immediatism.

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However, I was not completely convinced that there was no good that could come from the Pro -Life bills. I agreed with full equal protection, but did not see the complete error of incrementally getting there.

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I believed that the Pro -Life movement might be capable of redemption. I began my work with Ohio Right to Life advocating for our bill called the

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Human Life Protection Act, proudly asserting and seriously believing that we were going to end abortion in Ohio if passed.

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Then the Dobbs decision overturned Roe, and the mask of the Pro -Life movement across the nation came off.

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We saw 100 % Pro -Life politicians running away from the issue during midterms.

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Might I say running away faster than Usain Bolt. They ran very quickly away from the issue.

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Elected officials here in Ohio refused to act to pass any kind of Pro -Life legislation, even the

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Pro -Life establishment approved legislation. Pro -Life organizations seemingly silent on the lack of action that was taking place, and grassroots supporters were left in the dust wondering when justice for the pre -born would finally happen.

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We were told the usual talking point of wait and see, and now is not the time, just a little bit longer.

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Here in Ohio specifically, our legislation, the Human Life Protection Act was halted, and all our focus went from ending abortion to getting

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Pro -Life politicians elected. Politicians like Governor Mike DeWine, who is now advocating that we add rape and incest exceptions to the heartbeat bill that he signed in 2019.

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I was told that after the midterm elections during the lame duck session, the

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General Assembly would pass the Human Life Protection Act. That did not happen.

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I was then told that because we did such an amazing job getting Pro -Life politicians elected, that they would pass the bill first thing in January, because the new legislators will be sworn in.

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That did not happen. On February 21st, the abortion lobby announced their plans to introduce a ballot initiative for Ohioans to vote for this

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November. This ballot initiative will, if passed, enshrine abortion through all nine months into our state's

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Constitution. It was at that moment that Ohio Right to Life's President Mike Ganodakis and the entire

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Pro -Life lobby in Ohio made the unanimous decision to halt all Pro -Life legislation and dial back rhetoric against abortion until after November 2023.

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Despite the fact that Ohio voters just voted in record numbers a few months prior for a supposed

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Pro -Life governor, for three Pro -Life Supreme Court justices, a super majority in this

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General Assembly right behind me, the Pro -Life movement said, no way. If we pass abortion restrictions right now, the left will be emboldened to vote this

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November and enshrine abortion into our state's Constitution. As someone who's worked on political campaigns for a number of years, including

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President Donald Trump's 2020 re -election campaign, I understand the need to be prudent.

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I understand the call to be wise when trying to win votes. Getting people out to vote for your candidate or for your cause is never an easy task and it is often a minefield of avoiding bad press.

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However, when engaging on this issue, we must remember what it is we're speaking about.

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The issue of abortion is not merely one of politics. It is not the same as lowering taxes or expanding school choice.

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Abortion is the unjust killing of an innocent human being with malice and forethought.

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Abortion is murder and nearly 60 babies are taken from us every single day in Ohio.

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So by making the decision to pause all efforts to end abortion, we made the decision that the 20 ,000 lives that will be taken this year from abortion are acceptable collateral damage.

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We made the decision that those lives do not matter and should not be protected. Allow me to be blunt.

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The pro -life movement in Ohio put its stamp of approval on the murder of every life that is taken by abortion during 2023.

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It was since this decision was made that their compromises began to stack up and my disagreements with their legislative and communication strategies became louder, making my bosses and board members uncomfortable.

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The compromises consisted of completely ignoring the pre -born altogether due to cowardice masquerading as political expedience.

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We named our campaign against the abortion ballot initiative Protect Women Ohio so that we could convince moderate voters that we aren't crazy misogynists like they think.

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Our talking points centered completely around parental rights and women's health and safety.

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Rarely if ever did we actually speak about the of abortion and the humanity of the babies in the womb and when we did it was only about late -term abortions.

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Again, I understand the necessity to be prudent when engaging in politics. I understand the risk that comes from speaking plainly about controversial issues in the public square when an election is at stake.

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However, again, it is not merely an election that is at stake. It is not only political wins or losses that are on the table.

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There are real, tangible, innocent human lives created in the image of God that are at stake.

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It is our most vulnerable neighbors that have their lives on their on the line and their lives are not just on the line this

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November. Their lives are on the line today. Babies are stumbling away to the slaughter right now and the pro -life movement is not only content with those lives being lost, they're demanding that their murders be ignored until after November.

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This is what brings us to why we're here today. There is a bill of abolition on the table right now as we speak that could every life in Ohio today, born and pre -born.

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This bill, if passed today, would save 3 ,135 lives from now until November 7th.

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3 ,135 innocent lives that will otherwise be snuffed out by their own parents and depraved abortionists who laugh about the evil they commit.

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3 ,135 lives. Every day that passes without equal protection for the pre -born is a day where 57 lives have been ended.

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57 lives will have been taken between now and the time we lay our heads down on our pillows tonight.

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57 image bearers of God today. Apathy towards us is unacceptable, especially from those who claim to spend their days fighting to protect life and were elected to pass just laws and protect their citizens.

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We are here today to call on our legislators to do as his word commands in Psalm chapter 2.

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Now therefore, oh kings, be wise. Be warned, oh rulers of the earth.

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Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled.

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Blessed are all who take refuge in him. As it stands right now,

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Ohio legislators are not kissing the sun. They are not serving the Lord with fear, including many who profess to be

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Christians themselves. Instead, they're kissing our state's pro -life movement.

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They're kissing their fears and demands who have taken every step necessary to ensure that no one advocates for the babies that are in their mother's womb today.

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As someone who stands here with a baby in my own womb, this enrages me.

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This saddens me. My son's life is not acceptable collateral damage, but Ohio Right to Life, Protect Women Ohio, and Ohio's General Assembly says that he is.

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Ohio Right to Life, alongside a few others, has worked behind the scenes this entire year to make certain that this bill does not get introduced.

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From refusing to even meet with anyone from End Abortion Ohio to threatening my job if I met with anyone about the bill, to going so far as to denigrate

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Austin and Nicholas's reputation behind the scenes to guarantee that no one takes this bill seriously.

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You know, one of the many claims that is made against abolitionists is that they're impossible to work with or that they're mean and insulting to pro -lifers, that they're not nice people and turn away anyone who is not 100 % in agreement with them, that they don't give pro -lifers a fair chance and aren't interested in good faith discussions.

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But throughout this entire process, it has been the pro -life movement that has treated abolitionists and those who are fighting fervently for equal protection, quite frankly, like scum on the bottom of their shoes.

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It is the pro -life lobby that has done all that it could do to ostracize and silence anyone in agreement with equal protection.

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It is the pro -life movement that would not so much as even respond to an email or a phone call about this bill.

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I've seen it firsthand. I've been instructed to do this to fellow abolitionists, and once it became apparent that I supported them as well,

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I was also treated in this manner. Unfortunately, this is not where the compromise will end if we don't stand up and if we don't command and demand our politicians and leaders to submit to God.

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Ohio Right to Life has no plans on ever supporting equal protection, as Bradley pointed out.

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It goes directly against their entire belief. But furthermore, if we lose in November, as Nicholas spoke about earlier,

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Ohio Right to Life's President Mike Ganodakis and others plan to bring forth their own constitutional amendment if things do not go well this

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November and abortion through all nine months is enshrined into our constitution. They don't plan to bring an amendment that would undo what the abortion lobby just did and remove abortion from our constitution.

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No, they instead want to bring an amendment to enshrine abortion at an earlier date that is, quote, more amenable to Ohioans instead of nine months.

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So now, rather than lobbying our legislators to write bills that allow abortion until nine weeks or six weeks, 15 weeks, etc.,

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they will be lobbying Ohioans to vote for state -sanctioned murder into our constitution themselves.

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So with that, I would say that we are at an impasse. We're at a crossroads where we must decide what path to take.

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But for us, we have a clear choice. Will we continue to push the ineffective strategy that we've done for 50 years to treat the unborn as pawns to be negotiated with every election cycle, giving up ground in order to compromise with those who are openly advocating for murder and pray that eventually we can end abortion while also never punishing women?

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Or will we finally choose to support and protect life in a biblical and uncompromising way, recognizing the urgency of what is at stake?

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The choice is ultimately up to us. It is up to the church. And we must rise up.

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We must say no more and hold our leaders accountable. Let's do that today and every day onward.

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Ohio, thank you so much for hearing me today. And I pray that we will lead this fight in a godly way.

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Thank you. All right.

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Well, that was quite amazing. That was Deus's own song he wrote. I asked him a few weeks ago after service at church if he could sing for us.

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And a few hours later, he sent me that song. So he's brilliant. Please talk with him afterwards.

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Yeah, let's give it up for Deus. Well, next, we're honored to have

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Zachary Conover, the communications director of End Abortion Now with us.

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Zachary came and spoke at our pastors rally that we held back in March, and it was great to meet him there.

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We're glad to have him back. Zach began ministering outside of abortion mills as a member of Apologia Church in 2015, where the

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Lord broke his heart for the cause of the fatherless. He became the communications director for End Abortion Now when it was founded in 2017.

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Zach oversees and manages the messaging and content for the ministry, as well as the maintenance of church partner relationships.

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He's also a regular contributor at Apologia Studios. He lives in Arizona with his wife

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Taryn and their four children. Zach. Good afternoon.

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It's an honor to be with you today. A privilege. And wow, thank you so much to the other speakers so far.

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They've encapsulated so much of what the problem is, what we're facing as Christians, trying to be consistent and have a consistent, explicitly

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Christian witness in this area. And I hope, brothers and sisters, it is becoming clear to you now.

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If it wasn't before, I pray, we would pray that you would see who the true opposition has been to the establishment of justice for the pre -born in our land.

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We have said many, many times that abortion is a gospel issue.

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It is a matter of sin. It is a matter of the heart. It is not a matter of giving people information so that they change their minds.

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It is deep -seated and deeply rooted human sin. And the only answer in this world for a heart that is set on sin is the good news of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of the

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Word of God, the proclamation that there is forgiveness in Christ for those who turn from their sins and put their faith in him.

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There is cleansing, there is a new heart, there is an everlasting righteousness that will clothe you forever.

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And God will say to you, even you who have the blood of your child on your own hands, your sin is cast as far as the east is from the west.

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I don't recall it and praise God for that gift. But brothers and sisters, we have to understand something.

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Those who lobby in this legislature are Republican supermajorities, are conservative and pro life leaders.

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They do not share that conviction. I hope it's becoming clear to us now that their confession of faith, their doctrine that they posit is that a mother who willfully and intentionally takes the life of her own son or daughter in the womb is never guilty.

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And therefore they have robbed her of the gospel of grace because the gospel is a message not for victims, but for guilty sinners.

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And because they have robbed her of the grace of the gospel, they have robbed her baby of justice.

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You see how that works? The intimate relationship between grace and justice.

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And I want to point us to a section of scripture today. You're very familiar with it,

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I'm sure. But I want you to hear it again, a fresh and considerate in light of what is going on right behind me right now at this very moment as we speak.

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And as you sit here and listen, it's Isaiah chapter one. Hear the word of the

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Lord, you rulers of Sodom give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

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What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well fed beasts.

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I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who is required of you?

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This trampling of my courts bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me.

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New moon and sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly, your new moons and your appointed feast.

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My soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.

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When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers,

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I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.

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Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless.

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Plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

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Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

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But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword. For the mouth of the

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Lord has spoken how the faithful city has become a whore.

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She who was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her. But now murderers, your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.

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Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts.

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They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.

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God hates false worship. Jesus spent a good deal of time denouncing those who drew near to God with their lips while their hearts were far from him.

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Those who are making a religious show based on pretense, hypocrites, hoopah, cretace, actors, mask wearers, those who love the praises of men because that's who they fear.

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Did you know something? What you fear is ultimately representative of what you love.

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If you love the approval of men, then you will fear any type of criticism to the contrary.

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In this passage, God chastises his people as Sodom and Gomorrah. In history,

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Sodom and Gomorrah, good or bad? Bad, right? He confronts them with covenantal language about their sacrifices.

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This is what we would together today call our worship. As we gather together in church or the gathered assembly, they're bringing offerings, they're having convocations and prayers, singing.

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And what does God say about their worship? What does he say about those who gather together under the pretense of being his people, drawing near to him with their lips and meanwhile their hearts are far from him?

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What does he say? He says, I don't want any of it. He's had enough.

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Stop bringing your offerings. I can't bear them. It's an abomination to me.

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I hate your worship. Spread your hands.

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Go ahead. I won't see. Go ahead and pray. I'm not listening. Your worship and your prayer is ineffectual.

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How terrifying. God will not hear you. Why? Your hands are filled with blood.

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What would the Lord have his people do? Repent and go on repenting, repent and bear fruit in keeping with that repentance.

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As you've already heard today, how bring justice to the fatherless?

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Our pro life leadership in this state and in many others has failed to bring justice to the fatherless.

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And in many ways they have perverted that justice according to the reasons that you've already heard. And right now, as we speak and as we meet the largest publicly public policy creator in the state of Ohio Center for Christian Virtue stands in these halls of the legislature hosting an event of worship where pastors and churches are invited to come and sing and pray.

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And this group is on record publicly opposing the bill of equal protection and abolition in this state in your state of Ohio.

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Naming the name of Christ standing against and standing in the way of public justice for the pre born.

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Jesus made it clear that there are those who like to walk around in nice business suits and be greeted at the statehouse and have the best seats in the legislature in places of honor.

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Yet they devour the fatherless and for a pretense, make long prayers. Now we cannot look into anyone's heart.

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We cannot see to the bottom of anyone's heart to know their condition before God or whether they're regenerate or whether they really care about the end of abortion.

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But we can examine the fruit of the tree. We can look at the kind of fruit that comes from the tree and we can determine is it good or is it rotten?

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And if we find it to be rotten, if we find it to be filled with the blood of the innocence, then may it like the fig tree that was cursed by our

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Lord be cursed by us and no fruit ever come from it again. Our pro life leadership, such as Ohio right to life in the

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Center for Christian Virtue are singing inside the statehouse today trying to distance themselves from the horrors of abortion.

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If you recall a story of a holocaust survivor, he was telling someone that during this time when

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Jews were being carted off on trains and he was gathering together with his church as a part of Christian worship when the church would gather together as they were singing, they would hear the noise of the trains going by on the railroads and the sound of the whistle of the train and the sound of the

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Jews being contained in the train as it passed. And they were so terrorized by the cries of the

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Jewish people and by the sound of that train barreling down upon them that they were rent into.

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But they did not instead, of course, do what is in keeping with bearing fruit for repentance.

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Their decision was to sing a little louder to drown out the voices of those that were crying out for help and for aid.

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They chose to make a show to offer wrong sacrifices to God.

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Brothers and sisters, how will we act today in the midst of this modern holocaust that we face?

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We must be willing to confront our leadership.

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Those who say they are on our side, those who say they are with us and we must be willing to be accused of what the apostles were accused accused of in Acts chapter five when they were brought before the leadership and told we strictly charged you not to teach in this name anymore.

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We told you to stop talking about this one called Jesus. You intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

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That was what the apostles were accused of. Why? Because the guilt of innocent blood brings a curse upon the land, and it surely brought a curse upon that land because God destroyed that entire generation for the innocent blood of Jesus.

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And in the same way, brothers and sisters, are we willing to confront our leadership, our pro life and conservative legislatures and be accused of bringing the blood of these

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Children on them because that's where it belongs, bringing it upon those responsible and reminding them not all is well.

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There is no peace with child sacrifice as you consider that passes today that I read.

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I don't just want you to think about those inside. I want you to look at your own hearts.

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How have you? How have I? How have we neglected their cries?

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Those babies that will be slaughtered in your state and in my state continuing do not have a voice.

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Will you? Will I be their voice that torments the hearts and minds of these legislators and pro life leaders until they cannot sleep until justice is done for the fatherless?

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That's what was experienced in Germany. The church was tormented in its apathy by the cries of the innocent.

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And of course, we pray that God would provide repentance, that the king's heart would be a stream of water in his hand, that he would turn it wherever he will.

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But we need to be their voice. Have we neglected their cries?

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Judgment is barreling down on our land like a freight train. An innocent blood cries out for vengeance.

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Will you listen? Will I listen? Will we do what our

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Lord and Savior has commanded us to do? Instead of offering wrong sacrifices, will we offer the right kind of sacrifices?

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As the psalmist says, as David said, may

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I offer right sacrifices unto the Lord? And what are those right sacrifices?

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A broken heart and a contrite spirit. Those sacrifices,

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Lord, you will not despise. We're told to rend our hearts and not our garments.

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We're told that our Heavenly Father desires mercy and not sacrifice.

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To love God and neighbor is more than whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the

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Lord than sacrifice. And we're told by our

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Lord, do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear him who can destroy both body and soul and cast them into hell.

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That is who we are to fear. Why is abortion? Why is the shedding of innocent blood continuing in our land?

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Because we do not fear God. We do not fear the

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Lord. Our legislatures do not fear God. Isn't it interesting in the very first chapter of the

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Book of Wisdom Proverbs, when it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and the youth is instructed, being told this is wisdom for instruction and righteousness, justice and equity, that the fear of the

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Lord is foundational to that implementation of public justice in order to act justly, in order to provide protection for the innocent and for the fatherless.

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The fear of the Lord is a prerequisite. You must have it.

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You cannot have true justice apart from it. What we're seeing from our pro -life leadership and conservative majorities in so many states is the wrong kind of fear, the wrong kind of dread.

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It is fear of man. It is the fear of how the wicked will react, what they will say and what they will do, how they will paint us.

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It is fearful anticipation of how a cultural of death will react to an outspoken faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is the fear of offending others instead of offending

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God by our disobedience to his commands. It is the fear of calling abortion what

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God calls it, because using the word murder would be insensitive and indelicate for man's natural sensitivities.

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It is the fear of being perceived as unloving to women by a society in such moral free fall that they cannot even define what it means to love or what it means to be a woman.

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It is fear of what wicked politicians and activists who oppose God will do in order to hold on to their sacrament of child sacrifice and make no mistake, brothers and sisters, it is a sacrament.

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It is false worship. It is the offering of an alternate sacrifice, an innocent victim on the altar so that all will be well with them and that their sins will be washed away with.

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But there's only one innocent sacrifice that can cleanse from blood guiltiness and it's the blood of Jesus Christ.

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You cannot offer false worship and hope to be cleansed. You need

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Christ. You need the innocent blood of the only innocent man to have ever lives.

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Only that sacrifice will avail before a holy God. It is fear that a consistent stand for life may very well cost them their jobs or political careers.

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It is the fear of losing an election or a statewide vote or falling to the left.

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It is the fear of needing to appeal to a voting base that we are righteous instead of actually walking in the way of righteousness.

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It is this fear of man that drives us to such lengths of pride that we are willing to sacrifice thousands of unborn babies for the sake of political expediency.

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It is this fear that transforms what God calls a ministry of justice into an industry where protecting the innocent plays second fiddle to protecting jobs and careers.

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Indeed, it is this fear that leads us to believe that it is better to trust in princes than to take refuge in the

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Lord and trust him with the results. God says to his people, he rebukes them for their fear of man.

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He says, who are you that you should be afraid of them? And we say to our conservative legislatures, to our

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Republican majorities, to our pro -life leadership, who are you that you should be afraid of them?

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Fear God. It is pride to not fear the

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Lord. Do you understand? It is pride. It is not humble and gracious to say,

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I don't know what will happen. Therefore, I will not obey God and fear him and have him as the highest priority and obedience to his word as the driving commitment for all of the methods that I employ to end abortion.

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No, brothers and sisters, God would have us fear him.

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And if we fear him truly, then we will not fear anyone or anything else.

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Because that is what the fear of the Lord entails. Who are you that you should be afraid of them?

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Who do you think you are that you should be afraid of the wicked, that they will prosper in their plans?

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When the Bible very clearly says that the way of the wicked will perish, it is the righteous that will inherit the land and delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

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The righteous remain and endure forever. The wicked are uprooted and cast out.

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This is the perspective that we must have, brothers and sisters. And if we're ever going to see the end of abortion and child sacrifice and the shedding of innocent blood in our lands, we must not compromise.

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We must remain faithful. We must fear God. And we must speak prophetically to our magistrates.

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We must speak truth to power. We must tell them, you do not answer to yourself.

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You answer to the Lord of glory. Have we seen now the results in our nation and in our states?

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What happens when we allow elected officials to go their own way? Apart from the chains of God's word binding them.

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You've heard it already. It was Psalm chapter 2. The kings of the earth conspired together. They say, let's cast his bonds away from us and tear these cords off.

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What are those cords? What are those bonds? We're told later in Psalm 149. It's the same chains and cords and bonds that the holy ones of God are expected to apply back to the out of control magistrates and the beasts that subject our nation and the innocent to tyranny.

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And the word of God says it is their holy calling to do so.

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It is their glory to apply those chains back to those that are lawless.

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Do you understand that those here today are being lawful? Anywhere a state, anywhere a people, anywhere a culture has disregarded

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God and gone their own way, left his word behind. And those people that are left, the righteous that are standing against them, those are the lawful people.

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We must obey God rather than men, right? Acts chapter 5, just after that portion

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I already pointed out to you. We told you not to preach in his name anymore. And what do they say?

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We must obey God rather than men. When the state plays

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God, when our legislatures say that they are accountable to no one but themselves, they're not accountable to the highest governing authority in our land, the

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Constitution, which they swore an oath to, that God will surely judge them for. Did you know that?

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That God still judges people for violating their oaths. He judges husbands and wives that violate their oaths.

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He judges church pastors and officials of their congregations when they violate their oaths to uphold the truth.

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And mark my words, brothers and sisters, he will hold accountable every elected official that swore an oath, so help me

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God, he will hold them accountable. They are not accountable to themselves, they are accountable to the

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King of Kings. And it is our job, brothers and sisters, to remind them of that.

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You must obey God. And we must speak prophetically to our magistrates.

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So I ask you today, I call upon you, will you please examine your heart with me?

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Will you ask the Lord where your love has grown cold, where you have been offering mere formality and standing on ceremony and going through the motions?

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It's easy to get jaded in this fight, isn't it? I've been doing it since 2017, it's awfully easy with the demands of life, the concerns of the world, everything that goes on right now, everything we're bombarded with, it's easy to lose zeal, it's easy to become jaded.

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But let me tell you something, brothers and sisters, this is not theory. These are not babies dying in theory.

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There is true flesh and blood on this. And we cannot grow cold.

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We must recommit ourselves afresh to zeal for the pre -born, justice for the fatherless, and we must do this

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God's way. That is why I implore you today, please support the work of those that are seriously trying to end abortion in this state.

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They need your support, they need your prayers, they need your hands and your feet. And last thing, abortion will end in this nation by the

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Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ, when we rise up together, when the gospel is on our lips, with gospel steel in our spines, when we speak prophetically to our magistrates, when we refuse to compromise, brothers and sisters, we have every reason to believe that God will bless that.

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It might not look exactly how we want it to. It doesn't mean we may not have to go through a period of hardship and trouble and judgment.

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You do not shed the blood of 65 plus million babies in a land and just escape the judgment of God.

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God will not just slip that one under the rug. But us working righteously,

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God says we can abate this judgment. God is looking for those that will stand in the gap.

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He's looking for those that will stand in the breach and hold up a righteous standard.

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Is that you? Will you stand in the gap and uphold the standard?