A recent LifeSite article by Pete Baklinski entitled “French government votes to ban pro-life websites” indicates “the socialist government of France passed a bill after one day’s debate that criminalizes websites that might dissuade women from abortion.” If convicted website owners could face two-years imprisonment. Jean-Frederic Poisson, member of the Christian Democratic Party, “blasted the bill on Twitter for what he saw as the government’s double standard in banning sites that propose ‘alternatives’ to abortion but [ironically] not ‘jihadist websites.’”

Hugo Martin in an article for the Los Angeles Times indicated that “More hotels are checking out of the Bible business.” He states that “hotels also have been under pressure lately from atheist groups.” The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is a non-profit group that promotes separation of church and state, “wrote to 15 major hotel companies last year, asking them to keep Bibles out of hotel rooms.” That foundation also “created a sticker that reads: ‘Warning: Literal belief in this book may endanger your health and life,’” and “the group has encouraged its supporters to affix the stickers on any hotel room Bible they find.”

I think in a climate like this—the climate in which we have anti-abortion being legislated against, in other words if you are pro-life, the legislation is against you in countries in the West like France, and then you have groups that are opposing the Bible on the ground that the Bible might be dangerous to your health—this is an age in which we must always be ready give an answer, a reason for the hope that lies within us with gentleness and respect (1 Pet. 3:15).

We have to be able to demonstrate that the Bible is divine as opposed to merely human in origin, and that through the Bible we find the way in which we can live life and life to the full.

We also should be able to demonstrate that abortion is the painful killing of an innocent human being. It is painful because the child that is killed has been burned, smothered, dismembered or crushed. It is killing in that from the beginning that which is terminated fulfills the criteria necessary for the establishing the existence of biological life including metabolism, development, the ability to react to stimuli, cell reproduction, and the child is innocent in the sense that a pre-born infant deserves protection not capital punishment. The pre-born is a, of course, a human being in that the child who was killed is the offspring of human parents and has a totally distinct genetic code. Abortion again is nothing short of terminating the life of a person that is created in the image of God. We as Christians must be able to make that point with gentleness and respect.

—Hank Hanegraaff

For further related study, please access the following equip.org resources:

What is Abortion? (Hank Hanegraaff)

Should Abortion Be Permitted in the Case of Rape or Incest? (Hank Hanegraaff)

How Do We Know the Bible is Divine Rather than Human in Origin? (Hank Hanegraaff)

The Folly of Denying God (Hank Hanegraaff)

Is Christianity Bad for Your Health (A.A. Howsepian)

Village Atheists with Vengeance (C. Wayne Mayhall)

Enlightenment Humanism: Our Savior from Violence? (Angus J.L. Menuge)

Antitheist Faith and History (Jeffrey Burton Russell)

This Blog adapted from the December 5, 2016 Bible Answer Man broadcast.