Curtis Means is the earliest delivered surviving baby. He was born 19 weeks into the pregnancy on July 5, 2020. His twin did not survive.

Conversely, about 1% of all abortions occur at 20 or more weeks gestation. There were approximately 930,000 abortions in 2020. More than 9,000 children died from abortion at the same gestational age or older as Curtis. How are we to understand this disparity?

Three things are at work:

A Crisis of Truth

The Bible is the only reliable standard for truth (John 17:17). Any attempt we humans make to create a new standard is tainted with evil (Genesis 8:21).

With tainted reasoning, some Christians say the Bible only “contains” truth. They then choose the parts they like and ignore the rest. There’s no getting to the truth that way. We have a crisis of truth when we cannot accept the truth. Today, people set out to create their own truth.

A Crisis of Origin

An evolutionary perspective compromises the value of human life. If evolution represents the “by chance” formation of all that is and will be, then the value of humans is no greater than other life in the world.

Evolution has marginalized the value of human life. It has fostered the notion that “awareness” is the prerequisite for a life worth living. As any life becomes self-aware, it has the right to live. Therefore, some animal life is argued to be more valuable than some human life.

A Crisis of God

Evolutionary thinking and a spotty adoption of Biblical truth lead to the rejection of God. He is no longer the Judge ruling by absolute truth. He is no longer the Creator and Master of all life. He is relegated to obscurity while all the humans argue for god-like authority in this flawed world.

A Perfect Storm for Conflict

No wonder a child can be live-delivered in one room at 19 weeks gestation and another child aborted at the same age in the next room. Lacking a standard yields disrespect for human life, which leads to ignoring the Author of life. Without objective truth, in an evolutionary-biased society, subjectivity is god!

Solution

Jesus prayed for God to “sanctify them” by the truth (John 17:17). Peter called for us to “revere Christ as Lord” in our hearts (1 Peter 3:15). When the disciples were told to be silent in their preaching they essentially said, “We can’t help it” (Acts 4:20). And the writer to the Hebrews said that to navigate all of this, we must spiritually grow up (Hebrews 5:11-6:3).

Everything comes back to the administration of the truth. While we are to proclaim it with “great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2), communicating it with “gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15), all the while letting our “gentleness be evident to everyone” (Philippians 4:5), we can’t compromise or ignore it. Only then will hearts change and lives be saved.