The Louisiana House passed a bill May 21 designating abortion pills as controlled substances, classifying their use as racketeering and creating the crime of coerced criminal abortion.
Designating mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV controlled substances is on par with various sedatives, pain pills and depression and anxiety drugs with a low potential for abuse and dependence.
The Senate’s approval of the amended bill, on the chamber’s May 22 docket, would make Louisiana the first state to designate as controlled substances the drugs used in combination to induce abortion, and for other pregnancy-related conditions including managing miscarriages and inducing labor.
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More than 500 pregnant women and new moms crowded Clinton Church in Clinton, Maryland May 11 for a Community Baby Shower and Resource Fair. The church linked arms with one of its favorite long-time partners, MedStar Health of Southern Maryland, for the win-win event.
In addition to the needed resources, the church also used the opportunity to build bridges with its community and offer care and prayer support. A prayer room was open near the front, and the church’s outreach team was throughout the building, chatting with moms, encouraging them, giving out tracts, and sharing with those they met as they felt led. Two young women made professions of faith.
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The Bible describes itself as a special book, says seminary leaders David Dockery and Malcolm Yarnell.
Even before the canonization of the sacred texts, importance was attached to the prophetic and apostolic writings. Moses wrote “all the words of the Lord” in the “covenant scroll.” Joshua’s farewell address was written “in the book of the law of God.” Samuel spoke words about the manner of the kingdom and “wrote them on a scroll, which he placed in the presence of the Lord.” Jesus repeatedly appealed to the authoritative Scriptures. Similarly, Paul and the apostles thought of the scrolls as the “very words of God.”
Jesus Himself declared that Scripture is the Word of God which “cannot be broken.” Similarly, the apostles noted it is “the prophetic word strongly confirmed” which the prophets and apostles wrote, because these words were spoken from God as the writers “were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The Bible itself thus acknowledges that the prophetic-apostolic word is God’s Word written. Without the sacred writings there would be no Holy Scripture and therefore no Word of God available to us.
God’s revelation of Himself
The Bible affirms God has made Himself known in a variety of ways. Thankfully, God has not abandoned us to our own devices but has manifested Himself to us. We know Him not due to our seeking Him, but because He has made Himself known to us. God has acted and spoken in history. The word “revelation” means an uncovering, a removal of the veil, a disclosure of what was previously not known.
All of that is found in God’s Word. Read the full piece from Yarnell and Dockery at Baptist Press.