In many places today, younger generations face difficult living conditions. Sadly, many are dealing with deep hopelessness. But Christians aren’t called to judge the legitimacy of God’s purposes based on our personal situation. Whether in the age of Korea’s birth control policy or today during the fears of ultra-low fertility, God’s command is unchanged. My desire is that young Christians won’t give up on dating, marriage, and childbirth. 

About 10 years ago, when I was pastoring in the United States, I was invited to speak at a college student rally in Korea. After returning home, I received a question via email from a student who attended the event: “Have you heard of the ‘3-po generation’? What does the gospel mean for us living in such a generation?”
As someone who hadn’t been living in Korea for a while, I wasn’t familiar with the term. Essentially, this group (also known as the Sampo generation) was giving up on three things: dating, marriage, and having kids. Because of educational costs, rising inflation, and a difficult job market, young people in Korea were abandoning any plans for marriage and childbearing. 
Over the years, I heard more stories. The 5-po generation also gave up on the dream of a career and home ownership. Subsequent generations have apparently given up on human relationships, hope, and ultimately life. In Korea, this is known as the N-po generation.
I believe these terms are based on excessive pessimism, but they express the seriousness of our society’s problems. They also reflect the frightening reality facing the younger generation, and not just in Korea—so we shouldn’t discount them.
“PINK” Problem
From 2018–21, Korea had the lowest fertility rate in the world. And the trend is expected to continue for several years. Korea is now labeled as a “PINK” country, which stands for “poor income, no kids.” (Compare this with China’s “DINK” generation of double income, no kids.)
Analysts point out that the 1997 foreign exchange crisis was an inflection point where the low fertility rate began to appear prominently in Korea. The crisis led to large-scale corporate restructuring, significant unemployment, and a labor flexibility policy that motivates companies to eliminate regular employees in favor of temporary hires. Low wages are common among those who work for small companies or who are temporary workers, factors shown to contribute directly to low fertility rates.
Korea also holds the highest elderly poverty rate. Increasing suicide among the elderly intensifies people’s fears of falling into the low-income class. Meanwhile, the decline in marriage and fertility rates is accelerated by the high cost of living expenses, housing, and private education along with the costs associated with the shortened career of women who bear children.
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Consider the monument of lady justice. She is often displayed with a blindfold. Why? Because true justice must be blind to the person being tried. To put it in biblical terminology, “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). She has open and equal balances in her right hand, for “divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 20:10). She has a sword in her left hand, for rulers “do not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” (Romans 13:4). In 1973, 51 years ago, the blindfold came off, divers weights replaced the balance, and the sword was laid aside. If a man kills a child in the womb without the mother’s consent, he is guilty of feticide. If a mother pays an abortionist to help murder her child, there is no legal consequence.

In her 2014 book, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights: Reclaiming Abortion as Good for Society, Katha Pollitt suggested 6 myths regarding abortion:(1) The Bible forbids abortion. (2) Women are coerced into having abortions. (3) Abortion is dangerous. (4) There are too many abortions. (5) Abortion is racist. (6) Abortion opponents would never punish women.[1]
Ten years after the publication of her book, Pollitt’s ideas are widely embraced by abortion apologists and by parents aborting their children.
Pro-abortionists are not alone in promoting Pollitt’s feminist worldview. Last November the Louisiana Baptists, a publicly pro-life organization, rejected a resolution calling for an end to, and criminalization of, all abortion. In support of their decision, leading pastors promoted the myth that a majority of women are coerced into abortion and therefore it should not be criminalized.[2]
In 2024, 51 years after the terrible blight of legal abortion descended on this country and 18 months after the overturn of Roe, abortion is increasing, more children are dying, the gospel of God is obscured and withheld, and Christians are not clear on the facts.
May seven facts concerning abortion help Christians think and act biblically while pointing unbelievers toward salvation in Christ alone. 
1. The Bible Forbids Abortion
Does the Bible have anything to say concerning abortion? Some would say no. Pollitt suggested the Old Testament is virtually silent unless Christians misinterpret Exodus 21:22-23. This supposed silence leads some, including some Christians, to conclude that God accepts or is indifferent to the practice of child murder. Seeing the divisiveness and “brokenness” it causes, they deem abortion a topic unclear in Scripture and therefore one on which to be silent. Is the Bible unclear or silent on abortion? If we join Pollitt and argue the Bible is virtually silent, then we can leave what amounts to a modern holocaust to courts, politicians, and pseudo-doctors to work out—all while the death count rises.
God tells us to test the spirits whether they are from God (1 John 4:1). Is Scripture silent? Is Scripture unclear? When we allow Scripture to speak for itself, what do we find? From beginning to end, the Bible is replete with references to children in the womb and the abhorrent sin of intentionally taking a child’s life.
In the Bible: “We do not have to wait long to find a clear indication of the sanctity attaching to man’s life and of the wrong involved in the taking of one man’s life by another. It is noteworthy that, next to the sin of our first parents, the first recorded sin is that of Cain, which had its issue in the murder of his brother Abel.”[3]
In the Bible: God views the fetus (young human being) as being a life before conception (Jeremiah 1:5), after conception (Psalm 139:13-16), and through the full term of pregnancy (Luke 1:44). God knows children in the womb by name and, according to His sovereign will, saves some in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:13; Luke 1:44)
In the Bible: God refers to the “clump of cells” in the womb as a “child.” Pregnant Hagar was told by the angel of the Lord she was “with child” (Genesis 16:11). The phrase “with child” is repeated no fewer than 16 times in Scripture. God uses the term to refer to specific children in their mothers’ wombs (Genesis 16:11; Luke 2:5) as well as to many children generally in the wombs of their mothers (Kings 8:12; Ecclesiastes 11:5).[4]
In the Bible: God views the personhood and value of children equally from conception to natural death. The “babe” inside the womb (Luke 1:41) is the same word in the original, βρέφος, as the “babe” in the manger (Luke 2:16) and the “infants” of whom Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me” (Luke 18:14-15).  
In the Bible: God calls the shedding of innocent blood murder. It is the sixth commandment of the ten—forever preserving the divine principle concerning the sanctity of life (Exodus 20:13).[5] Murder is one of the six things, yes seven, that the Lord hates (Proverbs 6:17). No murderer has eternal life abiding in him (I John 3:15).In the Bible: God particularly highlights the abomination of murdering children—a regular sin of Israelites and Canaanites as they made sacrifices to their idols. God refers to the parents as sacrificing their children to demons (Psalm 106:37). For the particular sin of child murder (among others), Israel was given into the hand of its enemies during the time of the Judges, its Kingdom was divided during the time of the Kings, and eventually Israel and Judah were brought into captivity and ruled by their enemies.[6]In the Bible: God views children as a heritage (inheritance) from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). Men and women prayed to the Lord for extended periods of time and with much weeping for the blessing of a child (Genesis 25:21-28; 1 Samuel 1:6-12). The willful ending of a child’s life could not be more inconsistent with the will of God and the whole of Scripture as emphasized when God said of child sacrifice — “nor did it come into My mind” (Jeremiah 19:5).
In the Bible: God regards children both in the womb and outside the womb as equally valuable. As the practice of child murder was all too common, God gave specific prohibitions against it. Therefore, all the commandments against murder generally are equally applicable to children, whether they are born or unborn.
Does the Bible have anything to say concerning abortion? The Bible has much to say! In all that Scripture says on the topic, God categorically forbids and condemns the sin of abortion.
The Bible forbids abortion.
2. Women and Men Want Abortion
One of Pollitt’s central arguments is that women are not victims in abortion—they want abortion. She argues that less than 1% of women who have an abortion are coerced. Here Christians should find themselves in unusual agreement with pro-abortionists—albeit for vastly different reasons.
Pollitt’s conclusion: We should support the legalization and availability of abortion because women want abortion.
The Christian’s conclusion: Men and women are sinners, desperately wicked, and therefore want to commit the sin of abortion (Romans 3:10-18).
PR campaigns such as “Shout Your Abortion” and “We Testify” merge with organizations like Planned Parenthood to validate Pollitt’s claims from a decade ago. Men and women are rarely coerced into abortion—they want abortion.  A large number of pro-life organizations and many Christians believe the myth that most women are being forced or coerced into abortion.[7] They shrink back from the truth and ignore God’s teaching to protect, preserve, and promote life. In various settings I have been challenged on use of the word “murder” to describe abortion because, “It sounds very harsh.” Christians would benefit from spending time with women on the brink of having an abortion to gauge firsthand the women’s state of mind regarding their babies.
The worldview that considers people to be basically good is a humanist one, in contrast to a Christian or biblical one. “It’s not murder, just a very difficult situation.” In a humanist worldview anything bad is not really an individual’s fault—they probably did not want to do it in the first place. Christians would do well to reclaim the “T” in “TULIP,” remembering that men and women by nature are totally depraved. The heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Given a license to sin, 25% of women will have an abortion by the age of 45. 
While parents of aborted babies may end up regretting their abortions, the horrific reality is that the vast majority of them eagerly pursue it.[8]
Women and men want abortion.
3. Abortion Is Deadly Dangerous
Pro-abortionists like to talk about the safety of abortion. They debunk the idea that abortion is dangerous on the ground that few women have negative medical complications. If ever there was a red herring in the abortion debate, it is this issue of safety. Safety in the same sentence as abortion insults common sense. Nevertheless, with Roman Catholic and Pro-Life organizations moving the discussion from the actual victims (babies) to the perpetrators of abortion—“abortion hurts women”—safety in abortion is a regular talking point. Meanwhile, the little children in the womb are never safe in abortion!
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Seen in the context of the 2,000-year history of the church, the PCA’s deliberations were hardly revolutionary. But in 2021 cultural revolutionary America, the language commissioners proposed be added to the PCA’s Book of Church Order ring with Christian bravery before a hostile world: “Those who profess an identity (such as, but not limited to, “gay Christian,” “same-sex attracted Christian,” “homosexual Christian,” or like terms) that undermines or contradicts their identity as new creations in Christ, either by denying the sinfulness of fallen desires . . . or by denying the reality and hope of progressive sanctification, or by failing to pursue Spirit-empowered victory over their sinful temptations, inclinations, and actions are not qualified for ordained office.”

As the dust settles from the annual meetings of two major evangelical denominations, the contrast between them could hardly be more stark. In St. Louis, courage, that rarest of virtues, won the day at the General Assembly (GA) of the some 380,000 member Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). In Nashville, the fears of elites won the day as the 14 million strong Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in North America, met to do business.
Seen in the context of the 2,000-year history of the church, the PCA’s deliberations were hardly revolutionary. But in 2021 cultural revolutionary America, the language commissioners proposed be added to the PCA’s Book of Church Order ring with Christian bravery before a hostile world:
Those who profess an identity (such as, but not limited to, “gay Christian,” “same-sex attracted Christian,” “homosexual Christian,” or like terms) that undermines or contradicts their identity as new creations in Christ, either by denying the sinfulness of fallen desires . . . or by denying the reality and hope of progressive sanctification, or by failing to pursue Spirit-empowered victory over their sinful temptations, inclinations, and actions are not qualified for ordained office. 
Rather than pay obeisance to a world poised to punish all who fail to adhere to the ever-more radical rules surrounding sexual identity, especially “gay” identity, these commissioners, mainly laypersons, but led by teaching elder and North Carolina pastor Kevin DeYoung, bowed to God.
In Nashville, SBC President J. D. Greear and Resolutions Committee Chairman James Merritt tried to embarrass Baptist messengers who called for explicit repudiation of critical race theory. Ordinary Baptists were charged from the podium with being afraid of persons of color when no such fears had been expressed. Since their 2019 annual convention in Birmingham, Alabama, the SBC has weathered a firestorm of pushback from rank-and-file Baptists after the Resolutions Committee pushed through a pro-CRT statement.
Un-woke black Baptist pastor and theological educator Voddie Baucham, who was canceled by SBC elites when he refused to adopt the far-left narrative about the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, details the shenanigans employed by elites in his hot off the presses, best-selling book, “Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe.” The 2019 committee gutted a thoroughly anti-CRT resolution submitted by a California pastor and then transformed it into a statement hailing CRT and intersectionality as “useful analytical tools” for understanding race. The committee brought forward its reengineered pro-CRT resolution with almost no time left on the clock for discussion, ruled objectors out of order, and rammed it through.
Rather than rescind or repudiate the now de-legitimized 2019 resolution that named and praised CRT, the 2021 committee instead repudiated all secular theories that do not accord with scripture with no mention of CRT. But why? Merritt explained by saying: “the world is watching.”
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