Innocent Blood: Challenging the Powers of Death with the Gospel of Life

What is the value of a human life? In truth, the question is more complex than the answer one would assume. Although the mouths of men express the poetic value of every person, in action a plague of violence defines the history of humanity. Child sacrifice was common in ancient societies. Arenas filled with gladiators incited citizens of Rome to bloodlust. Medieval superstitions led to the torture and death of supposed witches. Even in modern times, a supposedly secular society put to death millions for merely possessing a Semitic heritage. The timeline of men is littered with kind words but cruel actions. The propensity to create pain and put others to death simply carries from one culture to the next. Although each generation claims its great advancement over their ancestors, the truth is that the hearts of men are no different today than prior times. The powers of death seem to overshadow the powers of life.Within his book, Innocent Blood: Challenging the Powers of Death with the Gospel of Life, author John Ensor hopes to awaken eyes to see the bloodlust that runs through today's world. Enamored with violent video games, realistic movie deaths, and the nightly news pictures, most individuals have grown cold to images that should leave one shocked. The true grief and sorrow that should accompany the shedding of innocent blood has largely been lost. For followers of Christ, such a state cannot be satisfactory. Within this work, the author highlights a plethora of scriptures that deal with God's view of violence against weak and needy people. Beginning with a focus on the preciousness of human life before the Lord, the book necessarily moves to the blood guilt one encounters when murder is enacted. At this point, the prose shifts to a challenge for Christians. Far from being passive about such behaviors, believers are to actively work for the cause of life. Willful ignorance and mental opposition are not excused for the Lord calls followers of Christ to an active rescue.Unlike many books that focus on the atrocity of abortion, this particular work does not deal with many statistical figures or scientific facts. Such information is useful, but the purpose of this small work is theological. It is written for believers as a call to action. Too often it is easy to simply step away from a problem rather than work towards its solution. Biblically, such a response to abortion is not tenable. The Lord makes His call and command explicitly clear, and John Ensor exposits those scriptures with intensity and precision. Even if other volumes on this subject are owned, this addition to the field of biological ethics is needed now more than ever. Powerful in its implications and pressing in its call, its message needs to be heard.

In this wonderful little book Mr. Ensor does an excellent job of helping all Christians see why we should be more involved in the pro-life movement and why it is not enough to be "personally pro-life"! He shares how the Bible clearly lays the groundwork for each one of us as to how we should handle the shedding of any innocent blood. Standing in the background or ignoring it all together is not enough as God tells us He will hold us accountable. This book also helps to discuss how the Cross specifically covers past guilt over shedding innocent blood. For those wanting to both prevent the taking of innocent life, and help people who have participated in taking innocent life find healing, this quick read will get you on the right path. Yet it is a must read for all Christians, because all of us are accountable.

Explains well the relationship between the US directed spilling of unborn babies blood and the schemes of Satan to lead us away from the saving Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. God abhors the unjust deaths of close to 60 million defenseless babies. This book challenges those of us who are pro-life but do nothing to slow or stop the carnage; the ultimate sin of omission.

I learned a lot in this book, and it is very different but great book to read. I still need to reread it again though.

What are Christians called to do about abortion? Is proclaiming it as murder really helping? Is being silent about it an option?John Ensor's book INNOCENT BLOOD dives deep into the issue of abortion, but not in a way that condemns those who've been involved in it in the typical Christian judgmental fashion. Though any talk about abortion in relation to God's thoughts about it is assured to make many people uncomfortable and many people offended. In fact, Ensor implicates all of us in the bloodguilt of abortion. The book looks at the issue from God's perspective, and explores several key Old Testament texts to reveal God's heart toward not only the unborn, but all people. Human life is precious to God, therefore human beings have a responsibility to defend human life against anything and anyone that threatens it. Ensor makes the case that if we claim to be pro-life, yet do nothing to help protect the unborn, we may be pro-life in our declaration, but we're pro-choice in practice. Suddenly the condemnation isn't just on those who take part in abortion, but on Christ followers as well. Yet the greatest beauty is found in the cross where Jesus took on the bloodguilt of abortion and the killing of the innocent in our world.I can't cover all the insights of INNOCENT BLOOD here, but I would recommend all Christ followers to read the book. Ensor's book is a call to love human life as God loves it, and love requires the defending of human life where possible. He also connects abortion as an attempt for the devil to stop the spread of God's love to the world. After all, think what the world would have been like if the apostle Paul would have never been born.I came away from reading INNOCENT BLOOD with a greater appreciation for God's love of human beings, and it causes me to wrestle with what exactly I'm supposed to do about defending the innocent. Yet I know that I must if I am to help fulfill God's hopes and dreams for the world. In light of what Ensor has revealed from the Scriptures, each time an abortion happens, God's hopes and dreams for that person are snuffed out. If we understand God as the Creator of each human life, then when a child is conceived, it is not just the joining of a man and woman that initiates a human life; God is the determiner of a life beginning. God condemns the taking of human life in Exodus 20:13. In light of all this, abortion is a tragedy because it is the abortion of a life for which God initiated and had great intention for.Read INNOCENT BLOOD, and love human life like you've never imagined.I received this book for free for review from Cruciform Press.