The following is Part Two of a reflection written by CBR Project Manager Brad Martel about an encounter he had with a student at Cleveland State. Part One was sent last week and can also be viewed here. 

As Stevie neared the end of her story, I knew the answer: Stevie needed the Gospel. “God loves you,” I began. I had her full attention. Had anyone ever said this to her before? “God knows everything about you. He knows the parts that you don’t share with others and even the parts that you don’t understand yourself. And He loves you. He wants an eternal relationship with you. But there’s a problem.”

I told her how our sins separate us from God and how Jesus reconciles those who trust him. I then thanked Stevie for her time and wished her well. She left the display, found a friend nearby, and wept with her. We both experienced the power of the Gospel message.

Transgender people are especially ready to hear the good news about Jesus, for a few reasons. First, they know something is wrong. The Gospel makes clear that we all have a deeply rooted problem. We agree on this main point. It remains for Christians to explain the problem, what separates individuals from God.

Second, they are looking for a major transformation. The Gospel explains that when anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! Christians are further exhorted to be transformed by renewing our mind, to put away the “old man.” Here again, we both agree on this main point. It remains for us to explain the healthy and truly necessary transformation.

Lastly, they want, above all, to be accepted. The Gospel assures us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and that there is fellowship for the believer with God and man. As a church, we are members of a body. Transgender people lead difficult lives and they need the Gospel. They need the truth about their inherent dignity as people created in the image of God.

The following is Part One of a reflection written by CBR Project Manager Brad Martel about an encounter he had with a student at Cleveland State. See Part Two here.

How do you talk to college students about the transgender issue? I was still a volunteer when CBR introduced new signs tackling this topic in 2022. After much experience, I was comfortable debating abortion with students, but this was a whole new world. Though I felt tentative about the subject, I understood its necessity. It’s not as if CBR sought out another moral evil to address. No, the transgender issue found us.

At each college we visited in 2021, we encountered students advocating to normalize transgenderism. In 2022, we discovered that at least 1,130 girls under 18 years old received “top surgeries” between 2016 and 2019 in the United States. These surgeries consist of removing healthy breasts from girls who identify as boys. This child mutilation masquerading as “gender-affirming care” demands a response.

At Cleveland State University, I met “Stevie”. Based on her own experience, Stevie believed that girls, at least as young as 16, should be allowed to receive “gender transition surgery.” She shared stories of being bullied growing up, of not being allowed to use either male or female bathrooms at times, and of parents complaining to her school about their children having to be in the same room with her. Stevie attempted suicide at 17.

Stevie later underwent a double mastectomy, but she still suffers from scoliosis from the years of binding her breasts to hide them. She described many rounds of therapy and vetting before transitioning. Her life would have been less difficult, she claimed, had she been allowed to have her surgery earlier.

At this point, my sympathy for Stevie was immense. She had suffered for years from gender dysphoria and ostracism. She was convinced that her decision to transition to a “man” was the right choice for her. What do you say to such a person?

At CBR, we’re not only saving lives of preborn children from abortion. We’re also saving born children from the lies of the pro-abortion culture. And, that’s the theme of our 6th Annual Pro Life Leadership Youth Camp: Countercultural.

As in past years, we will be offering two separate weeks of camp, in two different cities!

Click here for Knoxville, TN camp details.
Click here for Columbus, GA camp details.

Both camps are $100 per person, but additional campers from the same family will be discounted to $50 each. Please pass this information to your church leadership, youth ministries, and like-minded Christian parents and friends. Seats are limited! 

We offer this life-saving training far below cost, thanks to our generous venue hosts and partners.

Help keep camp affordable for all with a special gift here!
(designation: SE-YLC Youth Leadership Camp)

By Karl Gessler

Worship is warfare. We live in a world with an active war waged for our souls. Every time we worship in spirit and truth, the world’s dark forces tremble because they know they are the losers in the war. Our worship helps make the victory of Jesus a tangible reality wherever it takes place. This is the theology of worship warfare.

Jesus has already won the war on the cross and in His resurrection, but many battles are left to be fought by God’s people. Jesus warned us, saying, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We will never win the culture war for life without the power of Jesus’ presence. So, how can we bring the presence of Jesus into the dark world of abortion mills?

In all my life, the most powerful encounters with Jesus have been connected to worship through song. While considering this truth, the Lord gave me a vision of gathering our community together for a “worship blitz” at “the gates of Hell,” as some describe it (Planned Parenthood). Half a dozen times in the last year, my friends and I gathered in large numbers to sing worship songs outside our local Planned Parenthood for two hours straight. The effect is powerful for everyone involved. The regular faithful witnesses for life are encouraged, the worshipers are encouraged by one another, and the voice of truth is multiplied in power. It is amazing to see the escort’s agitation at our singing. We aren’t pointing the finger at them. We aren’t yelling at them. We are simply singing about and to the Giver of Life at a place of death. The contrast is stark.

It is nearly impossible to measure the precise effectiveness of standing outside an abortion clinic in protest, but the signs of effectiveness are there. Many of the regular pro-life witnesses tell us that their experience is so much better when we come to worship. We also know from insider’s testimony that the presence of God’s people praying outside Planned Parenthood is a statistical effect on their business. THEY know prayer makes a difference. Worship is prayer with a soundtrack and a megaphone.

Karl Gessler is a long-time CBR volunteer and supporter. He lives with his wife and children in western North Carolina. 

Dear conservative, freedom-loving student,

When we met you on campus some time ago, you mentioned your grades suffering because of your conservative views.

Yes, taking a stand against evil will always cost you something.  It’s much safer to go to sit quietly at Pizza for Jesus meetings, soak it in, and do little else … and it is very tempting.  But I’d like you to consider a world being run by these people:

These thugs use violence to intimidate and shut down people they don’t like.  And they don’t like you.

Teachers who threaten you or punish you for your views are no different.  Maybe they don’t wear masks of cloth, but they use their lofty positions as masks of respectability.  And they are nothing more than bullies trying to shield themselves from accountability for their thuggery.  Don’t be afraid of them.

But I have to tell you that, unfortunately, they do have a clear path to victory.  Edmund Burke showed us their roadmap.  He said that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  That’s why they threaten you, so that you will do nothing and they will win.  When they do, we all lose … and we lose more than just good grades.

Please consider two kingdoms.  The first is our earthly kingdom, the United States and the freedom, security, and prosperity it offers.  Please consider what your freedom cost, from our the founding of our nation until the present day.

We are reminded of the cost when we see the monuments to fallen soldiers at Bunker Hill, at King’s Mountain, at Flanders Field, at Normandy, at Manilla, and many other places around the globe.  Hundreds of thousands have given their lives so that we can live free.  And not just we alone, but hundreds of millions of others around the globe who were rescued from tyranny by the blood of US soldiers.

The second is the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus said when we stand for truth, we will be persecuted.  He said, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).  But he also said to count it a blessing: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

I count it a blessing to be in this battle with you.  Let us heed the words of  Winston Churchill, who famously encouraged his nation during the darkest hours of WWII.  “Let us neither flag nor fail.  Let us fight on to the end,” for the alternative is to be governed by thugs, and that is unthinkable.

Thanks,
Fletcher

Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer, mathematician David Berlinski, and Yale computer scientist David Gelernter.  Dr. Gelernter’s intellectual confession, “Giving Up Darwin,” published in The Claremont Review of Books, has created quite a stir.  A former proponent of Darwinism, he believes it to be a “beautiful” theory, but just not true.

This is a fascinating discussion highlighting a refreshing diversity of views among scholars who are agreed that Darwinism is a failed theory, but have different perspectives on almost every other related question.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

I was not surprised by the results of the 2016 election.  By the time election night rolled in, I knew that it was 100% in God’s hands.  Granted, everything is 100% in God’s hands, but this was a situation where Christians pulled together and did all the work they could.  If we lost it was because God willed it to be so, not because Christians sat around and did nothing.

Christians engaged in fervent prayer for months before the election.  We all saw the potential for things to go very badly for Christians in America and around the world if the presidency went to Hillary.

Pro-life and pro-family Christians were on edge.  So was anyone who is pro-Constitution or even pro-economic sanity.  Very much on edge.  We felt helpless in our own power.

How could we as individuals make a national difference against evil?  How could we stand against injustice and insanity in 2016, when we failed so miserably in 2008 and 2012?  But even though we were helpless in our own power, Christians turned to our Father, knowing that He has all the power.  Christians turned to God — asking, begging, pleading, and imploring God grant favor to a nation that really didn’t deserve it.

And God heard our prayers — our fervent, near-desperate prayers.  He heard.  He listened. He had mercy on us, despite all of our complicity and complacency in the face of child sacrifice, sodomy, and many other abominations.  He, as Fletcher Armstrong wrote, granted us a stay of execution.  Not a pardon — we don’t deserve that — but a merciful stay of execution.

Let us now pray that we use this opportunity wisely.  Pray that we don’t get lazy.  Pray that we don’t lose hope.  Pray that God guides and blesses our work.  Pray that we can make America great again by making her righteous in God’s eyes.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

The following speech was delivered by CBR’s Georgia Project Director, Lincoln Brandenburg, at the 2016 March for Life in Columbus, Georgia. 

What is the goal of the pro-life movement? Jason Jones, the co-producer of the pro-life film “Bella” recently wrote a dynamite article called “The Pro-Life Art of War.” In it, he asks us to:

“Imagine if same-sex marriage were prohibited nationwide, and legal protections for homosexuals consistently struck down or defeated—while sodomy laws were re-imposed and enforced, with billions of dollars in funding from Congress. How effective would you consider the gay rights movement? If the Second Amendment were reduced to a hollow, meaningless shell, and Americans’ guns—even hunting and target rifles—were all confiscated by the feds, what would we think of the gun lobby? If the U.S. abandoned Israel to its fate, and starting sending aid and arms to Hezbollah and Hamas, what would we say of the Israel lobby? Fix each of those scenarios in mind, and let’s ask the question: What should we think of the pro-life movement? The answer is tragically clear: For all the minds and hearts it has changed, it is a comprehensive political failure. American abortion laws are among the laxest on planet Earth…”

Such thinking doesn’t exactly bring out the sunshine on a cloudy day like this, does it? And yet, when you consider the success of the aforementioned movements, contrasted to where we are after 43 years of legalized child killing, one cannot deny that Jones is on to something. In terms of public policy, we really have very little to show for decades of efforts.

Our goal must be to win. We can save a life here and there, but winning is the only way that the killing stops. But we have become entirely too timid to win. Most in our movement are Christians. And it is so ingrained in us to be loving, selfless and nice that we don’t know how to stand firmly and boldly against the evil of child sacrifice. We don’t even have a category for that in our thinking. We know how to be gentle as doves, but we don’t’ know how to be wise as serpents.

I would like to submit that being Christlike – loving, sacrificial and gentle – does not exclude us from also standing boldly against evil. Failure to do so is itself is unloving.

In the introduction to the book “The Bravehearted Gospel,” Pastor Ben Davenport writes:

“The historical Jesus was not crucified because God so loved the world. No! The only begotten of the Father was fastened with iron nails to an unforgiving cross because He spoke the truth with authority and glistened with the light of Heaven and men loved darkness rather than light…

“If Jesus, who was perfect, who never sinned, and who was love incarnate, could not speak the truth without being hated, rejected, and despised, who are we to think that we can do better? Who are we to think that we have figured out a more ‘loving and ‘relevant’ way to present the truth in a more ‘seeker-friendly’ manner than Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

“We have wholeheartedly embraced the sentimental, watercolor Jesus that seems to spend most of His time holding lambs and patting children on the head with some faraway, glazed-over, dreamy look in His eye. And we tend to shy away from, or altogether ignore, that man who spoke the truth of God so boldly that conspiracies were hatched, witnesses were bribed, and politicians were entreated to bring about His painful and public execution.”

This is the side of being Christlike that we are afraid of.

Now does this mean that we shun and condemn women and men who have been involved in an abortion? Does this mean that we scream at people outside of clinics? Of course not! I too have sinned. Were it not for the grace of God, I would still be blinded to sin. From one human to another, I can assure you that God is eager to forgive and to free from bondage to sin, including abortion. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.” If you view such people as the enemy, maybe you need to spend some time with God looking in the mirror first.

This is not a call to become one-dimensional. We have all seen people who became so enamored in a cause that they became cynical and abrasive. They develop tunnel-vision and lose their tenderness towards others, their winsomeness and their clairvoyance. That also is not what God calls us to.

But for the majority of us, that’s not the temptation we face, is it? Our temptation is to be silent and passive. Our temptation is to be content with having a political or theological stance, but not taking sacrificial action. We’re comfortable having our bible studies with people who are like ourselves; talking about “discipleship” and “worship,” and being really, really nice people… but doing nothing about the babies being decapitated and dismembered down the street from us.

After WWII, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s best friend, Eberhart Bethge, wrote about the weakness of the Confessing Church in Germany during the war. These were not the liberalized, Nazi-pandering churches, but the Bible-believing ones that still held to orthodox theology. He observed that “it became clear where the problem lay for the Confessing Church: we were resisting by way of confession, but we were not confessing by way of resistance.”

Taking a cognitive stance is not enough. The love of God compels us to act. If we will not take a bold stand against the evil of modern child sacrifice, when WILL we finally stand up? What else would it take?

Yes, it is uncomfortable. Yes, we will get flack for it. We will be mischaracterized and called names. At my church we’ve been studying the sermon on the mount in Matthew’s gospel. In chapter 5, Jesus says: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” That should put steel in our spines!

“A servant is not greater than his master;” like Jesus, we should not be surprised when we get flak for speaking the truth in a culture that loves lies. When my colleagues and I engage in activism, we don’t yell at people. We don’t call names. We show the truth of what abortion is and attempt to engage in respectful dialogue. People yell at us. They throw things at us. They call us names. But God uses the prophetic message to convict consciences, change minds, and to save lives and souls. And each one of those precious lives and souls is worth it.

Imagine a day when killing preborn children is a thing of the past. We are continuing to support pregnancy resource centers, such as Sound Choices and Seneca, Choices for Life), not because it’s the pro-life thing to do – but because it’s just the Christian charitable thing to do. No other reason. Imagine us getting together like this, not to march for life, but to celebrate the precious lives that are no longer in danger. Imagine standing before the God who purposefully placed you in this time and place of history, and hearing the words “well done, good and faithful servant!”

With that dream in mind, go forward courageously and boldly. Connect with others who are engaging the culture. Let’s stay humble, stay winsome. But let’s also refuse to take no for an answer. Let’s refuse to let up. Let’s stop playing nice.

Submitted by Lincoln Brandenburg

Pictures instill fear in Christians, but change hearts and minds.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

“I am a Christian and a Baptist,” the Columbia State University co-ed said with righteous indignation.  “This display is wrong! … This doesn’t help!  We know what abortion is!  Dead babies?  NO!  Don’t show that!”

This young woman may have honestly believed that showing such pictures is wrong.  She may have thought people already know what abortion is.  But we think her reaction was mostly fear … fear of verbal reprisals against her and other Christians, perhaps.  The fear of rejection has prompted many pro-life Christians to cower under tables, hide out in CRU meetings, etc.  [We love Campus Crusade for Christ, but if the shoe fits …]

After some time she finally said, “Well I respect you and know you want to help.  I just wish you wouldn’t do it this way.”

We pray for Christians on campus to find their courage … and then find their way.  The world needs Christians to stand up and be counted.

Two other young women illustrate why our courage is so important.

They stared intently at the pictures.  One of them pointed to a 10-week abortion photo and asked CBR’s Maggie Egger, “That circular part there, is that the heart?”  Maggie replied, “I don’t know actually.  It could be the heart or it could be the stomach or something else, it’s hard to tell.”  The other girl chimed in, “But they do have a heart at that point, right?”  Maggie answered in the affirmative.  The two nodded and continued to study the picture for a few more minutes.  Then as they slowly walked away, one said, “I mean, that’s a baby!”  The other replied solemnly, “It’s a baby…It’s a baby.”

The pictures work.  When more Christians use them courageously, they will work more places, more often.  Please stand up and make your voice heard by supporting Pro Life on Campus.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

My new friend (I hope) W. Russell responded to an FAB post earlier this week.  He (or she) wrote:

I think you are making a big mistake by linking the pro-life cause with religion. There are people out there like me that are prolife but want nothing to do with religion. Not to mention the fact that “Darwinism” (btw, there is no such thing) has nothing to do with abortion. I am an atheist, believe in evolution, and am pro-life. Why do you want to write me off as an enemy to your cause. You say the biggest treat to children is the belief in evolution and abortion. No, the biggest treat to children is ignorance and the lack of respect for human rights, every human’s rights. One can believe that every human being, born and unborn is deserving of life without believing in a deity. The pro-life cause needs all the support possible. Don’t exclude people because they don’t have the same beliefs as you. If you do, you are just as ignorant as the people who support abortion.

This is my reply (with a few edits):

Thanks for your comment. I wholeheartedly agree with much of what you said. For example, you said, “One can believe that every human being, born and unborn, is deserving of life without believing in a deity.” You are of course correct. Many atheists agree with us on the right to life.

You said we should not link the pro-life cause with religion. There is some truth in that. For example, we should be able to argue against abortion without appealing to our religious beliefs. With our Pro Life Training Academy, we do exactly that. We train people to talk about spiritual matters only with people who are open to that discussion. When an atheist asks us why we oppose abortion, we don’t say he must adopt a new moral code before he can become pro-life; we simply ask him to apply his current moral code to everyone equally, including the unborn. We assume that he opposes killing born people, and usually he does.

You said, “The pro-life cause needs all the support possible. Don’t exclude people because they don’t have the same beliefs as you.” You are again correct, and I am happy to work beside you to end injustice, including the injustice of killing unborn children, no matter what else we may disagree about.

But I don’t agree with you that just because we disagree on something important, I have “[written you] off as an enemy to [our] cause.” It only means that we disagree on some things and agree on other things.  I have many friends in the pro-life movement, and I disagree with almost all of them about religious matters that we consider important.

It is unrealistic to expect that Christians will quit being Christians when they take up the cause of ending injustice. We Christians fight injustice for two reasons. First and foremost, we are commanded to do so by our Creator.

Second, Christians believe that all of us (including you and me) are created beings, and we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these is the right to life. If there is no Creator, then we all evolved from the earth. We are simply a cosmic fluke, mere dust that happens to be animated for a short period of time before we return to dust. And if that is true, then what is the basis for any kind of morality? How can one clump of animated dust say what is moral and what is not moral for another clump of dust?

And are all clumps of animated dust to be treated equally? What is the basis for declaring that human lumps of dust have a greater status than non-human lumps of animated dust (e.g., animals)? Or even non-animated lumps of dust (e.g., rocks).

If we claim greater moral significance for ourselves than for dogs or rocks, because we are more evolved, then who is to say that some of us humans aren’t more evolved than others, and therefore entitled to greater rights?

That’s why I believe Darwinism to be a dangerous philosophy … because it ultimately leads to the conclusion that there is no objective morality, there is no basis for equality, and there is no imperative to treat anyone with human dignity. Any moral code is only a tool to promote self interest, and it can be discarded by those in power as soon as conditions make a different moral code more profitable.

I know that you have a different basis for your beliefs that there is a moral code we are all bound to follow, that we all have a right to live, etc. And I respect that. I just don’t agree with it. I welcome you to the table of respecting the unalienable rights of all people; I just got there through a different door. That doesn’t mean that I have written you off as an enemy, nor does it mean I don’t welcome your support.  It just means we disagree.

But before I close, it is my duty to say that I am concerned for your eternal soul. It is my hope that you will live abundantly, not only for a few years on this earth, but eternally in the world to come. I hope you won’t be angry to know this.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)

On final note about Darwinism (the notion that all life forms evolved as a result of random, unguided, naturalistic processes). Speaking as somebody with a science background, I believe the claim that science has made a conclusive case for Darwinism, as opposed to the alternative theory that life is the result of intelligent design, is a classic example of begging the question (i.e., assuming the proposition you claim to be proving). Darwinism does not prove man evolved via naturalistic processes; it assumes man evolved via naturalistic processes. Big difference. But, that’s another topic for another day.

Debbie Picarello set up a table for Deeper Still, a post-abortion counseling ministry, at Virginia Tech. She is able to reach many people who will not walk over to the GAP display itself.

She was a student at Virginia Tech.  She was 23, post-abortive, divorced, and has a toddler and a new boyfriend.  She joined the protest against GAP.  She has lived hard and experienced a lot.

She came from a Christian background and was pro-life until she aborted her first child and walked away from the faith.  She does not regret her abortion and is thankful she had it.  She wouldn’t look at the pictures while we talked.

After 45 minutes she finally said “Ok, I now get what you are saying about a woman’s autonomous body and the baby’s autonomous body.  They don’t share the same DNA and the baby is not a part of her body.  I am really struggling now.”  We gave her some literature about prenatal development.  She thanked us and said, “I am now interested in reading about this.”

Here is the question that keeps us awake at night …

What if her pro-life pastor had understood/cared enough about her salvation and her baby to show her the truth about abortion?

Why didn’t he show her an abortion video (e.g., Choice Blues) before she shed innocent blood and ran away from Jesus.

I didn’t see the debate, but I did see this critique by the good people at the Discovery Institute.  As a trained scientist who knows a little bit about the philosophy of science, the scientific method, etc., bad arguments make me angry.

But when people on my on side of a debate give bad arguments, the apologist in me just goes nuts.  That’s why I very much appreciate the Discovery Institute.  They advance sound science.

Here are three articles that Christian should read:

1. The Ham-Nye Creation Debate: A Huge Missed Opportunity (by Casey Luskin)
2. As an Antidote to the Ham-Nye Creation Debate Fiasco, Listen to Stephen Meyer Debate Charles Marshall
3. In the Ham-Nye Debate, Not So Much as a Glove Was Laid on Intelligent Design

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Two items from the Center for Science and Culture.

Science and Faith: Are They Really in Conflict?  According to a recent survey, 55% of American adults believe that “science and religion [are] often in conflict.”  What is your church or private school doing to show parents and their children that science and faith are actually in harmony rather than at war?  If you’ve been at a loss about how to engage issues of science and faith in your congregation, consider becoming a host church for “Science and Faith: Are They Really in Conflict?,” a worldwide simulcast event on Sunday, September 21, 2014 featuring John Lennox from Oxford University (who some call a new C.S. Lewis) and New York Times bestselling authors Stephen Meyer and Eric Metaxas.

By registering as a host church or school for this important event before the end of November, your group will receive a 20% discount.  Register NOW and SAVE.

C.S. Lewis & Intelligent Design.  The Center has produced a new short documentary about C.S. Lewis’s journey to find intelligent design in nature.  The film is being released on YouTube in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Lewis’s death this coming Friday, November 22.  See it here:

Watch a hemoglobin molecule being manufactured inside a cell … in real time.  As you watch the video, try to convince yourself that this molecular manufacturing assembly line (and millions more just like it) evolved from primordial soup by cosmic accident.  If you don’t see evidence of design, you might be a religious fanatic.  Just sayin’.

This animation comes from the good folks at the Discovery Institute.  See detailed description here.

Excerpts:

When the right transfer molecule plugs in, the amino acid it carries is added to the growing protein chain.  Again, you are watching this in real time.  After a few seconds, the assembled protein starts to emerge from the ribosome.

In this case, the end product is hemoglobin.  The cells in our bone marrow churn out 100 trillion molecules it per second.

As we look around at our own country, we can’t help but feel like exiles.

We live in a land where most people seem willing to casually discard the dear freedoms that our forefathers fought and died to preserve.  In fact, the only freedoms that seem to mean much in our culture are the freedoms to (a) have sex without responsibility, (b) kill our own children, and (c) steal from others by force, i.e., collect taxes from others under threat of incarceration, to  buy free stuff for ourselves.

But God wrote a letter to His people in exile.  In Jeremiah 29, God sent a message to the Israelites in Babylon, telling them about his plans for their future:

1. I have a plan for you.
2. The plan is exile.  YIKES!  The exile will last 70 years.  (Bible scholars will be interested to see how this prophecy would be fulfilled to the very day, as detailed in the notes below.)
3. Build houses, plant gardens, and eat of the produce.
4. Marry off your children, and increase in number.  (The next generation of Christians must avoid the mistake of having small families.)
5. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Check out this video:

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Notes on the 70-year Babylonian Captivity
by Chuck Missler (taken from Jeremiah, the Patriotic Prophet)

Among his many prophecies, Jeremiah predicted that the duration of the Babylonian captivity would be precisely 70 years.

(In fact, it was when the captive Daniel was reading Jeremiah’s prophetic writings that he undertook serious prayer, which was then interrupted by the Angel Gabriel who gave him the famed Seventy Week Prophecy. Jesus later highlighted this very passage as the key to end-time prophecy. )

The reason the judgment of the captivity was to be exactly 70 years is highlighted in 2 Chronicles (2 Chronicles 36:20, 21):

And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

Apparently, for 490 years they had failed to keep the sabbath of the land; the Lord was saying, in effect, “You owe me 70!”

The “servitude of the nation” began with the first siege of Nebuchadnezzar in 606 B.C. and ended with the release of the Jewish captives when Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.

This 70-year period is not to be confused with a similar 70-year period, called “the desolations of Jerusalem,” which began with the third siege of Nebuchadnezzar. Each was fulfilled to the very day.

It is instructive to note the remarkable precision of the Scriptures: The city of Jerusalem was invaded on the tenth day of the tenth month, Tebeth, in the ninth year of Zedekiah in 589 B.C. (And for 25 centuries this day has been observed as a fast by Jews in every land.)

Scripture clearly indicates that this era closed on “the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, [Kislev] even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’S temple was laid,” which was in 520 B.C. This is an interval of precisely 25,200 days, or seventy 360-day years.