Liberty University students worship outside Supreme Court during oral arguments for Dobbs — the case that may overturn Roe v. Wade

Today, Dec. 1, 2021, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for perhaps the most important case of our time: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health — the case that may overturn Roe v. Wade.

Amid the shouting, the insults, and the vitriolic messages of pro-abortion advocates, God was still glorified.

Liberty University sent 21 buses full of students to attend the historic hearing. Each student was given an LU-branded windbreaker, creating a sea of approximately 1,000 uniform jackets. As the oral arguments began to wind down, several students gathered to sing worship songs, repent of abortion’s existence in America, and pray that God works in the hearts of the Supreme Court justices.

One student prayed for repentance and conviction:

“You are the Creator of the universe, and we come here and acknowledge that, and we come before you, Lord. We lift this concern up to you that’s on our hearts — this evil that’s prevailing in our nation, Father God, and we repent from it and say that we’re sorry, Lord, for how we’ve abandoned you and abandoned your Word … I just pray over our nation, Father God, that you would open our eyes to the evil that is around us, and give our hearts a repentant spirit.”

Another student prayed for God’s work in the hearts of troubled expectant mothers:

“Lord Jesus, I pray that you would be with all the mothers who are struggling with the decision of abortion. I pray that you would remind them of their forgiveness and that they are never too far gone, it is never too late. I pray that you would soften their hearts, that you would put a new spirit in, and take out their old heart and replace it with a new responsive heart.”

President Jerry Prevo observed the students from a distance and joined in to close in prayer before the students were bussed back to Lynchburg:

“Our Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this country, Lord, where we have the freedom to come and do what we are doing here today. Lord, we’re standing up for those who are unborn, Lord, who deserve the right to have life. Thank you for our Liberty students who came today. We just pray for our Supreme Court justices, Lord, that they will honor you, honor your Word, and protect life by making the decision that needs to be made…”

As far as the oral arguments go, we won’t likely have an answer until June 2022. Still, Mike Farris, president of Alliance Defending Freedom and a very credible source on Court operations, posted his optimism:

“The oral argument in the Dobbs case is winding up. I am ecstatic! It couldn’t have gone better. There is no guarantee of the outcome (I don’t have the gift of prophecy) but it sounded very, very encouraging. The Court will make an initial decision this week and assign the case to a justice to draft the majority decision. But this initial vote can be revisited at any point. We need to stay in prayer until the decision is released. (We need to always pray but the specific requests will change.)”

During the worship medley, the lyric “with all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings” presented a unique climate of worship considering that the case being discussed was intended to protect God’s creation.

The evil of abortion has plagued America for nearly 50 years. This should trouble the Church and should convict us to be more active in political influence. While politics is secondary to ministry, it would be naive to think them incompatible. Politics is indeed one of the most tangible means by which the Church can minister to the world. Justice, peace, and the preservation of God’s gift of life with a people He desires to have communion with … each of these virtues are reasons to be involved in the political process. Each of these virtues are biblical. Each of these virtues are what we would desire for ourselves.

But the worst atrocity of America is the abandonment of our witness for Christ by allowing this infanticide to be lawful for as long as it has. A nation apathetic to the intentional termination of thousands of their citizens a day is a nation that only exists because of God’s grace. God’s justice alone would have smote the Church long ago for our implicit permission of abortion.

God’s grace is on full display by the fact that we, the Church, can still fight to end abortion. There is a decent chance that Roe will be overturned with this case, and in the event of a Roe overturn, the Church will need to continue their work aggressively in two ways: by continuing to help troubled expectant mothers, and by taking the next steps to outlaw abortion completely. In the event of a Roe overturn, the states will regain regulatory power, which means the states will determine whether they will allow abortion. Several states have already proven that they don’t want abortion, and if Roe is overturned, these states will get their way.

Continue praying for the justices over the next several months. While their decision is often set soon after the arguments are heard, there are several months before they have to make a decision. There is time to pray.

Church, let’s use these next few months with more intentionality than we’ve used the last 50 years.