The Evangelical Position on Abortion

Abortion

The Evangelical Position on Abortion

Both the testimony of the Bible, and the history of evangelical thought, unite to condemn abortion. When approaching the Bible, many pro-abortionists will simply try to twist the Word of God - giving the impression that God doesn't have a definite opinion on abortion because the Bible doesn’t specifically mention the word ‘abortion’, despite the fact that it obviously happened in biblical times.

Pro-abortionist R. Jones says, “There is no apparent precursor of abortion in the Bible and subsequently no discussion about the significance of the foetus or embryo.”

This is not true however. Whilst Scripture doesn’t specifically mention the word ‘abortion’, there are 7 biblical principles that, when applied consistently, condemn abortion as evil.

[1] By identifying living persons with their foetus (i.e. the unborn child) in Psalm 51:5, Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:4-5, Luke 1:31-35 and Luke 1:41-44; the Bible teaches that the unborn child is a human being with inalienable rights to full personhood.

[2] By using the Hebrew words for ‘infant’ and ‘adult’, God identifies the foetus as a ‘child’ in Exodus 21:22, 1 st Kings 3:17 and Ecclesiastes 11:5. God looks upon the unborn as His children, whom He loves - unlike the butchers of the abortion industry, who victimise vulnerable women and look upon these beautiful children as mere ‘blobs of tissue’ who serve only one purpose – to be killed for profit.

[3] Scripture places a strong emphasis upon concepts like: continuity of the race, children being a blessing from God, and, the taking of personal responsibility in sexual affairs. All of this runs contrary to the contemporary ‘quick-fix, abortion-on-demand’ sub-culture.

[4] We find a high regard for life amongst the Jews of the Old Testament and Jesus’ day. In Psalm 139:13-16, Ecclesiastes 11:51, Jeremiah 1:5 and John 10:11 - the sanctity of life is taught, thus providing a safeguard against those who would seek to cheapen it. Indeed, throughout the whole of Jewish literature (such as the Talmud) right up until 500 AD, there is only one record of an abortion being performed, and that was in order to save the mother’s life. The Jews of Jesus’ time always understood abortion to be wrong, for example, Josephus, a famous Pharisee historian and thinker of that time, said; “The law forbids women either to cause, or to make away with the foetus; a woman convicted of this is regarded as infanticide”.

[5] In Exodus 21:22-23 and Job 10:8ff - the Bible teaches ‘the quality of life’. It does this in a way that ensures human life can never be measured in a manner that labels the deficient, deprived or unwanted as disposable.

[6] In Leviticus 19:14, Deuteronomy 27:18, Psalm 82:3-4 and Matthew 25:40 - the Bible teaches special care for the weak, thus protecting their rights and security.

[7] In Exodus 20:13, commonly known as 'the 6th commandment' - the Bible prohibits murder.

Furthermore, the entire weight of early church history is against abortion. The early church solidly opposed it. The writings of Athenagoras and Augustine clearly demonstrate this. Indeed, the Didache – one of the earliest pieces of early church literature – says, “You shall not slay the child by abortion. You shall not kill that which is generated”. The mighty theologians of the Protestant Reformation stood shoulder to shoulder against abortion. John Calvin of Geneva said, “Abortion is worse than killing a man in his own home”.

Even pagan systems of law and order recognised abortion as evil. The most famous example of this is the ‘Hippocratic Oath’, which dates from centuries before Christ. An old Assyrian law, dating from 1450-1250 BC, roundly condemned abortion and even made it a capital offence.

As a result of the indisputable condemnation of abortion from an evangelical position - many pro-abortionists will simply reject what the Bible says, claiming that its text is too old to be relevant. For example, Pridonoff says: “there are a lot of things in the Bible (that) we’ve grown beyond as a society”.

Meanwhile, other pro-abortionists fall back upon the subjectivism and relativism of Mickie, Schopenger and Nietzsche. They claim that no one (especially God!) has the right to establish absolute views - instead, every view (especially theirs !) should be accorded equal status, respect and ‘rightness’. This approach is typified by the words of Professor A. Bloom, who said;

“The danger is not error, but intolerance. Relativism is ‘necessary openness’, and is the only virtue to which all primary education for more than fifty years has dedicated itself to inculcating. Openness and relativism (are the) only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and the various ways of life…(thus providing)…the great insight of our times. The ‘true believer’ is the real danger. The study of history and culture teaches us that all the world was mad in the past, people always thought that ‘they were right’ and that led to wars, persecution, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and be right, rather it is not to think that you are right at all.”

There are two major problems with these pro-abortionist arguments.

[1] Firstly, just because a document (in this case the Bible) is very old - that doesn’t automatically mean that it is irrelevant. This idea that society always progresses with time is false. History proves that - for example, the fall of the Roman Empire set civilisation back centuries. C.S. Lewis rightly denounced this kind of irrational reasoning as ‘chronological snobbery’. Unlike any other book in the world, the Bible has a divine origin (1 st Timothy 3:16). Therefore, just like its Author, its message is timeless and will always be relevant.

[2] Secondly, just because many different views exist around a certain issue - it doesn’t then just automatically follow that no objective positions on it can exist. For instance, different views flourish regarding issues in the fields of science and history, does that therefore mean that anyone would be silly enough to take the easy way out and say that it all doesn't matter because science and history are relative subjects? Of course not. Instead - the difficult and exacting search for ‘what is right’ is, rightly, continued.

Pro-abortionists (such as those mentioned) who advocate a meaningless retreat from the quest for truth are ‘copping out’ of a very real and necessary task. That task is to enable mankind in the third millennium to overcome its moral crisis and once again, discover the difference between right and wrong. The alternative is nothing less than a return to the law of the jungle. The pro-life movement heads the forces of 'right' in this great battle of the ages - it is therefore clearly important that evangelical Christians play their part in it.

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