Seven Scriptural Reasons for Opposing Abortion

By Bobby Dockery
 
The word "abortion" is not specifically used in the Bible. However, there are many biblical principles which apply to the subject and which clearly preclude the acceptance of abortion as a moral act.

Consider:

1. Life is a gift from God. "He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things," (Acts 17:25). Human life is constructed in the image of God (~Genesis 1:26~). Because of its origin, human life is sacred.

2. God forbids the willful taking of human life. Romans 13:9 enjoins, "You shall not murder." Mankind has always been forbidden to wantonly kill a fellow human because of the special character of human life. According to ~Genesis 9:6~, the penally for taking an innocent life was death.

3. The Gospel emphasizes human worth and dignity. Christianity was born into a world where human life was cheap. In the Roman Empire, 60 million people lived in degrading slavery; thousands flocked to the gladiatorial games to cheer the senseless butchery in the arena; it was the accepted thing to abandon or drown unwanted or sickly infants. Ninety-nine out of 100 families made it a practice to abandon ill female babies after the first.  Abortion was widespread. In such a world, the teaching of Jesus emphasized a radically different attitude toward life. He stressed the worth of the individual, insisting He had come to "taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:9). Jesus taught that little children were precious (~Matthew 19:14~). Society was literally revolutionized! The influence of Christianity led to the end of slavery, gladiatorial contests, the murder of infants, and abortion!

4. The Bible teaches that human life begins in the womb. No distinction is made in Scripture between unborn and newly born babies. The same Greek word (brephos) is used in the Bible to refer to both (~Luke 1:41~; ~Luke 2:12~; ~1 Peter 2:2~). Thayer says that the Greek word refers equally to "an unborn child, embryo, fetus, newborn child, infant." The unborn possess all the qualities of personality. Each life is unique. God said to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you" (Jeremiah 1:5).

5. God condemns selfishness (~Philippians 2:4~). Except in cases of dire medical necessity, where the actual life of the mother is at stake, abortion is always a selfish act!

6. Those without natural affection are detestable to God. Among the sins of the Gentiles which subjected them to the wrath of God was the charge that they were "without natural affection" (Romans 1:31). The Greek word (astorgos) refers to a lack of love on the part of parents for offspring. Surely the mother who chooses, merely for her own convenience, to destroy the innocent life in her womb is lacking in natural affection.

7. Abortion violates the "Golden Rule". "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you" (Matthew 7:12). Application of this principle would close every abortion clinic in the world. What "pro-choice" advocate would wish to have his or her body dissected, as in a partial-birth abortion ... or savagely ripped apart, as in a suction abortion ... or immersed in corrosive liquid, as in a saline injection abortion? How can those who reject such treatment for themselves justify it for others? (How?-FG)

The basic question reduces to this: How can any people claim to honor God's will while refusing to reverence all life created in His image?

Bobby Dockery is a writer and preacher living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
(Emphasis by FG)

 


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