Written By: Daniel Spratlin, Terry Prisk, Kent Keller, Jared Reed, Len Woods
“Keep your laws off my body!” scream the words on one poster. A woman in an opposing group carries a sign with a picture of an aborted baby. The caption reads “Who imposed their morality on this little one?” The news programs run story after story, pro-life and pro-abortion forces hold endless debates, and courts and legislatures are all but paralyzed over this most heated social issue: Abortion.
Obviously, this is not a simple, one-dimensional issue. Besides the central problem of whether or not it is ever right to take the life of an unborn person, there are the related issues of parental consent for girls under 18 who want to have an abortion; legalizing abortion up to a certain age of the fetus (e.g., three months); “harvesting” fetal tissues to help people with diseases like Parkinson’s disease; and many more.
While these concerns complicate the issue, there is one question that cuts across all of them: Who can say what’s right? If a person (a judge, a doctor, or a legislator) or a human institution (the Supreme Court or the Senate) makes a decision in this matter, there is always the potential for another person or institution to overturn that decision later on. It has happened countless times. What is needed, it would seem, is a judgment or a ruling from someone or something higher than human opinion.
For 2,000 years, Christians have turned to the Bible for just such input. Believing the Bible to be God’s own words on matters such as this, Jesus’ followers have historically looked to the Scriptures for answers to life’s most importantant and most difficult questions. Unfortunately, there is no verse of Scripture that says, “Thus saith the Lord: abortion is wrong [or right].” If there was, it would be an open-and-shut case for believers. There are, however, passages that give principles that apply to this difficult topic.
In Psalm 139, David praises God for overseeing his life, starting before he was born. David thanks God first for the fantastic way the human body is designed and constructed and then for the fact that every day of his life is “laid out” and “recorded in [God’s] book.” If indeed God is the Creator and Designer of human (and all other forms of) life, it is a logical conclusion that no one should treat that life lightly. If we are God’s workmanship, who has the right to tamper with or destroy that workmanship? (Another verse, 2 Chronicles 28:3, shows how evil one king was by saying that he even sacrificed his own children to idols.)
Yet, tragically, that is what has happened in contemporary society. Abortion has become simply a means of birth control, of removing an unwanted complication. For those who take seriously the sanctity of life as an expression of God’s handiwork, this can be seen only as an abomination, a sin of the most serious kind. As such, we as a society desperately need to cry out to God in repentance and ask His forgiveness for what we have allowed to be done to millions of His little ones.
There are a number of related topics (being made in the image of God, sexual morality, etc.) and Scripture passages (e.g., Exodus21:22-25; Leviticus 24:17-22; Jeremiah 1:4-5) that are closely related to the abortion issue. Concerned Christians should think through their stand on the rights of the unborn in relation to these other issues in light of the whole counsel of God, not just one passage. (One principle which should always be kept in mind when considering abortion or any other moral problem is forgiveness.) Psalm 139 is a good place to start.
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