What the Bible Says
About Abortion
Part 2: The Bible's Perspective on Prenatal Life
By Dave Redick
It is informative to note that when a woman is going to keep her baby, she usually refers the unborn child as "baby" or "my child." When the choice has been made to abort, these terms are avoided. Can you imagine a twenty-something woman being asked in pre-abortion counseling if she really wishes to kill her baby? Words make a difference...
Introduction
Bowen Matthews writes,
"Genevieve was a twenty-something-year-old woman who suffered from Marfan's Syndrome, a hereditary disorder that affects the connective tissues of the body, as had her mother before her. She and her husband consulted a world-class authority on the disease about her becoming pregnant. He strongly cautioned her against it. That very week, if not that very day, they received word from their obstetrician that she was indeed, pregnant. An abortion was indicated.
"No one in our congregation would have blinked if she had gone through with the abortion. Her life was at stake. Genevieve, with the knowledge and consent of her husband, made the unexpected choice of carrying the child to term. About seven months into the pregnancy, Genevieve was hospitalized for tests. Her doctors suggested she be transferred to Philadelphia for more sophisticated tests. She was loaded on a helicopter for the short flight. Just before the helicopter lifted off, Genevieve sat up on the gurney. The arteries of her heart, weakened by the disease, further weakened by the pregnancy, detached from the heart. Death was instant. The doctor, who had just put her on the helicopter, rushed back and delivered a beautiful baby girl, who today is nearing graduation from high school."
In reading this, I do not suggest to you that the decision made by Genevieve should bind the rest of us. As I said in my morning message on the subject of abortion, I believe that such situations where we are forced to choose between the life of the mother and the life of the child are best left to those involved, along with their doctor, in the fear of God. I do, however, want you to note that, in the issue of abortion, there are people who have the courage of their convictions and who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the lives of their unborn children. I want you also to realize that these cases where the life of a mother is pitted against the life of a child (as in the case of Genevieve) are rare compared to the number of cases where abortion is done for convenience, birth control, or concern that somehow the quality of life for a child will be such that killing him/her is in order. And, perhaps most important of all, we must realize that in such cases, a life is still taken when the decision to abort is made.
In the morning message I made the point that the Bible places extreme value on human life - all human life. Based upon the fact that man is made in God's image, this point transcends the shifting sand of value choices made on the basis of what an unborn child has or does not have.
In this second message I want to look at the fact that the Bible assumes personhood of prenatal life. A pre-born child is a person - a human being - not just a collection of cells.
In order to make my point, we'll look at five Scriptural passages.
My proposition to you, then, is this:
1. The Bible Assumes Personhood of Prenatal Life.
In the word pictures of life before birth in the Scripture, the unborn are always described in personal, not impersonal terms. Let me show you some examples.
A. Psalm 139:13-17 contains one of the Scripture’s most complete accounts of prenatal life.
(Turn there)
The theme of this Psalm is that God’s people cannot escape the presence and concern of their Heavenly Father. The point that David is making in verses 13-16 is that God was present with him intimately even in his mother’s womb.
(Read v. 13-16)
Several things are evident here:
(Read v. 15 with pronoun emphasis)
David does not use the impersonal pronouns so common among the "pro-choice" folks. (It is informative to note that when a woman is going to keep her baby, she usually refers the unborn child as "baby" or "my child." When the choice has been made to abort, these terms are avoided. Can you imagine a twenty-something woman being asked in pre-abortion counseling if she really wishes to kill her baby? Words make a difference, so we best stick to Biblical words.)
God doesn’t suddenly drop into a person’s life at birth. He has already been there for nine full months. Even as David describes his "unformed substance" he shows God’s caring eye upon Him, overseeing, weaving, knitting him together.
If for no other reason that it is God’s project going on in the womb, we ought to be evoked to holy caution! If my neighbor were building a house next to mine, working around the clock, giving attention to each and every detail to be sure it was right, and I went over one day and cut it all down with a chain saw, would he not be justified in his anger? Why? It’s his project, not mine! Prenatal development is God’s project.
Let’s look at another passage.
B. In Job 10:8-12 there is another glimpse of prenatal life.
Here Job is protesting God’s apparent lack of concern for him in the midst of his suffering. (No, God wasn’t lacking concern, Job just thought so.) In the course of it all, Job describes some of his own prenatal development.
(Read v. 8-12)
What a picture! In a day before age of technology that allows us to photograph prenatal development, Job describes his own conception and formation. Note once again the pronouns. They are personal, not impersonal. Job is talking about a person, not a thing.
Note also, again, that prenatal development is God’s project, carefully engineered and overseen by Him.
(Read v. 10)
Notice that Job speaks of God’s preserving his spirit.
(Read v. 12)
How long had God been preserving Job’s spirit? The implication here is since conception. When, then, did Job become a living spirit? Would we not have to say "at conception" in order to be consistent with this?
By Biblical definition, there is life in the body when the spirit is present. Job’s spirit was present at conception.
Let’s examine a few other passages.
C. Jeremiah 1:5 speaks of Jeremiah's life before birth.
This passage refers to God’s calling Jeremiah to be a prophet.
(Read v. 4-5)
Here we learn that Jeremiah was known, consecrated, and appointed a prophet, all before he was out of his mother’s uterus. Those are unlikely blessings to be conferred on a mere "expendable tissue." Often it is said that an abortion is no different that a tonsillectomy or an appendectomy. The implication is that the tiny growing baby is no more significant than an expendable organ. But God doesn’t confer prophet status on tonsils, does He? The comparison cannot be defended from the Bible.
D. Luke 1:41-44 also has significance to our discussion.
(Read it)
This is a description of a meeting between Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Both women are pregnant. John’s gestational age is about 6 months older than Jesus’.
I think first that the pre-born John’s leap for joy certainly has significance. If nothing else, it underscores personhood.
The thing I really want you to see, though, is the word "baby." In the original language, it is the Greek word BREPHOS, and it is the same word used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe older infants. In other words, the Bible does not make a distinction in words between pre-born and post-born children. This is an important point.
Those who ply their grisly and lucrative trad in abortion clinics are particularly averse to using the terms "baby" and "child" when referring to the one they are aborting. Clinic assistants are carefully instructed to studioeusly avoid these terms and to substitute such words as "pregnancy tissue" and "P.O.C." (Product of Conception.) During the procedure the question might be asked, "Is the P.O.C. out yet?" According to the Bible, the product of conception is a baby, therefore, that one aborted is a baby – a tiny human being.
By no means the last, but perhaps the strongest verse in the Bible bearing on the subject of abortion is found in the book of Exodus.
E. Exodus 21:22-25 has to do with the premature death of a pre-born child and the guilt incurred by the one who causes it.
(Read it)
Two men get into a fight. In the scuffle a pregnant woman is struck, perhaps in the stomach. Several hours later she goes into premature labor and gives birth.
You all know how much I love the New American Standard Translation. However, this is one of the places where I believe the translators erred for whatever reason. The NASV the woman has a "miscarriage," indicating to our minds that the child is born dead. But the original word in Hebrew does not indicate the condition of the premature child, whether it is dead or alive. A literal translation of this would be "her children come out." (Just so you know I’m not dreaming this up to support my view, you might notice that the translators of the NASV made this point in the marginal reference.) I must credit them for their honesty. The NIV says, "she gives birth prematurely." This is a better translation.
The woman is struck. She gives birth prematurely. What did God’s Old Testament Law say was to be done in such cases?
If there was no further injury (other than the premature birth) the guilty man was fined as the court and the husband saw fit.
But if there was further injury resulting in death, loss of an eye, tooth, hand, foot, etc., in either party, the woman or her child (that is the implication) the offender was to recompense in kind. If mother or baby died, he was to forfeit his life.
Now, if God prescribed that kind of treatment for the somewhat inadvertent death of a pre-born child, what sort of treatment do you suppose He would prescribe for the wholesale slaughter of innocent, pre-born children for profit?
Conclusion
Abortion is willful, premeditated murder of the innocent. God makes no distinctions in the worthiness or unworthiness of any human being as to their right to live. We continue to abort children in this country and others like it around the globe at an alarming rate.
God told Cain that the blood of his slain brother cried out to Him from the ground. It isn’t hard to imagine the plaintive cries of the innocent unborn as their blood as well, calls out from the ground. One can only guess at how long the wrath of God will be stayed before His anger breaks forth on us.
As Christians, we must do two things: We must be certain that abortion is not a part of our practice and we must speak out to warn those around who do it and expose us all to the wrath of God.
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.
All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
