What Does God Say About the Killing of the Unborn?
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No believer would deny that the pre-meditated killing of a
person is an abomination to the Lord (I am making the
distinction between murder and capital punishment - that is an
entirely different subject). A murderer is guilty "into the
fiery hell". And God has called His people to "Deliver those
who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering
to slaughter, O hold them back." As Christians, we are called to
help our neighbor who has been beaten and robbed; how much more
are we to rescue those who are unjustly being killed?
So, the question that arises when dealing with abortion (for a
believer) is: Is the child in the womb really a person, or
merely human tissue that will, at some point, become a living
soul? If it is only a "fetus" (or "embryo" or "conceptus",
etc.), then destroying it is certainly not "murder". But then,
if it is a child, created in the image of God for the purpose of
knowing Him, then destroying the child is certainly "murder", of
the worst kind - an act one would expect from a demon or a
thoroughly perverted, evil man. What does the Bible say about
the unborn?
Let me start out at the time of the Lord's birth. Mary went to
visit Elizabeth. Now, the angel Gabriel had told Mary that
Elizabeth had conceived a son and she was in her sixth month.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, "the baby leaped in her
womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." And, being
filled with the Holy Spirit (and not merely hysterical),
Elizabeth said: "the baby leaped in my womb for joy." Human
tissues don't experience joy, only human souls do. The boy in
Elizabeth's womb was a child who knew when the Lord was near,
and felt joy because of it. Also, where we have the word "baby"
referring to the unborn child in Luke 1:41-44, the original
Greek word is "brephos". The same word is used in Luke 2:12-16
to tell of "the baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."
There is no distinction in the Spirit-inspired Scriptures
between unborn and born child.
Some point out that the Old Testament punishment for causing a
woman to miscarriage is not nearly as severe as the punishment
for murder. Therefore, they deduce, abortion is not murder.
But a closer look at the Scripture (Exodus 21:22) "And if men
struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that
she has a miscarriage, ...". The miscarriage here is by
accident, the penalty is a fine as the woman's husband demands.
That is why the penalty is not death (as it is for murder): the
miscarriage was accidental. Note in Deuteronomy that the
penalty for accidentally killing a full-grown man (Dt 19:5-6) is
nothing! Not even as much as accidentally causing a
miscarriage. Since the penalty for accidental "abortion" is
more severe than accidentally killing a man, can we follow that
the premeditated killing of an unborn child is worse than
premeditated murder (of an adult)?
Back to Elizabeth. Her child was six months in her womb when he
felt joy. Maybe some think that abortion is acceptable prior to
six months. Let me present God's Word here, that may deal with
that point-of-view.
Genesis 25:22-23
But the children struggled together within her; and she
said, "If it is so, then why am I this way?" So she went
to inquire of the Lord.
And the Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb;
and two peoples shall be separated from your body; ...."
Psalm 139:13-16
For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in
my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul
knows it well.
My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in
secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the
earth.
Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book
they were all written, the days that were ordained for
me, when as yet there was not one of them.
Isaiah 49:1
Listen to Me, O islands, and pay attention you people from
afar. The Lord called Me from the womb; from the body
of My mother He named Me.
Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you
were born I consecrated you, I have appointed you a
prophet to the nations.
Hosea 12:3
In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his
maturity he contended with God.
Galatians 1:15
But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother's
womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased ...
Ephesians 1:4
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ ...
These Scriptures show us that God knows us even before He places
us in the womb, the child in the womb is called by the Lord, set
apart by the Lord, twins struggle with each other. God
consecrates people before they are born. Our days are ordained
by God before one of them has begun. And it is the Lord Himself
that weaves our bodies together in the womb. It is clear from
the Scriptures that the Lord sees each unborn child as a living
soul, not a "potential person", not a mass of tissue that may
perhaps be endowed with a soul at some time. The killing of an
unborn child is murder.
According to Paul, the bond-servant of Christ, our physical
bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). Every
unborn child has the "tattoo" that reads:
TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UNDER CONSTRUCTION
DO NOT DISTURB
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IF ANY MAN DESTROYS THE TEMPLE OF GOD
GOD WILL DESTROY HIM
Conclusion
I never thought writing something like this would be
necessary, to address other Christians. Then I came upon a man
who professed to love the Lord, but who declared that the Bible
did not address abortion and that abortion was not murder (the
"abortion is murder" phrase he attributed to some hysterical
"anti-abortion lobby"). Well, the Spirit by which I was
born-again testified in me that abortion was indeed murder of
the most heinous sort - a witness that was agreed with by the
hundreds of other Christians I know. But I thought it would be
good to study the Scriptures on the subject anyway. With only
several hours of studying, this is what I found.
Please pray and seek the Lord, to find out what you can do to
stop this plague on our nation. I would like to submit to you
that signing a petition is not enough. I know He has not called
all of us to be on the front-lines of this battle, but all of us
can help those who are. And when you see your neighbor being
led to the slaughter, you won't merely passby.
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