Introduction

One of the most wicked and widely accepted sins in modern culture is the killing of babies inside of a mother’s womb. Often, it seems that the majority of cultures, especially that of America, have become insensitive to abortion and even fight madly for it, claiming that to stand against it is hateful. With Christians, however, this acceptance should not be so. Instead, abortion is an inherently unchristian practice that the Bible clearly refutes, Christians have historically stood against, and should be exposed as an evil by those in Christ.

God and the Bible on Abortion

The Bible is very clear on the evil of abortion. The sanctity or sacredness of human life, even from the womb, is littered throughout the Bible. Psalm 139 says that God “formed my inward parts” and “knitted me together in my mother’s womb” and that humanity is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13-14 [ESV). David continues to say that “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them,” (Ps. 139:16). While these verses do not explicitly mention abortion, they reveal a massive truth about God; He cares deeply for humanity, even before conception. God looks upon the fetus in the womb with His own eyes, watching over them, creating them intricately. Every day a human is alive his days are written in the sovereign plan of God, even before that human has days to be numbered in time. This passage alone shows God’s immense, detailed care for His human creation.

Isaiah confirms this, saying about humanity, “We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand,” (Isa. 64:8). At the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet, Yahweh tells him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you,” (Jer. 1:5). God had His plan for Jeremiah before he was even born, He knew Jeremiah before Jeremiah was. The creation of humanity is not flippant, random, or unimportant. Rather, it is carefully guarded by God. God has intricately designed humanity in their mother’s wombs, making each of them unique with His own hands, and revealing His particular care for human life. Abortion destroys this creation, making nothing of what God calls great.

God’s creation in the womb, whether it is germinal or fetal, is great to God. The fetus is alive because God calls it life. The fetus is great because God calls it great. For God, humanity has just as much value inside the womb as it does outside the womb. Thus, the destruction of a human inside the womb is one-to-one equal to the killing of a human outside of the womb. Both are loved by God and both are regarded as sacred by God. In the judgment of God, abortion is murder.

God said to Noah, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image,” (Gen. 9:6). Humanity was carefully created by God, for God, and in the image of God. Humanity is exceptionally unique to all of creation because they share in the image of God. Nothing else created shares in that. This is why murder is so serious to God; murder, or any unjust treatment of human life, makes a mockery of His intricate, loving creation. This is also why the sixth commandment is “you shall not murder,” with murder referring to the unjust taking of human life (Ex. 20:13). In light of what has been discussed above, what could abortion possibly be if not the unjust destruction of the unique work of God through murder?

Neither is abortion simply a woman’s choice. “My body, my choice” is a slogan many proponents of the pro-choice agenda will ring out at parades and riots. What is striking is under this mantra many may claim to know that abortion is murder, or at least something close to it, but that killing their fetus is a lesser moral evil than having their rights violated. However, God decides what is right and wrong for a woman to do with her body. The decision has been made and God declares resoundingly that unborn human life is a precious life that ought not be destroyed. For a woman to decide that she will do something with her body that is against the revealed will of God, it means that she is placing herself above Him. God is the Creator yet the pro-choice argument attempts to place the creature above the Creator. It is simply not how reality works.

Child sacrifice is not a new thing, it has been around for millennia. Century after century, pagans have murdered their children to appease their gods. When talking about the sin of Israel, Psalm 106 says, “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,” (Ps. 106:37-38). While Israel fell into idolatry in Canaan, the god that modern America worships is the god of selfishness. Americans throw all their possessions and life to the altar of themselves. All sacrifice that is not offered to God, by the law of God, is offered to demons. Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians, saying, “what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God,” (1 Cor. 10:20). What is abortion but child sacrifice to the god of oneself, in service of demons?

The Early Church Response to Abortion

Abortion is not a modern development. There is much evidence that the Roman Empire, at the time of the early church, aborted their babies by various means inside and outside of the womb. Even in this time, abortions were not lacking but were wide-reaching and not limited to any class of people. As Michael J. Gorman says, “Rich and poor, slave and free, young and old aborted themselves and were given abortions.”¹ The Stoics of the time even claimed that unborn infants were not human, which might sound eerily familiar to what the twenty-first century Christian might hear today.²

Again, there are various ways that the Romans aborted their babies, both inside of the womb and outside. One of these methods included pessaries, or a substance that went into the birth canal to destroy the fetus. Women also took a mixture of oral drugs, sometimes called poisons or potions, that were meant to kill and expel the fetus. Apart from drugs, some would force the fetus to be expelled by striking the womb while others would use surgical tools to dissect the fetus inside the womb, not unlike abortions of today.³ Finally, some women would leave their newborns in the forest to die of starvation or be eaten by wild animals, often called “exposure.”

The point of explaining this is to show that abortion has always existed in the time of the New Testament church, even before its conception. Abortion is not something that was invented within the past few decades but has been around for millennia. It is not a new or unheard-of issue but is one that was present at the time of Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the early church. Because of this, it is not hard to find examples of how brothers and sisters in Christ dealt with abortion. The Christians of the twenty-first century are not alone in navigating the issue of abortion but can stand together with Christians of the past.

Abortion is an evil that Christians have historically stood against, even from the beginning. Christians were known for saving the infants whose mothers had abandoned them in the forest. In addition, many ancient manuscripts prohibit abortion among Christians. Most notable would be the Didache which is said to have been written sometime in the second century. The Didache says, “You shall not abort a child or commit infanticide.”⁴ A renowned second-century theologian, Tertullian, said in his Apology, “It is utterly unlawful to make away a child in the womb” and killing a child before it is born is committing murder.⁵ Tertullian also states that “there is no difference whether you destroy a child in its formation, or after it is formed and delivered,” saying that Christians view the embryo as a man.⁶ In the fifth century, John Chrysostom said that abortion is “murder before the birth”, making the harlot a murderess, and is “something even worse than murder.”⁷ Additionally, there are works like the Letter and the Epistle of Barnabas, Clement of Alexandria, and Basil who condemn abortion.

Of course, Protestant Christianity does not accept these documents as infallible nor the Word of God. However, at the very least they show how the early church fathers applied Scripture to abortion and many may argue that it was unanimous. Abortion has been a work of darkness that professing Christians have fought against for thousands of years and modern Christians must not stop now.

The Exposing Work of the One in Christ

This great work of darkness must be exposed by those who are the children of God. The Christian is instructed in the New Testament to expose darkness. Ephesians 5 explicitly commands those who are children of the light to “discern what is pleasing to the Lord” and to “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” to the light of Christ (Eph. 5:10-11). At one point, the Christian was living in darkness but now God has opened his eyes and he lives in the light, seeing what the rest of the world cannot see.

As a loving people, how could Christians not desire to save people and their children from this evil? How selfish would it be if those in Christ did not tell the world of their evil and leave them to a world of lifelong hurt and death? Many professing Christians may agree and say “Yes, but I will not force my Christian beliefs on someone who is not convicted as I am.” This may seem accepting and maybe even loving, but it is in fact the opposite of love. The unbeliever will always choose what is opposed to God. It is not loving to leave a person in a state of death. The pagan may never care nor understand, but at least their sin has been made explicit. No one can expect anyone to grow or move away from one’s sins if they are continually living in ignorance. Those who have eyes to see must warn those who are living in darkness.

The Christian should also implore his brothers and sisters in Christ to have no part in abortion but only strive against it. 1 Timothy 5 speaks of rebuking those in the church who continue in sin (1 Tim. 5:20) and Proverbs 17 says, “he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord,” (Prov. 17:15). Lastly, James says that “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin,” (James 4:17). The Bible is clear; it is not only a sin to commit evil, but it is also sinful not to do what is right and just. Standing aside and saying nothing when evil is being done is sin. Holiness is a combination of keeping from evil and standing for good. Therefore, standing against evil is a part of sanctification and the Christian must strive to see this fruit in himself and his brothers.

Those in Christ have no excuse because their eyes have been opened and they know abortion is murder. As Proverbs 24 says, “rescue those who are being taken away to death” and “hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter” and if one says, “‘behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” (Prov. 24:11-12). The Christian cannot claim ignorance because the Word of God clearly reveals God’s care for human life as was described above. Because they are being progressively conformed to the image of God, Christians should desire to uphold that which God calls sacred. Simply doing nothing or claiming to be ignorant will not stand for the mature believer. Standing against abortion is inherently Christian because it is reflective of their Father’s will and character.

Thus, by calling abortion the evil it truly is, as opposed to leaving it in the dark, the Christian brings to light a darkness that unbelievers may not fully see. They also protect their brothers from sinning and abstain from sin in themselves. They continue their path of sanctification, becoming more like their Father who takes human life seriously.

Conclusion

Overall, the child of God must strengthen and call forth those in Christ to stand firm against this evil. They must save the helpless baby from unjust destruction, protect that which God calls sacred, bring to light the evil the world would consider to simply be a woman’s choice, and guard themselves and their brothers and sisters from sinning. Christians must call abortion what it really is, standing firm and not fearing the condemnation of this foolish world. By doing this, those in Christ walk in the will of God and may even save lives.

Footnotes

1. Michael J. Gorman, Abortion & The Early Church: Christian, Jewish & Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1998), 27. ↩︎
2. Gorman, Abortion & The Early Church, 27. ↩︎
3. Gorman, Abortion & The Early Church, 15–17. ↩︎
4. Michael W. Holmes and Joseph Barber Lightfoot, eds., The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3. ed., 2. print. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 347. ↩︎
5. Tertullian, The Apology of Tertullian and the Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, trans. Reeve and Jeremy Collier (London: Newberry House, n.d.), 32. ↩︎
6. Tertullian, The Apology of Tertullian, 32. ↩︎
7. John Chrysostom and J. B. Morris, The Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, on the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans (Oxford: Parker, 1841), 413. ↩︎