There is this claim from the left that abortion isn't mentioned in the bible. While the term abortion may not specifically be mentioned in the Bible, the answer for it is there. Like so many other issues in our life that we seek answers to in the Bible, we must find the most historically relevant verses and apply them to the problem we want solved.
First, the term abortion wasn't even in use until around the 1530s and at the time it was a representation for "still born," as the Latin term abortionem. It wasn't until the 1600's that it was adopted to mean forced miscarriage; abortion, procuring of an untimely birth. So the word didn't exist at the time that the Bible was written and therefor wouldn’t have been used to describe the act.
Now, what does the Bible say about abortion? Let’s take a look at Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17, and Romans 13:9: “You shall not murder." “You shall not murder." "...“You shall not murder...” That's at least 3 times in 3 separate books of the Bible where it says do not murder. That might be an important sin to pay attention to.
Of course, people make the argument that abortion isn't murder because it isn't a life. Then what is a life? It doesn't have a life if there is no heartbeat? It doesn't have a life if it doesn't physically take in oxygen with its own lungs? Some believe the latter and miss quote Genesis 2:7 as the idea that God only gives us our soul when we breath air for the first time, "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." That of course only works if we believe that “breath of life” means the intake of oxygen into our lungs. Even if this was so, the fetus takes in oxygen from the mother through the ambilocal cord.
What it really means is the essence of life taken within us. The creation of a soul and the fundamental being that once was dust and now is alive. For the science geeks out there, think of the nervous system firing. The flesh coming awake. The creation of life as a spark of energy growing into a living organism. Just by week 5 of the pregnancy, the embryo is formed giving rise to a baby's outermost layer of skin, central and peripheral nervous systems, eyes, and inner ears.
This is further evident in Psalm 139:13-15 when David is speaking to God, "You did form my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother's womb... you knew me right well; my frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret." Or in Jeremiah1:4-5 when Jeremiah said, "Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you." Your existence in God’s eyes predates conception. More directly, an angel of the Lord told John the Baptists parents in Luke 1:15 that, "He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth." The breath of life is not a physical breath of oxygen.
A more direct example of the Bible on abortion is Exodus 21:22-25, "If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." It might even be argued that God holds a child’s life in greater value that a grown adult.
When speaking of the path to get into Heaven, Jesus says in Matthew 18:3, “And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why is that? Well Jesus talks about the purity of children. They are not yet at that stage of recognition between good and bad, but seek to do good in order to please their parents. Being sinless aside, they are openly curious and like that of the Wiseman willing to soak up the truths of life. If Jesus wants us to be like that of children, then what could be more important in this life than the child itself?
Some will argue that the bible actually condones abortions with Numbers 5:11-22 where God commands Moses to tell the Israelites that if a woman is unfaithful to her husband and sleeps with another man in secret, but denies it and the husband is still suspicious with jealousy, then the woman is to be brought to a priest and stand before the Lord for a ritual of bitter water that will curse a liar, “'If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband' here the priest is to put the woman under this curse, 'may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.' Then the woman is to say, 'Amen. So be it.'”
At first glance out of context it would appear to be some condoning of abortion. However, looking over that passage, it appears to be more of a punishment or calling of the woman to admit her sins. Even if this passage describes a miscarriage, it would most certainly be a curse for the woman, like God striking down David's first offspring with Bathsheba. It would not describe a voluntary abortion, but the killing of that woman's child; a great tragedy and very different from contemporary abortion.
Sources:
- Bible
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