BIBLICAL GUIDANCE CONCERNING ABORTION
JER. 1:1-5
1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month. 4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 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." (NAS)
Introduction Today you have a insert in the Bulletin
What is your Decision? Would you advise an Abortion?
1. Let’s say there is a man and his wife and they are at the bottom of the poverty level. They have nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except 14 children. And now she is pregnant again. Would abortion be considered acceptable here or should she just keep on breeding?
2. What if a man of one particular race (let’s say white) violently rapes a young girl of another race (black). Should the parents consider abortion? Do they have that right?
3. What if a man who is constantly sick has a wife with a dread disease, tuberculosis. What if they have four children. Let’s say the oldest is blind, the second is dead, the third child is deaf, and the fourth child has tuberculosis like the mother. Should she not have a fifth child. What if she is pregnant during her dread illness?
4. And lastly, so common in these days is the following example. We see it too often. A teenage girl gets pregnant. Her finance’ is not the father and he is very upset. What should they do? What do we as Christians tell them to do? What should society do?
Is there EVER a reason for abortion? Could we as Christians EVER justify the termination of a baby’s life?
The Key to these cases is in the final point.
Does it bother you that there are One Million abortions a year?
Do you realize that number is equal to all the people who live from here to Joplin? It helps to get anew perspective on the number of aborted babies.
We need a new perspective Biblically also.
Entire Denominations have aborted scripture from it’s proper place in maters of faith and practice.
Note this Presbyterian Statement.
The silence of the church about abortion is strange because it is a recent phenomenon. Beginning with the Didache in the second century A.D., the church through the centuries has unanimously and unambiguously opposed the killing of unborn children. Luther, Calvin, Bonhoeffer, Barth, and Thielicke all spoke against it.
(2) Indeed, a statement issued in 1856 by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States summed up the consensus of all the churches:
"[We regard] the destruction by parents of their own offspring, before birth, with abhorrence, as a crime against God and against nature; and as the frequency of such murders can no longer be concealed, we hereby warn those that are guilty of this crime that, except they repent, they cannot inherit eternal life."
From Presbyterians for Life: by Elizabeth Achetemeier, Ph.D., is adjunct professor of Bible and Homiletics at Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.
1. Biblical Guidance about God’s . . Composition of a Child. v 5 a
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." (NAS)
3335 yatsar (yaw-tsar’);
probably identical with 3334 (through the squeezing into shape); ([compare 3331]); to mould into a form; especially as a potter; figuratively, to determine (i.e. form a resolution):
A. God’s Composition Implies . . Origination. v 5 a
Gen. 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
1. The Theory of Evolution.
a. Attempts to tear away God as Creator.
2. The Society Today.
a. Attempts to remove God from our thinking.
Rom 9:21 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? (NAS)
Illustration
Soren Kirkegaard was a Danish theologian back in the last century. He once told a story of a bunch of thieves who broke into a jewelry store. They didn’t steal anything, they merely rearranged all of the price tags.
Have you noticed: A fetus has a different price tag than a baby. When does a baby become a baby? When does a woman say she is pregnant? Conception determines pregnancy. Conception creates a baby.
B. God’s Composition Implies . . Ownership. v 5 a
Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
". . . therefore he was his rightful owner and might employ him and make use of him as he pleased, . . . "(from Matthew Henry’s Commentary) PP3 Jeremiah 1:4-10 PP3
1. Great Pleasure in saying I belong to God and He don’t make Junk.
2. There is Self Esteem and Self Worth in Saying God made me and He don’t Make Junk.
Illustration
Suppose the womb had a window. How, how many Abortion Clinics could say "It is just a fetus or a POC product Of Conception (as an abortion clinic might say.)?
Application
The Bible Guides us to know this unborn Child is a Child and a Composition of God.
2. Biblical Guidance about God’s . . CARE for A Child. v 5 b
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." (NAS)
3045 yada` (yaw-dah’); a primitive root; to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment, etc.) [as follow]:
A. God’s Care is . . PRE-CONCEPTION CARE. v 5 b
1. An all knowing God was not surprised you were born. Rom 9:21
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? (NAS)
2. Most are rather common, but we are useful to God.
B. God’s Care is . . PRE-NATAL CARE. v 5 b
1. God Cares throughput the Pregnancy.
2. Partial Birth Abortion is against God’s Design.
Illustration
Some African-American churches, however, have come up with a solution. When a young woman gets into trouble in their neighborhood and conceives a child, the church "adopts" the woman as its daughter, sees her through her pregnancy, provides for her needs, aids her in supporting herself and her child, and integrates her and her family into its fellowship. All churches need to do the same.
Application We can do something like that.
The Bible Guides us to know this unborn Child is a Child and Care for by God.
3. Biblical Guidance about God’s . . CALL of a Child. v 5 c
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." (NAS)
A. God’s Call is a . . Consecrated Call. v 5 c
Consecrate 6942 qadash (kaw-dash’);
a primitive root; to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):
B. God’s Call is a . . Confirming Call. v 5 c
Appointed 5414 nathan (naw-than’);
a primitive root; to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.):
Illustration Look at your bulletin Insert.
The First Case, a baby named John Wesley, was born.
The Second Case, a baby named Beethoven, was born.
The Third Case, a baby named Ethel Waters, was born.
The Forth Case, a baby named Jesus , was born.
Application
The Bible tells us the unborn baby has the Call of God.
CONCLUSION
On the Evening News with Peter Jennings the other night they had a special segment on Abortion and the Catholic Church.
It is a new ministry for those who have had abortions and feel forgiveness is beyond their reach. They are assured of God’s ability to forgive. That is a great ministry.
Dr. Ronald W. Scates, (a Presbyterian Minister) tells this story.
Becky Pippert is a friend of Anne’s and mine. She used to be the evangelism specialist for InterVarsity. One time she told me a story that helped me really understand God’s grace in the light of the Sixth Commandment. She led a girl to Christ. After this girl became a Christian, she began to agonize, feel tremendous guilt about the fact that she had an abortion a number of years previous.
She went to Becky and laid that out to her and said, "I really don’t think God could love me. I realize that I have done wrong. I have broken God’s command. I don’t believe He could possibly forgive me for taking the life of my child."
Becky said the Lord gave her a word for that girl that ultimately enabled God’s grace to break into that girl’s heart. She said, "Sally," (not her real name), "you may think of yourself as a murderer, and you think of yourself rightly. But you were a murderer long before you ever had that abortion, and so am I. You see, both of us nailed Jesus Christ to the cross and killed him. Do you think, Sally, that God has forgiven you for that?"
And Sally said, "Well, yes, I believe God has forgiven me for that, but I just can’t believe he’s forgiven me for the abortion." Becky then said, "Sally, God has forgiven you and me for killing His own very son. How much more can we find His forgiveness in something like an abortion?"
So all of us stand condemned here. In one way or another, we’re all in the same boat. But God offers you and He offers me, in whatever way we have broken that command, He offers us his complete forgiveness.
Dr. Ronald W. Scates is senior pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland. From Presbyterians for life on the Internet.
If we get this Nation back to a Biblical Morality, it will Include a knowledge about the unborn.
It will also Include a knowledge about forgiveness.
