THE BIBLE'S TEACHING ON ABORTION HAS NOT CHANGED

Introduction

Many laws, ordinances, and rules change over time. As circumstances change, laws are updated or dropped altogether. Some laws are no longer enforced. Some stay on the books for many years but are never enforced. The Bible, however, particularly the law of Jesus Christ, known as the "New Testament," has never been updated. It may be argued, accurately, that the Old Testament Law, given at Mt. Sinai by Moses, was replaced by the New Testament, with some of the laws dropped, and some brought over into the New Testament. However, the New Testament has never been updated or replaced.

Our topic of discussion in the article is that of abortion. What does the Bible teach about abortion? What it teaches now is the same as what it taught in the first century! We will see what that teaching is. Though the New Testament is the law for God's people to follow today, we first establish some background information by examining the Old Testament teaching. Actually, the Bible's teaching on abortion is a matter of principle as much as law. That means that some things are laws because God considers those things right or wrong. Notice: What God considers right or wrong does not change. It did not change from the Old Testament to the New. Nor has it changed from the time of the New Testament's writing until this very day! Abortion is one of these things. His will on it has not changed since the beginning of time!

Let us see what God's will and law are on Abortion.

What Does the Old Testament Say?

“Zechariah writes in Zechariah 12:1, “Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him…” Here God reaffirms that He created the heavens and earth as Moses declares in Genesis 1, but He also says He "forms the spirit of man within him." This affirms that God gives us life. That means life is sacred. The significance of this fact to our topic will be seen as we go along.

Ecclesiastes

Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 11:5, “Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.” Notice that Solomon speaks of the spirit and the bones in the womb. According to James, "The body apart from the spirit is dead" (James 2:26). Now, if the body without the spirit is dead, then the body with the spirit is alive. That means that, since the body and spirit are present in the womb, the baby in the womb is alive. It is a living human being!

Job

Job said in Job 10:11-12, Clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? You have granted me life and lovingkindness; and Your care has preserved my spirit.”      

Job speaks of God clothing him with skin and flesh and fencing him with bones and sinews. Notice the last clause, "and your care has preserved my spirit." So Job, as did Solomon, coupled body and soul. When did God make Job's body and preserve his spirit? In the womb!

Psalms

David writes in Psalm 139:13, "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb." The Creator was concerned about David when he was in his mother's womb. He "wove" him there (“covered,” KJV). The Hebrew word means to “to weave together,” but it also means, “to hedge, fence about, shut in,” according to Thayer[1]. The idea is that God covered and protected David while he was in his mother’s womb. The psalmist continues (Ps. 139:14),  ^“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." We are all "fearfully and wonderfully made." One need only consider his own body in minimum detail to see that (Rom. 1:19-20).

David writes in Psalms 139:15-16 :

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. ¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

On the phrase, "lowest parts of the earth," James Burton Coffman writes, "This is an idiom for the darkness of the womb and does not carry any mythological implications[2]." The word, substance (Psalms 139:16), according to Brown-Driver-Briggs, means, "a wrapped (and unformed mass, that is, as the embryo)[3]." Albert Barnes writes, “Before the embryo had any such form that its future size, shape, or proportions could be marked by the eye of man, it was clearly and distinctly known by God[4].” Thus, 1). God knew the psalmist’s embryo before it was fully developed. 2). He did not see a "glob of cells"; he saw David!

What Does the New Testament Say?

Luke 1:39-44

Let’s read Luke 1:39-44. This passage describes Mary's visit to her cousin, Elizabeth. Mary was pregnant with Jesus, and Elizabeth was pregnant with John, later known as "John the Baptist." According to Luke 1:41, when Mary greeted Elizabeth, "the baby leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Spirit." This was a sign to Elizabeth. She explains in Luke 1:43-44:

And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? ⁴⁴ For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. 

Coffman writes, "Thus, Elizabeth interpreted that leaping of the unborn child as proof that the Saviour was already conceived in the virgin's womb[5]."

Luke 2:12, 16

When the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds in the field in Luke 2:11-12, he said, "For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Thayer defines the word translated, child, here: "1. an unborn child; 2. a newborn child, a babe[6]." The word used to describe a newborn child here in verses 12 and 16 is the same Greek word used to describe the unborn child in Luke 1:44! William Edwy Vine concurs with this[7]. The same word, used in reference to an unborn child in Luke 1:44, is used in 1 Peter 2:2 where it is translated as “newborn babes" in the King James Version and most English translations. In fact, Paul used the same word when he said to Timothy, “From childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation…” (2 Timothy 3:15). The word (brephos {bref'-os}) means, “an unborn child” and “embryo, a foetus,” and “a new-born child, an infant, a babe according to Thayer[8].

Clearly, the New Testament writers, writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, considered both the unborn child and the newborn child to be living human beings.

Conclusion

In Proverbs 6:16-18, Solomon lists "hands that shed innocent blood," among the seven things that God "hates." Certainly, there is no more "innocent" blood than that of an unborn child!

God warned Israel in Exodus 23:7 (KJV).  "Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked." God considers killing innocent blood, which would include an unborn child, "wickedness ('wicked, criminal,' Brown-Driver-Briggs[9])!"

The Bible does not use the word abortion. However, it makes it clear that an unborn child is a human being. To abort a child would be killing a human being. God calls that wickedness!

The Bible has not changed. Abortion always has been, and always will be, wickedness.