Troubling Bible passages on abortion

Daniel9v9

Christian Forums Staff
Chaplain
Supporter
Jun 5, 2016
1,928
1,714
38
London
Visit site
✟393,838.00
Country
United Kingdom
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
Would you say that the passages in the OP fall under moral law and how do you see them pointing to Christ?


Scripture doesn’t divide laws into neat categories by names, but they do undoubtedly fall into different categories, as any studious reader can readily find. You can think of it in very simple terms as:
1. Things required of the Levitical priesthood and the Israeli community such as sacrifices, the remembrance of particular rites and holidays etc. These ceremonial works all foreshadowed Christ.

2. Things required of the Israeli community. These ensured that Israel was holy, or set apart for the Lord, for the ultimate purpose of bringing forth salvation to the whole world. God declared and made a promise to Abraham that through his offspring (Christ) all nations will be blessed. (Salvation through Christ, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, with the right to become children of God!)

3. Eternal moral laws, namely, that through all things we are to love, trust and fear God with all our hearts, and likewise to love our neighbours as ourselves.

The above distinctions are useful, but many laws are closely related and many overlap. Take murder, for example. Murder falls under all categories in different senses:
1. Only the prescribed sacrifices instituted by God was allowed. Every other sacrifice, or a sacrifice done in a wrong way or with a wrong motive was evil. Moreso the sacrifice of human life, which is strictly forbidden.

2. Murder was punishable by death in the ancient Israeli community on account of the offence of killing the members who carries God’s Law and would bring about the Saviour, Christ.

3. Morally, murder is strictly forbidden as it both shows contempt for God’s creation and moreover the image of God, of which man is created in. Besides this, it is (obviously) contempt and harm of our neighbour.

In this way, we can see that the breaking of a seemingly single law actually contains several different levels of evil. And these are just the negative aspects, not to mention the positive: Not only are we not to murder, harm nor hate our neighbour, but positively to love, care for, serve and help in all good things. To fail on these accounts is also sin.

Abortion is closely related to the above. Though the punishment of people as demanded by God has ceased (stoning etc) - again, this punishment was due to the promise of the coming Christ - the moral law still remains, for to terminate life that God knits together in His own image, is rebellion towards God and contempt and harm of our fellow man. On this point, age is of no relevance.

As Christians, it’s our duty to care for the weak and oppressed. In the abortion debate, many would consider this to be the mother. It’s become popular opinion. However, there is another, far weaker party, with everything to lose, and that is the child. This, in addition to the things mentioned above, namely that we are to love God and all of His creation, including people, is the reason why we can confidently speak up for the life of the child.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcarans
Upvote 0

Kenny'sID

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Feb 28, 2016
18,185
7,001
69
USA
✟585,304.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
Those passages, taken at face value, seem to show that God does not care about fetuses if they are produced by parents that don't worship Him. In fact He seems to be actively hostile towards their survival. The equivalent of the pregnant Samarian women under Christianity would be non-Christian women.

The flood did not discriminate anymore than God picked out babies, born or unborn from Sodom and Gomorrah before he destroyed it.

When he wants to get rid of a people, he does it, and I see absolutely no bias against the fetus in particular, in any of those cases.
 
Upvote 0
Oct 21, 2003
6,793
3,289
Central Time Zone
✟107,193.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
There are various troubling Bible passages which are related to abortion.

God will punish women by aborting their fetus through a miscarriage.


“Give them, O LORD–what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.” (Hosea 9:14)

God teaches the use of a bizarre ritual using cursed “bitter water” to abort a fetus who was conceived through infidelity. (Numbers 5:11-21)

God orders Moses to kill every Midianite woman who was no longer a virgin. (many of these women would obviously have been pregnant) (Numbers 31:15-18)

God promises to destroy the infants of Samaria and rip open the stomachs of pregnant women.

The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open. (Hosea 13:16)

God allows the pregnant women of Tappuah to be ripped open.

At that time Menahem, starting out from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in the city and its vicinity, because they refused to open their gates. He sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women. (2 Kings 15:16)

God commands the killing of infants and nursing babies.

Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. (1 Samuel 15:3)

God repays your enemies by destroying their babies.

Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us. He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. (Psalms 137:8-9)

The above is from a nonreligious website, but the passages quoted are all from the Bible.

Those passages, taken at face value, seem to show that God does not care about fetuses if they are produced by parents that don't worship Him. In fact He seems to be actively hostile towards their survival. The equivalent of the pregnant Samarian women under Christianity would be non-Christian women.

I'm interested in thoughts about the above passages specifically in relation to abortion not a general debate on abortion.

Something that should be noted is the role of God in these. IOW, abortion clinic doctors are not receiving commands from God to abort babies. I think that is relevant to the above passages. A couple of other things worth noting, these people were declared enemies of God by God. Revelation from God came differently in Old Testament times. God spoke verbally to select people. Finally these verses clearly point to the anger of God, the wrath of God, and He used His people to inflict it upon His enemies. None of the verses above support modern abortion, to use them in that manner is to rip them out of context and read modern abortion into the text, but I hope brothers and sisters in Christ can see through the postmodern eisegesis isolating texts from the context, ignoring the Creator - creation distinction, and making misapplications in the process. Seriously, using the same logic it appears Christians need to take up the sword again and do it crusade style again against the enemies of Christianity...not. That is how poor the reasoning is behind the underneath assumptions.
 
Upvote 0

mcarans

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Oct 10, 2018
539
226
47
Wellington
✟136,444.00
Country
New Zealand
Faith
Non-Denom
Marital Status
Married
I think this is about lawful and unlawful killing. Unlawful killing is murder, but for example death penalty is not a murder. God has right to decide how long person can live, because He has given the life. People don’t have same right, because people are no the source of life. This is why I think we should not murder anyone.
So if Kim Jong Un executes an American, that's not murder because it's legal in North Korea?
 
Upvote 0

mcarans

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Oct 10, 2018
539
226
47
Wellington
✟136,444.00
Country
New Zealand
Faith
Non-Denom
Marital Status
Married
Seriously, using the same logic it appears Christians need to take up the sword again and do it crusade style again against the enemies of Christianity...not. That is how poor the reasoning is behind the underneath assumptions.
How would you respond to a Christian who intends to do exactly as you describe on the grounds that he or she is following the example God has given him or her in those passages?
 
Upvote 0

1213

Disciple of Jesus
Jul 14, 2011
3,661
1,117
Visit site
✟146,199.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
So if Kim Jong Un executes an American, that's not murder because it's legal in North Korea?

If it is legal in North Korea, then it is not murder in North Korean system. However, it still can be wrong in God’s eyes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcarans
Upvote 0
Oct 21, 2003
6,793
3,289
Central Time Zone
✟107,193.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
How would you respond to a Christian who intends to do exactly as you describe on the grounds that he or she is following the example God has given him or her in those passages?

I would point them to the teachings of Christ, to turn the other cheek, to put away the sword, that those who live by the sword die by the sword. I would point them to the teachings of Paul, that we are not under law but grace. I might point out the situation today, and ask if the crusades accomplished the intended goal, which they did not, and the futility of such a mission. Finally I might encourage them to take the Gospel to world, if they are bent on trying to change the world for Christ.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcarans
Upvote 0

sparow

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Oct 7, 2014
2,540
426
85
✟481,862.00
Country
Australia
Faith
Protestant
Marital Status
Single
There are various troubling Bible passages which are related to abortion.

God will punish women by aborting their fetus through a miscarriage.


“Give them, O LORD–what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.” (Hosea 9:14)

God teaches the use of a bizarre ritual using cursed “bitter water” to abort a fetus who was conceived through infidelity. (Numbers 5:11-21)

God orders Moses to kill every Midianite woman who was no longer a virgin. (many of these women would obviously have been pregnant) (Numbers 31:15-18)

God promises to destroy the infants of Samaria and rip open the stomachs of pregnant women.

The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open. (Hosea 13:16)

God allows the pregnant women of Tappuah to be ripped open.

At that time Menahem, starting out from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in the city and its vicinity, because they refused to open their gates. He sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women. (2 Kings 15:16)

God commands the killing of infants and nursing babies.

Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. (1 Samuel 15:3)

God repays your enemies by destroying their babies.

Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us. He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. (Psalms 137:8-9)

The above is from a nonreligious website, but the passages quoted are all from the Bible.

Those passages, taken at face value, seem to show that God does not care about fetuses if they are produced by parents that don't worship Him. In fact He seems to be actively hostile towards their survival. The equivalent of the pregnant Samarian women under Christianity would be non-Christian women.

I'm interested in thoughts about the above passages specifically in relation to abortion not a general debate on abortion.


When God aborts it is a punishment and judgement; When man aborts the sin is fornication not murder.
 
Upvote 0

CGB3928

Member
Feb 6, 2019
19
21
53
SouthEast USA
✟10,181.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Married
So the children and fetuses were just collateral damage that God could not prevent?
More like 'allowed'
God can prevent anything. As a human those references in the bible to the death of infants and babies are atrocious to you. But you have no idea what those unborn infants would have grown up to be that may have interfered with God's sovereign plan. God allowed War to kill the pregnant mother thus killing the fetus. Its hard to argue with Omniscient. That's why Abortion is playing God and it's wrong. Man isn't Omniscient.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums