The Bible on Abortion
Gen 9:1-6 & Luke 1:39-45
23rd Jan 2022

Introduction

Well as is often my practice … we’re doing some topical sermons over the school holidays. And I’ve chosen some of the most controversial topics to look at across 2022. We’re going to look at the topic of war for Anzac Day this year … then a little later in the year we’re looking at the topic of slavery. Last week we covered the hot potato of predestination … and this week we’re looking at arguably the hottest potato in our society today; abortion. From my read of things … I think abortion still trumps debates over sexuality for their ability to raise tensions on both sides of the debate.

Now as an evangelical Christian minister … it will come as no surprise that I have strong views on this topic. So let me put my cards on the table up front. I am against abortion in all it’s forms … unless the mother’s life is at risk. Alongside that … I’m FOR looking after expectant mothers … regardless of what decision they make. And my goal for today is to outline why I think this is what the Bible teaches. BUT … my prayer in this is that this sermon NOT be a sort of one-eyed approach to this topic … condemning all other viewpoints. What I’d like to do today … is to present BOTH sides of the argument … as best as I can … in a way that will hopefully help us HEAR one another … rather than just condemn one another.

And the reason I want to do this is 2-fold. Firstly … framing ANY debate around simply vilifying your opponents results in nothing more than further polarising an already deeply polarised society. So me standing up here today and condemn the pro-choice debate will achieve nothing more than an added layer of self-righteousness in pro-lifers. The SECOND reason I want to outline both arguments is that our current approach is not working. For example … the pro-choice mantra … the mantra that pro—abortion advocates cry is that abortion should be (i) legal, (ii) safe and (iii) rare. Those who WANT abortion … cry out for abortion to be rare. Yet last year there were 125,000 abortions performed per day around the globe. To put that into perspective … that’s the equivalent of wiping out the entire population of Sydney … every month. And 2/3 of those abortions were of female babies. Even pro-choicers must admit there’s something wrong with aborting twice as many female babies as male.

So what I’d like to do today is present each side of the debate in a way that we will hopefully HEAR each other … and maybe come up with some ideas as to how we can improve the current situation. And I’ve got 3 points to help us do this today. I want to begin by looking at the Bible’s teaching on the topic of abortion … which I’ve titled (i) Why the Bible is against abortion. I then want to try to unpack the pro-abortion argument … as best as I understand it … to try to see what it is this side of the debate is trying to protect … or promote. And I’ve titled this point (ii) Why some people are for abortion. I then want to conclude by seeing if there’s some way both sides of the debate can perhaps work together to help make abortion way more rare than it is today … WHILE helping the women who find themselves with unwanted pregnancies. And I’ve titled this third point (iii) What are some possible ways ahead.

Now this topic is so complex and detailed that there is no way I will be able to cover every single aspect of it in the next 25 minutes. So as is often my tradition for topical sermons … I’ll open it up for questions at the end … as dangerous as that is. But our goal for today is to (a) better understand the Bible’s teaching on this hot potato, to see (b) if there’s a way we can promote the Bible’s ideal for the unborn AND their mothers. So please come with me as we look at (i) Why the Bible is against abortion, (ii) Why some people are for abortion, and (iii) What are some possible ways ahead.

Why the Bible is against abortion

And the tricky thing about unpacking the Bible’s teaching on abortion is that the Bible doesn’t actually mention the word ‘abortion’. At best … there is one obscure reference in Exodus 21:

Exodus 21:22-23 (NIV) "If men who are fighting 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. 23But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life,

The problem with this passage is … we cannot be certain as to whether that ‘serious injury’ is to the unborn baby or to the mother. As such, we cannot hang a definitive argument on Ex 21. Instead … to understand the Bible’s teaching on abortion … we need to dig a little deeper. And to do this … we’re going to need our thinking caps on for the next few minutes. This is deep stuff. But so are ALL important topics … are they not?

And we begin with a look at the Bible’s teaching on the sanctity of human life. We see this in the Genesis 9 passage we just read. And I just want to re-read for us v. 5-6:

Genesis 9:5-6 (NIV) And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 6"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.

So … ‘thou shall not murder’ doesn’t really come as a surprise. But what’s interesting is the REASON for this. The REASON God holds people accountable for murder … is because humans are made in God’s image. As one preacher put it … this means there is a rock-solid, objective, irreducible glory, significance and value to every human. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you’ve done, or how low you’ve stooped in life … every human reflects God in a very real way … which gives every human a rock-solid, objective, irreducible glory, significance and value. So the REASON murder is wrong … is because you are destroying an image bearer of God Himself.

And this teaches us how the Bible does ethics. And this is why we need our thinking caps. You see there are several different schools of thought when it comes to ethics. So for example:

There is Deontology … that says an action is right and moral because it is written. Deontology follows the rules written down.
There is virtue ethics … that says an action is right because society says it is virtuous.
There’s consequentialism … that says an action is right and moral based on the consequences of it.
And there’s utilitarian ethics … that says we do whatever brings the maximum good for the maximum number of people.

Now we don’t have time to go into the pros and cons of each of these this morning … other than to say the Bible rejects all those forms of ethics … because they are ALL flawed. The Bible instead operates on what is called teleology. The word teleology comes from the Greek word ‘telos’ … which is best translated as ‘goal’ or ‘end point’. Now we don’t need to commit that nerdy word to memory. But what we DO need to do is understand HOW one determines the ‘telos’ … the goal of something. And the way we do THAT … is by determining (1) the nature, and (2) the purpose of a thing. So if you want to understand how the Bible does ethics … just remember (1) nature, and (2) purpose.

So for example … the NATURE of a human being is we are image bearers of God. We reflect who God is in some way. The PURPOSE of a human being … the reason humans have been put here on this earth … is to bring glory to God and enjoy him forever. So murdering a human being destroys that image of God AND that person’s ability to fulfil their God given purpose. The reason murder is categorically wrong according to Genesis 9 … is because it goes against a human’s nature and purpose.

HOWEVER … how does that relate to an unborn baby? Particularly in the first few weeks of pregnancy … where the zygote is little more than a bunch of cells. A pretty strong argument can be made that a microscopic bunch of cells is NOT the image of God. It has no capacity to think … no capacity to love and relate to those around them … and no capacity to rule over the earth and subdue it. So are we therefore allowed to kill unborn babies? Well NOT according to THEIR nature and purpose.

You see as soon as a human sperm enters a human egg … a repeatable chain reaction takes place. With almost no exceptions … the outside of the egg hardens … to lock all other sperm out. And that single cell … with it’s own unique DNA … then splits into 2 cells … then 4 … then 8 … then 16 and so on. It is a life form of some description. It’s living and growing. And that lifeform has human DNA. It is not canine in type … or geological in type. It is human in type. That’s it’s nature; a lifeform with human DNA. And it has a single purpose. To grow into an image bearer of God. So what is the right and moral thing to do for a life that is human in form … and that is growing to become an image bearer of God? It’s to give it what it needs to fulfil it’s purpose.

And that’s why the Bible is against abortion. Abortion is NOT treating that living being … with human DNA … according to it’s nature and purpose. With the 1 exception of when the pregnancy is putting the mother’s life at risk … such as ectopic pregnancies … where the baby is going to die anyway, and take the mother with it … with that one exception in mind … the Bible teaches that abortion is morally wrong. So … you can take your thinking caps off now. The HEADY stuff is done. But the reason WHY the Bible is against abortion is because it is not treating that unborn human according to it’s nature and purpose.

Why some people are for abortion

But that’s only 1 side of this debate. WHY is it that some people are FOR abortion? Well to properly understand the pro-choice debate … it’s worthwhile understanding that their arguments for ensuring a woman has a choice … have changed quite dramatically over the decades:

So 40 years ago for example … this hole debate centred around when life begins. The reason abortion was seen as OK was the notion that life doesn’t actually begin until there’s a heart-beat … or until there’s brain activity … or until there’s breath in the babies lungs. Science however has put that argument to bed. At the moment of conception … a repeatable chain reaction kicks off. It is a life … with human DNA.

About 20 years ago the argument was about a woman having the right to choose what happens to her own body. And because the baby … it was argued … is simply a part of the woman’s body … she could choose what happens to it … just like she can choose to have a cancer removed. But again … science has shown that baby has it’s own unique DNA. While it might be INSIDE the mother’s body … it doesn’t share the mother’s DNA … and therefore is not part of the mother.

For the last 10 years the argument has centred on capacity. Because the unborn baby doesn’t have the capacity to think for itself … or to make and hold-down lasting relationships … it therefore isn’t human yet. And therefore it doesn’t need to be afforded human rights. In fact Peter Singer … the famed American ethicist … says we should be able to kill newborn babies up until about 18 months … because they TOO lack human capacities. But our SECOND passage today speaks of John the Baptist rejoicing … in utero … at the presence of Jesus … in utero. But another issue with Peter Singer’s argument is we cannot protect the rights of anyone with capacity issues … such as the mentally handicapped or the senile.

But what we see is … every time science shuts down one of the pro-choice arguments … they simply find a new one. Yet their goal posts have never moved. The pro-choice agenda is for a woman to have absolute autonomy over every aspect of her life … including whether she keeps or terminates the unborn baby within her. Now why is this? Why is it that no scientific finding can shake the foundations of the pro-choice movement … and that they’ll simply find a new argument to allow a woman the right to choose?

Well at the risk of oversimplification … I think there are 3 main aspects to this:

The first is victimhood. Current western culture believes that if you have been a victim of some form of hardship or oppression … then you qualify for special treatment. And there is something very biblical about that. According to the Bible … God WANTS special treatment for the poor, the marginalised and the oppressed. And according to the Bible … one of the curses of the fall is that women are oppressed by men.

A second aspect is equality. When it comes to unwanted pregnancies … the woman is always left holding the baby. Pregnant women are faced with decisions and responsibilities that men are almost never faced with. Men almost never have to worry about how this baby will affect their education or career or finances. If a single guy gets a girl pregnant … yeah … there might be SOME changes. But when a single girl gets pregnant … her whole life changes. So for all the ground we’ve covered achieving female equality in recent decades … there is still an enormous gap when it comes to pregnancy. And there’s something inherently unfair about that.

The THIRD major factor is the weight our modern western culture gives to a person’s inner psychology. There was a book released in 2020 called ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self’. It’s written by a Christian called Carl Trueman … though it isn’t a Christian book. In it he says the overarching principle of our modern world is we have given primary weight to how an individual feels on the inside. This is why the statement ‘I’m a woman trapped inside a man’s body’ actually makes sense to most western people these days. You say that 25 years ago and people would just start at you. But these days … even though you’ve got male chromosomes … and male genitalia … if you FEEL like a woman … then western society says ‘you go girl’. And this is the air we breathe in our culture now.

So if a woman is faced with an unwanted pregnancy - like I’m too young … I can’t afford it right now … I haven’t finished my studies … It’ll affect my career … I can’t cope with a special needs kids … whatever the reason – our society today places the inner feelings of the woman as the most important factor. If the mother feels this will be too hard for her psychologically … then that trumps everything else … including the life of the baby. And while we may oppose this type of expressive individualism when it comes to abortion … this is how we ALL operate in the west. Expressive individualism is the air we ALL breathe as westerners.

So … the reason WHY some people are pro abortion is (i) to give special treatment to victims of male oppression … which is not a bad thing, (ii) to try and find some semblance of equality of the sexes when it comes to unwanted pregnancies … which is not a bad thing, and (iii) to care for the psychological wellbeing of the individual … which is not a bad thing.

What are some possible ways ahead?

So … what are some possible ways ahead … given that those 3 good things DO lead to the death of over 50 million babies worldwide every year … which is clearly a BAD thing? Well our third point is a bit shorter … if you’re watching the time. But what I want to do as we close is suggest 3 quick things we COULD possibly do … to try and move our society in the right direction … the direction of the Bible … when it comes to abortion.

And the first is by not demonising women or couples who have had an abortion. While they may have done the wrong thing according to the Bible … the Bible says THEY TOO are made in the image of God. In his famous sermon titled ‘The weight of glory’, C. S. Lewis said ‘every person who comes across your path you need to treat with sacredness, reverence, respect and a concern for their individuality’. Think of it this way. How does the Bible treat King David? He tried to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba by having her husband killed. He killed an ADULT human. Yet as soon as he repented … he was forgiven … and is seen as Israel’s greatest king. THAT’S how the Bible wants us to treat those who may have sinned.

Second … we need to do better at supporting mothers with unwanted pregnancies. We need to do better as a society … and better as a church. The reason women choose to have abortions is primarily because they think their options are limited. They think the next 20 years of their life is over. How can we help with this?

Well if the mother chooses to keep the baby … as she is hopefully encouraged to … we can offer meals … we can offer financial support … we can offer practical support. If it’s a special needs child … we can offer extra support with that too. We need to step up as a church in our care of mothers.
If the mother chooses to adopt the child out … which is the second best option … we can put our money where our mouth is and offer to take that child in. John Piper and his wife adopted an African American baby 8 week’s old … when he was 50. Adoption is always an option.
And if the mother chooses to abort the baby … which we pray she won’t … we need to show that mother love and care as well. Because let me tell you … she needs it.

Which brings me to my third and final suggestion … which is that women thinking about an abortion need to be made aware that the choice before them is not as simple as do I colour my hair or leave it natural. At 4 weeks the baby’s heartbeat is detected. That’s before most women even know they’re pregnant. Women need to know that having an abortion means stopping the heartbeat of the baby inside of them.

Sadly current legislation in this country means women are often not even given proper counselling over their decision. They’re not told that there are more pre-screened adoptive parents out there waiting for a child than there are children being put up for adoption. And they’re told that there IS support available if they choose to keep the child. And they’re not told that 20 years from now … they may still lament that their child would be 20 now … as countless women have attested to. Instead they’re just shipped into the abortion clinic as a number … put under the knife … and shipped out … never to be seen again.

Conclusion

Friends … this is an incredibly complex and emotive topic. It always is when lives are involved. And this topic has lives on both sides of the debate. Now I’m going to open it up for questions in a minute … to try and cover some of those complex issues I didn’t have time to cover during the sermon. But my prayer is that the church will be the kind of place that can walk that tightrope between caring for the unborn … the silent victims in this whole debate … whilst at the same time caring for the mothers … who themselves are terrified over what this child means for them. So how about I pray that for us now.

Prayer

Our Heavenly Father,

We praise you that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It is YOU who knit us together in our mother’s womb (Ps 139). And it is YOU who place your Spirit within us … even from before birth in some cases. Help us we pray as we grapple with this complex and emotive topic. May the Christian church continue to be known for giving the unborn what they need to fulfill their nature and purpose. Yet may the Christian church also be known for not looking down in judgment on those women who may have made the wrong choice; but rather show them Christ-like love … just as you have shown us. Amen.

The Bible on Abortion Gen 9:1-6 & Luke 1:39-45 23rd Jan 2022