What it's like

“As weeks went by, it showed that she was not fine

They told me son it's time to tell the truth
And she broke down
and I broke down '
Cuz I was tired of lying” – Ben Folds Five - Brick

A Biblical Response to the question of Abortion.

Abortion is an emotionally charged issue, but one we must address and grapple with in our own hearts as we seek to do God's will. I don’t claim to have a perfect answer for this, but I will explain as best I understand from the scriptures, as God’s Word is what counts, not mine or anyone else’s. So I will briefly discuss what the Biblical stance is on Abortion then discuss what should be the Christians response based on what we know in the Bible.  

Abortion is not a new invention. It’s been around as long as people have been getting pregnant. It’s been controversial equally as long. I think we are all familiar with the arguments both sides make as those argument as just as old as the matter itself.

So, what does the Bible have to say about all of this?

#1 Conception is an act of God.
Psalm 127:3 “Behold, children are a gift from the Lord.” God is the author and creator of life. All life is an act of God.

#2 Every person is created in the image of God.
James 3:9 “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.”

Every life is created by God in His image, to bear His image and that image should be respected. What of those that will be born with birth defects? The list of people with disabilities who have made major contributions to society is lengthy.
http://listverse.com/2010/01/18/top-10-extraordinary-people-with-disabilities/
I don’t think we’d advocate that any of them would have been better to have never been born.

#3 Everyone has a purpose. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The Greek word for workmanship is not that of a stock assembly line but more along the lines of a handcrafted, one of kind, custom made individual. It means that everyone has a plan, everyone has a purpose. Abortion robs an individual of that plan and purpose and who knows what God would have used them to accomplish?

#4 God condemns murder.

Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder”

Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.”

We know from Exodus 21:22-25 that this applies to the unborn.

To murder someone is to lose your own right to life. You go through the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi and you see all these comments and blood guiltiness, and how the blood of all those slaughtered cry out to God. God holds us accountable for our sin.

#5 Now here is some encouragement. Grace trumps our sin. There is forgiveness available to all those that seek Christ. This is the message of Easter. Yes, even for murderers. There are plenty of those in the Bible. Paul, David, Moses. Yet God used all of them in-spite of their flaws. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: If you hate somebody, you’re as bad as a murderer. So don’t read this and feel smug because you haven’t killed any people young or old. If you’ve ever hated anyone, you’re a murderer. Yes, it can be forgiven. Just ask the Apostle Paul. He was a murdered and blasphemer yet He found grace.

So, with this in mind, what should be the Christians response to abortion? Knowing what we know, how should we act?

“Mary got pregnant from a kid named Tom, said he was in love.
He said d’ worry about a thing baby doll I'm the man you've been dreamin' of.
But three months later he said he won't date her or return her call…..
Then she heads for the clinic and she gets some static walkin' through the door.
They call her a killer, and they call her a sinner, and they call her a whore.
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in her shoes.
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to choose” – Everlast – What It’s Like

For far too long the church has given the above response to women struggling with the abortion issue. We can’t just throw the issue in the faces of the women dealing with and say ‘You decide and God judge you if you make the wrong decision!” We can’t let them bear the weight of this situation and its responsibility alone. It’s not something someone can handle alone. If we close our doors in the faces women and children when they need us the most, then we close our doors in the face of Christ. Abortion is not an issue of rights but of responsibility.

Will Willimon, the Dean of Duke University told this story about a church. In this church, when a teen-ager has a baby that she cannot care for, the church baptizes the baby and gives him/her to an older couple in the church that has the time and wisdom to raise the child. That way, says the pastor, the couple can raise the teen-age mother along with the baby. 'That, the pastor says, 'is how we do it.'"

He tells another story of a lady named Deborah Campbell. A member of her church, a divorced woman, became pregnant, and the father dropped out of the picture. The woman decided to keep the child. But as the pregnancy progressed and began to show, she became upset because she felt she could not go to church anymore. After all, here she was, a Sunday School teacher, unmarried and pregnant. So she called Deborah. Deborah told her to come to church and sit in the pew with the Campbell family, and, no matter how the church reacted, the family would support her. Well, the church rallied around when the woman's doctor told her at her six-month checkup that she owed him the remaining balance of fifteen hundred dollars by the next month; otherwise, he would not deliver the baby. The church held a baby shower and raised the money. When the time came for her to deliver, Deborah was her labor coach. When the woman's mother refused to come and help after the baby was born, the church brought food and helped clean her house while she recovered from the birth. Now the woman's little girl is the child of the church.

Now that is living up to Matthew 25:40 "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me"

In Uganda, a local pastor was talking about the AIDS epidemic there, and how many of the tribal customs only serve to promote promiscuity and spread disease. One region has an old tradition where the father of the groom gets to sleep with the bride on the night before the wedding before the groom does, and everyone in that region continues the practice to this day. I was stunned to hear some of their stories, and I asked the pastor, “What do you do to combat this?” His answer was simple and yet profound. He said to me, “Simple. We tell them about Jesus. When people know Jesus, all of these problems tend to go away.”

I believe God has given the church a powerful tool to use against abortion. It’s called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the only tool or method known to man that is guaranteed to deal with abortion in a way that is effective and God pleasing. We have Jesus, and people need Jesus, ESPECIALLY the single pregnant woman who is filled with fear for her future or reputation! I believe the responsibility of the church as an organization is to declare, teach, and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and allow Jesus to deal with problems in the lives of the individuals He touches. There is simply no more powerful tool that can save the life of the unborn child than the gospel, planted in the heart of that child’s mother. The first question anyone should ask himself or herself in the fight against abortion should be, “How do we get the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ to these women who are considering abortion?” You find the answer to that question, and you are in a position to effect great and lasting change.

Glen