Thinking God's Thoughts on Abortion

I don’t know about you, but I am a human. And as such, it is easy to think like a human. Thus, I can easily empathize with the plight of people facing unwanted pregnancies. I can even come close to recognizing the right of people who don’t know Jesus and don’t revere the Bible, to follow their own conscience and go ahead and abort their baby. I mean, I don’t expect them to face jail time if they lie or if they think lustful thoughts. I don’t expect to enforce kindness and love as a moral duty on all citizens. I believe the Bible wants us to persuade and not force everyone to follow Christ. And again, I’m human and can understand the excuses and reasons a natural person would have for such an action.

So part of me always flinches when the thought of overturning Roe v. Wade comes up. Why should we have to make all abortions absolutely illegal?

But the Bible calls us, as Christians, to be people who think God’s thoughts. We need to be informed by God’s Word in every area of life. And as Isaiah 55 says: “[God’s] thoughts are not [our] thoughts” and His “ways [are] higher than [our] ways” (vs. 8-9).

So what are God’s thoughts about abortion? Any pro-choice people reading this are now ready to come up with a flurry of alternative interpretations of any passage I’ll bring up, assuming they are people who at least want to be seen as caring about the Bible and what God says.

Okay now that everyone’s ready, let me try to throw a wrench in the works. Follow this line of reasoning:

People agree murder is wrong for this reason: it violates the murdered person’s rights (their right to be alive as a person). But with abortion, some people will claim a fetus is not a person and hence has no rights.

God, however, does not see murder as wrong for those merely human reasons. He says murder is wrong because it is an affront to God. Murder destroys a creature that God made in his image. Gen. 1: 27 and 9: 5-6 (and many other verses) teach that God created human beings as the sole creatures in this world that reflect God’s image. And since God defines a human being as being alive and personal from conception, then the destruction of unborn fetuses is still an affront on God’s image and God’s personhood. Further, God is the one who is ultimately the one behind the miracle of life, every conception occurs because of His personal work. Destroying the fetus God made is an affront to God.

And again, because God wrote the Bible and it is His Word, then God himself is revealing that the taking of human life (defined by God in his Word to be from the point of conception) is an affront to God’s character and an offense to Him. Thus, the debate is more than just a squabble over the definition of life and when it begins. Abortion is an offense to God.

Now you might have difficulty following me here. But consider this: God is the one who has made people with disabilities to be a part of our world. He is the one who allows Down Syndrome children to be born, for instance. So if man says such children should not be made to endure a difficult life, or the parents of such children should not have to endure all the suffering involved, man is raising himself up and saying, “God you don’t know what you’re doing. Let us fix things here…”. And in fact, that is what’s happening today. Check out this sobering piece by Albert Mohler (HT: Thirsty Theologian) linking to a Newsweek column on the tragedy of a concentrated effort to wipe out all such disabled children.

This article is written on the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. And my line of thought above was started in part by this 2nd part of a series on the subject by my blogging friend Ken Fields. (See also part one and stay tuned for part three). If you are interested in more posts on this subject, check out this post and this one by Justin Taylor. Or check out Abort73.Com.