One question: Did I encourage or discourage Jen?
Thanks for any feedback,
Craig
Jen Says:
March 9, 2008 at 3:08 pmI would like to ask a question. Please don’t attack me violently, because I promise I struggle and internally debate this issue. I’m not taking a side, just asking a question.
Several of you have set forth the idea of, “Abortion is wrong - we can’t kill innocents. The end.” Where does this mandate come from? I know the places in the Bible used to suggest this idea (”Before you knew me in the womb,” the passage about hitting a pregnant woman and killing the Bible), etc. However, I’ve talked to lots of people with lots of different interpretations of all those scriptures.
Can we really be 100% sure abortion is the same to God as murder?
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Jen,
It is good to ask your question. Please know that many ask it, but you have the guts to voice it. It's admirable to honestly question. The Bereans in Acts were honored for it.
Most of the controversy from both the pro-life and pro-choice camps surround the following passage:
Exodus 21:22-25
"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. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."
3 questions to ask regarding this passage:
1) Is there a reason to think that the child born is dead?
2) Just reading the above, what would imply that the child has died?
3) Ancient Hebrew has a specific word (actually 2) for "miscarriage", so why wouldn't it have been used here?
An article specifically about this passage, which I picked up these question from, can be found here on a site called Stand To Reason. It seems to be a good apology of why many people believe the Bible condemns abortion.
Also, several early church fathers, like Turtullian, have addressed abortion specifically. But looking at just 1, I'd choose one from the Didache, which means "Teaching". It was probably codified initially around the early 2nd century (~135 ACE), and holds this passage addressing abortion:
"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).
Anyway, I hope I've been an encouragement to you. You've asked a good question and it's worthy of thought and investigation.
Grace and peace,
Craig
5 comments:
Hi Craig,
you provide an excellent summary of the linked page and after reading it, I must say it makes it very clear that the Exodus passage does not support abortion.
It appears that the argument surrounding Exodus has been one of "Abortion is Biblical" instead of "Abortion is not Biblical". In other words, previously this passage was translated to imply that abortion was okay (as only a fine would've been imposed for the death of a fetus). However, now that it has been proven the passage does not talk about a dead fetus, the only thing that can be said is that this passage isn't in support of abortion.
We cannot assume though that, because it doesn't support it, it therefore negates it. One can always make the argument that, "not talking about it... not mentioning it in the Bible... doesn't mean therefore that it is not-biblical".
Honestly, I don't feel this passage makes it clear that abortion is not biblical. I think that this may be what Jenni was wanting to know... is there a passage in the Bible that can be explicitly interpreted to say, "Abortion is a sin"? (this passage because it is not speaking about a dead fetus.. isn't even speaking about abortion).
My view on this issue is that yes, it is a sin. It is murder. Murder in this issue is my interpretation of what I feel is taking away life when only God creates life and therefore only God SHOULD have the power to take away life.
But what about when it is necessary to abort a child because the health of the mother is compromised? What about when all medical examinations indicate there is a birth defect? (this second one I do not agree with but have heard many people argue that it is cruel to allow a child to be born knowing it will suffer its earthly life forever.. aii).
I don't think you discouraged Jenni... but I also don't think you answered her question. But to be frank, I am not sure anyone can answer this question. If it might be the case that Jenni has had an abortion, and it is a sin, then as with all sins, there is forgiveness through Jesus.
Great points Evelyn! 1) I've very glad to hear that you think I did not discourage Jen. 2) Indeed, "silence of scripture" does not equate to either approval nor condemnation. 3) Interestingly, I thought the second part of the passage spoke directly about the value of the child as well as the mother when it said "But if there is serious injury...". So then sadly, I must also agree that I failed to bring light to that point, and I might add nor did the Stand To Reason article, which makes me scratch my head and wonder why.
By the way, is the "deleted comment" your first pass at a response b/c where it says "This post has been removed by the author" sounds like the blog author removed it, but I didn't.
And thanks for your encouragement Evelyn. I love your comments.
Oh wow, good point! the second part of that does make it pretty clear doesn't it? How sad I didn't catch that... but it is good now that I know this for future reference!
It was I who removed the first post... after reading through it I saw I'd forgotten a few important words in the middle of some sentences.
Ahhhh. Cool on both. By way of update, I added this little tidbit to my response on the other blog site. In case you're interested, here it is.
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