An old oak may look like a mole upon the face of the earth when viewed from the sky, like a tiny bush, and the cross may look like a thin long piece of wood when viewed from its sides. A frog among the pebbles may look like a stone and the snake among the wires may be mistaken for a rope. The point then is that a plausible perspective is at best only a plausible explanation of the truth and nothing more. A one-sided perspective is too dangerous a conviction for any man to set his hope, instead, truth must be sought. For truth remains the cross whether you look at it from the front or the sides, and the oak remains an oak whether you look at it from the top or the back, and the frog a frog and the snake a snake. Truth is a wholesome reality however you look at it. The truth is simply true.
And so it is with all that the Bible reads. The belief that the Bible is altogether truth, every jot and tittle, is the fundamental basis upon which the entirety of the Christian worldview stands.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2 Timothy 3:16
Hence, the whole of Christian life and practice is predicated upon this foundational fact. Putting two and two together, if we want to seek out the truth, we must turn to the single most important piece of truth we have in the world – the Holy Bible, the word of God. This then must be the foundation stone for all reasoning, and not the other way around.
Remember, different perspectives don’t necessarily arrive at truth, rather truth credits the legitimacy of any given perspective. “It’s a plane”, said one. “No, it’s a bird”, said the other, and they both got it wrong. It was obviously Superman. In much the same way, “It’s a woman’s body”, says one, and “It’s a woman’s choice”, says another, but what is the truth? In order to answer that question, one must first turn to the Bible to hear what God has to say – the whole truth and nothing but – and then seek to understand every other opinion on the basis of that truth.
Burden or Blessing?
We will begin with Psalm 127. Here, the Psalmist regards children as a glorious heritage, a blessing from the Lord. So great is this blessing that we are encouraged to have as many as we can. We are told that blessed is the man that adds them like arrows to a quiver. The reality of this counsel is lost to so many people today, even Christians. Let me try and help you understand this. When you go out for a battle, how many arrows do you think you’ll add to your quiver? One? Two? Five? You know the answer – as much as would fit that quiver, right? Such is the mind of the Psalmist when it comes to the subject of children – the more, the merrier.
This is in contrast to what the world teaches you today. When newlyweds argue that they’d rather wait a few years before having children, whether it is to achieve greater financial stability or to have some “couple’s time” travelling around the world, they delay not a burden but a blessing. Many poor counsellors have taught them otherwise, talking about children as a burden to hesitate over rather than a blessing to fill one’s quiver.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.Psalm 127:4-5
And so, a woman’s choice to abort her child for so-called legitimate reasons such as not having the means or the wits to care for a baby under her given circumstances is to avoid the Psalmist’s counsel altogether. Granted that it is difficult to raise a child, but behold, it is a great blessing.
Therefore, to look upon the burden of raising a child is to see only one perspective and not the truth. In lieu of the truth, these arguments hold no water. This blessing is more than the burden it brings and it is folly to stay this joy offered to all who would heed the word of God.
Clump of Cells, or a Baby?
Now, we will turn to Psalm 139.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.Psalm 139:13-15
Here then is the truth of how a baby is formed in the womb. It is important to remember that the Psalms are a poetic genre and therefore we must seek to understand the reality that the poetry depicts. Here are some of the takeaways from this passage.
- Most importantly, it is God who forms the baby in the mother’s womb. This is an act of God, not man. This isn’t merely a biological sequence or programming, it is the work of the divine. Will you then hinder the hand of God? To destroy what he is building, to undo what he is forming?
- God is said to knit us together in the womb, a poetic phrase that suggests the care and involvement of the Almighty in the process. Like a mother sitting in an armchair knitting away to her heart’s delight is a picture that resembles God’s delight in knitting together a baby in the mother’s womb. Will you deny God his pleasure?
- This work of God is one that ought to render fear and wonder in the hearts of all who observe it. Therefore, every emotion and reason that cries for an abortion fails to fear and wonder at God’s work in the womb. Where has our sense of fear and wonder gone?
- David’s soul knew well the wonder of God’s works. Do we have the heart of David that so many Christians claim they desire?
- Though the children in the womb are hidden from our sight, they are not hidden from God. What appears as a secret endeavour is wholly visible to God. Do we then assume that no one sees the horror of abortion in the hidden walls of the womb?
- He intricately weaves every child in the darkness of the womb that is here likened to the depths of the earth. Can we deny the life that is thus formed?
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.Psalm 139:16
While yet unformed, his eyes see the baby. David throughout this Psalm identifies himself not from the moment of his birth, but from the moment of his conception. All our days were written even before there was one of them. God has charted the days of a child before they are born for he does not seek out their doom but their life. God desires to bless every baby in the womb with days of life, and do we dare take that away from them?
The Bible does not speak of the substance in the womb as a clump of cells but the knitting together of life itself. Inside that belly bump, a woman fosters a life, the life of her child. Though the scientific evidence for this is profound, it is not science that vindicates the Bible but God’s word that vindicates the science of it all. Science is not the light that leads Scripture, but Scripture that leads science to the light of Christ.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.Psalm 51:5
Here again, when David talks about the nature of sin in man from the beginning (which is the doctrine of original sin), the personhood of a child is assumed at conception.
The LORD called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.Isaiah 49:1
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”Jeremiah 1:5
In Judges 13:7, Samson is referred to as a boy from the time he was in his mother’s womb.
Freedom of Choice, or Right to Murder?
Since ‘life‘ then is the truth of what the womb carries, abortion is murder. In all the strong arguments calling out for a woman’s right to her own body or her own welfare, it remains a severely one-sided horn that blows out the voice of the truth from the ears of many. There are two bodies in this situation. What about the right of the baby to his/her* own body? “But the baby is dependent on the mother. It cannot survive on its own”, you say? Do we then kill those who cannot survive on their own? Do we rid the world of those who are weak? A newborn baby is just as dependent on the mother as the baby in the womb. Do we have the right to kill a newborn?
The Pro-Choice argument is a one-sided obscure claim that has no merit. In all the arguments for the mother’s well-being, there is nothing spoken for the baby’s well-being. At this point, I suppose there are many who would raise the challenge of situations when the mother’s life is genuinely at risk. But my friends, who has the right to choose one life over another because of risk? No, unless the circumstance is akin to a man who holds on to two people, one on either hand and the only way to save one is to deny the other; unless such a crisis holds, no one has the right to make that choice. Even then, the choice is not an easy one, but it is one that is aimed at preserving life, not making it less risky or more comfortable. It is a choice of saving one or losing both. Moreover, this extreme example is still a far outlier to the normative order of life. We ought not to make rules or laws based on exceptions.
Abortion is not biblically compatible?
I’ve heard it said that the mother is the first defence of the baby but this is not true. God is the first and last defence, and it is he who will avenge the millions that have been murdered throughout the ages.
The Christian cannot walk away from this truth for he is held accountable by the word of God.
But what about the women? What of their plight? How are they to handle it all? My advice, find them a healthy church that they can be a part of. The same Bible that demands the upholding of a baby’s life from the womb, also demands the care of the mother. A biblical church will be a safe covering and a sure help for women in such need.
Save the life of the mother, and the life of the baby! Abortion is not the answer!
Christ is the answer!
It is said in Hebrews 12:2 that for the joy that was set before him [Jesus]endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. At the centre of the Christian faith stands the cross, and that cross is a symbol of God’s willingness to suffer great hurt for the sake of his children. The gift of salvation that we have received brings life as opposed to death, and our hope of life is the joy for which Christ came to die. How then can we who claim to follow Christ, not follow him likewise for the sake of our children? Why cannot the hope of their lives be a joy for us?
You see, the cross of Jesus Christ has always been an offence to the desires of the human flesh. But he is the only way, truth and life. What abortion takes away, he can preserve. There is healing for the woman’s hurt in his arms, hope against the woman’s anguish in his purposes, and love in the midst of hate that satisfies the driest lands. Jesus Christ is the answer, and when you obey his word, his word will keep your foot from stumbling and establish the work of your hands.
If all that doesn’t help change your mind, then I do not know what will. Maybe this video might help.
* pronoun trigger intended (all about that in another post)
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