Can someone believe that a woman has the right to abort her baby and still be a true Christian? Bible teacher David Servant addresses this sensitive question in this Little Lessons series. Learn more!
Contents
Can You Be a Christian and Pro-Choice?(Part 1)
Can you be a Christian and be pro-choice?
We all know that the abortion debate is very heated and emotionally charged, and each side has clearly delineated what they believe. Those of us, like myself, who are pro-life are against abortion under essentially any circumstances. Some of us might make an exception if a mother’s life is actually endangered and when you have to make a choice between a mother or her child actually surviving, which of course is such a rare, rare, rare thing.
Then the other side has labeled themselves to be pro-choice, because they are focusing on the argument that nobody should have the right to tell a woman what to do with her body. If she wants to terminate her pregnancy, the state doesn’t have the right, no religion, no other individual has the right to dictate to her what she can and cannot do with her body.
Well, those of us who are pro-life would argue that there’s not one body involved here, and I think that’s irrefutable. There are two bodies (who could actually intelligently debate the fact that there are two bodies?) in a pregnancy, because if you allow that pregnancy to keep going, nobody can debate that another body comes out of the woman’s body, right? That body just doesn’t magically appear. It grows and develops for nine months inside the body of its mother. There’s a body of some sorts from the moment of conception when sperm unites with egg and an embryo begins to form.
The folks on the pro-choice side are reticent to even … Well, they would never refer to the embryo or the fetus as a baby or a person, because that of course totally destroys their viewpoint. Because everyone agrees, even pro-choice advocates, that it’s wrong to kill babies. Oh, excuse me. No, not recently. One state has come up with a law that it’s actually okay to let a baby that’s born live die. That would be technically called infanticide. They’ve taken immorality in this whole argument to a new level never, never seen before that now it’s okay to kill, or I should say allow a baby to die by withholding from it what it needs to survive.
Well, oh my goodness. Those of us who are born again, believers in Jesus Christ, we have a hard time even understanding why this is even something that is discussed, because to us it’s just so obvious the immorality of the pro-choice side. Because again, even amongst the pro-choice side, there’s a whole spectrum of conviction on when it’s okay to abort a baby. They usually delineate it by trimester. Many, many, many pro-choice folks believe it’s wrong to abort a baby in the third trimester. But why? Because the quote unquote “fetus” so much resembles a baby, just like that baby’s going to look the moment that it’s born, that the resemblance there is too much for their conscience to say it’s okay to kill that thing.
May we also add to the depth of the morality here, the means of killing these innocent babies in the womb is so barbaric, it almost defies description. Again, this is why we wonder how this could possibly be something that’s even discussed, the issue, pro and con.
Different methods of abortion. Of course, we’re probably all familiar with the whole suction tube concept where babies are literally ripped to shreds within the wombs of their mothers. Ultrasounds reveal that they resist that suction to try to get away from it, recognizing the danger of it. It’s an absolutely barbaric, horrific thing.
If someone were to say … For example, let’s say someone posed the idea nobody has a right to tell a mother whether it’s okay to take a big industrial suction machine and suck her two year old toddler into a small tube piece by piece as that child screams in absolute terror as its flesh is ripped to pieces and that toddler is literally dismembered in the most barbaric fashion, if anyone suggested that, we would say, ” Something’s very, very wrong. Something’s very, very, very wrong with you.” No one suggested that, because it’s so outlandish. So outlandish. Even though occasionally mothers do kill their toddlers and they wind up being put on trial and going to prison for it.
See, so when you just break this down logically, the pro-choice, the pro-abortion side doesn’t have much to stand on. That helps us to answer the question, can you be a Christian and be pro-choice? Well, what if we asked the question, can you be a Christian and believe it’s okay to kill toddlers by ripping them to shreds, sucking their little bodies through a tiny suction tube that dismembers them and rips them to shreds? I think we’d all say no way. Not only can’t you be a Christian, can you even be a human being and believe that that would be morally acceptable?
The question kind of gets answered for us here. If in fact the quote unquote “fetus” is a baby, which it has all the parts of a baby … Children can be born incredibly premature, the fetuses, and the survival rates are incredible given the right attention and care. They have all the necessary parts to survive outside the womb given the right kind of care.
There’s a heartbeat detectable at six weeks. Six weeks. A number of states have passed the heartbeat bill now that if there’s a detectable heartbeat. It’s interesting, because the pro-choice folks are debating that now. Is it really a heart? Is it really a heartbeat? It should be better called cardiac activity, but not an actual heartbeat. See, they’re grasping at straws at this point to try to get away from what’s so obvious, that that’s a baby.
Just yesterday, I was sitting here … I’m about to close, because I’m over my time. I was sitting right here and I watched a Bald Eagle swooped down and grab a fish and carry it off. One of those moments that you go, “Wow!” Of course, in the United States it’s illegal to ruin, destroy a Bald Eagle egg because the Bald Eagles for a long time were on the endangered species list. I believe it’s still illegal to harm a Bald Eagle egg. Why is that? Because everyone knows if you destroy the egg, you’ve destroyed a potential future Eagle. No one debates that. Well, even if you can say somehow it’s not a human being, no one can debate you’re killing what’s going to become a human being. Right? Okay.
I’ll do a part two on this and talk a little bit more to try to answer this question. Thank you so much for joining me.
Until next time, the Lord bless you.
Can You Be a Christian and Pro-Choice?(Part 2)
Can you be pro-choice and be a Christian, part two.
We’re going to continue what we started on on our last Little Lesson. If you didn’t see that one, it’d really be good to view that one, because we went into some of the specifics of the abortion debate, much of which surrounds of course what is that growing thing in mothers’ wombs. Because the pro-choice, the quote unquote “pro-choice” folk will argue that that’s not really a child. That’s not really a baby. It’s not a baby till it’s born. Then it’s a human being. Then I guess it has inherent rights that it shouldn’t be murdered.
Although, even that has been introduced in some barbaric places, which always has been called infanticide, the killing of a baby. It’s barbaric. What’s so amazing is that in those states of America and in those countries where abortion is legal right up until the time of birth. It’s bizarre logic that it’s okay to kill, stop the life, rip to shreds, poison, dissect, whatever you want to call it, the methods used to kill that baby that’s almost been born. That’s morally acceptable, but as soon as that baby escapes the womb, then somehow it’s not morally accepted. Well, it’s hard to know what to say in response to that kind of logic, because it’s not logical. There’s nothing else in life where such a logic would be applied.
We were talking in the last Little Lesson about the fact that eagles, bald eagles, which I saw one just yesterday here, it’s a federal crime to destroy a bald eagle egg, because why? Everyone knows no matter at what stage the development of that eagle, that embryonic eagle is at inside of that eagle egg, everyone knows that if you leave it alone, it turns into an eagle. If you kill it at any stage, even right after that egg drops out of the eagle mother’s body, at that stage of development, it doesn’t make a difference how early or late it is, you destroy the egg, you’re destroying a future eagle. Right? All right. It’s just obvious.
Now, let me share something that I didn’t share last time. This is where I wanted to go on this Little Lesson. I shared the fact that those of us who are opposed to abortion, who are pro-life, we do wonder why this is even a topic of discussion. I mean, it’s mind boggling to us that anyone even has to discuss this, because it’s so obviously, abortion is so obviously immoral. Even the argument of a woman has a choice. Well, half of the people who are aborted, either by being poisoned or dismembered or whatever, are women, female. They had no choice, see. If you’re going to argue based on, well, women should have a choice, well, what about the choice of that baby? As Ronald Reagan used to say, “I notice that all the people that are for abortion were born,” or something to that effect.
Okay. Now, again we wonder why this is even a topic of discussion, because abortion is murder. It’s the killing of a baby, or it’s the killing of what will, everyone agrees, will become a baby. You can’t escape that. We wonder how can, how can people even discuss this? Why is this even a matter of discussion? This is so obvious. Yet some of us who are believers in Jesus Christ and who are solidly pro-life can remember a time when we were not solidly pro-life before we believed in Jesus. Yet once we believed in Jesus and were born again and became what the Bible says new creations, a light went on. A light bulb came on into the darkness, and we suddenly found ourselves solidly, strongly pro-life, and again scratching our heads at anyone who had any different viewpoint.
That’s the really good news. The Bible teacher that people who are not believers in Jesus Christ, people who are not born again, they’re in darkness, and they’re in darkness on many, many, many levels. The Bible talks about how their minds have been darkened, and their understanding has been darkened, and they’ve been blinded and so forth, and they’re walking in the darkness. But then the Bible talks about how Jesus brings them into the light, and they now have the light, and they’re in the light, and they should continue to walk in the light. All these similar terminologies and phrases about darkness and life.
We want to be careful, and I’m going to be careful to point the judgmental finger of condemnation towards pro-choice folks, because I was never in that camp actually, but yet I could have been in that camp. That possibly existed. I’m saying that from the standpoint of I know many people who are in that camp who, when they were born again, when they believed in Jesus … Born again means the Holy Spirit then comes to live inside of you. The Bible says you’re a new creation in Christ. One translation says you’re a new species, 2 Corinthians 5:17. So you’re changed, radically changed. That’s one of the indications of the grace of God saving you and working in you that you’re no longer in darkness, you’re no longer blinded. You come out of the darkness and you’re in the light and you just, “Oh my goodness. Abortion is wrong.” Of course it’s wrong. It’s a no brainer.
If you’re pro-choice, I’m just going to be honest with you and say it with all the compassion that I can, you’re not a Christian. You’re not on the road to heaven. The Bible that Christians say is our book says in 1 John 3 no murderer has eternal life, and that’s part of the package of salvation, right? When you believe in Jesus, you’re born again and he promises you, you’re going to live forever, eternal life with him.
Okay, so here’s the good news. Although I’ll say that I was never pro-abortion, I was certainly pro-sin and in the darkness before I was born again. I was a sinner to a great degree and still find myself to be, although improved, imperfect, and hopefully making progress in that regard as I continually try to follow Jesus. But here’s the good news. Really the issue is not whether you’re pro-choice or pro-abortion. The real issue is, are you born again? Do you believe in Jesus? Then let him take care of what you should believe. Because I guarantee it, if you’re pro-choice, if you think abortion is okay, if you believe in Jesus and make him your Lord and begin to then become his follower to try to do what he says, his Holy Spirit comes to work on the inside of you and your mind will be changed. You’ll be thinking totally different about this subject. You’ll be joining my side on this. Okay.
All right. Now, not everyone who’s pro-life is born again, by the way. There are tons and tons of just decent moral people who understand the obvious immorality of killing a baby in the womb and they’re not born again yet. Okay, so don’t be thinking, well, just because you’re pro-life you’re on the way to heaven. Oh no, no. You have to believe in Jesus and you have to be born again.
Until next time, may the Lord bless you.
