In early 2019, the state of New York passed a new abortion bill that effectively legalized abortion right up until the moment of live birth. The new “Reproductive Health Act” even removed abortion altogether from the state’s criminal law, meaning that the murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child is now, in New York, only a single homicide—the murder of the unborn child is not considered murder at all.1. The Scriptures addresses this law in New York.
The practice of abortion thrives in a culture of death. God’s Word, however, presents a culture of life. In Genesis one, after seven times God said, “Let there be” in His creation of nonhuman life, when He came to the crown of His creation, He broke the pattern and said, “Let us make man in our image” in 1:26. Only man bears the image of God. Then in 1:28, God commanded man to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” In other words, procreate and have babies. To commit abortion is direct disobedience to God’s will. God commanded mankind to make babies not abort babies.
The culture of death began in Genesis 3 which was the result of disobeying God. In Genesis 9:1, God repeated His command to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” and then added in 9:6 “whosoever sheds man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed: For in the image of God made he man.” To murder is like burning God in effigy. Babies are necessary for multiplying and killing an unborn baby who is made in the image of God is murder.
In Exodus 20:13, God commanded “You shall not kill.” Then in 21-23:12, case laws are given that help explain the 10 Commandments. In 21:12-15 specific murder cases that violate the sixth commandment are stated. In 21:22 an example of a man unintentionally injuring a pregnant woman which caused her to give birth. Because the baby was born alive, no death penalty was enforced. In 21:23-25, a similar case is given where the unborn baby was killed. This time the murderer must be capitally punished. The OT considered a preborn baby a human just as much as any other human.
In Psalm 22:10-11, David who is crying out to God in his severe trial not to forsake him, reminds God that he has been God’s since God made him in his mother’s womb, brought him out, and sustained him ever since. David is pleading for God to continue to help him. David acknowledged that babies in their mother’s womb are God’s creation.
In David’s great penitential Psalm of confession of multiple sins in reference to Bathsheba and Uriah, David confesses in 51:5: “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Here David progresses beyond his statement that God sustained him in his mother’s womb to acknowledging that he was God’s creation from conception and also that he was a sinner from conception.
David goes into even more detail in the Psalm 139 where David is praising God’s omni attributes. In Psalm 139:13-18, David praises God’s omnipotence which is illustrated by God’s intricate knitting together of the baby in the mother’s womb. David gives us a divine ultrasound view of life in the womb. God programs the baby’s DNA and knits the many parts together. In Job 10:8-11, Job is defending his innocence and complaining to God about his suffering. Job reminds God that He fashioned him like a potter makes a vessel and now God is destroying His creation. Job uses the same description David used in Psalm 139:13 or more likely David used the same description of being knit together that Job used in 10:11. Job is pleading with God not to destroy His creation. This same plea should be made to abortion doctors: “Don’t destroy God’s creation!”
Solomon in Ecclesiastes 11:5-6 wrote that we don’t always understand the mysteries of life’s circumstances much as parents don’t comprehend how babies grow in the womb of the mother. Nevertheless, parents must still get up in the morning, go to work, and move on with life. The formation of a life from sperm and an egg truly is mysterious, miraculous, and should not be hindered.
We are taught in Jeremiah 1:4-5 that these babies in their mother’s womb are there because God has a will for them after birth. God brings us into this world with a plan to serve Him. To abort is to thwart God’s will.
Dr. Luke in chapter one of his gospel makes much of life in the womb. In 1:15, Luke informed us that John the Baptist was filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Think of the implications of aborting what the Holy Spirit is intimately involved with. In 1:31, Gabriel informed Mary that in her womb would be conceived the promised Messiah who was considered by God as “holy” in 1:35. In 1:41, the baby in Elisabeth’s womb leaped. Whatever that means, it doesn’t mean that Dr. Luke considered preborn babes as an inhuman fetus.
Paul makes a statement about the importance of God’s plan for babies in Galatians 1:15-16 that is similar to Jeremiah’s statement in 1:4-5. Paul was defending himself from the charges of the Judaizers who accused Paul of being an illegitimate apostle. Paul reminds the Galatians that he was God’s choice to be an apostle from his mother’s womb.
The culture of life permeates God’s Word. God prohibits abortion but even more importantly, He promotes life. Meredith Kline wrote that there is no explicit prohibition of abortion in the OT, because it was unthinkable for a Jewish mother to even consider killing her baby.
Albert R. Mohler. The Gathering Storm (p. 44). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.