This is to suggest that killing a human being in the womb does not fall under the disapproval of God himself, that it should not be called a sin and therefore tolerated or even practiced.
Proponents and opponents throw all kinds of social and ethical arguments at each other, but there is generally no real looking at the word of God.
It's easy to say, it's not in the Bible so it's allowed.
If something is not mentioned by name in the Bible, one must first look at the order of creation and the parts in the Bible that provide insight into what God's will is in a specific subject.
For example, the Bible does not say that you should not throw anyone off the roof.
It does say that you are not allowed to kill someone and that every house had to have a railing on the flat roof to prevent someone from falling down.
The conclusion that God does not allow you to throw anyone off the roof is clear here, even though it is not stated in the Bible.
I want to take you through the Bible and ask you a number of questions that this search will yield.
We're going to look:
1. How God intended people's lives.
2. How God sees man before conception, after conception and after birth.
3. What can be found in the Bible about killing people, before and after birth.
4. What conclusions can we draw from this research?
1. How God intended people's lives.
God created humans for eternity.
We can read this in Genesis 2
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you shall freely eat; 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
This shows that man as he was created was created for eternity and that before the Fall man was not meant to die.
We also read that in order to allow man to live eternally, God had given a tree that bore fruit that provided man with eternal life.
Genesis 3
22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, knowing good and evil. Now therefore, let him not put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. 23 So the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to build the ground from which he was taken. 24 And he drove out the man; and set cherubims toward the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword that turned about to keep the way of the tree of life.
The following text shows that God regularly visited his garden (garden of Eden), which he had given the people to manage.
Genesis 3
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God, walking in the garden in the wind of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God in the midst of the trees of the garden.
Because God lives forever and He created man in His image, we must also conclude here that man was created by God to maintain the garden forever and therefore to live forever.
2. How God sees man before conception, after conception and after birth.
I cannot find the idea that an unborn child is not "yet" a human being or may be called a human being in the Bible.
This idea was created by humans and in my opinion has no Biblical basis whatsoever.
First we look at the words that God speaks to the prophet Jeremiah when He calls him to the prophet's office.
Jeremiah 1
1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
4 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5 Before I formed you in your mother's womb I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; I have made you a prophet to the nations.
God says here that he already knew the person (soul) of the prophet before conception.
This means that the prophet's soul existed before there was even a single human cell.
King David (who was also a prophet) interpreted it in the psalms.
Psalm 139
14 I praise You, because I have been wonderfully made in a most fearful way; Your works are wonderful, my soul also knows them well. 15 My bones were not hidden from You, as I was made in secret, and wrought like embroidery in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed lump; and all these things were written in thy book in the days that they were formed, when none of them was yet.
David describes that his entire life was known to God himself before conception and that his entire life from his conception to his death was written in God's book.
Another example of this is the births of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ himself.
Both births were announced before conception with names, surnames and what they would do in their lives.
How and at what time the soul would be created is not found in the Bible (that remains something God has not revealed to us).
There is one exception and that is that of the creation of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 2
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; thus man became a living soul.
But they are not born but created.
For the remainder of this study, we will stick to the term living soul.
Many scientists have confirmed that (the soul of) the unborn child is alive and has consciousness, can feel pain and perceive sounds.
We read in Luke 1 that (the soul of) the unborn child can perceive and respond
41 And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, that the child leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit; 42 And cried out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 43 And whence comes this to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting came in my ears, the child leaped for joy in my womb. 45 And blessed is she who has believed; for the things which were spoken to her from the Lord shall be accomplished.
Here we read that the unborn John the Baptist heard Mary's voice and was aware of the presence of Jesus Christ in Mary's womb.
Through his leap of joy he passed on the knowledge he had to his mother through the Holy Spirit of God.
The unborn child told his mother something that she did not know before.
Finally, we find something special in John 9
1 And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither this man, nor his parents, sinned: but this was that the works of God might be made manifest in him.
Note here that the disciples ask whether the man born blind would have sinned, causing him to be born blind as a "punishment" from God.
So when should this alleged sin have been done?
The answer is before he was born.
The strange thing is that Jesus does not rebuke them for the thought and tell them that this would not be possible.
There are many other examples of Jesus rebuking people for assumptions that are incorrect or made up by humans.
No, Jesus says here; Neither has sinned.
With this, Jesus himself indicates that the unborn child does not have a separate status before birth and is seen as a human being by God.
3. What can be found in the Bible about killing people, before and after birth.
First of all, in this study we do not look at the killing of people in wartime or the killing of people after a verdict by an established court, judge or legal system.
These exceptions do not apply to the killing of people or unborn children.
God has given laws regarding premeditated murder, accidental manslaughter, and malicious manslaughter.
You can read this in Exodus 21
Exodus 21
12 Whosoever shall smite any man to die, he shall surely be put to death. 13 But he that hath not come after him, but God hath made him meet his hand, then will I appoint for thee a place whither he may flee. 14 But if anyone acts deliberately against his neighbor to kill him with cunning, you shall take him from before My altar, and he shall die.
Killing people is killing someone who is created in God's image, thus indirectly an attack on God himself.
This even applies to people who did not count at that time and were not seen as full human beings, such as slaves and female slaves.
See Exodus 21:
20 And if any man smite his manservant or his maidservant with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be avenged.
This again shows that every soul is equal before God.
I told you to hold on to the term living soul for a moment.
The soul is immortal and resides in our body.
Where does the soul reside then?
The answer is in the blood of the people.
Deuteronomy 12
23 Only take care that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the soul; therefore you shall not eat the soul with the flesh;
Leviticus 17
11 For the soul of the flesh is in the blood; therefore I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that will make atonement for the soul.
Genesis 9
4 But the flesh with its soul, which is its blood, you shall not eat. 5 And verily I will require your blood, the blood of your souls; at the hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in His image.
So if the blood of a man is shed, the soul of that man will be shed (loosed from the body).
The first example of this in the Bible is in Genesis 4
8 And Cain spoke with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, as they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. 9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; am I my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? there is a voice of your brother's blood, crying out to Me from the face of the earth. 11 And now you are cursed; from the face of the earth, who has opened his mouth to receive your brother's blood at your hand. 12 When you build the ground, it will no longer give you its wealth; you will be wanderers and wanderers on the earth.
David says about this in Psalm 9
13 For he seeks the shedding of blood, he remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
God hears the cry of the souls that cry from the shed blood of men.
So we read in Genesis 18
20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grievous, 21 I will now go down and see whether they have done the utmost according to their cry that came to me, and if not, I will know.
The LORD is talking here about the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah.
You will have to wonder who or what called to God.
Not the residents, they had nothing to do with God.
Lot himself is also not likely because God would probably have said that Lot had been the one calling.
If you read further you will see that Lot did not want to let him sleep in the marketplace because apparently they would not survive.
The outcry had to come from the shed blood (the souls) of the many unfortunates who had been killed at the hands of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.
God came with two angels as judges and brought judgment upon them.
We know that an unborn child has its own blood type and blood circulation and the previous chapter makes it clear that the unborn child has a soul that exists before conception.
We also see that God knows man, his path and his choices in his or her life from before conception to the grave.
If anyone wants to convince me that God places a different (or no) value on an unborn human being than on a born human being, please be kind enough to mention that in the comment on Biblical grounds.
Now to the Biblical references that might relate to abortion.
First we look at Exodus 1
15 And the king of Egypt spake unto the midwives of the Hebrews, the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: 16 And said, When ye help the Hebrews in travail, and see them upon stools, if it is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live! 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the young men's lives. 18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, that ye have saved the young men alive? 19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrews are not as the women of Egypt; for they are strong; before the midwife comes to her, they have given birth. 20 Therefore God dealt kindly with the midwives; and the people increased, and became very mighty. 21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he built their houses.
It is a point of contention here whether the midwives were supposed to kill Pharaoh's child (if it was a boy) just before, during, or just after birth.
You would think during or just after birth.
That is debatable because they did say that they always gained weight after birth.
Moreover, Pharaoh could have given the order to his people directly without giving such an order to the midwives.
This shows that Pharaoh apparently wanted to have the boys killed secretly without anyone noticing.
Only when that failed did he order his soldiers to kill the boys.
How were the midwives supposed to do that secretly?
Many women had had children before and would be alarmed if they saw the midwives killing the little boys.
The only way it could be done secretly is to kill the child just before birth.
Then the child would be stillborn and no one could be held accountable for that.
A number of theologians therefore assume that these midwives were so good at their work that they were able to determine the sex of the child before birth.
If the midwives killed children during or after birth (the mother sat during delivery and could see more than if she were lying down), they could incur the anger and revenge of the fathers and family.
Yet the Bible does not speak about the fear of reprisals from fathers and family, but about the fear of God who sees everything.
Fear of shedding innocent blood where they knew the punishment would not come from men but from God.
We also read that God built them houses.
This means in the Bible that God let them live safely, blessed them and that Pharaoh and even Satan could not harm them.
You can read a similar situation in Job 1 verse 10.
A second text that could relate to abortion is found in Exodus 21
22 And if men quarrel, and smite a woman with child, and her fruit is taken away, but there be no deadly destruction, then he shall surely be punished, as the woman's husband shall inflict upon him, and he shall give it by the judges. 23 But if there be deadly destruction, you shall give soul for soul.
The punishment for killing someone is already stated in the aforementioned text of Exodus 21 verses 12 to 14.
The rod for killing someone who was not fully counted among the people in Exodus 21 verse 20.
This concerns a pregnant woman.
Many theologians who are in favor of abortion or who sympathize with it explain in their explanation that the death of the woman must be the death of the woman.
There are a number of things to object to here.
Firstly, killing people high or low in rank or status has already been discussed in the verses mentioned.
If it indeed concerns the woman, this is an unnecessary additional mention (in the same chapter) of the same sin/manslaughter.
Secondly, in that case one must ask oneself why a pregnant woman is specifically described here instead of a non-pregnant woman.
The most logical thing is that this is about the unborn child as not yet a person of significance by people (but not by God).
This also concerns the loss of the fetus, the untimely birth of the child.
That is the focus in this text.
Mortal destruction therefore logically deals with the shed blood of the child.
If the woman is far into her pregnancy and the child survives, then there is only abuse that can be paid by means of a fine.
However, the loss of a life (earlier in pregnancy) cannot be punished with a fine and is the same punishment as killing any human being.
Here too, violence was deliberately used to shed the blood of a human being (before God from before conception until natural death).
4. What conclusions can we draw from this research?
We can first conclude that God did not desire the death of people, but that He originally created man for eternity.
Second, we see that God knows (created) every individual and makes no distinction between born and unborn people.
Third, we see that God sees the killing of people (born again or unborn) as a crime/sin that falls under His judgment.
Finally, we do come across texts in the Bible that show that abortion is equated by God with the killing of a (born) human being, no matter how high or low this may be seen by people.
