There are many people, both “Christians” and unbelievers, who actually try to claim that the Bible condones abortion, even approves of it. This is a big claim, so let’s see if it has any teeth.
1. God Flooded the Earth
Genesis 7:21–24
And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind...He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark…
God is the giver of life, and the taker of life. He has every right and authority to judge his people when they are rebelling against him. We, as humans, are not the giver of life and God has commanded us not to murder and commit child sacrifice.
2. God Commanded Israel to Kill the Canaanites
Deuteronomy 20:16–18
But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.
God is the standard of justice. It would have been immoral for them not to kill the canaanites since God commanded them to. The same God who commanded that we ought not to take a human life unjustly, commanded Israel to justly take a certain people groups lives. What does that tell you about the canaanites? It’s funny how we rush to the rescue of sinful people and call God unjust.
3. God Told Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac
Genesis 22:6–14
…Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns…”
This was a prophecy for the coming of Christ (the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world). Abraham was already promised by God that through Isaac his offspring would come. Since God can’t lie, Abraham simply trusted that God would resurrect him. God then provided a substitute ram in place of Isaac, prophesying the provision of Jesus that would later come to be our substitute so that we could no longer be in Adam, but in Christ.
4. The Bible Says Life Begins at First Breath
Genesis 2:7
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Just because Adams life began when God breathed life into him, it doesn’t follow that all human life begins at first breath. Eve was made from Adams rib, but it doesn’t follow that all women are generated from male ribs today. There were simply no humans to reproduce in the beginning, you have to start somewhere.
However, we have plenty of scripture regarding when human life post Adam and Eve begins.
Psalm 139:13–16
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. 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 51:5
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Jeremiah 1:5
“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.”
Luke 1:39–45
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Genesis 25:22
The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.
5. God Commands Fine For Miscarriage (Exodus 21)
Exodus 21:22–25
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
The only time someone tries to use this verse as justifying abortion is with the translations that say “so that she miscarries.” This is not the original text, it is a modern interpretation. The Hebrew and Greek of the original words translate to “The child comes out”, which means premature birth.
The ironic thing is, this passage actually shows that an accidental abortion is worthy of death in God’s eyes. How much more the intentional legal ones that happen every day in the U.S?
6. God Commanded Child Sacrifice (Exodus 22:29)
Exodus 22:29–30
“You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.
This is a misreading of the text. When read with Ex 13:13-15 and Numbers 3:46-51, it’s clear that the first born males were to be redeemed by a monetary sacrifice, not killed.
Exodus 13:13–15
Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
Numbers 3:46–51
And as the redemption price for the 273 of the firstborn of the people of Israel, over and above the number of the male Levites, you shall take five shekels per head; you shall take them according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel of twenty gerahs), and give the money to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for those who are over.” So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those redeemed by the Levites. From the firstborn of the people of Israel he took the money, 1,365 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. And Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.
In fact, the following passages make it painfully clear that God detests child sacrifice.
Jeremiah 19:3–5
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind…
Deuteronomy 12:29–31
“When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess…take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
7. Ezekiel 20:25-26
Ezekiel 20:25–26
Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the LORD.
If you read the context of the passage, God is going through the Exodus account and showing that he gave life-giving statutes, but Israel did not follow them, time and time again. So in response to that, God gave them up to their sinful desires, similar to what is discussed in Romans 1, so that they would suffer the consequences of a sinful life and come back to acknowledge him as God.
Romans 1:24–28
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
8. Numbers 5:11-31
Numbers 5:11–31
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act, and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
“And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the LORD. And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD and unbind the hair of the woman’s head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ‘the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
“Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness. And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand and shall wave the grain offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.
Pro-aborts like to use this passage to say God condones abortion and therefore we should be able to do it too. There’s 2 ways you can take this as to what happens to the woman.
Disfigurement view (majority of translations)
On this view, if the women is not pregnant currently, and her body becomes disfigured, then this has nothing to do with abortion.
Miscarriage view
Even if this passage is indeed describing a miscarriage, the key difference is God himself is the one taking the life. The priest, mother or husband isn’t commanded to go inside the uterus and rip the baby’s legs limb from limb. God has the authority to take life since he is the one who gives it.
9. Matthew 7:1
Pro-aborts will try to use Matt 7:1 to claim that an equal protection bill for the pre-born should not be put in place.
Matthew 7:1
Judge not, that you be not judged.
The rebuttal to this is literally the next 2 verses.
Matthew 7:1–5
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
This passages speaks against hypocritical judgement, not any judgement at all. An equal protection bill shows no partiality, so there is no hypocritical judgement.
Even further, the pro-abort using this isn’t consistent in applying this to murdering born people, raping people, or kidnapping. They’re completely fine with “judging” those people under the law.
10. Throw The First Stone (John 8:7)
John 8:7
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Mosaic law required that there needs to be at least 2 witnesses, and that the man and the women would need to be put to death for the crime of adultery. It also required that the witnesses be the first to cast the stone.
Leviticus 20:10
If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Deuteronomy 19:15
“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
Deuteronomy 17:5–7
then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
It appears in this passage that the witnesses and the man were not present. Instead of upholding justice without partiality, the pharisees were set on testing Jesus. This was a submission to the Mosaic law, not a violation of it.
11. Psalm 137:9
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
Psalm 137:9
This is an imprecatory psalm referencing Isaiah 13:16
Isaiah 13:16
Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.
The passage in Isaiah was a prophecy from the Lord about how Babylon will be destroyed by another army. Babylon had already done such wicked acts to other nations already.
Zach Conover from EAN had this to say
“…what is taking place is the prayers of the Israelites in exile that Yahweh would treat the Babylonian children with the same ruthlessness that the Babylonians showed against Israel in dashing their little ones to pieces. The Psalmist is saying, let them receive the same punishment that they inflicted on Israel. This is not God promising to kill babies; it is the Psalmist praying for what the Babylonians did to them to be returned in war.”1
Also, this doesn’t meant that the people who kill children aren’t accountable for their actions. God predestines the free actions of men.
Isaiah 10 is another great example of this. Assyria is condemned for their intention, even though they are the rod of God’s anger.
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;
the staff in their hands is my fury!
Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think;
but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few; for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings?”
Isaiah 10:5–8
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