Dr. Rodney Plunket

This morning I want to talk about abortion, and I want to begin with a fact that may surprise you.  The practice of abortion was quite common in the ancient, pagan world in which Christianity was born.  Abortion is not a modern, contemporary phenomenon.  In 1982 Michael J. Gorman published a little book entitled Abortion & the Early Church.  In the first two chapters of that book, Gorman describes the various abortion methods available in the cultures surrounding the early Church; he also demonstrates the widespread nature of abortion during that same period of time.  Gorman writes, “Abortion may not have been easy or safe for a woman in ancient times, but it was nevertheless widely practiced.”[1]  One indication of both the unsafety and the widespread use of abortion comes from the life of a Roman emperor.  Emperor Domitian reigned over the Roman Empire from AD 81-96.  Two Roman writers refer to the fact that Domitian had a sexual affair with his niece, Julia.  She became pregnant.  Domitian ordered that the pregnancy be terminated.  The pregnancy was terminated by an abortion, and the niece died as result.[2]

There were those within both the Greek and Roman cultures who opposed abortion.  The opposed it for various reasons:  because it was an offense against the gods, was anti-family, went against nature,[3] circumvented the rights of the father, served as a bad example to the lower classes,[4] or endangered the mother.[5]  But the value of the fetus was not the reason abortion was opposed by those Greeks and Romans who did oppose it.  Gorman summarizes the Roman view, which is not unlike the Greek view, in this way:

That the fetus is not a person was fundamental to Roman law.  Even when born, the child was valued primarily not for itself but for its usefulness to the father, the family and especially the state, as a citizen “born for the state.”

Gorman’s third chapter deals with the view of Jews during this same time period.  His findings are summarized in one sentence near the beginning of that chapter:  “It was a given of Jewish thought and life that abortion, . . . , was unacceptable, and this was well known in the ancient world.”[6]  In other words, Jews believed it was wrong to terminate a pregnancy through abortion and many in the non-Jewish world knew that Jews held to that anti-abortion position.

Now we turn to the early Church.  It is clear that the books of the New Testament never mention abortion.  Some have argued that the NT is silent because its writers approved of the practice.  We must admit that often the silence of Scripture is a difficult issue relative to biblical interpretation, but I doubt that anyone wants to argue that the writers of the NT were silent about the setting out of babies in the elements to die because they approved of that practice.  However, we know that many pagan people of that time period did just that to unwanted baby girls or to any baby who was deformed.  I suspect that the reason the NT says nothing about abortion is because the earliest churches were grounded on Jewish views of right and wrong, and Jews of that period knew and taught that abortion was wrong.  As a result, local Church leaders knew how to address that issue.  No writings by leaders like Paul or John had to be composed and sent to churches because the issue never required outside input.

Another important point is that there are some early Christian writings that do mention the practice of abortion, and the view found in those writings is arguably the strongest prohibition in antiquity.  The Didache is an early Christian writing that was extremely influential in the Church for many centuries.  It likely was written in the early second century.  Please listen to chapter 2, section 2 of that writing:

You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not corrupt youth; you shall not commit fornication; you shall not steal; you shall not use soothsaying; you shall not practice sorcery; you shall not kill a child by abortion, neither shall you slay it when born; you shall not covet the goods of thy neighbor.

Notice that the fetus here is referred to as a child and abortion is considered to be the killing of a child.  Now let’s look at the Epistle of Barnabas.  It was without doubt written before AD 190 and was likely written earlier than AD 135.  Please listen to its words in chapter 20, section 5:  “You shall love your neighbor more than your own life.  You shall not procure abortion, you shall not commit infanticide.”  Notice that here the abortion prohibition follows the command to “love your neighbor more than your own life.”  Gorman argues that such a placement means; “The fetus is seen, not as a part of its mother, but as a neighbor.  Abortion is rejected as contrary to other-centered neighbor love.”[7]  Tertullian wrote his Apology, a defense of Christianity, in AD 197.  Listen to his words directed to an expectant mother:

In this matter the best teacher, judge, and witness is the sex that is concerned with birth.  I call on you, mothers, whether you are now pregnant or have already borne children; let women who are barren and men keep silence!  We are looking for the truth about the nature of women; we are examining the reality of your pains.  Tell us:  Do you feel any stirring of life within you in the fetus?  Does your groin tremble, your sides shake, your whole stomach throb as the burden you carry changes its position?  Are not these moments a source of joy and assurance that the child within you is alive and playful?  Should his restlessness subside, would you not be immediately concerned for him?[8]

Gorman also cites many other early Christian writings that are even stronger and more graphic in the way they indicate the early Church’s view that abortion was a grave act of immorality.

Sisters and brothers, the early Church was born in a time when the practice of abortion was widespread.  Of that we can be certain.  Sisters and brothers, we have the NT; but that collection of inspired writings was just coming together in their day.  So those early Christians looked to the teachings they did have, including the Old Testament.  And they stepped up on the high moral ground formed by those teachings––teachings like love for others, the sanctity of human life, and the absolute prohibition against murder.  They stood up on that high moral ground and they knew what to do.  In no uncertain terms they prohibited abortion.  And their stance against it stood out in their world.  As Gorman says, “the most distinctive feature of early Christian rejection of abortion is its placing the well-being of the fetus at the center of the issue.  Christians discarded all pagan definitions of the fetus as merely part of the mother’s body. . . .  they always considered the unborn as God’s creation.”[9]

We have good scientific reasons to do the same.  We know that from the moment of conception all 46 human chromosomes are present.  This child’s DNA is unlike the mother or father.  In just eighteen days the heart is pumping the baby’s own blood.  By week five the eyes, hands, and feet begin to develop.  By week six the brain waves of the child are detectable.  Just a few days later all twenty teeth buds are present.  By week seven the eyelids and toes form and the nose is distinct.  By week eight all body systems are present and the bones form.  Week nine gives us a baby that can suck her or his thumb, kick, and curl toes.  At week eleven the baby can smile and all body systems are working.  By week seventeen the baby can dream and experience REM sleep.  By week twenty-three the baby can survive outside the womb.

This baby is God’s creation from the moment of conception.  Do you want to face that God having killed a child that lives because the power of life that only God can give?  I don’t want you to.

Now I want to read to you a story sent to me by one of our members, Debra Rogers.

This is the story of a very brave woman, a woman I have respected and loved for 26 years.  The story began in 1975, when the woman was 27 years old.  She was a well-educated woman, with a good career and a bright future.  She considered herself a moral person, a Christian, a person of character.  It so happened that she became involved with a man and found herself pregnant.

Being single and pregnant was not what she had planned at this time in her life.  It meant the end of her job.  Though her family was supportive, this was such an embarrassment to them, she could not bear to hurt them by allowing her pregnancy to become known.

She, like so many other women, faced a difficult decision.  Abortion was now legal and many other women at the time saw it as an answer to their prayers.  Several of her friends strongly suggested she too end this pregnancy and get on with her life.  The man who had fathered this baby, demanded she have an abortion.  When he declared that he had no intention of being a father, she knew they had no future together.

She did not see abortion as an option.  To her, it was murder––the murder of her child.  “How could I make one mistake better by committing an even greater sin?” she once told a friend.

She decided to move to a remote part of the country, where there was no chance of meeting anyone who knew her.  She gave up her job, her friends, her home.  She took all her savings, got a part-time, minimum wage job and moved into a small apartment.  She found a Christian doctor in this small community who became her friend and her confidant.  “I love my child,” she told him, “but I know I cannot give him the kind of life he deserves.  I’m not ready to be a mother.  I have other things I want to do, that I need to do before I am ready to raise a child.”  Then she asked a most difficult question, “Do you know of a couple who would be good parents to my child?”

Doctor Joe knew of several couples who were wanting to have children.  He described each of them to her and she asked many questions.  She wanted her child to be raised in a Christian home with a loving mother and father.  Education was important to her.  She had a supportive, extended family and wanted the same for her child.  For weeks, she prayerfully considered her choices.

I cannot tell you the woman’s name.  I can tell you that I have faithfully prayed for her and loved her since that time.  For she gave us the greatest gift any person has ever given us, our son Jason.  We are forever grateful that she did not see abortion as an option.  We cannot imagine our lives or this world without Jason.  What a marvelous lesson of courage and of love she is to us.  (NB:  Jason is currently the Youth & Family Minister at the Airport Freeway Church of Christ in Euless, Texas).

What a powerful story.  What a blessing to hear of one person who stood strong for the sanctity of life, and now many are being blessed by the life of that child raised up right here at the Broadway church and sent out from here to serve families and young people in the Name of Christ.

I am not naïve.  I know that it is likely that someone in this assembly this morning has had an abortion.  For you I want to look at a passage written by the Apostle Paul.  Please take your Bible and follow along as I read 1 Timothy 1:12-17:

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.  But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.  But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.  To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Did you hear Paul’s words?  He is the foremost of sinners.  So whatever you have done, you not the worst sinner there has ever been.  The inspired writer Paul has authority from God to speak, and he declares that he is at the top of the bad sin­ners list.  So do not put your self there.  God forgave Paul.  God can forgive you.

But we walk a tightrope here.  Because we must not encourage anyone to take God’s mercy/God’s grace and turn it into a license to sin.  If you get an abortion knowing that it is a sin but presuming on God’s grace to forgive, then God is able to harden your heart as God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  God can cause you never truly to repent and, therefore, never forgiven.  That can be God’s judgment against you for, with malice and evil intent, going against God’s will by treating God’s grace as permission to sin.

If you are here this morning, however, and have a broken and repentant heart for any sin, then God is calling you.  God is calling you home to God’s heart.  Please say yes to that call.  Please come to the front now as we stand and sing.

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