“But There is No Verse Prohibiting Abortion!”
Written by William Varner | Professor of Biblical Languages and Bible Exposition
“But there is no verse prohibiting abortion!”
Now that I have your attention with that radical opening statement, allow me to point out that it is in quotation marks. It is a sad comment we sometimes hear from a sincere but deluded soul who desires to hold onto the Bible while being open to taking the life of a little one in the womb.
Now let me jar you a bit more. Strictly speaking, the statement is technically true. If you mean there is no command like “thou shalt not do an abortion” in the Bible, then the statement is valid. But that in no way settles this important issue. But the absence of a command against an action in no way relieves the Bible reader of obeying the Divine word.
Let me explain. When the Bible was written, scripture delivers a clear and unequivocal command against taking someone’s life in premeditated murder in both the Old and the New Testaments. You know these commands, so I will just mention the references. Notice, also, that God did not limit this prohibition to the sixth commandment delivered to Israel (Exodus 20:13). He instituted it in the days of Noah (Genesis 9:6), hundreds of years before Sinai, and directed it to believing Gentiles much later in the New Testament (Matthew 5:21; Romans 13:9). The Bible is clear that the life of a living being is not to be deliberately taken. You and I know I am “preaching to the choir.” The issue at hand is whether the Bible teaches that life begins in the womb, and if it does, then those commands protect the unborn.
What evidence is there in the Bible of such pre-born life?
Here it is: Psalm 139 is one of the most theological and, at the same time, most personal passages in all the Word of God. It explores such theological themes as our God’s omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. At the same time the Psalmist uses his own personal pronouns (I, me, my) 50 times! While celebrating the fact that God creates all things and knows all things, he graphically describes how God has made me and knows all about me, even in my mother’s womb!
For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And intricately woven in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance;
And in Your book all of them were written
The days that were formed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
You see, the Bible does not need to say, “Thou shalt not perform an abortion.”
“This passage boldly says that if you damage or destroy one who is in their mother’s womb, you destroy one whom God has created and formed and who lives!”
Like a skilled seamstress, He weaves and creates a beautiful tapestry in utero! The psalmist declares that he was made in the “secret places,” a figure of speech for the womb, even if at our beginning, we were not much more than an “unshaped substance!” God is still personally involved in creating and nurturing our parts and has written us in His Book!
Originally published on focusonthefamily.com on January 23, 2024.