Is abortion a sin?

This article is to help you to understand the Christian position on abortion. Christianity is founded on the truth of God’s Word, the Bible, and it is solemnized by love and our profound responsibility to follow God’s commandments (John 14:15). It is on these bases that I strongly condemn professing Christians and clergy who condone or even actively support abortion.

Abortion is the unjust taking of innocent life — unborn life — and is strictly forbidden in the Bible by God directly and through his interactions with the Church. Even our Savior Jesus Christ taught us to love in many ways, but he whipped people in the temple for not following God’s commandments

Why then would Christian pastors and Gospel leaders become complacent and compliant with the abortion culture that is creeping into our churches and pulpits? Further, why are some “pro-life” churches and leaders spending time trying to justify the actions of the mothers who choose to abort their child while shifting all the blame to the doctors and the fathers who perhaps push them toward that decision? With the Church leading so many people astray, it is no wonder why so many people are leaving. How about those who do not know or understand the gospel, if we minimize their guilt for their actions, won’t they remain in their sin unforgiven

Assuaging the Conscience of Abortive Mothers

A few years ago, legislators in Iowa proposed a bill that would allow women to sue their aborting doctors and facilitators should they feel regret for doing it. Guilt is a powerful emotion and can haunt the human soul forever — and this haunting may run even kings mad if done long enough. God implanted a conscience in us that we may feel guilt for our transgressions against Him.

Make no mistake about it, abortion is murder, and, deep down, murderers are some of the most remorseful people in the world; even when they pretend not to be. The worst affected are those who manage to keep their murders secret and thus don’t come to a quick redemption. How then would a woman not feel overwhelming guilt for aborting her innocent child? God made it that we must be accountable for our sins, and guilt is one way that God uses to bring us to repentance

Yet, pro-life leaders want to reward them with money? Wow! Let’s make the accomplice — the doctors — instead pay the women so they can have some money to mitigate their guilt and assuage their consciences. Better yet, let us create a legal environment that encourages abortion by making women get paid by doctors to abort. Iowa, God is watching. And what is the Church in Iowa doing about it?

Just this week, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics branch signed a letter calling on state lawmakers not to criminalize abortions for mothers because mothers are the “victims” of an abortion. The letter read, in part:

Women are victims of abortion and require our compassion and support as well as ready access to counseling and social services in the days, weeks, months, and years following an abortion.

As national and state pro-life organizations, representing tens of millions of pro-life men, women, and children across the country, let us be clear: We state unequivocally that any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women is not pro-life and we stand firmly opposed to such efforts.

This does nothing to deter a mother from killing her child and only serves to demonstrate that many of our Evangelical leaders don’t actually believe that unborn life is as valuable as life outside the womb.

Churches not taking a strong stand against abortion

Well, in early March 2019, 62 church leaders from Mainline Protestant churches joined hands with other Iowa-based religious and community leaders to support abortion. They had with them campaign paraphernalia used by feminists and pro-abortion movements reading pro-family, pro-faith, and pro-choice. But God doesn’t give us a choice on abortion. Surely, how can one proclaim the law that one does not want to follow? They asserted that abortion is a political issue and not a theological one. These people didn’t even pose it as a theological mystery needing answers because that would lead them to the bible where they would find obvious answers. They even wrote an open letter. They told the government that it doesn’t have a right to restrict abortion based on Bible Laws. Can you believe it, it is the church leading politicians astray!

Another thing that you should know is that even the most powerful politicians benefit from abiding by cultural norms. In fact, the most established empires fall when they bring too much change and try to change culture drastically. That is why many politicians stick to religion and go to church; they would lose popularity and subsequently power if they did not. Historically, the Church has been singly the most powerful cultural force that we have in America. In many ways, it unites people under one God without regard for things such as ethnicity or language. But this is quickly changing.

If Christians truly stood by their God, they would stand up to abortion, and the political class would follow with its legislative powers. But now, be careful who you follow because look what the mainstream Protestant churches have led Iowa politicians to do. In due time, God will strike down the complacent clergymen leading their congregations into rebellion against God

What does the Bible say about sin?

The Bible condemns a person who abstains from doing the right thing that he knew he should do. James 4:17 says,

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

God considers such inaction a sin, and these mainstream Protestant pastors are folly to distance themselves from the topic or to even openly condone it. They are condemned just as Pontius Pilate who knew the truth, had the power to act but simply washed his hands in front of a multitude. In fact, the Iowa clergymen who signed their names on the letter leading the government leaders astray are far worse off. Do you remember Edmund Burke’s words about 350 years ago? “Evil will always triumph as long as good people do nothing.” It is a profound Christian responsibility to do something.

The good thing is those good Christians in Iowa did something about it and overturned this evil legislation. I pray they will also do something about what the cowardly and sacrilegious clergymen did earlier this month. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, in 2018, signed the ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ law, another compromise that still allows the killing of innocent children so long as a heartbeat isn’t detected yet.

Weak leadership in the Church against abortion

Did you know that the Evangelical Lutheran Church proclaims that abortion should be legal and publicly funded? And the National Council of Churches doesn’t offer an official position on abortion. The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations advises that abortion is a constitutional right that shouldn’t be denied and the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) asserts that abortion is a personal decision; it doesn’t rebuke it.

Is it not true that some church leaders serve their popularity and high social status more than they serve the truth? Do you deny that false prophets take theological leadership and fail to lead faithfully? Do you consult your bible, or will you allow religious pop icons to lead you astray? Doesn’t it cost to love; isn’t it tasking to safeguard the wellness of your neighbor; isn’t it daunting? Why then should you fear to speak the truth and shun the evil that is abortion?

Taking a Biblical stand against abortion

We should all stand against abortion. However, churches have failed to teach the biblical concept that abortion is the unjust taking of human life and that even though mothers may be experiencing a difficult situation, God still holds them accountable. Many of these leaders, though they support legislation that would make abortion illegal, do not want mothers to be held accountable. This is the position that many conservative Church leaders in traditionally more conservative denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church (PCA) are adopting.

This idea is anti-gospel because the gospel teaches that we are guilty and responsible for our own sins. Telling mothers that they shouldn’t be held accountable essentially teaches that they are not responsible for their actions, therefore, have no need to seek forgiveness at the cross. Such reasoning is what drives politicians to enact laws that cultivate ripe grounds for abortion to continue its expansion in our nation and even into our churches

One of the excuses that complacent church leaders give for their inaction is that God teaches us to love and to accept. That is the Gospel truth, and it binds all redeemed believers in Christ. However, that truth does not discount that there are some things that God loathes and detests. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the Bible emphasizes that God expects us to shun those things that he detests. He outlines them as well, and abortion is at the forefront. He does not expect his proclaimers to minimize the sin of abortion for the sake of self-promotion or tolerance. Unfortunately, many Christians simply refuse to stand for the truth because they fear contradiction and controversy.

The church is simply intimidated by persecution and Christians, especially men, are emasculated and misled by feminists, LGBT societies, and pro-abortion movements that portray conservative Christians as bigots and hateful. These movements infiltrate churches because leaders allow it. In all of the fuss, churches fear the political retribution of shunning sin and forget that their freedoms to practice their faith are enshrined in the Gospel. They forget that their allegiance is first to God, not the culture or the world. Instead, they become like Pontius Pilate who washed his hands despite the power he had to stop the torture of our Christ and Messiah. Ultimately, they taint themselves with sin in the eyes of the Lord.

When the shepherd is lost, the sheep get lost too. When our clergymen won’t stand against evil, most of us in the congregation simply lack the voice to do it. However, we should stand and protest. We should hold hands and rebuke the erred. Even sheep baa intensely to warn their shepherds when they aren’t aware of wolves and foxes. This is why we should be on the frontlines armed with the sword of the gospel fighting abortion. We’re not just trying to save babies, we’re trying to change the hearts of murderers to be forgiven followers of Christ.

The Gospel is the only solution to the sin of abortion.

Not all are called to stand in front of abortion clinics and preach. But all Christians are called to take an uncompromising posture against the culture of death. Proverbs 8:36 says that those who hate God love death. This can’t be truer than in the abortion industry. It doesn’t matter if you profess Christ — if you support abortion, you rebel against God. If you minimize the guilt of sin from mothers, you compromise the gospel. If you hate God, you love death, and you need to seek the cross for repentance and forgiveness.

This heinous sin is not bothered that a silent majority of Christians disapprove of abortion. It isn’t at all challenged that we preach against it in our pulpits. In fact, it loves our quiet disapproval and will thrive on our complaining and wagging tongues. It is only truly bothered whenever the gospel is raised up against it.

Surely, no matter what your church leaders tell you, abortion is a theological issue that is profoundly forbidden. Make no mistake about it: God will punish those who abort whether they are pregnant women or aborting doctors. The only answer for sin is Jesus’ shed blood on the cross, God is a forgiving God — and this is the truth we must proclaim from every angle.

See also: Will God Forgive Me for My Abortion?