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Quotes from Early Christians and Jews Regarding Abortion

"I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."  Romans 12:1-2

Scriptures on the Unborn

CONCEPTION IS GOD'S GIFT

  Proverbs 127:3-4 "Children are a gift from God; they are His reward." (Living Bible)
  Genesis 18:9-15 God tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son. Genesis 21:1-2 "The Lord visited Sarah as he said, and the Lord did to Sarah as He had spoken. And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him."
  Genesis 25:21 "And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived."
  Genesis 25:23 "And the Lord said to (Rebekah), "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger."
  Genesis 29:31-35 The Lord causes Leah to conceive and bear four sons.
  Genesis 30:22-23 "God opened Rachel's womb and she conceived and bore Joseph."
  I Samuel 1:19-20 The Lord answers Hannah's prayer and gives her a son.
  Galatians 1:15 "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen." (KJV)
  Jeremiah 1:4-5 "Now the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, "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 1:13 Birth of John the Baptist, promised to "childless" couple; "But the angel said to him, Zechariah, do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth is to bare you a son and you must name him John. He will be your joy and delight and many will rejoice at his birth..."
  Luke 1:26-38 The Annunciation - The Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear the child, Jesus, before she is ever pregnant. Two of our most beautiful canticles, the Magnificat and the Benedictus are glorifying these two "annunciations", of John and Jesus.

GOD THE FATHER IS CREATOR OF THE UNBORN.

  Job 10:8-13 Job acknowledges God as creator.
  Job 31:15 "Did not he that made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?"
  Psalm 139:13-16 "For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me right well; my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them."
  Ecclesiastes 11:5 "As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything."
  Isaiah 44:2 "Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you."
  Isaiah 44:24 "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the Lord, who made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth--who was with me?"

THE SPIRIT IS IN THE UNBORN AND RESPONDS TO GOD.

  Ecclesiastes 11:5 Refer to the above.
  Luke 1:15 John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit before birth. "For he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb."
  Luke 1:41 "And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary (Mother of Christ), the babe (John the Baptist) leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit."
  Luke 1:44 "For behold, when the voice of your greeting come to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy."

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT TAKING A LIFE?

  Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill."
  Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image."
  Exodus 1:16-17 "'When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.' But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live."
  Exodus 21:22-25 "When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."
  Amos 1:13-15 "Yahweh says this: 'For the three crimes, the four crimes, of the sons of Ammon I have made my decree and will not relent: Because they have disemboweled the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend their own frontiers, I am going to light a fire against the wall of Rabbah to burn up her palaces, to the sound of war cries on the day of battle, amid storms on a day of hurricane; and their king shall go into exile, he and his princes with him,' says Yahweh."

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT THE RESPONSIBILITY TO SAVE UNPROTECTED LIVES?

  Proverbs 6:16-17 "Seven things hateful to God: There are six things that Yahweh hates, seven that his soul abhors: A haughty look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood..."
  Matthew 24:19 "Woe to the women with child in latter days."
  Matthew 19:14 "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God."
  Matthew 25:34-40 "Enter into the kingdom prepared for you, because when I was hungry you fed me, thirsty you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you received me into your homes... If you do it unto the least of these my brothers, you do it unto me." Deuteronomy. 30:19 "I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death...therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live."

IF SOCIETY SHOWS A TENDENCY TO CHOOSE DEATH, DOES THE CHURCH HAVE TO COMPROMISE?

Ezekiel the prophet as sentry - "After seven days the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows, 'Son of man, I have appointed you as sentry to the House of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from me, warn them in my Name. If I say to a wicked man: You are to die, and you do not warn him; if you do not speak and warn him to renounce his evil ways and so live, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, however, you do not warn a wicked man and he does not renounce his wickedness and his evil ways, then he shall die for his sin, but you yourself will have saved your life. When the upright man renounces his integrity to do evil and I set a trap for him, he too shall die; since you failed to warn him, he shall die for his sin and the integrity he practiced will no longer be remembered; but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, however, you warn the upright man not to sin and he abstains from sinning, he shall live, thanks to your warning, and you too will have saved your life.'"

  John 10:9-16 "I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: He will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; this is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, and one shepherd."

(Reprinted with permission from MCCL)

 

Quotes from Early Christian and Jews Regarding Abortion
 

Josephus, a first century Jew, priest, general and historian: "The law, moreover enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing humankind: if anyone, therefore, proceeds to such fornication or murder, he cannot be clean."

Barnabas, an early Christian (100 AD), The Epistle of Barnabas, "In the Way of Light" "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. Thou shalt love thy neighbor more than thine own soul. Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born. Thou shalt not withdraw thy hand from thy son, or from thy daughter, but from their infancy thou shalt teach them the fear of the Lord."

Didache [ 120 A.D.]  The Didache, or Teachings of the Twelve, is also believed to have originated in Alexandria (though some think it came from Syria), probably during the first decades of the second century. A church manual, divided into four parts, the Didache treats Christian ethics, liturgical matters (baptism, fasting, the Eucharist, the ministry and church government), and the Second Coming and end of the world.

And the second commandment of the Teaching;  "Thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not commit paederasty, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not practise magic, thou shalt not practise witchcraft, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten. Thou shalt not covet the things of thy neighbour, 3. thou shalt not forswear thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not speak, evil, thou shalt bear no grudge. 4. Thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. 5. Thy speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. 6. Thou shalt not be covetous, nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty. Thou shalt not take evil counsel against thy neighbour. 7. Thou shalt not hate any man; but some thou shalt reprove, and concerning some thou shalt pray, and some thou shalt love more than thy own life."

Athenagoras, Second Century, Christian philosopher from Athens who allegedly became a Christian while reading the Scriptures in order to argue against them. Athenagoras’ familiarity with pagan philosophy is evident in his works. Athenagoras wrote an Apology (177) defending Christians to the Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161–180) and Commodus (ruled 180–192). In it he refuted three charges brought against Christians: that Christians were atheists, that they practiced incestuous immorality, and that they ate human flesh as part of their ritual. Athenagoras argued that Christians, like the philosophers, recognized only one God who is uncreated, immaterial, and known to the understanding alone. As for the false gods, he wrote, the pagans did not even agree on who they were and, further, they described them as doing immoral deeds. The wonders which the false gods were thought to perform were really done by demons. Christians could not be called immoral since they believed that it was wrong to sin even in one’s thoughts and since they believed that sins would be punished eternally. Finally, Athenagoras argued, no people would engage in cannibalism who refused to watch combats in the circus, who did not expose infants to die, and who thought abortion was wrong.

"THE CHRISTIANS CONDEMN AND DETEST ALL CRUELTY. What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? For we cannot eat human flesh till we have killed some one. The former charge, therefore, being false, if any one should ask them in regard to the second, whether they have seen what they assert, not one of them would be so barefaced as to say that he had. And yet we have slaves, some more and some fewer, by whom we could not help being seen; but even of these, not one has been found to invent even such things against us. For when they know that we cannot endure even to see a man put to death, though justly; who of them can accuse us of murder or cannibalism? Who does not reckon among the things of greatest interest the contests of gladiators and wild beasts, especially those which are given by you? But we, deeming that to see a man put to death is much the same as killing him, have abjured such spectacles. How, then, when we do not even look on, lest we should contract guilt and pollution, can we put people to death? And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it. But we are in all things always alike and the same, submitting ourselves to reason, and not ruling over it."

Minucius Felix, [A.D. 210]

"And now I should wish to meet him who says or believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant. Think you that it can be possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those fatal wounds; for any one to shed, pour forth, and drain that new blood of a youngling, and of a man scarcely come into existence? No one can believe this, except one who can dare to do it. And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to birds; at another, that you crush them when strangled with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your gods. For Saturn did not expose his children, but devoured them. With reason were infants sacrificed to him by parents in some parts of Africa, caresses and kisses repressing their crying, that a weeping victim might not be sacrificed. Moreover, among the Tauri of Pontus, and to the Egyptian Busiris, it was a sacred rite to immolate their guests, and for the Galli to slaughter to Mercury human, or rather inhuman, sacrifices. The Roman sacrificers buried living a Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gallic man and a Gallic woman; and to this day, Jupiter Latiaris is worshipped by them with murder; and, what is worthy of the son of Saturn, he is gorged with the blood of an evil and criminal man. I believe that he himself taught Catiline to conspire under a compact of blood, and Bellona to steep her sacred rites with a draught of human gore, and taught men to heal epilepsy with the blood of a man, that is, with a worse disease. They also are not unlike to him who devour the wild beasts from the arena, besmeared and stained with blood, or fattened with the limbs or the entrails of men. To us it is not lawful either to see or to hear of homicide; and so much do we shrink from human blood, that we do not use the blood even of eatable animals in our food.

John Chrysostom, John preached through many of Paul’s letters, ("I like all the saints," he said, "but St. Paul the most of all—that vessel of election, the trumpet of heaven.") the Gospels of Matthew and of John, and the Book of Genesis. Changed lives were his goal, and he denounced sins from abortion to prostitution and from gluttony to swearing.

 

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