• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Is Abortion Murder?

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by onevoice:

Katelin Elizabeth Moran weighed 1 pound, 2 ounces when she was born nearly four months premature on May 11. During her 100 days in St. Peter's Hospital, she went through operations to repair a leaky valve in her heart, retina problems in both eyes and a hernia.

http://www.hannibal.net/stories/082099/Babyborn.html

This baby was 5 months old. Not alive according to you. ;)

and another born at 5 months. . .
MAYWOOD, Ill. (AP) - A baby girl who weighed just 12 ounces at birth went home Thursday, more than three months after she was born.

and another at 5 months. ..

[I}Police are probing the death of a premature baby at Victoria General Hospital last year, in a case sources say could spark more controversy between pro and anti-abortion groups.

The case involved a caesarian birth in which the baby died 11 hours later.

The caesarian delivery - 23 weeks after conception - was performed after the hospital’s abortion committee turned down a request for an abortion.

Det. Sgt. Blake Green of Victoria police said police are investigating the incident at the request of B.C. Chief Coroner William McArthur who will conduct an inquiry into the matter.

Sources say unanswered questions surround the case.[/I][/QB]
The month isn't what I have been arguing about it is the time that a fetus can survive by breathing with our without a ventilator. If medicine wants to require that they try to help a fetus breath at 4 months during an abortion then I see no problems with that and we can move it back to 4 months.
 

Daniel David

New Member
Post-it, I didn't realize my question was such a stumblingblock. I have directly asked a question twice and you dance around it. Are you so unsure about your position?

You asked if Jesus would still be the Christ if He had broken bones. Um, can we stay on the subject please?

I want to know if you think Christ was a person while in Mary or if He became a person only when He took His first breath?

I didn't think it was a difficult question.
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by Ransom:
First principles: What is the unborn?

Post-it claims it is not human. Then, what is it?

Post-it claimed it was a body part. This was shown to be false. So what is it?

Post-it then tried to draw an analogy between the unborn and a transplanted body part. This, too, was shown to be false. So what is it?

He then tried to draw an analogy between the unborn and an unfertilized gamete. This, again, was shown to be faulty. So what is it?

In the seven pages of posts that have ensued in the meantime, post-it has retreated into overblown emotional rhetoric about back-alley abortions and supposed Biblical proof-texts showing that the fetus is not human.

Post-it seems well informed concerning what the unborn is not, but he has not yet told us what it is.

If a fetus is not a human person, abortion needs no justification.
If a fetus is a human person, abortion can find no justification.

So what is it?[/QB]
You analysis of some of the prior arguments is in line with the rest of your ability to reason.

My argument from the start has not been what it is, but rather what does scripture say about abortion and when does life really begin? In an attempt to get away from scripture, many of you have brought up secular reasoning. As I have said before, if you wish to decide what is right and wrong outside scripture and in direct opposition to scripture, why don't you do the same with the homosexual issue.

Otherwise, let's find out what scripture says, if you find it supports your side then continue using it to support prolife, if however, it doesn't, I saying to STOP using it to support prolife and create a murder situation with women.
 

Ransom

Active Member
post-it said:

You analysis of some of the prior arguments is in line with the rest of your ability to reason.

Thank you, I take that as a compliment.

Otherwise, let's find out what scripture says

The Scripture says, "You shall not murder" (Exod. 20:13).

If a fetus is an unborn human person, an abortionist is a murderer.
If a fetus is not an unborn human person, an abortionist is a plastic surgeon.

Either way, the moral justification for abortion hinges on one, simple question: What is the unborn?

Why won't you just answer that one, simple question?
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by Scott J:
Post-it, What does the phrase "with child" mean? It is used 26 times in the Bible by my count... always referring to a pregnant woman. It must have some significance, Don't you think? Is a pregnant woman ever referred to by something other than "with child" or a similar phrase?

I've answered this before. What else are they going to call it? The question is when does it become a person, and it does while still in the womb. So yes, child, fetus, baby, forming human, it, that, whatever it is called has nothing to do with the issue. A man who kills others has the acceptance of God and the Bible to be killed and it is not murder. It is a man, he is alive, and God said it is ok to kill him since he is a murderer. If the Bible instead said not to kill him as murders should only be locked up then that is what we are only allowed to do, we can't say, well he deserves to die. It isn't what is fair, right or wrong, it is what scripture is telling us to do and not do.

time and time again, you have been shown that indeed the Bible considers an unborn child, a child... not a body part or any of the other inane and callous labels you have asserted. To cause it to cease living is murder.
I was only defending the Bible, because as you say, it seems to be callous in its pro-abortion stand. If I was wrong in those arguments, then maybe the author of the Bible can make a better argument as to why it is sanctioned in scripture.
[/qb] God is in it. It is a moral issue of right and wrong. Committing one sin to cover another does not justify either one.
So are you saying that the priests in Numbers 5 should not follow God's orders and possibly abort a baby because it is wrong morally? That somehow God called this one wrong?

Why would you say God is wrong on this issue in Numbers 5?
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by preachtheword
Post-it, I didn't realize my question was such a stumblingblock. I have directly asked a question twice and you dance around it. Are you so unsure about your position?

You asked if Jesus would still be the Christ if He had broken bones. Um, can we stay on the subject please?

I want to know if you think Christ was a person while in Mary or if He became a person only when He took His first breath?

I didn't think it was a difficult question.
Mary had free choice as God has given us all free choice, she could have aborted Jesus up to the age that he could have taken his first breath and still have been following scripture's acceptable time frame for an abortion. Would God have put Jesus in a mother he knew would abort? I don't think so, but what if he had already? What if some other girl which followed David's line did abort Jesus. That doesn't and wouldn't stop the will of God to have something done.

God could have also made it impossible for Mary to abort. There is just too many possibilities and that is why it is not relevant to this topic. Her's was a special case. It doesn't help or hurt the argument for other women and their choice on the matter.

[ August 26, 2002, 03:39 PM: Message edited by: post-it ]
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by Ransom:
[QB]post-it said:

You analysis of some of the prior arguments is in line with the rest of your ability to reason.

Thank you, I take that as a compliment.
Again, that too, was in line with your ability to reason. Not understanding is an art with some. You've painted a masterpiece. :D

Otherwise, let's find out what scripture says

The Scripture says, "You shall not murder" (Exod. 20:13).
I agree because you provided the scripture with the proper interpretation.
If a fetus is an unborn human person, an abortionist is a murderer.
I will agree as soon as you provide scripture like the last statement you gave. The scriptures must show the unborn is a human person, that killing this person is against the law, and why an abortion is not ok here when it is ok in Numbers 5.

What is the unborn?

Why won't you just answer that one, simple question?
It doesn't matter what I think it is, it matters what the Bible say is allowed and not allowed in regards to aborting a baby or making sure it lives. By the way if you haven't been reading my answers (which is what is seem like here) The Bible say both. It can be murder in later stages and it is acceptable in the early stages.

You just keep wanting humanistic reasons instead of Biblical ones. Stop asking me what I think, and read these verses for yourself and tell us what you think they mean.
wave.gif
 

Daniel David

New Member
Post-it, can you answer a simple question? I did not ask if Mary had free will or anything like that. I want to know if you believe that God was in her womb? Put another way, did the child become God and a person only when he was outside the womb? So, if Mary had had an abortion, would it have killed Christ or something else? If it was something else, when did that something else become Christ.

These questions are totally relevant. I only see you doing a Mexican hat dance around the questions becuase your position would be shown to be false. You don't want to answer the questions.

BTW, that tidbit about Christ having possibly been aborted before Mary is evident you are lost. You cannot reconcile what you believe with Scripture. You are like the rest of the libs on this board. No logic skills and the silly practice of picking verses from something you don't believe to prove that something is okay to either believe in or do.

Answer the question about Mary if your position is so solid.
 

Ransom

Active Member
post-it said:

Not understanding is an art with some.

So, apparently, is not recognizing sarcasm.

I will agree as soon as you provide scripture like the last statement you gave.

Sorry, I have provided my Scripture: Exod. 20:13. This request from you is yet another smokescreen, attempting to divert the issue from the identity of the unborn. What is it?

It doesn't matter what I think it is, it matters what the Bible say is allowed and not allowed in regards to aborting a baby or making sure it lives.

There is no point in determining what "the Bible says allowed and not allowed" to be done to a fetus until you have determined what it is.

If the fetus is an unborn human person, then abortion is forbidden according Exod. 20:13.

If the fetus is not an unborn human person, then abortion is not forbidden.

You just keep wanting humanistic reasons instead of Biblical ones.

How much more Biblical can I get than one of the Ten Commandments? "You shall not murder" (Exod. 20:13).

Stop asking me what I think

I'm not asking you what you think. I am asking you to tell me what the unborn is, so we can determine whether it is OK to kill it or not.
 

SBG

New Member
Jesus is God, and if you don't believe it, you're going to hell. Abortion is murder, and if you don't believe it, you're going to hell. Homosexuality is sin, if you don't believe it, you're going to hell. Pretty blunt! But, if you don't show the fruits of salvation, you're lost.
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by Ransom:
[QB]post-it said:

Not understanding is an art with some.

So, apparently, is not recognizing sarcasm.
Whoops you blinked. Your reasoning is now at checkmate because you didn't see the grin I posted. Yes, I saw plainly, I guess you didn't. Checkmate.
laugh.gif
Lighten up will ya'?

[ August 26, 2002, 04:24 PM: Message edited by: post-it ]
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by SBG:
Jesus is God, and if you don't believe it, you're going to hell. Abortion is murder, and if you don't believe it, you're going to hell. Homosexuality is sin, if you don't believe it, you're going to hell. Pretty blunt! But, if you don't show the fruits of salvation, you're lost.
I see what you mean about showing your fruits, thanks for showing us...
thumbs.gif


If you take 5 minutes and open the Bible to the topic at hand you will be taken seriously.
 

Ransom

Active Member
post-it said:

Checkmate.

You seem to have missed the substance of my post and decided to make me the issue.
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by Ransom:
post-it said:

Checkmate.

You seem to have missed the substance of my post and decided to make me the issue.
Thank You, You finally got it. You have been making this about what "I" think and feel instead of what Scripture says. Your attacks on me through sarcastic summations were about "me" and not what scripture says. Now will you stop with ridiculing me and open your Bible?
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
I would be most interested to hear from some of our clergy on what Numbers 5 is all about and what the different understandings are as held by Theologians. Please help us understand these passages more clearly.
 

Ransom

Active Member
post-it said:

You have been making this about what "I" think and feel instead of what Scripture says.

No, I have been making this about the identity of the fetus - about which you have either been totally wrong, or totally silent.

If the fetus is an unborn human person, abortion is murder and forbidden by Exod. 20:13.

If the fetus is not an unborn human person, abortion is not murder and not forbidden by anything.

Your attacks on me through sarcastic summations were about "me" and not what scripture says. Now will you stop with ridiculing me and open your Bible?

I have opened my Bible.

"You shall not murder" (Exod. 20:13).

So - is the fetus a human person - something that can be "murdered" - or isn't it?

Stop filibustering and answer this plain question.

[ August 26, 2002, 04:53 PM: Message edited by: Ransom ]
 

Scott J

Active Member
Site Supporter
Originally posted by post-it:
I would be most interested to hear from some of our clergy on what Numbers 5 is all about and what the different understandings are as held by Theologians. Please help us understand these passages more clearly.
Numbers 5

19 'The priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, "If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse;
20 if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you"
21 (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), "the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people by the LORD'S making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell;
22 and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."
23 'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.
24 'Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness.
25 'The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar;
26 and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.
27 'When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.
28 'But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children.


Post-it, No where in this passage does it say anything regarding a pregnancy or the loss of a child. This is just an example of my earlier charge. You ignore direct interpretations and applications of scripture in favor of twisting the text to your own liking... or in this case, re-writing scripture to say something it simply does not say.

This text says nothing more than if a guilty woman undergoes this ceremony and is found guilty, she will be marked and left barren. Exodus 21 specifically deals with the child. If an abortion were the intended outcome of Numbers 5, it is reasonable to expect like language to be used.

Your request for someone to "help us understand these passages more clearly" is ridiculous. These verses are not written in code. They say what they say. You demand scripture that explicitly rather than implicitly disproves your position... then you allow yourself to write between the lines.

[ August 26, 2002, 05:32 PM: Message edited by: Scott J ]
 

post-it

<img src=/post-it.jpg>
Originally posted by Ransom:

If the fetus is an unborn human person, abortion is murder and forbidden by Exod. 20:13.

If the fetus is not an unborn human person, abortion is not murder and not forbidden by anything.

is the fetus a human person - something that can be "murdered" - or isn't it?

answer this plain question.
You have not been reading my posts, I have said that it is murder in some cases and isn't murder in other cases according to scripture.

It doesn't seem you have been reading the scriptures I have quoted, otherwise you would be telling me why they mean something else. Would you please do that for me and tell me what you think they mean? You don't need me to tell you what I think about biology do you? This isn't about humanistic, secular arguments, and what biology or I feels or thinks, it’s about what scripture says.
 

Scott J

Active Member
Site Supporter
Originally posted by post-it:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Scott J:
Post-it, What does the phrase "with child" mean? It is used 26 times in the Bible by my count... always referring to a pregnant woman. It must have some significance, Don't you think? Is a pregnant woman ever referred to by something other than "with child" or a similar phrase?


I've answered this before. What else are they going to call it? The question is when does it become a person,</font>[/QUOTE]
A child is a person! Have you reached such an extreme that you even dispute the definitions of words?!!! A child is, by definition, a person. I challenge you to find a definition anywhere that says that a child isn't a person in this context whether it is moments after conception or moments before death. If it is said she is "with child" then it follows that the "child" is in fact a person.
...and it does while still in the womb.
Wonderful admission on your part. And since it can be shown that Mary was "with child" at the moment she conceived. It logically follows that she was pregnant with a "person."
So yes, child, fetus, baby, forming human, it, that, whatever it is called has nothing to do with the issue.
Why? Because if you don't dismiss these facts, they destroy your predetermined conclusion?
Since the Bible does not have a verse saying "Thou shalt not have an abortion", two things come into play. One is the biblical definition of murder and the other is the biblical recognition and definition of the unborn. I think we agree on the definition for murder. The Bible does not make a distinction between women at various stages of pregnancy. They are all said to be "with child." The same word, "child", defines all unborn as "persons."
A man who kills others has the acceptance of God and the Bible to be killed and it is not murder. It is a man, he is alive, and God said it is ok to kill him since he is a murderer. If the Bible instead said not to kill him as murders should only be locked up then that is what we are only allowed to do, we can't say, well he deserves to die. It isn't what is fair, right or wrong, it is what scripture is telling us to do and not do.
Nowhere does scripture say that God accepts or commands anyone to perform abortion. This argument is meaningless.


I was only defending the Bible, because as you say, it seems to be callous in its pro-abortion stand. If I was wrong in those arguments, then maybe the author of the Bible can make a better argument as to why it is sanctioned in scripture.
Trouble is... you are not defending the Bible but your point of view... the Bible is not pro-abortion in its stand- to the contrary, you have been shown this error and persist in believing it... the Bible NEVER sanctions the murder of children- for you to put these words in the mouth of God is the worst form of blasphemy.


So are you saying that the priests in Numbers 5 should not follow God's orders and possibly abort a baby because it is wrong morally? That somehow God called this one wrong?

Why would you say God is wrong on this issue in Numbers 5?
See my other response.
 

Scott J

Active Member
Site Supporter
Originally posted by post-it:
Read through these verse then ask yourself how breath or God's breath is connected to a living human being. Then when do you think life begins and ends for a person.
OK. Let's see how each of these verses helps define a living human being.


Genesis 2:7
the Lord God formed the man ([adam] ) from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Adam was unique in all of creation. He was formed out of dead materials into a full grown man then brought to life by God. His creation has nothing to say of conception, birth, or death.

Job 27:3
as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,
Can be read as two different things "life" vs. "breath".

In addition and of more certain relevance, this passage deals with his potential death- not his conception nor even his birth. In other words, just because the lack of breath will extinguish his life it does not necessarily follow that breath gave him life.

It cannot be used to prove anything about an unborn child since it is neither directly nor indirectly related to an unborn child.

Job 32:8
But it is the spirit Or [ Spirit ] ; in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
This not only has nothing to do with an unborn child- it has nothing to do with physical life.

Job 34:14
If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit [ 34:14 Or [ Spirit ] ] and breath,
Again, you are ripping scripture from its context. This passage deals with death not conception or birth.

Psalm 39:5
You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Selah
You are really stretching this aren't you? This isn't saying that a man's life is literally a breath but is the length (figuratively) of a breath... a short period of time.

Psalm 104:29
When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.
Dealing with death again- not relevant by any stretch of reasoning to defining when life begins. We can agree that life ends when breathing stops but that still doesn't define the beginning.

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord . Praise the Lord .
This has nothing at all to do with life, death, unborns, birth, etc. It is simply irrelevant to the topic of when life begins.

Isaiah 2:22
Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
Deals with man's vulnerability. Has nothing to do with abortion or the beginning of life.

Revelation 11:11
But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.
Another unique situation. Resurrection is an entirely different process from conception and birth. These will be fully grown men that were dead (life systems not functioning) who will be brought back to life. In this sense, it indirectly disproves your position since a functioning body is equivalent to life and personhood.

Genesis 6:17
I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
Deals with death again. Does not apply to abortion or birth.

Job 7:7
Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.
Symbolic for the length of life again. Contributes nothing to your argument.

Job 14:10
But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.
Death, once again.

To meet your own bar for proof, you need to come up with a proof text that says "In your mother's womb, I knew you not; for you were no person but when you took the breath of life, I knew you."

However the really devastating thing for your position is that there is no text that denies personhood to the newly conceived unborn and numerous that imply it.
 
Top