OceanSide church of Christ
Previous | Return to list of articles | Next |
A
SIN BY ANY OTHER NAME
Jeremy
Sprouse
Shakespeare said: “A rose by any other name would smell as
sweet.” Just because we change the
name of something, doesn’t mean we have changed it nature – it may appear
different, but it is really the same.
Not realizing this, many people have been tricked into approving of sins
simply by accepting the new names given to them. Let’s look at how this applies to the
issue of abortion. Three name
changes abortion advocates made are mere smoke and mirror attempts to change the
face of the issue.
The first name
change: abortion is referred to as
a “choice.” Consider this statement
by Hillary Clinton: “I have met
thousands and thousands of pro-choice men and women. I have never met anyone who is
pro-abortion.” This is simply an
attempt at moving away from the horror of abortion and into the realm of
nobility – giving women the freedom to choose. The choice they want to make, however,
is to violently end their pregnancy (i.e., to have an abortion). Approving the choice is the same as
approving the action. God tell us
what He thinks of this choice in the Old Covenant (Ex. 21:22-25). Here, God prescribes punishments for a
man who strikes a pregnant woman and causes the child to be born early. The punishment is directly related to
the harm caused the child and the woman to the point of “life for life.” This means if a man committed an action
that lead to a woman’s pregnancy ending with a dead child, the man would be
punished by death.
The second name
change: an unborn child is referred
to as a “pregnancy” or a “fetus” rather than a baby, son, or a daughter. Advocates for abortion do this to
dehumanize unborn children. They do
not want people to think of unborn children as alive or as people. They know it is harder for people to
kill what they recognize as a person.
In contrast, the Bible refers to unborn children as: children (Gen. 25:21-22), babies (Lk.
1:41, 44), and sons (Lk. 1:36).
Furthermore, the Bible refers to pregnant women as mothers (Num. 12:12,
Luke 1:43). The Bible does not view
abortion as the ending of a pregnancy or the destruction of a fetus; it views it
as the killing of a mother’s child.
The third name
change: abortion if referred to as
a “procedure” rather than murder.
Most biology textbooks say that life begins at conception. Yet abortionists would have us believe
that life doesn’t begin until a child draws it first breath. Although some do not want to admit it,
abortion ends a life. Dr. David
Brewer (a former abortionist) said:
“My heart got callous to the fact that I was a murderer, but that baby
lying in a cold bowl educated me as to what abortion really was.” Abortion is murder. Murderers will have no part in heaven
unless they repent of their immoral lifestyle (Rom.
1:28-32).
A sin by any other
name is still a sin. When we take
away the smoke and mirror deception, we see abortion for what it is: murder. It is nothing less than the killing of a
baby, the shameless slaughter of a son or a daughter. Abortion ends a life, and those who
participate are participating in murder.
Approving of abortion is approving of murder. “Woe to those who call evil good, and
good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).