Although some writers today would

have us believe otherwise, neither the

faithful of Israel in the Old Testament
times, nor the early church, were in any
doubt about abortion. In terms of
Exodus 21:22-23, abortion was murder,
and the earliest records of the church
indicate severe penalties for those who
secured abortions. An early document,
called the Apostolic Constitutions (VII,
iii) declared, "Thou shalt not slay thy
child by causing abortion, nor kill that
which is begotten; for everything that
is shaped, a ~ d has received a soul from
God, if it be slain, shall be avenged as
being unjustly destroyed, Ex. 21:23."
The early church, although a small
handful in the Roman Empire, made a
major impact because of its stand.
Child murder took two casual forms in
the Empire. First, abortion was readily
and freely practiced. The right to forbid
abortion could be exercised by the state
if more workers or soldiers were needed.
Also, by the father, if he wanted chil-
dren. But both the state and the father
were believed to have the right also to
require abortion. It was not believed
that any law of God forbade abortion.
Second, if abortion failed, and the child
was born, the baby could be abandoned,
exposed either to the elements or to
wild animals to be killed. Quintillian
said, "to kill a man is often held to be a
crime, but to kill one's own children is
sometimes considered a beautiful action
among the Romans.'' Seneca defended,
as the course of reason, the drowning of
deformed babies or weak children.
Most of the exposed children died.
Some were gathered up by witches,
Dr. R.J, Rushdoony
Is President of llle
Chaleedon FoundaUon
In Vallecito,
California. He has
written h ~ IrutUults
of Biblleal Llzw,
Sall'tllion and Godly
Ruk, By What
SUnui<ud, This
Itukpenrknl Rtpllbllc,
and dozel\ll of other
books.
their bodies to be used as material for in-
cantations, or picked up by slave dealers
who reared the girls to be prostitutes
and slaves.
There were some Romans who con-
demned the practice of abandoning chil-
dren, but little or nothing was accom-
plished by their agitations. It was the
Christians who acted, first, to condemn
abortion as murder and an offense
against God's law, "Thou shalt not
kill," and second, to gather up the aban-
doned babies and care for them. Both
tasks were difficult. The newly con-
verted Christians were still prone to
maintain their old ways, and the church
leaders waged a steady batt1e, with very
severe penalties, against all offenders
within the church.
The Council of Ancyra, 314 A.D.,
barred all who procured abortions, or
made drugs used to further abortions,
from the Lord's Table for ten years.
Earlier, the ban had been for life, and,
in some areas, continued in that man-
ner. Only at the hour of death was the
guilty party permitted to receive com-
munion. In 692 A.D., the Council of
Quinisext insisted, "Those who give
drugs for procuring abortion, and those
who receive poisons to kill the foetus,
are subjected to the penalty of murder."
The church was now demanding of the
state that God's law be enforced. Basil
of Caesarea, like other church fathers,
called abortion "willful murder," and to
be punished as such.
The same insistence on the protec-
tion of newly born children marked the
early church. Constantine, in 315 and
321 A.D., legislated against the aban-
donment or sale of children. Valentinian
in 366 A.D. restated this legislation,
and Justinian in 529-534 A.D. declared
exposure to be more cruel than murder;
he also founded homes for the care of
these children.
The problems of abortion and child
abandonment met the church every-
where. As the missionaries moved into
France (or then known as Gau1), Bri-
tain, Germany and elsewhere, they met
this same issue. The problem again
confronted the missionary church of the
modem era, in Asia (especially in
China), Africa and elsewhere.
In every situation, the impact of the
church's stand was a notable one. The
Christian stand was emphatic and clear-
cut. God, as the Creator of all things,
alone has the power of life and death
over all things. No life can be taken
except in the terms of His Word.
Otherwise all such offenses or trans-
gressions are cited as capital sins by
Scripture. To take human life, from the
fetal stage to old age, apart from the
warrant of God's Word, is murder.
Thus, whereas in some pagan cul-
tures abortion had at times been con-
trary to the policy of the state, the
ground of opposition to it was now
shifted. It was no longer a question of
expediency but a theological question.
Legal or illegal, abortion the church
held, is a sin. It is a murder, and it
involves a particularly vicious form of
murder. The church fathers were vehe-
ment in their condemnation of it. It was
not an accident that the medical practi-
tioner who engaged in abortion came to
be regarded as the lowest kind of human-
ity. The horror which the theological
view engenders for abortion is a logical
and necessary one.
This, then, was basic to the position
of Christians through the centuries; the
issue is theological. It is precisely at
this point that the modem attack is
launched. The pro-abortionists argue
that the question is a medical, social or
personal one. They deny that the fetus
is a living person. They speak glibly
about overpopulation and "wanted" chil-
dren, as though man's determination and
choice are ultimate. They insist that a
woman has the right to do as she
pleases with her own body, and so on.
The Bible makes clear that our bodies
belong first of all to God, and we do
not even have the right to mark or tatoo
our bodies (Deut. 14:1-2), let alone kill
an unborn child. We are not our own,
for we have been bought with the price
of Christ's blood (I Cor. 6:19-20).
Very early, as far back as our histori-
_._ _____ The Counsel of Chalcedon, February, 1987
cal records go, the early church con-
fronted the o m ~ U t world with this theo-
logical stand. Thus, by the mid-second
century or earlier, the Epistle of Barna-
bas and Didache declared it to be against
the Word of God to have anything to do
with abortion. Their declarations are
sintilar and reflect earlier church laws.
The Didache says, "Do not murder a
child by abortion, neither kill it at
birth," and Barnabas reads, "Do not mur-
der a child by abortion, nor again, des-
troy that which is born." Barnabas does
not speak of a new covenant with
Christ; rather, Christians have received
the one covenant in ChrisL God pre-
pared not a new covenant but "the new
people for himself." These new people
are not "murderers of children, corrup-
ters of God's creatim, turning away
from the needy, afflicting the oppressed;
advocates of the rich, lawless judges of
the poor--sinful through and through!"
Rather, the new people are obedient to
their Lor4 in all things: "You shall love
Him who .made you, fear Him who
fanned you; glorify Him who redeemed
you from death" by obeying Him by
faith, which means among other things
standing against abortion.
This then is the true ground, the theo-
logical ground. God is the total and
sovereign God, and His claims and
powers are absolute. He requires us to
condemn abortion, and to condemn it
supremely on the ground that He con-
demns it, for there is no true law apart
from the law-word of God.
[This article appeared in the June, 1980
issue of The Counsel of Chalcedon (Vol. II,
No. 4), where it was reprinted firim The
Cambridge Fish]. D
In the greater Atlanta area
Tune in
11t1tblt tralk
W AEC 860 AM Radio
With Joe Morecraft, Wayne
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Monday through Friday
A Strong Statement
Against Abortion
by the American Medical Association
a Century Ago
There we shall discover an enemy in
the camp; there we shall witness as
hideous a view of moral deformity as
the evil spirit could present. There we
shall f"md a class of m ~ in every
respect the opposite of the fonner; men
who cling to a noble profession only to
dishonor it; men who seek not to save,
but to destroy; men known not only to
the profession, but to the public, as
abortionists....... Yes, it is false breth-
ren we have most to fear; men who are
false to their profession, false to prin-
ciple, false to honor, false. to humanity,
false to GOd.
"Thou shalt not kill." This command-
ment is given to all, and applies to all
without exception....... notwithstanding
all this; we see in our midst a class of
men, regardless of all principle, regard
less of all honor, who daily destroy that
fair fabric of God's creation; who daily
pull down what he has built up; who
act in antagonism to that profession of
which they claim to be members.
These modern Herods, like their pro-
totype; have a summary mode of deal-
ing with their victims. They perform
the ttiple office of Legislative, Judi-
ciary, and Executive, and, to crown the
tragedy, they become the executioners.
They seem impatient for the sacrifice;
the "fiat" goes forth, and those innocent
and helpless victims are not pennitted
ever to breathe that vital air which God
in His providence has destined for their
use in common with the rest of the
human family. Their resting-place is
rudely invaded, and that which would
grow and ripen into manhood is cut off
from existence by the hand of an
educated assassin. Mark the monster as
he approaches his work! ....... he stands
by the bedside of his victim, with poi-
soned cup or instrument in hand, ready
to proceed to the work of destruction.
Does any compunction assail his cor-
rupt soul, as he gazes on the field of his
labors? Does he measure the extent of
the foul deed he is about to commit? Or
does he not fear that the uplifted hand of
an avenging God will suddenly fall on
his guilty head? No; Judas-like, he
solaces himself with the prospect of
thirty pieces of silver, and this forms
the climax of his aspirations!
But, as is found in many other cases
of murder, there is no extenuating cir-
cumstance here that can change or modi-
fy the character of his guilt. As in or-
dinary cases of murder, there is no anger
to prompt him to the deed, no wrongs
to be avenged, no jealousies to be apl
peased. These he cannot point to as
extenuating circumstances, and it mat-
ters not at what stage of development
his victim may have arrived - it matters
not how small or how apparently irt-
signiflcant it may be - it is a murder, a
foul, unprovoked murder; and its blood,
like the blood of Abel, will cry from
earth to Heaven for vengeanee.
We have no foreign enemy to con-
tend with, but we have a domestic
enemy, and that enemy is in our midst;
it surrounds us; yes, we have an unprin-
cipled, an insidious, an unmitigated foe
to deal with, an enemy to the human
family, as dark and as malignant as the
spirit that sent it, and it now becomes
us to do our part faithfully towards God
in this matter, to crush the monster,
and to place the profession right before
the pubiic. For it is at this late date in
the nineteenth century a doubtful ques-
tion whether Ol' not the profession of
medicine, with all its boasted intelli-
gence, with all the aids and appliances
which science and art can bestow - it is
doubtful, with such. a disgusted caudal
The Counsel of Chalcedon, February, 1987 -------1