Why As A Christian I Disagree With Overturning Roe V Wade

First and foremorst, this post isn't about whether it's right or wrong to have an abortion—This post is about law, love, and choice. We could spend hours and days arguing opinions and feelings, but I want to call our attention to a singular (albiet multi-faceted) point from scripture. The reason we're only going to talk about this point, is because it's foundational and the only one that really matters.

The Covenant

There are several covenants made between God and man throughout the Bible, but the two people focus on the most are the old covenant, given to Israel through Moses in Exodus, and the new covenant, brought to us by Messiah's death and resurrection on the cross. The first Covenant is Judaism and the second is the foundation for Christianity.[1] The old and new covenant's aren't as different as people think, and often we can find examples of people in the Old Testament opperating in the new covenant.

The key difference between these covenants is where the law of God is written. In Exodus, God writes the law in stone; stone is immutable and rigid. In both the Old and New Testaments, though, God talks about creating a new covenant where the law is written the hearts of his people (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10). Notice, there is still a law, but there's something different about having a law in the heart versus in stone.

There's an anime-style CGI movie called Appleseed in which an A.I. was placed in charge of making decisions for a utopian society. However, because the A.I. can't understand or account for emotions, it is connected to a group of people who lend it the emotional capacity needed to make balanced decisions. This A.I. alone is stone; the A.I. plus emotion is heart.

The Mosaic Covenant was about following the rules, but allowed people to forget the point. The point wasn't to stone people for messing up or sacrifice all your cattle because you committed some trespass against God (Isaiah 1:11). It was always about the heart. It was always about the choice.

The Choice

In Genesis 2, we find out God put a tree in the Garden of Eden that He didn't want mankind to eat from. He could have never put the tree there. He could have set thorns all around it (I'm totally envisioning the scene in Sleeping Beauty where thorns and a dragon threaten to keep him from the princess). God could have made it impossible for them to eat from the fruit but He didn't. He gave them a choice.

Each one must do just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7 NASB

One person values one day over another, another values every day the same. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. Romans 14:5 NASB

But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 NASB

The passages above are about offering, feast days, and idolatry, respectively, but the principle holds for all that God has said. Each person is to be decided in his or own heart what they will do.

Imagine for a second that parallel universes definitely exist. In one universe, you are married to a man who does not love you. He does not enjoy your company, nor does he appreciate you. However, because the covenant of your marriage is set in stone, he is faithful to you. He does not cheat and he does not leave. He provides what you need and goes through the motions of all the things a husband is supposed to do. In the other universe, you are married to a man who adores you. He relishes in you and has surrendered his whole heart to you. But once, he faltered; he made a mistake. He came to you ashamed and repentent, begging for forgiveness, promising to be better. Which of these universes do you want to live in?

The Word of God often uses marriage as a metaphor for our relationship with Him, and that relationship is a lot more like the latter. The first marriage I described is what we call legalism.[5]

Only God knows why a person makes the decision they make, and only God can forgive or condemn.

...for God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.1 Samuel 16:7 NASB

Exodus 20:13 forbids us from murdering someone; it's punishable by death (with a few exceptions).[2][3] Yet in Matthew 5:22, Christ says we aren't even to be angry (without cause![4]) at a person or it is equivalent to murder. The focus isn't on the act, but the heart. Exemptions were given for people who killed someone on accident (Joshua 20:7-9), and even David who killed someone very much on purpose, was forgiven. Why? Because God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance.

Consequences

Genesis 9:6 says that if a human kills a human, that human has to be put to death. Obviously, there are caveats because otherwise whoever killed the person who killed someone, would then need to be killed and we would enter a nasty round of recursion that required all humans to die. Throughout the Bible, we see examples of people doing the same things, but receiving different consequences and outcomes.

For instance, when Dinah is raped in Genesis 34, her eldest brothers slaughter and entire town (both the innocent and the guilty), but no one puts them to death and God still allows them to become tribes of of Israel. David kills a man for his own gain and Paul was notorious for killing God's people. Both were able to repent. God's people perform miracles and it is a show of their relationship with Him; others commit sorcery and witchcraft. In all these cases we see people violate commands God has given them, but we also see God exempt them from the penalties of that law either because their motives are pure or because of the relationship He has with those people. Mind you, with the exception of Paul, all the examples I listed are Old Testament, under the old covenant, where blood was technically required to atone for sin (your own blood in the case of murder). So if God allowed the choices and did not condemn them then, why should we be so quick to dole out punishment with our limited perceptions today when Messiah has already paid the blood price?

Our law is set up the same way today when it comes to murder. You are not immediately hauled off to the electric chair; there is due process. We have different categories of murder (e.g., murder 1, murder 2, manslaughter, etc.) which have different sentencing requirements and are based on motive, intent, and culpability. A four year old who gets hold of a gun and kills someone is not going to jail or be convicted of murder. Someone who kills in self defense may have to go to trial to prove it was self defense (though some times its obvious and not required), but they are likely to be acquitted.

Both God and the US government have a history of looking at things on a case by case situation...

The Real Problem

I am a strong believer that my responsibility as a follower of God is to bring us closer to Kingdom living, not by inacting strict laws that mirror the ones God set for us, but by bringing us back to an Eden-like society where it's easy to do the right thing. In Eden, there was no rape. There was no such thing as sickness or death. There were no taxes or healthcare fees. There were no jobs to attend to. There was no danger. There was no shortage of food.

Therefore let’s not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this: not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s or sister’s way. Romans 14:3

As believers our priority is to fix the problems and remove stumbling blocks, not force people down one path and judge them when they trip over the stumbling blocks we didn't bother to remove.

For more on the how this pertains to abortion, please see my previous post (which has audio!): "Roe v Wade VS the Church."

TL;DR

From the very beginning, God gave people choices—He was the founder of being pro-choice. Most importantly, no choice (save the Mark of the Beast and blaspheming the Holy Spirit) separate you repentance and salvation—that's how committed He is to letting you find your own way. Yes, there are consequences for our choices, but the consequences aren't the same for every person, because God looks deep into the heart, not the surface of the matter.

References and Footnotes

1. I use this word loosely because language is hard. The word technically refers to followers of Christ, however, over the centuries since His death many people have put on the mask of Chrisitianity (wolves in sheeps clothing, as prophesied in Matthew 7:15) and distorted the meaning. There are people who claim Christianity that have no clue what the Word of God says and there are many people who associate Christianity with teachings and ideas that are not from YHWH/Adonai/Creator/God. Here, I mean followers of Christ, followers of the Word of God.
2. Genesis 9:6 - "Whoever sheds human blood, By man his blood shall be shed"
3. Joshua 20:7-9 - "whoever kills a person unintentionally may flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation."
4. Some traslations omit the phrase "without cause," but if you look at an interlinear Bible such as Blue Letter Bible, you will see the word εἰκῆ which means in vain, or without cause.
5. Yes, God laid out a moral law, but ultimately He is looking at why you did something not what you did (or didn't do), and He knows you aren't going to be perfect.