One of the earliest Christian writings called The Epistle to Diognetus [first century writing] speaks of the typical Christian life. In 5:6, it says, “They marry like all other men and they beget children; but they do not cast away [destroy] their offspring.” The “casting away” indicates the care they have for children whereas many of the heathen would toss unwanted infants into the elements to die of exposure or to be eaten by wild animals. Christians have a respect for life.
products.
In the early Christian writing called Didache, Greek for ‘teaching’, which is dated from 50-120 a.d., it says in chapter 2, “You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.”
The morality of Christianity stood in stark contrast to the immorality of the world. The Greeks and Romans used various herbs, bindings, and other actions to abort a child. But the influence of Christianity become great so that by the third century, abortion was outlawed.1.
I want to suggest that the true faith in Christianity is and has always been opposed to the destruction of children, even the unborn. The influence of Christians ought to be today such as it was in the early church that effected change in the culture.
If you defend, support, accept, or approve of abortion in some way, you do not have the proper view of innocent life and need to repent.
In the early Christian writing called, “The Letter of Barnabas”, it says, “The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following….Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born” (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74] ).
It is a truism that there’s nothing new under the sun. The barbarity that men committed in the first century is still practiced today. And we aren’t surprised that the godless would do so, but it is surprising and deeply troubling when Christians have no pang of conscience at the practice. I have had these to rationalize to me that “abortion is the law of the land.” That has no credibility unless we are going to argue that all laws of the land are righteous. The real problem is that many who call themselves Christians do not have the spirit of respect for unborn children.
I pray that supporters of abortion will repent.
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1. Wikipedia article ‘History of Abortion’ sourced: Sallares, J. Robert (2003), “abortion”, in Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Anthony, The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Oxford: OxfordUP, p. 1, ISBN 978-0-19-860641-3
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