«
»

A Sin By Any Other Name

November 24th, 2008 by 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 its 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 make are mere smoke and mirror attempts to change the face of the issue.
The first name change: abortion is now 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). This is like saying: “I’m not for people committing rape, but others should be allowed to choose this course of action.” Approving the choice is the same as approving the action. God tells us what He thinks of this choice in the Old Covenant (Exodus 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 led 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 don’t 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 (Genesis 25:21-22), babies (Luke 1:41, 44), and sons (Luke 1:36). Furthermore, the Bible refers to pregnant women as mothers (Numbers 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 has the killing of a mother’s child.
The third name change: abortion is 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 its 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 (Romans 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; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Bulletin Articles.

Leave a Reply