A Bible Problem In The Abolition/Incremental Abortion Debate

Debate, when conducted well with articulate thinkers, is usually a helpful practice that brings clarity. I found that to be the case in a recent debate I heard between an Incrementalist and an Abolitionist. However, there was one issue that I couldn’t help noticing throughout the whole debate. It was a use of the Bible that was continually repeated; and the way it was used wasn’t even discussed, let alone challenged. It is something that I believe is at the very heart of determining a faithful approach.

The Abolitionist Approach

In the debate I listened to, one of the central desires of the Abolitionist was to call Christians to establish justice according to the word of God. His claim was that any partial restriction was simply an unjust law that perverted justice and enabled things God hates such as partiality and murder. For instance, the Abolitionist was very insistent that Deuteronomy 16:19-20 should be the standard for all abortion laws. This verse reads as follows:

Deuteronomy 16:19–20 “You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20 “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that you may live and possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

The Abolitionist said that because the pro-life movement is aiming to bring more and more restrictions on abortion instead of “justice and only justice” (i.e. complete and immediate abolition), that is the reason that we have not “[possessed] the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” Restrictions on abortion, such as heartbeat bills, are just distortions of justice that enshrine partiality and continue to enable murder. Less murder, but still a continuation of murder. The assertion is that God is not pleased with the pro-life cause because verses like Deuteronomy 16:19 are not being obeyed.

The Unchallenged Central Issue

I will admit, the abolitionist position is a compelling one because abolition must be the goal of any and all pro-life causes. This is the point at which we have full agreement between the incremental and abolition positions. It is the method and the approach where the paths diverge. So how can the Incrementalist object when the Abolitionist opens up Deuteronomy 16:20 and calls for “justice and only justice” in our laws concerning the unborn?

The way we object is by showing them that they are not using the Bible biblically.

The unchallenged central issue is that the Abolitionist is not working with a consistent hermeneutic. Faithful Bible interpretation (hermeneutics) is the way we know how Deuteronomy 16 is to be read and understood. Handling the Bible rightly is the only way to answer the question of a biblical approach for engaging with unbelievers regarding abortion.

As seen above, our Abolitionist friend was saying that Deuteronomy 16 is the basis of what we should demand of the laws of America. But that is not what Deuteronomy teaches. The laws that the larger Mosaic covenant called God’s people to create in light of Deuteronomy 16 were laws meant to be imposed upon God’s people in a theocratic kingdom. Deuteronomy 16 is not the marching orders for engaging with the world, it is the marching orders for God’s people to be a just and righteous people within the kingdom of God. The laws that the Israelites created for the people of God were to reflect God’s character. If the world adopts some of them, that is fine and good. In fact, the more they adopt the slower the world will descend into destruction. But God’s people were not called to create laws and impose them upon the world.

This is the problem I continually see with the abolitionist camp regarding how they use the Bible. They keep taking OT laws and OT situations, things that happen within a theocratic kingdom and for a theocratic kingdom, and forcing them to serve their idea of how God’s people interact with the world. But proper Bible interpretation speaks against this.

Although Moses stood before God and demanded that Pharaoh let God’s people go, that is not the rubric for how we engage with kings. Why? Because America is not the chosen nation, God has not promised to give us the land, and God is not the theocratic king over America.

The laws that God gave and the directions for creating laws, such as Deuteronomy 16, are not what we demand for America. Why? Because America is not God’s people, and America is not a theocratic kingdom.

Where Is The Point of Overlap?

So what do we do with such statements as found in Deuteronomy 16? First, we understand that these are the reflections of God’s character. Justice, impartiality and protection for the vulnerable are all what God does. Are we to do them? Who are the “we?” “We” are the people of God; it is the church. If you want the most appropriate place to apply Deuteronomy 16 it is not to America, it is to the NT church. I am not saying that the NT church is one and the same as OT Israel. But we are both covenant people. One is Old Covenant and the other is New Covenant, but both are a people covenanted to God. They belong to him. Whatever policies, statements of faith, programs, vision statements or bylaws are set up now in the church, they should accord with the character of God. But one thing is clear, Deuteronomy 16 was not given to unbelievers.

How Did Israel Engage The World?

Quite opposite of what the Abolitionist says, the dictates of the law were never demanded upon the surrounding world. Those laws were for Israel. Israel would be known as a people whose God had given them just and wise laws. Israel would be seen as a holy people.

So what did Israel do with the world? Israel called the world to come and see. They didn’t tell the nations to adopt laws, they called the world to repent and come to the saving God. Israel would be a nation of priests (Ex. 19:6) and the place where all the world would be blessed.

Think through the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They gave extensive messages to the surrounding nations. What were those messages? Were they calls to reform laws? No! They were proclamations that God’s judgment was coming because of their sin and repentance was their only hope. They were told that only in Israel’s God could salvation be found.

What did Daniel and the three Hebrews do when in Babylon? Did they try to make Babylon into another Israel? No! They simply followed God no matter what Babylon threatened. Under threat of furnace or feline, they were unyielding in their submission to God. They called the Babylonians to humble themselves and confess the one true God. What they didn’t do was demand Babylon pass better laws.

How the Church Engages The World

Should the church demand that America enact laws that abolish abortion? Sort of. Galatians 6:10 says “as we have opportunity let us do good to all people…” We do Americans good when we tell them that any abortion is murder. And we do them good when we join God in restraining their sin with restrictions on abortion. But there is only one ultimate word we bring to the world: repent and come to Christ. Our great commission is not for cleaning up the morality of America. Our great commission is gospel transformation. It is in the church alone where we demand holiness and obedience. We don’t do that with the world for the same reason we don’t demand the dead get up and dance or the blind paint us a picture. The world is not the church. America is not God’s kingdom or God’s people. This world is not our home and their laws are not our ultimate law. We abide by a higher law, the law of Christ. America is going to pass ungodly laws because America is an ungodly nation. We can and should tell America that she is stained in the blood of the innocent and guilty before God. But the solution is not better laws, the solution is the gospel.

One bright spot in all of this is that Christians can still vote. We live in a nation that is a historical anomaly where all the people in our nation, even its Christians, can direct its governance. But that governance has to be done with boatloads of ungodly people. We are forced to work with them according to our constitution. That means very little good is going to get done, and it will be slow if it happens at all. Why would we expect anything more? America is not a church. America is not full of regenerate people who seek to conform to the image of Christ. The one wild card that could change things is national revival. If that happened and our nation became so jam-packed full of Christians at every level of government then very well. But we are nowhere close to that.

Incrementalism is what we have to accept as our process because it is all we can do within an ungodly nation that lets all of its citizens vote. When the ungodly of our nation propose a law that has a restriction on abortion, we should thank God that he is restraining their ungodliness in some way. That law is not what we would accept in the church. We have God’s law and we live according to that. We are the people of God, and they are not. If they will do a little less murder that is good. The nation will last a little longer by doing that. But we shake our heads at the insanity of “a little less.” Sadly, it is as good as they can do in their rebellion.

The Abolitionist has forgotten that the world is not us and we are not the world. That Abolitionist wants a rebellious world to act godly. It is not going to happen. They want the ungodly to love and protect the innocent. It is not going to happen. It will happen in some small ways due to common grace, but not much. Consider this parallel example. Was slavery abolished in the last century? Not even close. Human trafficking is still happening all over America and throughout the world. What did the slavery abolition laws do? They brought an incremental step. God has restrained some slavery from happening, but there is plenty more slavery that still needs to be ended. Within the church God’s laws are implemented fully, but in the world it is only incrementalism according to the degree of God’s restraining hand.

So keep voting and keep advocating for the unborn. We can employ wise strategies, but they will be hamstrung to one degree or another by the fact that we have to work with ungodly people. Rejoice if God restrains the killing of the unborn in some partial way, but even then we must keep telling America the depth of her guilt. Remember that America’s laws are not the laws of God’s people. America’s laws are the laws of an ungodly nation. The church is where the righteous demands of God are upheld, demanded and empowered by the Spirit. Perhaps God will restrain our nation from further and deeper sin, but whether he does or not, our message remains the same: Christ and him crucified. The people of God preach the gospel. That is what we do. It is the only thing that will change people.