I know that many people clicked on this blog post mainly because it involves Kelso and me. I don't blame any of you for any remarks like: "Oh God, not again." or "Who's mad at who now?" These are all quite valid. So before I tell the story of where this post is coming from I do want to make a comment on mine and Preston's interesting relationship.
Preston and I have a very love-hate relationship; it may just depened on the time of the year. We're much like Wesley and Whitefield: two men who disagree on just about everything up for discussion in Christianity, but men who recognize each other as believers. We probably disagree on the very things Whitefield and Wesley disagreed on. And while we have both taken many chances to dig the other, I may at least say that I have learned a great deal of humility and respect for those who disagree with me because of my Free Will brother. There is not a person I would rather have a night of debate or discussion with than Preston; no one else would be able to lock horns with me as well as he can.
I believe that God has brought Preston into my life as a means of sanctification on two accounts: 1. To always force me to go back to the Scriptures when I am questioned with something. 2. To strip away the notion that I need all the answers and have them, that I must speak at every turn. So while we disagree on everything, God uses these discussions to drive me back to the question that changed my life in the Winter of 2010: What do you really believe about God, Jay? That was the question that changed everything for me. What do I really believe? Not because my parents believe it. Not because I was raised around such and such doctrine. But, with all these resources at my disposal, I am now free to think and believe on my own.
Now, let me come with the current. I was laid up sick yesterday with some kind of strep-throat but technically not strep-throat bull. So as Im suffering through my fever and thirst and inability to swallow painlessly, I woke up to a question with some qualifiers from Preston. They read as follows:
How does Reformed Theology address abortion?
What happens to the soul of a fetus?
Can a regenerate person have an abortion?
Why would God predestine something so tragic?
I asked if I could spend some time studying and praying and getting over my sickness before I answered him. I responded to him privately, but with his permission was able to post my response here as well for your benefit.
Preston,
From what I can tell you asked a question and then gave me three deeper questions to answer. So I'd like to start with question 2 then use my responses to answer question 1.
What happens to the soul of a fetus? Simply put, I'm not sure. What happens to the soul of anyone when they die?-because we would both say that a fetus is a person from conception- They go on to an eternal state be that Heaven if they are a believer or Hell if they are not. But the unborn are quite unique. They have had no time to hear the Gospel, no one can preach to them.
So what happens to them? I think the most common and perhaps absurd way we can answer that is to say anything like this: "Well, they haven't reached the age of accountability yet, so they just go to Heaven." Away with such a heresy. And yes this I will call heresy, because this denies that we are sinful from conception.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
(Psalm 51:5 ESV)
I think this is the most clear verse in Scripture that throws out an age of accountability. It's like adding to the Gospel, Jesus or die and a really young age, both are ways to Heaven. I don't think this rides well with the Gospel.
What I do think there is room for is this: That the Spirit could breathe spiritual life in to (some or all I cannot say for certain) those infants who die prematurely if it's by abortion or by miscarriage or whatever. I pull that from this:
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
(Luke 1:39-44 ESV)
Obviously neither infants were normal people, Jesus being the most unique; but surely John was like any normal person in that he too was sinful. But when Jesus arrives John leaps for joy. Was John regenerated in the womb? I think the text gives some weight for that and I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility. So to answer that out: I'm unsure, there's potential for some or all to be saved, but that's only that they come to faith in Jesus Christ by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, not just because they are young. I think to say that there is an age of accountability is merely a way to make those who have lost children at a young age feel better, rather than to push them to trust in what God has decreed is for their good (Romans 8:28)
3. "Can a regenerate person have an abortion?"
This one confused me a bit which means I have to handle both potential questions. I'm not sure if you're asking "Is a Christian allowed to get an abortion" or "Is it possible for a Christian to get an abortion."
First off, I think that just about anything is within the realm of potential, especially when dealing with people and sin. So is it possible for a Christian to get an abortion? Yes it is. In the same way it's possible for a believer to have sex outside of marriage. Sad as it is, I think it happens. We being weak sinful creatures are prone to fault. In the same way I believe David was a regenerated man, but yet he was responsible for the death of Bathsheba 's husband.
On the other hand if you are asking should a Christian have an abortion as birth control, then I would say absolutely not. It goes completely against what Scripture says about the Human life and how precious it really is.
This is something that I'm not sure how I would respond to this as a Pastor, hopefully that the Covenant Community would surround that person, and be preventive of it actually happening but then love them back into restoration if something were to occur. I could not ostracize them from the church community. That person needs tremendous amounts of grace not rejection.
Now after reading a couple of your recent posts I understand what you could also be asking is "Can a Christian support those who favor abortions in the political realm.?" I would say no, there is a strong disconnect there. But at the same time, I'm not easy to draw party lines at all. I don't think all Democrats smoke pot, kill babies, burn the Constitution, and enjoy gay marriage. That doesn't seem like a fair picture. It's the equivalent of saying all Republicans are rich, snooty, scotch sipping, oil drilling, gun shooting, gay bashing rednecks. It's the same stereotype. Im against stereotyping in the realm of politics.
4. "Why would God predestine something so tragic?"
This is something I have wrestled with for a couple of years now. It was just recently that God gave me something that can satisfy my craving.
I don't know. I really don't have to know.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
(Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV)
God has not revealed to us why he has allowed abortion to continue. Sinful people follow their sinful desires, and they reap upon themselves destruction. But as for why a holy God has allowed for the destruction of unborn human life, I dare not speak what His unknown motives are.
But this I can say for sure
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
(Colossians 1:15-16 ESV)
All things are created for the glorification of Christ. No matter what they are. I cannot say how abortion, as vile and tragic as it is brings glory to Jesus. But the Father has purposed that all things, through the cross or by Hell, bring glory to Jesus. I know this may seem like a cop-out, but I feel safer trusting God who is righteous than to come up with an answer on my own.
So then, what is the Reformed position on abortion? Of course I am not the global spokesman for all the Reformers, but I can at least give you my position. Abortion is a vile and tragic sin. There is nothing good or pleasing to God in the act of killing an unborn child. But I believe that soon it will be eradicated, that is my prayer. And we will see, either later in life or in glory the purpose God had for allowing it to be.
Two quotes to sum that up
"...for the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light." Calvin
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
(Romans 11:33-36 ESV)
