Chapter 7
Abortion in the Bible

If you look for the word abortion in the Bible you won’t find it.   There is no translation or version that mentions abortion.  Of course they didn’t have the medical expertise then that we have now.  The culture during Bible times was much different than it is now also.  Women and children were considered more as property than as people.  Today women have the same rights and privileges as men, almost.  They still don’t get the same pay for the same work and more importantly, when it comes to procreation, they have almost no rights.  Abortion has become a political issue that has divided people into two camps; those that claim to be pro-life and those that claim to be pro-choice.

Many on the pro-life side also consider themselves to be religious Christians.  They believe they are protecting the defenseless unborn. They vary on when life begins.  Some say life begins at conception, others say it begins when the heart starts to beat and some say it is when a successful birth looks viable.  Some go so far as to call abortion murder.  Many have little or no regard for the potential mother.  Some even think they are doing God’s work by fighting to end abortion.   Abortion providing medical professionals have been threatened, harassed and even murdered by overzealous pro-lifers.  In their judgment they are being righteous.  However, they are making a judgment about other people, something that Jesus told us not to do.

Matthew 7:1
Judge not, that ye be not judged. 

On the other side pro-choice people are more concerned with the pregnant women.  They recognize that there can be financial issues, personal issues and even health issues that could cause a pregnant woman to seek an abortion.  They want to leave the decision to the woman, her mate, their doctor and their spiritual leader.  They don’t believe that life begins at any time before birth.  In that respect they are following the Bible more closely than the Christian pro-lifers.  Here us what the Bible says about when life begins.

Geneses 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Before that first breath the fetus is the “dust of the ground.”  It is groups of chemicals and minerals growing into a form that is able to accept that breath of life from God.  However the lungs do not function in the fetus to allow the breath of God in.  The lungs are filled with fluid and the growing fetus gets oxygen and life force through the placenta.  There are two sort of flaps that guide the blood from the placenta to the fetus.  They are called the ductus arterious and the foramen ovale.  At birth these flaps switch to allow the fluid to drain from the lungs and allow air to fill the lungs with the first breath.

Prior to that first breath the oxygen and life force from the mother feed the fetus.  It does not have its own individual life until that first breath enters the lungs.  It is the woman’s breath of life that animates and causes the fetus to develop.  The soul that is contemplating entering the fetus may sometimes surround the woman causing a glow that is sometimes seen around pregnant women.  But until that soul enters with the first breath the fetus is not a living human being.  The soul awaiting the development of the fetus has the option to change its mind any time before that first breath.  But once that breath enters the lungs the spirit/soul is committed.

Pro-lifers point to where John the Baptist jumped in his mother’s womb.

Luke 1:41
And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

The soul and spirit that were once Elias and was preparing to become John the Baptist was probably hovering around Elizabeth waiting for the fetus to develop.  Or it could be that the Holy Spirit entered Elizabeth and in doing so also entered the fetus and caused it to jump.  We can only speculate but one thing is for sure.  The lungs in the fetus were not operational and the breath of life was not flowing into the fetus.  It was still growing in the womb and any oxygen or life force that it was getting was coming from the mother.

Another verse used by the pro-life side is about Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

The main point in this verse is often overlooked.  God knew him before the fetus was even conceived.  It is more of an argument for a pre-life than life in the womb.  Was Jeremiah alive in the womb?  No!  The fetus that he would enter was in the womb but he still had to wait for it to develop and exit the womb before he could enter with the first breath. 

In the previous chapter we mentioned the doctrine of reincarnation, and this might be a good time to take a closer look at it.  Maybe you don’t want to accept reincarnation.  Maybe you have been told all your life that it is not true and you just don’t believe in reincarnation.  That’s OK, you probably didn’t believe it in your last life either.  Maybe you will in your next life.

Instead of just looking at birth, let’s look at the other end of life, death.  You have probably heard of someone that had a near death experience and their life flashed before them in just a few moments.  Their whole life was so condensed that they could almost see it all at once.  Remember that in the world of the spirit time isn’t like it is in the material world.  Here we have to deal with time and space but in the spirit, not so much.  The person that had a near death experience touched on the spirit world.  That is how they were able to see their whole life in moments.  Time was not there.  But why would this happen?

Remember you are a spirit, you have a soul and you currently live in a physical body in the material world.  Why are you here?  This world is a school for the soul.  Each incarnation is like taking classes in a college or school.  When you leave this world you will review the lessons you learned and the progress you made.  It may not flash before you like it did for the one with the near death experience, but there will be a review. 

After the review, and with the help of others in the world of the spirit, we get to plan the curriculum for our next experience in the world of matter.  There may be lessons we want to learn, relationships we want to work on or even services we want to provide for others.  Once we decide on our curriculum we look for an opportunity to incarnate where we can fulfill our plan.  We look for a developing fetus in a woman or family that will provide the opportunities we seek. 

Have you ever signed up for a class, agreed to take a job or offered to join a group or program, but changed your mind at the last minute.  Perhaps you didn’t like the teacher, or the job was something you would not be comfortable doing or the group or program wasn’t what you thought it would be.  So you dropped out, quit or just refused to participate.  Do you think the incoming soul might have a similar experience and decide not to enter that particular fetus when it exited the womb?  In that case the incoming soul could urge the woman to abort the pregnancy or even cause the fetus to be still born.

Astrology

Let’s look at another thing that may be outside of your normal belief system.  That is astrology.  For the most part astrology is looked down on in the Bible.  However the stars were recognized as having some glory.

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament sheweth his handywork.

1 Corinthians 15:41
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

When people were prone to worshiping idols some made idols of the stars.  They worshiped them instead of God. 

Deuteronomy 4:19
And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

King Nebuchadnezzar had astrologers as part of his advisory team, but they were no match for Daniel and his connection with that Secret Place of the Most High.  All of his advisors could not explain his dream, but Daniel did.

Daniel 2:2
Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams.

However there is one place where it did get some respect.  The three wise men that came to see Jesus when he was born were astrologers, or astronomers.  They saw the star that told them that a savior was to be born, and the followed that star to find him.

Matthew 2:2
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

It is true that there is a lot of nonsense around the subject of astrology and there are a lot of charlatans that use it to con people out of some of their money. But you can’t deny that there is a sun, a moon and other planets in our solar system, and they all move constantly.  We know that the moon affects the tides of the oceans.  We also know that a full moon brings out some emotions in people.  Ask any hospital or police department what happens when the moon is full and you will see that they are busier than usual at those times.

If you have ever asked an astrologer to create a natal chart for you the first thing they asked for was the time and place where you were born.  They need to know when and where you took your first breath, when God breathed into your nostrils the breath of life.  What they do is sort of take a picture of where the sun, moon, planets and horizon were when you took that breath, or when your soul entered the body you are in.  All of the vibrations of energy coming from the planets form the core of who you are in this lifetime. 

With this information a real astrologer can see what areas of life are more important or less important to you.  They can see areas where things will flow easily and areas where things will take more effort.  If the astrologer is honest and a little intuitive he or she can be as helpful or more helpful than spending hours and hours with a psychologist or psychiatrist. 

Some astrologers will take it a step further and try to predict what will happen in your life.  This is where it loses something because we have free will.  Those planets circulating around our core soul consciousness can have an effect on our lives, but they don’t have to if we don’t let them.  On the other hand if we know what is going on with the planetary vibrations around us we might be able to use that energy to help us accomplish what we are trying to do. 

Predicting is tricky business but there was a man in the 1970s that studied astrology and developed a predictive system that was quite accurate.  His background was in mathematics, and this was before we had computers.  His job was to do the calculations to send a rocket from North America to somewhere in South America and hit a spot that was only a few square yards. 

He lived in southern California and tells a story about someone that was planning a trip to Alaska.  He asked him to predict how the trip would go.  After all of his calculations he told the traveler that he would be spending a night in a certain town in Alaska.  That town was on the way but there was no plan to stop there.  When the trip was happening the traveler drove through that town without stopping.  At first he thought the astrologer was wrong.  Then his car broke down and was towed back to that town where he spent the night.

The question is, did the astrologer make an accurate prediction or did his mind put that thought out there and cause the incident.  Either way it makes me want to stay away from predictive astrology.

There is another form of astrology that is much broader.   You have probably heard the concept that we are going into the Age of Aquarius.  This mundane astrology says that our whole solar system travels through the zodiac over a period of thousands of years.  It spends about 2300 years in each sign of the zodiac.  According to calculations we are still in the entry phase of the age of Aquarius.  What does it mean?

Some changes are quite obvious. For example for thousands of years the main mode of transportation was by horse, donkey or camel.  There were ships that could travel waters using wind power but sea travel was very limited.  In just the last 150 years or so we have developed cars, trains, airplanes and even space ships.  It wasn’t that long ago when if you wanted to get a message to someone on the other side of the ocean it would take weeks or even months.  Now we can use things like Zoom to not only talk to but even see others from pretty much anywhere in the world.

Aside from the rapid changes in the world entering the Age of Aquarius also gives us an explanation for something else that is a stumbling block for some.  There are many people in the world with gender identities that don’t quite fit the norm.  There are homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender and even gender neutral people that are a part of our society.  Many people, especially Christians, don’t understand what has become known as LGBTQ people.   They look down on them, condemn them and even try to change them.  It is difficult for many Christians to accept alternative sexual orientations.  However the age change may give us a reasonable explanation, if we can accept the concept of reincarnation. 

Through a series of many incarnations, some as a male and some as a female, a soul could easily have left some lessons or goals unfinished.  Some relationships with others may have not reached a point of closure and the soul may be attempting to complete several relationships in one incarnation to clean up the lessons from the last age.  There might be both male and female relationships to work on all at once and that could create some gender confusion.

So when we think about abortion and want to consider when life begins we have another perspective, a spiritual perspective.  In the material world we see life as a onetime thing coming into this world and there are different views as to when the life begins.  However from a spiritual perspective life always has been and always will be.  Whether the life is in a physical body or not, it still exists. 

And so it is.