What the Book of Exodus Says About Abortion

With all the controversy about abortion in our culture, can you help me understand what the book of Exodus says about it?

That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. First up today, as winter approaches and the days get shorter, psychologists are concerned that coronavirus lockdowns could cause more people to experience Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. That disorder typically affects people during the winter months, with reduced sunshine, increased time indoors, and more people experiencing COVID-19. That disorder typically affects people during the winter months, with reduced sunshine, increased time indoors, and fewer daylight hours.

It's more common in the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Well, to help find a solution for this problem, researchers have been looking to the people of Norway where only a small percentage of the population seems to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Carrie Liebowitz is an American psychologist studying Norwegians' attitudes toward their long, sunless winters above the Arctic Circle. Residing in the Norwegian town of Trumpsa, she observed how the people there tended to view their winter.

They see it as a challenge, or even more like an opportunity for growth. And of course, Adriel, since you live in San Diego, a lack of sunshine has never been an issue for you. In fact, you start complaining when the temperature drops below 65, don't you? Yeah, I actually do.

Well, it's so funny that, well, I guess not funny, it's sad, but it's true. Around here in San Diego, when we do get those, you know, a week or two weeks of rain and overcast weather, I do start to feel a little bit of the blues. You know, it's one of those, I don't know that I could survive in Norway.

It would be tough, I can tell you that. Well, I'm so glad that you've got 300 and something days of sunshine there in San Diego. I'll be down there next week. So let's get to our first question of the day.

This is a call that came in from Wayne in Depew, Oklahoma. Yes, brothers. So I've been asked to help with the youth. I've done some studies in front of adults, but I have no idea where to start with the youth. And I've talked to a few of them while I've caught them around town and they seem to know very little about God, who Jesus is, and what the grand idea is.

They seem to only come to hang out with their buddies. Where would be a good starting place in the Bible with the commandments, with the gospel? If you have any resources or any great advice for me, I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Yeah, well, I appreciate you and your willingness to serve and to serve the youth of your church. I think that this is so important. And as you already said, I mean, they really need to understand who Jesus is. And a lot of times, for whatever reason, you know, the young people who are growing up in our churches don't really have a strong understanding of the gospel, of who Jesus is, of what the word of God teaches. And so you have your work cut out for you, brother.

But there's good news. There are great resources out there. And ultimately, it's a work of the Holy Spirit. And so I think the first thing I would want to say to you is commit to praying. I mean, I can tell you as a pastor and as the host of this radio program, you know, you should go to this book or that book. But really, I don't know the youth in your church as well as you do.

And so this is going to be a question you're really going to have to think through. Pray that God gives you wisdom and pray that the Lord leads you to the perfect resource, to the right book. I oftentimes do recommend that people start in one of the gospels, like the Gospel of John in particular. I think John is just an excellent, excellent gospel to help introduce people to who Jesus is. And of course, you know, the very beginning of John's gospel makes it absolutely clear that Jesus wasn't just another good moral teacher.

He's the Word, the eternal Son of God, God Himself, who came down to us and assumed human flesh. Now, there's a lot there, but that's what John teaches us, and that's who John introduces us to. And by the way, we have an excellent resource that we can offer to you. It's a Bible study through the Gospel of John that would help you and maybe help some of the youth in your church to really get a grasp of that gospel.

And so you might want to check that out. And then as far as other books are concerned, if you wanted to do a study through a book, of course, we'd like to recommend Core Christianity. That's another wonderful resource that I think would be really accessible to the youth in your church and would introduce them to the core doctrines of the Christian faith. You're right, so many youth and even adults don't understand the cardinal Christian doctrines that make Christianity what it is. The incarnation, the resurrection, a theology of God's Word, why we believe that it's inspired and God speaks to us in it.

Well, we have to understand these things. In Core Christianity, the book is a great resource that you might want to consider leading your youth group through. Another really good resource, and this is going to be more related to defending the faith and thinking through a Christian worldview.

We've recommended this book on the programs several times. It's Greg Kochel's book, The Story of Reality, and that's another really good book. I mean, that's one of those books that I think you could hand to even a non-Christian, and it would be helpful for them in terms of thinking about why they believe what they believe about the world and why the Christian worldview makes the most sense. And there are also a lot of great arguments for the Christian faith for why we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, things that I think are really important for young adults to grasp. And especially at that stage in life, brother, I think that we're often asking questions, wrestling through why we believe the things that we believe, and so we, I think, as teachers and leaders in the church, need to help by answering those questions or providing solid answers to those questions and grounding young men and women in the truth of Scripture and defending the faith so that they can truly understand it and why we are compelled to believe these things. So those are some resources, right? I mean, the Gospel of John is great, and then there's two other books there that I recommended that you might want to take advantage of. I pray that the Lord blesses you in your labors.

Thank you. Adriel, you know, I'm curious, as a pastor, I know you have a lot of younger families in your church. Do you have any families with teens, and if so, what are the parents telling you about what their kids are being bombarded with in today's culture? Yeah, we do have a few families with teens in our church.

As you said, most of the demographic of our church is a lot of young families, so we do have an enormous amount of the sort of toddler age and elementary school age. But especially with, I think, media, cell phones, you know, the stuff that you can find on YouTube now, I think that's one of the biggest challenges that parents of young adults face is it's just everywhere, and we're being bombarded with this sort of system and philosophy of the world, this sort of narcissism and this love of a lot of things that we're called not to love. I mean, John says it very clearly in 1 John 2, not to love the world.

Anybody who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. And we see that, it's that sort of system that's everywhere around us and that is just filling our minds through media and social media. And so that's not to say that media or even social media is totally bad. I think that there are just harmful ways in which these tools are harming a lot of young people.

There's been research done on this bill, I'm sure you know, I mean, just leading to depression, leading to a really low self-esteem as young adults are comparing themselves as, you know, young Christians are comparing themselves with others and feel like they're just not good enough, like they don't measure up. And that's why they really need to understand their identity in Jesus Christ. That's why they need to be grounded in something deeper than what society throws at them, what they're seeing on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook.

They need to know Jesus and they need to know their standing in Jesus. That's key, and I think that's one of the big issues. And Bill, I know you have teenagers, right?

So I'm sure you have a lot to say about this as well. We're discovering more and more great resources on YouTube to help kids understand Christian worldview and to really get into the gospel. And we're finding that because our kids, our teenagers are so immersed in that world that often video is one of the best ways to kind of reach them.

We try to read daily devotions at our dinner table, but we have found that if we can find an engaging video on Christian worldview or apologetics, that's one of the best ways for our kids to really learn and engage with God's word. That's great advice, Bill. Well, let's get to another question. This is a Facebook post came in from Amber, and she says, I know as a Christian we should read the Bible ourselves, but what do you do when you're scared that you'll interpret it wrong? What do you do when you have trouble navigating your Bible for answers?

Thank you for that question. And we want to encourage people to read the scriptures. I think it is really important for us to study the Bible, to read the Bible for ourselves.

I mean, what a privilege we have to be able to do that throughout the history of the church. Many, many people were not able to just open up a Bible and read it, partially because they may have been illiterate and partially because they just didn't have access to books like we do. We're so blessed, but then as you ask Amber, how do we rightly interpret the Bible? There are four attributes of scripture, and I think it's really helpful for us to know these. I like to use the acronym CANSS to remember them, C-A-N-S. C, the scriptures are clear. Clarity is an attribute of scripture.

A, authority. The scriptures are authoritative. God is speaking to us in his holy word. We don't judge the Bible. The Bible judges us and guides us and leads us.

N, necessity. The scriptures are necessary for us to understand what God requires of us in order to be saved. You can't understand the doctrine of salvation apart from the holy scriptures. You can't look up at the stars or gaze at a beautiful tree and recognize that Jesus came to die for your sins. No, God has given us more than just what we sometimes refer to as general revelation in the created world around us. It's what Paul talked about in Romans chapter 1, where he talks about the fact that we know just by nature that God made all things, that he's great, his invisible attributes, all of these things, we have an experience of them in the created world, but we need more than that to understand the gospel. And that's why God gives us his word. That's why his word is necessary. And then the last attribute is S, they're sufficient.

Sufficiency. That is, the scriptures alone are able to lead us, to guide us into the fullness of the truth of who God is and what we need to know in order to follow him faithfully. So, C-A-N-S, clarity, authority, necessity, and sufficiency.

And that first one, Amber, is the one that you're thinking about. Are the scriptures clear? Can I rightly understand them? And I think one of the things that we need to understand, that you need to understand, is that as you approach the Bible prayerfully and with humility, that it's like the psalmist says, a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Yeah, the beautiful thing about the scriptures is that especially in regard to what we need to know in order to be saved, they are clear. This is why Jesus, right at the end of Matthew 11, he's praying and he says, Father, I thank you that you've hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them to the babes, to the little children. Even a little child can understand the gospel, because the word of God, God's revelation, is for everyone.

It's not just for people who are college educated or have a PhD or whatever. No, all of us should open up the scriptures with humility, prayerfully, and say, God, help me to understand, and just read. And so pray for understanding. The Holy Spirit is your guide, and the church provides us with these guardrails.

That's why this is, I think, another thing that should comfort you, Amber. If you're in a good church that loves God's word and is faithful to teach God's word, the benefit of that is you're not going to go off on the deep end believing some weird doctrine that you've sort of come up with on your own as you've been reading the Bible. That's why we're meant to read the scriptures in community, and the community we're meant to read the scriptures in is the body of Christ, where there are pastors and elders and people who can help you answer questions for you when you do have a question about a difficult passage of scripture. I remember for myself, as a new believer, I just fell in love with the Bible, was reading the Bible every day, but the result of that was I had a lot of questions, and so I would go to my pastor's office, sometimes, you know, probably a little bit too frequently.

I think that he was getting tired of me after a while, but I would go to him and ask these questions, and he would give me answers. He would encourage me. And so I think it's really important and really helpful when you have a Christian community around you that's helping you as you read the scriptures, and I think that's your encouragement, knowing, one, that the scriptures are clear, two, that the Holy Spirit is your guide, that He lives in you, as Jesus said, and guides His disciples into all truth. The church provides us with these guardrails so that we don't go off on the deep end believing something silly or something that's not true in accordance with the scriptures, so make sure you're a part of a good church and rest in that. And if you're doing those things, reading the scripture humbly, praying for the Spirit's guidance, and you're a part of a good church, I think you're on the right path. So God bless you and keep digging into the word. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and you know, there are a lot of voices in our world today claiming that either God isn't all-powerful or He isn't truly good.

Well, today we're offering a great resource that explains why He is actually both of those things. Yeah, it's one of our most popular Bible studies over at corechristianity.com. It's called Is God Great and Good? You can download it for a donation of any amount. This is a great study to go through with a group of friends or by yourself or with a youth group, as we heard a previous question about that.

During recent days, many people have been struck by this very question. This study is going to help you look to the scriptures and grow in your faith that God is good and great, and that we can trust Him with all of our hearts, minds, and strength. So head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to download Is God Great and Good? And of course, you can always call us for that offer or any one of our offers. Here's the phone number 833-843-2673. That's 833-The-Core. This is Bill. I'm calling from Warner Island.

Matter of fact, I'm sitting almost on top of the radio station. I got a question for you about what people call the Lord's Prayer. It says you, therefore, pray like this, not to keep repeating a prayer over and over and over and over. They just repeat it and don't even seem to understand it. It says, and when you pray, don't babble on like the pagans who think God will hear them better if they talk a lot. Don't be like them because your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. You, therefore, pray like this, not pray this, all right? So that's my question to you.

Bill, thank you for that question. I have spent a lot of time in recent days studying the Lord's Prayer, and I think it's really important that we rightly understand it. Martin Luther said something sort of funny, but also pretty sad. It was funny just because of the way he said it. He said, together with the name and word of God, the Lord's Prayer is the greatest martyr on earth, for everyone tortures and abuses it.

Few joyfully use it correctly for comfort. I mean, Luther just had a way with words. He says the Lord's Prayer is the greatest martyr on earth because everybody tortures it and abuses it, and few people rightly understand it. It sounds to me like your question is, is it okay to just pray it as it's been given to us in places like Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 and following, or is it wrong to recite the words as is, and maybe this is just more of a general guide to pray?

Well, I think it's both. I don't think there's anything wrong with praying the Lord's Prayer as is. In fact, we do this in our congregation every Sunday prior to taking the Lord's Supper.

We pray the Lord's Prayer as a church. But there's also, I think, ways in which we can just use this as a general guide. Sometimes I think taking each petition one at a time and expanding on them can be really helpful. In fact, Martin Luther, that's precisely what he did. He wrote a letter to his barber, a simple way to pray, sort of encouraging his barber on how to pray. And he just took each of the petitions in the Lord's Prayer and basically expanded on them.

And so I think there are different ways that we can approach this. Now, prior to giving us the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus did give us two warnings related to prayer. When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. And then He says, pray like this. And then just prior to that, He said, don't pray like the hypocrites either, praying so that other people can see you.

But your question is related to this prohibition that Jesus gives us. Don't pray like the Gentiles heaping up empty phrases. Vain repetitions. Now, repetition in prayer is not necessarily bad. Vain repetition in prayer is bad. See, the Lord's Prayer is not a vain repetition, because everything that Jesus has commanded us to pray is in line with God's word and will. I mean, this is precisely the kind of thing that we should pray, and we should repeat it in prayer.

There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, historically, the Church had this practice of praying the Lord's Prayer three times a day. I think we should commit to praying throughout the day, and if you want to pray the Lord's Prayer as a part of that, well, wonderful. I mean, this is how Jesus taught us to pray.

But we don't want to be mindless when we're praying, and I think that's the idea with vain repetitions. It's the Greek word, batalogeo. It's an onomatopoeia.

The word sort of mimics the sound it makes. You think of babbling or muttering something, just these sort of empty words and phrases. In the New Testament, the word means something like praying mindlessly or without even thinking, and the fact of the matter is, brothers and sisters, isn't that something we can do? You know, you sit down to pray, and even if you're saying good things, your mind is totally wandering, and I think Jesus is challenging us here.

The issue, though, is not repetition. The issue is our hearts and making sure that when we pray, whatever it is we're praying, whether it's the Lord's Prayer or our own prayer that we're offering up to the Lord, that our mind and our heart is engaged, that we're coming before the Lord sincerely and honestly through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, brother, I'm going to say there's nothing wrong with just praying the Lord's Prayer as is. There's nothing wrong with expanding on it and using it more as a sort of guide for how to pray. I mean, do both.

Do both. But however it is that you use the Lord's Prayer, I think you do want to examine your own heart and ask yourself, am I just praying this mindlessly, or am I truly and honestly coming before the Lord through His Son, Jesus Christ, and offering up this prayer in faith, this prayer that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray? And brothers and sisters, let's all commit to doing that, because Jesus calls us to pray to the Father, and our Father wants to hear from us. Thanks for your question, Bill, and be safe on top of the radio station. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We have time for one more email. This is from Joshua, and he says, I've encountered people who accuse Christians of not knowing their Bible when they're pro-life because they say Exodus 21-22 only calls for a fine if a baby is aborted. Obviously, they're mistaken in interpreting the word miscarriage as being anywhere equivalent with abortion, but my question is, in the Hebrew, are there grounds for some of these Bible translators to use the word miscarriage instead of something like premature birth as translations like the NASB do? Yeah, Joshua, I don't think miscarriage would be a very helpful translation here, nor would it be, I think, faithful to the Hebrew text. The ESV reads, Exodus 21-22, when men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. Verse 23, but if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. So it sounds to me like people are trying to say, the message translates, this is a miscarriage, and there's nothing wrong with that, and so there's no difference here between an abortion and a miscarriage or something like that, but miscarriage would just not, I think, be a helpful translation.

As I said here, the Hebrew word just simply means to come out or to go out. I mean, the ESV, I think, translates it, I mean, just sort of at face value, you know, so that her children come out. The idea there is that her children have come out and there's no harm done to them, and so they're okay. You know, typically when we think of a miscarriage today, it's the premature death of a child in the womb, and so that's different than what is being spoken of here in Exodus chapter 21. And, you know, especially right now, around this time of the year with elections and whatnot, you know, abortion is an issue that comes up and that we talk about in the church, and frankly, it's one that we need to talk about, because I think it's one of the most grievous things in our society.

It's so absolutely heartbreaking how we don't care for human life, and that's really what this is about. It's about life, and I think the Scriptures are pretty clear about the fact that life begins at conception. And so, yeah, people might try to appeal to passages of the Bible like this one in order to say, you know, you Christians don't even know your Bible, but the fact of the matter is, Joshua, and it sounds like you understand this, the Bible is very clear. Even in the womb, God is at work in us. Think of the story of John the Baptist in Elizabeth's womb. Mary goes to meet Elizabeth early in the Gospels. We read that John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth's womb. It's as if John the Baptist in the womb is able to recognize the presence of Jesus Christ. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.