Early Christians were pro-life

[arunma]

Usually, I try to keep my pro-life arguments completely secular, so as to convince the widest audience possible. But I've noticed that there are many believing Christians who still aren't convicted that abortion is a sin. So I think a slightly more theological argument is also necessary.

I'm often told that there's no reason why Christians should seek justice for the unborn. Admittedly, the Bible doesn't say very much on the issue. But I found something that I found interesting. There's a document called the Didache, or "Teaching of the Apostles." It's dated somewhere between 50-120 AD, though some believe it might be from the third century. It most likely wasn't written by the apostles; rather, early Christians probably wrote it and attributed it to them (this practice was not considered "forgery" back then). In any case, it reflects the beliefs of the first Christians, and it mentions protection of unborn children.
And this is the second commandment of the teaching.
{Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,} thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, {thou shalt not steal,} thou shalt not deal in magic, thou shalt do no sorcery, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born, {thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods, thou shalt not perjure thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness,} thou shalt not speak evil, thou shalt not cherish a grudge, thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued; (Didache 2:1-2)
So I think this makes it clear that based on the few verses in the Bible that mention the unborn, as well as early Christian theology, the church recognized the need to protect the unborn.

By the way, this is why I'm in favor of reading uninspired, extra-biblical church traditions, so long as their treated as commentaries on Scripture, rather than Scripture themselves.

[PaladinGirl]

Personally, I prefer using scripture alone because so many unBiblical things can be justified through tradition but you are right, the early Christians did believe that abortion is wrong. Good job. :thumbsup:

[Joykins]

The Hippocratic oath says pretty much the same thing.

[InnerPhyre]

The Didache is awesome. It's a really quick read and gives you great insight into the early Church. Here's the whole thing:

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-hoole.html

[arunma]

Thanks for linking, InnerPhyre.

Personally, I prefer using scripture alone because so many unBiblical things can be justified through tradition but you are right, the early Christians did believe that abortion is wrong. Good job. :thumbsup:

There's nothing wrong with tradition, so long as you keep in mind that it's the work of fallible men. Trust me, they do make mistakes. For example, I recently noticed that in his "Dialog with Trypho the Jew," Saint Justin Martyr makes reference to a Scripture passage from Jeremiah which doesn't exist (he's not necessarily lying, since another church father also refers to it, though attributing it to Isaiah).

But nonetheless, there is some very valuable information in the traditions of the church. Saint Athanasius, Saint Augustine, and Martin Luther should be read by all Baptists. While none of them agree with us on infant baptism, they do agree on quite a bit of other theology.