Can God order an abortion?

[FireFromHeaven]

 I was discussing the Canaanite massacres with a friend. I argued that the Israelites were justified in killing the Canaanites, even their infants, because God has the authority to end human life and can use humans as instruments to accomplish that end. He replied by asking if God could rightly command a woman to get an abortion.

I honestly was stumped. Abortion seems to violate the nature of the mother-child relationship. This further made me realize that killing those who aren’t a threat to you, like infants, would also seem to violate our human-human relationship. Am I misunderstanding God’s command to the Israelites? Can God command us to do things that seem contrary to our natural ends?

 

[goout]

 I was discussing the Canaanite massacres with a friend. I argued that the Israelites were justified in killing the Canaanites, even their infants, because God has the authority to end human life and can use humans as instruments to accomplish that end. He replied by asking if God could rightly command a woman to get an abortion.

I honestly was stumped. Abortion seems to violate the nature of the mother-child relationship. This further made me realize that killing those who aren’t a threat to you, like infants, would also seem to violate our human-human relationship. Am I misunderstanding God’s command to the Israelites? Can God command us to do things that seem contrary to our natural ends?

This well illustrates the tragedy of literalist fundamentalist biblical interpretations.
The accusation against God as ordering the slaughter of innocents is a non-starter.

The thing that many people overstate is God’s omnipotence. The fact that God has the ability to do something does not mean it’s in his nature to do it.
God can call us home anytime he wishes, but it’s not in God’s nature to order one human being to slaughter other innocent human beings.

All of scripture is read through Christ.
We have a God who went to the cross rather than start an empire of power, or coerce us to love him. God did not have the apostles pick up arms and subdue enemies, let alone slaughter innocents to purify humanity.

God is one and unchanging. The same God is present in the OT as the NT as now.
Literalist interpretations of these passages want to rob God of his revealed nature in Christ.

 

[FireFromHeaven]

The analogical and literal meanings of a text are not neccessarily in conflict. And if ordering the death of non-threatening individuals was not what was occuring in those passages, what was?

 

[DaveBj]

An interesting question, given that as many as 20% of all pregnancies end in spontaneous abortions (miscarriages).

D

 

[Mboo]

The physical evils of which one suffers (diseases, sufferings, deaths, etc.) are relative evils, that means that in certain circumstances they can be goods for our salvation and a greater good for the glory of God. It is because one does not have the knowledge of God that one must defeat these evils by default. But for example if God by a special revelation shows me that by killing such person, he will certainly be in heaven and that it is his only opportunity to go n heaven, I must obey God

 

[Gabika50]

Can-god-order-an-abortion? No, but humans sure to a great job of determining who lives or dies- he does not have to kill through abortion…