Seminary Professor Says “Legal” Abortion Is NOT Murder!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So Karen Swallow Pryor is a research professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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She also writes about various Christian issues periodically in several different publications, and one such publication is the ever -staunch defender of Biblical truth, that is,

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Christianity Today. And of course, if you want to see why Christianity Today is so wrong, all you have to do is compare it to the real genuine defenders of Christianity who came yesterday.

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But I digress. Karen Swallow Pryor, who will sometimes be referred to here as KSP, she wrote an article in Christianity Today on the topic of abortion.

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It is entitled, quote, Loving our pro -choice neighbors in word and in deed, end quote.

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So what she said in the article was very telling. She said this, quote, Calling legal abortion murder when it is not, it is to our shame lawful, is to say what isn't true, at least in a civil, not church, context, end quote.

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So in KSP's opinion, it is perfectly natural, perfectly ethical, that Christians should seek to defund

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Planned Parenthood, for they contribute to what she sees as killing babies. And on this point, she and I would agree, and I think all serious

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Christians would agree as well. And she goes on saying that reporting against those who work for Planned Parenthood in various ways is a good thing too.

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Again, I wholeheartedly agree. But she also believes that calling abortion providers and those who hire them murderers is unchristlike.

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This is the point that every Christian needs to wholeheartedly disagree with, and I will describe to you in detail why that is.

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In fact, this comment from Karen Swallow Pryor is dangerous and appallingly unbiblical. Let me tell you why.

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The first and greatest question we ought to ask here is this. Who gets to define the terms?

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By what objective standard do we understand what the truth is and what falsehood is?

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Well, for Christians, we define the truth using Scripture. Jesus himself says as much in John 17, 17, when he says, quote, sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth, end quote.

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So it is clear that the ethical standard Christians follow is the Scriptures. We do not follow our opinions or emotions, nor do we follow the opinions and emotions of others.

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So keep in mind, it may hurt someone's feelings if you call them unrepentantly guilty of murder, and it may be something they disagree with.

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But that is not the standard here. Murder, as defined in Scripture, is the unjust taking of a human life, and no one's opinions or emotions can change that.

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And of course, Exodus 20, verse 13 says, quote, you shall not murder. In fact, murder was a death penalty offense under Old Testament law.

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Exodus 21, verse 12 says, quote, whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death, end quote.

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So just to recap, the Bible has a category for murder, and this category is God's own ethical standard in his law.

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God is the one who gets to define what murder is, and he gets to define who can justly be called a murderer.

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So when Karen Swallow Pryor says that because abortion is legal, it's technically not murder, she's merely crafting and using a loophole that the

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Word of God does not allow for in the slightest. She is effectively accusing those who call abortionists and those who hire them murderers of lying.

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But lying is when you say something that is not true, and that simply doesn't apply in this case. And again, what is the standard of truth?

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It is God's Word. Therefore, to accuse someone of lying because they echoed what God has said about abortion is to ignore and mutilate

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God's standard in His Word. That is why this is so dangerous for Christians. And unfortunately, everything

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KSP is doing here comes under the guise of loving your neighbor. Where have I heard that before?

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Please, do not be fooled by this unbiblical misuse of God's Word. The next problem with what

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KSP wrote is that it is dreadfully inconsistent as a standard, and it simply cannot hold up to the smallest amount of scrutiny.

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By Karen's own standard, it is unchristlike to call Adolf Hitler a murderer. You see, everything

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Hitler did was technically legal. In his view, he was just removing people who were subhuman.

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He was removing a societal problem. Just to be clear, Hitler was one of the most wicked men who ever lived.

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I agree with that. And he is justly receiving eternal damnation, separated from God, at this very moment.

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I am in no way endorsing Hitler in this video. I am simply using his wickedness and immorality to make a point.

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It says something about our modern culture that I even have to specify that. But let me continue. The point I am trying to get across is that Hitler was not, in the technical legal sense of the word, a murderer, as Karen Swallow Pryor puts it.

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Technically, on paper, Hitler was voted into office and became leader of Germany. Officially, he was the leading politician.

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And as such, he was the military leader of the country. And he could use their military resources as he wished.

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Legally, he chose to use their resources to murder millions of people. But somehow, despite all of the legality of this issue,

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I don't think that Karen Swallow Pryor would hesitate or correct Christians if they called Hitler a murderer.

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So why is she so inconsistent here? If it is un -Christlike to call one legally acting citizen a murderer, then it is always un -Christlike to do so.

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Suppose a man stole your car, as another example, and the government pardoned that man for political reasons.

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Legally, he would not be classified as a thief. But why would that change the Biblical truth of the matter, which is that he is a thief.

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He stole something that belonged to you. The reason KSP is inconsistent here is because her standard is not rooted in the consistent, undying authority of the

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Scriptures. Rather, it is rooted in the fickle and ever -changing political landscape of our pagan nation.

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You can clearly see this happening. Again, her comments here are not simply ill -founded. They are poisonous for Christians.

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We should reject them outright, and she should reject them outright. But speaking of inconsistency, Karen Swallow Pryor has another comment about abortion that sheds some light on this situation.

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Let me read this tweet for you. KSP said, quote, Something about abortion is anti -art, too, perhaps.

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The spirit of art, of creativity, lifts towards life, not death, end quote. So she will boldly call abortion anti -art, but she won't call the people who kill babies murderers.

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This is why modern Christians aren't taken seriously, folks. It's stuff like this. Our most courageous and confident moral outrage about babies being cut up into tiny little pieces before they're even born is that this action stifles the creative flow of art in our society.

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But please, don't say that the people who do this are murderers. That would be mean. That would be unloving. Make no mistake, while we professing

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Christians can't get our categories right, the world has been hard at work organizing their categories and fighting for them viciously.

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For instance, those who are pro -LGBT will call those who are anti -LGBT a bunch of evil, racist, murderous, civil rights denying bigots.

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The pagan world knows perfectly well that they should condemn what they believe to be a sin. But at the same time, we have professing

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Christians who can only summon the courage to call abortionists anti -art. Hey you, don't kill that baby.

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Don't you know that kid was going to be the next Picasso? I mean, come on, is this really the best we've got? Is this our argument?

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Is this how we should go about this as Christians? Somehow, I don't think people are murdering their babies due to the fact that they can't properly appreciate the

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Mona Lisa. We must be willing to confront the worldly culture using Biblical ethics,

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Biblical language, Biblical categories, rather than making up our own standard as we go along.

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First Corinthians 6 .9 says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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On the list of the unrighteous deeds in Romans 1 is murder, for instance. So you see, the Bible uses strong language to condemn murder and those who advance it in the world.

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So in summary, the second reason KSP's perspective on abortion is unbiblical is that it is internally inconsistent and much too weak to accurately represent what the

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Bible teaches. And the third reason that Karen Swallow Pryor is wrong about abortion in her article is that her use of the term unchristlike is simply not accurate at all.

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Let's take a look at the Biblical facts. In 1 John 3 .15, John says this, quote, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and we know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

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End quote. Here, John, the disciple of Jesus, proverbially calls those who harbor hatred against their brother in their heart murderers.

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In the same way, Jesus says that those who lust after women in their hearts are guilty of committing adultery in their hearts.

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John was willing to use the word murderer to refer to those who hate their brother even if they had not murdered anyone in the legal or Biblical sense.

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Again, I believe he is using some level of hyperbole here, but the point still stands, and this should lead us to ask an important question.

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If the Word of God, hyperbolically or otherwise, called those who have hatred in their heart murderers, how much more so would it call those who destroy unborn children murderers?

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How can anyone confidently say that it is unchristlike to call someone a murderer when they are literally guilty of murder?

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This is the absurdity of what some have referred to as the cult of nice in Christianity.

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As Christians, when there is a choice between being a Biblical person and being a nice person, we will often choose the nice person option every time, because that's what we think

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Jesus would have done. But this is making us ignore Biblical categories, like, for instance, murder, and it is destroying the consistency of our

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Christian worldview. In the book of Matthew, Jesus called the Pharisees a bunch of evil snakes and whitewashed tombs, among other things.

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That's Matthew 12, 34, and 23, 27. And they didn't even kill a single baby. Yet apparently people who literally murder children can't be called murderers because that's unchristlike?

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That is absolutely absurd. The fact is, you need to stay away from the teaching of Karen Swallow Pryor and those who tell you to be nice at the expense of being

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Biblical. Those who kill babies and those who hire them to do so are murderers, and those who aid in a bed murderers.

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That is what they are, Biblically speaking. That's not a lie. That's not slander. It is the truth. The good news, though, is that Christ died,

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Christ was murdered to forgive their sins. So if you're watching this and you've had an abortion or you've conducted one,

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God forbid, repent of your sins and be washed clean by the blood of Jesus. There is hope for you in Christ.

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Surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Believe in His life, death, and resurrection. Turn away from your wicked sin and follow

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Him. You are guilty of murder. Yes, you are, but you can be fully and completely forgiven by God through His Son's death.

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So finally, let's all pray for Karen Swallow Pryor, that she would recant this unbiblical statement and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you, and God bless.