Mortal Sin?
I recently listened to a podcast where a woman who is very active in the pro-life movement was being interviewed. She had a lot of excellent insight regarding the abortion industry and the corruption therein, including some horrific examples of the atrocities that occur within it, especially considering that she had actually worked for Planned Parenthood in the past. She also shared a lot of very good insight regarding how the church as a whole may productively and practically respond to this ever-looming issue.
Anyone who has been involved in the church for more than 10 minutes knows that there is not total agreement on all issues within it. Abortion is one of those issues. I will say that the fact there is disagreement about this issue within the church is very much to my disappointment, and I strongly believe that any pro-choice supporting or sympathetic individual within the church, or any particular church that supports or is sympathetic with the pro-choice platform, needs to objectively go to the Scriptures, in the spirit of common sense, and seriously reevaluate their position on this extremely important issue.
That being said, I am fully convinced that there is but one requirement for salvation (John 3:16, 18, 36, 6:40, 47, Acts 16:31, etc.). Scripture is quite clear about this. That one requirement is faith in Christ alone for salvation; fully trusting that He died for (thus fully paying for) our sins, past, present, and future (they were all future when He did His work on the cross for us) according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Scripture also makes it clear that when we believe the Gospel, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), and the wording that is used there is indicative that the Holy Spirit Himself is the seal; this is a seal that is not going to be broken. The promise of eternal life is almost always referred to in the present tense (if eternal life is something that can be lost, then it is not eternal). Scripture is also clear that God does not repent of (change His mind about) His gifts and promises (Romans 11:29). These principles are discussed at greater length in other places on this site.
Questions sometimes arise as to whether certain beliefs and/or sins are something that can exclude us from salvation (everlasting life); perhaps either being an inevitable manifestation of not being saved at the time of being in that sin and/or belief, being unsavable because of being in that given sin/belief, or perhaps changing one's status from being saved to being unsaved because of that sin/belief. There are individuals and churches that argue that there are some sins that are mortal (damnable) and others that are not (venial sins, they are sometimes called). While it is true that there are some sins that certainly, at least on the surface, cause more harm than others, Scripture makes it clear that if one breaks a single law, one has broken the whole of the law (James 2:10). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), the wages of sin, which is transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), is death (Romans 6:23), and the unregenerate, or unsaved, person is already in that state of death (Ephesians 2:1-3). We all still sin, even the Apostle Paul kept sinning while he was here on Earth (Romans 7:14-25).
This issue came up during the interview with the lady heavily involved in the pro-life movement. She stated that she had heard some Christians argue that the topic [sin] of abortion was not a salvific issue (an issue pertaining to salvation). She argued vehemently that it is indeed a salvific issue. She brought up the issue of some [mortal] sins being sins that separate us from God, and others [venial] that sort of break fellowship with Him and are relatively easily cleaned up. She argued that abortion was one of those sins that could indeed separate us from God. She is right in part; those sins referred to as mortal sins do indeed separate us from God, and they are damnable. However, so do the supposedly venial ones (Revelation 21:8, etc.). Regardless of venial vs. mortal sin, we are all guilty of mortal sin; we all have broken every point of God's Law (James 2:10, Exodus 20, Matthew 5, etc.).
I will not sugarcoat the obvious; abortion is indeed murder; the murder of the most innocent individuals of our race.* I personally don't see how any church that calls itself Christian could logically and biblically question this assertion regarding abortion. Abortion is also child sacrifice. God detests it and strictly forbids it in numerous instances in the Old Testament. Granted, modern abortions are not ritualistic sacrifices on the altar of the ancient false god/idol Moloch, but they are indeed done at the altar to the idol of self, in one way or another. I will not elaborate further on this here.
The question here is whether one's opinion about abortion is a mortal sin. [To be fair, the pro-life advocate we are talking about here is in no way asserting that one cannot be forgiven for having an abortion.] An unfortunate truth is that there are indeed many churches that do not preach the true Gospel; in many cases, I don't think that their clergy even understand it. There are many different flavors of this. For example, some churches are very legalistic, promoting ideas such as the false gospel of lordship "salvation." This is basically where people, in one way or another, are told that in order to be saved and receive and keep the "grace" of God, they must completely submit to the lordship of Christ and follow all moral teachings at all times, or else risk being damned. It is often summarized as being the "C.O.P." gospel, meaning that in order to obtain and keep salvation, one must of their own volition commit totally (C), obey at all times (O), and persevere until the end (P) in order for Jesus to ultimately decide to save them. They commit to serve, follow, and worship Jesus; they [unsuccessfully attempt to] submit to His Lordship, but never trust Him as Savior. People ascribing to this sort of thinking would be most likely to see any pro "choice" support as amounting to a mortal sin. To be clear, the true [saved; eternally secure] believer should indeed strive to commit, obey, and persevere for Christ, however, not out of fear (terror) and dread as the lordship "salvation" follower would; fearing the loss of or not earning salvation, but instead out of love and gratitude BECAUSE they have been saved; born again. I believe that many of the people who currently ascribe to the C.O.P. "gospel," and rely upon their "good behavior" to get Jesus to let them into the Kingdom of Heaven are going to be among the unfortunate, condemned, and woefully surprised individuals discussed in Matthew 7:21-23.
Other non-gospel preaching churches will focus only on such things as the idea that God is love. Indeed He is; however, they seem to forget that He is also just, and sin must be dealt with according to His definition of it, not theirs, and that not doing so would be unjust. God simply cannot be unjust; that would be a form of imperfection. God, who is perfect, is therefore not capable of imperfection, simply by definition. They ignore this requirement of justice and simply preach the false idea that all people are God's children and that somehow everyone will go to Heaven (if they even believe in Heaven), that there is no Hell or wrath, and that God accepts us all just as we are and doesn't want us to change any of our sinful lifestyle behaviors. They will also likely assert that there are many "truths" out there, and that we all need to find our own truth, etc. The Bible is, of course, clear that this is not the case (John 14:6, etc.).
Now, of course, there are many "flavors" and degrees of both of these categories of churches; however, I would say that most, if not all, of them who would argue in favor of pro "choice" would be in the latter category. Are there any truly saved people who have met the biblical requirement for salvation currently attending these churches who may indeed advocate for pro "choice" to at least some degree, who do not understand all of the implications of the abortion issue? Yes, I do believe that there are. Perhaps they are very new Christians. Perhaps they are believers who have only grown nominally in their faith since their decision to trust Christ as Savior; the believer's growth in the Lord is a choice (Galatians 5:16, etc.). Spiritual growth (growth in knowledge, wisdom, and practice of the things of God, etc.) is not linear and continuous like physical growth; I myself managed to remain a baby Christian for decades. Perhaps there are believers who have become slack in the things of the Lord and then have fallen, or have become shipwrecked in their faith and are yet to fully get back up on their feet, so to speak. TO THE SEASONED BELIEVER: please do not get cocky and think that this could not happen to you (1 Corinthians 10:12). If it does happen to you, it doesn't un-save you. You have already been born again (1 John 3:9, etc.) and you cannot become unborn. You have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20) and God is not going to relinquish what is His, etc., even though there may be consequences for your actions and/or your silly ideas, even after you manage to get back on your feet, by the Grace of God.
There are indeed people of Christendom who are pro "choice" advocates and are not saved. However, this sin is not keeping them from salvation any more than any other sin. What is keeping them from salvation is their lack of faith in the finished work of Christ and failing to take Him at His word and trust Him as Savior. There are many who are staunch church-going pro-life advocates who are not saved, ultimately for the same reason as the aforementioned. There are many pro-life advocates who are saved, however, not because of their pro-life stance, but because of their faith in Christ alone as Savior. There are many who to some degree support the pro "choice" position who are saved, but that sin rooted in ignorance [we all have sins rooted in ignorance], is not keeping them from being saved by the Savior, Jesus Christ, in whom they have trusted for salvation, any more so than any other sin that any other believer has not yet properly dealt with. I'm guessing that anyone reading this post who is on the same side of eternity that I am as I write it has at least one of them. These folks need to earnestly study and rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15) in order to get more in line with the will of God, AS DO WE ALL.
A pitfall that is all too easy for all of us to fall into, starting with me, is to look at and compare our sin to someone else's sin that we may think of as being worse than our own in order to make ourselves feel more righteous, thus better about ourselves. As I said, abortion is indeed a sin; it is murder, however, so is being unjustly angry with your brother, and it carries the same penalty (Matthew 5:22, Romans 6:23, James 2:10, Revelation 21:8, etc.); God's words, not mine. It is great to be passionate, but the fruit of that passion is in danger of rotting; winding up amounting to nothing, without genuine compassion [love] (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Let us all be mindful to genuinely build one another up, to speak the truth in love, especially when admonishing or debating (this most certainly does not mean "sugar-coating" or dismissing the truth). Let us all be quick to hear and slow to speak. Let us all pray for our fellow image-bearers (Genesis 1:26-27), both the saved and the lost, and against the sin and enslavement of abortion, and all other abominations like it that come from our true enemy.
Please like and share; it helps to spread the Gospel. God bless.
JJR
* I find it fascinating that in the instance of pregnancy involving rape, we have at least 3 people directly involved: the perpetrator and at least 2 victims. In many cases, the perpetrator, if even caught, can serve as little as a few years in prison; however, the innocent baby, the most innocent of the victims, is subject to the death sentence without a trial.
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