Dear Aebi: "Since we are to obey all government laws, wouldn't that include the law on abortion?"

This question reminds me of a man who argued that we should practice infant baptism because 1 Peter 2:13 says to "submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake," and infant baptism is an ordinance of man! (It certainly is not from God!)

Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17 do say that we should obey civil rulers. A careful reading of the Romans 13 passage indicates that Paul is talking about the principle of government being ordained by God for our good and to promote good generally; note verses 3-4. Even tax laws that we do not always like are included in Paul's principle (verses 6-7), as Jesus indicated in Matthew 22:21.

There is one notable exception to our obedience to government laws: if a law of man violates a law of God, we must choose to follow God's law. Peter and the other apostles stated it plainly in Acts 5:29. "We ought to obey God rather than men." Peter and John had stated about the same thing earlier in Acts 4:19-20. In both cases they had been arrested and ordered by the Jewish authorities not to preach the gospel, but this was contrary to the commands of God through Jesus in the great commission (Mark 16:15-16; Matt. 28:18-20), so they insisted that obeying God supersedes obeying man when there is a conflict. There should be no conflict between God's law and man's, but sometimes there is.

This does not count those cases where man's law irritates us, or we don't like it, such as paying taxes, traffic laws, etc.; but it does refer to situations where man's law violates God's, and abortion is one of these. Abortion is murder - the killing of a helpless infant not yet old enough to be out of his mother's womb. Murderers will find their destiny in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). The argument that unborn babies are not persons is refuted by passages like Luke 1:44 where Elizabeth said, "For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe (John the baptizer) leaped in my womb for joy." The hypocrisy of men and their laws is evident when they declare that it is right for a woman to have her baby killed a few minutes before he is born, yet imprison her for murder if she kills him a few minutes later, after he is born.

The difference, they say, is that the unborn child is not a person. Hitler made the same claim about the Jews - that they were not persons - and used that as an excuse to kill millions of them. Evidence is mounting that some would also classify the very aged, the mentally incapacitated, the terminally ill, and others as expendable, as Hitler did and as Kevorkian did. The recent case of Terri Schiavo's being starved to death raises the issue of whether our government is going to follow some European governments in eliminating those considered no longer useful. Euthanasia and abortion are brothers.

One encouraging occurrence is that the number of abortions, abortion clinics, and abortion doctors is diminishing somewhat in recent years and more right-to-life advocates now exist than did formerly. -2660 Layman Road, Vincent OH 45784 cjandi@juno.com

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