Today the General Conference Executive Committee discussed adopting a new official statement on abortion. This official statement would inform the world and church how Seventh-day Adventists understand life. After some discussion the new guidelines on abortion were not voted on.
It was recommended that the statement on abortion be referred to a writing committee for revisions. An updated version will most likely be voted on in the next day or two. Even though the new statement on abortion is better than the first abortion guidelines adopted in 1992, an attempt at being “compassionate” is leaving open some possible exceptions for abortion. See Section Six of the new statement.
Whenever we look for exceptions or “rare” instances for breaking the moral law we make of none effect the commandments of God. This was the argument made by Dr. Ekkehardt Mueller from the Biblical Research Institute, a theological think tank for the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In the above video Dr. Mueller expressed a lot of wisdom in his appeal to the General Conference Executive Committee. He quoted the divine commandment that says “Thou shalt not kill” and asked the committee, “Is this absolute or not? And does the church have the right to say we can kill anyway?”
Dr. Mueller followed up with some more common sense questions challenging the committee, “Does the church have the right to do that? If we do then are we not just like the Catholic Church?” Dr. Mueller said that if we allow exceptions to God’s law we would be no different than Rome.
He also explained that the Jewish leaders were experts at breaking God’s commandments by making exceptions to moral law. The law of God says to “Honor your father and your mother.” Dr. Mueller explained how the Jews made an exception to God’s law through “Corban” (Mark 7:9-13).
If the Jews gave their wealth to the church they were free from having to provide for their parents, which Mueller says was a violation to the law of God. The wealth of course wouldn’t go to the church until they died. This meant the Jews were free to live for themselves. This is how God’s law was violated through “exceptions.”
Seventh-day Adventists are looking for exceptions to justify abortion. If you look for them you’ll find some. But the question we should ask is who are we to determine morality? Who are we to determine which life is valuable and worth saving and which ones are not?”
It is one thing if the baby dies in the womb and another if we end their life prematurely. That is a violation of God’s law. If Seventh-day Adventists are going to have a statement on the sanctity of life then all life should be valuable, not just some.
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