Herbert W Armstrong

   Is abortion a sin? Is it a crime? Let me give you some definitions. Sin is the transgression of the spiritual law of God. Crime is a transgression of the physical or the laws of man as made by a legislature or the head of a government or a municipal city or another lawmaking body.

   Now, in the recent debates in the presidential election, in the first debate, this question of abortion was not brought up before the two candidates, and the one candidate said that no one had yet come forward with any proof whatsoever that human life had not begun at the time of conception and that any abortion after the time of conception, therefore, would constitute murder. The other candidate said, "I do not know when human life begins." He said he did not know; neither one seems to know accurately. This question has puzzled the United States Supreme Court, and it is becoming more and more evident that lawmaking bodies, judges, lawyers, none of them knows the real difference between right and wrong.

   There's only one way we know the difference between right and wrong, and all human legislation and lawmaking bodies should come from that source. And that source is God and the Bible. In the Bible, we find God speaking, and there is the one supreme authority who does know definitely and can tell us definitely whether abortion is or is not a sin.

   Now, I am not in politics, and I'm not concerned about crime. I am very much concerned about sin. And we find in the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible (Genesis 1:1), it says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's in the first chapter of Genesis and verse one. And in verse 26 (Genesis 1:26), it says, God said, "Let us" (not me more than one person. God is a family), that's something that most people don't seem to understand. More than one person, said "let us make man in our image, after our likeness." In other words, let God reproduce humans after his own kind, after his own likeness. And in the verse just above the 25th verse (Genesis 1:25), he'd said that he had found and made cattle to reproduce after the cattle kind. In the verse just ahead of that, he had made other animals to reproduce after their kind, that his dogs would be produced after the dog kind, elephants after the elephant kind, and so on, horses after the horse kind. But now he said that God would reproduce after the God kind. God is reproducing after his own kind. And that is a truth that practically no one seems to know.

   Why should there be just one voice shouting out that great truth? The greatest truth of all that God is reproducing himself out of human beings. And we don't seem to know the truth and the value of one single human life that it can lead to an immortal supreme God life.

   Now, we find in the second chapter of Genesis in verse seven that the Eternal God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man, that is the dust of the ground, became a soul. So, a soul came from the dust of the ground, not from spirit, a soul is not immortal and is not spirit. And to that soul formed of the dust of the ground, God said there was a tree in the Garden of Eden that was forbidden to him. And he said, if he took the lead tree, he would surely die. He was not an immortal soul. God said that soul would die.

   Now, you've heard about Adam's apple. Well, there's no evidence whatsoever that the tree that the first man Adam took was an apple tree. However, there was some kind of a tree. And then in the Bible, it is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was a tree of knowledge, but there was another tree in the garden, and you don't hear much about that tree. It was a tree of life. In other words, that was real life, not temporary existence.

   Now, man had the breath of life; that is only a chemical existence. Man did not have life like God. God is immortal. God has eternal life. He doesn't have to breathe air. But man had the breath of life. That breath of life oxidizes blood, the heart pumps blood. The Bible says the blood thereof is the life thereof, and the breath man breathes is also called the breath of life. But God has an immortal life.

   Now, God offered that kind of life, God life. God was going to reproduce himself, and he offered his own kind of life to this man, Adam, the first man ever created. But the man chose to take to himself the knowledge of good and evil. He disobeyed God, and he took the forbidden fruit. And thereupon, God closed up the tree of life until Jesus Christ, the second Adam, should come, and the tree of life was closed up until then.

   But at the same time, God said it was a point for all men once to die. And after that would come the judgment. And we find also in First Corinthians 15 and verse 22 (I Corinthians 15:22), that is "in Adam, all die", and all have been dying in Adam ever since. So, in Christ shall the same, all be made alive by a resurrection. And so, God was not going to be defeated in his great purpose. All whoever lived are going to be brought back to life and given the opportunity to be given God life and made immortal children of God.

   Now, Jesus Christ finally came about 4000 years after the first Adam. He came as the second Adam to accomplish what the first Adam could have but failed to do. And Jesus said that he had come, that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. He came, that we might have life, which the first Adam might have had, but he did not take it.

   And you know, on the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter had said, when some had received the Holy Spirit of God and others wondered what to do and how to do and how they should receive the Spirit of God. He said, repent, repent every one of you and be baptized into Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

   Now, in Romans eight and verse nine (Romans 8:9), we find that if they have that Holy Spirit of Christ and of God, within them, that they are Christs and if they are not the spirit of God or the spirit of Christ, they are not his. They are not a Christian, you ask who is a Christian. But the only ones that are Christian are those who have repented of their sins, have turned away from the way of living of this world and have turned to God and his ways and his laws and believe what God says about those things like abortion and other questions that come up and are believing God and to receive his spirit. And they are Christ's.

   Now in verse 11, 8th chapter (Romans 8:11), same chapter, those who do have the spirit of God, we find that the God who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken or make immortal. Their human bodies by the spirit of Christ or of God that dwells within them.

   Now, in verse 14 of Romans, the eighth chapter (Romans 8:14), you find that and then as are led by the spirit of God, they are already the sons of God. Now I'm talking about Sons of God. Our question is, are the unborn child, a fetus or an embryo, the child of the human parents. Now the unborn child of God, but yet begotten of God, having been conceived after conception has taken place. It says if they are being led by the Holy Spirit of God, they are the sons of God and the best spirit is growing and then the God will make immortal, their mortal bodies by that spirit.

   Now over in first John, the third chapter in verse two (I John 3:2), you find it says that. Now already, we are the sons of God. We already are the children of God, not yet born, but already we are the children of God. In the same way, the embryo or the fetus is already the child of its human parents because one is the exact type of the other.

   Now, we find that they are as yet unborn and we find that when they are born, it's going to be different, that we will be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye. And this mortal well put on immortality and our vile bodies corruptible and vile will be made like unto Christ's glorious body and be of his glorious body. In the first chapter of the book of Revelation (Revelation 1:14), his face shining as the very sun in brilliance and his eyes, as flames of fire, immortal, God, not human any longer.

   Now, again, the Pharisee Nicodemus came to Jesus and he wondered about this sort of thing and how is he going to get to be a child of God and really born into divine, as a divine being? And Jesus said to him that he had to be born again unless he was born again; he could not enter into or even see the family or the kingdom of God. Now, Nicodemus couldn't understand that. And the people today can't seem to understand it.

   Most of the so-called preachers and ministers of the gospel, today don't understand it. And they say they're already born again Christians. So, are they? Well, I'm going to tell you the booklet you may have without any obligation absolutely free without requested contributions. What do you mean... Born Again? Are they born again Christians or are they not? Are they what they profess or are they not? We need to know the truth. Too many people are using their own ideas and not going according to the word of God the Bible. And the Bible is the inspired divine word of God. It is God himself speaking. Now, Jesus answered, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, born human he is human. He is flesh. Then he said that which is born of the spirit that is born of God is spirit.

   Now, God is a spirit. In John 4:24, you read what God is. God is a spirit. Now, these so-called born-again Christians, my friends, are still human. They are not spirit and are not composed of spirit. And so, Jesus said, 'You are a spirit once you're born again.' So those people that have the Holy Spirit of God are already now the children of God, but not yet born.

   Now, they come over to First Corinthians 15 and verse 15 (I Corinthians 15:50). And you find that flesh and blood, that is a human being made of flesh and blood, cannot enter into or inherit the Kingdom of God but will be changed in a moment in the tweaking of an eye. And then, as we read in the book of {1} Philippians, in the third chapter, in the last verses (I Corinthians 15:53), that this corruptible body of flesh that will rot and decay. The minute you stop breathing or the minute your heart stops pumping blood will be changed at the time of the coming of Christ or at the time of entering the Kingdom of God into an immortal God being made like unto the immortal body that Jesus has been made into by a resurrection from the dead. As you read in the first, all first four verses of the first chapter of the book of Romans in the New Testament (Romans 1:1-4).

   And so you see it's very, very plain in the Bible that those who have really repented, that is to turn away from the way they've been living, the way of this world, the way of sin. And sin is the transgression of God's law. Now, of course, the big trouble is that it is generally considered in the churches of this world that God's law was done away. And I notice that some of the ministers are saying now, then if you just accept Christ, if you just will receive him and accept him, they're always on the getting side. If you will get Christ, you take, you receive that he, well forget all of your sins. And apparently you can go on sinning all you want to. Well, that is a deception. And I blame that as a lie. It is not the truth, and it is not the truth of your Bible. And it is not the truth of God. Because when you sin, you are a sinner, and you're under the condemnation of sin, and the wages of sin is death, and eternal life is the gift of God. That's in Romans 6 and verse 23 in your Bible (Romans 6:23).

   When I first read that some 58 years ago, I was really shaken. I said, well, I had always been taught differently. I had been taught I was an immortal soul. How can the wages of sin be death? I thought the wages of sin was eternal life in hellfire. And then I read the last half of that same verse and said that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's Romans six and verse 23. Well, I said, I can't believe that. How can I receive it as a gift when I already have it? I'm an immortal soul. And then I found that the Bible said the soul that sins, it shall die. It says that twice and back in Genesis, man became the soul made out of the dust of the ground and to that soul made out of the dust of the ground. God said that when he ate of the forbidden fruit in that tree in the Garden of Eden, he would surely die.

   Well, you know, I came to believe God instead of what I had been taught in Sunday school in the early days. In a way, I don't like to say these things; in another way, I do, it's time that people knew the truth. It's time your eyes were open and that you knew the truth. The Bible is God speaking, Jesus Christ is the Word of God in person, and the Bible is the same word in writing. It is the word of God in writing. And it's a matter of believing God. You know, there's a great difference between believing on Christ and believing Christ. Now, Christ is the living Word of God in person, the Bible is the same loving word of God in writing, but identically the same word. And these words are life, and they are proof they are living words in the Bible, your eternity and your whole future life. And whether you have the penalty of sin or whether you gain immortal life and salvation, all depends on believing what Christ says in the Bible, what God says and what God inspired in the Bible.

   You know, I once said, well, the churches get all their religion right out of the Bible. And I believe that until I began to study the Bible and blow the dust off of it and read it for myself and see what it really does say. And I had the shock of my life. Well, on this question of taking a human life and abortion is the taking of a human life.

   Now, that comes under the same category as the taking of a human life of any kind, afterbirth. Some people want to excuse it in times of war and under certain conditions. You study the Bible and see if you can find that God excuses it under those conditions. But I say to you on the authority of Jesus Christ and of his word, the Holy Bible, that whether embryo or whether fetus, any time after conception, a human life is there and the taking of human life is certainly breaking the Sixth Commandment. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not kill.

   Now, you might think that one over. Now, I want to offer you a booklet I've offered this before. I think maybe it's been some time now since I last offered it. What do you mean born again? Just what do you mean... Born Again? What is a born again Christian? Some of you are listening to me right now. I think you're a born again Christian. You better read and be sure. And if you're not, you better find out how to become one. It's a very interesting booklet. And it'll open up the truth to your eyes in a way you've never seen it opened up to you before.

   Now, at the same time, I would like to offer you a year's subscription to The Plain Truth, and there's no subscription price. There's no charge for the booklets, and we don't ask for money. There'll be no follow-up requesting money in any way. Here's a recent issue of The Plain Truth. A big article on the subject, is one of the red hottest subjects in the world today, 'Abortion'. The Plain Truth is a magazine of understanding. It is a news magazine. It doesn't report news, but it does tell you the meaning behind the World News and the International News.

   Here's an editorial by me, 'Men Did Not Teach Me What I Preach'. Here's an article. Well, it's a cover story. 'The Plain Truth About Abortion and why it's so little understood'. Here's an article. 'The Key To Human Survival'. The world's number one problem today is that of human survival. The weapons exist that can erase all human life from off the earth if there is another nuclear war, and Bible prophecy says such a war will come and unless God Almighty intervenes, human life will be erased from this earth, but God will intervene in time. You need to know about it.

   Here's another one about, 'Famine War Has God Lost Control?' If there is a God, why does he allow all of these things? Here's another, 'The Teen Years. You know, I think that would interest young people even up to the age of 92 or 93 as I am. Well, here's another article, 'You And Your Money'. I don't think there's anything people are more interested in than that, you and your money and on your finances.

   There's another article on this issue, 'Finding a Way Out of Fear And Depression', finding a way out of fear and depression and other articles in this recent issue. It's not distinctly a religious magazine, but yet it does tell you the truth of God and views world conditions and the things going on in the world as God views them.

   You know, we read in the Bible that God looks down from heaven and he beholds all the things that human beings down here are doing. And we're just like a lot of little tiny ants running around down here. But God beholds all we're doing. He's interested in the events that are going on in the world. He watches it and you know who he wants those things to his eyeglasses as he reveals it in the Bible. There's no other magazine like it. There is no subscription price, believe it or not.

   So, all you do is just send your request to me, Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California. And if you write a letter, that's all the address you need. Just Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California. The zip code is 91123. Or, what you should do is just go right now to the telephone. That's the quickest way and the easiest way and call this toll-free number. Of course, you dial one first and it's the toll-free number 800-423-4444.