The Truth
in Print Vol. 25 Issue 4, May 2019
A
Publication of the Valley church of Christ,
2375 W.
8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364 (928-782-5058)
Website
Address ~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
Infanticide ~ #2
Cultural, Political and Moral Aspects
*Corrected Cope 10.02.24
Jas 2:11 For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT
ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT MURDER." Now if you do not commit
adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
The following is a newspaper article that
appeared in March of this year:
Surely
Not “Without Natural Affection” ~ When Taking a
Human
Life so I can Please Myself
One of many characteristics of those who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness is that of being “without natural
affection” (Rom. 1:31). The ancient pagan world practiced infanticide by
sacrificing living children to their pagan gods. The Carthaginians sacrificed
living infants to Baal-Haman in crises, as many as 300 in a day (“Caesar and
Christ,” Will Durant). Durant describes live children placed upon the slanting
arms of the god and rolled into the fire beneath; cries were drowned by the
noise of trumpets and cymbals. Mothers were required to watch, he says, without
moan or tear lest they lose the credit due to them from the god. Under Roman
law, he says, infanticide was forbidden except in the case of infants deformed
or incurably diseased. He also says Roman laws prohibiting infanticide and
abortion were largely evaded.
Have someone tell you about underground
orphanages in China full of castaways found left in abandoned places to starve
or die horrible deaths. Such is the way of the “godless” in the world. Margaret
Sanger the “mother” of Planned Parenthood thought killing children of the poor
would benefit society. In such-like we see the full measure of being “without
natural affection.” Millennials understand the need to support legislation to
protect “pain capable unborn infants.” Knowledge is increased by considering
God’s view when discussing the belief that taking a human life is required, and
justified, so one can achieve what they want (Matt. 19:18; Ja. 2:11). Yes,
doing away with the ill and deformed is where our laws are headed if we do not
restore respect for human life.
Will Durant’s “Caesar
and Christ” depicts the depths to which a society is capable of sinking in
pagan immoralities.
The Carthaginians (Carthage)
The Carthaginians appear at their worst in
their religion, which again we know only from their enemies. … To Baal-Haman,
in great crises, living children were sacrificed, as many as three hundred in a
day. They were place upon the inclined and outstretched arms of the idol and
rolled off into the fire beneath; their cries were drowned in the noise of
trumpets and cymbals; their mothers were required to look upon the scene
without moan or tear, lest they be accused of impiety and lose the credit due
them from the god. In time the rich refused to sacrifice their own children and
brought substitutes among the poor; but when Agathocles of Syracuse besieged
Carthage, the upper classes, fearing that their subterfuge had offended the
god, cast two hundred aristocratic infants into the fire (fn7). It should be
added that these stories are told by Diodorus, a Sicilian Greek, who looked
with equanimity upon the Greek custom of infanticide. It may be that the
Carthaginian sacrifice solaced with piety an effort to control the excesses of
human fertility. (Caesar And Christ,
Will Durant, pg. 42 Hannibal Against Rome 264-203 B.C.)
Using
Durant’s “Caesar and Christ” Rome’s pagan beliefs, sexual immoralities and
practices illustrate the same. The following brief excerpts (some points I’ve
bulleted) highlight the deterioration of marriage and family limitation along
with sexual immoralities, infanticide and abortions.
Stoic Rome 508-202 B.C.
Birth itself was an adventure in Rome. If
the child was deformed or female, the father was permitted by custom to expose
it to death (fn1). Otherwise it was welcomed; for though the Romans even of
this period practiced some measure of family limitation, they were eager to
have sons. Rural life made children assets, public opinion condemned
childlessness, and religion promoted fertility by persuading the Roman that if
he left no son to tend his grave his spirit would suffer endless misery.”
(Durant, pg. 56)
Augustan Statesmanship 30 B.C.-A.D.
14
Protracted military service drew a
considerable portion of young men from marriage in their most nubile years. A
large number of native-stock Romans avoided wedlock altogether, preferring
prostitutes or concubines even to a varied succession of wives. Of those who
married, a majority appear to have limited their families by abortion,
infanticide, coitus interruptus, and contraception (fn18). (Durant, pg. 222)
Epicurean Rome 30 B.C. – A.D. 96
· Marriage is no longer a lifelong economic
union but now among a hundred thousand Romans a lose contract for the mutual
provision of physiological conveniences or political aid.
· To escape the testatory
disabilities of the unmarried some women took eunuchs as contraceptive husbands
(fn4); some entered into sham wedlock with poor men on the understanding that
the wife need bear no children and might have as many lovers as she pleased
(fn5).
· Contraception was practiced in both its
mechanical and chemical forms (fn6). If these methods failed there were many
ways of procuring abortion. Philosophers and law condemned it, but the finest
of families practiced it.
· In so enlightened a society infanticide
was rare.
· *Sometimes, in the first century, girls
or illegitimate children were exposed, usually at the base of Columna Lactaria
– so named because the state provided wet nurses to feed and save the infants
found there (fn10). The abandonment of unwanted babies, however, is a custom to
be found in all but the most uncivilized societies. (Durant pgs. 363, 364)
Epicurean Rome 30 B.C. – A.D. 96
THE SEXES
· The Roman, like the Greek, readily
condoned the resort of men to prostitutes.
· The professional prostitute was legalized
and restricted to brothels.
· Male prostitutes were also available.
Condemned by law, but tolerable by custom, homosexualism flourished with
Oriental abandon.
· Parents and marriage brokers managed to
find at least temporary husbands for nearly every girl.
· The elder Seneca assumed widespread
adultery among Roman women (fn40), and his philosopher son thought that a
married woman content with two husbands was a paragon of fidelity. (Durant, pg.
369-370).
Roman Law 146 B.C.—A.D. 192
· The law struggled to encourage parentage
among the freeborn, but with negligible results.
· Infanticide was forbidden except in the
case of infants deformed or incurably diseased.
· The detected procurer of abortion was
banished and lost part of his property; if the woman died he was to be put to
death; these laws, of course, were largely evaded then as now. (Durant pgs. 396-397)
WHY ROME FELL (Epilogue)
Note: While
emphasizing that Rome’s fall was “a process spread over 300 years (“Some
nations have not lasted as long as Rome fell”) he states “A great civilization
is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.” There
were many causes but consider his points on biological factors.
· Biological factors included a serious
decline of population in the West after Hadrian.
· The mass importation of barbarians into
the Empire by Aurelius, Valentinian, Aurelian, Probus, and Constantine (fn3).
· Aurelius, to replenish his army, enrolled
slaves, gladiators, policemen, criminals; either the crises was greater, or the
free population less, than before; and the slave population had certainly
fallen. So many farms had been abandoned, above all in Italy, that Pertinax
offered them gratis to anyone who would till them.
· Only the barbarians and the Orientals
were increasing, outside the Empire and within.
· Above all, family limitation caused this
fall in population. Practiced first by the educated classes, it had now seeped
down to a proletariat named for its fertility (fn6); by A.D. 100 it had reached
the agricultural classes…; by the third century it had overrun the western
provinces, and was lowering man power in Gaul (fn7).
· Though branded as a crime, infanticide
flourished as poverty grew (fn8). Sexual excesses may have reduced human
fertility; the avoidance or deferment of marriage…and the making of eunuchs
increased as Oriental customs flowed to the West. (Durant, pg. 665-666)
The U.S.A.
Our nation has similar connections of
abortion and infanticide with sexual immoralities, adultery, prostitution and
the deterioration of marriage and the family structure. The immorality is best
explained by scriptural terms such as “lovers of themselves,” “without natural
affection” or “unloving” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”
(Cf. 2 Tim. 3:2-4). Any good nurse or
honest doctor will tell you that for several decades young women in our society
have used abortion merely as a contraceptive to get rid of unborn children by
murdering them (Cf. James 2:11 above).
Such “limiting” by abortion and infanticide
are products of our own godless society. The closer the infant gets to its
birth their motives and craft are all the more obvious — to classify murder
under “women’s health” which includes “I don’t want it” is a sham and farce
upon society! Those practicing such, advocating for such and willingly
supporting organizations advocating such are not good people.
ADDITION: For
convenience here is a brief related newspaper article related to infanticide:
The Pharaoh Party ~
Surely a Party of Death (Infanticide)
Stephen in Acts 7 recounted history
concerning Israel in Egyptian bondage and Pharaoh when Moses was born. He says
“It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so
that they would expose their infants and they would not survive” (Acts 7:19).
To “expose” an infant means “to set out to die.” Pharaoh had commanded the
midwives who helped deliver the Hebrew’s children to put the child to death if
it was a son. But the midwives feared God and let the boys live, and God
blessed them for doing so. Then Pharaoh made killing infants the work of his
people telling them to cast the males into the Nile (Ex. 1:15-22).
In what direction was the Governor of New
York leading our people when directing that the state landmarks like the spire
of the One World Trade Center be lit up
in pink to "shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to
follow"? Do you see anything shrewd in their new “law” moving the section
of state law dealing with abortion and late term abortion from the penal code
to health statutes? Concerning the authorization of midwives for abortion did
you think of godly midwives in Egypt? When Kathy Tran (the Virginia House) said
yes her bill she proposed would allow a woman about to give birth to have an
abortion even when she is dilating --- did you understand why she was asked
such by one opposing her bill? What “party” of death with leading presidential
candidates voted down the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in
February?
The Valley
Church of Christ
2375 W. 8th
Street, Yuma, AZ 85364
(928) 782-5058
~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
Sunday
Services – Classes ~10:00; Assembly 10:50 am; Evening: 6:00 pm.
Wednesday
evening – 7:00 pm.
The Valley Church of Christ
2375 W. 8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364
(928) 782-5058 ~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
Sunday Services – Classes ~10:00; Assembly 10:50 am; Evening: 6:00 pm.
Wednesday evening – 7:00 pm.
To learn
more call, visit or visit our website at: