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
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.
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.
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