Table of Contents

Series Preface

Introduction

A Letter: Are You Considering an Abortion?

Chapter 1: What Are We For? (Jim Hamilton)

Chapter 2: What Does the Gospel Say? (Matt Chandler)

Chapter 3: How Should the Christian Live? (Karen Swallow Prior)

Chapter 4: How Should the Church Engage? (Charmaine Crouse Yoest)

Chapter 5: What Does the Culture Say? (C. Ben Mitchell)

A Letter: Have You Chosen Abortion?

Additional Reading

Acknowledgments

About the ERLC

About the Contributors

Notes

Also in the Gospel for Life series

The Gospel & Racial Reconciliation

The Gospel & Same-Sex Marriage

The Gospel & Religious Liberty

The Gospel & Marriage

The Gospel & Adoption

Copyright © 2017 by Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-4336-9039-6

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 241.69

Subject Heading: BIBLE. N.T. GOSPELS \ ABORTION \ LIFE

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible (hcsb), copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Also used: the English Standard Version (esv), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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Series Preface

Russell Moore

Why Should the Gospel for Life Series Matter to Churches?

IN ACTS CHAPTER 2, WE READ ABOUT THE DAY OF PENTECOST, the day when the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit from heaven onto His church. The Day of Pentecost was a spectacular day—there were manifestations of fire, languages being spoken by people who didn’t know them, and thousands of unbelievers coming to faith in this recently resurrected Messiah. Reading this passage, we go from account to account of heavenly shock and awe, and yet the passage ends in an unexpectedly simple way: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42 esv).

I believe one thing the Holy Spirit wants us to understand from this is that these “ordinary” things are not less spectacular than what preceded them—in fact, they may be more so. The disciplines of discipleship, fellowship, community, and prayer are the signs that tell us the kingdom of Christ is here. That means that for Christians, the most crucial moments in our walk with Jesus Christ don’t happen in the thrill of “spiritual highs.” They happen in the common hum of everyday life in quiet, faithful obedience to Christ.

That’s what the Gospel for Life series is about: taking the truths of Scripture—the story of our redemption and adoption by a risen Lord Jesus—and applying them to the questions and situations that we all face in the ordinary course of life.

Our hope is that churches will not merely find these books interesting, but also helpful. The Gospel for Life series is meant to assist pastors and church leaders to answer urgent questions ...