The Resolution
(1) WHEREAS, from the moment of fertilization, all humans are created in God’s image by, through, and for Jesus Christ to the glory of God, and all souls belong to Him (Genesis 1:27; 4:1; 21:2; Isaiah 7:14; Colossians 1:16; Romans 11:36; Ezekiel 18:4), and
(2) WHEREAS, as God’s image-bearers, all humans display His divine worth, power, and attributes, and all humans possess equal, objective value before God, not varying on the basis of incidental characteristics such as ethnicity, age, size, means of conception, mental development, physical development, gender, potential, physiologic abnormalities, or contribution to society (Rom 1:19-20; Gen 1:27; 9:6; Matthew 18:6), and
(3) WHEREAS, to murder any preborn image-bearer is a sin, violating both the natural law of retributive justice as set forth in the Noahic covenant, as well as the sixth commandment forbidding murder, and as such is ultimately an assault on God’s image, seeking to usurp God’s sovereignty as Creator (Gen 9:5-6; Exodus 20:13; Proverbs 6:17), and
(4) WHEREAS, God’s Word clearly declares that all human life is a sacred gift and that His Law is supreme over man’s life and man’s law (Psalm 127:3-5; 139:13-16; Rom 2:15-16; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 1 Corinthians 4:5), and
(5) WHEREAS, God commands His own people to “rescue those who are being taken away to death” and holds them responsible and without ignorance as an excuse when they fail to do so (Prov 24:11-12), and
(6) WHEREAS, God establishes all governing authorities as His avenging servants to carry out His wrath on the evildoer; and commands these authorities to judge justly, neither showing partiality to the wicked, nor using unequal standards, which are abominations, and not wielding the sword of justice in vain (Psa 82; Prov 20:10; Rom 13:4), and
(7) WHEREAS, in 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered an iniquitous decision in Roe v. Wade, and in doing so deprived the innocent of their rights, and usurped God, who sovereignly ordained the court’s authority (Isa 5:23; 10:1-2; Psa 2; Matt 22:21; John 19:11; Acts 4:19; 5:29, Rom 13:1), and
(8) WHEREAS, in the Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court of the United States subverted the governing authority/law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, including the Fifth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments, without any lawful authority (Article 6, Clause 2 “Supremacy Clause”), and
(9) WHEREAS, governing authorities at every level have a duty before God to uphold justice by asserting their God-ordained and constitutional duty to establish equal protection under the law for all, born and preborn, by intervening, ignoring, or nullifying iniquitous decisions when other authorities, such as the Supreme Court, claim to authorize injustices such as the intentional taking of innocent human life (Daniel 3; 1 Kings 12; 2 Kings 11; Jeremiah 26:10-16; 36:9-31; 37:11- 21; 39:7-10), and
(10) WHEREAS, over the past 48 years with 63+ million reported abortions (plus probably exponentially more unreported abortions committed by chemical means), traditional Pro-Life laws, though well-intended by many, have not established equal protection and justice for the preborn, but on the contrary have appallingly established business-like regulatory guidelines for when, where, why, and how to obtain the legal abortion of an innocent preborn child, thereby legally sanctioning abortion, and
(11) WHEREAS, since 1998, the SBTC has passed many resolutions reaffirming the importance of human life at all stages of development, but we have yet to call for the immediate abolition of abortion without exception or compromise, and
(12) WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention is on record in The Baptist Faith and Message, according to Article XV, affirms that children “from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord”; and further affirms that Southern Baptists are mandated by Scripture to “speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death,” now, be it therefore
(13) RESOLVED, that the messengers of the SBTC meeting in Flint, TX, November 8-9, 2021, do state unequivocally that abortion is murder, and we reject any position that allows for any exception to the legal protection of our preborn neighbors from prenatal murder, that compromises God’s holy standard of justice, or that promotes any God-hating partiality (Psa 94:6; Isa 10:1-2; Prov 24:11; Psa 82:1-4), and be it further
(14) RESOLVED, that we will not support an incrementalist approach to ending abortion that compromises God’s standards of justice, shows partiality in judgment, oppresses the fatherless, treats and implicitly condones abortion as healthcare, denies the humanity and divinely-infused dignity of the child from the moment of fertilization, legitimizes the evil decision of Roe v. Wade, or violates the governing authority of the U.S. Constitution, which requires equal protection under the laws, because all of these compromises challenge God’s Lordship over the heart, the conscience, and the civil government, and reject His call to repent of sin completely and immediately (Gen 3:1; John 8:44; Rom 2:14-15; 2 Corinthians 11:3), and be it further
(15) RESOLVED, that we do not recognize as an abortion a medical tragedy during which triage is necessary with doctors never ceasing to treat both mother and baby as human beings, and upholding their Hippocratic Oath by exhausting all possible options to save as many human lives as they can, and be it further
(16) RESOLVED, that we affirm that the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be treated equally under the law as the murder of a born person, and be it further
(17) RESOLVED, that we humbly confess and lament any complicity in condoning, even implicitly, exceptions that legitimize or regulate abortion like a legitimate industry, and of any apathy in not laboring with the power and influence we have to abolish abortion, and be it further
(18) RESOLVED, that as Southern Baptists of Texas we will engage, with God’s help, in establishing equal justice and equal protection of the laws for the preborn in local, state, and federal law, subject to the authority of God’s Word, as well as call upon pastors and leaders to use their God-given gifts of preaching, teaching, and leading with one unified, principled, prophetic voice to abolish abortion, and be it finally
(19) RESOLVED, that, because abolishing abortion is a Great Commission issue, we must call upon governing authorities at all levels to repent and “obey everything that [Christ] has commanded,” exhorting them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance by faithfully executing their responsibilities as God’s servants of justice, and working with all urgency to enact legislation using the full weight of their office to interpose on behalf of the preborn, abolishing prenatal murder immediately, without exception or compromise (Mark 6:18; Matt 28:18-20; Rom 13:4, 6)