Mondays with Tertullian
Abortion, Persecution, and Creation from Nothing
Tertullian (ca. 155 – c. 220 AD) was a prolific Christian author from North Africa. He was the first great Latin theologian of the church, known for his apologies, treatises, and anti-heresiological works.
Below are his remarks about abortion, the persecution of Christians, and creation from nothing.
For us, murder is once and for all forbidden; so even the child in the womb, while yet the mother’s blood is still being drawn on to form the human being, it is not lawful for us to destroy. To forbid birth is only quicker murder. It makes no difference whether one takes away the life once born or destroys it as it comes to fruition. He is a man, who is to be a man; the fruit is always present in the seed.
- Tertullian, Apol. 9.7-8
When you harshly cut the case short by saying, “Your existence is illegal”; when you lay it down without any more human consideration, your dictum means mere force, an unjust tyranny from the citadel.
It follows by parity of reasoning that we do not sacrifice for others because we do not for ourselves - it follows from our not worshipping the gods.
So we are accused of sacrilege and treason at once.
- Tertullian, Apol. 4.4; 10.1
What we worship is the One God; who fashioned this whole fabric with all its equipment of elements, bodies, spirits; who by the word wherewith He commanded, by the reason wherwith He ordered it, by the might wherewith He could do it, fashioned it out of nothing, to the glory of his majesty.
- Tertullian, Apol. 12.1