…The Ancient Church, and The Anti-Constitutional State

An Analysis of Executive Abortion Legislation, Constitutional Personhood, Historical Common Law Maxims, and Sacred Scripture

By standardizing the elimination of statutory limits on late-term abortions through the passage of the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has overseen an assertion of state power that sits in direct opposition to the fundamental constitutional and moral premises of the American Republic.

To evaluate this measure through the combined lens of foundational American statesmanship—from the constitutional insights of the Framers and President Abraham Lincoln to the witness of Scripture and the Ancient Church—is to recognize a complete departure from the doctrine of Natural Rights upon which the United States was established.

Scriptural Imperatives: Unborn Humanity in the Eyes of God

The premise of personhood is neither a policy construct nor a secular concession; it is an inescapable truth established by God in Holy Scripture:

• Jeremiah 1:5 — “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”
• Psalm 139:13–16 — “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb… Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
• Luke 1:41 — “And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb…”
• Exodus 21:22–23 — Under the Mosaic Law, causing physical harm to an unborn child carried strict judicial penalties, establishing the child as a distinct human victim deserving legal protection.

From Genesis to the Gospels, Scripture views the child in the womb not as disposable tissue or a potential person, but as an existing human soul under God’s direct sovereignty.

The Witness of the Ancient Church Fathers

From its earliest days, the Christian Church rejected the pagan Roman practice of infanticide and abortion (abortivum), identifying the destruction of unborn life as a direct violation of God’s commandment against murder:

• The Didache (c. 80–120 AD) — The earliest post-apostolic manual of Christian doctrine and practice declared flatly:

“Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion, nor kill them when born.” — (Didache 2:2)

• Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD) — Writing in his Apology, Tertullian framed the Christian understanding of unborn life under natural law:

“To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is to be such; the fruit is always present in the seed.” — (Apology, Chapter 9)

• Basil the Great (c. 330–379 AD) — In his canonical epistles, Basil refuted legal distinctions based on the stage of gestation:

“She who purposely destroys the fetus incurs the penalty of murder. There is no nice inquiry among us as to whether the fetus was formed or unformed.” — (Letter 188, Canon 2)

• John Chrysostom (c. 347–407 AD) — Preaching against late-term abortion, Chrysostom warned that those who eliminate unborn life “do not merely strip the living, but prevent the living from being born,” calling it an assault on the Author of life Himself.

The Constitutional Mandate: Equal Protection and Personhood

The American constitutional system is built upon a self-evident truth articulated in the Declaration of Independence: that all human beings are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, foremost among them being Life.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution explicitly command that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor denied the equal protection of the laws. Modern biological science confirms that at the moment of conception, a distinct, living human organism comes into existence, possessing its own unique DNA.

If the unborn child is biologically human, then under the law of nature and the text of our Constitution, that child is a person. To deny that personhood by legislative decree is to erect an arbitrary hierarchy where the strong decide who is permitted to live and who may be destroyed. As President Abraham Lincoln observed in his 1854 Peoria speech regarding the attempt to legalize the subjugation of human beings:

“Little by little, but steadily as man’s march to the grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave others is ‘a sacred right of self-government.’ … These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and mammon; and whoever holds to the one must despise the other.”

Just as Lincoln argued that no human being possesses a “right” to deny the fundamental humanity and liberty of another, no legislature possesses the legitimate authority to declare an entire class of living human beings outside the protection of the law.

Natural Law and the Moral Law Above Human Enactments

Natural Law—the objective moral order written into creation and accessible via human reason—asserts that human statutes do not create rights; they only recognize and protect them.

     [ THE CREATOR ]
│
Gives Life & Natural Rights
│
▼
[ NATURAL LAW ]
(Higher Moral & Rational Standard)
│
▼
[ CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION ]
(14th Amendment: Equal Protection / Life)
│
▼
[ POSITIVE LEGISLATIVE LAW ]
Must conform to Natural Law to be Valid

This recognition of unborn personhood was not merely a modern revelation or a theological claim, but a foundational maxim woven into Anglo-American legal heritage. As recorded in Black’s Law Dictionary (1891), quoting long-standing common law doctrine:

Qui in utero est pro jam nato habetur, quoties de ejus commodo quaeritur:
“He who is in the womb is held as already born, whenever a question arises for his benefit.”

The constitutional philosophy championed by early American statesmen—both Federalist and Anti-Federalist—held that human law is strictly subordinate to Natural Law. Alexander Hamilton, writing in The Farmer Refuted (1775), articulated this understanding of rights grounded in Divine creation rather than state permission:

“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

Similarly, the Anti-Federalist tradition warned against the centralization of state power when detached from moral restraint. Writing under the pseudonym Brutus, Anti-Federalist essays routinely emphasized that the sole legitimate purpose of government is to preserve natural rights:

“To preserve liberties, it is essential that the whole body of the people should always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them… Government was instituted to protect the weak against the oppression of the strong.” — (Brutus)

Sir William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England formed the bedrock of American jurisprudence, summarized this supremacy of Natural Law over human enactment:

“This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this.”

The Crisis of Moral and Legal Legitimacy

When Massachusetts signed the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, it placed human statute above both the Law of Nature and the plain text of the United States Constitution. When human rights are treated as privileges granted by the state—subject to removal at the discretion of lawmakers or medical boards—the foundation of Constitutional rule collapses.

A nation cannot long preserve its own liberties while sanctioning the destruction of its most vulnerable citizens. A civil magistrate who uses the power of the state to remove legal protections from unborn human beings abandons the sole justification for civil power: the administration of justice and the defense of the innocent.

True constitutional government requires a return to first principles: acknowledging that rights originate from the Creator, that the law of nature is supreme, and that the duty of civil government is to extend equal protection under the law to every living human person from conception until natural death.

***

Travis is a Berean student of Bible prophecy.

God has made us many promises which give us joyful expectation and blessed hope, especially regarding the promise of deliverance from our sins and our enemies. Those who are looking for them will see them.

After all, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, who reveals all things to us, so that those who are filled with His Spirit should also be comforters.

It was foretold throughout the Scriptures that Yeshuah would be sent to save and deliver the people from their sins, so whoever believes in Him would not perish. In addition, it was written that He’d save us from our enemies, specifically rescuing us from this present evil age (Galatians 1:4) and raising us up to victory – all of which is what His name means: Savior, Deliverer, Victory. This is truly the constant theme all throughout God’s Word, as it is His will that none should perish. God promised us He would redeem us from our sins through the sacrificial blood of Jesus because He deeply loves and cares for us.

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

In Exodus, we see that God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments, and tells us these are not only commands but actually a covenant:

Exodus 34:28 “So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

Moses was there on the top of the mountain with God for 40 days and 40 nights to witness God writing the covenant on the stone tablets. Prior to this, the Lord repeatedly proclaimed His name, while also proclaiming His mercy and grace:

Exodus 34:5-8 “Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’”

“So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. Then he said, ‘If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.’”

If we look at the Ten Commandments in this light, they become very encouraging to those of us who are more than ready, eagerly waiting, to go Home. We’ll leave all of our sins behind when we die to our own selves and are raised up in Christ, whom God sent to accomplish this in us and for us in order to fulfill the law. Each one of the commands is part of this promise of what our future looks like in eternity with God. Most people view the commandments as a set of “rules” that take our freedom; however, they actually don’t take freedom – they give freedom: from sin and evil, which hold us in captivity and separate us from the goodness of God.

So then, taking another look at the Ten Commandments, here is what they look like as a covenant (written for clarification using the NKJV):

– We will no longer have any other gods before Him.

– We will no longer make for ourselves a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; we will not bow down to them nor serve them. For the Lord our God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Him and keep His commandments.

The requirement to love Him, love others, and keep His commandments is reiterated and repeated numerous times in the New Testament by Jesus and the disciples.

– We will no longer take the name of the Lord our God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

The Hebrew definition of vain means “vanity, emptiness, falsehood, worthless,” so this is a promise that His children aren’t taking His name without it being worthwhile or profitable to us. And He does give us great benefits and profits! Being kept from the tribulation is one of them, for sure. Sadly, there are people who don’t believe this benefit of us being in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only those who truly take on His name can have this benefit; namely, the bride of Christ.

– We will remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.

The “Sabbath” day rest we’ll take with the Lord will be holy. It’s my personal belief, based on the Scriptures, that our rest with the Lord is a holy rest with Him, during which time we are glorified with Jesus. This is the glorification of the saints at the removal of all sin for all eternity.

At the same time, the people who have fallen away from us, separated from God (“apostasia”) on Earth, will be serving the enemy instead of God. The tribulation will not be holy; there will be no glory, like those who served Pharaoh; it will truly be a harsh burden, and then death is the only way out. However, as our faith dictates, those who believe He will save us will keep our rest holy: “Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith let it be to you’” (Matthew 9:29).

– Six “days” we will labor and do all our work, but the seventh “day” is the Sabbath of the Lord our God. In it we will do no work: not us, nor our sons, nor our daughters, nor our male servants, nor our female servants, nor our cattle, nor our stranger who is within our gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

– We will honor our father and our mother, that our days will be long upon the land which the Lord our God is giving us.

This includes honoring our elders, the forefathers – what a joy it will be to be together!

– We will not murder.

1 John 3:15 says even hating someone in our hearts is murder, and that we cannot hate our brethren: “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” There will be no hate/murder in our heart, which is the same heart of the One, when we’re safely behind the Door.

– We will not commit adultery.

This includes spiritual adultery against God.

– We will not steal.

– We will not bear false witness against our neighbor.

– We will not covet our neighbor’s house; we will not covet our neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is our neighbor’s.

The bottom line is that God promises we won’t have sin, and also promises holy rest with Him. I, for one, am eagerly looking forward to that! No one in Heaven will continue in any sin, and no one with unrepented, habitual, and rebellious sin is going to be in God’s presence.

We hear the same promises of being set free from sin in the New Testament from Jesus and the disciples. Through Him, we’re being grafted onto the root and into the inheritance of the promises our elders have. The Church did not replace the Jews because of their unbelief, as they’re still our brethren, but because of their unbelief, we now have the same offer and opportunity of eternal salvation and deliverance – and also the same warning of being cut off for unbelief (Romans 11:21).

Some say, “Those old commandments and laws aren’t applicable to us; we don’t have to obey them in order to be saved.” It’s true, we’re not held to the 600+ laws. The yoke of Jesus is easy, and His burden is light.  Jesus also said He didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Not one jot or one tittle of it will pass away. There are many promises, prophecies, pictures, and symbols interwoven into all of those laws that apply to us today; they reveal who God is and what His holy character and nature is, so it would be very wise not to disregard them.

Titus 2:13-14 “Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

Another example of a command, which is also a promise, is that He must be regarded as holy; He must be glorified before all the people– Leviticus 10:3. We, the called, chosen, holy brethren (Hebrews 3:1), partake in being glorified at Christ’s appearing, and those who are His must be regarded as holy and must be glorified before all the people, as part of the New Jerusalem. If we aren’t, then it means we’re not His.

It’s also a warning for those who don’t believe Him, who carelessly shrug off God’s commands as legalistic, outdated, unimportant, and irrelevant; and those who teach people it’s ok to break these commandments because of their own opinion. These commandments are God’s will. They’re just as important today because they reveal the holiness, glory, sanctity, and nature of God, and His call for His children to be the same. Today, we don’t have the reverence of the previous generations.

Matthew 5:17-20 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The scribes and Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was their Messiah (the Savior and hoped-for Deliverer). They mocked Him and His disciples – “Come down and save Yourself! …He saved others but can’t save Himself!” Mark 15:30-31. This verse says we can’t enter the kingdom of heaven unless our righteousness exceeds theirs. Our faith is what makes us righteous in the eyes of God through Christ, but they didn’t have this faith.

All of those who are faith-filled and confident that Jesus will save us, and are ready with plentiful oil for their lamps, will be delivered into the kingdom of God as the bride of Christ. The ones who do not believe that He is the Savior will need to be tested in the “trial which comes upon the whole earth” (Revelation 3:10). The choice we face is this one: Will He save and deliver us as He said He would, or not? It’s a question to which we all must give an answer.

Proverbs 24:26 “He who gives a right answer kisses the lips.”

Job 21:34 “How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?”

Every message that stands against/opposed to the comforting salvation and deliverance message of Jesus is “anti-christ” (anti-deliverer), because if we aren’t standing with Him, we’re against Him. Again, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter. Our Savior will deliver us and raise us up into His glorious light, where we’ll be glorified with Him and rejoice forevermore. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. This happens prior to God taking His vengeance out on those who stand against us, who are still in their sins, in order to shake and sift them, to test them. It will be a taste of hell on Earth, to show them He is their Savior.

A deep dive into the word “rejoice” in Hebrew and Greek, along with the many verses that contain this word, shows who will be rejoicing and who won’t. It can be used to prove a pre-tribulation rapture. Those who aren’t raptured will not be rejoicing – they’ll be in fear and trembling. We’re exhorted not to fear and not to be moved.

Revelation 19:7-9 “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

I truly hope that seeing the covenant in the Ten Commandments encourages everyone who reads it as much as it did me. “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it!”