As societies come and go, as nations rise and fall, and as morality does the same, one of the biggest issues that cultures and nations face is the value of human life. Though these issues pertain to the elderly, the weak, the sick, and those with various disabilities as well, in this article my focus will be on the right to life of the unborn. What society believes to be acceptable can in no way be a guide for humanity because man is prone to deception and going his own way. Even America, a country which prides itself on equal rights for all, has treated slaves as less than human and has allowed racism to be considered the norm. Even those who profess to be of the truth have murdered and hated rather than lovingly stood for truth and the gospel. Neither society, culture, nor vain religion can tell us what is right and what is wrong as our failures throughout history have proven. Too often the weak and defenseless suffer at the hands of the strong. In our day and in our time, across the world, and certainly in America, the unborn have few to defend them. They are executed faster than they can be counted. What an evil and wicked world we live in that the unborn are, like pagan societies of old, offered up as sacrifices to the altar of idols, only in our time the idols are not made of wood and stone but of greed, selfishness, convenience, and expedience. Nothing has changed about man’s hearts. We just think we put a more civilized spin on devil worship and offering children to pagan deities. Certainly, God is not honored by abortion, so, by default, the devil must be.
What perplexes me most is the fact that this practice goes on condoned by a majority even though it is obviously wrong. There is plenty of scientific evidence to show that a fetus is alive, that it feels pain, and that it fights for its life before it is killed. They even come to recognize voices and respond to touch! Yet abortion continues as a legalized practice for the sake of the "rights of the mother." What about the rights of the child? Even in horrific situations such as rape and incest, who gives any person, even the mother, the right to say that the child has no right to live? Just because something is troubling and difficult doesn’t mean we have a right to murder. Human life must be valued, and this is certainly the case for the unborn. Sadly, even though the evidence is replete that abortion is murder, the practice continues largely unabated. The only explanation is the hardness of man’s hearts, for the evidence is there for those who really want to see it.
So, though there is certainly value in using science to prove that the child is indeed a child and not a "mass of tissues," ultimately it is the Word of God that must be heeded in the matter as being authoritative and definitive. God is clear that murder is always wrong, and this must include the life of any human being, even in the womb. The question that must be answered, however, is when does that life start? As believers, we have no doubt, or at least we shouldn’t, that there is human life in the womb. But we should be equally as certain that life starts not at nine months, six months, or even three months, but at conception. The morning after pill is therefore a murder pill, if we believe this line of thinking. And these are issues that Christians must be willing to think about. Why? Because the Bible does address them, and God does care about His creations.
Consider what David says in Psalm 139:13-16:
"For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them."
David says that God knew everything about him before it ever even happened. In fact, God knew him even in his mother’s womb because it was God Himself Who carefully and purposefully crafted him while in the womb. Not only that, but God knew him and all the days ordained for him even before he was in the womb. Thus, God knows a person even before they are conceived. It is at the point of conception that life begins in time and space, but God ordained it even earlier. God considers the fetus alive from the moment of conception, and so must we. Certainly David did as well, for he refers to his fetus as "I." A thing or an object cannot have a personal pronoun. God knew David in the womb, and thus the clear teaching of Scripture is that the unborn are persons that have value and worth that the rest ought to stand up for and defend.
There is no child in any womb anywhere that God does not intimately know. In fact, He knew them even earlier. May the strong and the weak stand up for the rights of these defenseless children, loved of God and created for a purpose.
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