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When Does Life Begin?
When I was young, I was taught that abortion is murder. Is that what God says?
Psalm 139 verse 13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.” All Christians agree that God is the one who makes all life grow, even though God uses natural means to do it.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:28-30, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." God knows every sparrow and every hair on our head, because God is the source of all life!
And Jesus said in Matthew 6 verses 28b to 30, "See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
Jesus said God is the one who makes the lilies grow. God is the one who "clothes" the grass of the field.
Paul in Romans 11 verse 36 says this, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."
Yes all life comes from God, and yet that does not tell us when God gives a human a spirit and a soul.
We know the woman who feels like she can not raise her baby - she values her baby's life, but she feels she can't take care of the baby or can't provide for the baby and so she wants to end the baby's life before the baby can feel any pain.
But what does God think? There is only passage in the Bible that directly talks about anything close to aborting a baby. The verses are Exodus 21 verse 22 to 25. They read, “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” (KJV)
When reading this passage it appears that a man hits a woman and causes her to miscarry. The miscarriage is described as, “her fruit (the baby) depart from her”.
And the punishment is that the woman's husband gets to fine him if the judge agrees. But if, after the miscarriage, the man continues to hit the woman, then the punishment is eye for eye, tooth for tooth and life for life.
But let's read the verses before this passage to get more of a perspective. They are Exodus 21 verses 20 and 21 which read, “If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property. “
Here we see slaves were considered property and a slave owner could beat the slave as long as the slave got up after a day or two after the beating. But what if the slave died a week or a month or a year later as a result of an injury from the beatings?
It seems from this passage that the Old Testament law did not put much value human life. They considered humans “property”.
For arguments sake, let us apply some of the Old Testament laws and see what could happen to an unwanted baby, who was born out of wedlock. I have been told that most babies aborted are from teenage pregnancies and so are illegitimate babies.
Let us assume a young woman became pregnant back in Bible times. Let us assume the mother thinks she can not raise the baby. Let us assume the woman is a Samaritan woman.
In this case, God had no law against selling the baby as a slave. And so the woman could sell the baby as a slave. But once the baby grew up, the owner of the slave was allowed to beat the slave because the slave was his property.
However, let us assume the woman did not sell her unwanted baby as a slave. Could the baby enter the temple and worship God? Could the baby grow up and get “saved”?
Deuteronomy 23 verse 2 says, “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.”
This verse indicates that an illegitimate child could not get saved, nor could the child's descendants, for 10 generations.
Yes God did form us in the womb and God forms all life, but that doesn't answer the question as to whether it is better to stop a life before the life can feel pain, or be forced to carry the baby and bring the baby into the world and not be able to provide for the baby.
The truth is the Bible doesn't answer this question, nor does the Bible answer the question as to when God gives a human a soul and spirit.
But if we Christians are honest, we can't use the Bible as a bat to beat and demonize those who disagree with us.
We can have our personal convictions but we can't use the Bible to prove our points, when the truth is that God doesn't clearly say one way or the other.
Of course on issues that God is clear on, such as murder, homosexuality, etc, then we can speak for God. But if we are honest, we will admit, abortion is not one of those cases.
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