What does the Bible, science, and reason have to say about the unborn?
The central matter on the issue of abortion has always been the personhood of the pre-born. Strangely enough, we have an official policy of ignorance on this issue, a policy which kills the reason as much as the procedure kills the baby.
On the question of the personhood of the pre-born, the biological evidence is strongly compelling, especially given that the child’s DNA identity is set from the moment of conception and that nothing new is added to the person from the moment of conception until birth… it’s just a matter of development and growth, a process that continues well after the baby is delivered from the womb. The biblical evidence is also strongly compelling. Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” The Hebrew phrase “you created my inmost being” is translated in the KJV “Thou hast possessed my reins.” The word “possessed” in Hebrew is qanah, which means “to acquire by purchase” or “to take possession of.” The word “reins” is the Old English for “kidneys”, which is literally used of kidneys in the sacrificial passages (Ex. 29:13) but which also is used metaphorically for “inner being” (like we use the word “heart”), the non-material part of us that thinks, reasons, feels, chooses, loves, and yearns. As Job said about physical resurrection,
“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see him with my own eyes– I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27)
The word “heart” there is the same Hebrew word that is used by David in Psalm 139:13. “You came to possess my kidneys (not just my physical body, but the internal part of me that yearns and loves).” This is a strong argument for the personality of the pre-born. So also is the fact that John the Baptist leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary, the mother of Jesus, greeted her (Lk. 1:41-44). Only persons can feel joy! The Bible is clear on the personhood of the preborn, as clear as science.
Why then do the courts deny personhood to the pre-born? The official reason given by Supreme Court Justice Henry Blackmun in his Roe v. Wade decision was “we don’t know if the pre-born is truly human”, so therefore states must not make laws restricting abortion!!
“We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.” Justice Henry Blackmun, Roe v. Wade
Strangely enough, in every other case in which human life MAY be present, we make every effort to save that life! No one buries a man who may or may not be dead… we only bury people we know beyond a shadow of a doubt are dead… if there’s still a possibility of life, we make amazing and persevering efforts to keep that person alive. If a toddler wanders off into the woods, we search until it is reasonably impossible for the child to still be alive. If an aircraft goes down in the Atlantic, rescuers keep looking until it is reasonably impossible for any survivors to remain alive. In an earthquake the rescue groups from all over the world continued searching through the rubble until it became clear that there could be no survivors still alive. In each of these cases, we give life the benefit of the doubt… but in the case of abortion, we are saying legally “We don’t know if it’s a person, and therefore we are free to kill it.” It makes no sense and is out of line of the way we behave in every other case!
“Strangely enough, in every other case in which human life MAY be present, we make every effort to save that life!”
Let us continue to pray that God will open the hearts of our neighbors and fellow Americans to the truth: all human beings are created equal, and should not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, according to the Fourteenth Amendment to our Constitution. Let us go higher than that: God Himself “possesses” our inmost being from the moment of conception, and it is His to decide when we die. The pre-born child is his from the moment of conception. Pray for an end to abortion in the United States.
