I have a long-time habit of reading a psalm every morning. Recently I encountered a psalm which highlights the life-affirming mission with a shocking statement about Israel’s ancient history.
I’ll get to that in a moment.
First, let’s talk about the arguments for keeping abortion legal which have been making the rounds again.
One thing I’ve noticed is terminology.
Favorite terms for abortion advocates are zygote and embryo. Fetus, not so much. Baby, not at all.
By using terms which refer to the earliest stages of gestation, abortion advocates attempt to dehumanize the preborn person as much as possible.
They want us to think of the in-utero child who is early in development as a thing, not a person.
They emphasize the small size, barely developed features and systems, and location of the preborn child inside a woman’s body.
Yet none of these factors erase the reality that every human zygote, embryo and fetus is exactly that—human.
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Location in the womb does not make an unborn baby an appendage of her mother’s body. She has her own body, and she deserves protection.
Every human being, no matter the circumstances of conception, is created in the image of God.
For pro-life Christians, our relationship with God is a primary motivator in the cause of life.
“You are the one who created my innermost parts; you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. Your works are wonderful—I know that very well. My bones weren’t hidden from you when I was being put together in a secret place…Your eyes saw my embryo, and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, before any one of them had yet happened.” –Psalm 139:13-16
This psalm beautifully illustrates God’s intricate involvement in the gestation process and His individualized plan for each person on the planet.
Here we see no indication that a human being is anything less than human from his or her very first moment of existence in the womb.
We see no dividing line where a developing preborn child “becomes” human.
Psalm 139 demonstrates God’s value of the earliest part of every human life.
But it wasn’t that psalm which captured my attention a few days ago.
While Psalm 139 overflows with the eloquent language of intimacy, another psalm thunders God’s righteous fury over the killing of innocent children whom He created.
In Psalm 106, the Psalmist recounts how Israel started out praising God for His mighty acts on their behalf, but soon rebelled against Him.
They refused to trust God and turned to idols—false gods who required the sacrifice of innocent human blood.
With horrified disgust, the Psalmist writes,
“They sacrificed their own sons and daughters to demons! They shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters— the ones they sacrificed to Canaan’s false gods—so the land was defiled by the bloodshed.”–Psalm 106:37-38.
The psalm goes on to describe God’s anger, the consequences the Israelites suffered for their defilement and spiritual prostitution, and finally God’s compassionate faithfulness to them despite their wicked actions.
I put it this way in Unleashing Your Courageous Compassion:
“There’s no easy way to state this painful truth: abortion is child sacrifice. Just as in ancient times, an innocent life is offered in exchange for the perceived benefit of another person. Circumstances are weighed against personhood, and personhood loses.”
Scripture describes child sacrifice as unthinkable.
In Jeremiah 7:31, God reacts to it with, “…I never commanded such a thing, nor did it ever cross my mind.”
For all the rationalizing and euphemizing, the simple truth is this: God creates every person, and He’s not okay with us prematurely ending their lives in the womb.
Tweet This: For all the rationalizing & euphemizing the simple truth is God creates every person & He’s not okay with us ending their lives in the womb.
It makes no difference to Him what stage of gestation a preborn person is in.
Whether he or she is a fetus, an embryo, or even a zygote, God already loves that person, and He’s already writing his or her story.
Tweet This: It makes no difference what stage of gestation a preborn person is in-God already loves that person & He’s already writing his or her story
Let’s continue the good work of protecting preborn lives in keeping with God’s love for humanity.
It’s the ethically correct thing to do.
