Posted on 10/31/2002 7:48:07 PM PST by az4vlad
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is a misnomer and theological contradiction, that is, if defined in biblical terms.
Yet the hoax continues. With that, the group denounces recently President Bush’s administration health care policies as "extreme".
Perhaps some religious persons are duped by the organization's fabrication. But the truly biblically knowledgeable know a lie when they hear a lie.
Rev. James Lamb, executive director of National Lutherans for Life, says it all when he states that "once you lose your scriptural base, you can justify anything. They’re playing to what they think the culture wants to hear."
What is the clear biblical position? It is pro-life all the way for it is the revealed Word of the life-confirming Creator.
The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person. "In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then 'God breathes a soul into it.' They had it backward. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself' (Joseph Breig, "Life Forms Matter," The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).
"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk ... and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit" (Job 10:8-12 NIV).
"Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name...and now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant..." (Isaiah 49:1, 5).
"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn:
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16).
"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him" (Psalm 127:3).
Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn: "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, bum for bum, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."
All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt which comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus?
The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth: "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit... As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy" (Luke 1:41, 44). Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality.
In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother's womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent): "But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles..." (Gal. 1: 15-16).
Since the Bible regards the fetus as personality, then the aborting of the fetus is murdering personality.
Some verses from Scripture dealing with murder are then appropriate for study, such as Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."
Also, read Exodus 23:7: "Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit t
Be careful. Once you start thinking that you should be the
one making the choices in your own life, it's a slippery
slope all the way to becoming a libertarian.
6.1 When Does Life Begin ?
Beginnings are ofen difficult to pinpoint, particularly in life cycles, for life is continuous. Nevertheless, each individual life has two discrete boundaries: fertilization and death. Sperm cells and egg cells are not capable of starting an independent life on their own. Once released from the testes or the ovary, the lifetime of sperm cells and egg cells is restricted to a few minutes or hours. Only the fusion of sperm and egg results in a cell with the potential to survive and to give rise to an independent individual as well as to a new generation. In biological terms, a human is a human from fertilization until death. No stage can be omitted, no nonhuman stage can be defined.
DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY by Werner A. Mueller
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