DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?

"Then she (Elizabeth) spoke out with a loud voice, and said, 'Blessed are you (Mary) among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of our greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.' " (Luke 1:42-44)

The question about whether a baby in the womb is a person has raged through the years. The old theory was that the fetus becomes a human person when he or she draws the first breath. Modern science has debunked that idea. The human genome project has demonstrated that the fetus is a human from the time the sperm and the egg join together making a new person with his or her unique human genes and chromosomes.

The Biblical view has always been that the babe in the womb is a human person possessing all the attributes that are need to identify it as a human, in the same way that a fertilized condor egg has all the genes and chromosomes needed to make it a condor after it is hatched. The DNA identifies what species it is. And the unborn baby inside the womb carries all the DNA to identify it as a human being.

Consider the O.T. psalmist who wrote: "For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned (ordained) for me, when as yet there were none them'" (Psalm 139:13-16). Or God's word to Jeremiah the prophet, " 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations' " (Jeremiah 1:5).

So it is no wonder that the baby in Elizabeth's womb jumped for joy at the sound of Mary's voice. That was not just a blob of tissue. It was a living human being who could hear sound, and have a spiritual response to the Mother our Lord. We are not just a mass of flesh. We are a living human being created by God in His image for a particular purpose, even in the womb. You are a valuable person from conception and continuing until today. God has a purpose for you.

Love, Dad