THE BIBLICAL CASE FOR LIFE

June 9, 2019
In September 1774, a group of men representing 12 of the original 13 colonies met in Philadelphia to discuss human rights.  These colonial leaders believed their rights as Englishmen were being abused. They addressed their grievances to King George III of England, who only responded with more political abuses. 
As a result, freedom and personal rights were written into our national DNA – we are the land of the free, home of the brave.  We hold personal freedom and rights above all else.  But my questions this morning are these – are there times human rights and freedoms cease?  Or, are we always free to do whatever we want, whenever we want, regardless of another’s rights, or moral rightness?  Said another way, can my rights trump another’s rights?
Number one, legal for any woman, regardless of her age.And number two, legal for any reason during the first seven months of pregnancy and for virtually any reason thereafter.
And so again, my question is, does a woman’s right over her own body, supersede the rights of the body within?  There are lots of questions about that – philosophical, medical, religious, political questions as to the body within.  Does he or she have rights?  Is the body a person?  Is the body self-conscious?  Is the body viable?  
There are many Americans who do not look back and applaud the spurious wisdom and courage of that 1973 decision.  You see, since then, there have been at least 61,000,000 babies aborted in America.  That is almost one-fifth of our current population.  It is more than the combined populations of Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta.  It is more than the combined total of every American life given in every war this country has ever fought, from the American Revolution to the Iraq Wars – wars presumably fought protecting our freedoms and rights – or the freedoms and rights of others.  Last Thursday, we celebrated the 75thanniversary of D-Day, when 4400 soldiers lost their lives on the shores of Normandy.  Today, since 1973, we have averaged aborting almost that many children every day.  Today, as a result of that infamous decision, about one in five pregnancies end in abortion.
When does life really begin? More recently, when is the fetus a person?What about abortion in the cases of incest or rape?What if the mother’s life is in danger?What if the child will be handicapped?  
“So to claim that there is a right to abortion is not merely to say that a woman has the right to ‘terminate the pregnancy’ (or even ‘control her own body’); it is to claim that she is entitled to order the killing of the baby—to order the performance of an act on the child’s body, to end her life, to make her dead.
“Of course, clearheaded and candid abortion advocates acknowledge this. They admit that the ‘right’ they believe in is no mere right to be free of an unwanted pregnancy. It is the right not to be a mother, not to have a living child out there in the world—the right, to state the matter bluntly, to a dead fetus.”
I want you to know as a church we are opposed, medically, ethically, politically, legally, philosophically, and biblically to abortion.  But, since I’m not a doctor, politician, lawyer, or philosopher, I will confine my thoughts to the latter – the biblical reasons we stand for life.
I however will seek to prove the right to life as the most basic of all human rights.  The right to life – remember, we have been granted “certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  So, what does the Bible say about life – specifically the right to life of the unborn?  
Before we look at that, you need to understand the basic point of disagreement between those in favor of abortion and those against abortion (pro-choice and pro-life) lies in the definition of personhood.  Dr. Paul Fowler in his book, Abortion, Toward an Evangelical Consensus, says “personhood is the crux of the matter.”  
You see, when this issue really came to the forefront back in the 60’s, the pro-abortion platform used to refer to the fetus as a blob, an unwanted mass of tissue, a parasite. These terms tended to dehumanize the unborn child and served to soothe troubled consciences.  But they have been forced to abandon that position, because medical science has solidly proven human life begins at conception. As I understand it, the question of when life begins, is really not an issue for debate anymore – it is generally agreed life begins at conception.
First is the physical criteria.  This view holds life is not fully human until a certain stage of physical development is reached.  And of course, guess when that is?  When the infant has the ability to survive outside the womb.  
Nobel Prize winning biologist Francis Crick even once argued we should wait until children are at least two days old before we legally declare them persons.  By that time, we will be able to certify they are physically healthy.
The second criteria imposed is the social criteria.  The belief is that interaction with other human beings on a non-biological level is necessary in order to be a person – such capacities as love, self-consciousness, and the ability to relate and communicate with others.  If a child has not reached a certain maturity level in such relationships, that child is not yet a person.  One leading geneticist believes a child is only set apart from the rest of the animal world when he or she can participate in a “meaningful, cognitive interaction with his mother and with the rest of society.”  Does that come at six weeks, or six months, or two years?
Finally, the third is the mental criteria.  This is the most popular.  Unless the individual demonstrates some degree of reason, volition, or self-awareness, he or she is not a human being.  So for example, Joseph Fletcher once argued an individual is not a person unless he or she has an I.Q. of at least 40.  Obviously, he says, a fetus or newborn child cannot even take the test, so does not qualify as a person.
What’s this all about? You might say, “I don’t get this.” First, you need to remember this whole argument is about rights – human rights, particularly that of the woman. And so, if they can strip away personhood from the fetus, then they are not denying another human being his or her rights. 
Number one, man and woman are created in the image of God.  We talked about this last week.  From the very beginning, humankind was different from the animal world.  In Genesis 1, on the sixth day of creation, after God had made everything else, He said, “‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”   Humankind is not just a different kind of animal life – it is different altogether.  We were made in the image of God.
This, by far, is one of the most important arguments against abortion and for personhood.  How exactly is man made in the image of God?  One way upon which all theologians agree is it is an inherent or intrinsic image passed on from one generation to the next.  It is not something we earn or develop.  It is something that is ours by nature of creation. It is not ours based on something we do.  It is received at conception.  In the words of one author, “It matters not if an individual is young or old, handicapped or perfectly formed, weak or strong, poor or rich, black or white or yellow or red. The life of every person is of value to God and should be to us.”  We are God’s image bearers, given at conception.
Premise number two, the child is known by God before his or her birth.
There are a number of Scriptures to prove this point – people God knew before they were born. Of course, the first one who comes to mind is Jesus Himself.  Talk about an unplanned pregnancy.  In all those modern Joseph and Mary stories, what if Joseph pressured Mary to have an abortion?
Finally, Psalm 139, we read these words of David:
13For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
15My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
16Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
17How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
What an intimate knowledge God has of the unborn.  And so maybe, to paraphrase John Stott, the issue of personhood is not self-awareness, but God-awareness.  But, you say, that was God.  He knows everything.  Of course He knew Jesus and Paul and David and Samson before they were born. Are we to assume He didn’t know any of the 61,000,000 over the past 46 years?
In Genesis 25, God said of Jacob and Esau that the older would serve the younger.
In Judges 13, we’re told that Samson would deliver the Israelites from the Philistines.
The passage in Jeremiah said that he would be a prophet to the nations.
And in Galatians 1, Paul was chosen to preach Jesus among the Gentiles.
One doctor said to another, “About the termination of a pregnancy, I want your opinion.  If the father is syphilitic and the mother has tuberculosis, and the first child was born blind, the second died, the third was born deaf and mute, and the fourth had TB, what would you do?”  The doctor replied, “I would terminate the pregnancy.”  The first doctor said, “Then you would have aborted Beethoven.”
The fourth premise relates specifically to the right to life and it is this: the death of an unborn child was cause for punishment in the Scripture.
The passage is found in Exodus 21, some pretty strong words.  For sake of time, let me summarize their content.  The text says if two men are fighting, and they hit a pregnant woman causing her to give birth prematurely some actions are to be taken.  If there is no serious injury to the child, then the man is only to be fined.  But, if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life.  The point is, killing a child in the womb was considered murder.  Do you know that we have laws on the books that say if you kill a pregnant woman, you are charged with two counts of murder.  Help me understand that.
Those four premises I believe prove life is viable at conception and should be protected, and valued.  And I want you to know that I’ve barely touched the arguments that could be offered.  Further, I’ve spent a lot of time on that this morning, because I want you to understand how God – and the Scripture – views the unborn child.  But now, by way of conclusion, I want us to consider that second fundamental right.
It is the right to forgiveness.  You say, what does that have to do with abortion?  Everything.  You see, statistics show that one in four persons who have abortions are professing, evangelical believers.  I have absolutely no doubt there are many in this room who have been touched by the pain of abortion.  Maybe you’ve had one. Maybe as a man you’ve encouraged a girlfriend or a wife to have one.  Maybe you have a family member or a close friend who had an abortion.  And through the course of time, you’ve become convinced abortion is wrong.  And this morning only reminded you of that. What do you do?
Finally, the last thing I say is this.  If you find yourself with an unplanned pregnancy, and you don’t know what to do, let us help.  We have the Hope Pregnancy Resource Center in this community – and the Executive Director, Molly Petrey, goes to our church.  Many of the staff go to our church.  They, and we will walk with you, I promise.  
And we also have a ministry called Chosen Ministry.  It is an adoption ministry, and I spoke with its director, one of our elders, Mike Kimbro, this week.  If you have a child through an unplanned pregnancy, we will adopt the child.  We will love the child.  And we will walk with you.