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Podcast
Abortion And The Human Spirit
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt. Today I'd like to talk about what the Bible says about abortion and
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the human spirit. First, we need to acknowledge the fact that the Bible does not specifically
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address the subject of abortion. So to get God's mind on the matter, we need to consider
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some passages that discuss the nature of life in the womb. Murder is the unwanted or
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the unlawful killing of one human by another, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary.
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It's clear biblically that murder is sin. It's even one of the Ten Commandments. The
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most basic question concerning abortion then is, when does a person come into existence
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as a human being? The most basic questions about life are, who am I, where did I come
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from, am I significant, where am I going? Here we're only going to deal with the question
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where did I come from, spiritually speaking. Where did the real me or spirit or soul come
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from? Since the words are often used interchangeably, I'll simply call it our spirit. So where
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does the human spirit come from? The secular answer is evolution. But since there's no
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evidence of evolution in the natural world or anywhere in the universe, and since evolution
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is completely contrary to the Bible, the Christian is left with two options. Each spirit is individually
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created by God, or we get our spiritual nature from our parents. First, let's think about
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number one. Number one says each person's spirit is individually created by God. If
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number one is correct, then we must ask when that spirit is created. Suggestions include
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at the time of conception, when brainwaves are observable, when the bloodstream is formed,
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when breath is possible, or at birth. Number two says our spiritual substance comes from
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our parents, not just our bodies, just the same way as our bodies do. Is it the case
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that conception is the only possibility for the beginning of human life? I'll be defending
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the position number two, our spiritual substance comes from our parents. That would mean that
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the intentional termination of fertilized human egg is murder. Here's some basic passages.
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Exodus 21, 22, and 23. If men struggle together with each other, instruct a woman with a child
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so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there's no injury, he shall surely be fined as the
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woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judge decides. But if there's
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any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty a life for a life. In this case,
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it seems that if the child is born alive, then the man who struck the woman is fined
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by the woman's husband or the judge. But if the child dies, the man who has struck her
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is put to death a life for a life. This would indicate that the unborn fetus is a human life.
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Another passage we should look at is Hebrews 7, verses 9 and 10. It says,
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And so to speak through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes,
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for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
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We must also begin with the observation that there's only one time in the Bible that records
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God creating human beings. Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and
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breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. That's Genesis 2.7.
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There's nothing in the Bible that suggests or states or implies that God created individual
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spiritual people after Adam and Eve. But Hebrews 7 gives us a strong indication of where we came
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from spiritually. In Hebrews 7, the author is making the point that Christ is of the
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Melchizedek priesthood, which is superior to the Levitical priesthood. The proof is that Levi paid
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tithes to Melchizedek. But when did he do that? Well, he didn't. Actually, Abraham did that years
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before Levi was ever conceived. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi. Levi was a great-grandson of Abraham.
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But the author of Hebrews says, through Abraham, even Levi who received tithes paid tithes for he
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was still in the loins of his father. Referring to Abraham, the Hebrews had no word for grandfather.
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The spiritual substance that makes us into a spiritual being, not just a physical one,
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comes from certain parents. We don't actually exist until the physical and spiritual may come
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together through the sperm and the egg conception. But everything that makes us a human being comes
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through our parents. Jeremiah 1, 4, and 5 says, Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you.
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I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. The call of Jeremiah reveals that God planned
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his existence before his conception. Notice God said, I formed you in the womb. The word formed
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is the word used to mold into a form, especially as a potter, according to the Hebrew Strong's
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Dictionary. The passage does not teach that Jeremiah was created at some point in the process
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of his formation. The idea is that he existed at the time he was being formed in the womb.
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Some suggest this is only true of Jeremiah the prophet. But David expresses the same idea
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in Psalm 139.16, where he wrote, And in your book were all written the days that were ordained for
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me, when as yet there were none of them. And Paul used the idea to describe everyone as not the pot
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or the power over clay, to make the same lump one vessel to honor and another to dishonor.
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That's from Romans 9 of 21. It seems that people, whether honorable or dishonorable,
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are formed in the womb, not created at some point during the formation. Psalm 139.13 and 14,
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For you formed my inward parts, you wove me together in my mother's womb. I will give thanks
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to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. David says God wove him together in his mother's
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womb. Wove means entwined as a screen, according to the Hebrew Strong's Dictionary. David sees
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himself as one that God wove together like a fine wire woven into a screen.
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There's no idea here that David's spirit was created by God somewhere in the weaving process.
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Psalm 51.5, he says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me.
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In Psalm 51, David's confessing his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.
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In that, he talks about his conception. Notice, brought forth is parallel to conceived,
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which is parallel with the word me. His conception equals his existence.
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His existence did not come from a special creation of God, but from his conception.
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Also, notice that David sees himself as conceived in iniquity. This is not about any sin of David's
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mother. The context of this whole psalm is about David's sin. His observation is that he was
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conceived of the sin nature, which means he was a spiritual human being at the time of his
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conception. Here's some common questions that I get about abortion.
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Question number one. If aborted babies go to heaven, is an abortion good since it puts more
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people in heaven? First of all, there's nothing in the Bible that says all babies go to heaven.
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Or that God wants to populate heaven. People exist to praise God, not to populate heaven.
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And the second, killing pre-born babies to pop heaven is absurd. It means it would be good to
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kill all babies before some undetermined age of accountability, or for that matter, to kill all
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believers. Question two. If abortion is murder, why is God without a miscarriage? Answer. A
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naturally occurring food problem leading to death, like an unplanned miscarriage, is not the same as
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an intentional murder. Question three. Can a person be Christian and be pro-choice? Answer.
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The question sounds like Christianity is assumed to be some religion you join.
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Basically, being a Christian is a matter of receiving the gift of Christ's finished work
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and paying for our sins on the cross. A person can be Christian in the sense of being born again
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unto salvation in Christ and believe all sorts of wrong things,
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but are also filled with the Holy Spirit of the sin of wrong belief. Inconsistency
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is always possible, but understand being a believer in Christ is inconsistent with the
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teaching of the pro-choice movement. Question number four. Should a life of the mother be a
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priority over the life of the preborn baby? Answer. This is actually a more difficult question
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than it would seem because there are two human lives involved. This is a rare situation because
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it assumes either one will likely survive, the other one is terminated. Pragmatically,
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life of the mother is usually the priority. The mother may be the mother of other children.
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The life of a friend involved with the lives of other people. Her death may impact the lives
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of many others and should therefore be a priority. But second, this agonizing decision is made to
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save a life, not end a life. The decision is always about saving a life. Abortion on demand
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is a decision to end a life. At no time should ending a life be the objective.
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Last question I'll deal with. Is abortion permissible in the case of rape or incest?
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Yes. Life is full of tragic events caused by human sin, but the answer is never to add more sin.
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An unwanted pregnancy caused by sin must be dealt with as all situations where sin causes suffering,
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murder, or incest is never advisable. Well, thank you for listening. A longer paper on the subject
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and footnotes and references for quotes is available on our website, ricochetconcepts.org.
