Whose “choice” is it anyway?

Found an article that pretty well sums up how most would/should interpret God’s view on abortion. 3 things stand out to me. First are the scriptures. One is found in Psalm, two in Jeremiah, one in Job and the other in Isaiah. Each reference God knitting a child in its mother’s womb. Knowing it, recognizing it and setting it apart. I don’t think this is relevant to just the birth of prophets or kings. I think God views all his children in this manner. The scriptures are as follows:

Psalm 139:13-14 “13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Jeremiah 1:5 “5 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 20:15-18 “15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you,” making him very glad. 16 Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, 17 because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.18 Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?

Isaiah 44:1-2 “1 But now listen, Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. 2 This is what the Lord says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Job 31:15 “15 Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?”

Jeremiah 20 verse 17, “because he did not kill me in the womb” really sticks out. If a human life doesn’t start until you are born, how or why could Jeremiah speak of the word kill. In order to kill something, you have to take its life away. Jeremiah speaks clear that we are alive in the womb and thus taking that life through whatever means is killing or in the case of abortion, premeditated murder.

The second thing is in Exodus 21: 22-24. I have read 2 articles that interpret this scripture totally different. One is supposedly from a Jewish perspective and claims that the scripture is referencing if the mother is harmed, it is life for a life. Even if not harmed, it is what the husband determines to be the fine. The article referenced since the birth was premature, it was assumed the child did not survive and since it states that if no harm, the scripture purely refers to the health of the mother. However, premature can be anytime prior to natural birth at roughly 40 weeks. However, we know that the majority if children born one to 2 months early are viable births and can go on with little medical intervention. It is only when the birth is extremely early and the lungs aren’t developed (or other issues) that viability of the birth comes into question. Either way, they clearly allude to the fact that the mothers life is the only one of importance. The second article below I think gets it right which interprets that the husband can determine the fine if no harm is to either of the 2 lives, the mother or the premature child. This I feel is how we should interpret God’s word and apply to all life, heartbeat to death.

Taken from “Sanctity and Human Life”

Abortion

The Assemblies of God views the practice of abortion as an evil that has been inflicted upon millions of innocent babies and that will threaten millions more in the years to come. Abortion is a morally unacceptable alternative for birth control, population control, sex selection, and elimination of the physically and mentally handicapped. Certain parts of the world are already experiencing serious population imbalances as a result of the systematic abortion of female babies. The advocacy and practice of so-called partial birth abortion of babies is particularly heinous.

Sexual responsibility

Contemporary demands for abortion often flow from the practice of sexual freedom without corresponding responsibility. The Scriptures speak definitively against pre-marital and extra-marital sexual intercourse and declare such activity to be sinful (Exodus 22:16; Acts 15:20; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 13, 18; Galatians 5:19). To add abortion as an after-the-fact birth control device is to deepen and compound the sin with resultant guilt and emotional distress. The Assemblies of God affirms the biblical mandate for sexual purity and responsibility that, when obeyed, will eliminate many, if not most, situations where abortion is considered necessary or desirable.

The personhood of the unborn

The Scriptures regularly treat the unborn child as a person under the care of God.

1. The Bible recognizes that a woman is with child even in the first stages of pregnancy. When the virgin Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, an angel made this announcement to her: “[Y]ou will conceive in your womb and bear a son (huios)” (Luke 1:31, NASB). The angel then informed Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was pregnant: “Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child (huios, “son”) in her old age” (Luke 1:36). Scripture makes it clear that in the prenatal phase both Jesus and John the Baptist were recognized as males well before the time of delivery. Moreover, John before birth is recognized as a “baby” (brephos) (Luke 1:41, 44). This translates a Greek word used for children both before and after birth (cf. Acts 7:19). The Bible always recognizes the prenatal phase of life as that of a child and not a mere appendage to the mother’s body to be aborted at will.

Even when pregnancy in Bible times was due to an illicit relationship, the sanctity and value of that life was not questioned. The daughters of Lot willfully became pregnant by incestuous relationships (Genesis 19:36), and Bathsheba gave birth to Solomon after an adulterous relationship initiated by King David (2 Samuel 11:5). In none of these cases are the lives of the unborn considered to be unworthy and requiring an abortion.

2. The Bible recognizes that God is active in the creative process of forming new life. Concerning Leah, the wife of Jacob, Scripture says, “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb…. Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son” (Genesis 29:31, 32). When Job compared himself to his servants, he asked, “Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” (Job 31:15). In pointing out God’s impartiality, Job said He “ ‘shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands’ ” (Job 34:19). God spoke through Isaiah: “ ‘This is what the Lord says—he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant’ ” (Isaiah 44:2). And again, “ ‘This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who has made all things’ ” (v. 24).

David summed it up, “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).

3. The Bible recognizes that God has plans for the unborn child. Only He knows the potential of this new life. When God called Jeremiah to his prophetic ministry, He indicated the ordination was prenatal when He said: “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 1:5). When Zechariah the priest was ministering at the altar of incense, an angel announced that his wife, Elizabeth, would give birth to a son who should be called John. Then it was revealed that God had definite plans for this child. He was to be a forerunner of Jesus (Luke 1:11-17).

4. The Bible recognizes that God is sovereign in all things, including the quality of life of the unborn child. When people reject God, eventually they cheapen human life and make it relative. Some are considered worthy to live; others are considered expendable. Who but God knows whether someone destroyed in the holocaust might not have discovered a cure for cancer. Who but God knows what blessing millions of children killed before birth might have brought to improve the quality of life. When people set themselves up as God to determine if a life is worth living—whether before or after birth—they are usurping the sovereignty of the Creator.

There are also things finite humans cannot understand. God’s ways are above human ways. While today’s medical technology frequently makes it possible to know when impairment exists in unborn children, it is important to remember they are still in God’s love and care (Matthew 19:14-15).

The killing of innocent persons. God’s Word is very explicit concerning the taking of innocent human life. “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) is not only one of the Ten Commandments, but also a moral imperative that recurs throughout Scripture (cf. Matthew 19:18; Romans 13:9).

God inspired Moses to include in the Scriptures a law that brings the sanctity of the lives of unborn children into focus. “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” (Exodus 21:22- 24).

It should be noted that the value of the life of both the mother and the child is such that even if there is no critical and lasting harm to either, the responsible party must be fined. However, if either the mother or the premature child is seriously injured or dies, then the severe penalties of the law are to be applied, possibly in this case those having to do with manslaughter (Exodus 21:13; Numbers 35:22-25). It is clear that the life of the unborn child is precious, and even a non-premeditated injury inflicted on the unborn is a serious crime.

God’s attitude toward the killing of innocents is clear. No one is guiltless who takes the life of another, with the possible scriptural exceptions of capital punishment administered by a system of justice (Genesis 9:6; Numbers 35:12), unintended killing in self-defense (Exodus 22:2), or deaths occasioned by duly constituted police and war powers (Romans 13:4-5). John Calvin expressed the horror of abortion in commenting on Exodus 21:22,23: “The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.”

Danger to the life of the mother. Those situations in which pregnancy seriously threatens the life of the mother raise a particular ethical dilemma for Christians who value the lives of both mother and child. If responsible diagnoses confirm that childbirth is likely to result in the death of the mother, historic Christian faith usually has favored the life of the mother above that of the unborn child since the mother is a mature person with established family and societal relationships and responsibilities. However, vague threats to the mother’s physical or emotional health must not become an excuse to place the child at risk. Any intervention required must have the intent of saving the mother’s life, not the prior intent of causing death to the child. As in any emergency, in such times God’s children ought to fervently and earnestly pray for divine intervention. In doing so, the persons involved must prayerfully evaluate the medical diagnoses with the assistance of humane physicians and godly leaders and make, responsibly and with a clear conscience, what may well be a very painful decision.

The emotional and spiritual toll. The abortion industry rarely advises pregnant women of the potential impact of abortion on their spiritual and mental health. Desperate women who find themselves in an acutely embarrassing or inconvenient position because of an illicit affair or an unplanned pregnancy, and who are often coerced by selfish lovers and/or embarrassed families, are led to see abortion as a “quick fix.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Women are usually unaware of the depression, guilt, and shame that may plague them for a lifetime. While God can and does forgive and heal the broken hearts of repentant sinners who come to Him for forgiveness, the actual deed can never be undone and probably will always be remembered with pain and regret.

In summary, the final thing to me is that it is just the pure evil and disregard for human life for anyone that can take the life of a beating heart in a human. Throw out the entire concept that God knits us all in our mother’s womb and that in its entirety should be sufficient to interpret that God values anything he creates. That withstanding, to watch a video of the abortion process it is simply a barbaric process. I have no respect for anyone that speaks of reproductive rights and that it’s the mothers choice. She made her choice when she engaged in sexual activity (rape and incest aside which are exceptions and not the majority of reasons for abortion). Choices have consequences and we must deal with those choices we make. Unfortunately many of these cases are with young teenagers. We all know kids make terrible decisions when left to their own. Instead, what do we do, we have school systems hand out birth control instead of hitting the problem head on and discouraging and showing real world examples of the consequences that can occur from the choices they make. Instead of teaching abstinence, they hand out condones like their candy which does nothing but prompt the senses and hormones that its OK because the school gives me a way to prevent the consequences. That’s real smart. The idiots that make these decisions are just that…idiots. They too will have to live and die with the decisions and the policies they make. And then you have cities like Chicago that have waived the requirement that underage teenagers need a parents consent to receive an abortion. Now the kids just think they have a fall back position if plan A doesn’t work. My parents won’t even know runs through their little undeveloped brain. Instead the state is going to allow a surgical procedure on a juvenile all in the name of reproductive rights. Disgusting…period.

Just as choices have consequences, our beliefs have consequences. Those that believe in and support this heinous act will indeed have to answer for their beliefs. God will be the ultimate judge on when life begins and when it shall end. Let’s just say I will go to my grave with a clear conscious that life is precious, regardless of which stage it is in. A heartbeat is a wonderful sound to hear and without it, death pursues. Value the sanctity of life and rejoice in each creation that our Creator has made.