The Bible is unequivocally clear: life begins before birth. One of the wonderful passages addressing this is in Psalms:
“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made….My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your 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” (Psalm 139:13-16 NASB).
Endorsing Infanticide
Recently, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (a children’s doctor before entering politics) shocked the nation by breaking new political ground with an open endorsement of infanticide (the killing of a child after it is born).
Instead of condemning that atrocious belief, several presidential candidates made infanticide a part of their platform. Some even attempted to force the Bible to justify their radical ideology. For example, during an interview on The Breakfast Club, Mayor Pete Buttigeg moralized:
“…there’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath, and so even that is something that we can interpret differently. I think no matter where you think about the cosmic question of how life begins, most Americans can get on board with the idea of, ‘I might draw the line here, you might draw the line there,’ but the most important thing is the person who should be drawing the line is the woman making the decision.”
Mayor Pete clearly needs to spend more time studying the Bible.
What does the Bible say?
First, when God created the first man Adam, He didn’t create a baby but a full-grown man—and not in a mother’s womb but from the dust of the ground:
“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7 NASB).
Second, God made Adam and Eve as the beginning of the system of life He instituted, and the Bible constantly affirms that life definitely begins before there is breath. For instance, when Mary and Elizabeth met each other while pregnant with Jesus and John the Baptist, Elizabeth explained to Mary that:
“For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1:44).
Here, the Bible affirms that which is in the womb is indeed a life, not only referring to the unborn John the Baptist as the “babe” but also by showing that while unborn, he had definite feelings. As it turns out, the Bible was thousands of years ahead of science, which is just now coming to realize that unborn babies can indeed feel sensations (such as pain) inside the womb.
Life Before Breath
The Scriptures are clear that God’s creation of human life definitely occurs before breath—while the child is still in the womb. For example:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” Jeremiah 1:5
“This is what the Lord says—He Who made you, Who formed you in the womb…” Isaiah 44:2
“This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, Who formed you in the womb…” Isaiah 44:24
Mayor Buttigieg fails to understand that God creates life—God gets to draw the line of when life becomes human, and He draws the line well before breath.
GUIDING TRUTHS
