Adding Fuel to a Lethal Outrage

It’s not enough for me just to acknowledge that evil exists in the world.

Because I’ve learned that ignorance is often what breeds reprehensible conduct. As a result, many arguments in support of allowing unborn children to be killed is very likely rooted in a flawed understanding of exactly what a living, breathing human being consists of.

In spite of the warped logic insisting that a woman has the right to destroy life being developed in her womb, perhaps the most tolerant argument in defense of this behavior is the belief that a human fetus is nothing more than a hunk of flesh, devoid of intellect, emotion or comprehension.

Of course, if the fetus is indeed lacking these critical capabilities, the logic would follow that no semblance of human worth could exist in it either. It wouldn’t even have a “soul” at this point. So, if this “soul” had not yet been given to it by its Creator, it couldn’t qualify as human life, and no offense could be imputed to the sustainer [mother] of its development.

Hence, this clump of fetal tissue could be discarded like an unwanted malignancy.  No worries.

Interestingly enough though, the issue of ensoulment is nothing new. The matter of exactly when a human fetus becomes a living person [or somehow “receives its soul”] was the subject of passionate debate among many early church leaders. However, it seems there was no lasting consensus.

But how could there have been?

To say that a “soul” actually is some distinct immaterial part of the human makeup would only complicate matters for anyone attempting to document exactly when it comes into existence. More importantly, what mortal wisdom or cutting edge technology can redefine what has already been clarified in the Scriptures?

“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and [the] man became a living being.” [Gen.2:7] [my emphasis] [נֶפֶשׁ nephesh: a soul, living being, life, self, person]

[Do I have a“soul?” see: Everybody’s got one?]

A common argument is that a human fetus doesn’t possess the ability to breath on its own and, as such, cannot really be considered to be alive. In other words, there’s no evidence of the “breath of life” having been given by God as it was to the first man, Adam. But the breath of life is indeed present in the human fetus. Its ability to sustain life through its heart and lungs is generated and maintained through the mother’s blood supply—who already is a living, breathing “soul.”

I’m saddened to suggest that ignorance about what makes up a created human being is just one of many accelerants fueling the wholesale tolerance of killing unborn babies.

But Biblical literacy is the tool of effective resistance to evil.

And we would do well to remember that our voices resonate much louder in defense of innocent life than they do over petty squabbles about verb forms, semantics or doctrinal differences.

The men of Jesus Christ’s church are called to lead and protect, yet helpless, unborn voices continue to cry out from the womb.

Are any of them listening?