When does human life begin?

Christians Must Decide

When is human life not really human life? At what point of development does human life begin?: at conception (fertilization), during the first week after conception, when the embryo implants in the uterine wall, when the mother feels the baby kick, when the soul enters the body, after the baby takes its first breath or after birth if the baby is “perfect’? Society is defining the beginning of human life in all of these different ways. What should the Christian believe? What is God’s answer?

Christians Must Decide That Life Begins At Conception

Human life has not changed since God created it. Only human manipulation of human life has changed. Human life begins with the union of a sperm and an egg, which is the “moment of conception” or fertilization. To quote Dr. J. C. Willke in Why Can’t We Love Them Both, “Isn’t the fertilized ovum only a potential human being? No. This is not a potential human being; it is a human being with vast potential. One could say that the sperm and ovum, before their union, constitute a potential human being. Once their union is completed, however, they have become an actual human being.” He goes on, “A fertilized egg is a zygote which on dividing is called an embryo. At about one week of life, at the blastocyst stage of about 128 to 256 cells, the embryo implants into the nutrient lining of the uterus. There, only three days later, this tiny male or female human sends a chemical-hormonal message into the mother’s body, which stops her menstrual periods. The heart begins to beat at 18 days, and by 21 days it is pumping, through a closed circulatory system, a blood whose type is different from that of the mother. Brain waves have been recorded at 40 days on the electroencephalogram (EEG).”

Christians Must Decide That All Human Life Is Sacred

God’s Word reaffirms when life begins. In Psalm 139:13-15, God knew David before he was born. “You did form my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother’s womb…you knew me right well; my frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret…”

The unborn baby human is created in God’s image. Genesis 9:6: “For God made man in His own image.” The unborn is a person from the beginning. Jeremiah 1:4, 5: “Before you were born I consecrated you.” And Luke 1:41-44 shows Jesus and John as babies in the womb.

Christians Must Decide to Test Society’s Current Ethics

• Stem Cell Research
  To quote Dr. Willke, “Back to the bottom line, it is a simple, proven, medical fact that human life, in its totality, exists at that first cell stage. Furthermore, it is a medical fact that if the blastocyst stage is dissected and embryonic stem cells removed, you have killed one tiny living human to obtain those cells. This is quite simply killing one innocent living human in an attempt to find cures to save others. This hearkens back to Nazi doctors who pleaded the same rationale in the Nuremberg trials at the end of the war. That argument was not accepted, and some of those doctors were hanged for doing to Jews what current researchers now want to do to human embryos.” Christians must have discernment on what medical research this nation is to pursue. Are we to be guided by the utilitarian ethics of humanism or the sanctity of human life according to Scripture?California taxpayers have been paying $1,000,000 a day for 10 years to fund the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine for embryonic stem cell research. It has not produced one cure, has killed myriads of human embryos, and now more funding is wanted!
• Birth Control AbortionsNearly 50% of surgical abortions are performed on professing Christians. Chemical abortions are even more common. The morning after pill which makes the lining of the uterus inhospitable to the embryo and RU486 which kills the baby at a later date after it has begun to grow in the uterus are chemical abortifacients and are used as a means of birth control.
• Different Kinds of Contraceptives
  Many devices and chemicals that are considered regular birth control methods act approximately 20% of the time as abortifacients. This happens when the lining of the uterus is rendered hostile to the newly conceived child. Common examples of this are the Pill and IUD.
• Pre-implantation Selection—Designer Babies
  The future could be totally different from the present as people plan their babies not just for their gender but their characteristics as well. If a preborn child doesn’t measure up, it is discarded.
• IVF – In vitro Fertilization
  This sounds good for the infertile couple, but there are no regulations on how many embryos are made, thus in America millions are frozen at this time. There should be regulations, for example, in Germany a couple is allowed only three embryos and they all have to be implanted.
• Cloning
  When cloning occurs, the new human baby is often used in experimentations by drug companies always resulting in the death of the preborn human.
• Contraception and the Christian
  To quote Life Chain founder, Royce Dunn, “Few Protestants living today have ever heard the word contraception spoken in their church sanctuary. Yet what other word has impacted modem society more fundamentally? When I discuss this subject with Christian friends, who are beyond child-bearing age, they frequently express the same abiding regret my wife and I have, of not welcoming more children into their home. They wish someone with influence had warned them.”He concludes, “Is there a link between a heart that rejects offspring and a lack of will to defend the lives of preborn children? Yes, I believe there is because contraception compromises the human heart-whether or not the user is aware of the compromise. When in past centuries surgical abortion raised its menacing head, the Christian Church in our nation responded decisively; but in the 20th Century, abortion not only raised its head but calmly challenged the Church to throw its best punches. When the Church responded, its punches were drained of passion and resolve and the Church would no longer plead the case of the fatherless to win it (Jeremiah 5:28).”

The Facts and Only the Facts

A recent newspaper article asked “Does Hobby Lobby really matter much? (O.C. Register 7/16/14). It was very misleading. The family owned business believed that they shouldn’t be forced to pay for abortive birth controls. There are at least twenty different types of birth controls. At this time Hobby Lobby is paying for sixteen out of twenty types for their employees. They only challenged the forced payment on four types of birth control that can cause a developing human baby to die.

These types of contraception work in three ways. They usually work to either stop ovulation or stop the sperm from reaching the egg but when these fail, and the baby reaches the uterus, the lining of the uterus is so thin it will not support life so the baby is unable to implant and consequently dies.

The Register writers statement that, “The effect of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby is that many female employees will be seriously hurt in being denied insurance coverage for their contraceptives,” is hardly true. The women have sixteen other types of contraceptives to choose from and only the baby is “seriously” hurt when denied the nourishment needed to survive as the uterine wall can’t sustain life!

Christians Must Decide about America’s Future

Should we stay in our churches and wait for Christ to return? Should we remove and isolate our family and influence from mainstream America? The answer must be no. From the beginning our country was based on Christian principles and was meant to be a shining light to all. Many thousands sacrificed their lives during our wars. We can’t give up now. Christians must decide to become the “salt and light” of modem America and stand up for Biblical principles in every area of life.

Here are questions to ask your pastor and yourself:

Does your church:

1. Have tables to register voters before elections?
2. Speak about the social issues more than once a year?
3. Educate on these issues with supplemental curriculum for all ages? See www.pastorsprolife.org.
4. Seek candidates, possibly members of your church, for local offices such as school board, city council and so on and then support these candidates?
5. Have informational nights for initiatives?
6. Have a Respect Life/Salt and Light group in your church? Ask your pastor if you can head it up.
7. Let your pastor know about the Pastors Prolife Resource Center website and become acquainted with it yourself.
8. Does your pastor reach out to other pastors with the truth concerning abortion? Do you?

There is Help. Pastors Prolife Resource Center has wonderful material for a pastor including sample sermons, how to counsel a pregnant woman, post abortion referrals, “7 Steps to a More Pro-life Church,” and much more.

The Cielnickys are long time pro-life advocates. Beverly Cielnicky has served as with the Crusade for Life ministry for many decades. She serves there as president. Robert Cielnicky is a member of the Scholl Institute of Bioethics and founder and director of Life Priority Network.

© 2106 Used by Permission