[375 words]
Our bodies were received from our earthly parents; however, our spirit came from God. God is the Father of our spirit (Heb. 12:9). God alone forms the spirit of man within him (Zech. 12:1). Man alone, of all creatures of this earth, has a spirit and bears the image of his Creator. No animal possesses the image of God.
When does human life begin? The Bible answers this question! David, a man after God’s own heart wrote the following words by inspiration: “For you have formed my inward parts: You have covered me in my mother’s womb, I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book they all were written. The days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (Ps. 139:13-16). Human life begins at conception. “Then the word of the Lord came to me saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I sanctified you: I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:4-5). Some believe that a baby does not have a soul and is not a person until it is born and takes its first breath. This surely is not true. A person is created and given human life as an eternal being at conception.
A child is born pure and innocent. Children do not inherit the sins of their parents. “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” (Ezek. 18:20). If one’s spirit is evil from birth, how did it get that way?
Since life begins before the baby is born, abortion is wrong. It is sinful to take the life of an innocent baby. Human life is sacred. Since the Roe vs. Wade decision on January 22, 1973, to legalize abortion, millions of little innocent babies have been murdered. God gives to all life, breath, and all things (Acts 17:25). Man has no right to destroy God’s gift of life.
Bobby Key
Church of Christ
Miami, OK