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Abortion and Divine ReproductionBy Martin G. Collins
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Since the US Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade on January 22, 1973, 30 years ago this month, a culture of death has driven this nation. This death mentality has resulted in the brutal destruction of more than 42 million innocent individuals "legally" murdered in America.
All this??while politically correct leaders refuse to legally put to death child molesters and rapists, murders of innocent people, and violently murderous terrorists who seek to destroy the peace, the safety and the lives of: our parents, our brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives, and our children and grandchildren. We live in a very twisted society!
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all laws in every state that in any way had protected the lives of developing unborn children. It legalized abortion in all 50 states, for the full nine months of pregnancy for social and economic reasons. It stated that the law protects only "legal persons" and that "legal personhood does not exist prenatally." It authorized no legal restrictions on abortion in the first three months. Abortion was allowed until birth if one licensed physician, no matter how insane he may be, judged it necessary for the mother's "health." The term "health" includes: physical and mental health, physical or mental.
Deuteronomy 27:25 'Cursed is the one who takes a bribe [money] to slay an innocent person.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'
The whole abortion movement has been based upon one lie after another.
The January 2003 issue of Whistleblower Magazine, in an article titled "ABORTION: The 30-Year War" reported that, Norma McCorvey, the real life "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade??the unmarried, pregnant young woman who 30 years ago was the abortion seeking plaintiff and focal point of the fight for legalized abortion in America—has experienced a profound change of heart.
McCorvey tells: how the Roe v. Wade case was fraudulent because she fabricated her story of being raped and thus impregnated, how she was callously used by heartless pro-abortion attorneys, how she never actually had the abortion.
Whistleblower also reports that one of the principle architects and strategists of the abortion movement in the United States, Bernard Nathanson, M.D. a co-founder of The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League said,
"We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one. Knowing that if a poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls," he confesses. "We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion. ...We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000."
Noting that "repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public," Nathanson adds, "The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These figures took root in the consciousness of Americans, convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law."
I am giving you these figures to show you that the abortion movement, from its inception, has been based upon lie after life after lie.
Proverbs 6:16-17 These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood,
I find it interesting that God puts together the lying and the innocent blood. You will see that repeatedly throughout Scripture as we go through the sermon.
Despite what the news media reports, here is the reality of the Supreme Court's decision,
A report issued by the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, on Senate Joint Resolution 3, 98th Congress, 98-149, June 7, 1983, page 6:
"Thus, the Committee observes that no significant legal barriers of any kind whatsoever exist today in the United States for a woman to obtain an abortion for any reason during any stage of her pregnancy."
Ex-President Ronald Reagan wrote the following observation in Abortion & the Conscience of the Nation, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984:
"Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy was neither voted on by our people nor enacted by our legislators."
Since 1973, many had denied that late term elective abortions were being done legally, or that they were being performed. This lie was totally exposed during the 1996 debate in the U.S. Congress on partial birth abortions (basically brain suction), when it was conclusively shown that such abortions were done even late in the third trimester (i.e., the last three months). Again, we see the abortionists flagrantly lying to the public. They were saying the abortions were only being done when the woman's life was in danger.
We are going to go through quite a few negative aspects about abortion, but I assure you that by the end of the sermon you will be greatly encouraged by God's truth.
Isaiah prophesied that when Israel sins, separating it from God, the nation becomes known for its lying and its shedding of innocent blood. God says the reason He doesn't intervene is because man is "on his own" by his own choice to sin.
Isaiah 59:1-4, 7 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. [We see again the combination of "lies and innocent blood."] No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
This is exactly what we are seeing in this nation today with the abortion problem—destruction is in the path of the children of this nation. So how are the abortionists able to get away with this flagrant lying to the people of the nation? Primarily, by judging most of these pregnancies harmful to the pregnant woman's mental health. It is amazing that they can get away with so much with such a simple agenda.
There are psychological problems that affect the MOTHER of an aborted child. Most legal abortions are judged and recorded: "due to mental health." But the evidence that this is not a valid reason goes back before 1973. So let's build our 'court case' against these abortionists.
Dr. Charles Ford and his associates at UCLA reported this same finding in JAMA, vol. 218, no. 8, Nov. 22, 1971, pages 1173-1178 under the article "Abortion, Is it a Therapeutic Procedure in Psychiatry?"
"The more serious the psychiatric diagnosis [of the mother], the less beneficial was the abortion."
The greatest minds of this nation were able to come up with this—such an obvious statement. But, it is women who have had abortions that end up with very serious mental health problems.
A mountain of evidence shows that woman with mental health problems before an abortion are far more likely to experience post-abortion emotional and psychological problems than a "more stable" woman.
According to E. Greenglass in an article in the Canadian Psychiatry Association Journal, Vol. 21, no. 7, November 1976, pages 453-459, titled, "Abortion & Psychiatric Disturbance,"
"Women with a history of psychiatric disturbance were three times as likely to have some psychiatric disturbance after an abortion than others who had no such history."
E. Sandberg, stated in the section, "Psychology of Abortion" in Comprehensive Handbook of Psychiatry; 1980.
"The more severely ill the psychiatric patient, the worse is her post-abortion psychiatric state."
All of these quotes support the original official statement of the World Health Organization in 1970:
"Serious mental disorders arise more often in women with previous mental problems. Thus, the very women for whom legal abortion is considered justified on psychiatric grounds are the ones who have the highest risk of post-abortion psychiatric disorders."
I give you these quotes to show that, mental illness??the number one reason given to justify an abortion—is just an excuse! And it has been from the very beginning of and before legalized abortion.
Today, the mainstream media turns its back on a multitude of studies indicating a bona fide link between abortion and breast cancer. This misinformation campaign has persisted as the media has collectively yawned at information revealing a relationship between mental health problems and women who undergo abortion.
According to Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Willke, in their book, Why Can't We Love Them Both? Chapter 9, titled "Health, in women who have an abortion":
"Guilt is ever present in many guises, along with regret, remorse, shame, lowered self-esteem, insomnia, dreams and nightmares, flash-backs, anniversary reactions. There often is hostility, and even hatred toward men. This can include her husband, and she may become sexually dysfunctional. Crying, despair and depression are usual, even at times with suicide attempts."
"Recourse to alcohol or drugs to mask the pain is frequent, sometimes leading to sexual promiscuity. There is also a numbing and coldness in place of more normal warmth and maternal tenderness."
The authors mention that religious guilt feelings are perhaps a factor in some women, but most women reported on in the earlier studies were un-churched at the time. So God has built into every human being a natural guilt feeling when these horrendous crimes are committed.
According to an article in the British Medical Journal, Dec. 6, 1996 by M. Gissler, titled, "Abortion/Suicide Link,"
"The suicide rate [immediately] after an abortion was three times the general suicide rate and six times that associated with birth ... the rate for women following a live birth was 5.9 per 100,000, following miscarriage 18.1; following abortion 34.7." They note that women frequently get short term "post natal blues after having a baby, but that this rarely translates into suicide, and that the initial stress of having a child is transitional, the over-all effect having a positive effect on women's health."
The mother is not the only participant in the abortion that ends up with mental problems. There are psychological problems that affect siblings of an aborted child as well.
In some cases, a definite "Survivor Syndrome" has been demonstrated. Children usually know that their mother is pregnant. They also know when she "gets unpregnant." This may cause, what psychiatrists called Survivor's Syndrome, similar to that of Jews who survived the holocaust.
It's an irrational but real guilt of??"why was I saved and why were they killed?" If you have read anything about the Holocaust, you will have found that this is one of the most common thoughts and mental positions that survivors had.
Dr. Edward Sheridan of Georgetown University has also observed fear and mistrust of the mother.
"Originally, a small Child, sensing a sibling's arrival, doesn't welcome it. When the baby suddenly disappears, the frightened child may get a warped sense of his own power to 'will people away.' Or, if he knows that his mother was an active agent in doing away with the sibling, he begins to fear her."
Basically, studies have found that the effect on other children in the family of an aborted child is detrimental long term—meaning for the rest of their lives. It so severely warps their minds that many live in fear of their own destruction by their parents, and it causes them to have a lack of respect for life in general, especially to other human beings. So we see higher rates of violent crimes—a total lack of respect for humanity.
Abortions not only impact the whole family, but the whole nation as well. Any nation that approves of killing the innocent is also responsible for what happens to its children?? psychologically, as well as, physically.
Hosea 4:1-2, 6 Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel, for the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed....My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
This confirms what we read earlier in Isaiah 59:2. God has a hands-off policy on the children of parents who reject Him.
And so, we see that there were consequences because the Israelites have forgotten the welfare of their children. They have, in a sense, sacrificed their children to Baalim, the god of fertility and sex??because there is lying and violence in the land??because the people rejected the law of God. Therefore God could not show His benevolence to their children. That is because their actions tell God to leave their families alone, and by their examples they have taught their children to be wicked like them.
There are also psychological problems that affect the father of an aborted child.
Wayne F. Brauning, a Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania, is founder of Men's Abortion Recovery. He works with men suffering the effects of abortion. He said, "fear keeps men from opposing their mates' decisions to abort." (Just a side note: Other reports show that many unwed pregnant women feel pressure from the male "sperm donor" to have an abortion.) There is guilt everywhere.
Mr. Brauning said,
"Many relationships end following an abortion, and even those that survive are scarred forever. When you've got a dead baby between the two of you, you're always going to be blaming each other for what you did."
He also said men who fail to stand up for their unborn offspring reap a harvest of guilt, shame and anger.
For those who regret having an abortion, experts say both men and women need to confess, forgive one another, and sometimes hold services to commemorate their dead children. They have to grieve the death of this child who was never named??who was never allowed to be born.
One anonymous young man summed up his loss this way:
"I have to live with this for the rest of my life now. Do you realize, whether I have one child or 30 more, I always know that my first child was aborted?"
The abortion issue today does not center on such tragic cases as incest or rape, as the news media and pro-abortion advocates would have us believe. The honest reason for today's high abortion rate??an overwhelming 97 percent of the cases in the United States, for example??is simply one of convenience.
Preserving the life of the mother, the expectation of a defective child, rape and incest account for only 3 percent of all abortions in the United States. Today, abortion is not a lifesaving operation. It is a major form of birth control for convenience.
Dr. C. Everett Koop, U.S. Surgeon General in the 1980s, wrote in his book The Right to Live, the Right to Die,
"The fact of the matter is that abortion as a necessity to save the life of the mother is so rare as to be nonexistent."
Here is a man who has all the information, from all the sources, and that was his conclusion.
I want to shift gears for a moment and look at the legality of abortion. Is abortion a crime? Is it a sin? A crime is a violation of a man-made law. Sin is transgression of God's law. God's law defines right as opposed to wrong. Humanly legislated laws do not always do that. Some things can be a sin that are not a crime in man-made laws. But man-made laws have even made obedience to the higher law of God a crime, often punishable by death.
Governments throughout man's history have passed laws to forbid the keeping of the Sabbath, in many cases punishable by death, as the Roman government's Council of Laodicea did in AD 363. Sabbath keeping was interpreted by the government as a crime. Yet the law of God commands: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
But at the final judgment, every individual will be judged and sentenced according to the law of God, regardless of what has received general human acceptance or what has been made into a human law. Our concern must be that which is God's law.
Legalized abortion reveals the moral decadence and spiritual bankruptcy of a nation. This point was made by the Canadian philosopher George Grant in his response to the striking down of an anti-abortion law in Canada.
In his 1988 essay, The Triumph of the Will, Grant compared the philosophical basis for the pro-abortion movement to the same element that drove the Nazis. He wrote:
"National Socialist ideology was impregnated at its heart in Darwinian biology. In terms of such an account of life, why should we care about the life of a fetus when it conflicts with the will of a fully developed woman? But then, of course, we are led inexorably to the next stage. Why should we care about the lives of human beings outside the womb if they are only an accidental conglomeration of cells, and if they stand in our way? ... Those who see life simply as a product of necessity and chance are inevitably more open to feticide, because they do not see the destiny to which human beings are called. This is the prodigious predicament that the intellectual triumph of modern science has cast upon human beings."
It's ironic that this society does not give the benefit of a doubt or even reasonable doubt to fetuses as they do to common criminals in court. Even if a person did doubt the presence of actual human life in the uterus at a particular time, what would be the right way to react? How do caring human beings treat other human life when there has been a doubt that it exists? Would we not resolve a doubt in favor of life?
If someone has any doubt when human life begins, he should give the baby the benefit of the doubt.
As former U.S. President Ronald Reagan wrote,
"If you don't know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it."
For those who doubt, the same criteria should be used for the unborn. The caring way of thinking would be to give life the benefit of the doubt.
A representative of the protestant denominations has a position in the Planned Parenthood organization to add "Christian" support to the abortion movement. He appears regularly on Bill O'Reilly's Spin Factor on FOX's Cable news program. He said, "The Bible does not forbid abortion." To which Bill O'Reilly a Catholic agreed, although he disagrees with abortion.
This type of thinking exposes the spiritual bankruptcy of many professing Christians—because they need a "thus saith the Lord" on every aspect of human life.
It's true that the word "abortion" is not used in The Bible, but the principles against it are certainly there. That the NT never directly addresses abortion does not mean the first-century churches were ignorant of this practice or that they believed it to be a matter of "individual conscience." On the contrary, the silence simply tells us that abortion was not an issue in need of resolution.
Imbued by God's revelation with a profound Israelitish respect for the unborn and newborn human life as the gift of God, and inspired by Jesus' welcoming of children, the earliest Christians were not tempted to end or endanger the life of their children before or after birth. If the abortion temptation??or at least question??arose explicitly, the Church answered with an unequivocal NO! It was totally out of the question and most likely no one dared bring it up because it was such a heinous crime and sin.
Now let's quickly look at some biblical legal principles that are quite obvious.
God's Word makes it clear: Abortion is murder, the unjustifiable taking of an innocent human life. And, murder is prohibited in Exodus 20:13 & Deuteronomy 5:17 "You shall not murder."
In Genesis 9, God is speaking to Noah about His covenant with Creation.
Genesis 9:5-7 "Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God he made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it."
There is such a contrast between God's way of life and the way of this world.
In the birth story in Matthew, the story is told of Joseph's reaction to the news of his fiancée's premarital pregnancy. The solution that comes to Joseph's mind is divorce, not abortion. Divorce for unfaithfulness was acceptable. Abortion was unthinkable.
Look at God's law concerning violence.
Exodus 21:22-25 "If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
If God requires capital punishment when a fetal miscarriage is caused, surely His judgment for premeditated abortion can be no less severe toward those who are involved with such murder.
Exodus 23:7 "Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked."
All things are created by Jesus Christ and in Him all things consist. God the Father and Jesus Christ are the Law!
Colossians 1:15-17 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
God the Father and Jesus Christ are not only the Law, but they also own everything!
Psalm 100:3 Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
All life is under God's Law. GOD, not the state, not the individual, not the parent, not the doctor, is the Lord of Life. God's will governs. Men and nations may deny that fact but neither man nor nation can escape it. Neither can they escape the consequences for violating it. God is the Law of the Universe regarding abortion! No one else has the right to change that.
Scientifically, when does biologic human life begin?
Biologic human life is defined by the secular world by examining the scientific facts of human development. This is a field where there is no controversy and no disagreement. There is only one set of scientific facts.
As the years of this present age have passed, scientific knowledge of fetal development has increased tremendously. Science continues to confirm that the beginning of any one human individual's life, biologically speaking, begins at the completion of the union of his father's sperm and his mother's ovum, a process called "conception" or, "fertilization".
The abortionist and the media will try to separate these out and say that they are different, but medical doctors and scientist all agree "conception" and "fertilization" are the same thing. But for their own gain, abortionist try to change that. This is so because, this "being" that came as a result of fertilization, is alive, human, sexed, complete and growing. By "complete," it means that it has everything it needs to grow into an adult human being.
This is not a religious belief, it is not a philosophic theory, nor is it debatable. It cannot be questioned. It is a universally accepted scientific fact. Scientists define human life by asking 3 simple questions:
Is this being alive? Is this being human? Is this being complete?
The "being" has the characteristics of biological life. That is, he can reproduce his own cells and develop them into a specific pattern of maturity and function. Or more simply, he is not dead.
This is a unique being, distinguishable totally from any other living organism, completely human in all of his or her characteristics, including the 46 human chromosomes, and can develop only into a fully mature human. Scientists have found that in the rare cases that a human being has 47 chromosomes he is deformed or abnormal in some significant way. Some of those deformities may be 12 fingers or 12 toes. But a full and complete human being usually has 46.
Nothing biologically new will be added from the time of union of sperm and egg until death of the old man or woman except growth and development of what is already there at the beginning. All he needs is time to develop and mature.
Biblically, how early in its development is human biologic life acknowledged? The Bible has always given the answer, and the more science learns through study and research, the more science affirms the Scriptures. Life begins at the moment of conception. When a zygote ("genesis" cell) is formed by the fusion of the sperm and the egg, life commences.
Psalm 139:13-16 For You formed my inward parts; you 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary comments:
"Each individual is God's work, according to His divine model; His eternal wisdom formed the plan and mold. As a great mercy, all our members in continuance were fashioned as they were written in the book of God's wise counsel when as yet there was none of them. Thus, who dares to destroy His handiwork and purpose? And, at what stage of life's span shall it be destroyed? Six days? Six weeks? Six months, or sixty years?"
You could add to that "conception."
In Jeremiah 1:5, Jeremiah was inspired to record God's words,
Jeremiah 1:5 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.
God didn't sanctify a glob of protoplasm; He sanctified to his work a living human being of great potential and inestimable worth.
The apostle Paul was inspired to write that God has His will so carefully planned that He has had us chosen since before the beginning of human civilization.
Ephesians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Isaiah testified to the beginning of life.
Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who makes all things, ...
Luke recorded how John the Baptist as a fetus leaped for joy when he came in close proximity to Jesus Christ as a fetus. They were about 6 months apart in age.
Luke 1:41-44 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
Here The Bible tells us what medical doctors finally found out: pre-born babies do feel, they do experience, and they do react!
Genesis 25:21-23 Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If all is well, why am I like this?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her: "Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger."
We see there individual personalities which God had created that way. They were even wrestling, so to speak, in the womb. They even wrestled for the rest of their lives!
That God considers an unborn child a human being is beyond dispute. Therefore, I believe we can conclude that every aborted child will be resurrected. I don't know how God will work it out, but I have no doubt of His love for them. God says He is "a father of the fatherless," in Psalm 68:5, which I believe includes the unborn child as well as the born child.
Let's continue now by looking at God's purpose and comparing physical conception to spiritual conception. In my mind, this is the essence of the whole issue.
Abortion is diabolically contrary to God's divine reproduction of Himself.
We have seen that most of the controversy on abortion revolves around the question:
When does human life start? Where did human life first begin?
It began when God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. In Genesis 2:7, God said,
Genesis 2:7 "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
(A side note here: Scientists have discovered that while fetuses breath in the amniotic fluid, they exercise their lungs and absorb oxygen, but when the pregnant mother inhales smoke from a cigarette the fetus temporarily stops breathing. In one sense, the fetus receives the breath of life in the form of fluid while in the womb, and when born it receives the breath of life in the form of air.)
John 4:24 says, "God is a Spirit". But man was made out of the soil of the earth. God's purpose is to reproduce himself through man, who is formed of matter or substance. God creates in a system of duality. Man was made first of material dirt. The second stage of man's creation calls for making him into a holy, righteous spirit being as a child of God.
For much of the remainder of the sermon, I am going to be taking information directly from statements that Herbert Armstrong made in 1985 in his Personal. I have put them down pretty close to exactly in many of the cases, but so that we get the fluidity of the sermon here I am not going to say, "This is a quote from Mr. Armstrong." But this is from him mostly.
God's ultimate purpose is to reproduce himself??and God is not only formed and composed of spirit, but God is perfect righteous spiritual character. His spiritual creation involves the development of God's righteous character, within and with the assent of the human being.
To reproduce Himself, God purposed that man should reproduce himself physically, even as God is reproducing Himself spiritually. The one is the type of the other.
Human life first began with the creation of the first man Adam by a process of reproduction. The human life has continued from the original life and is transmitted from generation to generation.
In Genesis 1:28 God said to the first man Adam, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth". Man was to reproduce himself physically from generation to generation.
But the man alone was unable to do that. No man has ever been able to reproduce himself, all by himself. So God performed an operation. He put Adam into a "deep sleep," that today we would call anesthesia, and operated, removing one of Adam's ribs, out of which he made a woman.
The woman was not made from the dust of the ground. Woman was made from man. The two became one. They became one human family. A family is composed of two or more. They reproduced, had children, and the family increased. That original family has increased for 6,000 years.
The human life in every human being started from the human life God created in Adam. Even Eve's life came from Adam. Every human life since is a continuation of that same kind of human life continually reproduced after its kind.
This human reproduction started with the first human, the man Adam.
Divine reproduction has started with the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 15:44-47 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
Jesus was begotten and born as a human being, just as all humans have been, except that God was His Father, and therefore, one of his names is Emmanuel, which means "God with us."
Jesus Christ was human, born of the human virgin Mary, but He was also God, sired by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God actually fertilized or imparted life to an ovum in the womb of the virgin Mary.
Now let's re-examine human reproduction. Human life starts from an egg, or an ovum, produced through an ovary in the human mother-to-be. This ovum, of itself, has only a very temporary life??just a matter of days. Unless fertilized by a sperm cell from the body of the male, it will soon die.
The female ovum is about the size of a pinpoint??not the head, but the tiny point of a pin. It's barely large enough to be seen through the naked eye.
The male sperm cell that will fertilize the ovum is the smallest cell in the human body, only 1/50th the size of the ovum. In the female ovum is a still more tiny nucleus. Once the male sperm cell penetrates and enters the ovum, it joins immediately with the nucleus. At that instant, human life has begun. This start of human life is the exact type of the beginning of the divine life.
I Corinthians 15:48-49 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
Now consider carefully this fact: Human reproduction is the exact type of spiritual reproduction. In every human there is human spirit. The human brain, as scientists have learned in researching the brain, differs little from animal brain in substance and material. Yet we learn from many scriptures in The Bible that in every human brain resides a human spirit.
Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding."
The "breath of life" is symbolic of man's receiving of the "spirit in man" from the breath of God. I believe that God gives the "spirit in man" to every human being at conception. The spirit in man is what distinguishes a human from an animal. We know that human life starts at conception, therefore, the spirit in man must be given at that time.
This spirit empowers the physical human brain with intellect, which makes the vast difference between human ability to think, to reason, to acquire knowledge, to have a sense of spiritual values, which animals do not have. It is what distinguishes humans from animals.
In God's written word ??The Holy Bible—the Creator God, who knows the rationalization and reasoning of the natural mind that is cut off from Him, describes the unbelieving skeptics (such as scientists, evolutionists, and atheists).
I Corinthians 2:13-14 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The God-rejecting mind is incapable of understanding the comparison between human reproduction and divine reproduction. So please value this knowledge for the worth that it is. It is awesome knowledge that God has given us in this area. It is so encouraging, so exciting. It dwarfs everything else in the world.
In the comparison of human reproduction to divine reproduction, each human being is an ovum. Each of us might be called a spiritual ovum. Each has a limited life span??an average of approximately 70 years. Unless fertilized within a life span by the spiritual male sperm, which is the Holy Spirit from the very body of God the Father, each of us will die.
How, then, does divine life start?
The original apostles had been taught and trained for 3-1/2 years by Jesus. They were, in a sense, spiritual ova. They did not receive the spiritual sperm cell from God the Father until after Christ's sacrifice and resurrection and ascension to heaven.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came and entered into the disciples gathered together, all in one accord. This divine sperm cell from the body of God the Father was the Holy Spirit??the very divine, life-imparting Spirit of God.
Naturally, on entering the apostles, this Spirit went immediately to the nucleus of the human, which is the mind. There it joined with the human spirit that had been a part of the human being from human conception.
The humans who received the Holy Spirit of God had the divine life of God imparted into them. They, in this way, became the begotten children of God. When the Holy Spirit enters the human mind, it unites the human mind with the mind of God.
The human spirit imparts capability to acquire physical and material knowledge infinitely superior to that acquired by the animal brain. It also imparts to the physical brain limited spiritual concepts of good as opposed to evil, although on the human spiritual level.
This is part of the reason why all individuals in the family of an aborted child: the male, the siblings, and the mother end up with severe mental and psychological problems—because of the abortion that has been perpetrated against that unborn child. This is because God has instilled this spirit in man to where everyone knows that it is wrong.
However, with the addition of the divine Spirit of God to this human spirit, the human mind is capable of acquiring the spiritual knowledge of the purposes, ways and objectives of God.
The human spirit cannot see, think, hear or indulge in the process of reasoning. It's the brain that sees through the eye, hears through the ear, and does the thinking and reasoning as it is empowered in the reasoning and thinking process by the human spirit.
I Corinthians 2:9-12 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
This further and deeper and more profound spiritual knowledge of God's purposes and plans and of God's righteousness is acquirable only by the addition of the Holy Spirit of God uniting with the human spirit of man.
On the day of Pentecost, AD 31, at the founding of the Church of God, this divine Spirit of God entered into the believers assembled there in Jerusalem. That is when they received their spiritual conception.
It's important to understand that at this moment of divine conception??the receiving of the Holy Spirit??they became the children of God, though as yet unborn. The divine "sperm" of the Holy Spirit had entered the human "ovum", in a sense, and divine conception had taken place. The human sperm cell entering the human ovum constitutes human conception.
The then-fertilized human ovum from that instant is medically called an embryo. After some weeks, as it grows gradually into human form, it is called a fetus. This growing and developing stage is called gestation. This is the precise type of spiritual conception and the Christian period of growing spiritually in grace and spiritual knowledge as Peter mentions in II Peter 3:18.
The Bible calls the Church of God "mother of us all" who are the begotten children of God. The Church, as the spiritual mother, feeds spiritually the converted Christians within her. She protects them from false teachings and ways. And she brings them along in a spiritual period of gestation, ready to be born spiritually by a resurrection at Christ's coming, an instantaneous change from mortal human to divine God in the kingdom of God.
Reproduction of human life is the exact type of spiritual reproduction. A human life starts in each individual human at physical conception; so divine life starts by a spiritual conception??when the Holy Spirit first enters the human. Divine life starts when we become a Christian??one of Christ's.
Romans 8:9-14 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
In verse 9, one who has received the Holy Spirit is Christ's. One who has not the Spirit of God is Christ's. Therefore he is not a true Christian. Verse 11 tells us, if the Holy Spirit dwells in one, he will, in the future, be born immortal. Verse 14 says, as many as are led by the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, are, already, during this Christian life??this spiritual gestation period??the sons of God, though as yet unborn spiritually. They are begotten children of God.
I John 3:1-2 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Already now in this human Christian life, as yet unborn, in gestation stage, we are the children of God. But we still don't appear visibly as we will when born spiritually.
At the instant of physical conception, the embryo, and weeks later the fetus, is, already, the child of its parents. It is not just and only a piece of "fetal tissue," as abortionists argue, in their attempt to justify human murder.
From the instant of conception, a human life is in existence. To deliberately kill or destroy that human life, the Creator of human life??the Great Law-giver, the Supreme Judge—says, is MURDER, punishable by eternal and final DEATH! The Almighty God exacts the punishment.
Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Human family relationship is one of the supreme blessings God has given mankind. What a tragedy that a rebellious mankind has spurned, forsaken and deprived itself of the wonderful blessings and happiness the loving God has made possible.
It's the Lord God, not the politically correct planners and social engineers, who sets the length and width and extensiveness of life for each of His creations. We are instruments of His power and providence through His gift of procreation, evidence of His incredible love.
We'll end, by reading God's command regarding life and death:
Deuteronomy 30:15-19 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life,"
... choose life, ...
MGC/mng/cah
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