Is it a Child, or Something Less? What does God say?

By Tom Russell

Regarding abortion, many people emphasize a woman’s “right to choose”, that “it’s not a child”, that “it is a child, but its rights are inferior to those of the mother’s etc.  Friends, if God exists, and all scripture is “God-breathed” and provides for all good works (2 Timothy 3:16, 17) then does it not behoove us to look to scripture to determine the morality of an issue as prominent and divisive as abortion? 

As we will see in this short article, God speaks clearly concerning the child in the womb.  He speaks of His role in the creation of the child, that He knows the child, reveals that children in the womb are aware, and that they are to have the same lawful protection from abuse that adults do.   

By inspiration the King David not only speaks beautifully of his personhood in the womb, but that God made him there!

“13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for        me, when as yet there were none of them.” Psalms 139:13-16

Jeremiah and Isaiah were consecrated, appointed, and named while in the womb!

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”       Jeremiah 1:5

“Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar.   The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.” Isaiah 49:1

John the Baptist was cognizant in the womb!

“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,”         Luke 1:41

Here the Holy Spirit states that the “baby leaped in her womb”.  That child of course was John the Baptizer.  The word “baby” is derived from the Greek word “brephos” and is used of the child in the womb and one that has been born, an infant.  The angel told the shepherds, “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe (brephos) wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”  Luke 2:12, Also used in 2:16, 2 Timothy 3:15

Does God consider the life of a preborn child as equal to that of an adult?  Yes, He does!  Consider Exodus 21:22-25 22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” We see that

God applies the same judgment and punishment to a man who brings about the injury or death of a pre-born child as He does to one who maliciously hurts or kills a man. 

From these biblical truths we see that God created a perfectly designed system to bring about the conception of a child in the womb.  Also, during this period, He provides a greater level of direct provision than at any other time of life, and the child in the womb enjoys the same legal protection that every human being does.  All things considered, the question is not “Is it a Child, or Something Less”.  It most certainly is a child, but is it actually something more, for no one enjoys greater provision and protection than that small, beautiful human being in the womb.

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