What makes abortion plausible? What makes abortion unthinkable?
Dr. Albert Mohler unpacks these questions through the lens of Jeremiah 1:1-10:
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month. Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, And all that I command you, you shall speak. "Do not be afraid of them, For I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD. Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. "See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant."Check it out.
Comments
The skeptic in me is still wrestling with this question. While Dr. Mohler's writing is certainly insightful, I don't quite understand his conclusion. I interpret him to be saying that God knew us before he formed us, and therefore, embroyoes inside a mother's womb MUST be "human beings" ("He knows Him because long before the conception that took place that would produce Jeremiah in the womb, an omnipotent and omniscient God knew Jeremiah because an omnipotent and omniscient God made him.")
Is this true? Simply because God "knew" us, does that mean we must have been "human beings" at the moment of fertilization? I don't think it does. God knew even before our great, great grandparents were alive. That doesn't mean that we were "human" back then.
Similarly, that God "formed" us in our mother's womb does not mean that he formed us to be FULLY HUMAN at the moment of fertilization. Rather, he formed us with the POTENTIAL to be fully human at the moment of fertilization. But I don't necessarily read the passage in Jeremiah to mean any more than that.
In any event, I'm not staunchly entrenched in my views of either camp--more an agnostic at this point.
Posted by: Dave | January 26, 2009 02:56 PM