Choices and the Sanctity of Life

By:  Dale Weckbacher

John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 

NKJV

Jesus is all about life.  In fact in response to objections from the religious leaders of His day Jesus said he had the power, granted to him by God the Father, to give life to whomever he desired (John 5:21).  To Jesus and God, life is important and God even grants eternal life to anyone professing a belief in His Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).

Unfortunately, the secular world in which we live does not hold to the same high regard for life.  We find an example of this low regard for life in the recent allegations of the selling of baby parts by Planned Parenthood.  (1)  Of course Planned Parenthood was quick to attempt to justify this illegal practice by citing it was in the interest of medical research. 

Dr. Ben Carson, GOP candidate for President spoke of being disturbed at the apology of Planned Parenthood stating “What’s really disturbing is the fact that we have become so callous that a lot of people don’t even realize that this is shocking.  To see the callousness with which we are treating human life… [T]here are so many people who are concerned about little spiders and things, and yet, the human being inside the mother’s womb… is much more sophisticated than many of these creatures that they’re trying to preserve.”  (2)  It appears once again we have an example of upside down priorities with the value of human life, by humans, placed below the value of some small animal. 

In Genesis 1:26, God gave humanity dominion over all the animals.  The Hebrew word translated as dominion here is radah, which means to have dominion, rule, or dominate.  (3)  Let me make this clear, I am not calling for the needless killing of animals for they are a part of God’s creation as well.  However, for people to place a higher value on the life of an animal over the life of a fetus is in essence surrendering our godly dominion, rule, or dominance over to these animals.  God values every human life, even life in the womb (Psalm 139:13) and instead of destroying humanity completely, promised a redeemer (Genesis 3:15), his only Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16) to save humanity. 

The abortion debate is divided into two sides, the pro-choice side, and the pro-life side.  I personally do not like these labels and actually consider myself both.  Let me explain.

I am pro-life in that I, as a believer and follower of Jesus Christ hold a high value of life.  However, I am also pro-choice and believe we all have the right to choose our direction in life.  Even though this may seem like a conflict in values in my life, it is easily explained. 

God also values and respects an individual’s right to choose.  In fact, this respect for humanity’s right to choose allowed Adam and Eve to choose disobedience of God in the Garden of Eden.  God has not changed since then as evidenced by the requirement of one to choose to believe in order to accept God’s gift of eternal life (John 3:16) so God to is pro-choice. 

However, the pro-choice aspect of God is balanced by His value of life, including life in the womb.  Therefore, a choice to end a life, including life in the womb, through murder is not a choice God or I condone.  However, what about a mother’s right to choose?

With the exception of rape or incest, an issue I may discuss at a later time, a woman makes choices prior to getting pregnant.  She chooses to have sex with a man and chooses not to use any contraception.  Therefore, should she become pregnant, it is the result of choices she has already made that did not involve the termination of life.  I am therefore pro-choice for women and encourage them to not make careless choices with their body that could result in an unwanted pregnancy.  

One of my favorite books of the Bible is the book of Proverbs.  For those unfamiliar with the Bible, this is a book of wisdom written by King Solomon.  If one reads one chapter of this book per day, the book can be finished in one month.  However, it contains so much wisdom that if you are like me, you will most likely find yourself reading repeatedly in order to digest the godly wisdom the book contains.  I encourage people to fill themselves up with godly wisdom so they can make wise and good choices. 

Wise choices promote wise decisions, decisions that preserve the sanctity of life instead of needlessly destroying it.  Let us as believers begin promoting wise medical decisions that preserve life before it becomes ethical to end the life of someone deemed beyond their productive and useful years in the interest of medical research.  If you doubt the culture could devolve to that level, remember it was not too long ago that we believed legal gay marriage would never occur, transgenderism was weird, and the selling of aborted baby organs was unthinkable. 

Time to pray and act my fellow believers. 

1. McLaughlin, Steve Almaxy and Eliott C. Planned Parenthood exec. fetal body parts subject of controversial video. www.cnn.com. [Online] CNN, July 15, 2015. [Cited: July 19, 2015.] www.cnn.com/2015/07/15/health/planned-parenthood-undercover-video/.

2. Inquisitr. Ben Carson: Planned Parenthood's Apology Over Selling Aborted Baby Parts is 'Disturbing'. www.inquisitr.com. [Online] Inquisitr, July 18, 2015. [Cited: July 19, 2015.] www.inquisitr.com/2262714/ben-carson-planned-parenthoods-apology-over-selling-aborted-baby-parts-is-disturbing/.

3. Bible Hub. 7287 radah. biblehub.com. [Online] Bible Hub. [Cited: July 19, 2015.] biblehub.com/hebrew/7287.htm.