When does life begin? Does life begin at conception? Does life begin at fertilization? What does the Bible say about life? The answers to these and all questions about life are indeed found in the Bible. In this blog post, I will show you where to look in your Bible to find the truth about when life starts and that God loves ALL Life. Let’s dig in…
Genesis — Where Life Began
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
Genesis 1:26-28, 31, 2:7 NLT
Humans had it made in the Garden of Eden paradise!
God created all life — humans, animals, and plants, and He called it VERY GOOD! Furthermore, He created human beings IN HIS OWN IMAGE and breathed the breath of life into our lungs! Then came the Fall of Man. After Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden…
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.
Genesis 4:1-2b NKJV
Notice that Eve conceived and bore a son, Cain, then Abel. Assuming you know the story, Cain killed his brother Abel for no reason except jealousy. Abel was innocent. God saw the whole thing.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.
Genesis 4:9-10 NIV
Then God cursed Abel. You can read the whole story in Genesis 4. If Abel’s blood cried out to God, imagine how the blood of hundreds of millions of babies cry out to God every day.
In another example in the Old Testament, God judged the nation of Judah because of the sins of a king…
3 These disasters happened to Judah because of the Lord’s command. He had decided to banish Judah from his presence because of the many sins of Manasseh, 4 who had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. The Lord would not forgive this.
A Baby at 16 weeks. Currently, the State of Arizona allows the killing of an unborn child up to 15 weeks.
16 There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, 18 a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, 19 a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.
Proverbs 6:16-19 NLT (emphasis mine)
Let these verses sink in. You can’t get more innocent than an unborn child.
Life Begins at Conception
Let’s go back to the question of when does life begin?
From the oldest book in the Bible. (The Book of Job was written before 2100 BC.)
“Let the day of my birth be erased, and the night I was conceived.
Job: 3:3 NLT
Job, in all his suffering, realized his personal history started at conception.
In the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, God tells him…
5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:5 NLT
So did David. In Psalm 139, King David acknowledges that God sees and knows everything about him. Unmistakably, this included when he was in his mother’s womb.
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. 5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Psalm 139:1-16 NLT
Recently, my pastor said this during his sermon regarding one of the propositions on the ballot in the State of Arizona…
Psalm 139 is Truth. Prop 139 is EVIL & Unfortunately, it PASSED!
Why is it the same number? Evil hates what God loves.
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Psalm 127:3, A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of Solomon.
Mary and Elizabeth
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.”
38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Mary Visits Elizabeth
39 A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town 40 where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. 41 At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42 Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. 43 Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? 44 When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. 45 You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
Luke 1:26-45 NLT (emphasis mine)
Notice that Mary left “a few days later” — that is a few days after conceiving Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was just an embryo, yet, His 6-month, unborn, cousin, John, recognized Him and worshiped Him from within his mother’s womb!
Jesus was just a few days conceived, so He was smaller than the 1-month embryo. Yet, His cousin, who was 6-months conceived, leaped when Mary greeted Elizabeth. He recognized His Savior!
All Christians Should Be PRO-LIFE!
If you call yourself a Christian, if you love and fear God — that is revere and respect Him, if you love life like He does, then you will support pro-life organizations in your area.
James, Jesus’ half-brother wrote…
17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
James 4:17 NLT
DO NOT PLAY POLITICS WITH EVIL!
“Those who murder the unborn cannot be trusted to govern the born!”
When we believe in Jesus’ death on the cross, we receive personal redemption and forgiveness for our sins. However, that is not the case for a nation. Nations don’t have the gift of redemptive Grace.
I was a Kennedy Democrat and pro-choice until I begged Jesus for forgiveness, surrendered my life to Him, and invited Him into my heart. At that point, as a born-again Christian, the Holy Spirit convicted me and I became a Pro-Life supporter. That was part of my sanctification process.
No matter what you’ve done in the past, Jesus died on the cross so that when you believe in Him, your sins are wiped clean once and for all.
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
