February 26, 2010

βρέφος: Brephos



This will be a post that will ruffle feathers and cut against the grain with some but I am convicted to speak. This is what the word says so I believe it is true and is to be followed and obeyed.

A number of Bible passages make it clear that God regards conception as the moment at which personhood commences.

Job 10:8-12
"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.


Job 31:15
Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?


These verses attribute divine value and human qualities to the unborn. Psalm 139:13-16 similarly exalts God for his creative work. Isaiah 49:1-5, Jeremiah 1:4-5, Galatians 1:15-16 all note that God can work in your life before you are born.

Luke 1:41-45
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! "And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? "For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord."


This part of Jesus' birth/infancy narrative in Luke shows the emotional joy of the unborn John the Baptist when Mary visits Elizabeth. Even more intriguing is the description of when sin begins in a persons life as described in David's prayer. So, not only do we have a statement about when human attributes can be attributed to life it is also a statement about how wretched the fallen human condition is.

Psalm 51:5
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.


None of these statements of fact would be possible if personhood started at birth. Some of the passages in the Bible speak of the unborn the same way a person is spoken of as an adult. This shows that God views them the same.

It is interesting to note also that the New Testament uses the same Greek term in Luke 1:41,44 passages for life prenatal as it does for life postnatal in Acts 7:19...

Acts 7:19
He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.


βρέφος: [brephos] an infant(properly, unborn) literally or figuratively:--babe, (young) child, infant.

Many reading this will note that a majority of this post is scripture, not my opinion. Most of what I have typed is commentary on aforementioned scripture. It is not what I feel, it is what I obey. Can someone please explain to me how this scripture is not understandable. Can someone please explain to me how this makes murdering children/brephos acceptable? This is not an issue of a person's right to choose. It is an issue of a person's failure to obey the Word of God. Luckly, like all other sin, God has given Himself as an atonement for sin and we can be forgiven. Exalted is His name above all others. Jesus Christ.

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