What the Bible says on when life as a person begins

[Torch]

As you may know, every principal of good doctrine will have its foundation in Genesis. Hence:
Genesis 9:4 NKJV
But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
This is where we see this for the first time.
But also take note of the next verse:
Genesis 9:5 NKJV
Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man.

So if life is in the blood, then life is not at conception.
Life will be confirmed by blood and by my reasoning, by a beating heart. That makes the answer to so many questions so much easier.... Think on this... If it stops a beating heart it caused a death. If it isn't justified, then its murder.

 

[PratchettFan]

I found an answer to this question a long time ago, by researching what scripture does have to say about this "Life" question. This is some of what I found:

Lev 17:10 And any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that are staying among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
Lev 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.
Lev 17:12 Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that is staying among you eat blood.
Lev 17:13 And any man of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers that are staying among you, who hunts game, beast or fowl, that may be eaten, he shall even pour out its blood and cover it with dust.
Lev 17:14 For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood is for the life of it. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any flesh. For the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.

So from the Biblical perspective then there is a link between having life and having blood....

Now we know that at conception, you are a mere single cell with the DNA blueprint for a unique human person... and you will grow into one eventually, if left alone. But this principle in scripture infers that you are not a living person until you have blood. Now that is something to think about.

Doesn't that also mean you go to hell for eating blood pudding?

 

[Torch]

Blood pudding.
What's it made from? What's in it?
If blood is on the list then you have your answer.
In any case that question is off topic. It side-steps the main point.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Worth mentioning, while 'abortion' as we use it today didn't exist and so isn't mentioned in the Bible, the next best thing is and ISN'T forbidden:

Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Some other verses showing being a child is no protection against God's wrath:

If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey, I will inflict you with seven more disasters for your sins. I will release wild animals that will kill your children and destroy your cattle, so your numbers will dwindle and your roads will be deserted. (Leviticus 26:21-22 NLT)

And at midnight the LORD killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn son of the captive in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died. (Exodus 12:29-30 NLT)

"Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task right here at the Temple." So they began by killing the seventy leaders. "Defile the Temple!" the LORD commanded. "Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!" So they went throughout the city and did as they were told." (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)

The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will die at birth or perish in the womb or never even be conceived [closest mention to abortion I've found]. Even if your children do survive to grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. I have watched Israel become as beautiful and pleasant as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children to be slaughtered." O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don't give birth and breasts that give no milk. The LORD says, "All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. The people of Israel are stricken. Their roots are dried up; they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children." (Hosea 9:11-16 NLT)

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. While he was on his way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him. "Go up baldhead," they shouted, "go up baldhead!" The prophet turned and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two shebears came out of the woods and tore forty two of the children to pieces. (2 Kings 2:23-24 NAB)

Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)

How can a truly good person read this stuff and then say with a straight face they believe God is good and worthy of worship when God's doing all the things we'd typically blame on the Devil?

 

[Chuckt]

The Bible also shows that God doesn't hold children accountable when they are too young to know right from wrong.

Jonah 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Deut 13:13 above is the big one. Just 1 person worships any but God and the entire town is to be destroyed along with every last inhabitant and animal. That is not the act of a good or even sane being.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

If Christians had any sense they'd rip their Bibles in half and use just the NT so as to disassociate themselves from the crazy insane deity in the OT.

 

[PratchettFan]

Blood pudding.
What's it made from? What's in it?
If blood is on the list then you have your answer.
In any case that question is off topic. It side-steps the main point.

Blood is definitely in it. It's also in a steak. It's in fertilized eggs. In fact, unless the meat packing process is done according to strict kosher standards, it is probably in any type of meat you might eat.

I don't think it side steps the question at all. If one is going to use a standard, then one should use the standard. The section you were quoting was about food and you are applying it to something else entirely.

 

[Chuckt]

If Christians had any sense they'd rip their Bibles in half and use just the NT so as to disassociate themselves from the crazy insane deity in the OT.

Why is it insane? Is it because it wasn't written to you that you don't understand it?

1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Romans 2:12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

If you want to live by the law, you will die by the law. That is a perfect example for those who want to reject God for law.

 

[Torch]

Ehh. So? Your passage is a profetic word about something that would happen. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what should happen. So no point...

 

[The Irish Ram]

Exodus 21:22–25 states that a fetus isn't a person.


Numbers 5:12-28 commands women guilty of adultery to abort their pregnancies



The Bible says that a person becomes a living soul when he BREATHES the BREATH of life into his nostril (fetuses don't breathe): Genesis 2:7

Yup.

/thread

Nope. When is the last time you saw God in the delivery room breathing life into newborns? He molded an individual out of clay, an adult, and then breathed life into that sculpture. That life is passed down through the generations.
If God took the time to form that fetus in the womb and knows the number of hairs on it's head, it is a pretty sure bet He has a plan in place for that child's life. He didn't do it on the hope that we would agree with Him and let the child live.

What if the plan was to give that child the means necessary for that child to find a cure for cancer, but the parents didn't like the hair color, so in the garbage that infant goes. Good thing Einstein's mother was a fan of the windblown look.....

 

[PostmodernProph]

Deut 13:13 above is the big one. Just 1 person worships any but God and the entire town is to be destroyed along with every last inhabitant and animal. That is not the act of a good or even sane being.

I get a kick out of folks who say they won't worship any all powerful, all knowing entity who isn't moral enough to meet their standards......

 

[PratchettFan]

Deut 13:13 above is the big one. Just 1 person worships any but God and the entire town is to be destroyed along with every last inhabitant and animal. That is not the act of a good or even sane being.

I get a kick out of folks who say they won't worship any all powerful, all knowing entity who isn't moral enough to meet their standards......

Any being which desires to be worshipped is not worthy of worship.

 

[sealybobo]

Exodus 21:22–25 states that a fetus isn't a person.


Numbers 5:12-28 commands women guilty of adultery to abort their pregnancies



The Bible says that a person becomes a living soul when he BREATHES the BREATH of life into his nostril (fetuses don't breathe): Genesis 2:7

In Judaism, a fetus is regarded as a pre-human. A fetus becomes fully human only after it has half-emerged from the birth canal.

 

[Stephanie]

the left all of a sudden got religion over everything

how cute

 

[guno]

Exodus 21:22–25 states that a fetus isn't a person.

you would think by now the pro-unborn children killers would be too embarrassed to make this same mistake over and over......I expect it comes from pasting comments without ever reading them.....

Exodus 21:22 “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely[e] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

thus, if the unborn child lost an eye, the person who caused it, lost an eye.....

Strange since the Torah was given to the Jews not the christer goyim, yet the christer goyim quotes it as if were given to them

 

[Sunni Man]

Muslims are 100% opposed to abortion. ..

 

[Torch]

I have never understood why so many Christians want to say that life begins at conception. In many ways this seems rational, but then human life has a moment where it exists as a single cell organizum.

God made man in his own image.
What does that mean?

Go on. Think about it.

 

[PratchettFan]

Exodus 21:22–25 states that a fetus isn't a person.

you would think by now the pro-unborn children killers would be too embarrassed to make this same mistake over and over......I expect it comes from pasting comments without ever reading them.....

Exodus 21:22 “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely[e] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

thus, if the unborn child lost an eye, the person who caused it, lost an eye.....

Strange since the Torah was given to the Jews not the christer goyim, yet the christer goyim quotes it as if were given to them

Only to the extent it supports a given position.