Cultural-ishtianity: Culture’s Influence On “When Life Begins”

As we have been examining how culture has infiltrated, or influenced, the Church, we have looked at “What the Church Is NOT” and “What the Church IS.”  Without question the Church’s foundations have been, and continue to be, eroded by the pressure put on pastors, elders and other Church leadership to bend to the modern day moral values of the culture, rather than stay true to the absolute Truth of God’s Word.  There are very few people, men and women, who will stand and defend what the Bible says in opposition to what the culture is demanding.  The cost is very high for those who will not compromise Biblical truth.  Sometimes it costs them their jobs (pastors), sometimes their family relationships, sometimes their friendships, and sometimes their lives (martyrs).

One of the most contested issues that culture wants to weigh in on is “When Life Begins.”  Herein lies the entire abortion matter.  Culture, particularly western culture, has become militant in their demand to have abortion “on-demand,” at any time during a woman’s pregnancy, up to, and including, minutes after delivery of a human baby, just prior to cutting the umbilical cord.

Culture has argued for decades that it’s not a human being, “It's a fetus.”  Really?  God has created and designed every living creature since Genesis.  Each and every one of those creatures ONLY gives brings forth it’s own kind.  Whether they are brought forth in a live birth or hatched from an egg.  Dogs give birth to dogs; cats give birth to cats; lions give birth to lions; chickens hatch as chickens; lizards hatch as lizards and so on throughout all of creation.  If given the chance to go full term, every creature gives birth to its own kind.  The “fetus” argument was brought about, and perpetuated, by people who didn’t want to admit that God’s Word is true, nor did they want to bow to the Creator and Sovereign King.

So, what does the Scripture say?  Glad you asked.  Throughout the entire Bible we find words similar to this, “and she conceived and gave birth to a son” or “and she conceived and gave birth to a son and two daughters.”  There is never any question as to what comes forth from a woman’s womb at the end of her pregnancy:  she delivers a human baby, male or female.

Perhaps a look at Psalm 139 [NASB] would be helpful:
1 O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me. 2 Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. 3 Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all.  5 Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me.  6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. 

Verses 1 - 6 speak of God’s omniscience.  He knows all things about us, even our thoughts!

7 Where can I go from Thy Spirit?  Or where can I flee from Thy presence?  8 If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there.  9 If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 even there Thy hand will lead me, and Thy right hand will lay hold of me.  11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to Thee, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to Thee.

Verses 7 - 12 speak of God’s omnipresence; there is no place that man can go that God isn’t already there.  There is no place that man can hide from God.  This is something that we struggle to understand because our finite minds are trying to comprehend an Infinite God.  

13 For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.  15 My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.  16 Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

Verse 13 - 16 speak of God’s omnipotence; it is God who designed and created the human being back in Genesis 1:27.  It is by His power that all of the systems within each one of us functions (heart, lungs, skeletal, etc.), and that “weaving” takes place at the moment of conception.  In addition, it is God who determines the number of our days here on the earth, and He did that before we were even born.

Modern medicine can detect a baby’s heartbeat as early as 5 ½ to 6 weeks.  Prior to that time, God’s design is such that cells are dividing and growing exactly has He has determined.  If left to develop, nine months later a human infant is born.

Culture wants to redefine when a human being is actually a human being while in utero.  That’s because becoming pregnant, carrying it to term, giving birth and having to raise a child, for some people (both men and women), is an inconvenience to lifestyle, career or other plans that they may have had for their lives.  If they can convince women and men that, “It’s not really a human being,” then they can help assuage the horrendous guilt that comes with having an abortion.

The pro-abortion movement has coined the phrase, “No one has the right to tell another woman what she can do with her body!”  The problem with that statement is it isn’t her body that she is mutilating and has murdered.  It’s the body of an innocent child.  But no one ever talks about that.

I read a great statement from a woman who is clearly pro-life.  It goes like this:  “If a woman is thinking, or asking, about birth control products, she knows exactly when life begins.”  Yep.

Enough said.


By His Grace,
Gary T. Dromi, Ph.D., D.Min.