"In nonnegotiables, unity; in negotiables liberty; in all things, charity."--Saint Augustine of Hippo
"I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live" (Deut. 30:19, HCSB).
"So then, each of us will give account of ourselves to God" (Rom. 14:12, NIV).
'The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4, ESV).
"You have been my God from the moment I was born" (Ps. 22:10, NLT).
"... [B]ut You prepared a body for Me" (Heb. 10:5, HCSB).
Christians profess a doctrine of the sacredness of life, basically because we are in the image of God (imago Dei in Latin). That entails: we enjoy interpersonal relationships in communion; we have the capacity to enjoy ourselves; we have the unique power to reflect on ourselves critically; we have a desire to praise, thank, and worship God; we also have a conscience (knowing right and wrong), are responsible for our behavior and actions because of this. This image is tarnished by sin, but it's still there because we are social, moral, intellectual, spiritual, rational, communicative, and emotional beings, who have a purpose, meaning, and dignity from God, i.e., they're extrinsic. We have many attributes in common with God, in other words, and are capable of fellowship with Him, knowing Him, and even loving Him, and with this comes a concept of eternity with God. Like God, we have imagination and are creative, able to express it.
The theory of evolution teaches that we are merely grown-up germs or the result of some cosmic accident, that we came from nothing but blue-green pond scum or algae, have no purpose in living, and are going nowhere, except to be food for worms. If we are animals, it follows that we can act and live like them too. People just don't want to admit there's a Judge, Ruler, and Creator, and don't want to be accountable to anyone but themselves. The Bible's Decalogue is, therefore, obsolete and no longer relevant to today's modern world, and it's too binding to their personal mores.
Humanism is when we deify man and dethrone God. Man is the measure of all things (Homo mensura). It's up to man to decide what's good and evil! We start with man and explain the cosmos, not as the Bible says, "In the beginning God...." Where you start determines where you end up! We must start with God in the picture and explain everything from His viewpoint. We have a divine revelation to do this, and it does take faith to accept it. But I posit that it takes more faith to bet the farm on science as the only reliable means of knowledge.
"I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live" (Deut. 30:19, HCSB).
"So then, each of us will give account of ourselves to God" (Rom. 14:12, NIV).
'The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4, ESV).
"You have been my God from the moment I was born" (Ps. 22:10, NLT).
"... [B]ut You prepared a body for Me" (Heb. 10:5, HCSB).
Christians profess a doctrine of the sacredness of life, basically because we are in the image of God (imago Dei in Latin). That entails: we enjoy interpersonal relationships in communion; we have the capacity to enjoy ourselves; we have the unique power to reflect on ourselves critically; we have a desire to praise, thank, and worship God; we also have a conscience (knowing right and wrong), are responsible for our behavior and actions because of this. This image is tarnished by sin, but it's still there because we are social, moral, intellectual, spiritual, rational, communicative, and emotional beings, who have a purpose, meaning, and dignity from God, i.e., they're extrinsic. We have many attributes in common with God, in other words, and are capable of fellowship with Him, knowing Him, and even loving Him, and with this comes a concept of eternity with God. Like God, we have imagination and are creative, able to express it.
The theory of evolution teaches that we are merely grown-up germs or the result of some cosmic accident, that we came from nothing but blue-green pond scum or algae, have no purpose in living, and are going nowhere, except to be food for worms. If we are animals, it follows that we can act and live like them too. People just don't want to admit there's a Judge, Ruler, and Creator, and don't want to be accountable to anyone but themselves. The Bible's Decalogue is, therefore, obsolete and no longer relevant to today's modern world, and it's too binding to their personal mores.
Humanism is when we deify man and dethrone God. Man is the measure of all things (Homo mensura). It's up to man to decide what's good and evil! We start with man and explain the cosmos, not as the Bible says, "In the beginning God...." Where you start determines where you end up! We must start with God in the picture and explain everything from His viewpoint. We have a divine revelation to do this, and it does take faith to accept it. But I posit that it takes more faith to bet the farm on science as the only reliable means of knowledge.
Humanists are very religious too; theirs is a religion without God. They seek to explain away reality without God in the equation, which until recently was the default position, even among scholars and intellectuals. Humanists version of our dignity is that we are just at the top of the food chain and the principle of the survival of the fittest applies. Shakespeare summed it up through the musing of Macbeth: that life is an idle tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing--what a bleak outlook without God in the equation!
Christians believe our rights are conferred by God, not the government, which exists to secure them, and if it fails, the government is illegitimate and in the wrong. What the government gives, it can take away, therefore rights come from God who doesn't take them away and we must fight for our rights in our freedom battles. Since humans have God-given rights, their lives are sacred and of utmost value to God, and an assault on them is seen as an insult to God's nature. Murder of mankind is made a capital offense in Scripture(cf. Gen. 9:6). Human rights matter, because we are in the image of God, animals are not. To do anything that destroys, maims, debilitates, or harms human life (and indeed all life) is an insult to the gift of life, much more the Giver of life.
It is an exercise in futility to be dogmatic concerning the point in time when the soul enters the fetus, or even if it's after birth upon breathing the breath of life from the Spirit who gives it. The Bible does say that life is in the blood (cf. Lev. 17:11), but it also says that God breathed into Adam's body (presumably having blood) the breath of life. NB: animals don't have souls and God was referring to them in this verse (cf. Lev. 17:11) concerning giving sacrifices. Man is unique in having the breath of life and is a living being. It's impossible for life to exist without blood (cf. Lev. 17:11, NIV, "the life of a creature is in the blood"), though, but there can be blood without viable, self-sustaining life.
Christians believe our rights are conferred by God, not the government, which exists to secure them, and if it fails, the government is illegitimate and in the wrong. What the government gives, it can take away, therefore rights come from God who doesn't take them away and we must fight for our rights in our freedom battles. Since humans have God-given rights, their lives are sacred and of utmost value to God, and an assault on them is seen as an insult to God's nature. Murder of mankind is made a capital offense in Scripture(cf. Gen. 9:6). Human rights matter, because we are in the image of God, animals are not. To do anything that destroys, maims, debilitates, or harms human life (and indeed all life) is an insult to the gift of life, much more the Giver of life.
It is an exercise in futility to be dogmatic concerning the point in time when the soul enters the fetus, or even if it's after birth upon breathing the breath of life from the Spirit who gives it. The Bible does say that life is in the blood (cf. Lev. 17:11), but it also says that God breathed into Adam's body (presumably having blood) the breath of life. NB: animals don't have souls and God was referring to them in this verse (cf. Lev. 17:11) concerning giving sacrifices. Man is unique in having the breath of life and is a living being. It's impossible for life to exist without blood (cf. Lev. 17:11, NIV, "the life of a creature is in the blood"), though, but there can be blood without viable, self-sustaining life.
The power of life may be in the blood, but that doesn't necessitate the soul being in the blood. Pointing to one Scripture as a proof text only invites undue controversy in the body, we don't pit verse against verse and believe only the ones that fit our dogma. The point is that you can make a biblical case both ways. There are areas of gray and some doctrines are disputable and up to the person to govern his own conscience (cf. Rom. 14:22-23). It's a fact that people only believe the facts that fit their worldview or opinions anyway.
Job talks about dying in the womb and being as if he never existed (cf. Job 10:19, NLT), and David talks about God being his God from birth, not conception (cf. Psalm 22:10). Jesus talked about God preparing Him a body, not a soul (cf. Heb. 10:5). Souls have self-consciousness and a will, bodies don't. Pro-lifers like to point to Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13, and Psalm 51:5, where God knew them in the womb or created them in the womb, conceived at conception, but God knew us before creation and did create our bodies in the womb (all that we were at that time), but the Bible doesn't say exactly when human life is given a human soul, people can be brain dead with bodies fully functioning and as far as medicine is concerned they are deceased. NB: Jesus spilled His precious, efficacious blood, but He gave up the Spirit and breathed His last. Soli Deo Gloria!
Job talks about dying in the womb and being as if he never existed (cf. Job 10:19, NLT), and David talks about God being his God from birth, not conception (cf. Psalm 22:10). Jesus talked about God preparing Him a body, not a soul (cf. Heb. 10:5). Souls have self-consciousness and a will, bodies don't. Pro-lifers like to point to Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13, and Psalm 51:5, where God knew them in the womb or created them in the womb, conceived at conception, but God knew us before creation and did create our bodies in the womb (all that we were at that time), but the Bible doesn't say exactly when human life is given a human soul, people can be brain dead with bodies fully functioning and as far as medicine is concerned they are deceased. NB: Jesus spilled His precious, efficacious blood, but He gave up the Spirit and breathed His last. Soli Deo Gloria!
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