The
Beginning of Human Life
By
Shelby G. Floyd
After the angel announced to Mary
that she would conceive a child of the Holy Spirit, she went to visit her
cousin Elizabeth who was six months with child. (Luke 1:36.) When Mary arrived and greeted
The
word “baby” translates the Greek word “brephos”
and is defined in two ways:
(1) First, it is used only in the
two references cited as, “an unborn child, embryo, fetus:
Lk. 1:41, 44.”—Thayer, p. 105.
(2) Secondly, it refers to “a
new-born child, an infant, a babe: Lk. 2:12, 16;
Thus in
the Biblical text the same term is used to describe a fetus—unborn child and a
new-born child. Therefore life begins at conception and continues through all
the stages of human growth and development until the day we die. The human life
begins at conception and ends at the cemetery. (Heb. 9:27.) Politically and
socially we recognize a person after the baby is born, receives a name, a
social security number, a photo and an address. But Biblically, God recognizes
and knows everything about us from the time we are formed in the womb until we
are in the bosom of the earth. Thus we are at different stages of growth and
development from conception to the grave.
David declared that God was aware
of his individual person in the earliest stages of his “unformed substance” or
“undeveloped embryo:”
My frame was not hidden from You, When
I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were
written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there
were none of them. (Psalms 139:15-16.)
Herod and Hitler’s destruction of the innocent
children pales when we recognize that millions of embryos and unborn babies are
aborted each year. Let us speak up for those who have no voice. Copyright ©
2007