DID YOU KNOW...

that the Bible identifies the unborn child as fully human?

"Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I 
came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me? or why the 
breasts that I should suck? For now should I have lain still and been 
quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, with kings and 
counselors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; 
or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: Or 
as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw 
light. There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be 
at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of 
the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free 
from his master." Job 3:11-19.

In this important passage of Scripture we see suffering Job wishing he 
had not been born. He envies those already in the grave, free from the 
pain and hurt of this life (17-19).

But note that he compares (14,15) the state of deceased kings and 
counselors and princes (i.e., those who had grown to adulthood) with 
the state of those who died while still in the womb (v. 16). The dead 
do not cease to exist, Job tells us, but rest from human activity. By 
using the personal pronoun "I", Job shows that the unborn have 
personal identity as well. That Job's evaluation is correct is borne 
out by the testimony of God Himself (Job 42:7,8).

The point is this: The eternal nature of man, and each individual's 
unique personhoodÄadults and childrenÄis likewise present in the 
unborn fetus. There is neither scientific nor Biblical justification 
for the position that the unborn are not human.

(Condensed from an article by Dr. Gary Gordon. Write ICR for a free 
copy.)

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