Defining Life

"You shall not murder."

It seems a simple enough statement. But we are living in a society that thrives on redefining terms. For example, "It depends on what your definition of 'is' is." Our culture has redefined sex, marriage and family. It is also trying to redefine life.

Life begins at conception, that moment when sperm meets egg, and a biological spark starts the multiplication process within the merging cells. DNA from one dances with DNA from the other, writing the genetic code of a new being using the building blocks from the two contributors. Within a matter of hours, this union will have formed a 16-celled blastocyst looking for temporary lodging in the mucus lining of the womb, and once attached, that being will grow until within a matter of days there are brainwaves and a tiny heartbeat. Soon this miniature person will have head and shoulders, knees and toes, and after a short maturation process of nine months, the little boy or girl emerges from the womb ready to live the life they were destined to have.

The Bible teaches us the beginning of life in the womb, for the twins Jacob and Esau wrestled together in their mother's womb, a strife that continued until their aged adulthoods. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb, and he leaped in the presence of the newly conceived Christ. And Exodus 21 makes guilty of murder the man who harms a woman so that she loses a pregnancy.

Those who base their approval of abortion on the thought that an embryo or fetus is not a life do so on a foundation of philosophy rather than fact. They choose not to believe that life begins at conception and develops in the womb, and so have been responsible for the bloody holocaust that has claimed the life of an entire generation of Americans!

And as if redefining the beginning of life wasn't enough, we have now entered into a long discussion about the quality of life, and should an individual be allowed the decision to end their own existence. How old and sick should we allow our loved ones to become before we ease them out of their discomfort to maintain their dignity? I recently had to deal with both a beloved pet who had lost all muscle control, and a grandfather who had lost all quality of life twelve years ago to the long goodbye of Alzheimer's. The animal, not being made in the image and likeness of God and having no eternal soul, was a no-brainer; I took him to the vet and had the vet put him to sleep, permanently. My grandfather, on the other hand--how easy some would make it to simply put him out of his own misery, like a soulless pet! I have to tell you that as heart-breaking as it has been through the years to watch a once strong man deteriorate into a veritable vegetable, I have also trusted God to guide that gentle man to his final appointment with destiny. God didn't need my help to end that life.

In between, there are all of those who grow desperate or depressed or discouraged or distressed and think that the best thing to do is simply end this life on their own terms. So they put a gun in their mouth and pull the trigger. Or they hang themselves from the rafters with rope or belt. Or they slit their wrists and simply let the life bleed out of them. Or they take a handful of medicine that turns to poison in large quantities. Or they speed their car purposely into an immovable barrier. Or they leap off tall buildings in a single bound. They leave the rest of those who loved them standing around wondering why, and I can't help but imagine God's word on the matter: "What in the world are you doing? This isn't what I wanted for you!"

When we allow ourselves to redefine things like life in a way contrary to the word of God, it doesn't take long before we are pushing the limits in all kinds of directions. We kill the unborn now; how long before we kill the born, but unwanted, the deformed, the diseased, the defective, the disappointing? How long before we rid our society of the crippled, the infirm, the afflicted, the retarded, the not-quite-up-to-par? How long before we start weeding out of the gene pool the undesirables, who aren't the right color or shape or race or creed? How long before we have so devalued life that even murder becomes just another acceptable means of expressing oneself?