Q: What is Scottsdale Bible Church's position on abortion? What does God have to say about it?

A: The Creator reveals that humans are unique because they are formed in His image (Genesis 1:27). Our foremost appeal for an answer is at the legal bar of God's Word where scientific facts are coordinate expressions of truth and where definition and precedent are consistent with original decrees. We seek the Creator's mind for an answer. "When does the personhood of His human creation begin?"

These seven lines of Biblical revelation argue consistently that personhood begins at conception.

1. The Bible does not make a definitional distinction between a child in the womb and a child after birth.

Exodus 21:4 and 21:22 are good examples. Yeled, the Hebrew word for child, refers to postnatal life in 21:4, yet it also translates "a woman with child" in 21:22 referring to prenatal existence.

John the Baptist is referred to as a child (brephos -- Luke 1:41, 44) in his prenatal period. The infants slaughtered by Pharaoh after their birth (Acts 7:19) are referenced with the same term.

Thus, both the Hebrew and the Greek cultures understood personhood to exist prior to birth.

2. Conception is the generating agent of depravity, and depravity is a chief mark of personhood. Therefore, personhood begins at conception. David declares that, "...in sin my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). Ephesians 2:3 affirms that persons are by nature children of wrath. Persons then exist from concep-tion.

3. To say that one does not become a person until birth is to say that God forms nonpersons in the womb. While the Bible is not a manual on "embryology," it does make explicit statements that God formed persons.

Thy hands fashioned and made me altogether, and wouldst Thou destroy me? Remember now, that Thou hast made me as clay; and wouldst Thou turn me into dust again? Didst Thou not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese; clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? Thou has granted me life and lovingkindness; and Thy care has preserved my spirit. - Job 10:8-12

For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. - Psalm 139:13-15

4. God consecrated Jeremiah as a prophet while he was in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5). Jeremiah (20:17) later declared that, if he had died before birth, his mother's womb would have become his grave. Therefore, the death of Jeremiah in the womb would have been the death of God's prophet, not a nonperson.

5. One of the creation mandates is that "kind multiply after its own kind" (Genesis 1:24-25). It would be contradictory to suggest that a person procreates a nonperson. Consistency demands that a person beget a person. Thus, personhood logically begins at conception.

6. Christ was born in the manner of men (Galatians 4:4) and in the likeness of humanity (Hebrews 2:17). Because Christ did not cease to be a person as a fetus, we can conclude that all who are conceived in the human womb are persons from conception.

The mind of God is clear on this matter. Personhood begins with conception. It is never delayed until birth.

Doctors call it "post-conceptive fertility control." "Abortion" is the legal term. God declares it murder and prohib-its it with the sixth commandment (Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21-22; I John 3:15).

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