[Darris McNeely] What does the Bible say about the sanctity of human life? This is a big question in the light of the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision on abortion that said that it was a constitutional right, and in June of 2022, the court overturned that saying that there is no constitutional right. Our view, our moral view on such a topic has to be taken from Scripture. In Exodus 20, we have a listing of the ten commandments, and obviously, the commandment that says, "Thou shalt not murder," is the defining law of God on the matter of human life. But further on in Exodus chapter 22, we read something that does bring it down closer to this matter of life in the womb of a mother.

In Exodus 21:22, it says, "If men fight, and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him and he shall pay as the judge determines." It goes on in verse 23 to say, "But if any harm follows, in other words, if that injury will cause the fetus to be born prematurely with problems and death and to be miscarried, then it says, "If any harm follows you will give life for life." In other words, if there's an injury to the woman, it's considered in this verse then, that child in the womb, that fetus is a life. God's Word defines it as such. And this law then defines it as murder and imposes a penalty. In our parlance today we will call that first-degree murder, nothing less. It is considered murder to take an action that destroys unborn life, and that is the foundational principle from which all other judgments are going to have to be made in this matter from Scripture.

The scourge of abortion has been a form of idolatry in our world today. As you read the reports and all of the discussion about abortion, those from one side list it as a right of a woman over her body and over her health, and we read all kinds of terms that try to mitigate what exactly is taking place. But when humans decide to take a life from the womb of a woman for the sake of convenience or personal right as a matter of liberty, we have to understand that they cross a divide between man and God. And we are taking to ourselves the prerogative that only God has and that is the matter of to decide right and wrong in matters of morality, and especially this matter of life and death. Man puts himself as God in this particular issue, and that becomes a form of idolatry, that for all nations, not only America, will cause the suffering of the judgment of God when that day comes upon the world.

We do rejoice and give thanks in the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. But we know that it's only one issue that the court has decided and it's time to back over now to the states that will not remove abortion from the land of America, it will continue to go on and it will likely continue to be a much-heated debate and discussion. But our world view on this has got to be rooted in what God says and nothing, nothing less than that.

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