www.forerunner.com/abortionmatrix/abortionmatrix.html CHAPTER 2 - Abortion in Biblical Perspective By Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers From genetics to ultrasound, fetoscopy to fetal surgery, modern science has granted us an unprecedented look into the development of a pre-born child. For example, only eight weeks after conception -- around the time many women find out they're pregnant -- the baby's heart -- which has already been beating for two weeks -- now has two chambers. Though less than an inch in length, she has started practicing movements, her face has begun to take shape, teeth have begun to develop, along with the legs, arms, feet, hands and eyes. It's obvious that the developing fetus is no mere "blob of tissue," as the abortion industry would like us to believe, but rather a remarkably well-developed baby boy or girl. It's no wonder that on the basis of the scientific evidence alone, many experts in the field will echo the opinion of renowned geneticist Dr. Jerome LeJeune: "Life has a long history but each individual has a very neat beginning: the moment of its conception." But while genetic and other medical evidence certainly support the idea that human life begins at conception, the Bible, the very word of God -- and not science -- is our ultimate source for Truth. And the scriptures make it very, very clear that human life begins -- and is sacred -- from the very moment of conception. In fact, it's a fascinating though little known fact that one of the very names of God points to the sanctity of life from the time it begins in the womb. In the 34th chapter of Exodus Moses appears before the LORD and intercedes on behalf of His people, asking God to reveal "His glory." Part of the LORD's response was to reveal to Moses the divine Name as well as key aspect of His nature: The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord...."The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious." Exodus 34: 5 George Grant: "The Hebrew word that we translate here as "merciful" - rachuwm -- has as its root racham -- meaning to love or have compassion. That word also serves as the root for rechem -- the word that is used in the Hebrew Scriptures for womb -- for example in the famous passage describing God's foreknowledge of Jeremiah and the manner in which he was lovingly knit together inside his mother: Before I formed you in the womb (in the rechem) I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. Jeremiah 1:5 The womb then, in its original Hebrew context, was not only the matrix, the sacred place where a new human, an image-bearer of God was conceived, formed, nurtured and then born, it also was -- and should be treated -- as a place of mercy. Jesus declared in Matthew 5:7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." But the converse must also be true. When people, for their own convenience, send their swords into that place of life and mercy, defiling the sanctuary of the rechem - the womb - they would do well to consider Christ's sober warning concerning the wages earned by those who use violence to accomplish their own ends: "Those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword." Matthew 26:52 Among the most profound, world-changing truths we can ever contemplate is that Jesus, the promised Savior of the world, God Incarnate, was: "conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary" (Apostle's Creed). When Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to conceive and give birth to the Messiah, she naturally asked how this could be -- seeing that she was yet a virgin. The angel replied: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God." (Luke 1:35) Gabriel graciously went even further, citing the incredible pregnancy of her cousin Elizabeth as proof that supernatural pregnancies are no problem for God. The once barren and old beyond-her-child bearing years woman was at this point six-months pregnant with her son John -- who would later be known as the Baptist. Mary responded with perhaps the purest expression of faith to be found anywhere in Scripture: Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. (Luke 1:38)

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