Is Humanity Worth Saving?

As I mentioned in a previous post, our son's school lets us visit for lunch. I usually really enjoy these visits. Today, both the wife and I were able to go and it was a treat for our son to see both of us. Usually, only one of us is able to go for one reason or another.

 

Our son (2nd grader) can pick up to two friends to join him for lunch. One of the kids he picked today had been an abused child. The birth father lost custody after throwing scalding water on his son. The kid was 2 or 3 at the time. I had a chance to observe this kid as he was eating. He wore a shirt that came down to his forearms. I counted at least eight different significant scars on his forearms and one on his nose. His little arms shook slightly but constantly and his speech indicated he had some neurological issues.

 

 Matthew 7:1 advises "Judge not lest ye be not judged." Sometimes that is much easier said than done. What kind of evil does it take to harm an innocent child? Should not the evil doer be punished?

 

Evil has always been with us and there has been murder and many other horrible crimes committed throughout history.  In recent times though, we seem to be putting the pedal to the metal in terms of the ever increasing evil we do to each other.

 

From AP Nov. 4, 2009: MEXICO CITY — "Three doctors and a nurse have been arrested for allegedly selling newborns after telling mothers their babies had died at a private hospital in Mexico City, authorities said Wednesday." 

 

From Reuters (Moscow): Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

 

From AC:  Suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell appeared in a Cleveland courtroom Wednesday. His lawyer asked for bond, stating that Anthony Sowell was a Cleveland resident, had a medical condition, a pacemaker. Prosecutors argued that the man was an imminent threat to the community and anywhere he might be. Judge Ronald Adrine denied bond and called the allegations against Anthony Sowell some of the most serious he had ever seen. And although he was only being charged with five counts of aggravated murder, the judge also knew that five more bodies had been found at Anthony Sowell's east Cleveland residence, bringing the total number of bodies recovered in the house and on the grounds to 11.

 

From WJZ13: Police in North Carolina say more charges are coming in the case of a missing 5-year-old girl whose body was found dumped along a wooded road. .....Particularly disturbing were the accusations against Shaniya's mother, 25-year-old Antoinette Davis. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for sex.

 

From FOX News: BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. —  A man angered after a dispute with his wife confessed to tossing his four young children off a bridge, authorities said Wednesday as they searched murky waters for the bodies.

 

And the list goes on and on. Not everyone is bad, of course, but I do have to wonder, considering the worldwide scope of death and destruction we are seeing, if it isn't time for God to just go ahead and drop the hammer on us.

 

What kind of future do our children have?

 

Is abortion murder?

From the Book of Exodus chapter 20 verse 13 we get the commandment "Thou shall not kill". In looking at the earliest translations from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nash Papyrus we see that the commandment is "Thou shalt not do murder". Apparently, there are seven Hebrew words for killing, but the Hebrew word רצח (new Hebrew-I could not find a snippet of the original text to paste) as used in the commandment means murder.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." and from Mark 9:47-48 "And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."

On the one hand we have the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" and on the other hand we have numerous (I've only included a couple) references to the soul being eternal, either in heaven or hell.

If your soul is eternal how can you murder someone? Our physical bodies are merely containers for our souls. If you murder the body the soul lives on, so is abortion really murder? Has anyone ever really been killed or have we merely destroyed the temporary container furnished for our soul?

Since our souls are eternal, the commandment refers to our physical bodies. The problem with murder, including abortion, is that it interferes with God's plan for us. From Jeremiah 1:4-5 "Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." As kind of an aside, women who had near death experiences that also had abortions reported that, as they were having their lives reviewed, they were shown by God what would have happened to their children if they had not been aborted..........."Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."
(This apparently had a profound effect on these women)

When we murder someone we do not just eliminate the container which carries their soul, we interfere with God's plan for us and this is what warrants the punishment. How arrogant and selfish of us to think we can change what God has planned for us. Is there a worse abomination than to think we know better than God? Can one actually fathom the punishment that awaits a woman, entrusted by God to incubate and nurture our physical bodies, who selfishly or out of complete ignorance chooses to alter God's plan for that soul?

Abortion is murder.........in the sense that the physical container that was to be made for that specific soul has been destroyed, but the hard truth is much, much worse. Abortion is humanities feeble attempt at being superior to God by thinking we can subvert the will of God.

(Edited to add that there are passages in scripture that permit the state to execute criminals and to deal with evil doers by execution/elimination----these are necessary punishments as opposed to the shedding of innocent blood.)