Psalm 139:15-16 “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.”

“The Alabama Supreme Court opinion is a beautiful defense of life.” This is from Tony Perkins, President of the pro-life ‘Family Research Council.’ “This, a natural extension of the march toward fetal personhood, is a cause of great concern for anyone that cares about abortion care.” This is from Dana Sussman, Executive Director of the pro-abortion ‘Pregnancy Justice.’ Law firm. What just happened to cause such a response?

On February 16, the Supreme Court justices of the state of Alabama voted unanimously (8-to-1) that frozen embryos are children, with the same rights as all people under the Constitution: “The law is clear that frozen embryos should be considered children – unborn children are children.” The justices also added that someone could be held liable for destroying embryos, since they are persons.

This case began when a couple in 2020 brought a lawsuit against the Center for Reproductive Medicine because they dropped the couple’s embryos on the ground after removal from cryogenic storage. The couple alleged the Center violated Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. A lower court decided for the Center by citing that frozen embryos are not people. The couple then took it to the Supreme Court.

As he issued the majority opinion, Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker caught everyone’s attention: “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God. Even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing His glory.”

When was the last time someone spoke so clearly into our culture on the biblical mandate that all people are immeasurable valuable not because some government or politician says so but because God says so.

Chief Justice Parker was not alone in his opinion. He echoed our Founding Fathers’ 1776 Declaration of Independence (DOI),: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”

“Unalienable rights” means these rights as an American citizen “cannot be taken away from you, nor can you give them up” because they do not come from you nor anyone else. These rights, as our DOI says, are bestowed upon you by God, when He alone decided to bring you into existence as a person.

OK, but what is an “embryo”? And what about terms like “conception,” “fetus” or “zygote”? How are they different? Turns out these 4 terms all define the same thing: a person – a human being.

Human conception = the process of becoming pregnant involving fertilization or implantation or both.

Human “zygote” = a developing person produced at conception.

Human “embryo” = a developing person from conception, usually to the 8th week.

Human “fetus” = a developing person after conception to birth (usually from 8th week onward.

This week’s verse from Psalm 139 makes one thing clear: God is the Creator of each person, just as our Founders claimed. He is also the Designer of each person before they are conceived in the womb. To understand what God is teaching through King David, let’s read this text as it was intended – in the Hebrew.

The Hebrew word for ‘wrought’ in verse 15 is “râqam”. It means embroidered, as in needlework. David tells us that from the moment of conception, God puts me together in an intricate design of embroidery.

The Hebrew word for ‘unformed’ in verse 16 is “gôlem”. It means incomplete. God ‘sees’ me before He physically puts me together. God knows me before I appear in a physical form in the womb.

The Hebrew word for ‘fashioned’ in verse 16 is “yâtsar”. It means formed or molded into shape, as in potter purposefully working with clay to shape it. Charles Spurgeon, in his ‘The Treasury of David,’ explains: “My form, my shape, and everything about me were appointed by God before they had existence. God saw me when I could not be seen. He wrote about me when there was nothing of me to write about.”

Our verse, our Founding Fathers, and Chief Justice Parker are all stating 3 truths: 1) God is personal, 2) each person conceived bears His image, and 3) to willfully destroy one of His image bearers is sin.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #594