THE SANCTITY OF LIFE

The bible upholds the sanctity of human life by virtue of life itself. For the very breath which breathed life into man's formation from the dust of the ground made him a living soul distinct from all other life forms (Genesis 2:7). From both divine and human perspective, God's creative love reached its zenith when man became a living creature. So sacrosanct was human life to the divine mind, that God declared, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image" (Genesis 9:6).

Yes, God decimated Noah's world by flood because they had reached the nadir of their existence having no regard for the sanctity of life – "the earth was filled with violence…for all flesh had corrupted their way on earth" (Genesis 6:11-13). Yes, God commanded the deaths of nations and their inhabitants using other nations to accomplish His will, but it was neither capricious nor whimsical. He sanctioned their deaths because of their violence in disregarding human life, sacrificing it by appeasement and pleasure to their idols. It is often overlooked that such judgments "grieved" God, or that He derived "no pleasure in the death of the wicked." (Genesis 6:5, 6; Ezekiel 33:11) There is no other divine proscription available by which to uphold the sacredness of life or to deal with wanton and violent disregard for life than by demanding that "whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." To this end, God expects governments to act as "His ministers" protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty (Romans 13:1-6).

While I abhor abortion, especially on the scale to which it is sanctioned and practiced by our government, no man has the right to take the law into his own hands and act with the same wanton disregard for human life in the name of religion toward a doctor performing abortions! Whatever religion he is acting in the name of is a false religion. By the same token, any religion that would sanction such a doctor is a false religion. No government or religious sanction of sin, any more than one man's practice of sin, gives another the right to commit sin.