When Does Life Begin?

This past week marked the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that essentially has led to abortion on demand in America. The Southern Baptist Convention has designated the week as a time to pray for the unborn and stand up for innocent life. In light of this I wanted to write about something that is a fairly recent discovery in the science of the unborn.

Just two years ago scientists were able to observe a flash of light when a human egg was fertilized in a laboratory. When the egg is fertilized there is a surge of calcium, causing zinc to shoot out of the zygote. The flash of light can be seen using fluorescence microscopy.

While this information may not mean much to some, it is vitally important. Proponents of abortion like to say that there is no way of knowing when life begins, and if we cannot know for sure, then abortion is just the removal of an unwanted mass. But this flash of light—this zinc shooting out from a fertilized egg—is a fireworks show celebrating the start of a new life.

We also know that every zygote is genetically complete. At that very second of conception the fertilized egg has all it needs; the unborn child’s gender, hair and eye color, and height are already locked into its unique DNA. This is not a potential person, it is a person in its smallest form.

The Bible also gives us an indication that life inside the womb is special. David said God knit him together in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). God told Jeremiah that He knew the prophet before He formed him in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5). All life is created by God, and is therefore special. We must always stand up to protect innocent life, for they were created in the image of God, and are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Healthy Honey

Last week I wrote about the complexity of honeycombs and the process by which bees make honey. Honey is a topic that frequently comes up in the Bible, appearing more than two dozens times. When speaking of honey, the Bible always indicates that it is good to eat in moderation. Consider these verses:

My son, eat honey, for it is good, yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.

Proverbs 24:13

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the body.

Proverbs 16:24

It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glory to search out one's own glory.

Proverbs 25:27

This concept has caused people to scoff at the Bible for many years. After all, honey is fructose and sucrose, and contains more calories per teaspoon than white sugar (22 to 16). Is the Bible wrong or unscientific? Not at all. Honey was once frowned upon because it contains simple sugars, but nutritionists now reject their former notion that food is only the sum of the ingredients it contains. Those ingredients can work together in different ways. So while honey can raise A1C, it can actually regulate blood sugar and reduce body weight. Furthermore, honey can be used as a probiotic, it fights viruses and infections, suppresses coughs, soothes sore throats, boosts the immune system, reduces ulcers, increases athletic performance, and fights against certain cancers, among other things.

With all those benefits in mind, it is important not to overindulge in the sweet substance. Too much honey is unhealthy, just as consuming sugar brings undesired consequences.

In other words, honey is good for the body (Proverbs 16:24) so long as we do not eat too much (Proverbs 25:27). The amazing thing about this is not just that the Bible was right all along, but that it was right long before anyone could have known it scientifically. Not only can we trust God’s word, we can also enjoy the tasty sweetness our Creator gives us through the magnificent design of bees and honeycombs.

Bees and the Bible

For many of us, when we see bees buzzing around it is time to take cover. While we certainly do not want to be met by the bee’s stinger, these small insects serve an important purpose, and I’m not just talking about honey.

As you read this column, please keep in mind that evolution teaches that all life forms do what they do either by trial and error, or else by getting it right the first time. Now lets examine the honeycomb and try to decide how bees ever figured out the mathematics behind their operation. It begins by worker bees eating honey, then excreting clumps of wax; other bees will gather the wax and mold it into columns of six-sided cells. In order for the wax to remain firm enough to hold but soft enough to work with, it must remain 95 degrees. By clustering together in the honeycomb, bees are able to keep the wax at the needed temperature. In order to make the classic honeycomb look, the cell walls must be at a 120-degree angle in relation to the other walls to make the hexagonal design, and each partition is less than .1 mm thick. The cells are tilted upward at 13 degrees, the exact dimension needed to keep the honey from dripping out. The bees then seal off the bottom of the columns by constructing three four-sided diamond shapes that meet in a point, thus interlocking and keeping the honey safely inside.

Mathematicians have tried other shapes, including curved sides on hexagons or mixtures of polygons, but have concluded that the bees’ method is the most economical. Do we attribute the bees’ incredible math and architectural skills to luckiness or trial and error? Did they get it exactly right the first time, or did they tinker with their hexagons until they had the perfect pattern? Why would the first bees ever have gathered up the wax secreted by other bees and decided to mold it into a honeycomb? How do all bees everywhere build identical combs?

Isn’t it easier to believe that an Intelligent Designer created the bees, and gave them the instinctive knowledge to build their honeycombs? Yes, bees give us honey, but they also point us to God, the maker of heaven and earth, and they serve as a stinging indictment against the lunacy of Darwinism.

Vigilance

After the October 31^st terror attack in New York City you may have seen Ray Kelly on the news talking about the incident. Kelly is the retired NYPD commissioner (if you have seen the show Blue Bloods, think Frank Reagan) who spent more than twelve years at his post. He was named acting commissioner for a short span in 1993, just in time for the first World Trade Center bombing, and then became commissioner in January 2002, fewer than four months after the 9/11 attack.

Kelly understood something that many overlooked throughout the nineties and early part of the new century, and that is terrorists must be addressed differently than carjackers and domestic abusers. In agreeing to serve as police commissioner, Kelly insisted on enhanced police presence around certain areas, and he created an NYPD counter-terrorism division, with detectives placed undercover in Europe as well as in strategic areas of New York City.

In his book Vigilance, Kelly describes the sixteen terror plots in New York City that were thwarted on his watch. Sixteen times his city could have been attacked—from the Brooklyn Bridge, to the metro system, and even a coordinated effort to attack multiple synagogues—but New York’s finest rose to the occasion each time. The theme of his book, as the title suggests, is that the good guys must always be on guard. Evil doesn’t take a day off, and Kelly’s team had to always be ready. They were able to combat the enemy because they understood the enemy.

Peter had the same idea when he wrote to the believers in Turkey, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks around looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).” The first way to withstand the attack of the devil is to know that he is on the offensive. He never takes a day off. We must remain on guard at all times, knowing that giving him an inch in our lives can have disastrous results.

As foolish as it would be to police New York City with a pre-9/11 mentality, it is just as foolish to live as if the devil doesn’t. Keep your guard up at all times. Be sober. Be vigilant.  

Resolved to Give All

As 2017 draws to a close many of you have made resolutions for the coming year. If you’re honest, some of those same resolutions appear on the list year after year, but this time you mean it. I’ve never been big on making resolutions, but I am making one this year. Maybe you will consider making this resolution with me.

This time of year always makes me think about an old choir anthem we used to sing in Florida called Firmly Committed. Here is the chorus:

I am firmly committed to the cause of Christ,

Determined to serve Him for the rest of my life

Resolved to give all, no matter the price

I am firmly committed to the cause of Christ.

If you are looking for a New Year’s resolution, will you consider resolving to give all for Christ? While that is an all-encompassing resolution, I want to give you four specific areas in which we can resolve to give all this year.

First, in study. 2 Timothy 2:15 says we should study in order to rightly interpret the Word of truth. Psalm 1:2 says the blessed man will meditate on God’s word day and night. In this new year we should determine to study God’s word more so that we can be better equipped for life.

Next, in service. At the end of Paul’s life he was able to confidently write that he had run the race well and finished his course; he knew that rewards awaited him because of his life’s ministry (2 Timothy 4:5-7). We often speak of the end of a Christian’s life in terms of God calling that person home. My goal is to give away so much of myself in service that there isn’t much left for God to take when that time comes.

Third, in soul-winning. While there are many important things in life, none trumps telling someone about Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul reminded the church that his resolution was to focus on the things of Christ when he was with them. We need to determine to share the gospel with more people in 2018.

Finally, in sanctification. Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Jesus every day. It involves purging old sin and abstaining from it (2 Timothy 2:21, 1 Thessalonians 4:3). Are you more like Christ at the end of 2017 than you were at the beginning of it? You should be, and you should determine to be more like Him at the end of 2018.

If you will join me in resolving to give all in 2018, I believe this world will be a much better place this time next year.