Personality
When does a fetus become a person? The answer is that it never becomes a person. It is a person from the moment it comes into existence. We could say it is a person in his or her earliest stages of development but there is no point at which there is a change and it becomes something other than what it was to begin with, a person, a human being.
Some people, wanting to justify abortion, try to do so by claiming that a fetus is not a person until sometime well after the sexual act. The time to initiate the irreversible formation of a new person within the mother is at most a few seconds. It is the time for the chromosomes of the parents to divide, combine and form the new chromosome that is the child; a few seconds, minutes at most and a new person is created. The new boy or girl has all the information within itself to form the child that will, barring an act of murder called an abortion, come into the world in a few months.
Yes, despite whatever you may have been told to the contrary, an abortion at any stage of pregnancy is an act of murder. It is the murder of a helpless infant by, or by the consent of, the child’s mother. It is a gross violation of God’s Seventh Commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. It is a ticket to spend eternity with other murderers and criminals in the Lake of Fire called Hell.
Yes, there really is such a place as Hell. God’s Word tells us so:
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. (Luke 12: 4,5)
Yes, it is the infinite, eternal, omnipotent God that created all things and controls all of life and death in this world. Do you, dear reader, believe in Him? Have you placed your trust in Him? Will you go to heaven and be with all other true believers when your time in this world comes to an end? These, contrary to what you may have been told and you may believe, are not foolish or idle questions. This life is not all there is. There is an eternity that follows this life. When your body dies, the person that is you lives on. It does not change but merely leaves your body and goes somewhere else. It goes to Heaven or Hell, eternal blissful life or eternally painful death. These are the only options open to everyone in this world today.
Is it possible for anyone to really know for sure whether they will go to Heaven or Hell when they die? I have such assurance but perhaps only because I was very much anti-God in my youth and can now see a very clear demarcation point, a point at which God in His great mercy changed my foolish heart, as He did of so many others.
Do you see such a definite point of change in your life? Was there a point at which you could clearly see that there is more to life than just this world, that there truly is a Heaven and a Hell? Have your interests really changed at that point, and do you feel you have become a new person? If so, you may well be a true child of God. As such, you will never truly die but will only exchange your current body for another one. Your new spiritual body will be very different from your present physical body.
God, speaking to His creatures in His Eternal Word, says:
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: 37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
We see from this passage that our current bodies do not go to Heaven (or Hell) when we die. They return to the earth from whence they came. We receive new bodies, spiritual bodies that are appropriate for the new environment. The heavenly body will be glorious and very different from today’s bodies.
The passage goes on to say:
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
The apostle Paul explains here that there are two kinds of bodies, the earthly and the heavenly. We, the spirits within us that are us, now live in earthly bodies, bodies suitable for life in this world. When we die or when this world comes to an end, the spirit within each of us moves into a new body. It will be a spiritual, not a physical, body. We will then be capable of living in a new environment, one outside of and very different from this world.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:35-53)
Here we are told that our present bodies cannot enter God’s Kingdom and must first be changed. Nor can our corrupt bodies become incorrupt. In an instant of time, the dead will be raised and all will be changed. Both the living and the dead will receive new incorruptible, spiritual bodies that will never die. At the end of the world, all the dead are raised and both the dead and the living are given new bodies.
This is the future both believers and unbelievers can look forward to, one to eternal life in Heaven and the other to eternal death in Hell.
To return to the question asked above: Where, dear reader, do you fit in these alternative scenarios? Is your eternal future to be spent in Heaven or in Hell? Please don’t just push it aside. It is a very real and very pertinent question. Eternity is forever!