Christusregnat
Puritan Board Professor
There are a lot of good people out there that believe this. I just want them clarify their thinking so they can be consistant. I don't see this particular subject the way you do, and would not demand the Biblical penalty for premeditated murder for a technician who destroys some fertilized eggs that the parents don't want any more. I don't see those eggs as having the same rights as someone who has been animated, to use the terminology of theologians who've worked on this subject. What's your thinking, since we agree on so much, I'd value your opinion.
Tim,
The question virtually becomes when the child becomes the image of God. The question is clearly answered by the defacement of the image of God by sin. When does one become the image of God? The Scripture answers the negative side of this question when David confessed that his mother conceived him in sin. David was not only image of God, but fallen image of God from conception. It may therefore be reasonably assumed that man is the image of God from the time he is conceived. It should be noted that the hebrew verb in Psalm 51:5 refers to the heat of sexual passion; when David was first conceived as a result from copulation and furtilization.
Animus, or animation, or becoming the image of God, therefore, must biblically take place at furtilization. Hence, because infants are the image of God from conception, God's penalty for striking at His image must be enforced in all cases.
That is my understanding of the case.
Cheers,