Is a Fetus/Newborn a Spiritual Being?

[TK]

I hope "caused" is not the right answer; i am not really comfortable with "permitted" either, but it is the better option i suppose, although I am sure I will not be able to grasp this concept until, well, at a later date.

TK

[darinhouston]

I hope "caused" is not the right answer; i am not really comfortable with "permitted" either, but it is the better option i suppose, although I am sure I will not be able to grasp this concept until, well, at a later date.

TK

I think we'll find out together.

[Singalphile]

I have doubted that every embryo/fetus/infant who dies is necessarily saved and in heaven. If so, then it seems that God's kingdom might mostly consist of those who died in the womb. If not, then I guess that they will die the second death (I favor the conditional immortality view). Or perhaps a human is not usually a "spiritual being" until some time later in the life cycle (the question raised in this thread) and would not be a part of any final resurrection or death. I guess there's also the view that God knows which little embryos/fetuses would have been saved if they'd lived and will treat them accordingly.

The various children passages (Matt 18:1-6, Luke 18:16-17, Matt 19:14) and the other verses in this thread don't convince me of anything for sure.

God only knows, I think, and that's for the best, I'm sure.

[Paidion]

Not only is the fetus or the newborn not a spiritual being, but also the adult person is not a spiritual being. He or she is a human being. Purely physical, but imparted with the spirit of life which God originally imparted to Adam, and which was came down to all of Adam's descendents through the physical bodies of their parents. The whole person, id est, the human body with the spirit of life is a living "soul", that is, a living being.

When that spirit of life departs, all that is left is a lifeless body. The person is dead — and if there is no resurrection, he will remain dead.

As the apostle Paul wrote:

If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (I Corinthians 15:32)

[KyleB]

Now, help me understand the manifold mysteries of God's economy -- why do you suppose He would create a soul that He never intended to live on earth? Do you suspect that this baby just got a "pass" at the whole "testing ground" thing here on Earth and got to move past "Go" and proceed directly to eternity with no testing, etc.?

I've thought about this issue somewhat before myself. We know that people have a diverse range of life-spans. If we figure that God gives each person the time necessary to make certain spiritual/moral decisions, as well as to grow as a person in certain ways, then perhaps we can see those who have very short life-spans as those who weren't going to need much "shaping" or "urging". Maybe those who die as infants or even in the womb were persons with such pliable souls and soft hearts that they were already suited for life with God. I know this is pretty iffy stuff, and wouldn't agree with some people's theology. I'm not saying I can find any of this in scripture, and I wouldn't try to defend it as something I hold to. Just some thoughts that have crossed my mind.

If unborn children and infants who died do indeed go the heaven, and the figures we hear about the number of abortions performed each year are true, then I think we may find ourselves vastly outnumbered when we get to heaven by persons who never spent much or any time on this present earth.

[psimmond]

I know this thread is over a year old, and I don't know about the netiquette of resurrecting old threads, but this has been on my mind recently. My wife read a book that was supposedly about the experiences a kid had when he died, went to heaven, and later returned. In the book it said every child who had been aborted or who died young was in heaven. If we talk about every child that has been aborted through natural and unnatural causes from the beginning to the present, we've got to be talking billions, right? And this number doesn't even include all of the children who died before the age of accountability (whatever that age is). There were many things about the book that sounded bizarre to me, but this thing about kids got me thinking:

If this is true, isn't it possible that the number saved will outnumber the lost?

I recognize that it's possible all of these children are in heaven and will one day receive glorified bodies and live with God on a future new earth, but if this is true, then it seems elective abortions are both bad and good: bad because they involve a serious sin (the taking of a life), but good because this child who never had a chance to breathe will spend eternity with God. In China where Buddhism is the predominant religion and millions are aborted yearly, it seems you could argue that by snuffing out their life before birth, their parents/government are depriving them of 70-80 years BUT unknowingly guaranteeing them eternal life with God! This is something many/most would probably not have found had they lived their lives in China.

Couldn't one argue that abortionists bring more souls into God's kingdom than evangelists?

(Please don't think I'm pro-choice, I'm not! I'm just trying to sort some of this out...)

[Paidion]

Couldn't one argue that abortionists bring more souls into God's kingdom than evangelists?

Yes, that would be the case IF all infants and aborted children go directly into "God's kingdom" after death and IF there is eternal damnation or annihilation for people who reject Christ after reaching "the age of accountablitiy" and die unsaved, and IF death is the cutoff point for becoming a child of God.