When does life begin? How should it end? 

Life began with Adam.  Adam was crafted on Day 6 of creation’s story in the Bible.  God began human life and made him in His image (Genesis 1:26-17; 3:21-23).  Now, when I say Adam, I don’t just mean males.  Yes, the male gender came first, but from that male God created female.  Male and female are of the very same flesh.  God created ADAM (humankind) and Adam and Eve (human male and human female).    

Human life started with Adam.  Everyone born after Adam shares in the same breath of life and image-bearing status.  In this Adam (human), life is passed forward with the breath of God.  The breath of God is the animating force for living creatures.  A living being is dependent on this breath. The visible-created is dependent on the invisible-Creator. 

So, seems to me human life multiplies into new personhood at the point of conception.  We might more modernly say, DNA shared to form a new person.  In addition, the new person also bears God’s image because the breath of the Creator is passed forward.  

This was so when God brought forth Eve out of Adam.  Her new personhood was brought forth with the purpose fulfill the command to multiply and rule over earthly life by more human persons from the same human-life (Adam). The status of “image bearer” is present within all human life due to the fact it has nothing to do with ability, but everything to do with God’s design to rule through love. It is also true that ability can be used by humans to reveal the depths of God’s person and character. As important as that is, my point is that all human beings are equal in status as created in God’s image and have that status at conception.  

Life started with Adam, but “life” is more than consuming the necessities of bodily viability.  As Jesus once said, “life is more than food the body more than clothes” (see Luke 12:23 and Matthew 6:25).  “Life” is more than worry for physical survival or having the pleasures of earthly life. Instead, it is the giving and supporting of what lives. It is not holding on to what you have in fear, but the giving away in the hope of God’s glory. The more is about being in right loving relationships knowing and reflecting the One within whom life rests… namely Jesus.   

To thwart the multiplication of human life, is selfishness.   

To dismiss innocent human life, is neglectful.    

To ignore God’s command, is rebellion.  

Those who worry foremost about their quality of lifestyle, even the needed things of daily life, should heed Jesus words “life is more” (from the above quoted passage).  He is saying life is in Him and continuance is found in consuming His character.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end. 

Finally, human life began with Adam (here I mean the first man by name) and in Adam, all humans. The breath of life first given to Adam is present with all necessary information for physical development at inception and is passed to a new individual just as it was shared from Adam to Eve.  Therefore, the status of bearing God’s image is not an issue of partial or full physical development, but in fact, all humans are image bearers. So God’s image, I think, should be recognized as present at conception.  What follows is the developmental potential.  It seems to me to thwart God’s command to multiply and co-rule over earthly creation is a bad idea. 

BMD