LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 389

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 389

The Relevance of Specific Bible Passages

Turning to biblically informed theological perspectives, we be-
gin with a discussion of specific scriptural texts. Certain Scripture
passages are often cited in support of the view that all fertilized eggs
have a moral significance identical with that of a live-born human.
What is needed is a defense of a principle of interpretation that can
extend the range of such passages equally to all fertilized eggs and
to cloned human entities, including the roughly sixty percent of the
naturally occurring fertilized eggs that are lost early in the natural
procreative process.

A review of biblical scholarship in the LCMS has produced the
following observations. One approach contends that the use of Scrip-
ture for this type of issue forces us to make Scripture speak to a prob-
lem that we have little or no reason to think Scripture was intending
to address. A somewhat different approach offers considerations that
may make it possible to argue that Scripture is indeed addressing rel-
evant features of our contemporary problems about pre-implantation
embryos. But this approach too notes that a simple quoting of the texts
does not provide the comprehensive and systematic interpretive argu-
ment that is needed so that we can be confident that we are not im-
posing our own meanings upon God’s Word.

We now provide some details of this latter approach to examine
whether and how biblical passages might be used in connection with
debates about pre-implantation embryos. Several passages have
regularly been used to connect Scripture with questions about pre-
implantation human life.

Here are the main passages:

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and
before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a
prophet to the nations.”

Psalm 139:13-16 “" For you formed my inward parts; you knitted
me together in my mother’s womb. "I praise you, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works,
my soul knows it very well. '' My frame was not hidden from
you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the
depths of the earth. * Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them, the days that
were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Job 10:8-12 “Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you
have destroyed me altogether. ° Remember that you have made
me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? '° Did you not
pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? 'You
clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with
bones and sinews. ? You have granted me life and steadfast
love, and your care has preserved my spirit.”

Job 31:15 “Did not he who made me in the womb make him
[Job’s servant]? And did not one fashion us in the womb?”
{Luke 1:41; 2:12, 16; and 18:15-17 are often used to show that

Scripture makes no distinction between infants in the womb

and live-born infants, but those passages do not seem

immediately applicable to this report’s assignment concerning
questions about human embryos not yet in the womb.]

Extending the Range of the Passages

Usages of these passages to shed light on the significance of pre-
implantation human life sometimes simply assume that the passages
speak of every fertilized egg. The passages, however, do not directly
speak about every fertilized egg, so the arguments need to show
how to extend the range of reference of the passage from the more
narrow focus on Jeremiah or the psalmist or Job. Two observations
assist in this task.

1. A first observation focuses on Job 31. Here Job explicitly sees
God equally fashioning both Job and his slaves in the womb. This sug-
gests that the range of reference can be extended to the origin of all

living humans in the womb. The passage provides a firm starting point
for work that can then be summed up in a second observation.

2. We notice in many forms of human communication that gen-
eral truths are often expressed in concrete reference to a more fo-
cused situation. Romans 7 is full of what appear to be highly
personal observations of Paul concerning himself. In verses 15-25
Paul’s words are highly personal, yet God’s Word clearly intends
the apostle’s “I” statements to speak also to the rest of us about law,
sin, and God’s rescuing us in Christ. In a similar way God’s Word
may intend that highly personal words concerning the earliest be-
ginnings of the physical lives of Jeremiah, the psalmist and Job have
a range that extends farther than simply their specific situations.

A related argument focuses on the incarnation. Since Jesus is the
new Adam, the true human, then what can be said specifically
about his human nature also has application to us. Again, a more
focused reference is seen to have a range that extends beyond the
specific reference.

Disagreements Concerning Application of the Passages

We are well advised to treat application of these passages fairly
and carefully. Interpretation and application to contemporary issues
require that we set the passages within a comprehensive and sys-
tematic understanding of Scripture and the Christian life. For this
reason we have presented arguments that help us extend the range
of the biblical passages to all humans who have lived in the womb
and in the world.

Disagreement concerning the application of specific passages to
pre-implantation human life is likely to continue. When God’s
Word speaks of His fashioning living humans from the very begin-
ning we can be certain that all living homans—Job, his slaves, Jer-
emiah, you, I, the infant in the womb, etc.—have been the object
of God’s creative act from the very beginning of our human lives.
Indeed, Eph. 1:4 tells us Christians that God “chose us in Christ be-
fore the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before
him in love.” We can say that God’s Word wants us to know about
His intense interest in each of us from the beginning.

The challenge we face is this: some Christians remain puzzled
and troubled that so many fertilized eggs are lost in natural or lab-
oratory conditions before they ever have a discernible human his-
tory. They ask, does the citing of these specific passages suffice to
lead us to say that these fertilized eggs have also been the object of
God’s creative act in the same way as applies to those who have a
history of growth in the womb and birth in the world? We discuss
this matter in more detail below.

Scripture’s Bias Toward Life

In addition to looking at specific passages, we can also let Scrip-
ture guide us into more general insights concerning God’s care for
human life. For example, most people who are willing to have their
reasoning disciplined and guided by God’s Word are likely to agree
on principles such as the following:

a. The God who created the world continues to be intimately
involved in the world and takes an intense and caring interest in
human lives from beginning to end. See, for example, Psalm 139.

b. Passages like Jer. 1:5 and Eph. 1:4 establish the truth that
God’s interest in the lives of persons born into this world
actually extends to the time prior to the earliest physical
moment of those lives.

c. The God revealed in Scripture takes special care for persons who
are weak, vulnerable, and/or defenseless. One window into this
special care can be seen in the protections urged for widows and
orphans. We read in Ex. 22:22, “You shall not mistreat any
widow or fatherless child.” James writes, “Religion that is pure
and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and
widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the
world” (1:27). God’s people know that His care for them is not
conditioned by their own strength or glory but rather by God’s
mercy (Deut. 7:7-8; 1 Cor. 1:26-31).

2007 Convention Workbook