Today the subject of abortion has become a political issue as well as a moral issue. Many people are asking the question, when does life begin? This question is being asked so determinations can be made when an unborn baby’s life can be taken by abortion. We are clearly a nation in decline when we are arguing about when we will allow an unborn baby’s life to be ended. This is an issue that has greatly divided the citizens of this nation, as well it should. It is a moral issue and we should be first debating whether it is proper to terminate the life of an unborn baby, but unfortunately in our country that question has been answered by those in power a long time ago. It is truly a sad situation. So, our role should be to limit abortions only to exceptional cases.
But if you have been following my blogs you know I am interested in the spiritual side of our unique soul/body entity. So, the question I am interested in is when is our soul created? We will attempt to answer that question.
The early writers of Holy Scripture addressed this in an indirect way but is worth repeating. It appears in Psalm 139 verses 13-17 which are shown below:
“Truly you have formed my inmost being, you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made, wonderful are your works.
My soul also you knew full well; nor was my frame unknown to you when I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my actions; in your book they are written; my days were limited before one of them existed.
How weighty are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!”
It implies that the soul existed when God created us in the womb. While these quotes from this Psalm are not perfectly clear as to when the soul appears, it gives a good starting place for this discussion.
I do believe that the soul is created at the moment of creation of a new being and I will provide backup for that statement in my later discussion of a specific near-death experience (NDE). But first let us consider the miracle of the birth of a child and the joy it brings. The birth of a baby is truly a miraculous event! To do that I would like to repeat the writing of an American Indian called Ohiyesa. He also went by the name of Charles Alexander Eastman. Ohiyesa, or Eastman, went to Beloit College, Dartmouth College, and received his Medical Degree from Boston University, he gives a beautiful description in his own words of an Indian maiden who is nurturing a child in her womb. It is one of my favorite stories and appears in some of my blogs and is also in the first chapter of my book, Yes Virginia there is a God and He created the Universe. Here is the story of creation in the words of Ohiyesa.
The Great Song of Creation
Our education begins in our mother’s womb. Her attitude and secret meditations are such as to instill into the receptive soul of the unborn child the love of the Great Mystery and a sense of kinship with all creation.
A pregnant Indian woman often chooses one of the great individuals of her family and tribe as a model for her child. This hero is daily called to mind. She gathers from tradition all of his noted deeds and daring exploits and rehearses them to herself when alone. In order that the impression might be more distinct, she avoids company. She isolates herself as much as possible and wanders prayerfully in the stillness of the great woods, or on the bosom of the untrodden prairie, not thoughtlessly, but with an eye to the impressions received from the grand and beautiful scenery.
To her poetic mind the imminent birth of her child prefigures the advent of a great spirit – a hero, or the mother of heroes – a thought conceived in the virgin breast of primeval nature and dreamed out in a hush broken only by the sighing of the pine tree or the thrilling orchestra of a distant waterfall. And when the day of her days in her life dawns, the day in which there is to be new life, the miracle of whose making has been entrusted to her, she seeks no human aid. She has been trained and prepared in body and mind for this, her holiest duty, ever since she can remember.
She meets the ordeal of childbirth alone, where no curious or pitying eyes might embarrass her; where all nature says to her spirit:” It is love! The fulfilling of life!”
When, at last, a sacred voice comes to her out of the silence, and a pair of eyes open upon her in the wilderness, she knows with joy that she has borne well her part in the great song of creation!
Presently she returns to the camp, carrying the mysterious, the holy, the dearest bundle! She feels the endearing warmth of it and hears its soft breathing. It is still a part of herself, since both are nourished by the same mouthful, and no look of a lover could be sweeter than its deep and trusting gaze.
Not only is the beautifully written by Ohiyesa, it continues the Indian concept that all creation is interconnected, including the baby in the womb. This interconnection is believed by many scientists, especially those that specialize in Near-Death Experiences. Thus, the Indians recognized the baby in the womb as the beginning of a new creation. American Indians considered all creation to be connected, including the unborn. Notice it also begins with the phrase “Her attitude and secret meditations are such as to instill into the receptive soul of the unborn child the love of the Great Mystery and a sense of kinship with all creation.” The Native Indians seemed to understand the whole mystery of nature and how love fills the entire universe.
Having established the beautiful description of the mystery of the birth of a child let us return to how near-death experiences contribute to our understanding of our body and soul. This was discussed in detail in the blog, “Body and Soul”.
I will return to the importance that NDEs play in our understanding of God and His creation. But first I would like to address specifically a child’s report of visiting heaven during a near death experience (NDE) which was reported in the book, Science at the Doorstep to God. Though the following report is anecdotal (and not subject to scientifically controlled or statistical scrutiny), it is given here as truthful because it typifies reports catalogued by the University of Virginia’s Department of Perceptual Studies. The report comes from a young boy, Colton Burpo, who was nearly fours years old at the time of his near-death- experience. He described spontaneously to his mother and father what happened to him when he nearly died of a severe infection from a burst’s appendix. During the near death state, he spoke of sitting on the lap of Jesus, hearing angels sing, meeting his great grandfather (Pops), and a variety of other heavenly phenomena. Most interestingly, he described an encounter with his deceased sister, who ran up to him and hugged him while he was in “heaven”. She told him that she died in her mother’s tummy, and that she had not been named by her parents. His father, Todd Burpo, describes the episode as follows:
One evening in October, I was sitting at the kitchen table. Working on a sermon … Colton planted himself directly in front of Sonja. He said Mommy, I have two sisters … Sonja looked up from her paperwork and shook her head slightly, no, you have your sister, Cassie, and do you mean your cousin, Traci? No. Colton clipped off the word adamantly, I have two sisters, you had a baby in your tummy, didn’t you? Who told you I had a baby die in my tummy? She did, Mommy. She said she died in your tummy. It’s ok, Mommy, she’s ok. God adopted her … Sonja slid off the couch and knelt in front of Colton so that she could look him in the eyes, don’t you mean Jesus adopted her? She said to Colton. No, Mommy. His Dad did! Sonja turned and looked at me. In that moment, she later told me, she was trying to stay calm, but she was overwhelmed. Our baby .. was.. is .. a girl, she thought. Sonja focused on Colton, and I could hear the effort it took to steady her voice. So, what did she look like: She looked a lot like Cassie, Colton said. She is just a little bit smaller, and she has dark hair. Now Colton went on without prompting. In heaven, this little girl ran up to me, and she wouldn’t stop hugging me, he said in a tone that clearly indicated he didn’t enjoy all this hugging from a girl. Maybe she was just happy that someone from her family was there, Sonja offered, girls hug. When we’re happy, we hug. Colton didn’t seem convinced. Sonja’s eyes lit up, and she asked, what was the little girl’s name? She didn’t have a name .. She doesn’t have a name said Sonja? You guys didn’t give her a name .. you are right Colton, Sonja said we didn’t even know she was a she. Then Colton said something that still rings in my ears: Yeah, she said she can’t wait for you and Daddy to get to heaven. From the kitchen table, I could see that Sonja was barely holding it together. She gave Colton a kiss and told him he could go play. And when he left the room, tears spilled over cheeks. Our baby is okay, she whispered. Our baby is okay.
This story of Colton’s visit to heaven clearly indicates that the soul exists early in pregnancy—perhaps at conception. If this is true, and I believe it is; then we must recall that the inseparable body and soul is a single entity and that although the body dies, the soul lives forever. So even though Colton’s story was not about abortion what it does mean that each time an unborn baby is aborted (killed) you can kill the body but not the soul and it is released directly into heaven and joins the hundreds of thousands of nameless children in heaven. This may provide some relief to some such as Colton’s mother who said our baby is okay, realizing that God has adopted each one. But what does it say about a nation that kills the unborn in the womb? Will it make a difference when someone decides on abortion that that life you are about to take already has a soul? It should.
Let me return to the importance of near-death experiences. This report came from the book, Science at the Doorstep to God, which is a highly scholarly book which works hard to provide validity of the statements contained in the book. In the chapter on NDEs they put more Strick Requirements for proof than usually required. But they essentially produced the same results of other studies, that is, that what those who reported on their near-death experiences were found to be validated. They even included the two most famous NDE experiences, the one about the shoe on the windowsill and the person being able to show the nurses where they put his dentures. NDEs have provided proof that heaven exists and that the body and soul exist as an inseparable entity. There is an overwhelming amount of data to support this. In the same book it reported that a 1982 Gallup survey indicated that approximately eight million adults in the United States had a near-death experience. So, my question is why did God decided to allow this to happen? And why now? Let me try to answer my own question.
Remember, God is Love. God loves each of us. God used his enormous love as the energy to create the universe through the Big Bang. As the universe and earth evolved, God picked the Jews as his chosen people to be his own. Despite sending prophets and eventually sending his Son, Jesus, the Jews continued to backslide. When Jesus arrived, he indicated that he was there to provide salvation not only to the Jews but to others also. But the Christians proved to be no more faithful than the Jews despite the fact God continued to offer signs including this almost fifty years of thousands of near-death experiences. I think God did this because he wanted to save as many souls as He could before the end times. He did this because of his great mercy and love and he revealed much through the NDEs about the existence of heaven and the fact that our souls never die. So, the appearance of so many near-death experiences were to me what might be our last wakeup call! Wake up people, learn as much as you can from the stories of the near-death experiences and reform you live. We do not know when the end will come but it appears closer than ever. Do not be caught off guard.
Well, I have given the reader a lot to think about and once again, we have provided information that takes you out of your comfort zone. We have proposed that the unborn already has a soul, which should cause those considering abortion to pause. If you believe in the sanctity of life, do not be arrogant or pushy but let people know you are pro-life. It is important. Speak up.
Peace be with you.
Will Lannes