<maginsta@cox.net> wrote in message
news:BxSWa.27909$Je.18522@fed1read04...

On 22-Jun-2003, "Michael Gaskell" <gaskells@dodo.com.au> wrote:

The Gospel of John isn't lying, for the benefit of others it reads:

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes

to

the Father except through me.

We know that God desires the salvation of all (1 Tim. 2:4, Rom. 8:32)

and

that His mercy endures forever (Psalm 136). Though all are stained by
original sin, all whom Christ claims for Himself will live in Him (1

Cor.

15:22-23). That Christ should not claim the unborn as His own is
unimaginable, contrary to both reason and revelation. Furthermore,
Paul
teaches that God's mercy and providence extend even to the unborn, who
have
done neither good nor evil (Rom. 9:11), and Christ himself repeatedly
expressed His special love of infants and children.
And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but

when

his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them, and

said,

"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for
of
such is the kingdom of God" (Luke 18:15-16).

See how Jesus describes Heaven; it is filled with infants such as
these!
And
are not His words a warning against those who would forbid these

children

entry into His heavenly kingdom? And look at yet another occasion:

[The disciples asked Jesus:] "Who is of greatest importance in the

kingdom

of God?" He called a little child over and stood him in their midst
and
said: "I assure you, unless you change and become like little
children,
you
will not enter the kingdom of God.... See that you never despise one
of
these little ones. I assure you, their angels in Heaven constantly

behold

my
heavenly Father's face.... Just so, it is no part of your heavenly
Father's
plan that a single one of these little ones shall ever come to grief"
(Matt.
18:1-2, 10, 14).

Well put.

My own feeling is that God imbues man with his soul upon conception.
The
unborn after that point have unspotted souls and cnnot be condemned
under
any law God should lay down.

The soul in my view is what you have called the writing of God's wishes
on
the hearts of man. It also distinguishes man from best.

Good. That settles the issue. The thing which separates man from beast is
the intangible soul. (This implies, of course, that the tangible features
of
our nature are natural.)