Steve wrote:
Are these questions really difficult?
Some questions in this thread are easy, but not all of them. I agree with Brendon that "God ultimately owns us and everything else.", and I agree with Steve in that each man is a steward accountable for his actions.
If I perceive the point psimmond is trying to raise correctly, then I think it is a very good question - but this question needs to be better defined. I will make an attempt to do so (psimmond let me know if I've missed your point). The difficulty in honoring God's property rights is that He, in most situations, has not explicitly communicated how He would like His property to be utilized. Since we live in a world with multiple human beings who are Christians, we have the problem that there are conflicting opinions about how His property should be used. The question at hand is this: How should we decide which human being possesses the right to be the agent through which God is issuing his decisions about how His property is to be used in any given instance?
It is my opinion a woman does not have a right to evict a child from her body on the grounds of what God has communicated about murder (Ex 20:13). When a man makes this assertion, and acts to enforce it, it necessarily follows that he is claiming a property right for himself, in God's name, over a female body.
As God's expressed will extends far beyond the matter of abortion, the next step is to ask what other property rights that man might also legitimately claim over that woman's body. Does that man also have the right to restrain that woman from engaging in a career of prostitution? For surely prostitution is against God's will for how the human bodies that He owns are to be used. Does that man also have the right to restrain that woman from smoking marijuana? For surely drug usage is against God's will for the human bodies He owns. Does that man also have the right to compel that woman to pay for medical treatment he believes is necessary for her health? For surely God requires us to care for the human bodies He own. Does that man also have the right to compel that woman to provide a certain portion of her wealth to charity? For surely charity is a way God requires His property to be used. Where does it stop?
Thus pssimond asks "should someone remove a tumor?". We agree that the both tumor and the body belong to God. It follows that God alone has the right to decide. By what means shall we expect God to answer this question? For how long shall we wait for His answer to arrive? If we find ourselves in the situation that human beings lack such extra-biblical divine revelation as necessary to make God's will on the matter unambiguous in each specific instance, how then shall we decide whom among us has the right to claim God's authority to make this decision about how best to be a steward of His property?