Austin Bible Church
The human body is formed by procreation. Therefore, the human body is a product of inheritance. There are three stages of embryonic function. The first stage is Bodily Motility which is muscular contraction caused by mechanical, electrical, and chemical stimuli. The second stage is the Neurogenic Stage where muscular contraction is based on nerve cell and nerve ending stimulation. The third stage is Reflex Motility where sensory nerves, nerve endings, intermediary and motor nerves stimulate muscular action – the neuro muscular mechanism.
After the third stage, you have a complete functional state of the fetus, but this is not human life. The baby kicking means function or biological life, not human life. While the body is moving toward neuro muscular function, there is formed in the cranium area the Format Soul, that part of the soul that is inherited.
The Format Soul is formed with the body and is composed of two inherited factors – the mentality based on the genes of both parents and the old sin nature, which is inherited from the father only. The exception was the Lord Jesus Christ because of the virgin birth. His mentality was inherited from Mary and the line of David. He had no old sin nature because He had no human father.
“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7, NASB)
The balance of the soul’s essence (self-consciousness, volition, emotion and conscience and the light of the soul or “breath of life” or נשׁמה (neshâmâh) in the Hebrew in Genesis 2:7) are given by God at birth. The result is a “living being” or נפשׁ (nephesh) in the Hebrew in Genesis 2:7. This is human life and follows God the Father’s imputation of soul life at physical birth.
The fetus and a format soul is not human life until they are born and take their first breath – the breath of life from God. They do not become a living person until God imputes the soul life at the point of physical birth. This happens the moment the baby gasps its first breath. Isaiah 42:5. See category on The Soul.
“Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,” (Isaiah 42:5, NASB)
The placenta is an organ of nutrition, respiration and excretion, but the presence of the placenta does not mean that the mother’s nervous system and the embryo are in any way connected and she cannot leave any impression in the format soul mentality. The only way the mother might affect the child to a greater reflex motility is by the increased stimulation of heart action through increased circulation.