I engaged with a “Christian Abortionist” on twitter. I’m not a fan of progressive Christianity. That is because it is a liberal deist religion that tries to play the replace it with a democrat ideology. A Christless Christianity. Here is how the conversation went:

Paul Barasi:

No: absolutely, no. Away with your twaddle. Jeremiah 1:5 is nothing to do with abortion. Stop twisting and hijacking bible verses for your hobby horses.

TheSire:

Jer. 1:5 clearly has God recognizing an infant as a person.

Paul Barasi:

Learn to tell biblical poetry from biology, that God is eternal & omnisicient, knowing us in our own real time and this verse doesn’t clock anyone’s being, personhood or soul, or confer unborn rights nor is it about abortion or valuing life.

TheSire:

Learn to think with your head and not to spout platitudes. Noticing the prophets have a poetic element doesn’t entail they aren’t using that sort of language to convey what I said. But it also appears in other forms of literature from the biblical corpus. So, try being more creative.

Paul Barasi:

What are you on about? Look, God is a slightly better communicator than you. If he wants to say what you have then he could have. He hasn’t. The bible is the story of salvation, not a literal book of facts about the biological science of human reproduction.

TheSire:

That’s a clever but silly distinction that those that don’t believe the Biblical witness invoke to avoid believing the bible. Firstly, it makes factual statements about the biology and nature of human beings. Secondly, you’re begging the questions to whether God has spoken on it.

Paul Barasi:

Are you implying I don’t believe biblical witness or that it’s God’s word just because I don’t share your disingenuous take on a bible verse?

And are you denying God’s right to speak poetically? Poetry is the most beautiful form of language and God loves beauty, as evidenced by nature, which also reveals God.

Forcing a meaning on a bible verse without reference to its context and literary form is not correct interpretation, nor is using cunning or subterfuge, conjecture, supposition or second guessing.

Your assertion God clearly recognises personhood in Jeremiah 1:5 is made only to construct a biblical case against abortion. The verse is about Jeremiah’s job as a prophet, not biology lecturer, anti-abortion campaigner or messenger to contemporaries on when they became persons.

TheSire:

Yes, I’m implying you don’t believe in the Biblical witness because you exchange the truth of God for lies. You didn’t magically read the Bible and conclude abortion is a Christian practice. You read it in the light of your liberal agenda and then filter it through your twisted idolatrous practices.

“And are you denying God’s right to speak poetically? Poetry is the most beautiful form of language and God loves beauty, as evidenced by nature, which also reveals God.”

I obviously didn’t say that and you lack basic reading comprehension. I said:

“Noticing the prophets have a poetic element doesn’t entail they aren’t using that sort of language to convey what I said. But it also appears in other forms of literature from the biblical corpus. ”

This is to say why couldn’t God use that poetic language to convey the idea that Jeremiah was a person from the womb. That God had always a special relationship with. That is what the verse seems to say and any other interpretation is force and contrived.

Is it merely a matter of conservative illusions:

The verb yāḏaʾ, “know,” often carried considerable depth of meaning in the OT, for it reached beyond mere intellectual knowledge to personal commitment.12 For this reason it is used of the intimate relations between a man and his wife (Gen. 4:1). It was used of Yahweh’s commitment to Israel: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). It was Yahweh’s deep sorrow that there was no knowledge of God among his people (Hos. 4:1), for the knowledge of Yahweh was far more important than burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6). Yahweh’s deep commitment to his servant, then, reached back before his birth.

Thompson, J. A.. The Book of Jeremiah (New International Commentary on the Old Testament) . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

So, contrary to abortionists views, it fits better with a Pro-life understanding. This is an intimate relationship between people. Hardly a God and a blob of cells that are a parasite to its host.

“Your assertion God clearly recognises personhood in Jeremiah 1:5 is made only to construct a biblical case against abortion.”

All biblical cases constructed are made for a point. I make cases for many different biblical doctrines. You must not have read a lot about theology. Maybe you should spend more time reading the Bible and not the communist manifesto.

Jer. 1:5 is hardly the only Biblical passage that addresses this issue. But it is enough to cast doubt on your views.