Russell Turnbull was riding a bus one night when a fight broke out. He tried to intervene, but in the process someone sprayed ammonia into his right eye. The powerful liquid scarred his cornea, causing him to lose sight and experience chronic pain. A doctor was able to cut away a tiny portion of Turnbull’s other cornea and use adult stem cells to grow a patch for the damaged one. “The operation was a complete success, and I now have my sight back,” says Turnbull.
The medical advances and miracles achieved through using adult stem cells is remarkable. Sadly, some scientists continue to push the unproductive use of embryonic stem cells. Those cells can be obtained only through the destruction of human embryos . . . the destruction of life.
There are many verses in God’s Word that provide insight into the moral and ethical ramifications of destroying embryos: “God created human beings in His own image” (Genesis 1:27); “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13); “The Lord . . . formed me in my mother’s womb” (Isaiah 49:5).
The prophet Jeremiah received this message from God: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5). God Himself stated that embryos are His precious, living handiwork. To destroy them goes against God and His holy commands (Exodus 20:13).
As believers in Jesus, we should strongly oppose embryonic stem cell research. Due to the successful use of adult stem cells, it’s unnecessary. And as we lift our voices in opposition, we can take these words from God to heart: “Don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you” (Jeremiah 1:8).
Let’s help protect human life—even in its tiniest forms.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Proverbs 4:1-27
More:
In Ecclesiastes 11:5, Solomon states the extent of God’s involvement in the creation of life and all natural happenings. Meditate on how this should affect our view of the unnatural destruction of embryos.
Next:
Why does the use of embryonic stem cells destroy more than life? What can you do to help stop their use?
lindagma on May 19, 2011 at 6:15 am
I am days away from sending my novel off to the publishers to start the process. It is Christian fiction that deals, not only with abortion, but the devastation of a mother who chooses that route. I plan to promote it through our local Care Net that does marvelous work. If you want to stand up for life, get involved with your local chapter. You can make baby blankets, answer phones, sweep floors, counsel, host a table at their banquet.
Do you know they have perfected the ability to use ADULT stem cells to grow any part of the body you need…a finger, a pancreas, a liver, skin. And because it comes from the individuals own stem cells, there is no rejection when the old is replaced with the new. Embryonic stem cell research has never produced this kind of healing…it’s all about money…and cloning.
tom felten on May 19, 2011 at 8:14 am
Thanks for sharing those helpful insights, lindagma. So often we can get angry about things and lament their presence, but we don’t do anything about it. Your passionate call for us to volunteer and to help others is much needed. BTW, please let me and the rest of the ODJ community now when your book is published!
eppistle on May 19, 2011 at 8:36 am
Yesterday, I jogged past the Planned Parenthood when I saw a young woman walk to its front door. Since it hadn’t opened yet, she went back to her car. I sensed the Holy Spirit prompting me to encourage her to go to the local prolife pregnancy center instead. But it felt too awkward so I kept on running. But the Holy Spirit kept on convicting me, so I turned around hoping that she would be gone by the time I returned. But she was still there in her car. So my new excuse was that I didn’t know where the prolife pregnancy center was. So I decided to jog until I found it, and then go back to her to give her directions. After I found the prolife pregnancy center, I returned and she was still in her car. I knocked on her passenger side window. She slid the window down, and I asked her, “Are you looking for a pregnancy center?” She said she was. So I told her about the prolife pregnancy cneter, where it was, and told her that it was a really good pregnancy center. She thanked me and indicated that she might visit it, but that for now she had an appointment with Planned Parenthood. Looking back, I wish that I would have told her that the prolife pregancy center gives free ultrasounds and that I had implored her to choose life – even telling her how grateful that I was for the women who chose life so that I could adopt my two children. I think if I was truly sensitive to the Holy Spirit I would have done. I was a reluctant timid prophet, and yet I hope that if this woman is pregnant that she will go to the prolife pregnancy center and that God will have used my weak attempt to save a life.
tom felten on May 19, 2011 at 9:00 am
eppistle, thank you so much for your example. I don’t see your selfless efforts as weak at all. Your willingness to turn back and follow the Holy Spirit’s leading is a great example to all of us. We’ll pray with you for this young woman and the young life that may be within her.
mike wittmer on May 19, 2011 at 9:55 am
Thanks for this timely reminder, Tom. We live in an age when life is so devalued that those who stand for life often look like the crazies. May we remember that in an upside down world, it is probably a good thing that we don’t seem to fit.
zero_g on May 19, 2011 at 2:15 pm
As a Christian I have a hard time telling someone else they should or should not do something. There is a big conflict for Christians when it comes to abortion, which is the reason why stem cell research is not progressing in the US.
I do not feel right telling a woman she cannot do something to her body. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus tells me to do to other as you would have them do to you. If I were a woman I would not want someone telling me whether or not I should have an abortion. It doesn’t matter when I believe life begins, I am clearly stepping outside what God has put in my hands when I tell a woman that she cannot abort her pregnancy.
Stem cell research in the US has been severely limited because of this emotional battle. The quality of life of many people can be greatly improved if the great minds we have in the US are able to use the information God has put inside the stem cells. But our selfish need to control other people and force our moral code on them is having an adverse affect on the advancement of medicine.
tom felten on May 19, 2011 at 3:37 pm
zero_g, thanks for your comments. I know this is an emotional issue that can cause division. Please know that my desire is simply to address it from a biblical point of view. Just a few thoughts. Your opening line states, “I have a hard time telling someone else they should or should not do something.” If someone were standing before you, ready to inflict harm on your child, would you have a hard time telling them not to do it? Scripture tells us that we’re made in God’s image. So the sanctity of human life is God’s idea, not something we “selfishly” choose to foist on others. With the sanctity of life comes the acknowledgement that the wanton taking of human life, no matter how tiny, is wrong. It is sin. Regarding the idea that stem cell research has been severely limited due to “this emotional battle,” please thoughtfully read the following well-cited article from Probe Ministries: http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.5453473/k.FA41/What_Do_We_Make_of_the_Stem_Cell_Debate.htm What this and other credible sources reveal, is that while adult stem cell research has shown great potential, embryonic research has not. Thanks again for your comments. I look forward to your reply.
zero_g on May 19, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Hi Tom, you always have such well thought out replies. Thanks for all of them. Thanks for the link. It had a major bias but did have some good info.
The analogy of protecting my own child from harm does not really apply here, as we are talking about someone elses child. I hope I never get to the point where I think I can tell people what they should and shouldn’t do in such highly personal decisions like this.
Wanton is a harsh word here. I hardly doubt any woman ever takes this decision lightly. But it is their decision, and no one elses. You can grow in spirituality to the point of where you are equal footing with Jesus, and you still cannot make this decision for another person. What would He do? I think He would empathise with the woman and comfort her in what ever choice she made.
I see how you are trying to find where the Bible supports your view. In the end it is not your decision, it is her body, and all we can do is pray that she makes the right decision. Lets get out of His way and have faith the right decision will be made. God gave a mother the unique love of her own child so that we all can survive our early years. Lets get out of the way and let Him do His work.
tom felten on May 20, 2011 at 8:35 am
zero_g, thanks for you reply. What I was striving for you to see in the “child” illustration was two things: 1) There are moral choices that we must make that affect others; 2) That innocent life—human beings made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26)—created by Him should not be wantonly (deliberately) destroyed. Regarding your statement that I am “trying to find where the Bible supports you view”, I would say that I have strived to faithfully lift up what Scripture teaches—not my personal bias. With that in mind, I would ask you to provide the biblical basis for what you are espousing—a theology for why abortion is okay due to freedom of choice. Thanks so much!
zero_g on May 20, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Just as there is no clear statement that abortion is not okay, there is no clear statement that it is. Curiously abortion is not mentioned specifically in the Bible even though it was practiced long before it was written.
There are many places in the Bible where we are told not to judge others. Hebrews 10:30, Romans 14:10-13, 1 Corinthians 4:5. And of course Romans 3:23 really leaves us no right to say what is or is not ‘okay’.
tom felten on May 23, 2011 at 11:02 am
zero_g, there are plenty of things not mentioned in the Bible—embryonic stem cell research, same-sex “marriage”, human cloning, etc. God-honoring ethics, however, are determined not by the will of man or if things are or not mentioned in the Bible. They are determined by the the whole counsel of God—what He has revealed to us in the entirety of His Word.
Your citing of specific verses (proof texts) for not judging others is missing the contexts. What you appear to be saying by quoting these verses is that we should “tolerate” (accept, agree with) all sinful practices found in the world. In 1 Corinthians 5:2, Paul tells the church at Corinth to “remove” a man from fellowship who had been engaging in unrepentant sinful behavior. His practice was judged and found to be against God’s standard. We must faithfully hold up His standard—being salt and light in a world that desperately needs His light. Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying we should judge unbelievers. Paul tells us that God will do that (1 Corinthians 5:12). But it is important that we condemn sinful practices in the world based on what God’s Word teaches.
With that said, here’s a quote from respected author and pastor John Stott on why we must condemn the practice of abortion: “Any society which can tolerate [Abortion], let alone legislate for [it], has ceased to be civilised. One of the major signs of decadence in the Roman Empire was that its unwanted babies were ‘exposed’, that is abandoned and left to die. Can we claim that contemporary Western society is any less decadent because it consigns its unwanted babies to the hospital incinerator instead of the local rubbish dump? Indeed modern abortion is even worse than ancient exposure because it has been commercialised, and has become, at least for some doctors and clinics, an extremely lucrative practice. But reverence for human life is an indisputable characteristic of a humane and civilised society.”
It is vital that we lift up what God’s Word teaches “is or is not ‘okay.'”
zero_g on May 23, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Tom, I want you to know that I think abortion is a sin, and I hope no one reading this thread thinks that I condone it.
As Christians, we can model what God’s Word teaches us, but it is not our job to force these beliefs on other people. I believe we do God’s work when we have compassion and empathy for everyone for whatever they did and we don’t judge them.
We can lift up the Word all we want but none of us should claim we know the true meaning of any of this in the context of everyone else on this planet. There is a lot of good advice in the Bible, some clear, but most is not so clear. The best we can do is strive to apply it in our own lives using our own faithful interpretation.
The quotes you used which refered to the womb, were both in the context of God communicating pre-destiny to two different men. However, there are many points in the Bible which conflict with pre-destiny by stating we have freewill.
I can choose to interpret those passages about the womb as indicating how sacred human life is, or that some people are pre-distined, or that the knitting is a reference to our DNA. I think it means that we should look at everyone as being made in God’s image, and that includes the mother contemplating abortion.
tom felten on May 23, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Thanks for another thoughtful reply, zero_g. I know there is much we agree on, including our belief “that abortion is sin.” Another thing I’m sure we share is that any kind of attacks (verbal or physical) on those who engage in providing or receiving abortions is wrong and not Christlike. Where I feel we continue to differ is in our perspective of providing “compassion and empathy” to those “made in God’s image.” To speak the truth in love sometimes requires stating—winsomely and lovingly—things that are hard for others to hear. But to not state them would be unloving and not glorify God. The compassionate people who serve at the Pregnancy Resource Centers present the devastating and ugly effects of abortion on both the pregnant woman and her unborn baby, but they also compassionately reach out to her and reveal the deep love of Christ. Again, for those who have had an abortion, they don’t condemn them—but they point them to God’s grace and forgiveness.