Dennis L.
Finnan Commentator THE FORBIDDEN ZONE? “FEW WOULD HAVE BELIEVED IT, BUT WE’VE REACHED THE POINT WHERE HUMANITY MAY BE READY TO CROSS THE ‘FORBIDDEN ZONE’ OF LIFE GOD HAS PLANNED FOR US. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF WE VENTURE INTO THIS DANGEROUS AREA NEVER BEFORE TREAD?” I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about it… …Well now it’s time to pause and listen to our first musical interlude, then I will get to today’s important message I’ve entitled: THE FORBIDDEN ZONE. You’ll not want to miss this one so stay tuned… …Recently the news of the world burst with the announcement that scientists working privately, without government funding, successfully produced human embryos through human cloning. Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Worchester, Massachusetts, USA announced on November 25th, 2001 to have made this astounding breakthrough. Of course, on the news they announced the purpose was merely to produce life saving drugs and cells for the many diseased, handicapped and suffering peoples of the world, not an actual cloned human being. What are we to think? Have we reached the “Forbidden Zone,” of creating and manipulating of human life? Will we cross that threshold and find a new world of manmade and engineered soulless human beings? Is this the future for us? Will it be a “Pandora’s box” once opened? Will it bring disaster and unimaginable horror to human life? Well, after another pause we’ll continue our look at the forbidden zones of human life and engineering, we Christians, who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, must consider… …Human life is a precious thing! Not only because it is your possession and mine, but because of who we really are! According to evolutionary scientists and philosophers, mankind and our universe, is simply the product of blind chance happenings that sparked some random molecules of existence to form a new entity and began what we called today as life. Then, over millions and billions of years through no effort of intelligence, these molecules combined and recombined and brought us the highest intelligence of life, called humanity. Well, by now you know I don’t believe in fairy tales, or such a preposterous and foolhardy theory of origins such as this. Only an unreasoning, unthinking, and highly unintelligent being would even consider such a thought. Yet there it is. However those who are thinking human beings, can easily reason that the highly intelligent life we are, and the universe’s distinct and marvelous order, could have only come about by a “First Cause,” of immensely greater intelligence than we possess, which the Bible calls God! Why the Scriptures begin with this truth…
Yes, ten words that explain so much, and communicate the reality and only reasonable, intelligent and scientific explanation of who we are and what we are. Now to further define mankind, God said, Gen 1:26-28 (NASB) Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness… 27 And God created man in His own image… male and female He created them. 28 And God blessed them… In the beginning of time, we human beings were created fully whole and given a spark of divinity called intelligence and will. With this, we have subdued the earth and reached the pinnacle of life we have today ¾ all through the means of God’s reproductive plan for the continuance of human life ¾ the intimate physical love relationship of a man and a woman in a life-long covenant relationship before God and mankind. For tens of thousands of years we have reproduced by the only this means God has provided, that is, until now where mankind has reached the ability to reprogram, reengineer and reassemble life, and now even human life. Have we reached the point where we may cross into the FORBIDDEN ZONE God may not want us to venture into? If we do, will we find we’ve entered a new phase of existence that may bring us unmentionable problems, perhaps horrors unthinkable before? As reasoning human beings, Christians and non-Christians we must consider the possibilities before we move into such a “forbidden zone.” Now I’ll attempt to briefly touch areas I feel are forbidden zones of human life and existence, that I feel we should not venture into, and I’ll give you some simple reasons based on biblical principles and truths taught in the Word of God why. From there, you judge and act accordingly. Now first of all, this idea of human cloning, now possibly a reality, is simply the continued course of previously engineered principles of reproducing life on this planet. We begin with, 1. ARTIFICAL INSEMINATION – Scientists discovered awhile back, that they could gather sperm from a male species and implant it in a female from the same species to cause her to become pregnant. This practice is now common in animal husbandry, but also used in human situations where a couple is unable to produce children through God’s planned way of intimate love relationships. Already sperm banks have been established, where frozen sperms are kept for use by desiring couples. The problems with this are many. Living in an unprincipled, God rejecting society these sperm banks are available to unmarried women who want a baby without the help of a man. Now a woman can now pick out sperm with the genetic traits of a father they like. Perhaps the sperm donor is also highly intelligent, handsome, healthy and even popular. This produces “selective” breeding. Abuses are already rampant in society where unprincipled doctors have even sold their own sperms, falsely telling of their donor’s achievements and history. But what’s really wrong with artificial insemination is it bypasses and undermines the importance and sanctity of the marriage relationship. If a baby is produced by anyone other than the two people who will rear it, true love and sanctity can be lost. Many couples that have such children later fall into difficult times when the child displays traits unappreciated by the non-donor mate, and the wife begins a fascination and fanaticizing for the “real” father of her child. Furthermore, single woman wanting to get pregnant and raise a child is not God’s plan and greatly inhibits the growth of such children. The fact is, the Bible makes no provision for parenthood apart from a husband and wife relationship. Along with this comes the second concept of genetic engineering we have today called… 2. IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION – In this method, human life begins not in the womb of a woman, but in a petri dish in a laboratory. There, sperms and ova are placed together, where some of the eggs are fertilized and the blastocysts develop rapidly. The scientist then selects what he or she feels is the strongest cell unit and implants it into the uterus of a woman prepared for pregnancy by means of hormones. The percentage of implants even today, which is successful, is low and the procedure may have to be done often, to produce a healthy fetus that can grow within the mother. Now the problem here is similar to artificial insemination. The normal process of intimate physical relationships between a man and his wife is bypassed. Of course, if the sperm and egg used for this process are from the very couple to have the child, many feel what can be wrong? The answer is, it ignores the fact that God says human life begins at conception. Listen to the Bible, Psa 139:13-16 (NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Jer 1:5 (NASB) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” There are many other verse which tell us God “created” us and gives us life at the very moment of conception, the fertilization and division of cells in growth. Now some evangelical Christians believe life begins not at the moment the blastocysts form, but only when it is “implanted” and takes to the lining of the woman’s uterus. That seems reasonable to some, but friend, no Scripture can found to affirm this, as whereas, the idea of conception is found. Now, if conception is the beginning of life, that is when the sperm and egg combine and cells reproduce, then we must ask: “What happens to the many other embryos formed in the doctor’s petri dishes?” The answer is they are destroyed, or now used to harvest cells for scientific purposes. In other words, human life although in its earliest stages is still life from God ¾ the destruction of these embryos, either by harvesting cells, or just trashing them is the taking of human life! God says without question, Gen 9:6 (NASB) “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. Exo 20:13 (NASB) “You shall not murder. Human life is life, whether in its beginning stages or its last stage of existence called old age. For this reason, such medical techniques shouldn’t be used. If a couple wants a baby outside of the normal means God has provided, they should then adopt. Then both parents are on equal ground, and one is not left out which ultimately causes problems in later life and relationships. Now a third area of possible crossing of the “Forbidden Zone” of human life engineering is the attempt to create life for the purpose of human cloning. Now think. Why would anyone want to clone a human being? The only answers are: (1) To reproduce yourself for some personal gain, or (2) to reproduce certain life and gene traits to use for someone else’s gain! This is where we are today. 3. HUMAN ENGINEERING & CLONING – Cloning is the process of using artificial means to replicate an organism without the use of sexual procreation. This is done by nuclear transfer, that is, removing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg and replacing it with the nucleus of a somatic cell from a donor to be cloned. A somatic cell comes from skin or white blood cells, containing the donor’s DNA or genetic code. Then through a small electrical stimulus, the newly constructed cell divides beginning the development of a newly cloned human being. Today this is being touted as possible now for Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., has claimed to have done this within the confines of human life. They have created human embryos through this process, and stored them in their labs. The announcement made recently was that this was “only” for therapeutic not for reproductive cloning purposes. Is this good, right and proper? The answer is ¾ ALL human cloning is REPRODUCTIVE! Already, an embryo has been formed and as far as God is concerned, He has told us it is human life in its very beginning stages of existence. These doctors nobly say, they will use these cloned embryos and continue to make them for medical purposes and then destroy them. Great benefits and medical advances are said to come from such techniques. However, the truth already is this treatment for formation of human life is flawed and untruthful. According to Jamie Grifo, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology New York University, “There are too many things that can go wrong.” Human embryo cloning is desired for one purpose ¾ to produce stem cells for research all over again, not to mention some unethical scientist will undoubtedly attempt to implant one of these embryos in a woman to produce a fully grown human life! The issue is again, the SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE! What’s more. cloning techniques are not presented in their true light. When Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned, we were not told that 277 sheep embryos were used before nuclear-fusion was successful. This means that 276 sheep embryos were destroyed because of complications before one sheep could grow to completion. A human embryo cloning process could conceivably require not hundreds, but thousands of human embryos to successfully, if at all possible, implant a viable human life in the uterus and grow it to completion. So what’s wrong here? (1) CLONING IS THE TAMPERING
WITH GOD’S PROCESS OF PROCREATING HUMAN LIFE AND DOES IT FOR SCIENTIFIC AND
HUMAN GAIN. (3) IT VIOLATES THE GOD GIVE RIGHT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL TO BE
UNIQUE. Human life is precious, sacred and personal, for it is a creation in the image of God, who alone has the right to determine how HIS IMAGE is formed and reproduced. His Word, the Bible, tells us that only through a committed lifelong relationship should a child be brought into this world. Admittedly, this is ideal. Many children come into this world through other means such as adultery, fornication, and now artificial creation of a human embryo from donors other than the couple or woman who brings the life to fullness for birth. None the less, such a child is God’s image and precious in His sight and deserves all the love, care and affection it can be provided. This is why ADOPTION is so important for couples to consider if they cannot reproduce through the means God’s has provided. Surrogate motherhood, “rented” wombs, and other means only end in trouble and disaster. The newspapers are full of stories of battles between such gestation means, and whose child is it really that forms and grows? Now in the procreation of life, especially in the scientific laboratory through this artificial means called cloning, if such an embryo is not destroyed for stem cell research as planned; and, finally is implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother, will it be real human life, or a soulless being? Well, I’ve answered this before in precious broadcasts (THE CLONING OF JESUS #4600 & THE CLONING DILEMMA #1997) which you can access on the Internet; But, suffice it to say once life begins, it is by God’s plan and permission and is no less a life than formed by the normal process of procreation. Yes, all human life exists in the image of God. A cloned human being, if possible, may look identical to the cell donor, but still it will be a unique individual, having its own desire to be such. Herein is much of the problems associated with the idea of cloning a human being. (1) No one wants to be forced into the lifestyle and image of another. Every child resists the idea of being just like Dad and fulfilling life as he did. Why? Because God has made us in His image, which implies sovereignty and individuality. Secondly, (2) A cloned human being would probably find life most confusing, frustrating, and perhaps unfulfilling for being kept from being all that God wants them to be ¾ an individual expressing their own unique personality. Lastly, (3) a cloned human being was formed only for one reason ¾ to be the “gain” of the one who donated the cells, or reproduced the embryo in the lab. No human life is to be used for another’s purpose! The only use of human life is for the pleasure, plan and purposes of God. We belong to no other. The Bible says, Ezek 18:4 (NASB) “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine… Rev 4:11 (NKJV) “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will [pleasure] they exist and were created.” As it stands now, we are on the verge of crossing what may well be the FORBIDDEN ZONE of human life by our tampering engineering. Where we go from here may bring us into a world that we cannot turn back from; a world of manipulated human life; a world of possible grossly deformed life and living; a world where true love, care and concern born in the nucleus of a monogamous loving family is forever lost. If so, such life will be cheap, expendable, valueless, and meaningless and the world will have reached its lowest ebb of depravity. However, I think at that point God will step in before such things happen. In fact, He did so years ago. We read in the Bible, Gen 11:6-7 (NASB) And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” Gen 6:3 (NASB) Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” Gen 6:5-7 (NASB) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 And the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” Admittedly, I’ve put together two sections of Scripture that are not in context. However, the concept is! God watches over mankind to see what we will do with what we are and His plans revealed to us. If we begin to abuse them, use them wickedly and selfishly. If we begin to manipulate God’s basic plan for humanity and life, we cross the FORBIDDEN ZONE God has struck in our world. Long ago mankind crossed it, due to great wickedness and full rejection of God’s right to rule humanity. In the Noahic Flood, God destroyed the entire world! In the time of the building of the Tower or Babel, God scattered all the peoples and changed their entire language so all had to start over. Will God do the same if we cross the threshold of this Forbidden Zone in human engineering of life? Well Scripture tells us, indeed God will intercede and intervene. One day coming God has promised His wrath will be flashed across our universe and world, as God judges rebellious sinful humanity that wants to be their own gods. A time called the Tribulation Period, the world will for seven years, experience 21 judgments from God that will bring us to our knees. Humanity will be judged for all its evil and wicked deeds and ways, and God will takeover and bring in a new world and universe only for those who have surrendered to Him through His Son Jesus Christ, the infinite God/Man who came to earth to die for our sins. Say, have you received Him? Have you acknowledged that God has a right to rule your life and this world by His revealed Word, the Bible? Are you living according to His ethics and principles? Or have you thrown them off as the majority have, and laugh at them? Are you living as if you are your own god? If so, a time is coming and cloning if possible may be the crossing of the forbidden zone, which triggers Gods intervention, that will begin with the RAPTURE homegoing of the Church of Jesus Christ. From that point on, all who are left will come under God’s fearful judgments. But now can make such things right. Yes, right now by turning your heart over to God through Jesus Christ by acknowledging Him as your Creator and Sustainer, God will accept you. Will you acknowledge Him as your Savior from your sins? The Bible says He died for you and upon receiving Him into your heart, mind and life, God will forgive you all your sins, and reserve a place in haven for you for all eternity. That my friend is the Good News of the Bible, and the message of the Christian faith. It is our prayer here at the broadcast that everyone listening will in light of our world and our lives acknowledge Christ in this manner and join His “forever” family of God. May this be true regardless of the tremendously remarkable things that are happening in our world today… …Well friends, you’ve been listening to another radio talk by this speaker, Dennis Finnan, and I trust it has been helpful to you in many ways. This new push to “clone” human life either for therapeutic or reproductive purposes I believe is wrong, and all who agree must say so now to our American legislature before further abuses appear. Write and call congress and tell them its time we pass some laws forbidding Human cloning, and the production of and continued push for Stem Cell . These both I believe are attempts to cross God’s forbidden zone of human reproductive life and may carry heavy consequences. · Radio talk #5201research · Broadcast date: December 30, 2001 · Speaker: Dennis L. Finnan, Commentator · Program: The World, the Word & You! Radio Broadcast · Address: P.O. Box 40133 Grand Junction, CO 81504 The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries are not exhaustive studies of any particular subject due to the time limit of broadcasting. Actual broadcasts can be heard in selected areas around the nation, as funding provides. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for over 22 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are actual radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of recent messages is available upon request also. Want to Help? If you've been blessed and
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