Artifice Sex and Marriage Purity

This installment is a continuation of my series addressing embryo transfer. It is astonishing the rapidity with which worldly innovations find their way into the church. Yet another has made inroads into Christ's body, specifically among younger married Christian couples.

The impact of this technology on Christian marriages is one of the most troubling I have ever had to think about, research and write on. The alarm and questions it raises are myriad. In this installment, I have focused on what I believe is the top tier issue.

We have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Colossians 1:9

Love Of Novelties

"Test Tube babies", now rebranded In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), has been a significant issue since it came on the scene in America in the 1980's. Embryo transfer came shortly afterward, and marks the first time since the beginning of creation that a woman became pregnant with a child she did not engender.

From nearly five decades of observing the arrival of various novelties, I find the most dangerous are the ones that come via the front door of the church, i.e., those promoted by Christians and church leaders in articles, podcasts and books as morally good, even a duty.

Often this is the result of fragmented thinking or shortsightedness. Both occur when thinking is unhitched from God's Word, and in this case, promoting and subjecting Christian marriages to a grand experiment -- with no idea of the potential consequences on those young marriages. In my opinion, the church is being played. This embryo transfer (or so-called embryo "adoption"), ranks up there as one of the most damaging to the body of Christ. Why is this?

In The Crosshairs

The unbelieving world has two primary targets in its crosshairs: The first is the Word of God, the second is marriage. This strategy may be traced back to the garden, when the first such attacks occurred.

Satan's plan was to attack the Word of God, while simultaneously taking aim at the marriage institution. "Indeed, has God said...?" (Genesis 3:1), was the attack launched on the authority of God. The temptation laid before the first man and woman was to usurp that authority. The failure that followed occurred when Adam did indeed place himself above his Creator and His Word.

The next domino to fall was marriage. The husband failed to protect his wife against the lie, thus bringing dividing corruption into their marriage relationship. The result? "The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked." (Genesis 3:7). The covenant of marriage was broken, purity was replaced with shame. The marital division this caused became immediately evident (cf. Genesis 3:12).

Satan knew that twisting God's Word would, if believed, have a devastating impact on the marriage. This became the blueprint for future attacks.

That same strategy is in play today: Twist the Word, ignore its commands and its foundational principles, which inevitably leaves marriages vulnerable. The success of this is now seen in how many Christian couples have embraced an aberrant technology and brought it into their most intimate, God-ordained relationship.

Techno Attack

Many attacks have come on marriage since the garden. Modernity has brought assaults such as redefining marriage and family, cohabitation, no fault divorce, etc. These, one could say, come up hard against marriage. However, this attack is different -- very different.

The plan? Confuse the divine creational order and launch an arrow of division (by way of technology and calling it healthcare), aimed squarely at and into the very heart of Christian marriage. This arrow literally injects something sexually foreign into the midst of the marriage covenant, and separates the physical and spiritual bond between the exclusive one man, one woman, husband and wife relationship.

More importantly, this arrow corrupts in the most vulgar of ways: The sacred imagery of Christ's intimate relationship to His bride the church.

Catholic 1, Protestant 0

During my research, I surveyed many articles and essays on embryo transfer from the past couple of decades. To my chagrin, what became apparent is that our Catholic friends are further ahead in recent writings regarding the Biblical understanding, ethical moral concern and illicit use of this technology than protestant evangelicals (example).

I am not suggesting Catholics are unified; nevertheless, from what I have read, some are more honest with their handling of Scripture, and exhibit a willingness to ask hard questions and to state clear conclusions -- more so than many evangelical Christians. And I will add, to their shame, the Reformed camp is nearly silent!

Scripture is not ambiguous. It speaks clearly regarding the boundaries of marriage and procreation. There is no Scriptural parallel or principle to support embryo transfer. It is astonishing that Christians promoting the use of this technology do not see, or willfully refuse to see what the Bible actually says.

Baseline

Here, to clearly state my three presuppositions and the basis for this article, are the following: First, Scripture is true and perfect in its totality, trustworthy in its essence, right in its contents, and pure, clean and enduring in its nature (cf. Psalms 19:7-9). The unchangeableness of God's character and thereby His Word, is simply stated in Malachi 3:6: “For I, Yahweh, do not change" (cf. John 1:1-2; Hebrews 13:8).

Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one!

Deuteronomy 6:4

Therefore, the inscripturated Word of God has coherence and continuance by which comes the "full knowledge of Him." In other words, it is His Word that He established as our standard -- comprehensively so: "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). His Word, then, is our singular source for wisdom and prudence. It is the unchangeableness of this standard on which my second and third presuppositions rest.

Next, the attributes and structure of the marriage covenant are fixed. This covenant was put into place by Yahweh God for His glory and our good. The husband and wife are to order their life, relationship and family to His covenant. In other words, marriage comes with duties and obligations. By God's grace, the man and his wife are to carry out their responsibilities with willful joy (cf. Malachi 2:14; Proverbs 2:17; Romans 7:2).

Finally, nothing has changed regarding the marriage institution itself since creation. Marriage, as defined in the garden -- in essence, in fidelity, in nature and purposes -- endures. This relational design remains the same throughout the entirety of human existence. It is an institution of faithfulness that is constant, and is the mold to which every marriage relationship is to conform.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 2:24

The wedding day is that moment of solemnity of the binding of one man and one woman, who obligate themselves, with God as their witness, to this covenant. The vows exchanged are their willful consent and lifelong commitment to the creational covenant, exclusivity and purity of their marriage relationship (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:2). These constitute Yahweh God's creational norm.

Confused Issues

The nearly singular focus of many protestant writings regarding the issue at hand is the tragedy, or plight, of unused frozen embryos (example). There is no dispute regarding the horrific result of IVF. And because these embryos are considered life on ice, there exists a problem that needs fixing; therefore, something should be done to rescue them (as the reasoning goes). So over the course of time, a solution was forwarded: Christian couples should "adopt" and give these embryos an opportunity to fully live.

Surplus embryos are not a "problem" but a "grave moral crisis."

Matthew Lee Anderson

A major problem with employing the word "adopt" is that it serves only to glaze over the moral implications of what is being forwarded. Further, this conclusion assumes that Christians have a responsibility regarding the result of someone else's sin. To put it another way: Does sinful man thus become the savior, with the authority and ability to remediate a corrupt, man-devised experimentation on human life, regardless of what God's Word says?

What this solution glaringly fails to consider is the impact it will have on the creational institution of marriage itself. The irony is that the very technology that produces this moral quagmire is now being promoted by Christians as the cure!

Being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 1:8

Proponents fail to understand that this technology is not morally neutral. Simply referring to it as "medical science" or "healthcare" only gives it the appearance of neutrality -- when in fact, the immorality of this technology should be obvious by its very process and what it produces.

This has led to confusion and a failure to understand the gravitas of what they are promoting, that is, encouraging young Christian couples to invite immorality into the sanctity of their marriage, thereby bringing sexual defilement into the relationship.

Nuance Dance

Leaders write with compassion about frozen embryos; however, their compassion circumvents thinking and understanding. They confidently write on this issue, yet fail to understand the very issue of which they write.

There is no nuancing around this issue. Many have tried. In my first article "Snowflake babies," I intentionally chose to be plain in my word choices because of the moral confusion that abounds all around us today -- with Christian leaders and Christian social media adding to that confusion.

Too often, their writings are myopic and inevitably subject Scripture to human reasoning.

It is imperative, then, to adequately comprehend what God says, to see this technology for what it truly involves; and further, for Christian leaders to speak and write with clear and plain language.

The Necessity Of Understanding

The first and foremost of Yahweh God's creational institutions is marriage and its sacredness, as found in the book of beginnings: Genesis 1:26 records for us three unchangeable words, "Then God said." Once spoken, nothing can unsay His decree. The weight and power of those three words are the same that uphold all creation (cf. Colossians 1:17).

The sacred union of marriage has existed, in all times and in all cultures throughout the millennia since those words in Genesis were spoken. Further, the Church has widely understood the importance of genuine marriage as the preservation and foundation of a healthy, functioning church and society.

To adequately comprehend the essence of marriage, we must return to the garden. The nature of man, woman, wedding, marriage consummation and birthing children were all included in Yahweh's pronunciation: "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).

What Yahweh God created was beautiful, right and a delight. Each of these depict purity -- the very best. When God creates, He creates with excellence. Nothing more need be added in order to improve it. Nor should anything be taken away. Marriage, then, between one man and one woman, was His crowning achievement, "behold, it was very good."

Reading further in Genesis, Yahweh declares the permanence, the purity and perfection of this relationship: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:24-25). Yahweh established a oneness in that moment, that came to be known as "holy matrimony." Or better stated, the covenant of marriage.

Covenantal commitment means marriage is a sacred bond, structured by God and witnessed by God.

Dr. Richard Phillips

The Creator of this covenant is the one who has the authority over that covenant -- and is the only one who defines its structure. In other words, no one, including the husband and wife, is free to design or arrange their marriage any way they please.

Union Of Purity

This new oneness relationship created on the wedding day is widely understood for its exclusivity. In other words, the man is to "cleave to his wife." Nothing and no one is to come between the man and his wife "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate" (Matthew 19:6).

When the words of Hebrews 13:4 are included, the priority of purity in marriage dramatically stands out: "Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled, for the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge."

Consider next Ephesians 5:31-32, where the profundity of this relationship in its magnitude is revealed. Paul, the author of the letter to the Ephesians, greatly elevated the sacred intent and bond of marriage: "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church" (emphasis in the original).

Paul gave us a glimpse into the wonder of wonders. Yahweh's creation of marriage was to provide us a better understanding regarding the bond of intimacy in Christ's relationship to His bride the "church." This bride, who was protected and prepared, also causes rejoicing because the "bride has made herself ready." This celebration, as recorded in Revelation 19:7-8, is one of purity.

The moment the Holy Spirit generates life in the sinner is the moment that person enters into the sacred intimate spiritual union with his or her Savior. The moment the man and woman say "I do," they too have entered into a sacred union -- that being a picture of something greater.

Taken as a whole, purity is at issue: Purity physically, mentally and spiritually. Nothing in all creation is to come between the Christian and the Savior, nor the husband and his wife. The marriage relationship must exclude anyone or anything that would violate that purity and their covenant commitment to their Creator God.

Change With Time?

As stated above in my Baseline, the attributes and structure of the marriage institution are known for its continuance. Paul's words in Ephesians 5 enhance the unchangeableness of God's created order. Simply put, it endures for all time.

You may ask, "but did not change come as a result of man's fall into sin?" Yes and no. Genesis 3 clearly lays out how trials and pains will come into marriage. Living out and maintaining a marriage, then, will be difficult. However, the essence and purpose of marriage as the creational norm and the covenant relationship remain untouched. Therefore, the importance of sanctity and purity of marriage remains unchanged.

The grass withers,
And the flower falls off,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.

1 Peter 1:24-25

The Christian's pushback against the fall, as some would say, is the husband and wife's ongoing commitment to their marriage, thus restoring (though dimly), the wonder and beauty intended for marriage that began in the garden.

Consider the testimony of Christian couples married thirty, forty or fifty years. They will tell you of an unmatched, ever increasing depth of love when marriage is held in high honor (cf. Hebrews 13:4a). These are couples with a lifetime of remaining true to their vows and God's timeless marriage covenant. This is their Christlike testimony that is spoken of in Ephesians 5.

Fake v. Real

Admittedly, addressing the issue of embryo transfer here becomes difficult. It is incumbent on the Christian to understand the technology that has come upon us, that IVF is artificially manipulative to its very core. This artificiality carries over to the unnatural injecting of an embryo created from the sexual organs of another woman and man into a woman who has no engendering connection. That woman we are considering, the recipient, is a married woman -- someone else's wife.

There are many critical questions to raise, not the least of which is: Who is actually impregnating the wife? It is not her husband, for sure. The impregnator then, is the clinician or doctor! How then is this not a sexual act? Is it not a sexual act simply because a medical device is being used to perform the sexual act of impregnating?

Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:18

In fact, a form of illicit sexual intercourse, by the insertion of sperm and egg, has taken place on the clinic table between the doctor and another man's wife. This other person, whether a man or woman, is usurping the natural function of insemination that belongs solely to the husband.

Are there not four people represented in this impregnating process -- the wife, the man from whom the sperm came, the woman from whom the egg came, and the impregnating doctor? This defines immorality.

Approved Failure

And what is the husband's role in this? Does his presence at that moment next to the clinic table change any of the above? Is not the husband, in fact, sitting by, with approval, witnessing his wife's womb being sexually violated? Has not the husband at this very moment, failed to "cleave" and caused them to "separate"?

Since he, the husband, escorts his wife into the clinic "bedroom," to submit the exclusivity of her body in the most intimate way, and therefore their marriage relationship, to the intrusion of an artificial sexual device wielded by a person alien to that relationship -- could this not be considered an act of adultery, or at the very least, infidelity fully sanctioned by the husband? Four indicting words come to mind: "What have you done?" (Genesis 4:10).

Yahweh has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Malachi 2:14

Where does this leave marriage's "one flesh"? This indeed causes a separation and a division sown within the relationship at the most basic, personal level. How exactly, then, has the husband protected his marriage bed from defilement (cf. Hebrews 13:4)?

The sobering reality is, this husband is not protecting his wife when he permits the semen (seed) from another man by way of an embryo, to invade the body, the very being of his wife. This is in direct opposition to the specific prohibition against such illicit acts (cf. Leviticus 18:20).

There is grosser impurity in adultery, because the sanctity of marriage is violated, and by the commingling of seed a spurious and illegitimate offspring is derived.

John Calvin

How is the husband not guilty of perfidy regarding his marriage vows?

Erroneous Assumption

So where does this leave marriage purity? The above are hard but fair questions when the assumption is made that the clinic office, the doctor and the procedure are morally neutral. When the label "healthcare" is applied, are we therefore to park our minds and relegate God's Word to the back lot?

When neutrality of new technology is assumed, thus exempting it from Scriptural scrutiny, man's word will in time usurp the Word of God entirely. Apart from the clear Word, we will lose the ability to see and think clearly.

Forever, O Yahweh,
Your word stands firm in heaven.

Psalms 119:89

For example: What exactly is the difference between a fertility (IVF) clinic, an embryo adoption clinic and an abortion clinic? There is none. All are referred to as "healthcare," all take place in a clinic, all violate a woman's womb and all are covered in the blood from the death of the unborn! And yet, promoters of embryo transfer cannot see this.

IVF and embryo transfer are not medicine -- they have no property of curing or mitigating disease or correcting an abnormality. In other words, if there is implantation, has the infertile couple now become fertile? Clearly, this technology has not healed anyone, nor corrected or aided in the return of one's body back to its creational, normative function.

In fact, what this technology does is break marriage down into a series of separate, disconnected sexual acts, with the use of devices by other people outside the marriage, and inserts them into the marriage. It falsifies and separates the true nature and intent of the intimate sexual life of a married couple as commanded by Yahweh God. Therefore, IVF and embryo transfer are a direct violation of Matthew 19:6.

Scandalized Conscience

Is embryo transfer truly God's design for families? Has not modernity reduced conception and birthing to mere reproduction, i.e., getting a baby as a chosen technical project? Is this what any Christian couple should be doing whether childless or wanting to save an embryo? And, what are we to think when the embryo during the transfer (from thaw to implantation to miscarriage) fails and dies, is not the couple now complicit in that death?

More compelling questions: Do childless couples have a God-given right to have a baby? Are Christian couples to take supremacy to themselves by their own authority and violate Yahweh God's creational order, the marriage covenant and the marriage relationship in order to save an embryo?

Embryo transfer, saving a life as promoted, is the result of compassion over thinking which then becomes a misplaced motive. When the established creational norm is bypassed in order to find a solution to a previous evil committed by someone else, it simply becomes a situation of "the end justifies the means."

Further, how does this not deform our understanding of family relationships and parenthood, and our understanding of what is a mother and father when birthing a child who has no biological connection to the husband or wife? With IVF and embryo transfer, the spontaneity and mystery of procreation is a total loss.

What has happened to our conscience?

The bond of natural necessity which tied sexual union to engendering children, engendering to pregnancy, pregnancy to a relationship with the child, gave us the foundation of our knowledge of human relationships.

Oliver O'Donovan

Consumerism Run Amok

One does not need to be a "moral philosopher" to see the implications of the fake, of how this technology is intended to replace the real. There is something horribly wrong with this picture. No Christian leader, pastor or any other Christian for that matter, has fully explained how this is not dehumanizing to its core! Or, how it does not commodify the life of a baby. They ignore the former and in fact have admitted to the latter.

What has become clear is that not only does embryo qualitative selection process take place during IVF, but it takes place again in the course of embryo transfer. This smacks of consumerism. Couples scroll through lists of embryo traits and make choices as if they are selecting a new car. The couple is the customer, a contract is signed, money is exchanged and the embryo bank supplies the goods and services, thus completing the transaction.

This is shameful and utterly reprehensible. Nuancing will not change what is taking place: A baby is chosen for certain valued characteristics and then purchased. This defines inhumanus! Human life becomes fully commodified; thus, the promoters of embryo transfer have conceded any claim to moral high ground.

C. Everett Koope, M.D. and Francis Schaeffer were exactly right in 1983 to title their book, Whatever Happened to the Human Race? They predicted this exact thing over 40 years ago -- the choosing of which babies [embryos] are worthy of life.

In treating the human embryo as mere "laboratory material" to be bought and sold, is this not the degradation of the God-given moral value of life itself? Life now has no sanctity. And shockingly, this ethical collapse has been welcomed into the church.

Christians must see how sinful man has misused the gifts and skills he has received from God to develop a technology that attacks His Word, creation and marriage. It is a wholesale rejection of the Creator and His natural law that is replaced by man with a fake. How so?

Designed To Replace

The entire embryo transfer process is insidious. It is emotionally manipulative in how it is presented, and uses faulty reasoning to justify circumventing that which is intended to be precious and exclusive to a husband and wife.

Why are Christians so unwilling to fully acknowledge the inappropriateness of such technical intervention -- the very process developed by secular man to transform and free himself from the limits placed on him by his Creator?

This is not the same kind of technology that gave us cars or cell phones. From the beginning of its development, this technology is man's attempt to redefine a mother, a father, a family. Moreover, it redefines what it means to be a human being, an image-bearer, a person whom God breathed life into and gave a soul (cf. Genesis 2:7).

We are talking about man, woman, child, beings begotten of God and created in His image. Not just biological things. It is man's sinful desire to deny his Creator and His sovereign right over His creation.

The people this most adversely impacts is married Christian couples of child-bearing age. It is the result of the church buying into a godless, materialistic and relativistic world view.

What Ever Happened to Wisdom?

Are not older, supposedly wiser Christian leaders and pastors under obligation to Biblically prepare themselves to address questions and issues such as this from the flock? (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:1) As one Puritan stated, "the lips of ministers should keep knowledge."

Leaders who promote embryo transfer or those who choose to not speak regarding the dangers, are they not setting up the younger, less experienced Christians to fail? For sure, young married couples bear responsibility for their decisions. But, shepherds are to guide, warn and protect.

Deficiencies in understanding the most basic creational design of marriage, coupled with the lack of Biblical thinking, leads to this kind of disaster. We have indeed lost our minds!

Real v. Fake

What then, constitutes the real? Looking to Genesis 4:1, we are given a clear physical image of God's design: "Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth." Pictured here is one man and one woman, married, the "man knew his wife." Adam physically, sexually entered into the body of his wife, Eve.

Each were created with anatomical bodies designed for conjugal intercourse. The seed produced by the husband/Adam was placed inside his wife/Eve, by him, causing her pregnancy -- "she conceived and gave birth." This is procreation as Yahweh God intended, as He designed. Therefore Eve proclaimed, “I have gotten a man with the help of Yahweh.” Genesis 4:1

This is consistent with Genesis 1:28; "God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply'" (emphasis added). Therefore, only the husband has the God-given right to enter into and impregnate his wife! Any other process apart from this constitutes an illicit act of sex.

Then, in the story of Ruth, God's creational perfection may be seen in its sheer simplicity: "So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And Yahweh granted her conception, and she gave birth to a son" (Ruth 4:13).

Here we see the man and woman coming together in marriage as husband and wife, their sexual intimacy and the child born is "granted" to them. This is a gift from Yahweh, just as it was in the beginning. The child from that union was one in essence to the parents, both biologically and spiritually. The child from that union truly was the living result of the man and woman becoming one flesh. This story captures the authenticity of marriage and family.

To whom can we be more firmly bound than the fathers that begat us and the mothers that bore us?

Matthew Henry

This is the real. Beautiful to behold. Blessed is the man, the woman, the marriage and the engendered children they bear (cf. Genesis 1:26-28).

Just as in God's direct involvement in creating life, so in the act of procreation is the direct involvement of the husband and wife to be mirrored. It is a sad commentary when this must be spelled out in such basic details to Christians. No one questioned the normalcy of this until now.

Nothing Separate

A husband and wife have consented to, given themselves to this relational bond that is never to be interrupted. Jesus reaffirmed this with a definitive statement regarding the creational order in his chastisement of religious leaders who wanted to excuse themselves from God's standard in Matthew 19:4-6: "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

Taken as a whole, Jesus elevated marriage to its proper place. We must not miss the thrust of His point that no man, including the husband, is to cause a separation between the man and his wife. Jesus clearly expressed the essence of marriage and the intimate oneness that marriage is. There is a holy beauty in this picture.

Now, bring to mind the words of Paul from Ephesians 5. Here at this moment a great mystery comes into view: "I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:32).

This gives weight to Paul's admonition stated earlier in that chapter to husbands directly: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless" (Ephesians 5:25-27).

Husbands are to follow Christ, and not Adam's example, as the protector of purity. The husband is commanded to cover, shield and guard his wife from deception, danger and injury, to defend and preserve her purity, and therefore the oneness of his marriage; and by so doing, fulfill the divine covenant.

This is the sanctifying and cleansing that Paul speaks of. How does the husband accomplish this? With the Word. The husband's goal and intent should be to present his wife in glory as holy and blameless. As the husband, it is incumbent on him to know the Word in order to apply the Word.

This is what is real: A husband who is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his wife, his marriage, and thereby God's created order.

Warned We Were

When the Bible is not taught as the definitive divine standard for marriage, and is presented merely as a pattern for marriage generally, it is just another way of saying that there is no standard, and the Bible is simply a book of suggestions.

The issues I put forth are not new. A critical overview of this technology began as a series of lectures, now written in book form in Oliver O'Donovan's "Begotten or Made?". In the early 1980's he raised many of these same questions that need to be asked again today.

We were given warnings. We were admonished to think. Yet, over four decades later, here we are.

We are repeatedly warned about the deceitfulness of our own hearts, the strategies of the devil, and the enticements of the world.

Dr. Tom Ascol

As previously stated, the impact of this technology is aimed at young Christian couples. The stories of devastation brought on young marriages have begun to pile up. When young Christians are encouraged to depart from the historical, creational design, we have to admit that what lies ahead will not be good. I fear that if this continues in the long term, this period will become a point in church history marked for its immense damage to Christian marriages and "Christ and the church."

A Call To Think

When it comes to marriage, the sacred intimacy of sexual union, conception and birthing of children, all shared exclusively between a married man and his wife, God is the only one who determines what is real, and therefore what is normal. It is His standard by which we are to measure the natural in all of life. The imperative, then, is to think, and to apply that standard.

As we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Think on this. We know, and are quick to say, that same-sex marriage is a myth, a fake. It violates God's institutional design. It is obviously not normal. We can say the same when someone attempts using medical technology to change their gender. It is not normal. The natural is unchangeable. Reality cannot be set aside, nor should it be attempted.

Should we not, then, hold ourselves to that same unchangeable normative design in procreation? Is not the separation, the removing of the sex act of impregnation from the husband and giving it to others also abnormal? Does this not depart from the same natural creational design -- the singular design blessed by Yahweh God?

When we affirm the former, yet deny the latter, how have we not become duplicitous and therefore inconsistent in our thinking?

Too many Christians have adopted a bipolar mindset (cf. James 1:5-8), in promoting the same technology they condemn and accuse others of dehumanizing and commodifying babies -- yet then do the same during the embryo transfer. Further, they denounce the death of embryos caused by IVF, but remain silent when an embryo dies during the embryo transfer process. This is mindless reasoning, and relativistic at its base.

The call, then, is to think Biblically, or as some have said, "Think Christianly." This must be proclaimed loud and clear. Right thinking must be anchored to a standard. Only one person has the right to determine that standard: That is the prerogative of a sovereign God, the owner of creation. He alone has the exclusive authority to determine what is right and good for His creatures.

Tragic

There is no dispute that leftover IVF embryos kept in a frozen state is tragic, and further, what God-hating men are doing with them only adds to the depth of this tragedy. This should grip the heart of every Christian. The abuse, the bloodletting of this and of abortion at the hands of man will be rightly judged.

So how do we address the downstream horror of this artificial technology that produces countless unused embryos? Next is the question, do Christians have a moral responsibility to provide a remedy for this crisis? We must begin by calling it for what it is, "a grave moral crisis."

I believe within every Christian there is a God-given desire to do something to stop such evil. But, and this is a big "but" -- Christians themselves cannot violate God's Word by ignoring His design, that which He has determined as real, natural and normal, in an attempt to mitigate or correct someone else's sin, regardless of how sincere one may be.

When man desires to play god with someone else's life, it does not give us the right to do the same. Rather, we are to weep, lament and seek the only One who is able to stop such evil.

There Is Hope

We know that, not unlike the death of an aborted baby whose life we cannot bring back, the evil of frozen embryos is beyond us to fix (cf. 2 Samuel 12:23). This is not passivity. It is dependence. Yahweh is a God we can trust with these countless lives frozen. There is hope for these little ones. Our God is a saving God and from His graciousness He is able to make them whole and give them the full life we denied them.

Now is the time we must face our complicity and speak the repentant words of king David "I have sinned against Yahweh." Sorrow, Godly sorrow, must now come forth as we take these voiceless lives and return them to the dust and into the hands of our gracious God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Matthew 5:8

Echoes From The Past

Today the words of Satan can still be heard, "Indeed, has God said?" This is the attack. Modern technology is not exempt from being used as a weapon to cause doubt. Fail here at this point, and the tipping of the dominoes begins. Adam and Eve doubted the Word, justified themselves and then acted. This sin brought down their marriage and the whole of humanity.

The words God put forth beginning in the garden are coherent, by which He firmly established their continuance until the end of time. Doubting His Word takes on many forms, and invariably brings with it disorder and confusion.

This is precisely where we are today. What should be plain in our thinking becomes a scramble. The actual simplicity in which marriage is presented to us is a wonder to behold. There is no justification for tinkering with the marriage institution. We must recognize the damage that is being inflicted on young marriages.

More importantly, the greater truth is that of Christ and His bride. This alone provides enough reason to guard the purity of marriage. It has been said that faithful marriages are the single greatest gospel testimony of Jesus Christ to an unbelieving world.

When modernity comes upon us with so much shifting sand, we can be thankful for the firm, never changing Word: "The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple" (Psalms 19:7). We are a simple people needing guidance. His perfect Word, then, is indeed our singular source for wisdom and prudence.

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the way of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of Yahweh,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Psalms 1:1-3