The Embryonic Stem Cell Debate

 am typing this article up on 11/2/06. As you all know, we have major elections set for next week – 11/7/06.

One of the issues that has risen to the surface as a result of what is happening in the race in the state of Missouri is the debate on embryonic stem cell research. Missouri has an Amendment coming up for vote. This amendment is known as Amendment 2. This amendment is basically ensuring Missouri patients will have access to stem cell therapies and cures if found in other states.

This amendment if passed, will make it clear that any stem cell research and cures permitted by federal law will continue to be allowed in the state of Missouri as long as those activities are conducted ethically and legally. They believe that embryonic stem cells have the potential to treat and/or cure diseases and injuries such as diabetes, cancers, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, heart disease, burns, and spinal cord injuries.

If this initiative is passed, it will just make it easier for residents to have their injuries treated by stem cells as long as these treatments are allowed by federal law. It will also help and assist with the different medical institutions in finding new stem cell cures, along with providing strict and clear guidelines as to what they can and cannot do with this type of research and testing.

What has added some major fuel to this fire is that famous actor Michael J. Fox made a major, public, commercial endorsing the passing of this amendment and casting his support for the Democrat nominee, Claire McCaskill, as she is for this amendment, while her Republican opponent, Jim Talent, is directly opposing it.

Popular radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh then criticized Michael J. Fox for getting into the middle of all this and before we knew it, a major fire storm erupted over this whole debate.

For those of you who have been following all of this, you know that this debate has become very heated and very controversial due to all of the ethical and moral issues that have to be taken into consideration with this type of research. Many conservative Christians have come out very strongly and very passionately against this amendment and this type of research. As a result, we now have a major divide in this country over this type of research.

What I have found from asking many people what their personal opinion is on all of this is that they really did not fully understand what is really going on with this type of research. Their initial reactions and leanings were that they thought it all sounded very good due to the potential benefit that could arise out of this research if it turns out to be successful down the road.

For those of you who do not have a full grasp or a full understanding on exactly what is going on with this type of research, I thought I would draw this article up for all of you so that you can have a very good play-by-play account of what really goes on in these labs when they start to try and experiment with embryonic stem cells for the purpose of trying to find cures for many of our disabling diseases.

Many people have had a hard time in trying to understand all of this due to a lot of the scientific and technical language that is being used to describe the actual procedure itself. But do not be put off by all of this. This is actually very easy to understand once you fully understand the basic terminology being used and exactly what is involved in the actual procedure on how they actually procure these stem cells in the first place.

Once you fully understand all of the basic facts surrounding this issue, then you can make up your own mind as to whether or not you feel we are on safe, ethical and moral grounds with this type of research.

For the record, this ministry does side with the rest of the conservative Christians who are coming out directly against this type of research. We agree with their final conclusions.

But to really be able to see the truth on all of this, you have to understand exactly what is occurring in the actual procedure being used to procure these stems cells. The truth is in the actual facts.

This issue is like putting together pieces to a jig saw puzzle. Once you have all of the puzzle pieces put out on the table and then have them put properly together, it becomes very easy to see what I believe is the real truth on the matter.

However, this is just our own personal opinion on this very controversial issue. I am simply trying to see this debate from our Lord’s point of view, since His point of view is the only thing that should really matter to us on these kinds of very controversial issues.

I believe that God has a very definite opinion on this kind of research and His opinion is going to either fall on one of two sides. Once I fully explain to you the actual procedure that is being used to procure these stem cells, you will see very quickly that there can be no gray areas with the Lord on this issue.

Either God fully approves of this procedure and is glad that we are using advances in technology and science to try and find cures for some of these horrible diseases – or He will state that we are crossing over and treading into forbidden areas that we have no business in crossing over in the first place.

For those of you who have not made up your mind on this issue, I challenge you to fully examine all of the facts from both sides, and then go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to give you His direct, personal opinion on this matter.

I believe God is wanting His people to ask Him for His direct opinion on this issue due to what we are directly tampering with in the actual procedure itself. Ask – and you just may receive a direct answer from the Lord on this very heated and controversial issue.

So that you can fully understand what is being actually done with this procedure, I will break it all down under the following captions. I will then end with some concluding remarks as to why we agree with the Christians who are coming out directly against this type of research.

Before you can fully understand what is going on with this type of research, you will need to understand some of the specific terms and language being used. Here are some of the major key words and key phrases being used in this type of research, along with a description as to exactly what is going on with this type of research.

1. Embryo

The first thing you will need to know is exactly what is an embryo. This is the heart and crux of the whole argument. Webster’s Dictionary describes an embryo as the following:

“Embryo – fetus, thing newly born. An animal in the earliest stages of development in the uterus or the egg, specifically in humans from conception to about the eighth week.”

In other words, an embryo is the very first stages of human development, and as such, it is a human life – it is a human being! It is the period from actual conception to about the eighth week. After the eighth week, it is then referred to as a fetus. It is then referred to as a fetus from the eighth week until the actual birth through the mother’s womb.

Here is the key point to really grab a hold of. A human embryo is just as much of human being between conception to the eighth week as a fetus is from the eighth week until the actual birth.

Per our article on abortion in the Current Issues section, we believe that human life is equally life all along the life scale. In other words, a baby only 2 minutes old, 2 weeks old or 2 months old is just as much of a human being as someone who is 30 years old outside the mother’s womb. There is no difference to our God in the sanctity or quality of that life anywhere on that life continuum. Life is equally life all the way up and down on that life scale.

A 2 week old human embryo is just as much of a human being as a 3 month old fetus or a 30 year old full grown adult. As you will see in the explanation on how this procedure is actually done, they are creating real life human embryos when they do this procedure.

Whether a human embryo is created from natural sexual intercourse, some kind of cloning like Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer which will be explained below, or in a fertility clinic using in-vitro fertilization methods – this human embryo should never be destroyed or experimented with.

It should be fully valued and fully protected for what it really is – a fully living, viable, breathing human being. Every single one of us started out as an embryo at one time in our mother’s womb. An embryo is fully biologically alive and genetically complete – thus making it a complete person.

Bottom line – a human embryo is a human life. It is not just a bag of undifferentiated cells. It is a fully living, viable human being. As such, any taking of the life of that embryo or fetus, no matter at what stage it is in its development, either on the inside of a mother’s womb or the outside the mother’s womb in a lab dish, is first degree murder in the eyes of God.

The ends cannot justify the means in this case. You cannot destroy, kill, or murder human embryos for their stem cells – even if those stem cells can be used to heal other diseases.

Just as you would never consider putting yourself to death in order to give someone else your human heart if they needed your heart as a transplant – in the same way we cannot kill human embryos for their stem cells.

I believe embryonic stem cell research is an area that we cannot cross over with the Lord. I do not believe we have the legal, spiritual or moral right to destroy one human life in order to save another human life.

Life is sacred, not only to us, but to God Almighty Himself. As such, human embryos should not be tampered with, experimented with, or destroyed in any way, shape or form.

2. Stem Cells

The second thing you will need to know is exactly what is a stem cell. A stem cell is basically an undifferentiated, blank type of cell. It has the capability of becoming more differentiated types of cells like skin, muscle or nerve cells.

Stem cells can be used to replace or heal damaged tissues and cells in the body. In other words, they can act as a built-in repair system for the human body helping to replenish those other cells when they are damaged in any way. This is why the medical and scientific community is exploring stem cell research.

All of our bodies contain these stem cells. These stem cells are the basic building blocks of the human body. They have the unique ability to literally turn into other types of specialized cells that make up the different tissues, bones and organs of our bodies. They are self-sustaining and can replicate themselves for long periods of time.

3. Two Types of Stem Cells

There are two basic types of stem cells. One is called adult stem cells and the other is called embryonic stem cells. The adult stem cells are also known as non-embryonic stem cells since they do not come from human embryos.

Embryonic stem cells are an unspecialized type of cell that form the basic building blocks of 220 specialized cell types in the human body. These are considered to be master types of cells.

Embryonic stem cells are secured by harvesting living embryos which are about 5-7 days old. This is why this type of research is called “embryonic” stem cell research. Once the stem cells are removed from the 5-7 day old embryo, the embryo will then die as a result of the extraction process that was used to extract those stem cells out of it.

In other words, the human embryo is directly sacrificed and murdered for its stem cells – thus literally breaking one of God’s 10 commandments – thou shall not murder.

The second type of stem cells, adult stem cells, are present in the various organs and tissues within the human body. They are found in our bone marrow, epidermis(skin), body fat, retina, liver, brain, skeletal muscles and dental pulp. They can also be found in umbilical cords and placentas. The primary role of adult stem cells is to repair and help maintain the tissue in which they are actually found in. Another word for these adult stem cells is that they are called “somatic” stem cells. The word “soma” in the Greek means “the body.”

There has already been documented cases of successes in treating different diseases with adult stem cells. There are no moral or ethical issues we have to deal with when using them because no one is being killed or sacrificed in the process of acquiring those adult stem cells since they can be taken from different parts of the human body like the skin, muscle or body fat.

One of the main arguments for wanting to go after stem cells that are in embryos instead of securing them direct from adult sources is that embryonic stem cells will divide and differentiate much easier than adult stem cells will. However, that same ease with which they can divide and differentiate can also pose a possible hazard in that it could end up causing cancerous tumors once it has been injected into a human body because they are not as stable as the adult stem cells are. In other words, they are more genetically unstable than the adult stem cells are due to the very young age of them.

Adult stem cells are the more logical choice for continued research because they already naturally exist in our bodies and they thus provide a natural repair mechanism for many tissues in our body in contrast to the embryonic stem cells which only exist in a 5-7 day old embryo. As of to date, there have been no documented cases of anyone ever being healed or cured from their afflictions by using embryonic stem cells – but there have been numerous cases where people have been successfully treated for their afflictions with adult stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells can only be secured in one of two ways. They can either be extracted from an embryo that has come about as a result of an egg being fertilized by a sperm in the in-vitro fertilization process from a fertility clinic, or by a process called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, which is actually a form of therapeutic cloning. And this will now lead us into that actual procedure.

4. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Remember these 4 words very well! This is the entire heart of this matter. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, abbreviated SCNT, is a flat-out therapeutic cloning!

In order to be able to understand what is involved in this process, you need to understand how natural fertilization occurs between the egg and sperm. In natural fertilization (which is the way God naturally intended for it to be), the sperm of a male has exactly 23 DNA chromosomes in it. In the female egg there is a membrane organelle in it that is a nucleus and this nucleus also has 23 DNA chromosomes in it.

When the sperm unites with the egg, 23 chromosomes from the sperm mix in with the 23 chromosomes from the egg. You thus end up with 46 DNA chromosomes within the fertilized egg. When this union occurs – a human life and a human embryo is formed inside of the egg!

From there the cells in the fertilized egg will start to divide and multiply and first form a zygote, then progress into the blastocyst stage (100-150 cells), then into the fetus stage at the eighth week, and then into a full-blown child once the child is born through the mother’s womb.

Once the embryo is initially formed at conception, we are now looking at a real live human being, not just a bag of cells. Once the 46 DNA chromosomes are locked into place in the egg, then the embryo becomes entirely self-directed and genetically complete. It now has the DNA material in place to actually produce a human life and thus become a human being.

Now here is what happens with this Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Instead of fertilizing the egg with a sperm in order to create the human embryo, they are going to artificially create the human embryo by doing something all together different.

1)  What they will first do is take out the DNA nucleus of the female egg. In other words, they are removing the 23 DNA chromosomes from the female egg. This is violation #1 against the Lord, as they are now tampering with the very essence of life itself in the way that God has it set up in how we are to be born into this world.

I do not believe that we have the moral right to remove the DNA from the women’s egg, as we are directly tampering with and directly altering the “way” God wants to create a human life.

They now have an egg that has no nucleus or any DNA chromosomes in it. The nucleus of a cell contains the organism’s DNA. The egg has now been stripped of its own natural DNA. As a result, the egg is now considered to be “enucleated.”

2)  After they extract and remove the woman’s DNA from her own egg, they then take the DNA nucleus from another part of the human body from the patient-donor, like the skin cells, and then inject it into the egg. This DNA nucleus from another body part such as the skin has exactly 46 chromosomes in it. This DNA will be taken from the person who will want to be cloned.

What they have now done is altered and tampered with the “way” God creates human life. Instead of having 23 chromosomes from the egg mixing in with 23 chromosomes from the sperm – they now have an egg that has all of its 46 DNA chromosomes coming only from one source – the donor who wants to be cloned. You thus have an egg that has all of its DNA chromosomes coming from a single donor as versus the chromosomes being equally divided between a male and a female.

Once these 46 chromosomes enter inside of the egg, they then apply a small electrical pulse to fuse the cells together in the egg. Once the electrical pulse is applied, the egg will then start dividing.

The 46 DNA chromosomes that came from the outside donor will now be reprogrammed by the host cell. A human embryo will then literally develop as a result of the cells that will start to divide!

In other words, they have just artificially created a human life – a human embryo right in the middle of a lab dish! And once the human embryo forms out, there will then be stem cells that can be extracted from it within the first 5-7 days. It can literally happen that quick.

The human embryo is now a genetic clone of the donor who gave his DNA nucleus through his skin cells. This is what you call therapeutic cloning. In other words, a human clone is created outside of the mother’s womb in a lab dish. It can literally be created in a lab dish as a result of the enucleated egg uniting with the 46 DNA chromosomes from the original donor.

To clone someone means to create a genetic copy of that someone else. Cloning is thus duplicating the genetic material of the donor and using it to actually create a human life by way of these embryos. What you are really doing is creating a human life with virtually the same genetic material as the donor himself.

The theory on this kind of research is to create a clone of the patient who will need the stem cells for his disease and then extract the stem cells from the cloned embryo. The reason being is that the donor-patient may have a much better chance of having his body “accept” these stem cells instead of rejecting them since they are coming directly from his own genetic makeup, since it was his DNA that was initially injected into the egg in the first place.

These stem cells are then transplanted into the donor’s body to help either try and cure his disease, or to help generate healthy new cells and tissues, such as heart, muscle and nerve cells.

The other way they can possibly clone someone is through what they call reproductive cloning. In this method, all they will have to do is take all of the above one extra step further. They will take this embryo and then implant it into the woman’s uterus. If that egg takes inside of the women’s uterus and she becomes pregnant – she will then be giving birth to a clone of the one who had just given his DNA for the experiment.

This is exactly how Dolly the sheep in Scotland was cloned, along with other animals. No sperm was ever used in their cloning. All you have to do is take the DNA from one animal that you want to clone, and inject his DNA into an egg that has had its own DNA removed, and you will then create a clone of that animal.

Once the human embryo starts to develop as a result of SCNT, it will first reach what is called the blastocyst stage. The blastocyst stage is the very early state of embryonic development where you have about 100-150 cells formed out. This blastocyst stage will be reached in 5-7 days.

It is when the embryo reaches this blastocyst stage in the first 5-7 days that they will then extract the actual stem cells. The actual stem cells make up the inner cell mass of this blastocyst. Embryonic stem cells are thus derived from cells that make up this inner mass of the blastocyst.

The inner mass of the blastocyst is what is actually removed. The embryo is then destroyed during the actual procedure of removing these stem cells – or to put it another way, the embryo is literally sacrificed and put to death in order to have its own stem cells removed for the purpose of trying to save the donor.

The stem cells will then be used to try and treat the donor’s condition, whether it be to try and treat the disease directly or to try and treat the cells that are actually dying from the disease.

3)  What the proponents of Amendment 2 are arguing is that they are not cloning anyone since they are not implanting the egg into a woman’s uterus, thereby causing her to get pregnant.

However, though they are not cloning inside the woman’s uterus, they are still cloning outside of her body in a lab dish. It is still cloning – whether this embryo forms and grows inside the mother’s womb, or whether it forms and grows outside the mother’s womb in a lab dish. There is no difference between these two scenarios!

A human embryo is being created because of the process of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Instead of naturally creating a human embryo in the way that nature has intended by way of a sperm uniting with an egg, they are artificially creating a human embryo by injecting someone else’s DNA into the egg from another body part instead of from an actual sperm.

Just stop and think for a moment what is being done. I believe that this territory is very sacred territory with the Lord. We are tampering with the “way” God creates human life.

God has it set up that a child is first formed out as an embryo by uniting 23 DNA chromosomes from a sperm with 23 DNA chromosomes that are already in a woman’s egg. I do not believe God will approve or want us to “alter the way” in which human life is first created.

To think that we are now literally extracting and removing the woman’s own 23 DNA chromosomes so that the egg is now “empty,” and then we inject 46 chromosomes, not from a sperm, but from a different body part like the skin from an outside donor – is enough to just give you the creeps. This is like watching a science-fiction horror movie.

4)  Some of the people arguing for this amendment will try and say that an actual embryo has not been created. They believe that the 5-7 day old growth that has occurred is nothing but a bunch of “undifferentiated cells in a lab dish that have no human organs or human features.”

They feel that since they are not dealing with a fertilized egg by way of a sperm causing it to naturally fertilize, that they are not actually dealing with a human embryo. But I believe the evidence proves otherwise.

Those first 100-150 cells that have developed in the first 5-7 days, which is known as the blastocyst stage of an embryo, all show and prove that an actual human embryo has now been created. Otherwise these cells would not be developing and dividing on their own. The proof is in the pudding. The facts speak for themselves.

Only a truly living human embryo can produce real live stem cells. And the fact that this growth goes right into the blastocyst stage, which is the first major stage of growth in a normal human embryo, is once more proof that we are dealing with a real live human embryo and not just a bag of cells that just happen to be dividing as a result of the initial electrical impulse that was given to it.

The fact that animals have literally been reproductively cloned using this exact same procedure is again more proof that a human embryo has been fully created by using this process. This is not just a bag of undifferentiated cells in a lab dish.

Another argument they will try and throw your way is that what they are doing with SCNT is regeneration, not fertilization. They will try and argue that fertilization occurs when the sperm enters and properly unites with the egg, but only regeneration occurs when they use this SCNT process as described above.

But again, the SCNT process causes the egg to develop and literally enter into the blastocyst stage, which is the first major stage that a human embryo will go into.

The fact that the egg is immediately growing and moving into the blastocyst stage is proving that we are dealing with a real live human embryo, not just a bunch of undifferentiated cells that just happened to regenerate to this first blastocyst stage all on their own.

Conclusion

As I said at the top of this article, you will each have to examine both sides of this debate, and then come to your own personal conclusions as to whether or not you feel we are entering and treading into forbidden territory with the Lord.

After examining the actual procedure that is being used to extract these stem cells, I believe there are 4 direct violations that are being committed against the Lord.

1. The Initial Procurement of the Eggs

The first violation being committed against the Lord is occurring when we initially try and procure the eggs from a female donor. God did not arrange for females to be donating their eggs for this kind of abominable research.

I believe that God has a natural and divine way for human life to be created – and that natural and divine way is through sexual intercourse in the bounds of holy marriage where the sperm of the male enters into the egg of the female – with the egg of the female staying on the inside of the woman’s body – not on the outside of her body in a lab dish like they are doing with this type of research and testing.

The minute you try and alter or change this natural and divine way of creating human life – I believe that we are directly violating the ways of God Almighty Himself. A woman’s eggs were meant to be fertilized on the inside of her body – not on the outside of her body in a petri lab dish.

As a result of going against the “way” God has it initially set up on how we are to bring human lives into this world, many women have either had or will be having severe complications down the road as a result of the painful process that is being used to extract her eggs from her.

Some of the known side effects that could occur as a result of the extraction process being used to procure the eggs from her are memory loss, seizures, bone loss, cancers, joint pain, baldness, strokes, brain damage, infertility, lupus and possibly death itself. In some of these cases they are using a high dose of hormone therapy to get her to produce the eggs in the first place.

It has been estimated that 2-5% of the female population could be at risk from some of the above side effects – which could equate to thousands of women being forced to deal with these heavy and bad side effects down the road. So ask yourself – do you want to take the gamble, donate your eggs for what you feel is a noble and worthy cause, hoping that you will not be one of those unlucky ones in that 2-5% range?

The fact that even that percentage of women are going to have to deal with those kinds of heavy side effects are telling me that this is not a natural procedure and women thus should not be willing to donate their eggs for what is an abominable type of research to begin with.

2. The Removal of the DNA Nucleus in the Woman’s Egg

The next abomination and violation that I believe is occurring is what they then do next after her egg has been painfully extracted from her.

To start the process of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, they first have to go into the woman’s egg and literally remove her own DNA nucleus, which has the first 23 chromosomes in it that will start the creation of human life once it unites with the 23 chromosomes that are in the sperm of a male.

As I stated above, in order for human life to be created inside of the egg, 23 DNA chromosomes from the male sperm has to enter into and unite with the 23 DNA chromosomes that are already in the egg. But instead of staying with this natural and divine way of creating human life the way God has it set up to be, science now has to tamper with, alter and change the way in which a human life will now be artificially created in these laboratory settings.

They will now literally remove the natural DNA nucleus found inside of the woman’s egg so that they can replace it with 46 chromosomes that will be coming from another donor’s somatic body part like the skin cells.

Just stop and really think for a minute what is really being done with this process. What does your natural common sense and natural intelligence tell you when you see that they are literally removing the “way” in which God wants to have human life created on the inside of a mother’s womb? I believe they are tampering with the very “essence” of human life itself the minute they go into the woman’s egg and remove the DNA nucleus from it.

The DNA nucleus in the egg will help provide the genetic blueprint for who we are going to physically be in this life.

I do not believe any human has the right to go into the woman’s egg to remove the DNA nucleus that is naturally found in it and that was initially put into it by God Almighty Himself.

I believe that this is very sacred territory with the Lord and we are treading into forbidden territory with Him on this issue.

Again, the ends can never justify the means if those means are going to go against the laws and ways of our Lord. Too many people are thinking with their hearts and their emotions on this issue instead of thinking things all the way through with their intelligence. We need to try and see this from God’s point of view, not from man’s point of view.

3. Using the 46 DNA Chromosomes of the Donor to “Impregnate” the Egg Instead of Using Male Sperm

The third violation against the Lord is what they then do next after they have removed the DNA nucleus from the woman’s egg.

After they have removed the 23 DNA chromosomes from the egg, they then take 46 DNA chromosomes from the donor’s somatic body part, like the skin cells, and then inject His 46 DNA chromosomes into the egg to makeup for the 23 DNA chromosomes that they had just taken out of the egg.

In other words, instead of using 23 DNA chromosomes naturally found in the sperm of a male, they have to use 46 DNA chromosomes that are found in one of their appropriate body parts. So again, they are once more tampering with, altering and changing the way in which God wants to create a human life, which is by way of male sperm entering and uniting with the egg.

Even though they need an electrical impulse to start the cells dividing so they can move into the blastocyst stage, this could not happen unless they first had the 46 DNA chromosomes from the donor injected into the actual egg itself.

4. The Deliberate Sacrificing and Destruction of the Human Embryo

When the stem cells are extracted from the embryo in the first 5-7 days, the embryo will not survive this extraction process. The extraction process used to extract the stem cells will kill the embryo. Everyone knows right up front that no embryos will be surviving this extraction process. They thus know right off the bat that they will be killing and murdering these embryos every time they artificially create one for the purposes of removing its stem cells.

Again, an embryo is a “human” embryo. It is not a bag of cells that just happen to be dividing and multiplying out of pure random chance. These cells are initially dividing and entering into the blastocyst stage because a real human life has now been created – even though it has been artificially created in a laboratory setting.

Even though this human life has been artificially created in this laboratory setting, this life is still human life and as such, it cannot be killed, destroyed or discarded.

Once a real life human embryo has been created, either artificially by SCNT, or naturally by sexual intercourse, this human embryo should be afforded all of the legal rights that any grown adult has in our world. We were all little embryos at one time, and there should be no difference in the sanctity of a human life just because a human life may be at a different stage of development.

A 5-7 day old embryo should be looked upon as a full and complete human being – not as bag or glob of undifferentiated cells just dividing out of pure random chance.

Bottom line – God either has one of two opinions on all of this. After carefully examining all of the evidence and arguments from both sides, my own personal conclusion is that our Lord looks at this entire scenario as a complete and utter abomination.

Not only are we tampering with, altering, and literally changing the way in which God has it set up to create and bring a human life into this world – but we are literally breaking His 6th commandment of thou “shall not murder” when we deliberately and willfully sacrifice and murder the life we have just artificially created in these laboratory settings in order to secure their stem cells.

Just because science has now found out how to artificially create a human embryo in a laboratory setting by way of SCNT does not mean we have to actually use it. With knowledge comes the responsibility to use that knowledge wisely.

Whether this amendment passes next week or not, this will not be the end of this debate. You will continue to see many in the scientific and medical communities continue to push the envelope with God the Father on these kinds of issues.

But sooner or later, their day in the sun will be over, and they will all have to eventually appear before the Lord to give a personal account of everything that they have ever done in this life – all of the good with all of the bad. And you can bet your bottom dollar that this particular issue will be coming up with all of those who were actively involved in this type of research and testing.

We will see who is right on this issue once we all have departed from this life and have received the Lord’s answer on this issue. But for those of you who are real seekers in the Lord, I would highly recommend that you go before the Lord and ask Him to give you His direct, personal opinion on this issue if you have not made up your mind on this very controversial issue.

I believe that God is really wanting to express His opinion on this matter to His people, and I believe that if you approach God with a sincere request – He will let you know loud and clear through His Holy Spirit what He really thinks about this matter. Ask and seek – and I believe that you will receive a direct answer from the Lord on this issue.