Designer babies

Question:Is it moral to have designer babies? What should be a Christian’s
response to designer babies.

In short, the answer is no, it is not moral, for three main reasons.

Reason 1. A designer baby is done through the process of in-vitro fertilization (http://www.gotquestions.org/in-vitro-fertilization.html). This includes fertilizing several eggs, and discarding the ones with unwanted traits. God teaches us through His word that life begins at conception (http://www.gotquestions.org/life-begin-conception.html). So this means that the unwanted embryos are human beings being destroyed/murdered. Even in the case of in-vitro fertilization without genetic manipulation, “extra” embryos are often frozen for the future just in case the couple decides to have more children later. At this time there are literally hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos (human beings) around the country. Their eventual destination is either adoption through agencies such as Snowflake Embryo Adoption or destruction.

Reason 2. The baby does not belong to the parent. Every human being was created by God (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-16) and for God (Colossians 1:16). God also tells us to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride” (Philippians 2:3) and that “whatever we do” we should do it “for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23).

Reason 3. There is the problem of trying to play God. Consider the following verses.

Isaiah 44:24: “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself…””

Exodus 4:11: “The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD?””.

John 9:1-3 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Isaiah 45:9-12: “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’ How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father, ‘Why was I born?’ or if it said to its mother, ‘Why did you make me this way?’” This is what the LORD says—the Holy One of Israel and your Creator: “Do you question what I do for my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands? I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it. With my hands I stretched out the heavens. All the stars are at my command.”

Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Deuteronomy 6:15: “the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God”

Jeremiah 7:19: “Am I the one they are hurting?" asks the LORD. "Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame."

From these we can conclude that creation of life is a task that God has assigned only to Himself. God does create people with “defects”, but He does so for a purpose. We don’t have the right to argue with God because we don’t know better than He does. God is a jealous God. When we try to disobey God or think we know better than Him, we only hurt ourselves.

In conclusion, because the process of genetic manipulation disregards the life of the unborn and presumes to know better than God Himself, it is immoral.

The Son of God?

I was asked by a Muslim to explain how God could possibly have a son and to do so without using any bible verse. Here is my explanation.

Jesus is not the son of God in a physical sense. God did not have any sort of physical relationship with Mary that created a son. The Son of God is a title given to Jesus. It is a title meant to express His nature, namely being “of God”. In other words, by calling Jesus the “Son of God”, they are saying that He has the very nature of God. 

If I might draw a slightly inappropriate parallel. Just to be clear I am not making a comparison to God with this example. But it does a good job of demonstrating the difference… Have you heard the phrase “Son of a bitch”? When someone says this do you assume them to mean that the person is the actual son of a female dog? Of course not. You recognize that this is referring to this person’s nature. Specifically, that person is a jerk. Similar phrases are "son of a gun", or "son of a sea biscuit". Again, neither is said with the assumption that the person is the actual child of a gun or a sea biscuit. So when you describe someone as being the “son of ______”, this does not necessarily mean that person is the physical son of whatever fills the blank. It means that person has the attributes of whatever fills the blank. 

By confirming that He was “the Son of God”, Jesus was actually making a claim to have the very nature of God. The Jews understood this as blasphemy, or actually claiming to be God. This is why they executed Jesus.

Dealing With Doubt

Dear friend,

First, I’d like to provide you with some assurance in regards to doubt affects your salvation. Know that doubt is common to all and you are certainly not alone in this. And God does not change how He feels about you because of your doubt, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13) You will only be judged on one thing and one thing only. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you trust in Christ as the only Savior, the only way to heaven? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18 NASB) And once you’ve made that decision to trust in Christ, you CANNOT lose that salvation! Salvation is a gift from God and it’s not one that you can give back. “For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29). “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28). That is all God wants to know. Did you accept His son?

Here are some helpful articles in that regard:

http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-doubt.html

http://www.gotquestions.org/doubting-God.html

http://www.gotquestions.org/salvation-doubt.html

Even in safety though, you will still have doubts. First it is important to invest in your relationship with God by practicing the spiritual disciplines. These include reading/studying God’s word (listening to God), prayer (talking to God), and fellowship with other Christians. In this way you will grow in your relationship with Christ. See http://www.gotquestions.org/spiritual-disciplines.html for more on the spiritual disciplines.  

In addition to maintaining your relationship with God, there is more you can do to stave off doubts. Are your heart and your mind are battling each other? You love God with your heart, but your mind is protesting, am I correct? Know that your heart and mind do not have to be in conflict. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your MIND.” (Matthew 22:37)

God does not encourage us to go on our feelings alone. This is because our feelings are untrustworthy. Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Ecclesiastes 9:3 says “the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.”

This is why we can’t trust our hearts. The experience that caused me to finally trust God was downright supernatural. But it was also an experience that no other person witnessed and that I could never prove. As the years have passed, my memory of it becomes fuzzier and fuzzier. So even though it was enough for me in the very beginning of my Christian walk, later it simply wasn’t enough. That’s when I started loving God with my MIND and seeking to test my faith for reliability.

Let’s look at what the bible says about using our minds.

Proverbs 3:13 “How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding.”

In 1 Chronicles 1:7-12 and 1 Kings 3:5-14, God tells Solomon to ask Him for anything. When Solomon requests “wisdom and knowledge”, God is so pleased with Solomon that He not only gives him wisdom and knowledge, but blesses him with riches beyond belief.

In Acts 17:11, the Bereans are commended for the fact that they tested everything they heard. They were excited about what they heard, but want to make sure it was true, so they searched the scriptures to make sure of it.

In Acts 17:17, it talks about how Paul used reason to convince people of the truth: “So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.” It also mentions how Paul reasoned with people in Acts 17:2, 18:4, and 18:19.

God made us a promise in James 1:5 where it is said “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Once we understand that we are expected to use our minds to test the claims found in the Bible, where do we start? This is where we get into “apologetics”. Apologetics is simply the science of defending the Christian faith. This is where it gets FUN! Christ claimed to be “the Truth” (John 14:6). Truth has nothing to fear when objections are brought against it, because it’s TRUE! The reason for apologetics is 1 Peter 3:15, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who aasks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”. Even when you aren’t doubting, others will. You will need to be ready with an answer for them. I think you’ll find that, as you study, you’ll be answering your own questions as well.

The great thing about Christianity is that, because it’s true, it is incredibly easy to substantiate its claims. There is so much evidence that it takes just as much faith (and I’d argue even more so) to be an atheist than it does to believe in God, particularly the God of the Bible. For instance, J. Warner Wallace (a homicide detective) was a staunch atheist until he examined Christianity in his mid-30s and found it to be true based on the evidence. He ended up writing “Cold Case Christianity”, which I highly recommend.

The point of all this is that when your heart is no longer enough to keep your faith, you have the evidence to fall back on. And as you look at the evidence, your heart will be renewed. So start looking at the evidence behind Christianity. I’ve only been doing it for a couple of years and I’ve only scratched the service! Also, be sure to check out http://www.gotquestions.org/blind-faith.html.

Finally, friend, while you are going about this process I have a prayer for you that has come in handy during my times of doubt. It comes from Mark 9:24. It is simply this: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (NIV). And He will friend, He will!

I hope this helps. Your friend in Christ, Embassador J

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Here are some tips on finding those answers:

If you type “apologetics” into the search box at GotQuestions.org, you’ll find a few articles that will give you an overview of apologetics.

Some of the different categories under apologetics and an appropriate Got Questions article.

• Theological Arguments such as cosmological, teleological, ontological and moral arguments.
  • http://www.gotquestions.org/argument-existence-God.html
• Fulfilled prophecies, especially messianic prophecies
  • http://www.gotquestions.org/Old-Testament-Christ.html
  • http://www.gotquestions.org/death-resurrection-Messiah.html
• The historical reliability of the scriptures
  • http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-reliable.html
• Archeological proofs
  • http://www.gotquestions.org/archaeology-Bible.html
• Miracles
  • http://www.gotquestions.org/miracles-Bible.html
• Showing contradictions in the unbeliever’s worldview. This is called presuppositional apologetics and involves studying other religions in order to see how they fall apart under examination. Since Christianity is true, it will not fall apart under honest examination.
  • http://www.gotquestions.org/presuppositional-apologetics.html

Online Resources

• http://carm.org/
• http://www.str.org/
• http://www.reasonablefaith.org/
• http://leestrobel.com/
• http://rzim.org/
• https://answersingenesis.org/
• http://www.reasons.org/
• http://coldcasechristianity.com/
• http://normangeisler.com/

Recommended Books

“Reasonable Faith” by William Lane Craig

“Evidence That Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell

“I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek

“The Case for Faith” by Lee Strobel

“Cold Case Christianity” by J. Warner Wallace

“Jesus: The Greatest Life of All” by Charles Swindoll

“God-Breathed: The Undeniable Power and Reliability of Scripture” by Josh McDowell

“The Popular Handbook of Archeology and the Bible” by Geisler and Holden

“The Miracles of our Lord” by Charles Ryrie

**If you know of other great resources, please let me know in the comments!**

Breastfeeding in public from a biblical perspective

How should Christian moms approach breastfeeding in public from a biblical perspective?

I need to preface this with the fact that while I think that my experience on this topic might add some credibility in the eyes of some people, I don't believe that the God needs my experience to make His point. His Word is sufficient in this regard and is more than credible enough on its own. Moving on...

There are two camps of thought on this subject. Breastfeeding in public is normal, natural, and good and breastfeeding in public is inappropriate, offensive and shouldn't be allowed. Even within these camps, there are a whole spectrum of opinions. I am not going to attempt to explain all the arguments here. That is not the purpose of this post. There are articles upon articles on the subject. If you want to see just how heated it can get, go to any parenting site and search "breastfeeding in public".

The point of this post is to figure out how God views breastfeeding in public. No, the bible does not specifically address breastfeeding in public. If you type the word breast into an online bible search tool you’ll get many results, none of which refer to the appropriateness of breastfeeding in public. While most of the results refer to the act of breastfeeding or blessing the woman at whose breast a valued person nursed, there are a handful of verses in Song of Solomon that refer to the breast in the sense of a man admiring a woman’s body (See Song of Solomon 4:5 and 7:7-8). So, in that sense, a woman’s breast does carry two purposes. One for nourishment and one for sexual pleasure. But, this is almost beside the point. I think the most important teaching in scripture on this point will be Romans 14:13-23. It says:

“Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.”

Now, I am very aware that this is talking about food, not breastfeeding. But isn't breastfeeding the act of delivering food to a child? I don't believe that I would be stretching it to insert the issue of breastfeeding into this teaching. For instance, we know that breastfeeding is not an unclean thing. God created it, after all, as a way to nourish babies! However, let’s insert breastfeeding into verses 14 and 15. 

“I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that [breastfeeding] is [not] unclean in itself; but to him who thinks [breastfeeding] to be unclean, to him [breastfeeding] is unclean. For if because of [breastfeeding] your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your [breastfeeding] him for whom Christ died."

We can insert it again into verse 20, 

“Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of [breastfeeding]. All things are indeed clean, but they are evil for the man who [sees a breast] and gives offense.”

So we can see that women who insist on their right to expose themselves are right in the fact that breastfeeding is not an unclean thing. However they are very much wrong in the fact that they are holding this right to be more important than that of the conscious of their brothers in Christ who see it as unclean thing. This is not showing love. And Christ told us in John 13:35 that “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” So the question becomes, are you showing the world the love of Christ in how you interact with other people while breastfeeding your child? And again in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Just a few things to keep in mind when nourishing that beautiful little baby of yours in public.

Your friend in Christ, Embassador J