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MTM-Free the Snowflakes · More Than Medicine

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Hosted by author and physician Dr.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Robert Jackson and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: So listen up because the doctor is dead.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to More Than Medicine.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the Country Doctor's Rusty Dusty Scrapbook.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pick up where we left off last week talking about in vitro fertilization.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want us to look at the biblical perspective on in vitro fertilization.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to look at assisted reproductive technology from God's point of view.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: First though, we have to adjust our frame of reference.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want to submit to you very respectfully that God is sovereign in the universe, that He is creator of the heavens and the earth, possessor of heaven and earth, and the ruler of the kings of all the earth.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: He claims to know the name of every star in all the galaxies.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said He knows every sparrow that falls from the sky, and has numbered the hairs of your head.
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  SPEAKER_00: He makes the sun to rise in the east and to set in the west.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: From the rising of the sun until the setting again thereof his name is to be praised.
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  SPEAKER_00: More than that, his word is forever established in the heavenly places.
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  SPEAKER_00: The sum of his word is truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever, according to Isaiah.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, that means it is God breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: The Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thought and intent of the heart.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Years ago in college my college roommate was reading a difficult passage in the Old Testament.
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  SPEAKER_00: He paused, looked up at me, and said You reckon that really happened?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: We stared at one another for a moment.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said I reckon it did.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we both laughed.
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  SPEAKER_00: You see, he had it come to a spiritual crossroad.
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  SPEAKER_00: He could go down the path of secularism and unbelief, or down the road of spirituality and trusting God, and trusting God's word.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We all come to those spiritual crossroads at one time or another.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now I say all of that because when we approach this difficult topic of in vitro fertilization, we have to come to grips with God's sovereignty and the authority of his word.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here in today's crossroad, the question is does God superintend the conception of every child?
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  SPEAKER_00: And I mean the conception of every child from Adam and Eve's firstborn to the child conceived last night.
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  SPEAKER_00: Are there any oops in the kingdom of God?
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  SPEAKER_00: Does God look over the rampart of heaven and say Well I didn't see that coming?
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  SPEAKER_00: Does he ever say, Oh my goodness, look who's gonna have a baby?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well I don't think so.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's consider an interesting story in the life of Jacob in Genesis twenty nine and thirty.
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  SPEAKER_00: In this biblical account, Jacob was hoodooed by his uncle Laban into marrying his oldest daughter, Leah, when he actually intended to marry the younger daughter, Rachel.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: He took it in stride, and the Bible says he worked another seven years for Rachel, and to him it seemed as a single day, because of the love that he had for Rachel.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: What a love story.
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  SPEAKER_00: As the story goes, Leah felt unloved, but she bore Jacob four sons in a row, which she thought would surely cause Jacob to prefer her over Rachel.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then if we look at verses one and two in this chapter of Genesis chapter thirty, it's a very interesting story because in verse one and two it says When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister, and she said to Jacob, give me children or else I die.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel and he said, Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?
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  SPEAKER_00: Now Jacob was a discerning man, and he understood clearly that God alone could open and close the womb.
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  SPEAKER_00: He would not accept misplaced blame.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was not accepting responsibility for what only God can control.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he responded to his frustrated wife Rachel, saying, Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So in the second instance of surrogacy, remember the first instance was when Abram's wife Sarah gave to Abram her handmaiden Hagar to bear a child when Sarah in her old age was barren, and that created all manner of trouble for Abram and his offspring.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here is a second instance of surrogacy, and Rachel gives her maidservant her female slave Bilha to Jacob to bear a child on her behalf.
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  SPEAKER_00: She then claimed the child as her own.
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  SPEAKER_00: The slave girl Bilha got no compensation other than helping to raise the man child, whom Rachel named Dan.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: The competition between Rachel and Leah resulted in the twelve sons of Jacob, who became the twelve tribes of Israel.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to take note of Genesis chapter thirty and verse twenty two, which says then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her, and God opened her womb.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why would Rachel pray if God did not superintend the opening and closing of the womb?
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  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, why do we pray for our female friends who are dealing with infertility if God is not sovereign over conception?
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  SPEAKER_00: After Rachel conceived, she didn't give honor to Jacob, who she initially blamed for her infertility, but rather she said God has taken away my reproach.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: She recognized God as the author of life, as the sovereign over fertility, as the one who opens and closes the womb.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are all under God's law, whether Christian or not.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let me make some observations.
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  SPEAKER_00: We must recognize that God is the creator and possessor of all life.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of us are fearfully and wonderfully made by the hand of the Almighty God, as Psalms one hundred thirty nine verses thirteen through eighteen very plainly states.
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  SPEAKER_00: More than that God declares through Ezekiel the prophet that all souls are mine.
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  SPEAKER_00: No arguing, no debate, all souls are mine.
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  SPEAKER_00: The second point I would make is that all of us are created in the image of God, as Genesis chapter one and verse twenty nine makes very plain.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even the embryos in the Petri dish, those are created in the image, and they are image bearers of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: They are reflectors of His glory.
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  SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter one verse sixteen to nineteen makes it very plain that we are all created for Jesus and by Him and for His glory.
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  SPEAKER_00: Even our embryonic neighbors in the petri dish share our intrinsic value.
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  SPEAKER_00: The third point I would make is that every human life is a sacred gift from God.
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  SPEAKER_00: God has given multiple commands regarding the treatment of our fellow man that would include our in vitro embryonic neighbors.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your body, and the second is like unto it to love your neighbor as yourself, which includes our embryonic neighbors.
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  SPEAKER_00: God's law is supreme over our lives and man's law.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I remind you that Jesus Christ is the final arbiter.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is the final judge of the heavens and the earth before whom we must all appear and to whom we must all give account.
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  SPEAKER_00: The fourth point I would make is that I understand that God has commanded us to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish the earth, and to rule over the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: However, in doing so we must not violate God's design for his creation.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we cannot usurp His sovereignty.
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  SPEAKER_00: If we violate the sixth commandment, which says you shall not murder, if we violate the sixth commandment by murdering our embryonic neighbors, then we exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship the creature rather than the creator.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is nothing less than the idolatry of which I warned Buck and Beulemay in last week's podcast, in which young couples sacrifice their Christian convictions on the altar of preserving their own of pursuing their own biological offspring.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what's a Christian to do?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: How can we love our in vitro fertilized neighbors?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: If we know that our embryotic neighbor is on the way to destruction and we do not make any attempt to warn their parents or rescue the babies, are you and I not guilty of ignoring Jesus' admonition to love our neighbors as ourselves?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's a legitimate question, my dear listener.
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  SPEAKER_00: As we are able, Scripture requires us to protect and defend embryos against unjust violence.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Psalmist admonishes us to defend and protect those who are subject to unjust violence.
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  SPEAKER_00: As we are able, we must rescue our embryonic neighbors who are being led away to death, as the Psalmist admonishes us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And as we are able, we must pass equal protection legislation for all lives from conception to natural death.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Legislators especially must stand in the gap for our embryonic neighbors who are being discarded, selectively reduced or frozen.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: If any of my listeners have embryos in cryo preservation, then you should to the best of your ability, deliver them from that cryo prison by personal implantation or donating your embryos for adoption.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: There are Christian clinics that do nothing but handle adoption of snowflakes, those frozen embryos into Christian families.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Look them up on the internet and do your best to deliver them from a cryo prison in the hands of Christian couples who are looking to adopt.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I recommend promoting snowflake adoption.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Please make this a matter of prayer.
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  SPEAKER_00: Please make this a matter of interposition.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Interpose yourself between the life of these embryos who are being discarded, aborted, frozen, and do whatever's within your power to protect their lives, to defend them against unjust tyranny, and to set them free from a cryo prison by helping other couples financially if need be, so that they can adopt a snowflake embryo.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is a difficult topic, but this has been heavy on my heart.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that God will lay it heavily upon your heart, that you will talk to this among your Christian friends.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a topic that we as the Christian community need to take up, discuss, and we need to be involved.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to More Than Medicine.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Dr.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Robert Jackson.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you like what you hear, I pray that you would share, follow, download, tell your family and friends.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back again next week.
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  SPEAKER_00: Until then, I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.
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  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine.
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  SPEAKER_01: For more information about the Jackson Family Medicine, Scatcher Medicine, go to the Facebook page, Instagram, or web page at Jackson Family Medicine.