WHAT HAPPENS TO THE FROZEN EMBRYOS?
A QUESTION OF CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW

First let me assure you, I am neither a scientist, nor a medical doctor, and do not really understand the technology about this current subject.

And if I were in Biblical Counseling as a Pastor of a Church, how would I counsel this couple?
With Science and technology, just about anything is becoming possible, but with all this technology, are all things moral?

Once you are disconnected from moral constraints, it can and will most assuredly produce nightmares.

Once science and technology are unfastened from moral accountability, science becomes a threat to human dignity, rather than a means to knowledge and human happiness.

How is the Christian to view the Worldview that it’s okay to take the advice of science and technology to do so many things that just decades ago were not possible.

Example: Married couples can decide to freeze embryos to use at a later time to implant them in the wife’s womb. Now several years later, they have decided not to have the embryos implanted. The question they asked: "Should they be offered for adoption, stored indefinitely at great cost, donated for medical research, or destroyed?

Oh, the frozen embryos are the surplus from the in vitro fertilization procedure that brought their son, who is now three years old, into the world.

There is a disagreement between the husband and wife what to do with the embryos. The wife said she would rather destroy the embryos rather than allow someone else to raise "my own child, my own DNA." The husband opposes the destruction of human embryos and refers to their own embryos as their "son’s siblings."

The question then is: WHICH IS IT? Insignificant bio-matter or siblings?

HOW’ S THAT FOR A DIFFICULT MARITAL MOMENT?

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant February 06 07 Checked by Charity 02 06 07

WHY DID THE SNICKERS COMMERCIAL FROM THE SUPER BOWL GET PULLED?
How is the Christian to Interpret the Message of Homosexuality:
The Worldview versus the Biblical Worldview

I am sure that most biblical Christians have come to a biblical Christian Worldview about this matter of homosexuality..

But at every turn, the culture of our society continues to enforce this idea that homosexuality is a natural form of lifestyle that should be accepted by our society.

While over the last 200 years of American history, homosexuality has been deemed as a practice that is not natural behavior of mankind. 200 years. While homosexuality has been around from Sodom since Genesis, its practice has not been accepted as normal behavior.
Without question, the thinking of any society is formed by its culture that is set forth by those who put their ideas on a society.

In my lifetime, the changes continue yearly. Here I am talking about the moral condition of the society in which we live. I am now speaking of the society of America.

Language changes yearly. Terms to describe ideas and people change yearly.

What we believed was Biblical twenty years ago, we no longer accept as biblical today.
Have you heard that what Paul believed in 62 A.D. he would not believe in 2007...... what he would say about homosexuality in 63 A.D., he would have a different view today. The New Perspective Theology it is called.


There was a time that Christians had an influence on the society in which they lived. Today the Christian Worldview is losing its power of influence.

Who would ever have believed that we would have TV series that have homosexual characters? Who would ever have thought that homosexual behavior would be treated as normal behavior?. Who would have ever thought that on talk tv that homosexual parents would be viewed as a normal lifestyle? Who would have thought that any kind of remark that is viewed unkindly by the homosexual society would cost you your job? Movies now glorify homosexuality and malign heterosexuality.

One recent movie, "Brokeback Mountain" made homosexuality a non-issue.

Then you could get into trans-sexuality, it’s normal behavior -- almost. Even 12 year-olds now are having the change without much fanfare from the media.

Who would ever have thought that the term "gay" would be viewed as a term for homosexuals!!

I am not read up enough to know who is directing this assault on us to change our thinking to a Worldview, but I do know we need to be read up on how to have a Christian Biblical Worldview.

The Bible’s view of homosexuality has not changed in the last twenty years. If the Bible has expressed that homosexuality is an unnatural behavior, in Genesis, then its viewpoint has not changed today.

It’s true that the Worldview is formed by the society in which we live. But Christ’s view of our society is not formed by what the society says it should be like.

If Scripture views homosexuality as wrong behavior, then it’s still wrong, no matter what our culture is pushing us to believe.

We are to look at God’s Word in order to calibrate our thinking about our culture. Christians need to gain an understanding of what is happening in our culture in America.

I would suggest that many American’s view on sexual behavior has changed over the last twenty years. In the last several years there has been a major shift in our thinking about this matter before us.

In light of the trends of our society, how should we respond?

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant February 06 2007 Checked by Charity Whisnant 02 06 07

HOW WORLDVIEW WORKS

vs. Christian Worldview

World Views work at multiple levels in each individual. Every person operates out of a basic set of convictions about reality, truth, meaning, and how the world works. Disagreements between individuals and groups on controversial issues can almost always be traced back to a fundamental difference in worldview, recognized or not.

Very often, a difference in worldview becomes apparent when a decison of fundamental importance has to be made. When severe and significant disagreement become obvious, parties to the disagreement often find themselves genuinely surprised that anyone could hold the position they now confront.

We are faced daily with the worldview of issues. Individuals and groups will be offended at peoples' remarks or even a Super Bowl Ad. Some are offended by the half-time show at the Super Bowl. We see certain words can be offensive to certain groups, even when we didn't know it.

"SNICKERS" CANDY BAR SUPER BOWL AD DISSATISFIES"

While the Homoxexual groups thought the ad was wrong, it's a worldview from a group of people who have a worldview about life. Barry Freiman said, "100% of the gay male community - - we are all REAL MEN engaged in what we consider the manliest pursuit of all - - living an honest life unafraid of engaging in behaviors others may consider un-manly."

The question is: How Is the Christian to view this Ad? Do we still buy Snickers candy bars?

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS.

CHARITY AND I AND THE FAMILY LIVED IN CONNERVILLE, INDIANA FOR A YEAR AND THEN WENT TO HAMMOND INDIANA FOR ANOTHER YEAR. SO WE LIKE INDIANA. WE HAVE SOME GOOD FRIENDS IN INDIANAPOLIS. MIKE AND LINDA SHELTON.

Congratualtions to the Colts for winning the 41st SUPER BOWL.

We like Peyton Manning and the coach Tony Dungy.

ERIC AND LESLIE’S FIRST ANNIVERSARY DINNER AT THE WHISNANT’S

This morning (February 03, 2007) rather early, Charity and I got up, and Charity had to be at the Bakery around six a.m. This morning the weather has been cold, winter has finally come to Portsmouth. All week the weather has been snowy and cold. But we managed to get ready and I drove Charity to work.

This week Charity tells me has been a very busy week at Union Mills Confectionery.. This is late January, with snow on the ground all week, and you would think people would stay home. But people just can’t do without those birthday cakes and pies.

Earlier in the day, the wind was blowing, not as hard as in Florida , thank the Lord. One of the customers at the UMC came to pick up a full sheet birthday cake for a person at her church who was going to be ninety-nine years old. She told us this spunky little lady of 99 still wears 2 ½ inch high heels to church! As the customer was going out the door to her car, a big gust of wind came across her path, and the cake was history. Out of her hands went the full size sheet cake and on to the ground. There goes the birthday party..... A customer saw what had happened and mentioned what he had seen to Debbie. Debbie ran out and helped the lady pick up the upside-down cake box, and told her to come in and sit down. She would have Tammy decorate another cake for her. This time they both carried out the cake to the car and the wind almost got another one!! But they held tight! The party will go on! Wasn’t that great? Yes, because we are eating the broken pieces of upside down cake, and I am telling you their cakes are just wonderful.

(I usually don’t tell what goes on at the Bakery, because I don’t know a lot. I do know the cakes, and pies, and other great pastries are out of this world.)

Charity and I left the Bakery around 1:30 p.m. and Charity hit the house running, well not really, but rather fast, and started getting the dinner ready. I had already done most of the work. I put the sweet and sour sauce on the meat balls and put them back into the oven. Yep, I had done the hard job.

Today my son Eric and his wife Leslie and our grand-dog Zippy came for Eric’s birthday dinner. Charity was fixing a great meal, and had invited her mom and dad and sister. As usual the food was very good, ( well the potatoes were good but a little hard) and the meat balls were just wonderful. I did a great job putting the sauce on the meat balls.. Eric has loved that sauce since he was little. We were living in Mansfield, Ohio and my boss’s wife had invited us for dinner and made this sauce for meatloaf and gave the recipe to Charity. The rest is history.

The dinner was pleasant. Cold. But pleasant. No, not the food--the house. We like the rooms to be cool, well cold, and the Temples’ like the house to be hot. But the conversation was warm and funny. So was the singing. Happy Birthday to Eric. Happy First Anniversary to Eric and Leslie. And "I’m My Own Grandpa" and "One Meatball" all sung by Grandpa Bob and video taped by Leslie and Eric.

Earlier before lunch, Eric gave me lessons on how to use the VCR. That’s right, and no funny remarks either. Eric also gave me lessons on how to lift 72 pound weights, without using my back. Now I can lift those weights rather well, but Eric said I need to use my knees. So Eric says "Bend down and then place your hands on the weight bar and lift up with your knees." He demonstrated this process. So I started to bend my knees, you know like Tiger Woods when he is looking over a putt on the greens! You know, that is not easy! Even if I could bend my knees to the position where I could lift the weights, I could have never lifted the weights from the floor. I was very appreciative that Eric was not laughing at me while I was trying to do this procedure. He gave me a few other suggestions how to lift the weights. Take off the weights. Funny.

I mentioned to Eric that I could lift with the top of my hands over the bar twenty times, but I could not lift the weights with my hands under the bar and lift up. So he proceeded to do it about ten times. Show off. And I could lift the weights about to the top of my waist. Eric said when I was better I could lift the weight to my chest. Which he demonstrated several times.
Then we sat down and talked for a while. That was good. Then they had to get back to Lexington for the Kansas basketball game, against Texas A &M

This iPod that Eric has is something else. He has downloaded some 3,100 songs. Who would want to listen to 3,100 songs? Eric. I said 3,100 songs would be like one of my sermons, don’t you think? Now if I had that iPod, and could download John MacArthur’s sermons, that would be cool. Then I could listen to the sermons rather than listen to ESPN when I am in bed at night.
It’s now 9:00 p.m. Charity has cleaned up the kitchen. We cleaned up the downstairs rooms in the house, and we are upstairs. She is in her place on the couch, with the snowman fleece blanket that Chad got her. She is reading a magazine while I am over here typing this article, which she will have to check before I send out.

To all a good night, and a good day and evening it has been for us.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant, and additional comments by Charity Whisnant 02 03 07

HOW DOES GOD SPEAK TO BELIEVERS?

HOW DO WE INTERPRET THE SCRIPTURE?

part two

In this series I will address

1A General introduction to this subject: I Corinthians 13:12, John 16:13, John 14:17

2A The Holy Spirit in the Ministry of the Word.

3A The role of the Holy Spirit in relation to the interpretation of Scripture.

4A True understanding of the Word of God is found.......?

5A How the Holy Spirit is to lead Believers into "all truth."

John 14:17 "[even] the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you."

"whom the world cannot receive; the men of the world, who are as they came into the world, carnal and natural men, can neither receive the Spirit nor the things of the Spirit, the truths and doctrines of the Gospel; they can neither receive them into their understandings, nor into their affections; and indeed, because they cannot understand them, therefore they do not love them, but despise and hate them:"

• " because it see him not, neither know him; the world, and the men of it, can neither see him with their bodily eyes, because he is a "spirit"; nor know him with their understandings, because he is the "Spirit of truth", which they are ignorant of, for want of a spiritual discerning."

But you know him; as a spirit of illumination, regeneration, and conversion:

"for he dwelleth with you; he is an inhabitant in your hearts, he has taken up his residence in you as his temples"

The understanding that the Holy Spirit gives is the understanding of regeneration and conversion. The Spirit opens the mind so the mind can understand the Scriptures.

But this does not mean that the Holy Spirit gives us private interpretation of the meaning of Scripture. The understanding of the Scripture comes as the Holy Spirit opens our minds to enable us to understand what we are learning about the Scripture. At least in my case, strictly speaking, it’s not until the Holy Spirit opens my mind to what I am reading, studying, and researching that I get the meaning of what the text says.

I would say the Holy Spirit affirms, or validates what we are learning about the text of Scripture. I would say I trust the Scripture's teaching as to what it is saying, rather than what I think my own mind is saying about the text.

Watchman Nee said most Christians would not know if it’s their spirt that is speaking or if the Holy Spirit is speaking.

How often have we heard people say, "I believe the Holy Spirit is telling me." And they are 100% Biblically wrong.

I agree in general with what you are saying. I am not in disagreement with the thought, I am just thinking this through again.

We can't understand God at any level in our mind, unless the Lord opens our mind to that knowledge of Himself.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant 02 01 07 Proof Read by Charity Whisnant 02 01 07

HOW DOES GOD SPEAK TO BELIEVERS?
HOW DO WE INTERPRET THE SCRIPTURE?
Part One

My brother writes:

• "Since God has given us disclosure (about himself and the redemption he provides) in a book that could be represented by an infinite number (or how about any number with a billion zeros after it?), we are not best served when we neglect it in order to read what man attempts to write on the same subject in books that together could be represented in comparison to the Bible by (let's say) the number three. "
  Don Whisnant
  Grace point

In this series I will try to address:

1A General introduction to this subject: I Corinthians 13:12, John 16:13

2A The Holy Spirit in the Ministry of the Word.

3A The role of the Holy Spirit in relation to the interpretation of Scripture.

4A True understanding of the Word of God is found.......?

5A How the Holy Spirit is to lead Believers into "all truth."

I was on a blog that undertook this issue, "How does God speak to Believers?" And should Believers read other books and material to understand the Bible? It was good to see the many comments made.

• 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. (KJV)
  "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." (ESV)

I am not sure, but, it seems that all we know on earth is limited as to the mind of God.

• Luke 24:45 Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the scriptures;
  "Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures," (ESV)

Ver. 45. Then opened He their understanding, He not only opened their hearts, to attend to what He said, and the proofs He gave of His resurrection from the dead in a true body; but He removed the veil from the eyes of their minds, and gave them an understanding of the sacred writings, respecting this matter:

• "that they might understand the Scriptures; concerning His sufferings, death, and resurrection, which they were very ignorant of before, and which were as a sealed book unto them, John 20:9.

Though they had been from their infancy brought up to the reading of the Scriptures, and had the advantage of Christ's ministry for some years; which shows the necessity of the special illumination of the Spirit and the influence of His grace to remove the darkness of the mind, and give the true sense of the sacred writings. "

• John 16:13 - Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, [these] shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to ...(KJV)
• or "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." (ESV)

"He will guide you into all truth; necessary to be known, useful to men, profitable to the churches, even the whole counsel of God; what relates to worship, the nature, form, and spirituality of it, as well as doctrine. He is as a guide, he goes before, leads the way, removes obstructions, opens the understanding, makes things plain and clear, teaches to profit, and leads in the way men should go, without turning to the right hand or left, which, without such a guide, they would be apt to do. "

So what is the role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Scriptures?

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant, Proof Read by Charity Whisnant