Viewpoint of Mark Cadwallader, Creation Moments Board Chairman

Cloning of animals was recently brought to the attention of many people as Barbra Streisand revealed that she had her late beloved dog, Samantha, cloned twice before the dog died last year. The two Coton du Tulears puppies – Miss Violet and Miss Scarlet – were cloned using cells taken from Samantha’s mouth and stomach before she passed away. The singer wanted to make another Samantha. But … “They have different personalities,” Streisand said in her interview.

Cloning takes tissue from the original animal, with its complete DNA for the whole organism, and places it into egg cells from a female of the same species. After “zapping” the merged cells with electricity so they start dividing, the cells are placed in a surrogate mother to carry the embryos to birth.

Clones are exact genetic copies. Every bit of their original DNA is identical. Clones happen naturally too, as in the case of identical twins.

You may know some identical twins. I do. Our families have known each other for a long time, and the twins are good friends with our children. We’ve watched them grow up from when they were little into their early twenties. And I still can’t really tell them apart! – until I’ve talked to them for awhile. You see, they are different souls! And although they went to the same college and recently graduated with the same degree, one is a little more outgoing and personable than the other, and that’s how I tell them apart!

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was upset with Streisand for disclosing in her interview that she cloned her dog. And they released a statement, “We all want our beloved dogs to live forever, but while it may sound like a good idea, cloning doesn’t achieve that – instead, it creates a new and different dog who has only the physical characteristics of the original. Animals’ personalities, quirks, and very ‘essence’ simply cannot be replicated, and when you consider that millions of wonderful adoptable dogs are languishing in animal shelters every year…”

I like that – “…personalities, quirks, and very ‘essence’ simply cannot be replicated…” Well said. And I like it when a radical leftist group admits the failing of naturalism/materialism!

Biologically and materially, we are limited. This brings us to an important point. The Bible distinguishes between biological life (Gr, Bios) and spiritual life (Gr, Zoe). And the Bible talks about how people are comprised of three components – body, soul, and spirit. It talks about how the Word (Jesus Christ) and Spirit worked together in creation. The Spirit of God was “moving” (hovering, vibrating) when the creative word was spoken (Genesis 1:2-3). And the Bible talks about how Word and Spirit work together in re-creation of our individual spirits in alignment with God! They work together to bring us to faith in our Savior and to grow us in Him!

Spiritual life infuses the living Word of God – “…in Him was life (zoe); and the life (zoe) was the light of men” (John 1:4). Spiritual life is in Christ, and He reaches out to us with Divine light that infuses our spirits and transforms. The Eastern Orthodox statement of belief says it this way: “That supremely Divine light is … grace, illumination, and energy which everlastingly and inseparably proceeds from the very essence of God.”

In their statement, PETA says that animals have an ‘essence’. So does our Creator and Supernatural Personality, God! – one that reaches out to us like the sun reaching us with its rays of sunshine! Christ’s transformation of us will one day be complete. The Bible tells us: “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious (bright shining righteousness) body, according to the working (the energy of His power) whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21). This shining glory of His heavenly body was visible to several disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration – where His clothes were shining a brilliance beyond this world and His face shone like the sun (Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2-4).

The Bible says we are more than just material matter. That’s why clones are not complete replicates. Our minds and hearts go beyond biochemistry. And we can be tuned-in to wavelengths of radiation that originate in the minds of men, or to those that originate in a spiritual dimension. This may seem paradoxical to modern sensibilities. But the Bible tells us that we can “hear” the voice of the Lord (“My sheep hear my voice,” John 10:27) or we can listen to the lies of our adversary and his demonic minions. This is what Jesus meant when He said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan” as Peter was trying to tell Him that He did not have to suffer at the hands of the Pharisees and die and be raised again.

We’ve mentioned previously how material things resolve at their most fundamental level into space and energy/vibration. This seems to be the limits to which science can take us – and it is in a direction from the very material to the very immaterial, pointing toward a spiritual reality that is at the root of all things.

We have also talked in these letters about how the heart is Scripture’s seat for our spirit. And we have mentioned how modern medicine is finding that, indeed, the heart is much more than a muscle to pump blood through the body. The heart as muscle-only was the early evolutionists’ idea. Yet, we now know that the heart communicates with the entire body through external nerves, hormones, and electromagnetic field (light) – a field thousands of times bigger in amplitude than the brain waves measured by EEG. Measurements are by electrocardiogram (EKG) and magnetocardiogram (MCG) and can be detected several feet from a person. There are also over 40,000 sensory neurons relaying information from the heart to the brain. And communication between the two organs occurs also through hormones, blood pressure waves, and electromagnetic field.

The Bible says we can understand through our hearts – we can receive the “light” that Jesus Christ has for us (John 1:4). This relates to a spiritual perception, beyond DNA and beyond biochemistry, although it interacts with the biochemistry – for example, “… see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them” (Acts 28:27). We can either understand the spiritual voices out there and heed the Spirit of God or we can be led down a path of lies.

Barbra Streisand may not have been able to resurrect Samantha, but God resurrected Jesus! And He will bring us into the fullness of that resurrection one day too!

We rejoice in your partnership with us, and in all the good that is made possible through this, your ministry! Won’t you please help us continue to spread the message with your prayers and a generous gift this month? The opening chapters of Genesis teach us that we live in a creation marred by sin and deception. This is why we must continue to press for the whole truth of creation. The Bible means what it says and can be trusted as our guide into all truth! Thank you so much! And a very happy Resurrection Sunday to you and your family! He is risen!

Yours in Christ,

Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman

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