2003-09-21 | Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee | 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Today, I would like to testify to the view of marriage as spoken of in the Bible and the process of being conceived and growing in the mother’s body.
1. God’s Will for Marriage in the Bible
Some people get married and say, “We meet and marry in the will of God.” I mean, are all marriages really happening according to God’s will? It is not. They meet because they like them and choose their spouses, not God’s arbitrarily chosen ones. Of course, by seeking a mate by faith and entrusting it to God, God prepares a suitable partner according to your faith and guides them by controlling their hearts.
Others say that it is God’s will to get married. When God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, and told them to be fruitful and multiply, it is God’s will for men and women to marry and have many children. However, when Adam and Eve were created, the situation was completely different from now, and it was a time to spread many descendants on this earth. Just about 2,000 years ago, what was recorded in the Bible? In 1 Corinthians 7:7, the apostle Paul said, “I want all people to be like me,” that is, to be single like himself. It is better to just stay.”
Of course, this is not to explain that marriage is not God’s will. Continuing on, 1 Corinthians 7:38 says, “He who marries a virgin daughter does well, but he who does not marry does it better.” There’s nothing wrong with getting married soon, but it’s better not to get married. As 1 Corinthians 7:34 says, “The unmarried and the virgin are concerned about the things of the Lord, and want to sanctify both body and spirit, but the married one is concerned about the things of the world, what must they do to please their husbands?” It is because a person who is not married can be more faithful to the Lord than a married person, so it is a great spiritual blessing.
Just by thinking about these words, you can realize that it is wrong to think that God is in control of everyone’s marriage and has appointed a mate for each person. But those of you who are believers who want to get married should ask God for guidance. You have to ask through faith so that you can find a good partner who can be more loyal to God after getting married and share spiritual love with each other.
2. The process of being conceived and growing in the mother
When a man and woman meet, marry, and fall in love, a man’s sperm and a woman’s egg combine to create a new life. Just as a seed falls on a field and bears fruit, a man’s seed of life falls on a woman’s field and life is conceived. And this conceived fetus stays in the mother’s womb for 10 months and grows. If you look at the process of conception and growth of life, you can feel how sophisticated and mysterious the mystery of creation provided by God is.
First of all, if you look at fertilization, fertilization is when a man’s sperm and a woman’s egg meet and combine, and the sperm is divided into a head and a tail. The head contains genetic material, important information about which child will be conceived, and the tail has the power to travel until it meets the egg. In addition, the head has an enzyme that penetrates the egg wall so that it can bind when it meets the egg.
Fertilization occurs when approximately 300 million sperm enter the uterus and one of them meets the egg. When fertilization occurs, high-voltage electricity is emitted from the egg wall and the other sperm are shocked. Other than the sperm that first arrives at the egg and combines with it, other sperm cannot access it. This causes the egg wall to thicken rapidly so that other sperm can no longer penetrate it. God created it so mysteriously that all these processes can be performed automatically.
The combined fertilized egg is divided into 2 within one day, then 8 after 2 days, then 16, and after 8 days, the fertilized egg that is seated on the uterine wall begins to undergo new changes after 2 weeks. After 3 weeks, the heart starts beating, and a week later, the brain, spine, and nervous tissue are formed. At 12 weeks after fertilization, all organs begin to form.
In the first two months of fertilization, the fetus in the mother’s womb increases in weight by 2 million times. It is said that at the moment of clicking, the size and weight of one’s body grow by about 20 times. It is a change in the blink of an eye. In order to increase body weight by 20 times per second, cell division must occur that much, and for this to happen, the DNA, the gene inside the cell, must also increase by the same amount.
One DNA contains 3 billion pieces of genetic information. If we call DNA a house and each piece of genetic information in it is a brick, then cloning one DNA is the same as making a house of 3 billion bricks. It can be said that Also, the arrangement of the bricks must not be different from the first house. If, in less than a second, three billion bricks could be connected seamlessly, and each one could fit into its own shape and place to create a completely identical house, how could this be called a coincidence? This is something that can only be done by the power of Almighty God.
If you look at the growth process of the fetus a little more, the neural tube begins to develop at one month after conception, and the basic work for the formation of blood, bones, muscles, blood vessels, and internal organs is made. At 2 months of age, the heart pumps and the body has a certain appearance, so that the body can check the shape of the head and limbs with the naked eye. The 3rd month is the period when the face is formed and the head, body, and limbs begin to move on their own. By 4 months, the body and the organs necessary to sustain life are functioning normally. From the 5th month onwards, they move more actively, such as moving muscles and checking the surrounding environment, and hearing function is formed. And at 6 months, the digestive system develops and growth accelerates in earnest. At 7 months, hair grows on the head, and in the case of boys, the testes enter the scrotum by sex hormones. In girls, the genitals are ready at 8 months. By the 9th month, the hair on the head becomes clear, the fluff all over the body deteriorates, the wrinkles on the body disappear, and the extremities become plump. And when the last 10 months are full, a newborn baby weighing over 3 kg with an average height of 50 cm will be born.
3. Six months after conception, the fetus’ body is given a soul,
Then, when will the soul enter the body of this growing fetus? As I already mentioned in the previous Hell sermon, it was six months after the sperm and egg were combined. However, even before six months, that is, before the soul is given, a person should not arbitrarily control his or her life. It is important to keep in mind that a child is a living being that belongs to God from the moment it is conceived, and that only God has sovereignty over that life.
In Luke 1:41-44, there is a passage where a six-month-old fetus responds to the work of the Holy Spirit spiritually. When Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, met Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist six months earlier, the child in her womb rejoices with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit because of the baby Jesus in her womb. Through this, we can know that the fetus already in the womb is not only life itself, but also that a six-month-old baby is a spiritual being who can be filled with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
4. The 10 months after conception is an important period for the formation of the fetus’s personality, intelligence, and character.
As mentioned earlier, the fetus grows in the mother’s body for 10 months after conception, and this period is very important not only for the growth of the flesh, but also for the formation of personality, intelligence, and character. For example, just with food, the fetus receives what the mother eats in the womb. When a mother accepts something harmful or irritating to the body, such as alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, it immediately affects the fetus. Also, since the mother’s feelings and thoughts during pregnancy have a great influence on the fetus, people have emphasized prenatal education since ancient times.
The influence of parents, especially mothers, during conception is the same spiritually. In the Bible, we can see that Samuel, whom God gave birth to through the prayer of his mother Hannah, had already communicated with God from an early age and became a great prophet before God when he grew up. In the case of John the Baptist, too, because he was conceived by the work of God, he received the work of the Holy Spirit from his womb. “The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared to Israel” (Luke 1:80). They were preparing to prepare the way of the Lord in the middle.
5. Thinking function in brain cells and formation of oneself through it
So, how does the ability to think, the greatest characteristic of human beings, work? This is because God has given the human brain cells the ability to remember and think. For example, a computer has a body that can store data, stores data in this body, and finds information when needed and processes the work. These brains are already formed while the fetus is in the mother’s body, but they cannot see or hear yet, so they cannot accumulate knowledge or use it with that knowledge. From birth, through the five senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, and feeling, you enter into your brain one by one. In the process of inputting in this way, knowledge, character, and personality of a person are created, and each person’s own standard of value is formed.
Everything we see, hear and input in the environment we were born and raised in this way becomes our knowledge and creates our thoughts. So, you have to remember that not everything you think is right is right. The only absolute truth in the world is the Word of God. What you have accumulated as knowledge and culture in the process of growing up in the world is not from God, who is the truth, but from the world. Therefore, you should not judge others based on the standard that you consider to be right, and even less should you judge the Word of God.
I bless you in the name of the Lord that you will realize the mystery of life and the process of birth through today’s testimonies and follow the will of God by acknowledging God the Creator in all things.
