Less Than Human

Memory Verse: Psalm 139:13-14 “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.”

What did you think when you read your lesson about the lessening of the importance of being human in today’s society. Your lesson touched on the fact that our society today is greatly devaluing human life at a rapid pace. One of the most obvious indicators of this is abortion. It is called choice, but who gives the fetus or the pre-born baby a choice to live or die? No one gives this choice to the baby – not the mother who has made her choice to terminate her pregnancy for any of many reasons and not the doctor performing the abortion who will profit monetarily by the procedure – sometimes not only during the procedure but also after it too.

Psalm 139:13-16 13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 6 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

God made you special and unique from every other human being. He labored over every little physical and mental detail just to make you, you. God has a plan for your life – he saw you before you were born and every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How awesome, unique and special you are to God!

Genesis 1:26-28 26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”27 So God created human beings[c] in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

God made you in His image and likeness. You were patterned after the image of God. You were made different from the animals and given rule over them. You are very special. All humans are very special. You did not evolve – You were specifically created special and unique by God Himself.

The idea of macroevolution, that somehow humans evolved from the animals is in direct opposition to the Word of God. The idea that one species can, over time, turn into another species is unbiblical. That is called macroevolution, one unique species becoming a different and unique species. It goes directly against the Word of God taking away the specialness that God gave humans over the rest of His creation.

If humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes? Why didn’t they all evolve into people? If invertebrates evolved into vertebrates and fishes evolved into amphibians and amphibians evolved into reptiles and reptiles evolved into birds and birds evolved into mammals, why are there still invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals? Why are there no new and different species popping up all by themselves into existence from other species? Macroevolution is a lie designed to get you to think that you are no better than the animals around you. It is a lie to make you less than human.

What happens when you are considered as just “evolved animals” and not special creations of God made in His image? (We see that we are no better than animals – that we should not be held to a higher standard than cows, or dogs – that cows, or dogs, or snails are just as important as we are – that we should have no special standing over animals)

What doors are opened with this kind of thinking? [Abortion, the killing of human babies while they still in their mother’s wombs. Experimentation on humans to develop or test new drugs. Euthanasia, the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy. Eugenics, a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed). Transgenics, the way that scientists are now mixing the DNA of one species with another outside of sexual reproduction to produce an organism or cell of one species into which one or more genes of another species have been incorporated – such as spider-goats to produce BioSteel). Mass-murders (Columbine massacre), holocausts, wars, genocide, etc) – a general cheapening of life itself.]

God made humans in His image and that gives Him the right to decide if a person should live or die. Human life is precious to God and it should be just as precious to us also.

I read yesterday that the United Kingdom has given the go-ahead for human-animal embryos (cybrids) to be created in the lab and used for research. These “cybrids” would be more than 90% human and less than 1% animal. They would be developed by taking a cow or rabbit cell and removing the nucleus from it and replacing it with an adult human cell. This one-celled embryo would be developed for a few days. When it contained a hundred or so cells embryonic stem cells would be harvested. This cybrid would ostensibly be destroyed within 14 days. But what if it wasn’t? That is the next step.

Genesis 1:21-27 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day. 24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind— livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened. 25 God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

God made each of the fishes and animals after their own kind able to reproduce themselves. God made man in His image and likeness. He didn’t make the animals in His image and likeness. Human beings are special to God. They are reproductions of His image and likeness, regardless of their health, age, mental capacity, or physical handicaps. Why would man want to mix the DNA of a lesser species with the species, man, that God made in His image and likeness and think that they were making man better? On the surface we might have more physical abilities that we do now, but we would be less than human – less than what God intended for us to be.

1Cor 3:16-20 16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18 Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.” 20 And again, “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”

God told the Hebrews in Leviticus 19:19 that they were not to mix one species with another. Could He have been speaking through time to us at this time?

All humans are precious to God. All are made in His image and likeness. All have the opportunity to know Him through His Son who was born as a human being and lived and died as we do. Mental capacity, physical handicaps, age, health, strength, wisdom and knowledge are not even in the equation when God considers us. He loves us for who we are and we should love each other as well.

The old lady in the hospital who can’t even remember her children’s names, the tiny embryo just beginning to grow in his mother’s womb, the quadriplegic in a wheelchair who cannot move his hands nor feet, nor feed himself, the young woman in a nursing home who has to be fed through her stomach, and on and on, are precious to God. They are not less than human.

If man becomes less than human it will be by his own hand. Scientists who that think that by injecting animal, plant, fish or insect DNA into human beings they will make them better aren’t thinking clearly. They do not understand that being human is the best we can be. No scientist can improve on God’s creation. The resulting creature would truly be less than human.

As people of God, you must always understand that no man can improve on God’s creation. Please keep this lesson in mind in the coming years as man will tinker with what it means to be human at its very core with cloning, transgenics and biotechnology. This knowledge could possibly be our “Tower of Babel”. God warned us in Genesis at the tower of Babel in Genesis Chapter 11. But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”

As knowledge increases, the things and ways of God will appear foolish to more and more people. Do not fall into that trap. Keep the Word of God close in your hearts and minds. Value human life at all times and in all circumstances. No one today is less than human. All people are created in the image and likeness of God.

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