Meet Elizabeth Ann…

(Picture of a black-footed ferret, born December 10, 2020)

Considering that we are gathered, today, to remember the wholesale gift of the Holy Spirit in establishing the Church of God, I would like to touch upon what that Spirit accomplished on that day in Acts 2, and what it accomplishes as each new convert comes along, concluding with the fulfillment of God’s ultimate promise.

Our present “condition” or “status” with God is not a topic of harmonious belief in Christendom. You might hear people say, “I’m begotten of God,” or, “I’m a child of God,” or, “I’m a born again Christian.”

That latter statement, I would recommend, is not accurate, while the other two do have significant support from the scriptures. Examples people will use to claim they are “born again” might include the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus, or the words of John in his first epistle, so let’s briefly review these scriptures and take into account what many misinterpret.

Joh 3:1  There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Joh 3:2  This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Joh 3:4  Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Verses 3 & 5 use the English word, “born”, in most translations, but the word used for “born” is a very versatile word which can refer to conception, gestation, and actual birth. So, context is critical when deciding what stage to use in the description.

G1080   (Strong)
γεννάω
gennaō
ghen-nah'-o
From a variation of G1085; to procreate (properly of the father, but by extension of the mother); figuratively to regenerate: - bear, beget, be born, bring forth, conceive, be delivered of, gender, make, spring.

Green’s Literal Translation reads this way…

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, If one is not generated from above, he is not able to see the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:4  Nicodemus said to Him, How is a man able to be generated, being old? He is not able to enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born?
Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, If one is not generated out of water and Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That having been generated out of the flesh is flesh, and that having been generated out of the Spirit is spirit.

This conception begins after you are baptized and when you receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. Here we are still flesh, yet we now live under the reign (YLT) of Christ Jesus having not yet been born, but, dare I say, we are gestating or being formed into a new creation.

When I speak of gestating, I speak of that period of time between conception and birth, where development and growth occurs which makes the conceived capable of entering a new phase of life.

As with Isaiah, John uses words that can be misunderstood by people who believe they are born again.

1Jn 5:1  Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.

1Jn 5:18  We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

Recalling Elizabeth Ann, she is something very special…

1979 - Black-footed ferrets declared EXTINCT
1981 - Farmer discovers a community of 8 on his farm. They are captured and entered into a breeding program.
1986 - A scientist request skin samples from the ferrets, and these samples are preserved
2020 - cloning of Willa's skin sample to produce Elizabeth Ann.

For a mammalian baby to be born, two haploid cells join to make one diploid cell, and that one cell now contains the entire DNA content which defines the new life. Each one of you is a very unique life that has never been duplicated and never will be, unless they make cloning of humans legal. It’s also illegal to harvest a dead person’s organs for research or transplantation unless the deceased had previously willingly allowed for it.

Did you know that the Church of God adamantly states that human life begins at conception? So, then it is murder to destroy a fetus, and we should be able to see then, that it is morally corrupt to also save cells from that fetus for scientific and medical discovery. Why, because each of those cells could be used to reanimate that particular human. We end up playing with cells of a person who was murdered.

Think about it. Elizabeth Ann lives right now acting completely like a Black-footed Ferret, and she is a duplicate of Willa. How? By taking a complete chromosomal map from a diploid skin cell. It could have been an organ cell. It doesn’t matter what cell, because any of Willa’s cells successfully preserved could be used to clone Willa. So, not only can we take any cell and clone it into a new life, that life acts just like it is supposed to according to it’s kind. This has been done with other animals, but Elizabeth Ann is the latest, and the SPIRIT OF THAT SPECIES transferred on to the new life from that one cell.

Everything we choose to do in this life in regard to our fellow humans should be to respect and honor both their humanness and their uniqueness among humans.

We can confidently recommend, then, that if a human was cloned, he or she would act just like a human having the SPIRIT of MAN by nature of its presence in the cell used to begin the cloning process.

Returning to gestation, I don’t believe anybody here can recall anything you experienced while in the womb, but science has revealed to us that, depending on the stage of development, a fetus can react to sounds and share the mother’s emotions. If mom is sad, the fetus at some point of development also feels sad. And all the while the fetus is receiving food from the mother and constantly developing and growing, going from a condition of total dependence to becoming 9 months later an independent life.

The scriptures reveal to us that our Spiritual gestation has a similar outcome, meaning there will be no memory of what we experienced in this life as begotten children of God, at least no sad memories. This makes some sense since where we are now is NOTHING like where we will be. Are you really disappointed that you don’t remember what you felt and thought in the womb, especially sad or alarming feelings?

We can actually get an indication of this loss of memory in Revelation…

Rev 21:3  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
Rev 21:4  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

But it is made most plain by Isaiah, who when comparing rebellious Israel to a future people that will love God, concludes that comparison with this…

Isa 65:16  So that he who blesses himself in the earth Shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Shall swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My eyes.
Isa 65:17  "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

So, we have been begotten of God, and we now are children of God developing to the point that we can be born into God’s Kingdom as SPIRIT.

Rom 8:10  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Rom 8:16  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Rom 8:17  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

There is no denying we are living members of God’s Kingdom, even under Christ’s reign, and foreigners to any society on this earth, but it is also clear that we are in a process of pre-birth development, needing, I said needing, the nurturing, motherly care of the Church of God, the bride of Christ.

For we WILL one day become fully developed spiritually and BORN into the family of God.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
1Co 15:51  Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
1Co 15:52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Pe 1:4  to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
1Pe 1:5  who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Today is a fantastic day to appreciate the power of God to begin the apparently limitless process of begetting spiritual children. For a long time in human history, He selected individuals, but on that day of Pentecost, probably in 31 A.D., God showed that He could convict and convert, or beget, thousands in a single day. So, it is now no hard thing for us to perceive how God will be able to do the same to any and all individuals who are willing to receive God’s gift during the Great White Throne Judgment.

If we don’t cherish the value of human life from conception, which is a shadow of the spirit, we cannot value what is not the shadow, the SPIRIT. God help us cherish the life of those we love, those who hate us, and the countless number we have never met. God’s people are begotten of God, individually gestating in the loving care of the Bride of Jesus, to be born again, but to Spirit life in the Kingdom of God. Blessed Pentecost to you!