The new medical procedure of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) pioneered by English Drs. Steptoe 7 Edwards was actualized by the birth of Louise Joy Brown in 1978. Since then there has been a great rush around the world to duplicate and expand upon this method.
How are Christians who take the Scripture seriously, and believe that they can “fully equip” us to deal with this issue righteously (II Tim. 3:16) going to cope with this procedure that seems to be light years away from the world of the Bible?
Although the Bible doesn’t mention IVF, it has a great deal to say about the problem of infertility that it attempts to solve.
In the context of the Middle East, barrenness was regarded as much more than a hardship. It was a reproach that could cause a woman to be divorced. As the New Bible Dictionary comments: “This was the cause of Sarah’s despairing laughter (Gen. 18:12)/Rachel’s passionate alternative of children or death (Gen.30:1)/Hannah’s silent prayer (I Sam. 1)/and Elizabeth’s cry that God had taken away her reproach (Lk, 1:25).” The awfulness of the coming judgment on Jerusalem is emphasized by the incredible statement “Blessed are the barren…(Lk. 23:29).
Four Biblical revelations of infertility
Fortunately the Scriptures provide us with a broader context of evaluation for the problem of infertility than the one of reproach which dominates in that area of the world even today. Not all of the principles will have the same relevance to each case but it is helpful to see the full backdrop to this issue.
1. A revelation of Providence
One cannot help but notice how the Scripture emphasize the direct role that God plays in granting fertility and conception. Let us consider the wives of Jacob. “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.” (Gen. 29:31). “Then God remembered Rachel, he listened to her and opened her womb … she became pregnant” (Gen. 30:22). Before this event, Jacob had answered Rachel, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” (Gen. 30:2).” Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayers and his wife, Rebekah, became pregnant (Gen. 25:21). And in referring to Hannah, it is recorded that “the Lord closed her womb” (I Sam. 1:5).
The Lord opened. The Lord closed. When these verses are confronted by the complex techniques of In Vitro Fertilization, are they merely to be brushed aside? The crucial question is: “Who is in control here?” Has man reached a milestone in his development where he can take over the credit lines to renewed fertility? The humanist would say that the Hebrews attributed to God the mysteries that could not be explained by what they knew at the time. And now that modern man has acquired this knowledge, the supernatural need not be resorted to. Of course, this view is insipid and demeaning to all who hold to the inerrant, inspired Word of God.
Psalm 139:13 takes this principle of direct involvement in the fertility of the Hebrew women and universalizes it to encompass all human conception. “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” “You brought me forth from my mother’s womb” (Ps. 71:6, also Ruth 4:13/Ps. 127:3,4). These verses indicate that no matter how much man may intervene in the process of pro-creation, unless God does His part, no new individual will appear. Humanistic man will not be allowed to sit at the potter’s wheel and say, “This is mine!” (Jer. 18:1-6). Man may be capable of manipulating the physical through technique and genetics, but he cannot change the nature of the soul and spirit.
God, who holds control over all souls and spirit, God who holds control over all souls for eternity, will not relinquish His power at their generation.
This has profound implications for our attitude towards the unborn, the handicapped, and the aged. For it means that no person can ever be brought into existence without the express permission and involvement of the Creator. And He is incapable of miscalculation (Ex. 4:11). We must hold every human life brought into existence with respect, even the embryos in the IVF Petri dish.
2. A Revelation of punishment
Infertility can be a punishment from God for the sin of both individuals and nations. “Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again, for the Lord had closed up every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Abraham’s wife, Sarah” (Gen. 20:17,18).
“If you obey God … the fruit of your womb will be blessed …” “If you do not obey the Lord your God … the fruit of your womb will be cursed” (Deut. 28:1,4,15,18). “Ephriam’s glory will fly like a bird, no birth, no pregnancy, no conception” (Hos. 9:11).
Barrenness struck Abimelech’s house because of imminent adultery. Individual sin can be judged by God through venereal disease, sterility, and barenness among other things. (I Cor. 6:18). Complications from abortions and other sins, when they gain dominance, can bring the whole nation under judgment.
3 . A revelation of pollution
Infertility may also result from living in a sin-contaminated world. Barrenness can be a result of factors quite apart from personal sin, but rather have its origin in a disordered environment around us or genetic deterioration from within. From the day of the Fall, even the ground itself is prevented from manifesting its full fruitfulness (Gen. 3:17-19). The Process of childbearing itself is hindered and affected by pain (Gen. 3:16). Many godly women in the scriptures were affected by it. Viruses and conditions which are the common lot of humanity have taken their toll in this area also. God has not promised a miracle cure to everyone, although it is certainly not wrong to seek correction by means which honor the family bond and the sanctity of life (eg, clearing of tubes by laser technology).
But God does point to a time when all deprivation shall be ended. “The creation itself was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated … We know that the creation itself has been groaning as in the pain of childbirth right up to the present time” (Rom. 8:20-22).
4. A revelation of preparation
Lastly, infertility can be a deprivation allowed by God to bring about a greater purpose. An amazing pattern develops as you follow this idea through scriptures. The wives of the scriptures, the wives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were barren by nature. (Gen. 16:1/25:21/29:31/30:1). Is this a mere coincidence? God was most certainly teaching these founding fathers of Israel that if we would bring fruit forth to God we must accept that death position. “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead.” (II Cor. 1:9). See also Rom. 4:9.
A striking example of this principle is seen in Hannah, the wife of Eli. I Sam. 1 records her great distress over her barrenness, greatly augmented by the scorn of a fertile second wife. But Hannah’s childless condition was not a fluke. “The Lord had closed her womb.” (I Sam. 1:6). There are no accidents in the life of a genuine believer. Her entreaties for children were turned down year after year, but Hannah persevered. These manifold prayers, wrought in great struggle of soul, built up a tremendous spiritual consecration in Hannah that led to a great and noble commitment. She would not grasp this gift of God for her own pleasure.
God was in need of a consecrated man to lead a renewal movement in Israel, and Hannah in her trial sees this need and responds. (I Sam. 1:11). Hannah had little use for the mere boast that she had produced a child. The natural love for offspring was transformed into the highest form of dedication to the Lord’s service. The service Samuel was to perform for his God far outweighed the sorrowful years of yearning and deferred hope.
The Pulpit Commentary remarks: “Long years of patiently endured trial may be the Divine training of subordinating natural gratification to high spiritual ends. The long trial of Hannah yielded blessing when her hope was sublimated and her piety deepened. God was preparing her for a higher good. The deepened piety of the mother would tell most powerfully on the subsequent nature of her child Samuel.”
This preparation of the mother by trial for a specially consecrated child is repeated in the lives of Samsom (Judges 13) and John the Baptist (Lk.1).
Conclusion
There is a belief penetrating our society that “everything can be made,” that ultimately there is nothing that man cannot do. Helmut Thielicke in his Theological Ethics remarks: “To believe this is a new height of misunderstood human autonomy. There is one thing that this man who can do everything cannot do. He is no longer capable of accepting suffering. He can no longer accept because he no longer knows the One who gives and sends all things.”
Suffering is then to be eliminated at all costs, even to the gross distortion and violation of other fundamental values. If seventy embryonic human beings must be destroyed to find that one which is perfect, so be it. But the person who accepts the sanctity of human life will recoil from methods which spurn it. “That sense of responsibility will turn the yearning for a child into a search for one’s neighbour, for the child of other parents who is seeking a home.”
Larry Heather is president of Christians Concerned for Life.
