Stem Cell Research Breakthrough

On November 20, it was reported that two research facilities on two continents had made an astounding human stem cell research breakthrough. They found that they could grow stem cells from ordinary human skin cells—from a woman’s face in one case and from a male newborn in the other. One scientist declared, "This work represents a tremendous scientific milestone—the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers first airplane," and added, "It’s a bit like learning how to turn lead into gold."

Stem cells are those which transform themselves into the many body parts of the fully developed human in a body’s early development. If scientists can make these replicate themselves into whatever body part needs replacement or healing, various deadly illnesses can be healed.

Researchers had been working stem cells from umbilical cords and embryos, and some had hoped to use cloned human material. The use of embryos and cloned material created a moral firestorm since Biblical moralists believe that these procedures go against the sanctity of life created by God. If the reports prove true, the new procedure undercuts some enthusiasts of abortion and cloning. It further shrinks financial research fund-raising needs to almost nothing.

Scientists are unsure as to why these simple skin cells are behaving like they are. Stem cell research pioneer James Thompson said, "People didn’t know it would be this easy. Thousands of labs in the United States can do this basically tomorrow." Thompson also said, "These particular genes were known to turn other genes on and off, but just how they produced cells that mimic embryonic stem cells is a mystery."

That’s pretty close to confessing a miracle. Scientists have these simple cells right before their eyes under a microscope day after day, yet they can’t tell why this happens. They know a single human cell divides into all sorts of different cells, yet they don’t know how.

God covers this issue in Psalm 139:13-16: "For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them."

"Fearfully" means to stand in reverential awe. "Wonderfully" has the sense of set apart or unique." "Skillfully wrought," or "curiously wrought" as the Old King James says, really means "embroidered," suggesting the intricate and personal handiwork of God. "Substance, being yet unformed," can mean a wrapped and unformed mass as in an embryo.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 adds, "As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything."

Christ said in John 3:8, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Being born again is like the mystery of the stem cell miracle. Being born of His Spirit is not discerned by curious unbelievers, but those who trust Christ know it is true.

Only God alone can construct a single human cell. We humans are unique and truly awesome. Now we learn all the genetic detail is in every single body cell and can possibly be coaxed to reproduce each body part. All the coding is there. The possibilities of this being accidental or the product of evolution is absurd. We might call this God’s minutia miracle. Stem cell scientists haven’t invented anything. They are mere explorers in a staggeringly complex single cell area.

Proponents of evolution claim it takes millions of years to make a single cell into a complex human being. There is still extreme complexity in a single cell of any creature, and they can’t explain how it got to be the single cell in the first place.

Actually, Charles Darwin believed God created the original life forms and that they developed from there over fantastically long period of time. Big deal. A full human being develops in nine months, and that’s from a single cell that subdivides with stem cell genius. It happens all the time, and scientists can’t tell how. If humans can do it in nine months, God could create Adam in an instant. It’s God’s miracle, and we hope these stem cell discoveries will lead researchers to consider the eternal genius of God.

David Virkler