Playing God

With the gigantic increase in our understanding of the various biological processes in animals and human beings, the idea of ‘playing God’ has become very real. Today, human beings can be created in a test tube. Today, you can not only choose the gender of your baby but you can choose likely color of eyes, hair and physical build, if not intelligence and personality traits. We are on the verge of being able to create exact duplicates of ourselves through cloning. In biomedicine, we now create embryos (human beings) just to steal their stem-cells and then destroy them. We literally sacrifice children to help others overcome disease and impairments. Women are allowed to choose life and death of their unborn children with legalized abortion and individuals are increasingly gaining the right to have a doctor kill them if they decide they do not wish to live longer. In some parts of the world, a doctor can euthanize someone without gaining the patient’s permission nor the permission of their loved ones. In the field of biological reproduction and biomedicine, people ‘playing God’ is becoming commonplace. Our growth in scientific knowledge is out-pacing our application of ethics and morality.

May I say that there are other ways in which we can ‘play God’ other than manipulating biological processes. It is my intent to have us look at a handful today.

1. Establishing Spiritual Laws and Regulations.

So many people have played God and are continuing to play God by deciding that they can take-away from or add to the Scriptures by devising their own religious laws and regulations. Over the last 2000 years, people have thought that they could improve upon God’s Plan by introducing new rules and regulations or ignoring the Scriptures relating to how one is saved, how to worship, how to demonstrate holiness inone‘s life, how to enter the Church, how to structure the Church, how to run the Church, what to call the Church, etc.

It is preposterous to think that we can improve upon God’s Will as presented in the Scriptures. Isaiah 55:8-9, "‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”

We are commanded through-out the Bible to not add nor take away from God’s Word:

Deuteronomy 4:2, "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”

Deuteronomy 12:32, "Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.”

Proverbs 30:6, “Do not add to His words Lest He reprove you, and you be proved a liar.”

Revelation 22:18-19, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

We may think that we can come-up with wise rules and regulations to help us be more righteous, but such efforts are vain. Colossians 2:20-23, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) - in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

We may think that we can come-up with more powerful and majestic ways to worship God, but such is vain. Matthew 15:9, “’But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’"

We must be careful not to ‘play God’ by adding to and taking-away anything delivered to us in the Scriptures. As we recognize that we are mere servants, we must say to God in thought, word and deed, ’Not my will but Thy will be done.’

2. Judging Motives and Intents.

Another way in which we ‘play God’ is by thinking we can know and judge the inner motives and intentions of each other. We are ‘playing God’ when we think we can know what is truly in somebody else’s heart. We read in 1 Samuel 16:7, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."