Let me share with you some thoughts on a couple of unrelated ideas which have come before me recently.

"My Father Was My Wife"

Now, don't let that title trip you up. You will notice it is a quotation. I received a letter last week from someone who is apparently a listener to our Bible Talk call-in radio broadcast. The purpose of the author was to instruct me concerning reincarnation. For all of us dummies, reincarnation is the same person returning to live after death, but coming in a different body, or several different bodies. The lengthy statement I received pointed out that these different bodies we inhabit are provided to us as a "golden opportunity" which affords us time to desert Satan. Actually, it is both a punishment and an opportunity. Because we serve Satan in one body, when we die we are given another one until such time as we start serving God. Once we serve God in one of these many bodies, we are privileged to go to heaven and be with God. Or, so my letter writing friend wants me to think.

I suppose the writer had in mind convincing me of this fantastic theory. The packet included photostat copies from a book by Helen Wambach entitled Life Before Life. Mrs. Wambach had interviewed a number of people who told of their former lives in other bodies. For instance, Case A-511 said, "I knew my mother before when were were both males, and she was a close friend and comrade. I knew my father before, and I had resentment feelings toward him . . . ." Case A-143 said, "Yes, my mother had been my sister, my father and my child before. I saw many people I would know in this life, some of them I have not met yet." Case A-398 reported, "My mother was my mother in a lifetime in 500 B.C. and I didn't necessarily like her then either." Ole A-398 is surely an unlucky person! That's a family tie that goes back a long way, doesn't it? Case A-460 said, "My mother was a close male friend from a past life. My father was my wife whom I used to treat cruelly in a past life." You thought I just made up the title of this article, didn't you? (All quotes from Life Before Life, p. 96).

I usually don't say much about letters like this, but I felt that I just had to say something about this one. It was one of those anonymous letters. In fact, it was signed, "Anonymous Me." But if the author really believes what I am being led to believe, I wonder why the letter was not signed, "Anonymous Us"? I keep remembering that the Scripture says, ". . .it is appointed unto men once to die. . ." (Heb. 9:27). However, someone who would believe something so ridiculous as the above idea would not allow themselves to be confused with the Scriptures. The Bible tells us we are all going to have to give account of ourselves unto God (Rom. 14:12). Why do I feel my correspondent does not have to worry about answering in the Judgment? Unaccountable people do not have to give account!

Baby Fae's Heart Transplant

On Friday (10/26/84), doctors in Loma Linda, California, transplanted a baboon heart into a 17-day-old infant called "Baby Fae." This has aroused the ire of animal lovers and has been discussed as a serious ethical question to be dealt with by the medical community especially. One of our members asked me what I thought about it. After a considerable amount of thought, I decided I wanted to make a comment.

It seems to me that, considered from a medical point of view, the human heart is nothing more than a muscle that moves the blood through the body. It is not the seat of our intellect and emotions. This is contrary to prevailing religous thought. For years people have touched their chests and affirmed concerning their religious convictions, "You'll never take away from me what I feel right here in my heart." This gesture is made when beliefs are challenged with the teaching of God's word. Apparently most people think that the physical heart is the place where they hold their convictions. The old-time preachers used to distinguish between the blood pumping muscle and the brain by referring to the brain as the "Bible heart." I think they were exactly right. Solomon said, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he . .." (Prov. 23:7). Now we know that we think with our brain and not our blood pump. It seems to me that this answers the ethical question of replacing the physical heart with an animal heart.

Guardian of Truth XXIX: 3, pp. 74-75
February 7, 1985