My family is active in foster care and adoption as one of several means to fulfill the great commission by making disciples. We have four biological children, adopted three and continue to minister through foster care. We are somewhat new to the issue of snowflake adoption, but long appreciated the silence of scriptures and God's sovereignty regarding the salvation of the unborn and infants who die in that state. In light of this, we are carefully, and honestly wrestling with the desire to have children and make disciples through adoption of frozen embryos (aka: snowflake adoption).
I emphasize 'honestly', since parents tend to conceive and adopt children for very selfish reasons; to complete their family, save the marriage, etc.... I confess that I have wrestled with my own misguided motives as God continues to cleanse the depravity of my own heart.
I read several of the forums on Infant Salvation (there are so many, wow). I've enjoyed the the discussions and links provided within on Spurgeon's take and the dispelling of Piper's position. For an elevator pitch, a gruesome, but rhetorical trick of logic was offered up that Armenians should essentially abort babies so they can preserve their state of salvation. Conversely, perhaps a more meaningful and viscerally acceptable angle is if one adopts an embryo, then does one steal them away from guaranteed salvation?
As you can see from that last statement, I still struggle with a mental grasp of the sovereignty of God with man's responsibility. Regardless, I am compelled to act and wish to guide my family within the scope of an informed decision.
I also reviewed the forum on 'Snowflake Adoption'. I too remain baffled at how professing Christians keep their head in the sand and persist with in-vitro fertilization and/or other aggressive methods to conceive biological kids. I am thankful that God is good, gracious and patient with us as we sort through the weeds of our own theological shortfalls as he was and is for my own. God loves our bio children just as much as he loves our adopted and foster children. Knowing this should help curb the pang those have for having 'their own children'.
After all the intellectual fascination supplied in these posts, it spares us with no light challenge:
I apologize for the length of the opening post, but wish to show appreciation for the troves of forums and efforts of others in the past. I also wish to trim any redundancy of a popular topic in the hopes of gaining fresher insights on a fresher angle of this common topic. Many thanks in advance for your contributions.
I emphasize 'honestly', since parents tend to conceive and adopt children for very selfish reasons; to complete their family, save the marriage, etc.... I confess that I have wrestled with my own misguided motives as God continues to cleanse the depravity of my own heart.
I read several of the forums on Infant Salvation (there are so many, wow). I've enjoyed the the discussions and links provided within on Spurgeon's take and the dispelling of Piper's position. For an elevator pitch, a gruesome, but rhetorical trick of logic was offered up that Armenians should essentially abort babies so they can preserve their state of salvation. Conversely, perhaps a more meaningful and viscerally acceptable angle is if one adopts an embryo, then does one steal them away from guaranteed salvation?
As you can see from that last statement, I still struggle with a mental grasp of the sovereignty of God with man's responsibility. Regardless, I am compelled to act and wish to guide my family within the scope of an informed decision.
I also reviewed the forum on 'Snowflake Adoption'. I too remain baffled at how professing Christians keep their head in the sand and persist with in-vitro fertilization and/or other aggressive methods to conceive biological kids. I am thankful that God is good, gracious and patient with us as we sort through the weeds of our own theological shortfalls as he was and is for my own. God loves our bio children just as much as he loves our adopted and foster children. Knowing this should help curb the pang those have for having 'their own children'.
After all the intellectual fascination supplied in these posts, it spares us with no light challenge:
- What motive should we have when it comes to considering the adoption of embryos?
- How do we weigh or reconcile this motive with that of considering adoption and foster care?
- If some embryos are elect and some are not- for which we do not know, then should we ignore the living children who remain in need of adoption or a home to stay in?
I apologize for the length of the opening post, but wish to show appreciation for the troves of forums and efforts of others in the past. I also wish to trim any redundancy of a popular topic in the hopes of gaining fresher insights on a fresher angle of this common topic. Many thanks in advance for your contributions.