Creator Of Vitamin K
Many "modern" discoveries are found to be but proofs of the prior knowledge of God; knowledge prior to and independent of the experiences of man. But the example below has double merit because of the wide gap of time between the statement of God, and the current medical "proofs." We have plucked the following from pages 22-23, "None of These Diseases," a book by S. I. McMillen, M.D.; published by Fleming H. Revell Co., Westwood N. J., 1963.
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"It is felt that the tendency to hemorrhage is due to the fact that the important blood-clotting element, vitamin K, is not formed in the normal amount until the fifth to the seventh day of life. If vitamin K is not manufactured in the baby's intestinal tract until the fifth to the seventh day, it is clear that the first safe day to perform circumcision would be the eighth day, the very day that Jehovah commanded Abraham to circumcise Isaac.
A second element which is also necessary for the normal clotting of blood is prothrombin. A chart based on data discussed in Holt Pediatrics reveals that on the third day of a baby's life the available prothrombin is only thirty per cent of normal. Any surgical operation performed on a baby during that time would predispose to serious hemorrhage. From the chart we also see that the prothrombin skyrockets on the eighth day to a level even better than normal — 110 per cent. It then levels off to 100 per cent. It appears that an eight-day-old baby has more available prothrombin than on any other day in its entire life. Thus one observes that from a consideration of vitamin K and prothrombin determinations the perfect day to perform a circumcision is the eighth day.
We would commend the many hundreds of workers who labored at great expense over a number of years to discover that the safest day to perform circumcision is the eighth. Yet, as we congratulate medical science for this recent finding, we can almost hear the leaves of the Bible rustling. They would like to remind us that four thousand years ago, when God initiated circumcision with Abraham, He said, "And he that is eight days old shall be circum- cised..." (Gen.17:12)
Abraham did not pick the eighth day after centuries of trial-and-error experiments. Neither he nor any of his company from the ancient city of Ur in the Chaldees had ever been circumcised. It was a day picked by the Creator of vitamin K."
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Dr. McMillen also comments on the instructions of God through Moses re. Quarantine of the sick (See Lev.13:), and careful washing of the person and all objects contaminated by that which is "unclean." (Num.19:) He concludes that man "learned, after centuries and at a frightful cost, what God gave to Moses by inspiration."
Someday our own "modern" brethren may discover that God's ways are indeed
"pragmatic" and "relevant" in our age. GOD'S WAYS ARE SUITED TO THE MAN THAT GOD MADE, FOR ALL TIME!!