genetic engineering

Health – Genetic Engineering

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In the beginning God created each plant and each animal to reproduce according to its kind. (Genesis 1.) But sin entered the world from a desire to become like God—to be as gods. (Genesis 3.) This was also the motivation that led to Lucifer’s fall. (Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28.) This desire to become like God has never ceased to agitate the sinful mind of man since the fall and will exist in those who have not been born again until the end of all things. This desire to be like God has manifested itself in the greatest crimes that have ever been perpetrated upon the human race.

In attempting to take the place of God the devil has been a genetic experimenter and manipulator for thousands of years: “All tares are sown by the evil one. Every noxious herb is of his sowing, and by his ingenious methods of amalgamation he has corrupted the earth with tares.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 288.

The devil inspired his subjects (the unconverted descendants of Cain) to also experiment with what God had made. “But if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere. God purposed to destroy by a flood that powerful, long-lived race that had corrupted their ways before him.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 69.

We see in the above statement that before the flood men were performing genetic experiments in which they were producing creatures that were partly animal and partly human. This was one of the main crimes which resulted in God’s destruction of the earth by a flood. These amalgamations were destroyed by the flood.

“Every species of animals which God had created was preserved in the ark. The confused species which God did not create, which were the result of amalgamation, were destroyed by the flood. Since the flood, there has been amalgamation of man and beast, as may be seen in the almost endless varieties of species of animals, and in certain races of men.” Ibid., 78.

Since Jesus said that the last days would be like the days of Noah, we would expect that in the last days mankind would again be involved in genetic experimentation. That is exactly what has happened since 1798 A.D.

Man is not content with the plants and animals that God has created but is ever attempting to design plants and animals to his own liking for supposedly superior benefit. God has given plain warning in His word against doing this but it is hard for man to learn that God means exactly what He says and that a penalty is attached to every transgression of God’s commandments.

Before getting more deeply into this subject it is necessary to clearly define the law of God—the Ten Commandments. Because of the frailty of man’s mind, God instructed Moses to specify in minute terms the breadth and meaning of the Ten Commandments in the Torah—the first five books of the Bible. “If man had kept the law of God, as given to Adam after his fall, preserved by Noah, and observed by Abraham, there would have been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision. And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which circumcision was a sign, they would never have been seduced into idolatry, nor would it have been necessary for them to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt; they would have kept God’s law in mind, and there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from Sinai or engraved upon the tables of stone. And had the people practiced the principles of the Ten Commandments, there would have been no need of the additional directions given to Moses.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 364.

The above statement shows that the entire ceremonial system would have been unnecessary if man had kept the law of God. The bondage of the Israelites in Egypt would have been unnecessary. The giving of the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai would have been unnecessary, and additional directions explaining the principles of the Ten Commandments would have been unnecessary.

In addition to the explanations of the principles of the Ten Commandments in the Torah, the Lord gave to Moses a ceremonial system made up of symbols pointing to Christ, His sacrifice and priesthood. This ritual law with its ceremonies, sacrifices and ordinances was to continue until “the Seed should come” (Galatians 3:19), and then this ceremonial law was taken out of the way and nailed to the cross. (Colossians 2:14-17.)

Much of what Moses wrote was simply an explanation of the Ten Commandments and therefore is actually part of the moral law by which we will be judged. For example, in Leviticus 18 and 20, we have extended descriptions in regard to nakedness and modesty for which God even held the heathen nations responsible. These are explanations of the seventh commandment by which all the purveyors of pornography in any context will have to answer in the day of judgment.

In the same way, in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, God gave dietary restrictions to His people. These dietary restrictions had nothing to do with the ceremonial law but were given as explanations of the Ten Commandments, especially the sixth commandment.

The only laws in the writings of Moses that were temporary until the death of Christ on the cross were the instructions in regard to the ceremonies. These were types of the future incarnation, work and ministry of Christ. This typical or ceremonial law was taken away by Christ and nailed to the cross.

But the explanations of the moral principles of the Ten Commandments, being part of the moral law, defining right and wrong, are eternal. These are as unchangeable as the throne of God and these moral principles will maintain their claims upon all created intelligence’s through eternal ages. This is what the great controversy is about—is every precept and principle of the law of God as contained in the Torah binding upon all generations and in all ages?

When a person chooses to keep the Sabbath, he is telling the whole world that he believes that all the law is binding and that he is going to keep all of it. This law has very specific things to say about biological tinkering or genetic experimentation upon God’s creation, whether plant or animal.

Notice, “You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle, you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed.” Leviticus 19:19. This was not part of the ceremonial law; it was part of the moral law—an explanation of the principles of the Ten Commandments. It is repeated in Deuteronomy 22:9: “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled [or polluted or unclean].” Some people have wondered why God placed this strict prohibition of genetic engineering or biological tinkering with either plants or animals. In a later article we will explain what happened in the twentieth century when human beings decided, as they had formerly decided before the flood, to re-engineer what God had made.

The flood brought a stop to most (but not all) of this biological tinkering with what God had created. Although in a lesser degree, genetic experimentation still continued. The reduction of the human race to eight individuals almost brought to an end the genetic experimentation that was widespread before the flood. But Jesus said that the last days of earth’s history would be like it was in the days of Noah. These genetic experiments or biological tinkering are promoted as being for the betterment of the human race, both individually and collectively. They are supposed to bring health and increased well-being. They were probably promoted in the same way before the flood. In a later article we will see what actually happens.

Health – Genetic Engineering Pt.2

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In the 1930’s in Brush Mountain, Virginia, the county sheriff would raid the hill of families who had been separated from society and deemed “unfit.” The purpose for the raid was to sterilize these “unfit” individuals as was permitted under “The Racial Integrity Act of Virginia.” The law was repealed in 1963, but how did the United States government become involved in such atrocities in the first place?

In 1923, the American Eugenics Society was founded with support from many scientists and the social elite. One of their purposes was to influence legislation in favor of mandatory sterilizations, as they were fearful for the future of the human race. The paramount question is, of course, who gets to play god and decide who is required to undergo such an operation?

Physicians, lawyers, judges, the police, legislators, scientists, and the upper class were all involved. Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes upheld the constitutionality of the Virginia law on mandatory sterilization saying, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Ironically, the weight of evidence is that none of the three generations of women in question were mentally retarded as the Supreme Court Justice thought. (See Oliver Wendell Holmes and Buck vs. Bell, 1927.)

Since mental deficiency was considered to be partially hereditary, it was decided that inmates at state institutions who were pronounced as hopeless cases by at least two physicians, were to be involuntarily sterilized. Of course, sterilizing the insane was simply a way by which to accustom society to the atrocious practice. Once the operations were seen as socially acceptable, what other individuals might be slated for involuntary sterilizations?

The theories of evolution and “survival of the fittest” were tools that influenced those involved in what became known as the U.S. Eugenics Movement. By their standards, the most superior of the human race were the Nordic, or Northern Europeans. Aside from the mentally defective, the physically deformed, the blacks, Jews, Indians, Hispanics, Eastern European Jews, and the poor were also subjected to involuntary sterilizations. In addition to sterilization, regulations were placed on marriages. Through these means, many believed the less desirable of the human race would disappear in one generation.

California became the epicenter of the United States Eugenics Movement. Nearly half of the more than 60,000 persons who were forcibly sterilized were in California. In Cold Springs, Long Island, millions of index cards on ordinary Americans were stockpiled for future use in removing whole bloodlines, or families.

Adolf Hitler made a careful study of the American Eugenics laws and their rationales, finding them to give him the scientific support he needed to develop his idea of a super race. The idea of a superman was already present in the philosophy of Nietzche. This advantage coupled with the theory of Eugenics supported Hitler in his design to improve the genetic stock of Germany. By establishing human breeding centers and eliminating those they deemed inferior, the Nazis sought to build this advanced race. Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest was to be carried out to a greater degree by Hitler’s social program. This was the scientific rationale which led to the murder of six million Jews during World War 11. The experiment to improve the health and well-being of the human race resulted in breaking the sixth and seventh commandments millions of times over.

Hitler followed the same initial steps as the Eugenics movement in the United States. In fact, his sterilization laws in 1933 were patterned after the proposed law by an American eugenicist. This was followed by a series of laws passed to ensure the preservation of the perfect race. In 1935, Nuremburg’s racial laws restricted marriages between Germans and non Aryans. In 1936 all medical students were required to take racial hygiene courses and to study euthanasia laws, and finally in 1942 an attempt was made to exterminate the Jews. Many Jewish scientists had originally supported the Eugenic movement’s ideas never dreaming, one day, that they themselves would be considered amongst the “unfit.” All these facts are documented in the book, The War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race, by Edwin Black.

In the same way many people are supporting movements that will subject them either to abject servitude or destruction.

After World War 11 eugenics became unpopular with the whole of the world having witnessed the results of such thinking in Germany. However, the philosophy of Eugenics did not die. It was simply disguised in other names such as “genetic research,” and later “genetic engineering.” In Hitler’s time all that the eugenics movement could do was to breed selectively. The increase of breeding among the desired genetic lines also increased fornication and adultery, and the decrease of breeding by the undesirable lines resulted in forced sterilization and genocide.

But in the post World War 11 world, research proceeded in earnest to find out how man could actually manipulate and control the heredity of plants and animals, thereby, to some degree, controlling the future and destiny of the human race. Such manipulation is expressly addressed in Leviticus 19:19. It has been proclaimed by some Christians that are involved in this work that sin has caused defective genes. They state that if the defective genes were replaced with genes that were not defective, a myriad of ailments might be cured. It is true that sin has created havoc on the human gene pool. Perhaps if all that was being done was to replace a defective gene with a non-defective gene, the world could rest in peace. But, as we will see, this is not all that is being developed. Genetic engineering is conducted according to worldview and philosophy, a view which finds its base in humanism and evolution; a philosophical backdrop which influences what types of genetic experiments are attempted.

In the year 1990, America became the first country to allow new genes to be introduced to human beings. As these techniques are refined, what can we expect to happen? It is believed that we will eventually have “designer babies.” The fact is we have already started. You may have read advertising in the New York Times asking if you want to choose the gender of your next baby. This is presently being done in clinical trials. If the procedure is scientific, many people do not consider the fact that scientific fornication is still fornication, using what is called scientifically based sperm-sorting procedures. Can we then consider ourselves to be self-made men and women? One question is: if this process persists, and such experiments become perfected and extensively practiced, what will these new beings be like? We already have some evidence that these experiments can produce not just “supermen,” but monsters as well and nobody can predict or imagine what the final outcome of such experiments could be.

Why is God going to destroy the earth when Jesus returns? Because it will have become the same as it was in the days of Noah: “If there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere. God purposed to destroy by a flood that powerful, long-lived race that had corrupted their ways before him. He would not suffer them to live out the days of their natural life, which would be hundreds of years.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 69.

Pastor John Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.