Chimera Concern Revisited

If your spirit is on alert, you are probably seeing the word "chimera" tossed around in the media reporting on the latest scientific marvels.  What exactly is a chimera? It is an organism, organ, or part consisting of two or more tissues of different genetic composition, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering. Do I have your attention now? And you may have read a recent headline in the New York Post that said, "Scientists create first human-monkey embryo in controversial experiment". Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California have conducted a controversial experiment that entails growing human stem cells within a macaque monkey embryo, in effect, trying to create a human-monkey hybrid. In the lab, these embryos are called monkey-human chimeras, and created in a petri dish — in other words, in vitro fertilization (IVF). The embryos were monitored during a 20-day period and have since been destroyed. But exactly why are these experiments being conducted?

Well, the scientific and medical community will tell you, "Ultimately, we conduct these studies to understand and improve human health." In fact, according to the article in the NY Post, lead researcher, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, went on to say, "These chimeric approaches could be really very useful for advancing biomedical research not just at the very earliest stage of life, but also the latest stage of life." Hmmm, let's see, why would scientists want to engineer research on the very young and the very old? Population control perhaps? 

And that takes me to a blog post that I wrote in 2014 at the height of the Ebola scare. The title of that blog post was The New Chimera: Ebola & Genetically Engineered Vaccines. Is what I'm considering coming into sharper focus yet? Let me recreate some of what I wrote seven years ago and see if you recognize anything familiar .... I wrote the following:  As I sat yesterday afternoon, watching Congress's House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations grill the top federal health professionals on our Ebola crisis, my Biblical worldview helped me to quickly see through the subterfuge.  Doctors and officials from the foremost government agencies all appeared -- the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Homeland Security; Texas Health Resources; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and the National Institute of Health (NIH) -- supposedly to answer the cares and concerns of our elected representatives.  Naturally, we would hope that these politicians truly represented the interests of the American people.

If you just listened to the hearing through the lens of "how to better protect Americans", you might think that these bureaucratic organizations are centered on limiting the spread of Ebola.  You would have heard lots of talk about travel restrictions, travel bans, and quarantines.  But if you listened closer, as one who "has ears to hear", you would have picked up on the testimony of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the head of the National Institute of Health.  

He referred to the NIH's Phase I early-stage human clinical trials of an Ebola vaccine on healthy volunteers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.  (Does it bother you that the military is always the guinea pig?  But, I digress).  The NIHs own press release revealed that "the investigational vaccine is based on a recombinant type of chimpanzee “cold” virus, called chimp adenovirus type 3 (ChAd3)."  Exactly what does this mean, and how does it relate to "The Days of Noah"? 

First of all, if you have been a reader of my blog, then you know that I have a different slant on Chapter 6, verse 4, of Genesis.  For your enlightenment, here is a quick synopsis: I believe this controversial passage of Scripture happened just as the Bible records, and tells us of Satan's attempt to pollute the human genome into something that no longer resembled "the image of God".  The Scripture reads, "In those days, giants lived on the earth and also afterward, when divine beings and human daughters had sexual relations and gave birth to children (the Nephilim). These were the ancient heroes, men of reknown."  From this verse, it is my discernment that the ancient heroes were what we consider the mythological demigods, such as the Titans and the Olympians; and included such superstars as Zeus, Apollo, Cronus, Atlas and Prometheus.  They were genetically part Fallen Angel, and part human.

 At the same time, all the mythological creatures that we think of as folk tales or legend -- hybrid creatures, known as Chimeras, appeared as mintaurs, satyrs or centaurs, among others -- and are the result of the same kind of genetic manipulation.  We think of them as myths, but every culture contains ancient stories of them, and their images have been seen on countless archeological findings.  This kind of Fallen Angel-technology has been known since the "days of Noah", and the knowledge is once again  being revived. [Think how much further they've come in the last seven years!]

So, how did I make the connection between a disputed Bible verse and that crisis with Ebola? To see the relationship, one must consider Jesus's warning to us before His death and resurrection.  When asked by His disciples when He would return, He answered, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah...".  In the days of Noah, God saw how wicked man had become and how the inclination of the thoughts of the human heart had become evil. Obviously, Jesus knew this kind of evil behavior would occur again.

At the time [in 2014], I contended that the Ebola event, just as "in the days of Noah", could be an example for such wickedness.  Consider this: As stated, the NIH's investigational vaccine was based on a recombinant chimpanzee virus.  It is my understanding that recombinant DNA is "DNA molecules that are extracted from different sources and chemically joined together; for example DNA comprising an animal gene may be recombined with DNA from a bacterium", producing a new genetic combination -- in this case, Ebola. Fortunately, the world did not see the feared epidemic of Ebola that some scientists prophesied. But now, in 2021 we once again see experimental vaccines at the center of what has turned out to be a pandemic of Covid-19. And we have seen extraordinary numbers of those at "the latest stage of life" die; the very ones that scientist Belmonte claims could benefit from such "advancing biomedical research".

During those Congressional hearings in 2014, it was hard not to perceive the excitement with which Dr. Fauci talked about the Phase I experiment.  "If we don't contain [Ebola}, we may well need a vaccine." Looks like he got his wish in 2020 and 2021. Back in 2014, he was quick to sing the praises of the possible vaccine for Ebola.  "Contracts need to move forward as quickly as possible... We need to expand production and get rapid approval from the FDA ... The ultimate goal is to expand into Africa; if successful after Phase I, we will expand into larger trials in West Africa."

 Of course, then it all sounded like good humanitarian policy, [and probably still does in 2021] until you consider that there are other Biblical prophecies that come into play ... the death of 1/4 of the world's population ... pestilence and plague ... and who is to say that Satan can't work on multiple levels?  And one cannot ignore the Apostle Paul's warning against the evil deeds of men and their use of "sorcery".  It is important to understand that, in the Greek, this word is rendered pharmakeia, (where our word, pharmaceuticals comes from) and Strong's Concordance has established that it means, "the use of drugs, whether simple or potent, generally accompanied by incantations and appeals to occult powers."  The word's primary reference was to drugs, and to those who employed them for whatever reason (in this case: for godless purposes). 

At the time, I just couldn't reconcile the contradictory statements by influential health officials.  On one hand, Dr. Frieden, of the CDC, proclaimed that there was no need to worry; that Ebola had very little likelihood of spreading to the general population; and that they were quite capable of controlling it.  On the other hand, Dr. Fauci called for government funding to rapidly advance the production of a vaccine, in preparation for the possibility of "a raging epidemic."  Keep us docile and discourage vigilance ... while planning for mass vaccinations ... and with a drug that introduced non-human genes into our bodies.  As a Christian, that just didn't work for me.... and it still doesn't!

So, in summarizing, I know that there will be those who do not see either of these situations as I do.  I respect our differences of opinion, because I know that vaccines have become a lightning rod issue. I want to state I am not against vaccines. It is a personal decision of each person whether to receive any type of vaccine or not. But I honestly have to ask, Is there a possibility that we actually possess a "God gene", as molecular geneticist Dean Hamer claims?  Indeed, Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:39) that "Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another...".  So when he says just a few verses later, "flesh and blood cannot [become partakers of eternal salvation and] inherit or share in the kingdom of God;", he is telling us that at some point, if we combine our DNA with a different kind of flesh, God will no longer recognize us as worthy of salvation.  And didn't Satan show us "in the days of Noah", that it is his game plan to pollute or corrupt that perfect DNA to claim us as his own? 

Keep that in mind as I share the remarks of professor Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, who disagrees with the Salk Institute’s approach, and recently told the BBC that this monkey-human embryo experiment “opens Pandora’s box to human-nonhuman chimeras.” He went on to say, "These embryos were destroyed at 20 days of development, but it is only a matter of time before human-nonhuman chimeras are successfully developed, perhaps as a source of organs for humans.” If that occurs, we will no longer be able to say that humans are made in the divine image of God. Dr. Anna Smajdor, ethics specialist at the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School, has this opinion to offer: the scientists behind this research state that these chimeric embryos offer new opportunities,” because such experiments cannot be performed on humans, Smajdor told the BBC. “But whether these embryos are human or not is open to question.” Lord, deliver us from this evil!

 1 Thessalonians 3:23    Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.