[print article] [adapted from Michael H. Brown's Tower of Light]

It is a bizarre world in which we were now blurring the boundaries of plants, animals, and humans in a way that was in direct transgression of God's laws.

The 1990 prophecy -- which we have extensively covered (see prediction) -- mentioned that a "new and great evil" would arrive to test mankind "in four years" -- that it would be something that seemed "beneficial," that it would have a reproductive link -- and, sure enough, incredibly, when it came to genetics, the year 1994 opened floodgates:

There was a massive rush, in the wake of Dolly -- the first cloned sheep, technology for which rose in 1994 -- to change, erase, or enhance the Plan of Life, the genetic blueprint.

Identification of every gene in humans provided a road map – even though there were indications that DNA was more complex than they thought; that the repetition of certain genes caused more distinction than originally believed; and that there was a second code, a code beyond DNA (a mysterious one that affected the placement of genetic material), that remained, and remains, largely unknown.

But the point here without getting too technical is that now the basic genes had been mapped and four years after the prophecy scientists swarmed on the possibility that in manipulating those genes -- in causing changes in DNA, in turning into creator -- humans could attain immortality.

For the first time, genes controlling certain diseases and physical traits were identified and an organism could be engineered by inserting or deleting certain parts of the blueprint, God’s blueprint.

This heady atmosphere not only paved the way to cloning, but also to the ability of parents who were using artificial fertility implantation to discard "imperfect" embryos and choose the one they felt most suited them – not only ones that were less prone to genetic disease, but also on the basis of gender (boy-girl) and even eye color.

In Texas, a firm was producing "ready-made" embryos such that prospective parents could make their choice based on looks, education, and ethnicity.

Donors had to be attractive and doctorates or graduates from law school.

For this reason were they called "designer babies."

But designed by whom?

It was only one part of a brave new world that started after 1990 -- a human-centered world, one in which God was seen as "imperfect."

Most tempting was the field of stem cells: Those were foundational cells that could grow into any type of tissue, and thus could be injected into liver tissue to generate new livers or nerve cells to replace damaged ones, and although there were also adult stem cells, or ones that could be taken from umbilical cords, the most sought-after were from human embryos – unborn babies.

And the problem was that in the process, most such unborns were killed.

It was a new form of homicide, of abortion.

Where were the pro-lifers?

To make it worse, scientists wanted to create more of a supply by cloning embryos.

Human cloning.

The prophecy had come full circle!

What was more powerfully "beneficial" (in the words of the prophecy) than growing new organs?

So it was that cells from human embryos were being allowed and marketed in England, Belgium, Sweden, Iran, Israel, India, China, Japan, South Korea, and Africa.

It did not have to involve the U.S. to mean a chastisement!

These nations combined to form a majority of the world population – and partial permission or flexibility in using embryos could be ascribed to Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, and Holland, followed by Germany, Italy, and the United States, where liberals were clamoring to lift restrictions and where in Missouri they had voted to do so (which was followed by a winter of storm after storm).

The holdouts – the countries that were staying away from this great new danger – included Ireland, Poland, Norway, and Austria.

Would these nations be spared in some way?

The European Union approved funding for research into embryonic stem cells, and there was an attempt to use such cells without actually killing the embryos.

But the overall trend was alarming.

In Ireland -- despite that nation’s prohibitions -- a court ruled that frozen embryos had no rights, that they were not "unborn." Spare human embryos would no longer be returned to a mother.

And there were spare embryos all over – many from abortions.

"I have been following the cloning issue for years," a woman named Margaret Schaut wrote me. "There are a few extra points that are very important to consider and discuss. For several years in India, they have been 'removing' all of the DNA from rat sperm and inserting human DNA. This is then used to impregnate a woman whose husband hasn't been able to conceive with her because his sperm isn't as energetic as rat sperm. 

"In England, they have been extracting the ovaries from aborted baby girls and developing them for use in fertility experiments and to provide eggs for infertile couples. This means that an unborn girl could not only become a mother though she herself never saw the light of day, but that her eggs may be the maternal medium to bring forth human/animal hybrids. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, they have built the Life Sciences building with -- I kid you not -- a stylized replica of Noah's Ark in front of the building that front being a waved wall of glass that resembles a huge wave of water!"

If that wasn’t ironic enough, there was the frozen embryo rescued in the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina that later became a boy they named Noah.

The manipulation was across the board.

There have been mutant chicks with full sets of teeth and catfish in Alabama that were laced with DNA from carp. There are millions of mutant rodents. There are mice with muscle-building genes and mice that do not seem to tire and mice that are addicted to nicotine.

But the stuff that made one sit up and recognize that the 1990 prophecy had been on to something in the way that it had so boldly foreseen a new evil was that there were those animals with human genes -- known as "transgenics," or ones that were implanted with human cells, which made them "chimeras."

The horror was now pronouncing itself before our eyes.

Coming to life were the idols -- the half-humans, the jackal-headed creatures -- of Egypt. Was this why nature acted up? Was this why there were storms and quakes and weather extremes and the glimmerings of a pandemic and even strange displays of lights in the sky?

There was "Sweetheart" -- a brown-striped goat with soulful eyes and a human gene enabling her to produce a "life-saving drug" (a human protein, in her milk).

Good would seem evil, and evil good. That’s what was said early one morning on December 3, 1990 in the alleged locution – a cold morning, no doubt, for the "revelation" had been received in a state that was northern.

"In ancient times, the Greeks revered the god Pan – part-man, part-goat, who defended Athens against the Persians," said a scientific commentary on the new genetics. "Today, the dash of humanity imbedded in Sweetheart and 59 other goats at a central Massachusetts farm could provide a different but equally vital line of defense."

The manipulation was profound.

The sin was extraordinary.

There were not only combinations of animals but of animals and homo sapiens.

The Man created by God had been degraded in a way that was now awesome.

The science that negated God now negated humans. We had been debased. We were the subjects of microscopes.

We were a type of primate. Nothing more. It was the fruit of Darwin. They had long said this and now were acting on what they thought and there was even a scientist who was disgruntled because they wouldn’t let him patent a "humanzee" (the combination of chimp and human).

While, for now, that had been disallowed – at least as far as we knew -- they were implanting human brain cells into mice and with technology that was a direct result of Dolly.

They even had to warn each other to stop an experiment if a mouse did something that seemed too human!

"In a world where the bizarre has become all too commonplace, few things any longer shock the human psyche," noted a writer named Jeremy Rifkin. "Now, scientists have their sights trained on breaking the final taboo in the natural world – crossing human and animals to create human-animal hybrids of every kind and description. The horrific possibilities are mind-boggling. For example, what if human stem cells – the primordial cells that turn into the body’s two hundred or so cell types – were to be injected into an animal embryo and spread throughout the animal’s body into every organ? Some human cells could migrate to the testes and ovaries where they could grow into human sperm and eggs. If two chimeric mice were to mate, they could potentially conceive a human embryo. If the human embryo were to be removed and implanted in a human womb, the resulting baby’s biological parents would have been chimeric mice."

I remember a nightmare I once had of being in some isolated place where they had these huge tanks of clear nutrient liquids and in the tanks what looked like large pods with eyes and a tail like a tadpole and the brains of humans. It was an awful image and now I wondered if that dream had been so farfetched.

Were there already such creatures?

Had the military created them?

Might they be useful?

Had someone succeeded in a ghastly clandestine experiment?

The novel The Seven was based on this. The National Academy of Sciences advised scientists to avoid implanting human embryonic stem cells into the developing brains of "nonhuman primates." "Implanting human brain cells into animals could take researchers onto treacherous ground," said the report about this.

"There are some frightening potential scenarios. In one, altered creatures might achieve consciousness and self-awareness but be unable to communicate their awakening."

Were we on the verge of animals that would rather debate Sophocles than eat a banana?

In the span of just two years, they had fused rabbit eggs with human DNA, created pigs with human blood, and injected human stem cells to make a paralyzed rodent walk. It was not the stuff of cottage labs.

A proposal to create mice with brains all but completely concocted of human brain cells had been approved by an ethics committee at Stanford University – one of the nation’s leading schools.

The "beneficial" aspect of some of this was that we could grow human organs in pigs or cause an animal to secrete human anti–bodies that could be harvested.

It was that grotesque (already a mouse had sprouted a human ear from a mold that was implanted), but if we were missing an ear, or an eye, or a good heart, who among us would turn it down?

There were sheep that carried the human gene for a protein needed for the treatment of hemophiliacs. If you were a hemophiliac, you might want this.

And food? "Factory farming could soon enter a new era of mass production," said New Scientist. "Companies in the U.S. are developing the technology needed to ‘clone’ chickens on a massive scale. Once a chicken with desirable traits has been bred or genetically engineered, tens of thousands of eggs, which will hatch into identical copies, could roll off the production line every hour. Billions of clones could be produced each year to supply chicken farms with birds that all grow at the same rate, have the same amount of meat, and taste the same."

Electricity had begotten other mass production and now we would mass-produce the animal kingdom. The boldness was breathtaking.

What had started in places like California and Massachusetts was now spreading around the world – what had started there in Scotland, with Dolly – and no wonder the energy that was spewing forth from men like Dr. Crick was so arrogant.

We were on the brink of a "post-human" era. They were going to "perfect" humans. They were going to weed bad genes out.

They were going to feed us food that men had designed.

They were going to surround us with animals that humans made. They were going to make insulin from scratch. They were going to make beneficial viruses. There would be "smart pills" and "gene therapy" and "genetic selection." Animals would grow our organs or half-human clones would. There would be radical life extension.

"Heaven" would descend. There would be life spans of 150 years – and soon more.

There might be "immortality" one day. They didn’t really believe there was an afterlife and so they were going to bring eternity down to earth.

There would be cybernetics. There would be bugs designed to turn waste into fuel. "Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditional to be the exclusive property of gods might one day be ours," Dr. Watson had said. Microbes from scratch! They were going to improve on everything that God had done and to make sure we got the point of creator – of who was now making things – they were even going to make "never-before-seen" living things one genetic molecule at a time. There would even be tobacco that prevented cancer.

Chimeras. Chimeras and clones. Clones and transhumans.

It was a challenge to the orthodox rendering of the Divine Order.

The Bible said that God required humans, animals, and plants to reproduce “after their own kind.” Species integrity was a requirement.

Introducing animal genes into human DNA created an unclassified mutation outside of that order. Ultimately, there could be unforeseen hereditary effects that produced animal characteristics in people. Mark of the beast! For the most part, they were talking in terms of enhancement. On one talk show callers felt there was nothing wrong with at least a few "interesting" little things, like "having feathers instead of hair."

Most of it was in reverse. Human genes were inserted into beasts. Any time now there would be hens laying eggs with anti-biotics, or even anti-cancer drugs. Brave new world!

The only little glitch: in Greek mythology, the chimera was a hybrid beast that breathed fire and foreshadowed disaster.

[resources Tower of Light]

[resources: Michael Brown retreat, Mass,  San Antonio: prophecy, spiritual protection and Retreat in San Francisco]