Synthetic DNA and The Image of The Beast

If you live in Atlanta come join us every Thursday for Coffee Shop Conversations.

Be seen! Be heard! Be you! Be!
Network! Discuss! Discover truth!

Join Atlanta's Own Interactive Bible Study for Young Professionals as we discuss The Book of Revelation and The End Times.

7:00PM each and every Thursday

Starbucks
867 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, GA

In addition, every month we meet on the last Saturday for The Faith Science Experience at AMLI at Milton Park, 26000 Mill Creek Ave, Alpharetta GA 30022. Our next meeting is Saturday, May 28th at 2:00PM and our topic will be "Synthetic Life" which is Chapter 4 fom the book, Faith Science. You can order your copy at the following link; FAITH SCIENCE.

From Faith Science;

My company, Synthetic Genomics, Inc., is already trying to develop cassettes—modules of genes—to turn an organism into a biofactory that could make clean hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water or soak up more carbon dioxide. From there I want to take us far from shore into unknown waters, to a new phase of evolution, to the day when one DNA-based species can sit down at a computer to design another. I plan to show that we understand the software of life by creating true artificial life.
—J. Craig Venter, “A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life”
(Viking Adult; First Edition, October 18, 2007)

On May 20, 2010, Science Express published the research article “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome” by research scientists of the J. Craig Venter Institute. The next day, Elizabeth Pennisi explained its significance in Science Magazine with her article “Synthetic Genome Brings New Life to Bacterium.” This kindled a worldwide media firestorm and people’s imagination ran wild. If the results could be confirmed, the possibilities were endless.

The Financial Times headline read, “Scientists Create Synthetic Life Form with a Computer and Four Bottles of Chemicals.” The New York Times released, “Synthetic Bacterial Genome Takes Over a Cell, Researchers Report.” The Wall Street Journal stated, “Scientists Create Synthetic Organism.” The Economist in London read, “And Man Made Life: The First Artificial Organism and its Consequences.” A headline in the German newspaper DIE ZEIT read, “Humans can now Play Creators.”

Instead of jumping to conclusions, I chose to read the facts for myself. After sifting through a host of sensational commentaries, I located the original research paper in Science Express and the May 20, 2010 press release, “First Self-Replicating Synthetic Bacterial Cell” from J. Craig Venter Institute’s Web site. The White House wasted no time when the story broke. That same day, President Barack Obama issued the following statement in a letter to Dr. Amy Gutmann, President, and Christopher H. Browne, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania:

As you know, scientists have announced a milestone in the emerging field of cellular and genetic research known as synthetic biology. While scientists have used DNA to develop genetically modified cells for many years, for the first time, all of the natural genetic material in a bacterial cell has been replaced with a synthetic set of genes. This development raises the prospect of important benefits, such as the ability to accelerate vaccine development. At the same time, it raises genuine concerns, and so we must consider carefully the implications of this research.

I therefore request that the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues undertake, as its first order of business, a study of the implications of this scientific milestone, as well as other advances that may lie ahead in this field of research. In its study, the Commission should consider the potential medical, environmental, security, and other benefits of this field of research, as well as any potential health, security or other risks.

Further, the Commission should develop recommendations about any actions the Federal government should take to ensure that America reaps the benefits of this developing field of science while identifying appropriate ethical boundaries and minimizing identified risks. My Science and Technology Advisor, Dr. John P. Holdren, will be in communication with
you about the scope and progress of your study.
—President Barack Obama, White House, Washington,
DC, May 20, 2010

The Human Genome Project defines a genome on their website as “all the DNA in an organism, including its genes.” They continue to say, “Genes carry information for making all the proteins required by all organisms. These proteins determine, among other things, how the organism looks, how well its body metabolizes food or fights infection, and sometimes even how it behaves.” DNA is a combination of four chemicals called bases abbreviated A, T, C, and G, which form the building blocks of all life. The order of how these bases are paired determines life’s diversity. The human genome has three billion base pairs, so identifying a complete genome is no easy task.

In simple terms, the scientists at J. Craig Venter Institute designed a complete synthetic genome on a computer and assembled it in a yeast cell. They then isolated it from the yeast cell and transplanted it into a bacterial cell which had its own genome destroyed. After surmounting several hurdles in the process, the cell responded to the instructions from the synthetic genome. It then began replicating to make a new set of proteins. This process was different to cloning because the genome did not come from another organism. It was the creation of synthetic life because it was designed on a computer.

To the untrained eye, this furor seems unwarranted. What’s the big deal? What they did was on such a small scale that it doesn’t change anything in our day-to-day lives. That might be true if all we lived for was today. This scientific breakthrough will change our lives in the future. According to the May 21, 2010, article in Science Magazine, the project lasted fifteen years and cost an estimated forty million dollars. Obviously, it’s significant, because the money is coming from somewhere. All life, including human life, comes from a self-replicating cell that responds to instructions from its genome. If they can create fully functional genomes on a computer already, it’s a very big deal.


What Does the Bible Say about Synthetic Life?

Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching. And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die. He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.
Revelation 13:11–18 nlt (emphasis mine)

The Bible says, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Revelation 13:15 kjv). One day, mankind will have the power to give life to something inanimate. Synthetic life was prophesied by the Apostle John thousands of years before the technology was developed to make it happen. The Christian viewpoint on synthetic life really is not hard to locate. If the Bible is the book upon which we base our position, then it gives us the answer. Synthetic biology is an inevitability. Revelation 13:15 is a symbolic representation of this.

If scientists at J. Craig Venter Institute can assemble a synthetic genome in a yeast cell after fifteen years of research in 2010, what will be possible fifteen years later, in 2025? Living in denial doesn’t change the future. In the quote to start this chapter, J. Craig Venter undoubtedly stated his true intentions in his book “A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life” and is well on his way to seeing it happen. On the molecular level, they can already give life to a bacterial cell and absolutely nothing can stop them from extending their research to human cells. In fact, I believe it’s probably already been done and we just don’t know about it.

Our synthetic genomic approach stands in sharp contrast to a variety of other approaches to genome engineering that modify natural genomes by introducing multiple insertions, substitutions, or deletions (18–22). This work provides a proof of principle for producing cells based upon genome sequences designed in a computer. DNA sequencing of a cellular genome allows storage of the genetic instructions for life as a digital file. If the methods described here can be generalized, design, synthesis, assembly, and transplantation of synthetic chromosomes will no longer be a barrier to the progress of synthetic biology.
—Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome by Daniel Gibson et al of The J. Craig Venter Institute published on May 20, 2010 in Science Express

I released the book Revelation Unplugged: Decoding the Book of Revelation in 2009. I studied the book of Revelation in detail and connected it with other parts of the Bible that covered the same areas of Bible prophecy. At the time, I looked at everything with a very religious eye. I had no idea that within my lifetime, science would actually catch up to what has only lived in the imagination of Christians for thousands of years. I interpreted Revelation 13:15 from a religious perspective. Now I see that many scriptures like these contain underlying themes that are unfolding before our very eyes. They have already given life to a bacterial cell and may do the same with a human cell within our lifetime.