ALIEN SOURCES: GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS
The Biblical principle would be that if we trust in God’s Word for His promise of our well-being on earth, we needn’t pursue other sources apart from His.However...Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are seeping into the fabric of daily life...These genetic adaptations may come with much risk to humans, animals, and plants, though, and only time will tell if this experiment will be helpful or harmful in the long run.
The LORD said to Moses at Mount Sinai, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you – for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten...
‘“Count seven sabbath years – seven times seven years – so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years…
The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields…
‘“Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. You may ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?’ I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in…
‘“If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so that they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God…
LEVITICUS 25:1-38.
This chapter of Leviticus focuses on the land, which belongs to God. When He delivered Israel out of slavery in Egypt and led her to the Desert of Sinai, God called to Moses from the mountain and declared:
‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Ex.19:4-6).
Moses was commanded to tell the people of Israel that participation in the divine blessings was conditional upon obedience. If Israel fully obeyed the Lord and kept His covenant, she was to constitute His kingdom on earth as His wholly consecrated priests to do His will.
For the complete possession and full joy of the land, Israel had to recognise fundamental principles: ‘It is God that possesses the whole world as well as the land and the people of Israel whom He redeemed from Egyptian bondage. Israel is only a tenant of a land under conditions of obedience’. So, the Lord required her to treat one another as brothers and sisters and to help each other as a reflection of His own attributes. The Lord was always ready to supply her with sunshine, rain, and harvests if Israel was faithful to Him and His Word. Throughout their history, if Israelites had obeyed these principles, the land would have provided all they needed, and everyone would have been cared for adequately. However, they did not obey the Lord. Instead, the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the land was ruined.
In the seventh year, God allowed routine tasks such as the maintenance of buildings and the taking care of livestock/animals to continue, but all agricultural activities of ploughing, sowing and harvesting were prohibited. One of the purposes of the Sabbatical Year for the land was to deliver the Israelite from covetousness. In the end, after 490 years, the breaking of this regulation caused Israel to go into exile in Babylon so that the land would be given rest. Today there is a practice that some Israelis follow, in which landowners would sell their land to an Arab with a buy-back provision at the end of the Sabbatical year, leaving him a small profit for facilitating this “dodge” in the law. Although it is very controversial among the orthodox Jews, it has been practiced to keep the land producing fruits and vegetables. However, a basic principle is that whatever we rob from God, we can never keep for ourselves, as Malachi 3:8-10 warned:
‘ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – your whole nation – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it’.
The Jubilee Year (the fiftieth year) started on the 10th of Tishri, i.e., on the Day of Atonement, with the cleansing and forgiveness of the Lord. At the start of the year, Israelites were commanded to release their servants so that they could return to their own lands and families. A Hebrew servant was to serve for a maximum of 6 years and then be set free. All property was also to revert back to its original owner. Thus, the Lord prohibited the accumulation of property so as to assist the poor and the foreigners, instead of exploiting and treating them inhumanely. Under these laws even the poorest Israelite family received its land back and by working the land, they could provide for their needs and perhaps even the needs of others. Every Sabbatical Year, Moses commanded the Israelite leaders to publicly read the Book of Deuteronomy to all the people:
‘At the end of every seven years, in the year for cancelling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Assemble the people – men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns – so that they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess’ (De.31:10b-13).
In verses 18-22, by instructing people in detail how to keep the laws, the Lord promised to protect them and provide them with what they needed if they would trust and obey Him. If only Israel had observed them, her entire history would have been different from that of today. On the contrary, her selfishness and greed brought ruin to the land. What has happened to Israel can be applied to all of us, God’s children. God is concerned with how we use the resources He has given us, and how we treat one another in the marketplace. We are all accountable for what we have done to others as well as to the Lord. The Biblical principle would be that if we trust in God’s Word for His promise of our well-being on earth, we needn’t pursue other sources apart from His.
The following article by Dr. Steve Elwart, entitled “Combatting a New Invader” is thought provoking. Several years ago I read a book entitled “THE 666’S ARE IN THE SEED” written by Michael W. White in 2008, who claimed:
‘Seed in the last few years has been genetically modified and patented. Many farmers including myself and my elderly father have been sued in Federal Civil courtrooms for saving seed… God created seed in Genesis 1:11. Within the pages of this book, the end time secret veil of seed control will be pierced so that you will understand the biblical importance of seed’.
In his book the author has raised the alarm of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and its control as satanic, putting it:
‘God proved the importance of seed by creating them before He created anything else on earth. Now get ready, you are about to understand why Satan wants control of all seed that has the ability to sustain human life… Satan’s plan is to sit back and watch patented seed dominate and destroy God’s creation of seed. I believe Satan is very supportive of Monsanto’s seed patents, especially the patented terminator gene… The terminator gene is a gene that causes a seed to destroy its own embryo… such as “plant gene expression”, “seed sterility”, and “altered fertility”. All of these terms have the same meaning when the end results are reached… I believe that Monsanto’s patenting technology has over 90 percent of American farmers caught up in its web. These farmers are not evil people. It is almost impossible for farmers to survive in America without joining Monsanto’s technology “stewardship program” ’ (p.11).
The next article by Dr. Elwart on Feb.’15 informs us of how widely GMO technology has been adopted today. Last summer in Japan, after 70 years with no confirmed cases of ‘dengue fever’, 19 cases were reported and a total of 162 people were infected with the virus. Having abnormally warm days in May this year, the Japanese government is currently drawing up guidelines to prevent a new outbreak of the disease and other mosquito-borne infectious diseases. It is thought that those who travelled in tropical and subtropical areas of Africa and other regions unwittingly carried the dengue virus home with them. So, the following article is not irrelevant for us in the future, with the ever increasing globalization and world travel.
No one is a stranger to the debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Despite reservations from many quarters over the technology, it seems that GMOs are seeping into the fabric of daily life. Even though Monsanto is the leader in GMO technology, other firms are making a run at dominance in the field. Oxitec is one of them. The British biotech firm in developing a special breed of male mosquito over the past 10 years which, when mated, will prevent the wild females from producing any larva. It is thought that this will prevent the spread of diseases such as dengue fever and chikungunya.
A New “Undocumented Alien”
These tropical maladies finding their way into the State of Florida are spread by an invasive species of mosquito — Aedes aegypti, which has traveled well outside its original habitat and is showing up with increasing frequency in the Florida Keys. (The Keys are a series of low islands composed largely of coral or sand that are at the southern tip of the state.) Currently, the only way to halt the spread of the mosquito is to spray massive amounts of pesticides in the area. This carries its own risks. If the GMO plan wins approval, never before have insects with modified DNA come so close to being set loose in a residential U.S. neighborhood. “This is essentially using a mosquito as a drug to cure disease,” said Michael Doyle, executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, which is waiting to hear if the Food and Drug Administration will allow the experiment. Dengue and chikungunya are growing threats in the U.S., but some people are more frightened of the thought of being bitten by a genetically modified organism. More than 130,000 people signed a Change.org petition against the experiment. Even GMO supporters say that releasing these modified creatures outweigh the risks of the disease. “I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes, but the GMO issue still sticks as something of a thorny issue for the general public,” said Phil Lounibos, who studies mosquito control at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory. As the Associated Press reported on the issue, we are entering into a whole new territory of genetically modified creations: Enter Oxitec, a British biotech firm that patented a method of breeding Aedes aegypti with fragments of genes from the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria as well as coral and cabbage. This synthetic DNA is commonly used in laboratory science and is thought to pose no significant risks to other animals, but it kills mosquito larvae. Oxitec’s lab workers manually remove modified females, aiming to release only males, which don’t bite for blood like females do. The modified males then mate with wild females whose offspring die, reducing the population. Oxitec has built a breeding lab in Marathon [Florida] and hopes to release its mosquitoes in a Key West neighborhood this spring. Mosquito controllers say they’re running out of options. With modern transit spreading tropical diseases farther from the equator, storm winds, cargo ships and humans carry these viruses to places like Key West. The liberal use of pesticides being sprayed now and left a more hardy strain of mosquito that is resistant to four of the six insecticides used to kill them. FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said no field tests will be allowed until the agency has “thoroughly reviewed all the necessary information.” Oxitec has stated that they have already done field tests in the Caymens and the data is sufficient. In 2012, Oxitec released 3.3 million modified mosquitoes over a six month period, which they said suppressed 96 percent of the targeted bugs. The company also stated that a later test in Brazil also was successful and both countries now want larger-scale projects.
However, critics of the technology have accused Oxitec of failing to obtain informed consent in the Caymans, saying residents weren’t told they could be bitten by a few stray females overlooked in the lab. Ocitec counters by saying that only non-biting males were released, and that even if humans were bitten by the GMO bugs, no genetically modified DNA would enter their bloodstream. Neither claim is entirely true, outside observers say. “I’m on their side, in that consequences are highly unlikely. But to say that there’s no genetically modified DNA that might get into a human, that’s kind of a gray matter,” said Lounibos.
Public Concerns
Public concerns about the handling of new technologies like GMOs have occasioned influential recognition of a crisis of public confidence in science in modern society. The long-held belief on the part of promoters of such technologies that the public’s unwillingness to comply with scientific prescriptions is due to public ignorance and media irresponsibility has been falsified by the facts and experience.
A Biblical View
The Bible doesn’t say anything specifically about GMO, but it does address our role as stewards of the earth. Genesis 1:26–30 tells us that God created Adam and Eve and instructed them to multiply and fill the earth, to subdue it and rule over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 3:17–19 tells us it was only after Adam and Eve disobeyed and sinned against God that He cursed the ground. He told Adam he would now only be able to eat the plants that grew for him by toiling and laboring over the land. These passages show us mankind’s role on the earth and how that role changed after sin entered the world. Plants, animals, and trees today are still suffering the effects of that sin and are susceptible to the ravages of disease, drought, and insects. Introducing GMO into the world is one way man is attempting to offset the effects of our sin. These genetic adaptations may come with much risk to humans, animals, and plants, though, and only time will tell if this experiment will be helpful or harmful in the long run. Romans 8:18–23 reminds us that today creation groans and longs to be set free from death and decay, and only in the future when God physically redeems us will that creation be restored. We need to be careful to not go outside of God’s Word when we modify His original design. The best way to approach it is to understand our role on earth and the Biblical precepts God has laid out for us. The only way to do this is to spend time every day in His Word and in prayer. It is only in this way that we will grow in our walk with Him.
(http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2015/2354/print/)