The Book of Life

A recent article on the human genome recently jogged my memory. It's as relevant today as it was in 2001.

I was in England eight years ago when "The Event" hit the news. The London newspapers proudly proclaimed that "The Book of Life" had finally been opened, thanks in part to a public/private race between various organizations that wanted to be the first to map out the human genome. Now it was done.  Craig Venter, the American entrepreneur, proudly acclaimed the achievement as one of the turning points of history.  For a week, all the British press could talk about was how  "unlocking the secrets of the human genome would lead to the most revolutionary discoveries in history."  It was as if we'd arrived at Heaven's shore and gotten a glimpse of the heavenly gates.

One thing that troubled me then was the biblical terminology used--the "Book of Life." One of modern man's favorite ploys in his feeble attempt to play God is to borrow biblical language to embellish his achievements.  I'll never forget seeing a cover story from TIME magazine a number of years ago.  It showed a famous British archaeologist standing next to an ape-like creature. The headline read, "In the Beginning." Of course, when you opened up the magazine, it was simply an article about evolution, and that "in the beginning" of time a piece of slime evolved to a fish--that became a rat--that morphed to a monkey--that ultimately became you and me.  I call this amazing process from goo to you by way of the zoo.  Now, evolutionists have every right to their own beliefs, but what irked me years ago, and what stirred me again recently was modern man stealing God's terms for his own self-aggrandizement.  I don't think it's a smart thing to do: pride comes before a fall (Proverbs 9:23).

The British people are very proud of Charles Darwin--after all, he's one of them. After flirting with the truths of Christianity in the early 1800's, the curious Mr. Darwin sailed the South Pacific in search of the origins of life. Out of his rather imaginative studies came the book the emerging secular world was longing for--The Origin of the Species, published in 1858. The impact of this book on today's world is stunning.  Evolution is now the philosophical manifesto for modern man's escape from God, morality, accountability, and judgment. It is also the driving force behind today's market economies i.e.survival of the fittest, without moral restraint, applied to the business world. It is the backdrop of law in atheist China (containing one-fourth of the world's population), in most of the Western world (including the US and Europe), and also dominant in the former Soviet states.  It would not be stretching things to say that Darwin's ideas about life are accepted as true in over one half-to-two thirds of the world--and affect government, education, business, the arts, and many other aspects of life.

In our own nation, evolutionary theory has a greater monopoly on American life than Microsoft ever dreamed. In the public schools, Darwin rules.  No debate. No alternatives. "From goo to you by way of the zoo" is proclaimed as a scientific fact--completely absurd as a scientific premise because science, by its very nature, can never test for origins.  But the lies continue. Through every echelon of government, The Lie is promulgated. No debate. No alternatives. Visit the Natural History Museum in Washington D.C. to prove this point.  Instead of reading about the wonder of God's creation, you see the quotes of Charles Darwin emblazoned prominently on the various walls of the museum. Today the great focus of evolutionary propaganda is the space program--spending billions of dollars to send probes to Mars, comets, etc. to see if we can find a SPECK of primordial life.  As if that will solve our problems.  Then we'll have from goo to you in the galaxies too.

But back to the human genome.  Craig Venter and others discovered eight years ago a primitive road-map of man's genetic make-up. Out of the sixty trillion particles that are elaborately DESIGNED to make a man or woman a human being, do you know what was the 2001 genome mappers' most incredible discovery that cost them millions and millions of dollars to find out?  We have only about 26,000 genes in that awesome mass of material.  By comparison, the average fruit fly has about half that many (13,000).  All of Britain was aghast at this.  By jove, we're only a little better than a bug! It practically left the whole nation speechless.

I could have saved the mappers some money.  For about ten pounds ($15) they could have gone into an Anglican bookshop and purchased a Bible. Then turning to Genesis 2:7, they would  read: "the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Lesson: we're made from DIRT just like everything else. That's why we're so alike.  We're made from the same stuff--dust. No great mystery here.  All life on this planet is very similar in its physical components.  Where we're vastly different is in the incredibly intricate designs of different species, and the absolute uniqueness of man who has God's breath within him.  Evolutionary gene-mapping will never unlock these secrets for us. Yes, the unwrapping of the genetic code will be extremely useful for advances in medicine and dealing with disease. It could also be used for great evil in genetic engineering of super races and demonically possessed human beings (cloning).  But it will never tell us one speck of dust about the origin and meaning of life.  We've already been told.  We must have the courage to listen--which leads me to a far more important discovery.

There's another Book of Life that modern man needs to read.  This one is the REAL ONE, not just a stolen phrase. This book is also extremely voluminous and intricate, with billions and billions of pieces of information in it. This Real Book of Life doesn't detail the protein sequences of DNA, but rather records the destinies of human souls--billions of them. This book is rather unique:

• It is owned by a Lamb.
• It is kept in heaven, to be revealed at the proper time.
• If you're impure, shameful, or deceitful, your name is not in it.
• One day it will be opened for all to see.
• If your name's not there, your future lies in darkness.
• If your name appears, your future will be radiated with light.
• You can also find out about this book by going to your local
  Anglican bookstore (or Walmart).
• It's mentioned not in the first (Genesis), but revealed in the
  last (Revelation 21:27).

This Book is also shocking.  It's supposed to contain billions of names, but instead it contains only a small remnant. Some names have never been entered. Other names have been entered and then removed.  This Real Book of life is the one that really matters. When a person discovers how to be inscribed in this book through their faith in Jesus Christ, it settles everything.  They know their origins and their future destiny. They know what they're supposed to do now, and what to avoid. Getting into this book is truly life's greatest discovery.  I wonder if Charles Darwin's or Craig Venter's name is found there?

More important--how about you?