Welcome to the seventh installment of Birth Pangs and Renaissance. We began this journey by looking at the good, bad, and ugly of world-changing innovations. In this part, we’ll examine the wild frontier of gene-editing. To begin, let’s make sure we understand some things about the material that makes up our genes… DNA.
A Heavenly Ladder
DNA is in found in the heart of every cell. It is essentially an organic code that programs the traits of an organism. Instead of 0s and 1s, this code works through four different acids that come together to give out specific directions for the body. These acids work like individual letters coming together to spell out the “sentences” of our personal traits. It is very much like a written language that creates the book of our lives. Yes, there is a book of life found in our blood (and everywhere else cells are located).
The spiritual implications of this are breathtaking. Humankind is truly a multifaceted “word” spoken by the Father of creation. When you think about it, the one who is called the Word, Jesus Christ, was able to come as a human being filled with this inner code of life. Humanity, it turns out, gives language to the divine essence (i.e. love, joy, fellowship, etc.).
When the patriarch Jacob encountered God in Genesis 28, he saw a ladder fixed to the earth that went up into a heavenly realm. Many believe this was a spiraling ladder, and as such it would resemble the spiraling structure of our DNA. DNA is composed of two strands of material that hold those acidic codes. As these different acids bind together, they form the “rungs” of the ladder, thus making the double helix shape.
Jacob named this place Bethel, the house of God, and later in the Bible we learn the great mystery that we are the House of God. We are a temple for the Divine. And this is all begins with the DNA that makes us up. Theology and genealogy are quite related. Like the ladder in Jacob’s dream, we are both earthly and heavenly. Our lives are fixed to the earth with all its dust and acid, but our purpose extends into a completely other realm, and our hearts know this to be true. Jesus is then the full manifestation of this identity (see John 1:51). As such, he is the redemption of our true and original design.
Now with these spiritual reflections, let’s acknowledge that we have an enemy who absolutely hates our divine identity. From the beginning, he has attacked our DNA in both its earthly and spiritual dimensions. Thankfully, Jesus spilled his DNA to redeem ours. A literal “river of life” was shed to restore our divine purpose. But the battle is still about our identity and thus the evil one is often referred to as the Accuser. He has tried to “edit” our DNA by releasing code-words of death, broken combinations of curses and lies about our nature and existence. This manifests in the soul but also in physical issues where genes break down, ultimately leading to death itself. And so we remember that we overcome him by the blood, the DNA of the Lamb, who reminds us of who we truly are.
Miraculous Mutations
Ok. With that behind us, let’s talk about the medical field and the literal editing of genes. I want to say from the onset for our miracle-believing readers that doctors and geneticists are a gift from the Lord. I believe that along with physical miracles, God wants our body’s immune systems to prosper in the way he designed them. Because of this, he has called many people to assist in helping people’s bodies in the midst of a broken world. But as with anything else, mammon and greed wrap their lustful claws around these gifts and can often hold back or distort the blessing of a medical calling. Wisdom and discernment is incredibly important when navigating the physical sciences of medicine and their well-established business partnerships. This is something important to keep in mind for the topic of gene-editing, something that has the potential to radically change our world in the coming years.
Countless problems in people’s bodies and minds exist because of a miswriting in the DNA code. A single letter or sentence gets misplaced or removed and it leads to horrible things to which we give names like “sickle cell disease,” “Down syndrome,” “cystic fibrosis,” and more. But with this, there have been documented instances of someone getting their DNA “edited” all by itself. Against all odds, a favorable genetic mutation happens that fixes the problem and suddenly the disease vanishes. This is an incredibly rare thing, and when it happens it is described as a miracle of nature (of course, we know the real hand behind these miracles). Because of this, scientists have long dreamed that instead of treating symptoms, we can go to the root issue and rewrite the broken lettering of DNA. This has been an impossible dream until recent decades with the discovery of something called CRISPR. (For any readers who are well-versed in genomics, I hope you can bear with the rudimentary explanation to follow.)
CRISPR
Basically, this is a bacteria that functions as a type of defense mechanism against viruses. A virus is something that typically carries a mutated DNA code. Thus, many viruses are like an incarnation of the evil that wants to distort our being with a corrupted “word” in the strands of our DNA. A cold (or coronavirus) is a good example of this. It’s a bad code that gets into your body, making you produce things like too much mucus until the right “word” returns and overpowers the bad one.
But this bacteria has a way to defend itself. It replicates the DNA of the virus and attaches to it. It then carries a certain protein that cuts the part of the DNA to which it is attached. It literally works like a pair of scissors. (Unbelievable when you stop and think about the amazing design behind these minuscule life-forms.) In 2012, a small team of scientists made a wild leap forward after using this bacteria to bind to a targeted sequence of DNA, which included a protein that was highly effective in making its cut at the planned locations. And therein lies the ability to now cut and “edit” DNA. You find the right sequences of “words” you want to alter and CRISPR, with its accompanying protein, goes to work in finding, attaching, and then cutting away that area of code. After this, a new sequence can be placed where the old one was, thus literally rewriting the book of that organism’s genetics. Yes, we’re talking about the power to completely rewrite the essential code of creation!
The implications of this are astounding. This spells the potential end of all genetic diseases. It also sets the stage for altering the traits of human beings and modifying entire populations of creatures. There is something called “gene drives” (or “gene bombs” by some) where a CRISPR-edited organism, such as a mosquito, is released into the environment to change the population. Theoretically, all mosquitos could be wiped off the planet in this way. The potential to do this is already at hand and it has been experimented in small areas with great success. This comes with great promise, but you can imagine that in the wrong hands such a tool could be used for biological warfare in ways that are potentially more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.
Creating Pets
Now let’s pause for a second and de-mystify this thing a little further. You need to understand that humans have been editing genes for a very long time. Your pet dog is much the work of human beings altering the genetic code of wolves. Noah did not bring Golden Retrievers and Cocker Spaniels onto the Ark. For those who take the story literally, Noah would have brought a pair of wolves on board, and it’s from those wolves we get all the variety of canine today. In the last couple hundred years, humans devised a way to get the milder and cuter DNA traits of wolves into new creatures that we now know as our beloved pets. And for many, these are more than pets. They are family.
Now maybe some religious purist would have a problem with this, but I think most sensible people would agree that our ability to co-labor with God’s gift of wolves in the transformation of an entire species has turned out to be quite a beautiful thing. We have done the same with corn and other crops. The corn we eat today is nothing like the corn of hundreds of years ago. In many cases this is a wonderful thing because of the need for our food to adapt to an exploding population of people. Corn and other crops have undergone many genetic changes through selective breeding and other genetic tricks.
So here’s the deal with CRISPR and other gene-editing strategies. This is not some strange new devilry approaching the world. It’s more like moving from the horse and buggy of longterm genetic modification (through selective breeding) and onto a highway of instant genetic correction. It is the same progression humanity has made in other areas of technology. Now, instead of many years of breeding favorable organisms to create new forms and traits, we are able to rapidly go to the source of a creature’s genes and edit the desired traits right then and there. I understand this feels scarier. It feels like we’re walking on a razor edge of playing God. But we have to understand, we were made to play God.
What I mean is that we are his image-bearers, and as such, we have been given the creative abilities of our true Father. Our Gene-sis is in the heart of God and he has given us the calling to harness creation’s power. This means that we are not only equipped to name the animals, but to potentially make adjustments in their features when it is appropriate and life-giving. And there lies the heart of the issue. Our co-creating work must flow from a place of care and selflessness, and it must be done in partnership with the Holy Spirit. This brings us back to the recurring theme of this Renaissance series. Technology is neutral. It is only bad when a son of Adam wants to use it without the wisdom and guidance of the Father. In the same way, gene-editing is neutral. It has the potential to do incredible good. But the potential for indescribable damage is there as well…
A Dream Given to the Founding Scientist
Jennifer Doudna is one of the biochemists part of the team who discovered this new breakthrough with CRISPR. She wrote an amazing book called “A Crack in Creation” (from which much of the information in this article is derived) where she details great hopes along with grave concerns about the future. To start off the book, she recounts a dream where she watched a massive tsunami approach the shoreline. Paralyzed by fear at first, something in her shifted and she resolved to grab a surfboard and face the oncoming wave. She was able to dive below the wave and emerge on the other side, where more waves were coming behind it. With the second wave, she was ready and able to ride it, and as she did she took in the amazing view of the mountains surrounding the Hawaiian beach where all of this took place.
While Dr. Doudna’s spiritual beliefs are left out of the book, I believe she received this dream from the Lord. This breakthrough in technology represents a massive wave approaching the shoreline of humanity. The first wave shows the overwhelming nature of this creative ability that has been unleashed on humanity. But I believe the second wave shows her finding a place of balance, the very thing required to properly ride a surfboard. And I know this is God’s heart for the future of this genetic “technology.” There is a place for it to be utilized, but this needs to be balanced with great caution and strong restrictions.
And that has become the focus for much of her work. Dr. Doudna now works with panels of leaders and scientists to ensure the proper use of gene-editing. In the book she gives a very honest and sobering account of the pitfalls involved. She talks about the potential of wiping out entire species, as previously mentioned, as well as rogue scientists doing work on human embryos. Already, we’ve seen a scientist in China breaking international law by editing the genes of an embryo, producing a pair of twins who now have a modified gene that is resistant to HIV.
Though the book doesn’t delve too deep into this topic, other people have voiced concerns about governments like the Chinese Community Party secretly developing gene-editing programs that can produce a harvest of children who grow up to become modified super-soldiers! It sounds like the stuff of dystopian science fiction, but the potential for this is already upon us. Many creatures have already had their DNA modified in wild ways in CRISPR-based labs. Theoverwhelming nature of this wave is indeed crashing all around us.
Designer Babies & Our True Father
This leads to the topic of “designer babies” where parents of the future will be able to pick out specific traits for their children such as hair color, eye color, and other features. The same could go with more aspects of our DNA that affect things like intelligence and strength (hence the fear about super soldiers). As a result, many fear a divided society where those who are financially well-off are able to produce thriving (edited) offspring, leaving the poor and middle class at the bottom rung of the human ladder (no pun intended). Again, this is not science fiction. The ability to do these things is already in place. Dr. Doudna and others are working to make sure we don’t go too far with this.
Now, while this leaves us with some terrifying possibilities, I was reminded of something from another article this month with the recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Without giving away any major spoilers, I saw this movie a week before writing this article and I was surprised to see how much the film centered around gene-editing. The villain of the story is an incredibly evil person who edits the genes of species in an effort to create a perfect population. In a way, the film presents a prophetic warning against the future of gene-editing. At the same time, however, it came with a burst of prophetic hope, because one of the main characters (who has been “edited” into existence) learns about his true identity in the film. He learns that there is a greater purpose to his life than what was given to him by the scientists who mutated his genes.
I believe in a strange way this film may be preaching to the next generation. Even if we do enter into a world where human beings manipulate DNA at unhealthy and materialistic levels, God is still behind the souls of such individuals. Their genetic qualities do not undermine the deeper reality of their spirit. The bottom rungs of a person’s ladder may be meddled with, but nothing can break the part that extends into eternity. And that eternal part can redeem and override anything done to the earthly part.
We would say the same things about the countless babies born today through IVF technology where parents are already choosing traits such as the gender. Though lab work plays a big role in their existence, these precious children are the same before God as those born naturally. The same can be said regarding any way that a child comes into the world, including those born under evil and traumatic circumstances. The point here is that the path someone takes into the world is not the ultimate picture of who they are. Thus, the message of true identity will continue to be central in the years ahead (and perhaps even more important).
A Better Word
This breakthrough of gene-editing is a major upgrade in mankind’s ability to steward creation. It enables us to go into the garden of society and pull out the weeds of genetic disorders. But like anything else, it also has the potential to harm creation. So let’s pause again and rejoice in the fact that God is watching over his children. The same God who intervened with Babel is observing the biochemists of our world. As we’ll see in the final part of this series, God is awakening and raising up sons and daughters who will steward the gifts of creation with great wisdom and care. There are plenty of good days ahead of us.
In the end, nothing changes the good news of Christ. Jesus has redeemed the DNA of humanity. His blood speaks a better Word than any virus or manmade mutation. Whether physical or spiritual, there is a greater Word declaring our true nature. This reality of Jacob’s ladder reminds us that the glory of God exists even behind the most twisted and broken DNA. Whether it’s nature itself, the devil, or a diabolical doctor working under a demonic regime, there is no power greater than the blood of Christ. His blood overcomes any corruption in human blood. And I thank him for that!