by Thomas Horn
Between now and that climactic encounter when the supernatural battle spoken of in the Bible’s books of prophecy begins in earnest, we can expect the divide between religious and authentic Christianity to deepen. It is hard for us to imagine that in places like the United States true believers could someday be burned alive in churches, but it is happening in Nigeria now. It is hard for us to perceive that some might be beheaded, but this is a reality in Syria today. We can hardly fathom good people being crucified alive, but Pakistani Christians are living with this nightmare now. And in the United States, that city on a hill once listed among the safest locations on earth for Christians, a tide of anti-Christ sentiment has in only the last few years pushed this country into a category recently reserved for only those governments that restrict and criminalize expressions of real Christianity.
PART 5 - Will Genetics Play A Role In The Coming War On Born Again Believers?
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Thus far in considering the “how” and “why” of the coming war between Christians vs. Christians and ultimately the role that the ecclesiastical oligarchy under Antichrist will play in its brutal disposition of Tribulation saints, we have discussed disturbing facts regarding man’s fallen nature (as conveyed in the Stanford Prison and Milgram experiments) as well as the potential use of emerging technology by destructive people and spirits.
The third area in these entries that bears mentioning involves a more exotic concept (albeit one that I believe is not without historical precedence) involving the possible genetic alteration of future humans, including religious types that will comprise the “soulless” armies of the Beast.
This is a spooky thought, really, but one that is commanding more and more consideration from thoughtful prophecy expositors who suspect that the reason those last-days destroyers of born-again believers will act with such inhumanity is that they may be, well, not altogether human any longer.
Because we take considerable time in our books Zenith 2016 and Forbidden Gates to outline the historical activity of ancient Watchers (fallen angels) and their genetic creation known as Nephilim (as well as the resemblance of their activity with modern transhumanist goals involving genetic modification of species), we will not repeat that material here. What we will mention is that modern scientists increasingly believe genetics play a greater role in human and animal behavior than was previously believed, and that this may include a kind of “evil genetic combination” that leads to lower inhibitions involving criminal activity and murder.
In an article for Florida State University actually titled “The Evil Gene,” Frank Stephenson considers research from his university as well as the University of Connecticut, where scientists are analyzing the DNA of spree killers. The first line in Stephenson’s paper suggests what the professors are looking for when it asks: “Could a monster be swimming in the human gene pool?” The good researcher approaches his study from a Darwinian foundation, stating:
In ascending the evolutionary ladder, humans obviously failed to inherit from their hairy forebears inhibitions against using lethal force against members of their own species. The bizarre “ghoul factor” of sadistic psychopaths like [Ted] Bundy aside, humans’ historic willingness to slaughter each other wholesale in war and genocide offers compelling evidence to some scientists that in the genome of some humans lies a fully armed biochemical code for the gamut of aggression, from kicking the dog to killing the wife.[i]
In tandem with Stephenson’s alternate worldview speculation about an evil “biochemical code,” recent years have produced considerable advances in DNA research, with one of the more popular new fields called behavioral epigenetics. This is the “darling of genetic studies,” my biologist friend Sharon Gilbert tells me. It seeks to examine and understand the role that genetics play in shaping animal and human behavior, cognition, personality, and mental health. Epigenetics may occur during life or begin in the womb when chemical changes brought on by the mother’s activity affect the genetics—and thus perhaps the future behavior—of the child. That these modifications may become heritable and passed from one generation to the next has some scientists wondering if “evil genetics” or toxic combinations of specific genes may be linked to aggression and antisocial behavior in the succeeding generations of some families. If so, this raises an intriguing question I will not develop here having to do with bloodlines and a second question that I will pose regarding the potential for a blueprint or “special” genetic combination that could exist in which individuals can be programmed or reprogrammed to act in defiance of normal human consciousness (having a soul). This appears to have been the estate of those Nephilim mentioned above, which are depicted in ancient records as bloodthirsty, violent enemies of God’s people who never once had a conflict of consciousness or sought forgiveness for their brutality. Genetically engineered with a specific cellular combination by powerful fallen angels (whom the Sumerians called “flying geniuses”), these remarkable living constructs, not made in the image of God, were specifically designed for demonic inhabitation.
But did the Nephilim also represent a repeatable, dark, molecular model?
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Given that Jesus said (see Matt. 24:37) the end-times would witness a return to the activity that happened when Nephilim first walked the earth, and today for the first time since those days men have intentionally set out to genetically modify plants, animals, and humans, is it possible that we have entered a reprise of the “days of Noah” in which a genetic hazard could be unleashed resulting in a global pandemic, a Nephilim-virus!?
There are numerous scenarios—all based on real science—that envision an “event” that could, in effect, modify epigenetics worldwide and thus hypothetically the mind and makeup of all but those who would be protected by God. In theory, this might suddenly and effectively diminish the ability of the sufferers to feel empathy toward others. Now, if such a concept has you thinking that I’ve been watching too many zombie flicks, I am reminded of the Hollywood film I Am Legend starring Will Smith. That movie opened with a scientist announcing the cure to cancer using a genetically engineered “chimeric” vaccine that blended animal and human genetics. If you’ve seen the film, you know the “cure” results in a human form of rabies that infects and takes over the brains of people, quickly turning them into zombie-like monsters who wipe out most life on earth—an epidemiological possibility, given the scenario.
Jonathan D. Dinman, PhD, professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland, says such a zombie virus “almost exists now” and could be engineered to fully occur using the very element from Will Smith’s epic—rabies.
“Infection is nearly 100 percent lethal, i.e. it turns you into the walking dead (for a while at least),” he says, “and it causes you to change your behavior by reprogramming you to bite other people to spread the infection.”[ii]
Rabies as it is known today would only need to be slightly mutated, something that could be engineered or occur naturally, to facilitate an end-times army of soulless killers, and it is actually “the most likely to mutate into something that would be similar to a ‘zombie virus,’” says Dr. Samantha Price, a Health and Care Professions Council-registered biomedical scientist and research information coordinator for the UK Motor Neurone Disease Association.[iii]
In addition to a zombie/Nephilim virus scenario, top-level policy advisors to the United States intelligence and military communities—including the JASONs (the celebrated scientists on the Pentagon’s most prestigious scientific advisory panel)—have warned in recent years that human enhancement involving genetic alteration, either by design, accident, or bioweapon, represents a challenging if not existential risk.
In a report to the Department of Defense titled “The $100 Genome: Implications for the DoD,” the JASONs convey that rapid advances in DNA sequencing and related technologies are not only ushering in an era of precipitous genomics information and sciences, but a time when both “genotypes” and “phenotypes” could experience unpredictable deviations. An organism’s genotype is the set of genes or the “genetic blueprint” it receives from its parents, while its phenotype involves the observable characteristics—the way it looks, walks, talks, and behaves. Thus what the policy advisors to ranking officials in Washington are warning is that, as we modify nature’s genetic balance (including animals and humans), we should expect they will manifest revisions in their phenotypic expressions as well. They may begin walking differently, thinking differently, and behaving in ways no longer atypical of known creation.
That such unprecedented realities may well emerge has already been illustrated in animal-to-animal experiments, including those conducted by Evan Balaban at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where sections of brain from embryonic quails were transplanted into the brains of chickens, and the resultant chickens exhibited head bobs and vocal trills unique to quail.[iv] The implication from this field of study alone proves that complex behavior patterns can be transferred from one species to another, strongly suggesting that genetically altered humans will likely bear unintended behavior and appetite disorders that 
could literally produce modern “Nephilim” traits. In fact, some in government and science believe one-on-one, interpersonal malevolence by such altered humans might ultimately lead to a global Lucifer Effect and swarm violence. The seriousness of this is significant enough that a House Foreign Affairs (HFA) committee chaired by California Democrat Brad Sherman, best known for his expertise on the spread of nuclear weapons and terrorism, studied the implications of genetic modification and human-transforming technologies related to future terrorism. What the HFA found caused Congressional Quarterly columnist Mark Stencel to write in his article, “Futurist: Genes Without Borders,” that the conference “sounded more like a Hollywood pitch for a sci-fi thriller than a sober discussion of scientific reality…with talk of biotech’s potential for creating supersoldiers, superintelligence, and superanimals [that could become] agents of unprecedented lethal force.”[v] George Annas, Lori Andrews, and Rosario Isasi were even more apocalyptic in their peer-reviewed American Journal of Law and Medicine article, “Protecting the Endangered Human: Toward an International Treaty Prohibiting Cloning and Inheritable Alterations,” when they concluded: “The new species, or ‘posthuman,’ will likely view the old ‘normal’ humans as inferior, even savages, and fit for slavery or slaughter…. It is ultimately this predictable potential for genocide that makes species-altering experiments potential weapons of mass destruction, and makes the unaccountable genetic engineer a potential bioterrorist.”[vi]
could literally produce modern “Nephilim” traits. In fact, some in government and science believe one-on-one, interpersonal malevolence by such altered humans might ultimately lead to a global Lucifer Effect and swarm violence. The seriousness of this is significant enough that a House Foreign Affairs (HFA) committee chaired by California Democrat Brad Sherman, best known for his expertise on the spread of nuclear weapons and terrorism, studied the implications of genetic modification and human-transforming technologies related to future terrorism. What the HFA found caused Congressional Quarterly columnist Mark Stencel to write in his article, “Futurist: Genes Without Borders,” that the conference “sounded more like a Hollywood pitch for a sci-fi thriller than a sober discussion of scientific reality…with talk of biotech’s potential for creating supersoldiers, superintelligence, and superanimals [that could become] agents of unprecedented lethal force.”[v] George Annas, Lori Andrews, and Rosario Isasi were even more apocalyptic in their peer-reviewed American Journal of Law and Medicine article, “Protecting the Endangered Human: Toward an International Treaty Prohibiting Cloning and Inheritable Alterations,” when they concluded: “The new species, or ‘posthuman,’ will likely view the old ‘normal’ humans as inferior, even savages, and fit for slavery or slaughter…. It is ultimately this predictable potential for genocide that makes species-altering experiments potential weapons of mass destruction, and makes the unaccountable genetic engineer a potential bioterrorist.”[vi]
Do these situations sound to anybody besides me like formulae for the coming armies of Antichrist? At a minimum they are highly suggestive that genetic alterations could play a role in the coming war against true believers.
A Light at the End of the Lucifer Effect?
My good friend Dr. Chuck Missler happens to believe something very good can, is, and will come out of the lead-up to that period in history when true believers will be thoroughly persecuted. Just as he begins his chapter in the upcoming book Blood on the Altar repeating what J. Vernon McGee preached about denominational churches eventually driving the true body of Christ underground, in his must-read work, Prophecy 20/20: Profiling the Future Through the Lens of Scripture, Dr. Missler describes how so many real believers today have already started their exodus from institutional Christianity and are reemerging in home groups, just as the church began in the book of Acts. He writes:
There is presently a groundswell across America—as in many other parts of the world—in which people are meeting in small groups in homes during the week, rediscovering the Bible, and enjoying a more intimate fellowship than they find in “Sunday church.” Many of these are encouraged and supported by their formal church associations; others simply meet independently. This is especially true of many young people, to whom “Sunday church” is a spectator sport, and who seek more personal participation and accountability.
After all, this is the way it all began: twelve guys along the seashore with their Teacher. All the remarkable episodes of the early church in the book of Acts occurred in homes. It wasn’t until the fourth century that edifices began to be erected, when Christians exchanged the rags of the caves for the silks of the court. And committed ambassadors were replaced with hirelings, inserted between an attendee and the Word itself.
In more than sixty years as a practicing Christian, the place that I’ve always seen people really grow spiritually is within small group Bible studies: where they can ask questions and hold each other accountable.[vii]
Dr. Missler goes on to list caveats to be considered in small groups, including the need to network and not become insular, as well as the need to “systematically spawn new leadership, and not become an end in themselves.”[viii] This recognition of vibrant Christianity growing outside the walls of Western religious centers offers hope that the true body of Christ always has and will survive and even triumph during times of persecution. The seventh chapter of the book of Revelation is dedicated to describing a great number of people redeemed during the coming war between religionists and saints. It speaks of:
…a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.…
who came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.…
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. (Rev. 7: 9–17)
The apostle Peter likewise recorded in the book of Acts that:
It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams….
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:17–18, 21, emphasis added)
Do these verses imply, as some believe, that the increase in persecution of true believers around the world today may simply presage an imminent, latter-day awakening…a revival in the purest sense of the word? I sure hope so. Pray so. But one thing I’m certain of: growing animosity against the children of God is a real and present danger that is only going to worsen in the days ahead.
Between now and that climactic encounter when the supernatural battle spoken of in the Bible’s books of prophecy begins in earnest, we can expect the divide between religious and authentic Christianity to deepen. It is hard for us to imagine that in places like the United States true believers could someday be burned alive in churches, but it is happening in Nigeria now. It is hard for us to perceive that some might be beheaded, but this is a reality in Syria today. We can hardly fathom good people being crucified alive, but Pakistani Christians are living with this nightmare now. And in the United States, that city on a hill once listed among the safest locations on earth for Christians, a tide of anti-Christ sentiment has in only the last few years pushed this country into a category recently reserved for only those governments that restrict and criminalize expressions of real Christianity.
You can see the writing on the wall intensifying.
Unlike my grandfather’s America, if a US preacher today says on television that Jesus is the only way to heaven, he is derided not just by secular media but other "Christians" and megachurches.
If a Christian calls homosexuality a sin or speaks negatively about Islamism, he is branded on talk shows as “homophobic” or “Islamaphobic.”
If a Christian business owner refuses service to a homosexual couple because of religious beliefs, he or she faces criminal charges and a court order to “cease and desist from discriminating” or face fines (see example news story in the endnotes [ix]). If a judge can order an independent cake maker to go against her conscience to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, how long will it be before pastors are required to perform gay weddings or face criminal prosecution? This is the very kind of social pressure contributing to the developing chasm between religious and born-again believers worldwide. People are and will be forced to choose sides.
How many more years will I be able to publish a series like this or my upcoming book Blood on the Altar before it is banned as hate speech? One thing is sure: The tide against New Testament faith is bound to get worse, especially as we near that period called Great Tribulation. I trust the reader will carefully consider the following entries in this series and the new book by true friends and followers of Jesus and use them to draw your own line in the sand for the coming war between Christian vs. Christian.
COMING UP NEXT: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES...
Read this article at - http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/ChristianWar5.htm
[i] Research in Review, http://rinr.fsu.edu/spring96/features/evil.html.
[ii] Lee Rannals, “Scientists Discuss the Possibility of a Zombie Apocalypse,” Red Orbit, October 31, 2013, http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112964783
/zombie-virus-could-be-reality-exclusive-100213/.
/zombie-virus-could-be-reality-exclusive-100213/.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Rick Weiss, “Of Mice, Men, and In-Between,” MSNBC, November 20, 2004, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6534243/.
[v] http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20090315/pl_cq_politics/politics3075228.
[vi] American Journal of Law and Medicine, vol. 28, nos. 2 and 3 (2002), 162.
[vii] Chuck Missler, Prophecy 20/20: Profiling the Future through the Lens of Scripture (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006) 225–226.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] “Judge Orders Colorado Cake Maker to Serve Gay Couples,” CBS Denver, December 6, 2013, http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/12/06/judge-orders
-colorado-cake-maker-to-serve-gay-couples/.
-colorado-cake-maker-to-serve-gay-couples/.
