Is God okay with GMOs, Hybrids, Selective Breeding, & Cloning?
Most people don’t realize that God actually commanded His people not to intentionally modify the plants or the animals that He made:
19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed… (Leviticus 19: 19) (KJV)
God designed each seed to reproduce the same kind of plant (each after its own kind):
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1: 11-12) (KJV)
God designed each living creature to reproduce the same kind of creature (each after its own kind):
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1: 24-25) (KJV)
God made the miraculous human body and He made the perfect food for the human body:
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1: 27) (KJV)
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (Genesis 1: 29) (KJV)
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. (Genesis 9: 3-4) (KJV)
What God made was “good” and He didn’t want people trying to modify what He had made. Yet, humans choose to believe that they can improve on what God made.
Meanwhile the people involved in these activities (hybridization, selective breeding, GMOs, and cloning) claim that what they are doing is good because it supposedly helps the environment, makes food more available/affordable, and improves profit.
So, let’s take a closer look at what they’ve been doing and where this pursuit has taken them.
What are Hybrid Plants?
Humans have been selectively cultivating plants for thousands of years, choosing which plants had the traits they wanted and planting those plants. That’s okay.
People have also been cross-pollinating plants simply by planting two variations near each other. Based on Leviticus 19: 19, intentionally cross-pollinating plants is not okay with God.
Why? Because God knew it would defile what He had created to be “good” and perfect. He also knew that it would eventually lead to much worse things.
In the early 1900s Gregor Mendel’s genetic studies of peas started the hybrid plant revolution. He is considered to be the father of modern genetics. He also endorsed the theory of evolution.
Since that time, horticulturalists have been selectively cross-breeding plants within the same species (but from different varieties) in order to obtain specific results.
“Hybrid” plants do not guarantee exactly the same results in the next generation: the seed does not produce exactly the same plant and the seeds are often sterile.
“Heirloom” plants (which come from varieties that are at least 50 years old) can be open-pollinated (by insects or wind) and their characteristics remain stable with subsequent generations. They also usually taste better than hybrids and offer better quality nutrition.
Darwin promoted the concept of cross-breeding. He’s the guy who wrote “Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” (1859). Notice that the people who promote Darwinism leave off the second half of the book’s title.
Cross-breeding is a cornerstone of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin would be delighted to see how that manmade activity paved the way for science to later cross-breed between different species by mixing DNA (of which Darwin knew nothing about).
What is Selective Breeding?
Animal husbandry has been selectively breeding animals of a like kind for thousands of years. They choose what trait they want to encourage, and then only breed the animals that carry that genetic trait. Nowadays, they also use artificial insemination in order to further dictate the results.
Sometimes, breeders are simply trying to return a creature back to what it once was. For example, Africanized honeybees are more aggressive than European honeybees. Beekeepers replace the Africanized honeybee queen with a European honeybee queen in order to change the hive back into a European honeybee hive. Unfortunately, many of the beekeepers buy that new queen bee from a laboratory.
Selective Breeding might not sound all that bad but when implemented without respect for what God created, the results are a bit unsettling. Some breeders use mutant genes in order to create an extremely mutated creature.
For example: featherless chickens, muscle mutated Belgium Blue cows, and muscle mutated pigs.
Selective breeding (aka artificial selection) is another cornerstone for Darwin’s theory of evolution.
What are Animal Hybrids?
It is possible for animals to become hybrids within the same species without requiring a laboratory. For example, different kinds of bears exist and can crossbreed because they are all within the species of bears. It’s also referred to as natural hybridization.
The most common animal hybrids are:
- Mules (offspring of male donkey and female horse)
- Hinnies (offspring of male horse and female donkey)
The animal hybrids are usually sterile. God doesn’t want them to reproduce.
But there are also attempts by humans to create animal hybrids. Since hybrids are not usually able to reproduce, humans have tried to learn how to clone them.
Animal breeders also use artificial insemination in order to create species that normally could not breed together. The results are clearly not what God ordained.
GMOs are even worse.
What are GMOs?
Any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering technique is called a genetically modified organism (GMO). They are also referred to as “transgenic.”
Basically, the scientist inserts one or more genes from one or more organisms into the nucleus of a cell from a different organism. The best results come from using embryonic stem cells.
One example is the insertion of jellyfish DNA into other creatures in order to make them glow in the dark. For example: fish, mice, rabbits, and pigs.
Weird but harmless?
GMO Salmon
In 1989, the first transgenic (GMO) salmon was created in Canada.
In 2015, the United States FDA approved the first GMO food for human consumption: AquaAdvantage Salmon (aka Atlantic Salmon).
Atlantic salmon is “farmed” in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Massive numbers of fish are raised in close proximity within an oceanic pen. Unable to forage, they eat what they are given. That is bad enough, but now Atlantic salmon is also a GMO.
Science has learned that they can get salmon to grow twice as big, twice as fast by combining the DNA of salmon with the DNA of a scaleless eel-like fish (ocean pout).
The ocean pout is an eel-like bottom feeding fish that has antifreeze proteins in its blood. The antifreeze protein is the DNA that scientists extract and then combine with the salmon’s DNA in order to make GMO Atlantic salmon.
Salmon usually reduce their feeding during colder temperatures. The introduction of the ocean pout’s antifreeze protein DNA gets the salmon to continue feeding and growing regardless of temperature. So, it grows bigger and faster than non-GMO salmon.
Although the Atlantic salmon still has scales, it also includes the DNA of a scaleless eel-like fish. When compared with God’s design and His commands, GMO Atlantic salmon is a defiled fish and no longer kosher. Unfortunately, that information is not disclosed on the packaging labels.
Since their inception, hundreds of thousands of the GMO fish have escaped into the open ocean. They are now an invasive species competing with native species. This is how to recognize it:
GMO Pigs
Science has discovered a way to combine the DNA of a pig with the DNA of a mouse. One report indicates it helps to reduce the toxicity (phosphates) of the pig’s feces. Another report says that it makes the pigs grow twice as fast.
But what is even weirder is that the Holy Bible actually mentions this bizarre combination:
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 66: 17)
The “abomination” could easily refer to the combination of the swine and mouse, or it could refer to the “linker-based sperm-mediated gene transfer method (LB-SMGT)” which is utilized in the creation of a transgenic (GMO) mammal.
Several years ago, Canadian officials were ready to approve the GMO swine for human consumption but the public outcry of Canadians against GMO swine caused them to postpone their plans.
The US FDA began approving GMO animals for biomedical use in 2009. This includes: ATryn – an anticoagulant made from GMO goats, Kanuma – a protein deficiency therapy from GMO chicken eggs, and Sevenfact – a treatment for hemophilia from GMO rabbits.
In 2020, the US FDA approved the use of GMO pigs (aka GalSafe pigs) for human consumption and for biomedical uses (e.g., growing organs for transplants).
Unfortunately, food producers in the USA are not required to disclose if a product contains any GMOs. Neither do food producers have to disclose that the animal itself was a GMO.
The GMO pigs are from a company called Revivacor which is associated with PPL Therapeutics (the company which produced the first mammal cloned from an adult cell: Dolly the sheep in 1996).
What is Cloning?
In 1996, Dolly the sheep was the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell using the process of nuclear transfer. The scientific breakthrough was announced in 1997.
Somatic cell nuclear transfer works best with embryonic cells. The nucleus of a mature cell is inserted into a different cell in which the nucleus has been removed. The cell then reprograms the nucleus DNA.
In 2003, The University of Idaho succeeded creating the first clone of a hybrid animal — a mule named Idaho Gem.
In January 2018, China announced the first successfully cloned primates using the same cloning method as Dolly the sheep. The cloned primates were named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.
(Cloned macaque monkeys)
This accomplishment is said to be a precursor to learning how to clone other primates (e.g. humans).
What are Chimeras?
A single organism that is composed of cells with more than one distinct genotype. A chimera hybrid can be plant, animal, or human.
This can happen by accident (e.g., remains of an unborn twin contained within the other twin that was born) or by intent (e.g., in a laboratory).
Plant Chimeras
The first chimera plant was discovered about 400 years ago. It was called “Bizzarria” and was a cross between a Florentine citron and sour orange. Since that time, science has continued working toward intentionally creating chimeras.
Human-Animal Chimeras
In April 2021, a US-China team from Salk Institute (La Jolla CA USA) and Primate Biomedical Research (Kunming China) announced that they had successfully combined the DNA of a human within the DNA of a monkey.
The scientists had injected human stem cells into a macaque monkey embryo and studied its growth for 20 days. The embryos are said to have been destroyed after 20 days.
In the past, human stem cells have also been implanted into sheep and pig embryos (2017) but the experiments were said to have been unsuccessful.
God knows the truth about whether or not those abominations were destroyed.
Human embryonic stem cells
HEK293 cells (human embryonic kidney cells) have been used in Senomyx laboratories to engineer and test food flavor enhancers. They use kidney cells from human embryos.
Unfortunately, the many of the largest food and beverage companies in the world have a close working relationship with Senomyx. The companies pay Senomyx for research and discovery, and they pay royalties on the foods and beverages that use Senomyx’ flavor ingredients.
Human embryonic stem cells were first isolated in the 1990s. The human embryonic stem cells are harvested from aborted babies.
According to the World Health Organization, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. In the world, this corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day. In the USA, this corresponds to about 3,000 abortions per day.
More than 63 million legal abortions have been conducted in the USA since 1973. In addition to making money from performing abortions, what do you suppose some abortion clinics might be doing with all those unwanted human fetuses?
Also, what do you suppose some of the in-vitro fertilization clinics might be doing with the massive number of extra eggs that they harvested from women?
In Conclusion
There are a lot of reasons why God told humans not to mess with what He made.
Know that the FDA allows the term “natural flavors” to be used even when the product contains embryonic stem cell based flavor enhancers. After all, they are considered to have come from a “natural” source.
Bottom line: avoid processed foods.
Please try to eat food that is as close to the way that God made it as possible. Try to avoid processed foods, artificial foods, artificial flavors, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, pesticides, preservatives, and GMOs.
Basically, try to eat the way that Jesus ate when He walked this earth. What Would Jesus Eat? (WWJE)
Whenever possible, try to eat organic, locally grown food. USDA Organic food is certified to be without pesticides and it is certified to be non-GMO. There is also a non-GMO certification for food that is non-GMO (but has probably been sprayed with pesticides).
Grow your own heirloom-grade food, if you can. Get to know your local farms and farmers. Get closer to the origin of your food sources. It’s also a good idea to stock up on heirloom seeds and/or learn how to save heirloom seeds.
Remember to pray over your food and beverages before you consume them. Thank God for the food and humbly ask Him to bless the food. God can overcome whatever the world may have done to it.
P.S.
This world is fallen and it is getting worse with each passing day. We need to wake up and realize what is really happening. We are in the world but we are not to be of the world.
The Enemy has done his best to defile what God made. And he enjoys getting humans to join him in sinning against God. But the Enemy’s time is growing shorter and the return of Jesus Christ is coming closer.
God loves us. He sent part of Himself (His Son, Jesus Christ) to pay the price of sin so that we can be forgiven and reconciled with our Creator. Because of what Jesus accomplished by overcoming sin and death, we can be forgiven and spend eternity with our Lord (who loves us beyond measure). But we have to choose to accept His gift.
May God bless you and draw you into a closer relationship with Him!
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