As in the days of Noah: Is history repeating itself with manipulation of human genes?

[by Dean Smith] On April 18, 2015, scientists from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong, China publicly announced in the online journal Protein and Cell, they had edited the genes in a non-viable human embryo using a gene editing technique called CRIS PR-Cas9. This procedure enables them to remove genes, splice new ones in and basically recode any gene strand they want.

They apparently modified a gene in a number of embryos thought to cause disease. It is less than exacting because of the 28 embryos they tampered with only seven attempts were successful.

This is the first time that scientists have openly admitted to modifying human genes is an effort to create “designer” humans, even though in this instance the embryos did not survive, or so they said.

Three weeks earlier in a letter to Science a group of scientists hearing rumors this was happening came out publicly opposing gene manipulation in humans. They don’t want it monitored. They want it stopped.

The problem is that a singe gene affects multiple areas and though gene manipulation can seemingly cause a positive change in one area it invariably will have a negative impact in several others. Once done, these changes can gradually work their way into the human gene pool with disastrous consequences.

But this may not be the first time that human genes were tampered with.

When we study the flood account in Genesis 6, most Christians believe God judged the world because of sin. And it’s true in verse 5, it says that every thought of man was evil continually.

However, in verses 8 and 9, we read why God selected Noah and his family as the ones who would restart the human race after the flood. As we read this passage a different reason emerges.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

⁹These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:8-9 King James)

The Bible lists four things about Noah that led to him being chosen. Three specifically relate to Noah and the fourth talks about his family.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and that he was a just man who walked with God.

But the fourth reason states Noah was “perfect in his generations” — literally his family line was pure.

Noah and his family were sinners like everyone else on earth, but there was something that set them apart.

To understand what the Bible is referring to here we need to read the first few verses of this chapter that discusses the “sons of God” marrying the “daughters of men.”

6 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, ²that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose…. when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1 & 4 NASV)

It was because of this incident that God decided He would no longer strive with man and limited the human life span to 120 years (verse 2). Out of this unholy union were born children who were known as mighty or powerful men, men of renown — men with unusual abilities.

Who were the sons of God?

One view is that these were the descendants of the godly line of Seth mentioned in the previous chapter who were now marrying into the descendants of the ungodly line of Cain.

A second opinion is that the ‘sons of God’ were actually angels who were marrying the daughters of men. The book of Job, considered one of the oldest books of the Bible and dated to this period, refers to angels as sons of God (Job 1:6-7).

Now to counter this view, some point to the Gospels where it says angels can’t have sex. This comes out in a confrontation the Sadducees were having with Jesus. They asked the Lord who a woman would be married to after the resurrection if she had multiple husbands on earth. Jesus answered like the angels in heaven, humans would not be given in marriage after the resurrection.

³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Matthew 22:30 NASV)

By this they state that angels can’t have sex. But, note Jesus says that like the angels humans are not given in marriage, does not mean they were physically incapable of it.

If angels were marrying humans, it would explain why the children of such union would be significantly different than the children produced from a marriage between humans. It would also suggest that the human genetic code was corrupted by the mixing of angel DNA with humans.

Human genes were being tampered with.

However, there seems to be a negative spin-off from the mixing of human and angelic genes — the prodigy were extremely violent.

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. (Genesis 6:11 NASV)

Now presume for a moment it was angels who were marrying humans and corrupting the human genome. The verse describing Noah as “perfect in all his generations” takes on a whole new meaning.

It suggests that Noah’s family had not yet been contaminated with angelic DNA. God did not judge the world because of sin, but rather to purify the human race from this genetic corruption.

Now as we press the fast forward button and we see science starting to play around with the human genetic code it gives new meaning to Jesus’ description of the end times when the Lord says it would be “just like the Days of Noah” (Matthew 24:36-38).

Why did Satan want to corrupt the human gene code?

One question that needs answering is this: if angels were marrying women, why did satan and his minions want do this? The answer may stem back to what happened in the Garden of Eden. After tempting Eve to sin, God judged satan. In Genesis 3:15, God said that the seed or descendant of Eve would step on the head of the serpent. By corrupting the human genetic code was satan attempting to head off this future judgement?

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