There was an interesting article in Newsweek a few weeks ago about new advances in genealogy. The gist of it was that for a few hundred dollars and a swab of "DNA" from inside your mouth, scientists could fairly conclusively identify your family's genealogy. Also, using this technology they can more easily detect congenital problems and potentially predict the likelihood of diseases and life-threatening infirmities.
As I thought about this exciting discovery I was struck by the fact that in spite of the seeming philosophical opposition of fundamentalist scientists and Christians, science appears to be drawing closer and closer to confirming the truth of the gospel.
Let me explain....
Simpy stated the Bible's message is that mankind was created in God's image - which became "infected" by sin - typified by the disobedience and self-satisfying willfulness of Adam and Eve, as the first humans. The result was that mankind lost the divine nature and began to gradually experience pain, suffering, diseases, old age and death. In harsh terms, depravity and death entered the life of mankind.
BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED
"Some theologians have likened depravity to a congenital disease. The predisposition is there from earliest infancy. It is infectious; no quarantine can effectively prescribe or limit its incidence. It is disfiguring; it destroys the image so that God cannot see His reflection in us. And it is fatal in its consequences. 'Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death' (James 1:15)"
- Selwyn Hughes , "Christ Empowered Living," Pg. 118
According to Orthodoxy, Christ came to conquer death and sin.
"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life." - Ancient Orthodox resurrection hymn
"Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him." - John 9:1-3
I find it interesting that in the New Testament, which dates from the first century, reference should be made to a congenital condition - about 1700+ years before the whole issue was seriously considered by medical science!
Orthodox tradition teaches that the words of the gospel writers were well chosen to express a particular viewpoint or understanding that they wanted to convey beyond the recounting of an event. By using the words "blind from birth" - St. John must have thought it important to establish that Jesus healed the man from congenital blindness and not a condition that was the result of an accident.
My point in all this is that when I read about Louis Pasteur, Jonas Salk, and other great pioneers of immunology - the principle that defines their science is that the purposeful infection of a controlled virus into a human beings bloodstream causes the immune system to generate antibodies that defeat the disease. In many cases, vaccines are extracted from the bloodstream of someone who has overcome or shown tolerance for a particular virus.
In like manner - when Jesus, as the eternal divine second person of the Trinity incarnated through Mary - He became simultaneously God and human - therefore He had within Him the "antibodies" that could cure the disease of sin and death!
"O all-pure and incorruptible Virgin Bride of God, and our Sovereign Lady, who made the Word of God one with mankind by gloriously giving birth to your Son and joining our fallen nature to His divine nature." - Prayer to the Theotokos.
Jesus overcame death and so is able to offer all humanity a cure for the ailment of sin and the restoration of the divine nature.
Perhaps I'm stretching things a little - or being a little scientifically naive. But the exciting discoveries of DNA reveal to me another viewpoint into the wonders of God's creation, and how so many things point to the significance of Christ to the world.
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