The computer that sets here before me has many applications on it. These applications allow me to do different, amazing tasks. With these I can write, draw, search, learn, create, make music, etc. Each of these different applications work because there is a set of instructions or code, a program of information that directs the computer hardware what to do. These sets of instructions are sometimes very simple, but many times they are extremely complicated rulebooks that govern what the computer does depending on what commands are entered. We are truly blessed to have this technology.
These sets of instructions that run a computer or it’s programs are based on a very basic binary alphabet of two numbers: 1 and 0. Every letter and number is represented by a combination of these two numbers. These programs have scripts that operate different functions. But if someone were to alter the code that runs the scripts, it would have deleterious effects on how the program functions. If certain parts of a line of code is altered, then part or all of the program would either cease to work or work incorrectly. Depending on what kind of change is made, the program could give bad results or not work at all. This is because the application’s code is the designed product of intelligence and random changes do not produce good results.
As technology has advanced, one of the things that scientists have learned more about is the cells in our bodies. What they have found is that at the center of each cell, there is a nucleus. In that nucleus is a virtual book of information known as DNA. This book of information also has an alphabet that is made up of four chemical letters. Every cell in our body has this book of information that describes how our body is to be built. Incredibly, if you were to stretch out the single strand of DNA in a single cell, it would be about six to ten foot long. If you magnified the strand of DNA a thousand times, it would be 4.5 miles long. If it were as thick as a pencil, it would stretch from New York to London. If you were to set all of the DNA in the human body end to end, the total length of the DNA would stretch from the earth to the sun and back seventy times.
The information code that makes up this book in our cells is very complicated. It is vastly more complex than the most complex computer code man has ever written. That fact alone should cause every man and woman to realize that if the information in a computer code, as complex as it is, needs an intelligence to write it and make the hardware that will read it, then surely the more complex information code that resides in the cells in our bodies must also require an even greater intelligence to write and create the hardware, our bodies, to read the code.
Sometimes mistakes happen in the copying of this book of DNA. In it there are a series of letters that form genes, which control certain functions in man’ body. When that happens, when there are alterations in the genetic code, then there are problems. There are various kinds of mistakes that happen and since the code itself is designed to correct itself, these mistakes don’t always amount to much. But when there are serious mistakes that aren’t corrected, the results can be very bad for an individual. Sickness, deformity or death can be the result. Some men have attempted to tamper with this genetic code. While we are learning more about it, man is still quite ignorant about how DNA affects a person completely.
There is also an information code, a set of rules, that govern the birth and growth of a Christian. It is called the Bible. In English, the alphabet for this code is twenty-six letters long. When this set of instructions is left unchanged and is followed, it produces healthy and happy Christians. But when it is altered, it produces something other than healthy Christians. Just as DNA is generally self-correcting, God’s word is designed to remain unchanged (Ps. 12:7), but sometimes men tamper with it in order to change it. When this happens, the results can be deadly for the soul of man.
The Bible makes clear the vital importance of this set of God-given rules. Prov. 30:5: Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. II Tim. 3:16, 17: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. II Peter 3:18: But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Those who place more importance on feelings or emotions, on human traditions or creeds, or personal wants and desires than on a “thus saith the Lord” and book, chapter and verse in effect dismiss the importance of this spiritual DNA. They are like mad scientists who want to alter man’s DNA to create some monster. The genes of the Christian’s DNA are doctrines. Doctrine is what controls us as Christians and what keeps us connected to the Lord (II John 9-11). When the genetic doctrine is corrupted, then there is sickness or death in the spiritual body. In Genesis 3:1-24 we have an example of what tampering with the God-given DNA produces–sin!
Christians need to regain an understanding of the importance of the purity of the doctrinal DNA of scripture. God does not allow us to believe and hold to just any view, but our doctrine must be of divine origin (Matt. 15:7-9). When it comes to matters of obligation, there is no option.
Eric L. Padgett