Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority has given permission for scientists to create human and animal hybrids for the first time. Two teams of scientists have applied for licences to create the creatures, which are formed by injecting a human nucleus into an animal egg and fusing it together to create a cytoplastic hybrid. The creatures, which will be 99.9% human and 0.1% animal, must be destroyed after 14 days of experimentation. Scientists believe the ability to form embryos using animal eggs will greatly enhance their research, for animal eggs are much easier to obtain than human ones. The HFEA's consultation included an opinion poll of around 2000 British citizens, a majority of whom believed that the scientists should be given permission to create human animal hybrids, so a long as a reason was given for the experimentation. 

Quote: "The chief executive of HFEA, Angela McNabb, says the legal and ethical pros and cons were weighed very carefully. "We've been able to weigh those up and take what's a very strong decision where we're saying we can move forward with cytoplasmic hybrid embryos and the creation of those in some research, so we can gain the potent benefits but only in the framework of very strong regulation," McNabb says. 

But many Christians believe it is a step too far. To genetically modify plants is bad enough, for that is delving into a realm of nature that belongs to God alone. And to mix two species of animal DNA is wrong, for the Lord created animals to reproduce "after their kind", Genesis 1:24. Animals of a similar species can reproduce, but different species cannot and there is a reason for that. But to mix human and animal DNA is much worse, for the Bible states that man was created in God's own image (Genesis 1:27) and is distinct from the animal kingdom (Genesis 2:7). And if that wasn't bad enough, not only will scientists be mixing human and animal DNA, they will be creating thousands of "huminals" only to have them slaughtered after a few days of life. Just a few weeks ago, Catholic Bishops stated they opposed the destruction of human animal hybrids, even though this would contaminate the human population with animal DNA. The Bible states that life begins at conception (Psalm 139), and to kill what may be a deformed human for research purposes is still murder, whatever way you gloss it over. And don't let the 99.9% fool you, scientists have already created a sheep with 15% human cells, and if the British government has permitted the fusing of human and animal cells because 61% of people are in favour of it, they will do the same again when scientists decide they need to push the boundaries further. All this is indicative of one thing, that "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man", Luke 17:26. This country is setting itself up for judgement. Praise God that He has not "appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ", 1st Thessalonians 5:9. Have you trusted in Christ for salvation? Are you looking forward to His coming again? If you have accepted Him as your Saviour, He's coming for you!

Source NPR

This link from my friend Frank... The BBC has come under fire once again for permitting hate speech to be propagated on its online message boards. The BBC has strict guidelines on posting to its message boards. The website states that a post can be removed if its is "likely to cause offence to other people".

Despite these strict guidelines, the broadcasting corporation has previously allowed anti-Semitic posts to remain on the site, even after numerous complaints by individuals to its moderators. Last month, a person by the name of "Iron Naz", commented on the message boards that Zionism was a racist ideology, where the Jews are given supremacy over all other religions and faiths, and that the Talmud permits them to lie as long as it is to a Gentile. This falsehood was first published in an anti-Semitic book called "Talmud Unmasked" in the 19th Century, and is still circulated by neo-Nazis today. After several complaints to its moderators, the BBC responded that the message had not breached its guidelines, and that the posting would remain on the site. It did so for over three weeks before finally being removed. In the latest tirade of BBC-censured hate speech, another individual referred to Jesus Christ as a bastard, and despite complaints from several people, the BBC permitted the post to remain on its website for nearly a week. Only after the BBC were contacted by a major newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, was the offending post removed...

Quote: "The remarks about Jesus were left as part of a discussion of the death of the Archbishop of Paris. The debate had descended into an argument about the merits of Christians, Jews and Muslims when a writer, known as 'colonelartist', posted: "Are you a christian? You do know that jesus had to hide all his short life he lived in those promised land because his tribesmen used to call him fatherless, ridiculed him for being a B-A-S-T-A-R-D...' He added: "Jesus...was also persecuted because the jews would never accept as their Messiah a person whose father was missing...'

As has been pointed out by other sites, postings on the same BBC message boards criticizing Muslims were quickly removed, confirming suspicions of an ingrained culture of bias existing within the organization. Responding to that criticism, last year the organization held a secret meeting of company executives to study the problem of bias. They found that "the corporation is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, deliberately promotes multiculturalism, is anti-American, anti-countryside and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians". A couple of years ago, I protested outside Broadcasting House in Belfast, at the screening of the Jerry Springer Opera. Despite a record 60,000 complaints registered against the show before it was broadcast, the BBC went ahead in airing the blasphemous production in the name of art and free speech. As one protestor stated at the time, the BBC can mock the Lord Jesus Christ and get away with it, for Christians are a soft touch in this country. But they wouldn't dare criticize Mohammed, Buddha, or half a dozen other religious figures for fear of inciting a riot. But as my nanny often said, "God is not mocked", Galatians 6:7. When men and women curse in my work, it is the name of Jesus they mention. They don't say "Oh Mohammed!", or "Oh my Allah!". It is only possible to blaspheme the true God. And although the Lord keeps silent (Psalm 50:21), as do I although it grieves me much, men will one day give an account of every idle word.

Matthew 12:36-37
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Source BBC, Little Green Footballs, Daily Mail

Sorry there have been few updates today. I was back to work today after two days off sick, so I have been quite busy. It's 20 minutes to midnight, and I thought I'd try and squeeze one news story in before I go to bed. I was at an Israel meeting tonight, convened by a Christian holiday company for those interested in taking a tour of the Holy Land next year God willing. I may plan to go again if I enjoy my trip to Israel this October. It was a good meeting, but it focused more on the prophecy aspect of things rather than the places of interest and preparations for the trip. My friend Martin Wensley was there with his wife. Martin Wensley is a believing Jew. The meeting was also taken by a Jewish believer. Unfortunately he was speaking from a post-tribulationist viewpoint tonight, and although he is entitled to his opinions, I didn't really enjoy the meeting as much as I could have. There was no "Blessed Hope" there. Martin Wensley tackled the speaker on the Rapture of the Church after the meeting. I was laughing inside as he was doing it, he had more courage than I did. I missed my own prophecy meeting tonight to go to the Israel meeting. The topic tonight was to be the Rise of the Antichrist. I should have an audio of the meeting on the site tomorrow or Friday night.

Anyway, back to the topic. Many of you may have heard of the programme, Tomorrow's Pioneers. It is run by the Hamas terrorist organization, and is broadcast on al-Aqsa television to children living in Gaza. The programme previously hosted a cartoon mouse in the name of Farfour, who routinely urged Muslim children to kill Jews. When Farfour tried to cheat in his exams at school, he claimed he couldn't study because his school books had been buried underneath the rubble of his house, which had been demolished by Jews. Farfour later died a "martyr's death" when he was killed by a Jew after he refused to sell him his property. As I commented before, Hamas was under pressure from PA President Abbas to cut the programme, but by having him die a martyr's death at the hands of a Jew, Hamas scored a massive propaganda victory. But that wasn't the end of the Hamas "death cult" programming. Farfour was soon replaced by a  "killer bee" named Nahoul, that is just as bent on genocide as dear old Farfour was. Children look to Farfour and Nahoul as heroes, but perhaps more worryingly, to an eleven year-old girl as a role model, who openly desires to die a martyr's death (i.e. in the process of murdering Jews)...

Quote: ""A lot of people in Palestine have died as martyrs, and lots of Palestinians hope to be martyrs," Saraa said of Farfour's demise. "This is one of the ends." Asked if she hoped one day to be a martyr, Saraa instinctively nodded her head. "Of course," Saraa said. "It's something to be proud of. Every Palestinian citizen hopes to be a martyr." Saraa helps deliver similar messages to Palestinian children from a Hamas TV set filled with colourful numbers and pictures of kittens. During the show, Saraa fields calls from Palestinian children who warble songs about Islam, taking control of Jerusalem and finding answers in the barrel of a machine gun.

Both these news articles were published on the same day. I wasn't planning to commenting on the above article until I read the BBC one this evening. I don't normally paste whole news articles into my website, I just copy the paragraphs that are relevant to my thoughts. But in this case I have decided to past the whole news article, for I just can't believe what I am reading - or to be more precise, what I am not reading. Has the BBC criticized Tomorrow's Pioneers for its blatant child abuse, by encouraging children to commit murder, inciting them to racial and religious hatred and brainwashing them into believing death is good? No. The BBC are more concerned that the show's cast are harming animals. I couldn't believe it until I read it. Not a single mention is made of this militant brand of Islamic propaganda in the whole article. At one time this blatant omission would have prompted me to write a letter of complaint to the BBC. But I have sadly grown accustomed to the BBC's callousness.

Quote: "A US-based animal rights group says it will protest to a Hamas-run TV channel over a programme, showing animals being abused at a zoo in the Gaza Strip. The group, Peta, criticised al-Aqsa TV for the children's show in which an actor was swinging cats around by their tails and throwing stones at lions. The show's host said afterwards that children should not behave like this. The show was criticised in June for featuring a character in a Mickey Mouse suit, denouncing Israel and the US. The character was later shown being beaten to death by an actor who played an Israeli agent. 'Sickening' The episode about the Gaza zoo featured in the al-Aqsa TV children's programme - Tomorrow's Pioneers - last week. In it, an actor dressed as a bee was swinging cats around by their tails and also throwing stones at lions in their cages. The episode was reportedly aimed at teaching children not to abuse animals. But it drew strong criticism from Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) after it was posted on YouTube video-sharing website by Palestinian Media Watch group. "It's shocking and sickening," Peta's Martin Mersereau told Reuters news agency. "Any lessons meant to be contained in this segment are almost certainly lost on most children, who are more likely to imitate people they see treating animals cruelly rather than understand this behaviour is wrong," he said. So far there have been no comments from al-Aqsa TV officials. 

Source Fox News, BBC

A parliamentary panel in the United Kingdom is urging the government to allow scientists to make decisions on how far the nation can go into hybrid embryo research. The government had originally proposed to outlaw the practice of creating human-animal hybrids, but later bowed to pressure from British scientists who are prepared to ignore the convictions of a majority of the people in this country in order to further their own medical research. This is what the scientists wrote in an open letter to the government, published in the Times newspaper.

Quote: "Some people and some religious organisations object to this research, and most also object to all research involving early embryos. But many patient groups, leading scientists, doctors, and ethicists support this research being able to proceed under the regulation of the HFEA.

In other words, the scientists obviously know what they are talking about, so they must be in the moral majority. The parliamentary panel is urging the government to allow a vote on the principle of granting licences to scientists who want to create human-animal hybrids in their research, for the committee states in its report, "once you cross that line and mix human and animal material, it is just a matter of degree". The hybrid embryos are only permitted to grow for two weeks, after which they must be destroyed. But in a remarkable twist of logic, Catholic Bishops in the United Kingdom recently expressed their view that these hybrid embryos are essentially human, and should be permitted to live after being implanted into a suitable host.

Quote: "In their submission to the committee, they said: "At the very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings, and should be treated accordingly. "In particular, it should not be a crime to transfer them, or other human embryos, to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them. "Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so."

Of course the scientists and the Catholic Church see no difficulties in mixing human and animal DNA. They both adhere to Darwin's theory of evolution, and thus believe that animals and humans are already inter-related. But the Bible teaches that animals were created to reproduce "after their kind", Genesis 1:25, and that man was the only being to be made a "living soul", Genesis 2:7, making him distinct from the animal world. What's more, the Scriptures condemn any attempt of man to procreate with animals (Leviticus 20:15), and the idea of creating a human-animal hybrid is the modern equivalent. This situation if allowed, would once again result in the genetic pollution of the human race, which seemingly occurred before the flood, and will invite the judgement of God upon this world.

Source Reuters, Evan Harris, Telegraph

Such programs can be expected to be put in place all over world as part of movement to deconstruct the family

“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
—Jude 1:7