When I was in medical school, I had a professor who had won the Nobel Prize for synthesizing the first human gene which was no small thing. At the time I was majoring in molecular biology and genetics. During this period of time, the world’s attention was focused on the Enzyme Institute at University of Wisconsin. The Enzyme Institute was a big deal to the point of being guarded by the FBI because the Russians were attempting to break the code due to the fact that it was known that whoever was able to synthesize a gene could synthesize a chromosome. If someone can synthesize a chromosome they could also synthesize life. It was a literal test tube baby in the making.
Those of us who were in molecular biology at the time worshiped DNA which was viewed as the repository for all of life. The common view was that God was not needed because all of the information about life could be found in the DNA. However, nobody ever stopped to ponder the question of how the information got into the DNA in the first place. At a later time I of course discovered that it was indeed God who put the information in the DNA.
This coincided with the doctrine of DNA. During the 1600’s there were three basic philosophies that continue to dominate the world to this very day.
The first was by Rene Decartes who separated the spirit, soul, and body thus developing the concept of dualism. Dualism states that life consists of a body and a soul, but the spirit is of no consequence to man. This is why medicine threw the spirit out all together and continues to do so to this day based on the influence of Decartes.
The second philosophy comes from Darwinism while the third factor comes from the physics world.
This third philosophy comes from Sir Isaac Newton who was a devout Christian. Newton’s mathematical equations of Newtonian physics state that we live in a fixed universe in which all things are predictable. If all things are predictable, what need is there for God? This lead to the concept of determinism, which states that everything in life is determined and done so by mathematical laws and principles. This has been the predominate philosophy of the last century and has been incorporated by the masses. Determinism is the scientific aspect.
On the other hand, the theological aspect coincides with determinism because of Calvinism. The doctrine of Calvinism which was founded by John Calvin, is based on the belief that everything has already been predetermined by God before any of us ever existed. Whether we realize it or not, each of us has adopted some form of Calvinism into our belief system.
If everything is determined in science as well as theology then nobody can do anything at all to change God’s mind on any situation or subject which completely defeats any purpose for having a relationship with God. It is such belief systems that have lead to the victimization that we see being played out in the lives of many people.
Going into medical school with a strong concept of determinism and the doctrine of DNA, we received the first textbook that was given in medical school that had the first images of human cells taken with an electron microscope. The night before the first class, I took time to review the textbook and got my first look at the human cell; something that fascinated me. Each organ was demonstrated in this textbook. What amazed me most was how intricate the cell wall was. Everyone’s attention was focused on the nucleus which is where DNA is found and also where the source of all life is found. Therefore nobody was looking at anything other than DNA.
I began to focus my attention on the cell wall. As I did this, something (the Holy Spirit) said to me, “If you can figure out the function of the cell wall, you can understand what controls life.”
I began to consider the fact that nobody had ever mentioned the cell wall in all of the anatomy and histology courses I had taken in medical school. When I looked at the electron microscopic photo of a cell wall, I saw that the cell wall is filled with gates and channels which are what let things in and out of the cell. At this time, I began to realize that the cell wall is where the control of life is found. This went contrary to what I had previously learned.
One morning during medical school, I was fresh off of what I had learned concerning the cell wall. I began to whisper this information to a classmate of mine. I said, “If we can understand the cell wall we can understand life.” As it happened, the professor caught me whispering in class and called me to the front of the room asking, “What did you just say?” I said, “forget it! It doesn’t make any difference.” He repeated himself saying, “What did you say, Bishop?”
I responded by saying, “After looking at the cell wall with the electron microscope, I realized that we can understand the secret of life if we can understand the cell wall.”
The professor burst out laughing as did the rest of the class! Everybody thought it was hilarious that I had put emphasis on the structure and function of the cell wall. Nobody was looking at the cell wall for any reason at all unlike in our modern day and age in which we now know that it is the environment that controls life. It is not the information inside the cell but the environment that comes in through the outside of the cell wall that controls all of life. When all was said and done, the statement I made 40 years earlier turned out to be prophetic.