Perspective - MCRA

     Wendy Wipple is no doubt a very interesting person. She is a former molecular biologist for the Center of Disease Control. She is now a medical and science writer in the new field of molecular theology. Wendy recently won a contest sponsored by the Koinonia Institute for the best position paper on Strategic Trends. (She won $1000.) A summary of her paper was printed in the last issue of Koinonia Institute's monthly newsletter.

     I found one particular part of her summary most interesting. Let me try to summarize and share it with you. It has to do with DNA, Biblical accuracy, and MCRAs.

     In the 1950s DNA was discovered as the blueprint of life. Scientists began to try to understand the molecular basis of human life. They found out that specific pieces of DNA could be used to therefore study human history. Today scientists in the field of genetic anthropology are busy decoding that human history which is remarkably written in the molecules of life since the beginning of time.

      Psalm 139:16 thus becomes more understandable in a very practical and specific way. "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect (NIV: unformed body]; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

     Genetic anthropologists use the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA in their studies. These are two segments that have very unique properties which facilitate the study of mu1tigenerational inheritance. Y-chromosome DNA is passed only from father to son. In a like manner mitochondrial DNA is passed only from a mother to her children (both sons and daughters). Furthermore both Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA apparently accumulate changes at a predictable rate.

     As a result of their studies, genetic anthropologists were able to demonstrate that every human being on the planet has descended from the same female. We, of course, believe this to be the Biblical Eve. Similar analysis of Y-chromosomes found that every human male was descended from a single individual male. However, studies of the predictable DNA rate changes show that the individual male lived considerably after the individual female.

     What this mitochondrial female and Y-chromosome male represent are statistical entities called the Most Recent Common Ancestor. The MRCA is the last shared relative. So the studies confirmed that all humans have a MRCA female and all males have a MRCA male. However the date of the MRCA female is much earlier that the date of the MRCA male.
Unintentionally this evidence totally confirms the Genesis account of the origins and history of mankind. The MRCA female is Eve, the mother of us all. So why is Adam not the MRCA of all males? Remember that the MRCA is the most RECENT common ancestor. At the time of the flood Noah and his sons were the only males left, all having identical Y-chromosomes. Noah is therefore the MRCA for all males.

     On the other hand, the four women in the ark were Mrs. Noah, Mrs. Ham, Mrs. Shem, and Mrs. Japheth. Although all four would trace their maternal lineages back to Eve, they by this time (no longer being closely related) would have developed different mitochondrial DNA. Amazing, but not unexpected, that the Biblical record would be needed to put genetic anthropology into proper perspective!
 

    A beggar lived near the king's palace. One day he saw a proclamation posted outside the palace gate. The king was giving a great dinner. Anyone dressed in royal garments was invited to the party.

    The beggar went on his way. He looked at the rags he was wearing and sighed. Surely only kings and their families wore royal robes, he thought. Slowly an idea crept into his mind. The audacity of it made him tremble. Would he dare?

    He made his way back to the palace. He approached the guard at the gate. "Please, sir, I would like to speak to the king." "Wait here," the guard replied. In a few minutes, he was back. "His majesty will see you," he said, and led the beggar in.

    "You wish to see me?" asked the king. "Yes, your majesty. I want so much to attend the banquet, but I have no royal robes to wear. Please, sir, if I may be so bold, may I have one of your old garments so that I, too, may come to the banquet?"

     The beggar shook so hard that he could not see the faint smile that was on the king's face. "You have been wise in coming to me," the king said. He called to his son, the young prince. "Take this man to your room and array him in some of your clothes."

     The prince did as he was told and soon the beggar was standing before a mirror, clothed in garments that he had never dared hope for. "You are now eligible to attend the king's banquet tomorrow night," said the prince. "But even more important, you will never need any other clothes. These garments will last forever." The beggar dropped to his knees. "Oh, thank you," he cried. But as he started to leave, he looked back at his pile of dirty rags on the floor. He hesitated. What if the prince was wrong? What if he would need his old clothes again? Quickly he gathered them up.

     The banquet was far greater than he had ever imagined, but he could not enjoy himself as he should. He had made a small bundle of his old rags and it kept falling off his lap. The food was passed quickly and the beggar missed some of the greatest delicacies.

     Time proved that the prince was right. The clothes lasted forever. Still the poor beggar grew fonder and fonder of his old rags. As time passed people seemed to forget the royal robes he was wearing. They saw only the little bundle of filthy rags that he clung to wherever he went. They even spoke of him as the old man with the rags.

     One day as he lay dying, the king visited him. The beggar saw the sad look on the king's face when he looked at the small bundle of rags by the bed. Suddenly the beggar remembered the prince's words and he realized that his bundle of rags had cost him a lifetime of true royalty. He wept bitterly at his folly.

And the king wept with him.

     We have been invited into a royal family, the family of God. To feast at God's dinner table, all we have to do is shed our old rags and put on the "new clothes" of faith, which is provided by God's Son, Jesus Christ. But we cannot hold onto our old rags. When we put our faith in Christ, we must let go of the sin in our life, and our old ways of living. Those things must be discarded if we are to experience true royalty and abundant life in Christ. "Behold, the old is passed away; the new has come!" (2 Cor. 5:17) "Go now; leave your bonds of slavery. Put Babylon behind you, with everything it represents, for it is unclean to you. You are the Lord's holy people." (Isa. 52:11)
 

Ebenezers - 1 Kings 19:3

    “Elijah arose and fled for his life.”

    How could someone like Elijah the Tishbite be put in such mortal fear for his life that he would flee into the wilderness? The answer to this question could be extremely helpful to us, because the scriptural account of Elijah’s life to this point is nothing short of heroic. Elijah bursts on the scene by standing before the King of Israel and pronouncing the judgment of no dew or rain in the land until he says so. We’re not told whether Ahab immediately believed him or not, but my guess is not. However, I’m sure that within a month or two, Ahab and everybody else in Israel believed and wanted to plead their case to Elijah. The problem for them was that they couldn’t find him.

    Elijah had followed the instructions of the Lord and was in hiding by a brook called Cherith. There he had water from the brook and food flown in by ravens. So, while the people of Israel searched in vain for the one who could bring back the rain, Elijah had a wonderful opportunity to truly connect and learn from God. Make no mistake, if you look at any of the heroes of faith you will find they experienced a period of solitude when they connected in a very personal way with God.

    Well, after awhile, the brook dried up. Why? Because there had been no rain in the land and we all know why. So, the Lord instructed Elijah to journey far away to Zarephath, where a widow woman would care for him. So Elijah traveled long and hard with little or no provisions. Thirsty, hungry and exhausted, he arrived in Zarephath and came upon a widow woman collecting sticks. Elijah asked for some food and water. The water the widow could provide, but even a morsel of bread she could not. You see, she was collecting sticks for a fire to make her last handful of flour and bit of oil into bread. When that was gone, she and her son had no choice but to starve to death.

     At this point, most men would have raised their fist toward heaven and said, “Why did you send me here?!” But not Elijah; oh, no. He told the widow her flour and oil would remain constant until the rain returned. This would give them all a source of food, and that’s exactly what happened. Later on, the son died and the widow was devastated. For the first time in history, a human being was raised from the dead because of God’s power and Elijah’s faith. This happened in Zarephath, of all places; a town in the gentile homeland of Jezebel. After more than three years without rain, the Lord tells Elijah to show himself to Ahab. When Ahab saw Elijah, he immediately accused him of troubling Israel. Elijah replied, “It is you who troubles Israel by forsaking the commandments of the Lord and following Baal.”

    Two opposing accusations: what do you do? The answer is a test. In this case, 850 prophets of Baal versus Elijah, to see whose sacrifice would be consumed.

    What a scene it must have been atop Mt. Carmel! On one side, an army of Baal’s prophets , on the other side, one prophet of God. Each side had an altar with a bullock. Which sacrifice would be consumed by fire from heaven? All morning long, the prophets of Baal cried out for their god to accept their sacrifice, but there was no answer. By afternoon, Elijah was openly mocking them. He told them to cry even louder, because maybe their god was asleep, but they cried in vain. Then it was Elijah’s turn. Elijah had all the people come near, then he had twelve barrels of water poured over his altar. Elijah looked up and cried, “Hear me, O, Lord, that this people may know that you are God!” In the next moment, the fire of the Lord came down, consuming the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even the water that was in the trench.

    Elijah proved to all the people who was the true god, and when he told them to slay all the prophets of Baal, they did just that, saying, “The Lord, He is the God.”

    So, here we have Elijah, who raised the dead, brought fire from the sky, caused the rain to stop, and turned a handful of flour and a bit of oil into innumerable loaves of bread, running for his life on a threat from Queen Jezebel. It’s just not logical. Therefore, to understand the flaw in Elijah’s logic which caused his flight could be extremely useful to us. It seems to me that Elijah assumed that Ahab, like all the other people that witnessed the spectacle on Mt. Carmel, now understood who God was. After more than three years without rain, Elijah brought the rain back, thinking that Ahab would now worship the true god. The flaw in Elijah’s logic was the assumption that Ahab had learned his lesson. When it became obvious that Ahab had not, Elijah arose and fled for his life. James states that Elijah was a person of passion, just like us. We are not Vulcan’s, totally driven by logic, nor are we hedonists, totally ruled by passions. We are disciples of Jesus, who teaches us how to balance the two. It is for us to learn this balance.