Pray For Our Enemies

Lawrention News Letter
July 14th, 2024

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In centuries past, “treason” or “treasonous” was an all-too common term. In the months ahead, I believe that this word will resonate once more, and will be commonly used throughout the world's media if it hasn’t already.

I’ve been made aware that treason is an action (a sin) which the Lord does not take lightly. Particularly of leaders who are accountable to large groups of people, and have sworn an oath to protect. Since humans are sinful in nature, we are often fickle when it comes to oaths, alliances, agreements, bonds, and friendships.

Most everyone is familiar with the story of David and Goliath in the first book of Samuel. While reading both books of Samuel, I find that there’s much more to this story. This was a time in history when Israel as a nation was wrestling against God himself, as they wanted a human-king similar to that of other nations. Finally, God obliged; which led up to Samuel anointing Saul for kingship.

As the story unfolds, we see that king Saul made a number of bad decisions. In effect, this led to the anointing of David who sometime later replaced king Saul. While Saul was king, a number of power-struggles ensued, including a few of which involved his three sons.

The transition of kingship from Saul to David was not a straightforward one. In fact, even after Saul died, there were a number of power-struggles between the house of Saul and the house of David. Even within David’s own family, power-struggles ensued. As a result, and during this time in history - the allegiance of the Israeli people was in a continual flux, and quite splintered.

Take particular note, that David also had his faults. One of which, is described below.

For a time, future king David along with his family, followers, and army - were residing in the land of the Philistines (city of Gath, 1st Samuel chapter 27) in order to escape Saul’s wrath. While there, his allegiance was seemingly to the Philistine leader Achish. David continued to do what he did best, and conquered many of the surrounding tribes; so Achish lived in peace. In return, Achish awarded a tract of land (Ziklag) for David and his followers.

While David resided in the land of the Philistines, they (the Philistines) were assembling and preparing their army in order to raid Israeli territory. Achish told David that he had to join the Philistines during this raid. Curiously, David didn’t hesitate to comply - regardless of the fact he would be fighting directly against his countrymen, including king Saul and his sons.

As we look back to what had occurred a number of years earlier (1st Samuel chapter 20), David made an alliance with Saul’s son Jonathan. I believe it was an oath made between the two friends, so that there would always be peace between their families. David and Jonathan were kindred spirits from their youth, and Jonathan helped David escape his father’s wrath.

Continuing now, back to when the Philistines' army was preparing to attack Israel…. their generals did not want David to fight alongside them, regardless of his pledge-of-allegiance to Achish. So, reluctantly, David and his army returned back home to Ziklag.

As David and his army were returning (1st Samuel, chapter 30), they were astonished to find out that the Amalekites had raided their territory, and captured all of those who were earlier left behind. Nonetheless, things turned out for the better, as David and his army retrieved their people, including David’s two wives. This was a lesson for David, as the Lord was not with him when he ventured off to war against his fellow Israelis. Further, David likely knew that he would have to fight against Saul’s son Jonathon, the one whom he had earlier pledged to protect.

Much later in this story, due to David and his people’s sins (2nd Samuel 24); an Angel of the Lord sent a plague amongst his people for three days. In so doing, seventy-thousand people died. David quickly repented, built an altar, and offered sacrifices to the Lord to stop the plague.

It was about two weeks ago, in which the Lord led me to the book(s) of Samuel. I will now repeat what I had said at the beginning of this letter. Since humans are sinful in nature, we are often fickle when it comes to oaths, alliances, agreements, bonds, and friendships. If you consider what’s occurred over the last few years regarding globalism, and what we’ve all experienced through the era of COVID… you might imagine what justice could ensue. This is why I entitled this letter “Pray for our Enemies” as a Day-of-the-Lord is fast approaching.

Now, whether God’s justice which is being brought on by treasonous acts - is a specific plague, or something that will be carried out by man, or perhaps a little of both - I can’t really say.

Since we’re on the topic of plagues, I’ve included some general concepts which link pathogens to the evolutionary process for those of you who are interested. Note that text which follows was updated July 23nd, well after the initial release of this letter. 

Pathogens Within the Evolutionary Process

To begin, let’s consider the earth as being a single biological sphere. Inside this biosphere, it takes a certain period of time for pathogens to travel from one side of the earth to the other. Obviously, there’s a number of variables influencing the length of time for a pathogen to spread. As we discovered with the COVID-19 disease, it was merely a matter of months before it circumvented the globe. If we compare this recent disease to some of the influenza's of years past, their accrued rate of transmission took considerably longer than that of COVID-19.

Viral species have to continuously adapt in order to survive, just as one’s immune system continually adapts to defeat them. This unseen pressure between viruses and humans, causes each to grow stronger. So, from an evolutionary standpoint - we humans are still evolving.

The work of a gentlemen named Leigh Van Valen who unfortunately passed away in the year 2010, supports much of this discussion. 

In 1973 a New York evolutionary biologist named Leigh Van Valen proposed a hypothesis called the Red Queen hypothesis. Leigh’s scientific endeavours were quite diverse in nature and his broad spectrum of interests rubbed off on many of his students.

I’m paraphrasing now, but generally Leigh’s Red Queen hypothesis states that co-evolving species compete with each other in order to survive. Therefore, as all species continually evolve… their local environment in which they share, evolves as well.

So, within an environment of varied species, if a new species evolves faster while competing against a pre-existing species - then at some point in time, that pre-existing species will fizzle out and become extinct. In essence, every species has to be continually evolving to survive and proliferate. In order for one species to evolve faster than another - they require a superior level of efficiency. It’s been estimated that out of the five-billion species who've lived on planet earth - ninety-nine percent of them have died out.

While pathogens have the ability to harm certain species and perhaps even kill them, these same pathogens become beneficial to these same species! How, you might ask? Well, after a species is attacked by a certain pathogen and survives, that species’ immune system becomes stronger. As a consequence, through the natural process of vertical gene-transfer from parent to offspring – a child’s immune system (innate in this case) becomes stronger than its parents.

Pathogenic Pockets

Consider that each of us live within a comparatively small and unique ecosystem. The earth has numerous ecosystems, each with its own unique blend of thriving organisms and pathogenic microorganisms. From a pathogenic standpoint, I like to use the term pathogenic pocket. Pathogenic-pockets are similar but yet different to ecosystems. Boundaries of a pathogenic pocket are not as distinct and easy to define like ecosystems are.

As a starting point, the perceived borders of pathogenic-pockets might be determined by rather obvious geographical features, and similar to that of ecosystems. Each border may be determined by such geographical features such as land masses, lakes, rivers, and mountain ranges. Now, depending upon the pathogen, its overall area of influence can be limited, merely through an inadequate population of host organisms. So, for any specific pathogenic strain - if the population of its host species is not sufficient to support a string of ongoing infections - then the pathogen in question, will eventually fizzle out.

Differing from ecosystems, pathogenic pockets are quite dynamic. Migrating birds and fish can move pathogens from one area to the next, thereby spreading pathogenic-pockets and changing their size and basic structure.

When it comes to known pathogens (viruses, bacterium, protozoans, prions, fungi), its viruses which typically spread across land masses the fastest. So, first and foremost… viruses need to be considered while describing pathogenic pockets. Bacteria and the like support these pockets as well; however, they migrate comparatively slower than viruses.

While viruses remain confined within a certain pathogenic-pocket, they can spread rather quickly. In contrast, for a virus to jump between one pathogenic-pocket to the next - it can take some time, if it ever occurs at all.

This concept of pathogenic-pockets was (and still is) a powerful tool in God’s hands, as they’ve played a major role in creating a diverse range of creatures on planet earth.

During the biblical-creation process, by keeping pathogenic-pockets isolated from one another for many, many, years – their respective and collective blend of both organisms and pathogens – progressively evolved along disparate paths. Since this continued for extended periods of time, let’s say… perhaps thousands of years; then as two pathogenic-pockets collided and began to share each others space - it created a very dramatic effect. During such a collision, the effects of viral-infections rise to the forefront.

Below are a few known examples of some rather extreme pathogenic-pocket collisions.

  • Within the biblical-creation period as land-masses were shifting. God both separated and later linked land-masses together, which sped up the evolutionary process tremendously. I believe that some of Australia’s unique extant mammals, are a direct result of surviving one or more highly-virulent pathogenic-pocket collisions.
  • As the first Europeans set foot upon north and south America. During this era, great numbers of native and indigenous people(s) lost their lives through a number of diseases.
  • During WWI while military members circumvented the globe; through airplanes, ships, and land vehicles. Both during and shortly after WWI - more people died from influenza than from the war itself.

The colliding of two or more virulent pathogenic-pockets, most certainly allows the stronger species to survive, whereas the weaker ones do not. Logically; if a certain pathogen killed off a whole species of potential hosts - then that particular strain of pathogen would go extinct as well. Commonly, this is why viruses are often-times just virulent enough to target the weakest members of a host-species and the stronger ones survive. This is the natural order of things, and why species continue to adapt and evolve; even today.

In our modern times, it doesn’t take long for humans to circumvent the globe and spread a certain pathogen. So, from a human perspective; pathogenic-pockets are now closer-linked together than ever. By “closer linked”, I mean that the effects of a collision between any two pathogenic-pockets today, is not nearly as dramatic as those which occurred in centuries gone by.

As a result of these described concepts, I surmise that in order for a highly-virulent virus to occur today - it would’ve had to have been caused by some man-made means which disrupted the natural evolutionary process. It cannot be caused by some freak natural occurrence, as the natural evolutionary process has been fine-tuned over millions of years.

The Role of Endogenous Retroviruses
in Vertical Gene-Transfer

Scientists have found that there are certain snippets of human DNA which exactly match the DNA of other vertebrates. This is (primarily) due to natural occurrences of both vertical and horizontal gene-transfer. As scientists studied this subject-matter deeper, they discovered that certain vertebrate species share snippets of DNA code referred to as: endogenous retroviruses, or ERVs for short. These retroviruses travel vertically from generation to generation, through historical germ-lines under the concept of vertical gene-transfer.

ERVs are basically short sections of DNA which become “fingerprints” of past viruses. Historically, each of these viruses had their day-in-the-sun, as they inflicted pain and disease upon human populations. It’s guesstimated that about eight percent of human DNA is comprised of ERVs.

The ultimate purpose of ERVs (although not their only purpose) is to ensure that the viruses in which they represent, cannot be easily revived and inflict pain and suffering upon vertebrate populations. Because of this inherent ERV safety mechanism within DNA - we should not be overly alarmed from being exposed to some resurrected ancient-virus, which had caused much pain and suffering in the past.

Contradicting the prior statement, I understand that there’s always a danger of retroviruses from becoming pathogenic, like what occurs during an HIV infection. Apparently, during these infections - a person’s cells cannot distinguish between one's native DNA, and the addition of DNA snippets, which were cleverly inserted by a retrovirus.

The Role of Mosquitos in
Horizontal Gene-Transfer

Long, long, ago, God gave us a tool to minimize potential catastrophic scenarios due to the colliding of disparate pathogenic-pockets. The applicable term for this tool is “mosquito”. Although certainly not the same thing, you might think of a mosquito-bite as another type of vaccination.

Prior to mankind performing early vaccinations which were rather crude and painful, God had already set a plan in place for our on-going protection. I will forgo describing certain technicalities of mosquito bites for now; as here, I’m merely asking you to consider the fact that there are also positives when it comes to being bitten by a mosquito. The mosquito is capable of passing along diseases caused from either bacteria, parasites, or viruses.

There are thousands of mosquito species on this planet, and for good reason. It turns out, that a plethora of mosquito species are required in order to pierce the skin and reach the blood of varying vertebrate species as they roam across this planet. This vertebrate designation includes amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles. Generally speaking, the immune system of humans is similar to all non-human vertebrates.

Now, in order for mosquitos to reach the bloodstream of vertebrate species having varying characteristics - they need to have features which allow them to navigate through dense animal-skin coverings; like fur, feathers, and scales. Further, they have to be able to penetrate skin, which could be either thin and soft like that of a human, or hard and thick like that of an elephant. This is why each mosquito species’ stance and/or proboscis are often-times quite different between species.

Interestingly, the skin of humans is probably the easiest for mosquitoes to both reach and penetrate. At least for most of us (LOL). Here, it’s reasonable to assume that humans are more vulnerable to mosquito bites than non-human vertebrates. Since evolutionary-wise mosquito-bites are actually a good thing - humans have an advantage over the rest of the vertebrates.

I believe that it’s the mosquitos which predominantly drive horizontal gene-transfer between vertebrates and are the source of most ERVs. Mosquitos can either pass along a complete virus to a host species which has the potential to immediately cause disease; or quite typically - be limited to depositing a viral “fingerprint” (a snippet of genetic code) into the bloodstream through their unique proboscis. By passing along a mere snippet of viral code, this works similarly to that of man-made (attenuated) vaccines.

Through mosquitoes, a viral-snippet can easily be passed from one species of vertebrate to another, such as from a bear to a horse. In this case, the original virus may have been quite virulent towards the bear; however, as a mere snippet of this virus gets passed to the horse via the mosquito vector - it would likely have little to no harmful effects.

As a result of both vertical and horizontal gene-transfers, a vertebrate’s cells likely store as much historical data (DNA code) as they can from past viruses. Minimally, this data is compiled during the following occurrences.

  • Through Vertical gene-transfer; thanks to endogenous retroviruses (ERVs).
  • Horizontal gene-transfer; by using viral snippets (fingerprints) from mosquito vectors.
  • Viral infections experienced first-hand by the host; through any and all vectors.

So, we see that mosquitos play a huge part in keeping the virulence of pathogenic-pockets to a bare minimum. It’s highly likely that all vertebrate-species share a certain amount of code from past pathogens as an early-warning defense mechanism for detecting pathogens.

Nowadays, pathogenic-pockets are likely better distinguished not so much by obvious ecosystems and certain land-masses, but by their elevation above sea level. Pathogens such as bacteria, typically remain closer to the ground and move across surfaces, whereas the spreading of viruses usually occurs higher up, and through air-transmission. Both of these methods are heavily reliant upon a pathogen having a substantial population of host species, and the host’s habitat being a suitable environment for the pathogen in question.

In addition, I understand that sun plays a huge role in limiting the spread of viruses. Here, earth’s albedo plays a huge role. So, the pathogenic environment is quite different upon areas having direct-sun exposure versus those that are normally shaded. Viruses in particular, like most pathogens - prefer to avoid the sun.

The Role of Fish in
Horizontal Gene-Transfer

Under this concept of horizontal gene-transfer, most of the fish species continue where the mosquitos leave off.

At some point or another, I’m sure that you’ve all seen fish jumping up out of the water in order to feed upon mosquitoes and the like. It’s these fish which provide continuity for horizontal gene-transfer between land masses separated by water. This occurs whether it’s between a close cluster of islands in the middle of an ocean, or two continents upon opposite ends of the globe.

Now, it’s not likely that any single fish will swim directly from one side of the ocean to the other in order to spread a pathogen. Hence, just like the diversity of creatures which roam upon the earth and feed upon each another; the same goes for fish-species and the like, which thrive within both the fresh and salt-water seas around the world. In order for fish to pass along pathogens from one species to the next, they have to be born predators.

Scientists have scratched their heads wondering why historically there were originally only jaw-less fish (Agnatha) such as lampreys, whereas most of the fish we see today have jaws (Gnathostomata). From my understanding, this was a fine-tuning mechanism of sorts by God, in order to achieve a blanketing effect around the whole globe, under the concept of horizontal gene-transfer.

It seems that the first type of fish with jaws (Placoderm) evolved about four-hundred million years ago. Scientists understand that the DNA of land-based jawed-vertebrates, experienced ERVs approximately fifty-million years prior.

The timing of these two events sounds quite logical, as we now begin to understand why viruses are linked to the evolutionary-process.

Destinations

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