Cancer Research Confirms the
Curse
By Brian Thomas, M.S.
Evidence for Creation
Cancer’s devastation
directly or indirectly touches almost everybody on Earth, and a great deal of
research focuses on finding the cause and cure.
A new study’s results
showed that the number of cell divisions in body tissues is a more significant
cancer contributor than any other factor.
A separate study revealed
that the bodies of older people produce declining amounts of a
cancer-minimizing molecule called NAD+.
Although cancer currently
lies beyond the reach of any person to cure, Scripture offers a long-term
solution available to anyone.
Cancer
occurs when pockets of cells proliferate out of control, a growth that DNA
copying errors sometimes trigger.
Living cells copy their DNA
just before they divide. Human DNA strands have millions of specific chemicals,
like letters in an encyclopedia, that record information for core life
processes.
Precision protein machines
copy DNA “letters” at jet-engine speeds, yet perform so efficiently that only
about one wrong letter arises among a billion.
But even these few
mutations can garble DNA’s information enough to lead to cancer, especially in
tissues that undergo many cell divisions within a human lifetime.
A
study published in the March 24 issue of the journal Science showed mutations within a person’s
lifetime cause a stunning 66% of cancers.
The report’s analysis of
various kinds of cancer in people from many countries revealed that inherited
mutations lead to only 5% of cancers.
Outside factors like
ultraviolet radiation and cigarette smoke that damage DNA cause the remaining
cases.
Thus, even if a person
avoided all cancer-causing exposures, they cannot avoid the threat of cancer
altogether.
In theory, the disease will
eventually strike anyone who lives long enough since living requires constant
cell divisions.
The
study showing that the cancer-suppressing molecule NAD+ diminishes with age
appeared in the same Science issue.
Harvard
Medical School News summarized
the findings. As NAD+ lessens, “DNA
breaks go unrepaired and, as these breaks accumulate over time, precipitate
cell damage, cell mutations, cell death and loss of organ function.”
It seems the only way to
cure cancer would be to somehow reach into and constantly correct every cell’s
mutations.
This
gloomy reality, however, is not necessarily the end of the line for those who
believe the biblical promises.
Long
ago, Job said, “And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall
see God.”
The
New Testament promises the new body that Job hoped for: “For we know that if our earthly
house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Cancer
will not affect our new bodies, since each will be “a building from God.”
The
curse God placed on all of creation because of Adam’s disobedience led to
disease and death.
The two Science studies confirm this by linking the
now-cursed processes of growth and aging to cancer.
However, the same Bible
that describes the curse tells us it will one day end!
Paul
explained, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.”
But
because “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a
curse for us,” now “whoever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.”
Whoever demonstrates “repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ” will
enjoy eternal life with Jesus—death, the curse, and cancer forever gone.
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