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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Can People Change?

If any man be in Christ, he is in new creation.

That's what we're going to talk about today.

And we live, you know, in a time where there's kind of a mixed group of responses on that.

And don't try and change people, because that's unethical.

Other people say, wait a minute, you can change.

You can change your gender, you can change this, you can change that.

How can you who are accustomed to evil change?

Maybe not your skin or your spots, but you can in fact change through the power of God.

That's what we're gonna talk about today, okay?

So let's pray and ask the Lord to lead us, guide us today in our study.

Father in heaven, bless us today as we look at your word, and we thank you, we come in Christ's name, amen.

So you know, we talk about genetics, But before we do that, how many atoms are there in a human cell?

Well, there's about 10 to the 14th power atoms in the typical human cell or 100 trillion atoms.

So look at that person next to you and say, you are a big deal.

How many cells are there in the human body?

Estimated to be the same as the number of atoms.

Again, the person next to you is not only deep, they're wide.

Because if you stretched out their DNA end to end, it'd go 744 million miles.

You might kill somebody trying to stretch out their DNA, but the person next to you is much deeper and wider than you thought.

And of course, humans have 23 homologous, homologous pairs of chromosomes.

And these are changed into different things, different cells that you need in your body, but DNA is only half of the story.

DNA in our bodies is wrapped around proteins called histones.

Both the DNA and the histones are covered with chemical tags.

And this second structure layer is called the epigenome.

The epigenome shakes the physical structure of the genome.

Methylation of the histone usually turns the genes off, and actylation turns the genes on.

They're open and available to show themselves for who they are.

Tightly wrapped or methylated genes are turned off.

So they're packed and are not easily accessible so they're not really being used.

The DNA is fixed for life but the epigenome is flexible.

So look at that person next to you and say, you are flexible.

And then look at them again and say, no, you are fixed for life.

And then look at yourself and say, I'm confused.

But really, the epigenome is really the thing we talk about when we talk about changeability.

The genome, by the way, doesn't change, I mean, The DNA doesn't change in like 300 years.

You can change someone's DNA, but it takes about 300 years from what I've read.

So this is why you don't find twin studies showing that this causes this or that or whatever, But epigenetic studies, when you see changes, the epigenome can change rapidly, which we're going to talk about.

Genetic tags are passed down through generations, and when the zygote is formed, epigenetic tags, many of them are removed from the chromosomes of the parents, but some remain.

This is why some people are called Eugene.

And we have an example right here with us of Eugene.

And his mother thought so and named him that.

Does not fly really in a court, and doesn't really fly in life, you could say.

Epigenetic inheritance was previously believed that genetic information was passed only through DNA, but now, they know that a parent's experiences are passed to offspring through epigenetic tags.

She has a fetus, and that fetus also has reproductive cells.

And so you have the iniquity of the mother visiting the child.

So the third and fourth generation right there almost in 1 picture.

The difference is this in the Agouti gene, and it's expressed because of the diet.

So the diet of the parent, if it has a yellow coat color, is obese and prone to diabetes and cancer.

But when the agouti gene is methylated, the coat color is brown and the mouse is sleek and has a low disease risk.

So how many of you have ever met identical twins that eat different diets?

And so 1 has more disease than the other.

The difference came in the area of epigenetics.

So you can do things that unlock or lock up the genes.

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Can People Change?

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