Manuscript Releases Volume Four, page 149, paragraph 2
(Genesis 6:5-18, quoted.)
"There perished in the Flood greater inventions of art and human skill than the world knows of today.
The arts destroyed were more than the boasted arts of today. The Lord was forgotten. This long-lived race were constantly devising how they might institute a war with the universe of heaven and gain possession of Eden. When men talk of the improvements that are made in higher education, they are aping the inhabitants of the Noetic world. They are yielding to the temptation of Satan to eat of the tree of knowledge, of which God has said, "Ye shall not eat of it, lest ye." God gave men a trial, and the result was the destruction of the world by a flood. In this age of the world's history there are teachers and students who suppose that their advancement in knowledge supersedes the knowledge of God, and their cry is "Higher education." They consider that they have greater knowledge than the greatest Teacher the world has ever known.

How did man gain his knowledge of how to devise?--From the Lord, by studying the formation and habits of different animals. If men could only know how many arts have been lost to our world, they would not talk so fluently of the dark ages. Could they have seen how God once worked through His human subjects, they would speak with less confidence of the arts of the antediluvian world. MORE WAS LOST IN THE FLOOD, IN MANY WAYS, THAN MEN TODAY KNOW.

Looking upon the world, God saw that the intellect He had given man was perverted, that the imagination of his heart was evil and that continually. God had given these men knowledge. He had given them valuable ideas, that they might carry out His plan. But the Lord saw that those whom He designed should possess wisdom, tact, and judgment, were using every quality of the mind to glorify self. By the waters of the Flood, He blotted this long-lived race from the earth, and with them perished the knowledge they had used only for evil. WHEN THE EARTH WAS REPEOPLED, THE LORD TRUSTED HIS WISDOM MORE SPARINGLY TO MEN, giving them only the ability they would need in carrying out His great plan (Letter 175, 1896).

True knowledge has decreased with every successive generation.. . .There are many inventions and improvements, and labor-saving machines now that the ancients did not have. They did not need them. . . . IN STRENGTH OF INTELLECT, MEN WHO NOW LIVE CAN BEAR NO COMPARISON TO THE ANCIENTS. There have been more ancient arts lost than the present generation now possess. For skill and art those living in this degenerate age will not compare with the KNOWLEDGE POSSESSED BY STRONG MEN WHO LIVED NEAR ONE THOUSAND YEARS. Men before the Flood lived many hundreds of years, and when one hundred years old they were considered but youths. Those long-lived men had sound minds in sound bodies. Their mental and physical strength was so great that the present feeble generation can bear no comparison to them. Those ancients had nearly one thousand years in which to acquire knowledge. They came upon the stage of action from the ages of sixty to one hundred years, about the time those who now live the longest have acted their part in their little short life time, and have passed off the stage. Those who are deceived, and flattered on in the delusion that the present is an age of real progress, and that the human race has been in ages past progressing in true knowledge, are under the influence of the father of lies, whose work has ever been to turn the truth of God into a lie (4SG 154-156). BC 1089

Genetic engineering --

Amalagamation between man and beast

Yes, for years people have ridiculed EGW's statement and some Adventists have tried to explain it as just another way to express wrong associations with unbelievers

but --
Do you have any idea how intelligent you could be if you had 7 to 900 years of learning with perfect memory? No doubt at all they were much more intelligent.
Harold

Suzanne, I think you've got the correct explanation.


For one thing -- EGW does state that amalgamation produced confusion of species.
1SP.078.002 Every species of animals which God had created was preserved in the ark. The confused species which God did not create, which were the result of amalgamation, were destroyed by the flood.



Yes, I know, the critics say, "There was no genetic engineering in Noah's day!

The trouble is, people have been so indoctrinated with the evolution theory that even those who still believe in a six day creation have a hard time conceiving of the idea that people before the flood were extremely intelligent and advanced scientifically. Their knowledge and skill and understanding was WAY BEYOND OUR OWN.

Once the evolutionary picture of preflood people being primitive food gathers gets erased then these so called statements of EGW are no problem. THE PREFLOOD PEOPLE EXPERIMENTED WITH GENETICS just like scientists are doing today. We should understand this as a warning that is very relevant to us today.

Consider the full scope of what EGW says about preflood people and the puzzle starts coming together in a clearer picture.






"But if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God," 3SG.064

When EGW wrote that, genetic engineering was not thought possible and of course cross breeding among different species does not happen naturally, so people have ridiculed this revelation of conditions prior to the flood.

However today, the question that should face every person is not really to argue over whether God revealed to EGW that this evil existed way back then; the question should be — where is our present day fascination of amalgamation leading the world today?

We are closer to the fulfilment of 2 Peter 3 then we think!

Genetic engineering --

Amalagamation between man and beast

"Every species of animals which God had created was preserved in the ark. The confused species which God did not create, which were the result of amalgamation, were destroyed by the flood. Since the flood, there has been amalgamation of man and beast, as may be seen in the almost endless varieties of species of animals, and in certain races of men." {1SP 78.2}