Cloning Jesus?

Scientists have cloned sheep and other animals. Everyone is wondering when they are going to clone the first human. Now there is a group which is going to attempt to clone Jesus. They refer to it as “The Second Coming Project.” Here’s the explanation on the group’s website:

The Second Coming Project is a not-for-profit organization devoted to bringing about the Second Coming of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, as prophesied in the Bible, in time for the 2,000th anniversary of his birth. Our intention is to clone Jesus, utilizing techniques pioneered at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, by taking an incorrupt cell from one of the many Holy Relics of Jesus' blood and body that are preserved in churches throughout the world, extracting its DNA, and inserting into an unfertilized human egg (oocyte), through the now-proven biological process called nuclear transfer. The fertilized egg, now the zygote of Jesus Christ, will be implanted into the womb of a young virginal woman (who has volunteered of her own accord), who will then bring the baby Jesus to term in a second Virgin Birth.

If all goes according to plan, the birth will take place on December 25, 2001...

No longer can we rely on hope and prayer, waiting around futilely for Jesus to return. We have the technology to bring him back right now: there is no reason, moral, legal or Biblical, not to take advantage of it. In order to save the world from sin, we must clone Jesus to initiate the second coming of Christ.

Despite the fact that this was reported as real news by Fox News and several leading newspapers, the whole thing is a hoax. (You can read about this and other famous religious hoaxes on the web at http://www.snopes.com/religion/religion.htm)

Of course, it got me thinking. Isn’t that what the gospel is all about, cloning Jesus? It’s not done with transplanted DNA inserted into a human egg but with his Spirit inserted into a human heart. That’s what God is trying to do with you and me. What a difference it might make in our community, to the whole world, if this experiment is successful.

2000 C. David Hess