What will lead up to the final days of man's existence on earth? Could the use of genetic cloning save mankind from biblical prophecy? Is the Antichrist amongst us? These are the questions Dr. Jessie Simpson must resolve in The Jesus Factor. The end of times unravels as religion and science collide in a showdown of ethics in our modern day world. Your view of stem cell research, Revelations, and the future will never be the same again! This futuristic story holds the frameworks of a convincing sneak preview of how our world is evolving as we race toward the end of time. Readers will eagerly follow the exploits of scientists and their families as the world encounters the trials and tribulations brought upon by evil.
Excerpt
Chapter Two - A Time to Change
There was no such thing as normal weather. The average daytime high
temperature for New Orleans should’ve been 70 degrees. But on any given
day the mercury would almost certainly fall short of that mark or overshoot
it, perhaps by a lot. Downtown thermometers could reach 75 degrees in
January every so often and plunge to 30 degrees in July. The weather was
just as inconsistent as anywhere.
The earth’s climate had always changed. Ice ages have frosted the
planet for tens of thousands of years at a stretch, and periods of warmth have
pushed the tropics into the temperate zone. But never had the climate
transformed so rapidly and dramatically.
We’d reached a warmer world. Glaciers, including the legendary snows
of Africa’s tallest peak mount Kilimanjaro had disappeared. It was the same
for mountaintops around the globe. And that wasn’t all! Most coral reefs
had died off, as the seas got too warm for comfort. Drought was the norm in
most parts of the world. El Nino events triggered devastating weather in the
eastern pacific. The most powerful earthquakes, hurricanes, and giant
tsunami waves in decades had unleashed destructive forces killing hundreds
of thousands of people. The Artic permafrost had been melting rapidly.
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Lakes and rivers in colder climates were freezing later and thawing earlier
each year. Plants and animals had shifted their ranges pole ward and to
higher altitudes, and migration patterns for animals as diverse as polar bears,
butterflies, and beluga whales had been disrupted.
Changes in climate had been occurring at the most extensive rate in the
history of the planet. Climatologists’ worst fears had come to light with
more frequent and intense droughts, coastal areas were being severely
eroded by rising seas, rainfall was scarcer on agricultural land and the
world’s entire ecosystem has been thrown out of balance.
With the seas rising as much as three feet, enormous areas of densely
populated land—coastal Florida, a large portion of southern Louisiana, the
Nile Delta, the Maldives and Bangladesh—could soon become
uninhabitable.
Entire climatic zones were shifting dramatically. Central Canada had
begun to look more like central Illinois, Georgia more like Guatemala.
Agriculture had been thrown into turmoil. Millions of people had been
encouraged to migrate out of these now unlivable regions.
The greatest fear included contaminated water supplies with salt. The
higher temperatures were widening the range of disease-carrying rodents and
insects. This had also increased the populations of mosquitoes, and ticks
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which in turn had increased the incidence of dengue fever, malaria,
encephalitis, Lyme disease and other afflictions.
The pace of change was outstripping anything the earth had seen in the
past 100 million years.
The first major effects were felt in the Southeastern United States when
the Florida Keys disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean, one tiny island at a
time. The Army Corp of Engineers had made numerous attempts to save off
the demise of the islands, but their efforts had been in vain. In spite of this
loss, they’d been successful in protecting the large metropolitan areas to the
north. They had constructed a massive dyke below Greater Miami’s urban
sprawl. It was an engineering marvel spanning from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Gulf of Mexico. They were now constructing a similar barrier to save
the city of New Orleans—something that had been neglected in spite of a
horrific hurricane that has submerged the city some time ago. But this was
only a small portion of the potential disasters attributed by the rapid climate
changes that were occurring.
To some scientists the melting of the ice caps created a greater danger
than rising oceans. They’d been more afraid of the effects of the dilution of
the oceans salt content upon the major ocean currents. With the slowing of
the Gulf Stream there was a strong possibility that it could eliminate the
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warming effect upon the northern regions creating more snowfall? This in
turn would cause more light to be reflected back into space—thus creating a
cooling affect upon the planet. They’d believed that Global warming could
in effect push the planet back into the ice age.
The world’s climate had already reached the unstable tipping point. It
was realized that unless science could find a way to slow global warming
and to correct the damage that had already been done grave consequences
would surely occur.
A United Nations sponsored group commonly called the IPCC had
warned world leaders of the concern almost twenty-five years ago—its cry
had gone unanswered. Humanity had already unknowingly embarked on a
dangerous experiment of tinkering with the climate of the planet. The
potential for disaster had been ignored and any steps to divert calamity had
never materialized.
The world was on the brink of a catastrophe unlike anything it had ever
known. Time was running out!
To many members of the scientific community there was a perception that
neither technology nor the most highly regarded experts could solve this
crisis. Governmental authorities in the United States realized that something
had to be done—and fast.
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They’d assembled a gathering of the most prestigious scientific and
political group of our time. Meeting in a series of intense brainstorming
sessions at the United States Think Institute outside of Washington, D.C.,
the group was blessed with galaxies of brilliant researchers who were the
envy of the world—it included the best minds in every field from Genomics,
Climatology, Molecular Mechanics to Spinal-chord research and Cellular
Biology. Every field of science had been represented. I’d been there along
with my colleagues—Dr. Arthur Johnson, Dr. Amy Brogan, and Dr. Virginia
Grant. We all represented the field of biotechnology.
The intense meetings had lasted for over three years—yet in spite of the
impressive basis of knowledge that had assembled, only a few solutions
emerged. Almost everyone left perplexed.
With little hope remaining, there was only one single light of hope—one
promising alternative. America’s leaders had been forced to turn to the
unconventional thinking of one group. Reliance had been bestowed upon the
highly successful scientists of the country’s premier biotechnical firm—the
advanced cell research group at the Stem Cell Research Institute or SCRI as
it had been called. We’d all been apart of it from the beginning—and we
were part of it now. There were two groups of SCRI scientists working at
two separate locations—on two separate projects, but with similarities.
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Alone and secretly, SCRI could create the unthinkable—the knowledge
base needed to solve the global problem that threatened the world. With the
political support they had garnished this medical intervention had the
potential to save the world. SCRI would “recreate” the intellectual beings
that were needed to solve the world’s environmental downward tailspin.
3 WAY MIRROR is about a lost identity as experienced by a twenty-eight-year old who thinks he's Charles Randall, until strange events suggest otherwise.
