An investigative report last week by the Texas Tribune following nine years' worth of e-mails and internal documents on the Department of State Health Services’ newborn blood screening program revealed "the transfer of hundreds of infant blood spots to an Armed Forces lab to build a national and, someday, international mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) registry. The records, released after the state agreed in December to destroy more than 5 million infant blood spots, also show an effort to limit the public’s knowledge of aspects of the newborn blood program, and to manage the debate around it."

Why send blood samples to a military lab and try to hide it from the public? Is this just another revelation into big brother's ever expanding database of civilian information, or something more?

I ask because frankly, blood is a spiritual issue, not just physical. Throughout the Bible, blood and bloodlines are (and were) very important, carrying with them supernatural connotations. For instance the bloodline leading to Christ had to be maintained in purity (and I learned during exorcism years ago just how powerful simply invoking "the blood of Jesus" can be), while the DNA of Nephilim was considered unredeemable and the "seed" of Satan gives rise to Antichrist in the end times.

So, whenever government agencies start collecting the DNA of our babies and sending it to military laboratories, it's more than a surveillance question to me.

That this is a mitochondrial DNA registry is also interesting, given what New Agers believe about blood and the "spiritual" aspects of cell biology. This was fantastically illustrated in George Lucas' Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but first let me explain:

An important part of New Age theology is the belief that God is animistic or pantheistic and that humans are divine members of the whole "that God is." Animism is the theory of the existence of a principle or Force inseparable from matter and to which all life and action are attributable. Pantheism is the doctrine that the Force totals the whole of the universe and is God. 

According to New Ageism, Jesus came to reveal the animistic or pantheistic nature of God and to teach humanity the art of living in harmony with "the God of Forces" or, as George Lucas coins, the Force. 

New Agers believe Jesus was a divinely born master who ascended to a place of distinction to live among other Masters of the Spiritual Hierarchy - Buddha , Krishna, (Yoda?) - after illustrating the principles of the Force.

According to New Agers the Force is revealed during significant times in world history, and modern followers look for the imminent appearing of the next divinely born World Teacher who will, as Jesus did, illustrate the divine Force living within and around us. In this way, New Age theology prepares the world for the coming of the False Prophet and the Antichrist.

Such New Age concepts include:
 

* A group of divinely born and ascended masters are in tune with the Force.
* Because of divine birth, the Force lives in the blood of each master.
* Occasionally, a new master is born equally in tune with the Force.
* The new master illustrates how others can live in harmony with the Force then takes his place among the ascended masters.
* Another master will come along at the right time to help us feeble humans.

Note the unusual parallel between such New Age theology and the Star Wars Jedi. In THE PHANTOM MENACE, Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn wiped a patch of blood from the youth Anakin's arm and made an analysis of the blood. He was looking for midi-chlorians. What are midi-chlorians? 

ANAKIN : Master, sir...I've been wondering...what are midi-chlorians?

QUI-GON JINN : Midi - chlorians are microscopic life forms that reside within all living cells and communicates with the Force.

ANAKIN : They live inside of me?

QUI-GON JINN : In your cells. We are symbionts with the midi - chlorians.

ANAKIN : Symbionts?

QUI-GON JINN : Life forms living together for mutual advantage. Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. They continually speak to you, telling you the will of the Force.

ANAKIN : They do??

QUI-GON JINN : When you learn to quiet your mind, you will hear them speaking to you.

ANAKIN : I don't understand.

QUI-GON JINN : With time and training, Annie...you will.

George Lucas described his film use of the term, explaining how Midi-chlorians are mitochondria in the epic:

"Midi-chlorians are a loose depiction of mitochondria, which are necessary components for cells to divide. They probably had something--which will come out someday--to do with the beginnings of life and how one cell decided to become two cells with a little help from this other little creature who came in, without whom life couldn't exist. And it's really a way of saying we have hundreds of little creatures who live in us, and without them, we all would die. There wouldn't be any life. They are necessary for us; we are necessary for them."

Earlier in the film Qui-Gon discovers the midi - chlorian count is off the charts with Anakin:

OBI-WAN : Strange. The transmission seems to be in good order, but the reading's off the chart...over twenty thousand.

OBI-WAN : Even Master Yoda doesn't have a midi-chlorian count that high!

Qui-Gon visits with Anakin 's mother, Shmi, and discovers that in addition to his unprecedented midi-chlorian count, Anakin was divinely conceived:

QUI-GON JINN : You should be proud of your son. He gives without any thought of reward.

SHMI : He knows nothing of greed. He has...

QUI-GON JINN : He has special powers.

SHMI : Yes...

QUI-GON JINN : He can see things before they happen. That's why he appears to have such quick reflexes. It is a Jedi trait.

SHMI : He deserves better than a slave's life.

QUI-GON JINN : The Force is unusually strong with him, that much is clear. Who was his father?

SHMI : There was no father, that I know of...I carried him, I gave him birth...I can't explain what happened.

Qui-Gon thinks he knows how Anakin was divinely conceived:

QUI-GON JINN :... his cells have the highest concentration of midi-chlorians I have seen in a life form. It is possible he was conceived by the midi-chlorians.

Parallels between the Star Wars films and New Age theology is obvious. Observations include:

• Anakin is a slave in a desert that hopes to set his people free. A Moses/Jesus figure.
• Qui-Gon Jinn believes Anakin is the Promised One (Christ) of prophecy who will bring harmony to the universe.
• As Jesus redeemed us by His blood, Midiclorians in Anakin are unlike any human born before. They make him special, a redeemer.
• In one scene, Anakin stands before the Jedi council in a way similar to what Jesus did before the temple priests. He hears words very similar to the Gospel passage of Matthew 11:3, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
• Eventually Anakin gives in to the dark side of "the force"
• THE FORCE, like God, is omnipresent.
• But unlike the God of the Bible, the Force more closely resembles the New Age idea of monism or pantheism. 
• In the first Star Wars film Obi Wan Kenobi teaches Luke Skywalker about the Force:

BEN: "The force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and binds the galaxy together."

• In the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, Yoda teaches Luke similarly:

YODA: "For my ally is The Force and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it and makes it grow. Its energy surrounds and binds us. Feel the force around you….Here, between you and me, the tree, the rock….Yes, even between the land and the ship!"

What is behind the message?

* In the Star Wars saga the Savior ironically becomes Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader). Anakin is referred to as the one who will bring balance to the Force. The message is: the one that has always been perceived as evil (Darth Vader/Satanic Personality) ultimately becomes the savior in the end.

* Anakin (anakim, sons of Anak) were supernaturally conceived of Satan or demons according to Biblical and extra-biblical histories.

* As Jesus was the divinely conceived "seed of the woman," the Antichrist will be the "seed of the serpent," i.e. the son of Satan or demons. Anakin is the son of the Force.

* The Antichrist will nevertheless present himself as an enlightened world teacher or savior. The New Age "Law of the Avatars" claims that every new age begins when the Supreme Being known as "the Solar Logos," a.k.a. the god of Forces, overshadows a human being and imparts the Christ consciousness.

* The God of the Antichrist will be "the God of Forces" (Dan. 11:38), also known in antiquity as Baalhazor, the god of munitions and war and protector of fortresses.

* Finally, Qui-Gon Jinn's name comes from a combination of Taoism and Arabic mythology. In Taoism Qi-Gong combines "Qi," the energy or "force" that flows within and around everything, and "Gong" the method of interacting with or controlling the Force (learned through meditation). Jinn (or genie, plural Jinn) is part of Arabic mythology and consists of Ghul (treacherous spirits or shape-shifters), 'ifrit (evil spirits), and si'la (treacherous spirits of invariable form). "Jinn are beings of flame or air who are capable of assuming human or animal form and are said to dwell in all conceivable inanimate objects--stones, trees, ruins--underneath the earth, in the air, and in fire. They possess the bodily needs of human beings and can even be killed, but they are free from all physical restraints." Encyclopaedia Britannica

* The New Age religion is one of ultimate human evolution and empowerment, of "becoming god." Interestingly that was the original message from the god of "forces" or the The Force in the Old Testament: "Ye shall be as gods."

The Star Wars films offer impressionable young minds a delicious introduction to fantasy and mysticism, but do they also pave the way for acceptance of the blood of Antichrist?

This makes one want to understand what the government is doing collecting the mitochondrial DNA of innocent children, what the X-Prize foundation is looking for in their ARCHON X-PRIZE where they are offering a 10-Million dollar prize to the first person or team that can sequence 100 genomes within 10 days or less (the name ARCHON is the title for the ancient and most powerful demons, which control the world under Satan), and what the Bible really means when it says the "life" is in the blood.