Volume 45         Issue Eight         August 2026

Last Trumpet Ministries ∙ PO Box 806 ∙ Beaver Dam, WI 53916

Phone: 920-887-2626   Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8

Stranger Than Fiction

 

“The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right.” - Proverbs 21:8

 

It is sometimes said that the truth is stranger than fiction. When we consider the many extraordinary things happening in this modern age, this idiom certainly rings true. Some of the things you are about to read are going to sound unbelievable, and maybe even impossible. Yet, we live in an age when the science fiction of decades past resembles the reality of our present time. Our sources for the information provided in this newsletter will all be listed in our references section. We invite you to investigate them for yourself if you feel inclined to do so.

 

I recall hearing an urban legend in the 1990s claiming that Kentucky Fried Chicken, sometimes known as KFC, was growing headless chickens in a laboratory and harvesting them for meat, which was then supposedly sold to unwitting customers in their iconic buckets. To be clear, this legend was not true. Yet while the premise once seemed far-fetched, lab-grown synthetic meat has existed for years, and various companies are working to perfect cultivated meat grown from stem cells.

 

The first cultivated beef burger ever was prepared and consumed at an event in London, England, in 2013. (1) At the time, food critic Josh Schonwald, who was one of the first people to taste the lab-grown burger, said, “The mouthfeel is like meat. I miss the fat, there’s a leanness to it, but the general bite feels like a hamburger.” Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, the scientist who developed the lab-grown burger, commented, “It’s a very good start.”  (2) About seven years later, Singapore became the first country to allow cultivated meat to be sold to consumers. (3) The United States would follow suit on June 30, 2023, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety and Inspection Service issued approval to GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods to sell cultivated meat products in the United States. (4)

 

The lab-grown meat remains expensive to manufacture and is not typically available for purchase in the U.S. yet. Cultivated meat producers have also faced considerable backlash from lawmakers. According to an article published by U.S. News & World Report in December 2025, seven states – Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, and Texas –  have banned the manufacture, sale, and distribution of lab-grown meat. (5) However, Elliot Swartz of the Good Food Institute in Washington, D.C., believes we may begin to see a few cultivated meat products become available in supermarkets over the next five years. “There might be local retailers that have a few products on store shelves, but there won’t be a nationwide Walmart, Costco-type of cultivated meat product within the next five years in the United States,” he estimated. (6) 

 

As for that urban legend, it turns out it was just ahead of its time. But lab-grown meat is far from the strangest thing happening in these very strange days.

 

Synthetic Life

 

Scientists have long been ambitious, and sometimes their various projects border on “playing God.” Remarkably, scientists at the University of Minnesota, led by Dr. Kate Adamala, have managed to concoct a fully synthetic cell for the first time. These microscopic cells are painstakingly designed using synthetic DNA and vital chemicals such as adenosine triphosphate. (ATP) Known as SpudCells, these “tiny quivering blobs” are capable of feeding, growing, and multiplying, just as natural cells do. (7) Scientists are hoping these new cells will be the start of research that may someday allow them to create synthetic life. “Making a synthetic cell helps us understand the exact minimum requirements for life and how life might have emerged from chemistry,” said Professor Tom Ellis at Imperial College in London. (8)

 

Dr. Adamala believes the SpudCell may be the first step that will someday enable scientists to “engineer biology.” “It is not as robust, as fast, or as good at most of its functions as a natural cell, but it is proof of principle that molecules can reconstitute behaviors that up until now we only associated with natural living cells. If we want to be able to engineer biology, we really have to understand exactly the blueprint, every component of it, so we know what we’re changing,” Dr. Adamala said. (9)

 

SpudCells are quite weak. They cannot survive outside of the chemical bath in which they are immersed, and fail after five to ten generations. “I don’t want to say it dies, but it stops working,” Dr. Adamala admitted. (10) To help solve these issues, Dr. Drew Endy, a synthetic biologist at Stanford University, has helped Dr. Adamala start a non-profit organization known as Biotic. “I’m pouring my life’s work into this,” Dr. Endy declared. They hope their organization will help other scientists make new types of SpudCells that are more lifelike. “It’s completely doable,” insisted synthetic biologist John Glass of the J. Craig Venter Institute. (11) According to the New York Times, the researchers also picked thirty-six genes borrowed from a virus and the infamous microbe commonly known as E. coli to make the SpudCell work. These genes perform basic functions such as copying DNA. (12) It is unknown how far the research will advance, but those involved with the project are eager to find out. “We can think about doing chemistry that we’re barely getting our heads around,” Dr. Glass suggested. (13)

 

Clearly, the scientific community is excited about the prospect of designing life at the cellular level, but what they are allowed to do is firmly in the hands of the one true Creator, our God in Heaven. It is also worth noting that while designing a synthetic cell is a remarkable achievement, scientists still had to use building blocks found in the natural world to do so. Ultimately, God is the source of all life. John 1:1-4 declares, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”  

 

Biological Computers    

 

Cortical Labs, an Australian company, has done something hard to fathom. The company is the maker of a biological computer. How does it work? It all starts with skin cells taken from human donors. Using a cocktail of proteins, these skin cells are transformed into stem cells, which are then grown into neurons, a type of cell found in the human brain. These neurons are kept alive in nutrient-rich material and grown on a silicon chip, which is placed inside the company’s shoebox-sized CL1 computer. The cells live for about six months before they must be replaced. (14)

 

The CL1 has demonstrated a remarkable ability to learn. In 2021, the company taught its biological computer to play Pong, a simple arcade game that is based on ping pong. More recently, the machine was taught to play a 1990s first-person shooter video game called Doom. This latest advancement was made possible by a new interface that relies on the Python programming language. Developer Sean Cole used this interface to teach the CL1 to play Doom in about a week. “Unlike the Pong work that we did a few years ago, which represented years of painstaking scientific effort, this demonstration has been done in a matter of days by someone who previously had relatively little expertise working directly with biology,” said Brett Kagan of Corticol Labs. He also commented that while the CL1 utilizes neurons, it does not have the capabilities of a full human brain. “Yes, it’s alive, and yes, it’s biological, but really what it is being used as is a material that can process information in very special ways that we can’t recreate in silicon.” (15)

 

A system that combines components of traditional computing with the biological impulses of human brain cells is nothing short of extraordinary, and scientists are fascinated. “What’s exciting here is not just that a biological system can play Doom, but that it can cope with complexity, uncertainty, and real-time decision-making. That’s much closer to the kinds of challenges future biological or hybrid computers will need to handle,” explained Andrew Adamatzky of the University of the West of England in Bristol. (16)  

 

Sven Truckenbrodt, a neuroscientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, also offered high praise for the machine, calling it “super impressive.” He notes, “You can see the machine making decisions, essentially, to navigate this world.” It is hoped that the CL1 will give scientists a better understanding of how connections in the human brain form, change, and fail and sometimes lead to brain disorders including schizophrenia, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. “Things are happening that we have been dreaming about for the last fifty to 100 years. We are seeing a paradigm shift,” he gushed. (17) The development of biological computers also raises the possibility that human brain cells might someday be used to power artificial intelligence. Although AI in its current form requires vast amounts of resources, including water and electricity, the human brain is incredibly efficient, using only about twenty watts to run. “Our brains are the most powerful computational engines in the known universe,” Truckenbrodt said. (18)

 

Jesus-level Technology

 

Technology companies are hard at work developing brain-to-computer interfaces. These specialized chips can be implanted in human brains to restore capabilities that have been lost to deformities and illnesses. One of the brain chips making headlines in recent years comes from Neuralink, a company owned by the eccentric billionaire Elon Musk. Neuralink’s N1 brain chip was implanted in a man named Kenneth Shock in January 2026. Kenneth, who suffers from ALS, was no longer able to speak because of the disease. However, the brain chip he received can translate his thoughts into vocal output, generated in his natural voice, allowing him to communicate with others. At one point during testing, Mr. Shock communicated, “I’m talking to you with my mind.” (19)

 

Speaking virtually at the Samson International Smart Mobility Summit in Tel Aviv, Israel, earlier this year, Musk explained some of the things the Neuralink chip is able to do.  “It has enabled people who have completely lost their brain-body connection to speak again… and we believe it will enable people to walk again.” As of May 2026, Neuralink has implanted its Telepathy BCI (brain-to-computer interface) in at least twenty-one patients. Neuralink also has a new implant they call Blindsight. While the brain-to-computer interface is still waiting on approval from regulators, Neuralink is hoping to use the new implant on a patient for the first time by the end of 2026. They claim that the new technology will be able to restore sight to the blind. Musk suggested that Blindsight might even be able to give patients “superhuman vision.” (20)

 

Musk compared the work of Neuralink to the miracles of Jesus Christ. “Restoring control of people who are tetraplegics and restoring sight are pretty big deals,” Musk boasted. “They’re sort of what I might call Jesus-level technologies.” Although Neuralink chips have so far only been offered to people who are disabled, the company’s president and co-founder, DJ Seo, says the company wants to implant its chip in an “otherwise healthy person” by the end of the decade. (21)

 

In our world where every movement we make is tracked by our smartphones and tech companies who quietly collect and catalog our digital footprints, the human mind is the last domain of privacy we have left. In the future, if brain chips become common, people may not even be able to keep their thoughts private. Interestingly enough, D. Scott Phoenix, the founder of an AI firm named Vicarious that was sold to Alphabet, Inc., in 2022, believes eventually everyone will receive a brain chip. “Someone you work with will get it first. And you’ll hold out for a while, the way you did with the smartphone. But eventually, you won’t,” he said at a TED Talk in 2026. “The advantages of integration will be hard to compete with.” He further stated, “We’re on the cusp of the next major transition, the merger of humans and AI.” (22)

 

In II Thessalonians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul writes about the rise of the “man of sin.” This figure is often referred to as the Antichrist, who deceives the world and entrenches himself as a god-like entity. II Thessalonians 2:3-4 warns, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” Verse 9 goes on to warn that this figure will use signs and wonders to deceive the masses. “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” If you ever wondered how the signs and wonders would be performed, we are beginning to see the mechanism take shape. Elon Musk believes his technology will give human beings superpowers. But people may find they lose their humanity and their souls in the process. 

 

A New Delivery Vehicle For Vaccines

 

Bats are known to carry many diseases, some of which are quite serious. For example, bats can transmit rabies, Nipah virus, or some coronaviruses to people, and they were widely suspected as the source of the COVID-19 virus in the early days of the pandemic that roiled the world at the start of this decade. Scientists have found that bats are difficult to immunize since the flying mammals live in hard-to-reach places such as caves. Scientists in China have proposed a new solution that they claim could prevent the spread of serious diseases. They want to release mosquitoes that carry vaccines for rabies and the Nipah virus. The theory is that if the mosquitoes bite the bats or the bats eat the mosquitoes, the vaccines will be transmitted to the bats. “Directly targeting bats, the natural reservoirs of these viruses, is crucial to preventing spillover events and mitigating public health risks,” researchers wrote in a study published in the Science Advances Journal. (23)

 

To test their premise, scientists fed the Aedes aegypti mosquito blood containing a vaccine. In lab experiments, it was determined that bats and mice exposed to the mosquitoes developed antibodies against both diseases. Animals that were passed the vaccine from the mosquitoes and then exposed to rabies all survived the infections. “We want to turn the mosquito into a vaccination tool. I’m pretty excited with these result[s],” said Aihua Zheng, a virologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (24)

 

It stands to reason that if this technique became widely used, the mosquitoes might be fed other vaccines besides the ones for rabies and the Nipah virus. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that mosquitoes also tend to bite people, and if they are carrying vaccines, they could be passed on to humans quite easily in the process. This proposal is certain to raise alarms among individuals who value their freedom to choose whether or not to receive a vaccine.

 

Why Do They Want To Block The Sun?

 

In recent years, scientists have proposed an array of geoengineering ideas that they say would help mitigate the effects of climate change. One such proposal involves using aerosols sprayed into the atmosphere to partially block the sun. For example, Time Magazine reported in 2023 that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates supported a proposal from Harvard University to spray calcium carbonate into the skies over northern Scandinavia in 2021. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos also got involved, providing the computing power to model the effects of injecting sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. (25) Many proposals have come and gone after facing significant backlash from the public, but this crazy idea of blocking the sun to cool the planet has recently been proposed again.

 

On April 2, 2026, The Atlantic reported that a new venture called Stardust Solutions, a joint American-Israeli company, is planning to build a solar reflecting system in the coming years. Stardust claims to have developed a proprietary particle that they want to inject into the atmosphere, but they have not disclosed what it is. “None of us knows what they are hoping to put into the stratosphere—for a profit,” cautioned Cynthia Scharf, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based Centre for Future Generations. (26) Yanai Yedvab, who is the chief executive officer at Stardust, claims the company’s technology will “allow people to live more or less the life they aspire to live, the life they’re used to living.” He further added, “We want to make sure our children will live in a world where they don’t suffer the horrors of climate change. While this is not the only tool and we should have the full portfolio, I think it’s a unique tool that enables you to hold both sides at once.” (27)

 

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ warns us in Matthew 24:29-30 that the sun will be darkened in the end times. These verses declare, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” These verses do not explain precisely how the sun will be darkened, but when you have scientists and billionaires talking about blocking the sun, it should give us all pause.

 

The endeavors of humanity will always be subject to God’s will. Psalm 33:8-11 instructs us, “Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” If you have not yet repented of your sins and dedicated your life to God, I urge you to do so now.

 

Thank you all for your kind support of this ministry. As always, we invite you to send us your prayer requests. Each request is always given individual attention by our intercessors. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

 

Samuel David Meyer

 

This newsletter is made possible by the kind donations of our supporters. If you would like to help us, you may send your contribution to our postal address or donate online at http://lasttrumpetnewsletter.org/donate.

 

 

 

References

 

01. BBC News, August 5, 2013, By BBC News, bbc.com.

02. Ibid.

03. FoodNavigator, December 4, 2020, Updated December 16, 2020, By Oliver Morrison, foodnavigator.com.

04. Congress.gov, September 19, 2023, By Lisa S. Benson and Eleni G. Bickell, congress.gov.

05. U.S. News & World Report, December 23, 2025, By Cecelia Smith Schoenwalder, usnews.com.

06. South Dakota Searchlight, April 29, 2026, By Meghan O’Brien, southdakotasearchlight.com.

07. The Guardian, July 1, 2026, By Ian Sample, theguardian.com.

08. Ibid.

09. Ibid.

10. The New York Times, July 1, 2026, By Carl Zimmer and Marco Hernandez, nytimes.com.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. The Times of London, May 15, 2026, By Rys Blakely, thetimes.co.uk.

15. NewScientist, February 27, 2026, By Alex Wilkins, newscientist.com.

16. Ibid.

17. The Times of London, May 15, 2026, By Rys Blakely, thetimes.co.uk.

18. Ibid.

19. PC Magazine UK, March 24, 2026, By Michael Kan, uk.pcmag.com.

20. Marketwatch, May 18, 2026, By William Gavin, May 18, 2026, marketwatch.com.

21. Ibid.

22. Politico, May 15, 2026, By Calder McHugh, politico.com.

23. The Telegraph, March 16, 2026, By Sarah Newey, telegraph.co.uk.

24. Ibid.

25. Time Magazine, February 24, 2023, By Alejandro de la Garza, time.com. 

26. The Atlantic, April 2, 2026, By Alexander C. Kaufman, theatlantic.com.

27. Ibid.

   

This newsletter is made possible by the kind donations of our supporters. If you would like to help us, you may send your contribution to our postal address or donate online at http://lasttrumpetnewsletter.org/donate.