Over the last few weeks, I found a couple of headlines on the Drudge Report to be quite interesting.
The first headline appeared on the December 4, 2015 Drudge Report. It reads, “Live Forever: Billionaires Pursuing Immortality Like Never Before.” The link for the headline leads to an article written by Charlotte Lytton for The Daily Beast entitled, “The Year We Decided to Live Forever.” The article indicates that tech billionaires are writing out large checks to fund research which might find the key to immortality.
Approximately a month later, a second headline addressed the same subject. In the January 2, 2016 British Newspaper, The Daily Express, Kat Romero wrote about a new company that claims they will be able to resurrect the dead by 2045. She writes, “Entrepreneur Josh Bocanegra says his company Humai is aiming to bring the dead back to life.
“The new company is aiming to “extend and enhance life" by freezing human brains for extended periods of time using cryonics, a deep freezing technology using very low temperatures, and then putting them into artificial bodies. But Josh claims the company's ultimate goal is to preserve a human brain before a person dies.
““He claims if they were able to transplant a live person’s brain into a bionic body, then it would achieve a point where no one has to die at all.” Josh hopes to accomplish this in the next 30 years.”
Should we be surprised at these headlines? Men and women have always been attracted to whatever promises them to live as long as possible. Legend has it the Juan Ponce de Leon pursued the Fountain of Youth in Florida. He never found that fountain. Man’s quest to live forever has never been attained and it never will be through human means.
The Bible addresses the subject of living forever in both the Old and New Testaments. Let’s look at a few references that refer to eternal life.
In the first passage the prophet Daniel was allowed to see what God holds out to mankind, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:2-3).
During Christ’s ministry, a man came right out and asked about living forever, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?"
Christ responds, “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"
Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me" (Matthew 19:16-21). Christ tells this young man that to receive eternal life one needs to reach perfection or a certain level of maturity.
A third passage is quite familiar to many, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Will the headlines about living forever come to pass? Eternal life will not be attained by finding fountains of youth, in drinking magic potions, or through investing in research to make it possible to defy death. Even if the goals described in the news articles are reached all that is promised is an endless physical life.
God reveals, in the pages of the Bible, the one and only sure way to eternity. It is the promise of not only living forever, but of being a glorious spirit being who is a part of the very family of God. What the Bible holds out for us is a promise that all true Christians can count on and rejoice in.
Gary Smith
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