| HIGHLIGHTS OF DAWN | April 1997 |
Why Not Live Forever?
“The Spirit and the bride say, Come. … And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water o f life freely.” —Revelation 22:17
IN RECENT YEARS the world has become aware of the research work done on the composition of the human body, and the acronyms DNA and RNA have almost become household words. A biology lesson on these would reveal that DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid) are two forms of nucleic acid that contain the master blueprint of the human body. DNA acts as the genetic code, and RNA as the translator, specifying which amino acids combine inside the body to form proteins. These determine our span of health and our time of illness. DNA is like an architect designing a house. RNA is like a contractor who builds the house.
Dr. Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA’s double helical structure, and a winner of the Nobel Prize in 1962, was interviewed recently about the research he was doing. Some of this research involves improving people’s life span by taking preventive measures through identifying and isolating faulty genes that cause disease, and by so doing to implement health control and prolong life.
One of the questions asked by the interviewer was, “Do you think humans will ever go beyond longevity to immortality?”* Dr. Crick’s answer was, “We don’t fully understand yet. Beyond the genes themselves, what causes them to mutate, who can ask what the program should be? But I hope that research in preventive medicine will show that deterioration is not inevitable.” After a dissertation on the damage and repair of genes, he said, “With care one can certainly extend and enjoy the latter part of the life span.” Dr. Crick definitely said “yes” to life extension, but would not commit himself beyond that.
* Editor’s Note: We think that the interviewer meant “everlasting life.” “Immortality,” properly defined, means that death is impossible.
Dr. Earl Mindell, writing about the function of RNA in an article entitled, “Can RNA Make Old Age Obsolete?” said, “RNA is critical for cellular health since it controls the genetic transmission of information to cells, so that each individual cell faithfully carries out its specific function. In addition, protein building, tissue repair, and healing also fall within the realm of RNA’s responsibilities.” Promoting RNA supplementation in the article, he concluded: “RNA is fundamental for life. There is sufficient evidence that if our bodies are replenished with RNA supplementation we can maintain vigor, health, and the appearance of youth for a longer period of time. A steady supply of RNA helps energy reach more cells, keeping them active longer. If experts ever determine how to control nucleic acids, they could put the aging process into a holding pattern.”
CAN LONGEVITY BE IMPROVED?
For years there has been an awareness that medical science is working on processes that cause old age and death, and may eventually be able to reverse these processes. No normal person wants to die. While the mind remains sound, life is prized as the greatest of all treasures, even though it may be accompanied by mental strain and physical suffering. In most cases, the person who is seventy-five years of age is as determined to continue living as he was at twenty-five. The world is filled with people longing and striving to live, yet knowing that in the ordinary course of events they must ultimately die.
Historically, the matter of longevity is an interesting study. Biblical history, which takes us back into the antediluvian world, reveals that then it was not uncommon for people to live for many hundreds of years. Adam, the first man, directly created by God, lived 930 years. (Gen. 5:5) Methuselah is the oldest man on record, having lived 969 years. (vs. 27) One reason these early inhabitants of the earth lived so long is that they were very close to the original fountain of perfection as represented in father Adam.
The Bible represents the human race as traveling over a “broad … way” (Matt. 7:13) which leads to destruction, so it is to be expected that as succeeding generations get farther away from the perfection of our first parents the life span would, on the average, be shortened. This was noticeably true during the first two thousand years of human history.
Soon after the Flood, the life span rapidly declined, although Noah, carried over from the previous world, lived 950 years. (Gen. 9:29) Abraham, just a few generations later, died when he was 175 years old. But, by then, this was considered a very old age, for the record is that Abraham “died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years.” Compared with Adam, Methuselah, and Noah, Abraham was like a young man when he died at 175.—Gen. 25:7,8
THE BIBLICAL ‘70 YEARS’
A few hundred years later, Moses referred to the length of human life as “threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (Ps. 90:10) It was about that time that the rapid shortening of the human life span ceased—a general level being reached, and it was maintained fairly consistently throughout the centuries.
Due to increasing knowledge in the field of medical science, the average length of life is now close to seventy years, compared with a little over thirty at the beginning of the twentieth century. But this is not the full explanation of this reversal of the downward trend. All the remarkable events and changes being witnessed and experienced by the present generation are in fulfillment of the Bible’s prophecies pertaining to a period in the divine plan described as “the time of the end.”—Dan. 12:4
This prophetic ‘time of the end’ is not, however ‘the end of time’, but a period of transition into a new social order under Christ. The Prophet Daniel foretold that in this time of the end there would be a great increase of knowledge. (Dan. 12:4) This increase of knowledge is now seen in every aspect of human thought and endeavor, including medical science.
LIFE SPAN IMPROVED?—HOW?
We do not mean by this that man will by his own wisdom discover the secret of life and live forever, although doubtless God will permit him to help himself to a great degree, even as, by divine providence, he is now showing his ability to do. Everlasting life is a gift of God, through Christ. Man sinned and was removed from God’s provision for sustaining his life everlastingly. But Christ took the sinner’s place, and man will be permitted, symbolically speaking, to return to the days of his youth (Job 33:25) and partake again of “the tree of life.”—Gen. 3:22-24
It is general knowledge that Jesus died for the sinful world, but most students of the Bible suppose this to be a provision whereby believers may be assured of going to heaven when they die, or some time thereafter. The footstep followers of Jesus are indeed promised a heavenly home with their Master. But what has long been overlooked by many is that these are also to live and reign with Christ in a thousand-year kingdom, the great purpose of which is to restore the remainder of mankind to perfection of human life in an everlasting earthly paradise.—Rev. 20:4,6
It is during the prophetic time of the ‘end’ that Christ returns to set up his powerful government on earth. (Matt. 24:3,14) As we have noted, there are evidences all around us that we are now living in that time of the end, hence outstanding transitional changes are taking place on every hand. The foretold increase of knowledge is already bringing to the world signs of the possible kingdom blessings, including the already rapidly increasing human life span.
It was God’s design in creating man that he should continue to live. Man today is a dying creature only because he has transgressed God’s law. Scientists are right in assuming that man need not grow old and die. They hope to discover ways and means of assisting nature to do a complete job of replacing broken-down body tissues, and continue human life indefinitely.
The Lord knows this secret. Just as the first man, because of his original perfection and despite the fact that he was under condemnation to death, lived for nearly a thousand years, restored man—with the death penalty lifted by Christ—will continue to enjoy life throughout the endless ages of eternity. We are assured in the symbolism of our theme text that they will be invited to “Come, … and … take the water of life freely.”—Rev. 22:1,2,17
‘FILLING’ THE EARTH
When our first parents were created and placed in their perfect home in Eden, they were commanded to multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it. (Gen. 1:28) Most students of the Bible have failed to note the limitation of this command; that is, that procreation was to continue only until the earth was sufficiently populated.
Rapidly increasing populations in every country today are posing a future problem to world economy. A hundred years more at the present rate of increase, and the earth would be overpopulated. At the present time, however, there is room for all, including those who have died. This may seem a surprising statement to many. But if we accept the Bible’s account and time of Creation, actual figures prove that the resurrection of all the dead would not result in the earth being overcrowded. And God’s provision of life through Christ does include the resurrection of the dead.—Acts 24:15
We are perhaps familiar with the illustration of the two germs in a bowl. The number of germs double every second, and at the end of one hour the bowl is full. At what point in the hour is it half full? It is at the beginning of the last second in the sixtieth minute of the hour! Applying this illustration to present world population, we could say that we are now entering that last ‘second’ of time during which divine providence will permit the human race to continue the process of procreation.
So the detail of earth’s population we can leave with the Lord. And we are confident that as death ceases, the morticians will need to seek other employment. Nor should anyone worry about the boredom of an endless life. Near the end of Sir Isaac Newton’s great life he said that he had had time only to pick up a few interesting ‘pebbles’ on the beach, while the vast ‘ocean’ of unexplored knowledge had been untouched. Restored and perfect man will find unlimited sources of holy satisfaction and joy, and will increasingly appreciate life as the centuries roll on into eternity.
FORETASTES OF KINGDOM BLESSINGS
The increase of knowledge prophesied for the time of the end in which we are already living is resulting in many foretastes of the blessings which will be made available to mankind in their fullness during the thousand years of Christ’s reign. One of these foregleams of the kingdom is the already gradual lifting of the curse of hard labor. When God sentenced man to death he said to him, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.”—Gen. 3:19
Automation is already here on a limited scale. Electronics are revolutionizing the industrial world. It is not difficult to foresee the time near at hand when all drudgery will be removed from labor, with man’s workweek reduced to but a very few hours, and those hours spent under interesting, even pleasurable, conditions.
These miracles of our modern era are not the result of man’s superior wisdom over that of his predecessors. They are ours to enjoy because of divine providence in permitting man to discover some of the secrets of nature. The master artists, poets, sculptors, and musicians of the past have few, if any, equals today. The marvelous inventions and developments of our time are the result of research by thousands, aided by all the accumulated knowledge of past generations made available by the printing press.
Why was moveable type for the printing press not invented thousands of years ago? It was not God’s due time. It was the use of this advancement, which came around the middle of the fifteenth century, that led to the foretold acceleration of knowledge in the time of the end. The impact of this increased knowledge began to change the world only a little over a hundred years ago. But think of the revolutionary changes which have taken place since then!
When the steam engine was invented and used for hauling trains and the same principle used for powering dynamos to furnish electricity, it seemed that inventors had reached the ultimate. But these turned out to be only the beginning, and were suitable only for temporary use. All inventions which depend upon coal and oil must of necessity be temporary, for coal and oil will sooner or later be exhausted.
The scientists recognize this, and now have set their sights on an inexhaustible source of energy, such as solar energy. This is in keeping with the time of the end in which we are living. The prophecies of the Bible clearly reveal that the world is even now entering the new age in which life will become eternal for all who obey divine law. So, in the Lord’s providence, the people are already beginning to think in terms of increasing longevity.
From the standpoint of man’s folly and selfishness, this is perhaps the most dangerous era of human experience. Nuclear bombs have the capability of destroying all life upon earth. But the Bible assures us that this will not be permitted, and that the peaceful, constructive uses of present-day discoveries will increase. Science and invention cannot, of course, give man eternal life. Only the favor of God through the blood of Christ can do this, and now we are about to enter the age when this will be accomplished.
Bright indeed are the prospects ahead, for the coming years belong to God. In them he will fulfill his promises to wipe away all tears from off all faces, and ultimately there will be no more pain or death, for the former evils that have afflicted mankind shall have passed away.—Rev. 21:4; I Cor. 15:25,26