The Hands and Feet of Christ: Bringing an End to “Aging”

(Note: I have begun to add audio to some of these blog posts for those who prefer to listen. Use the audio player below to listen to the article.)

🎧 Listen to the article:

“Sir, are you okay?”

My family and I were standing in line, ready to place our order for dinner, when my wife noticed an elderly man behind us. He did not look okay. He was bent fully over, head drooping toward the ground near the level of his waist, with his arms hanging limp. He would lift himself up to briefly look at the overhead menu, and then slump over again. After a few moments my wife approached him with the question above.

“Yes,” he weakly replied to her. “I just have very poor posture.”

It was striking to see the state of this man whose spine was obviously not strong enough to keep his body in an upright position. In this way, aging had taken its terrible toll on this particular man’s body.

Getting “old” is not pretty.

More and more people are becoming aware of the large amount of money going into research today to try to solve this problem of “getting old.” Advancements are being made, and things are being learned.

Truly, all of the technological advancements in our world today are mind-boggling. I still stand in amazement as I watch a passenger airliner take off from the ground, or observe my children playing virtual games with friends over 700 miles away on an iPad. We live in an amazing time of scientific and technological advancements: from space exploration, to robotics, to life-saving medical treatments, to quantum computing that will soon likely make our present technology feel like ancient relics from the past.

But in the midst of all of this progress, and as remarkable as it all is, there is no medical or scientific discovery that would be of greater practical significance than a cure for human aging. By far.

Statistics show that roughly 150,000 people die every day across the world, and about two-thirds of these people die from aging-related causes. That’s 100,000 people. Every day. Think of the size of an average American football stadium to get a mental picture of that enormous number of people. In industrialized nations the proportion of deaths from aging-related causes reaches up to 90%.

More and more people are considering the possibility of actually seeing a cure for aging in our lifetime. Is it possible that “aging” as we know it actually is a disease, and that there could be a cure for this? There are certainly many groups out there who think so, more than most people realize. As mentioned earlier, the amount of work and money that is going into aging research is quite astonishing. Some in the scientific community are pushing forward in this “too bizarre to be true” idea, and are expecting a cure for aging to be discovered within the next few decades. Groups such as the 250-staff-member Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Calico (backed and financed by Alphabet, the parent company of Google), the SENS Research Foundation, the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research which identifies as “sixteen of the world’s brightest and most distinguished gerontologists,” and I could go on. I have included here a Global Longevity Landscape chart from 2018 to give you a better idea of the amount of research going into this question of aging.

But even with all of these groups and scientists working on this “age old” issue, they all have a real problem—they have no observational data. (At least they don’t think they do.)

In science, it is necessary to make observations in order to prove or disprove a hypothesis, using what we call the scientific method. This is the process of hypothesizing, predicting, testing, and concluding based on one’s observations.

But do we actually have observations or records of anyone living much longer lifespans than we do today? All of the research groups mentioned above would emphatically say, “no.” They do not believe there have ever been any humans in the observable past who have lived significantly longer lifespans than we do today. And this certainly is a disadvantage to their cause. While some progress and discovery has been made by these groups in understanding the human body, they are mostly groping about in the darkness as to the actual cause of human aging, and there are no practical solutions being offered.

However, anyone who truly believes the accounts given to us in the Bible should be able to emphatically answer the above question by saying, “yes.” Yes, we actually do have real-world observational data, from history, of people who lived much longer lifespans than we do today. And we have had this data in our hands for a very long time—in an ancient document we call Genesis. If these records in Genesis are true and literal… then they are absolutely invaluable to mankind.

This is why it is of utmost importance to understand that the accounts given to us in the scriptures are historically accurate. Seeing the Bible as a book of fairy tales has some serious consequences, both for life in this world, and for the eternal state of men and women. Through our Truth in Time ministry and our BC Messenger podcast, we are trying to do our part in demonstrating the validity of the Old Testament stories in the real world. So much depends on knowing these accounts are historically true.

Part of our family’s work is related to this quest to find a cure for human aging. Through the decades of research work of my father-in-law, Dr. Gerald Aardsma, the best attested and most complete theory of human aging has been developed. This theory is leaps and bounds ahead of all of the groups mentioned above, due to the observational data that it comes from. In addition, it is offering something that can be done right now.

The longevity thesis from Dr. Aardsma has its roots in the book of Genesis. Bringing Genesis into the lifespan question is unique to Aardsma Research and Publishing (ARP), and this is what sets the work here apart from all the others. The Genesis data have turned out to be the key to understanding the cause and cure for aging. Observational data can be gathered from the most ancient historical document available to mankind, which records lifespans far in excess of what we see as normal today—humans living past 900 years.

Contrary to popular opinion today, taking a literal and honest view of Genesis is invaluable in science, and taking an honest and high view of science is invaluable in building our faith in and having a proper understanding of Genesis. It is God’s word and it is God’s world. And, again, contrary to modern belief, these things are not at war with each other. They may be at war with our own pre-conceived ideas, but they are certainly not at war with each other. What the world desperately needs are some honest, humble, open-minded truth-seekers who will not be guided by pre-conceived ideas. If the Bible is actually God’s real word, it will ultimately be shown to be true in God’s real world. Those who have truth ultimately have nothing to fear. Christianity isn’t a cult. Neither is true science.

Bible believers know there are long lifespans recorded in Genesis, but few have even considered the history and data being given to us in this ancient document. In Genesis chapters 5 and 11 we have real-world observational data of how long men can and did live… and love… and play… and build… and dream. These are real lives, in excess of 900 years.

“And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” (Did you see that? That’s 930 years.)

“And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve (Don’t let that slip past, that was 912 years.)

“And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.” (That was 905 years—not weeks or months, but years.)

“And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.” (Yep, it says 910 years. That 9 is in the hundred’s place.)

“And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.” (Young fellow, only lived 895 years.)

“And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.” (Longest one in the data list, a whopping 969 years!)

We will stop here with the observational data. But anyone is welcome to go to the source and see the data for yourself. Not only the lifespan data, but the dramatic decline in lifespans. You can also read about the event that caused the decline, Noah’s flood.

Now, as familiar as we are with these verses, have you ever considered that these accounts show us the reality that men were actually created by God to live much longer than 70 or 80 years? In addition to that, something else recently dawned on me. Look at the span of time, since the creation of the world, that men were experiencing this kind of longevity. I put a timeline together to illustrate this. Take a good look at this, and let it sink in.

On our timeline above, we stopped at Jacob, whom the Bible records dying at the very young age (in relation to his predecessors) of 147 years old. (Jacob would have likely been in his early 90’s when he fathered Joseph.) But, as the yellow highlight demonstrates, we can continue to extend our longevity highlight on our timeline if we go even further in the Bible, through the account of the Exodus. Here we see Aaron dying at 123 years of age, Miriam at 126 years, Moses at 120 (who did not die of natural causes, but whose life was taken by God), and Joshua at 110. Anyone living to these ages today would be studied by every gerontologist who could get their hands on them!

According to the biblical data, mankind was living well beyond one hundred years of age for nearly one-third of human history. Sometimes we forget about the prolonged period of time covered by the book of Genesis.

According to Genesis, for over one-third of human history, mankind experienced far greater longevity than we do today. Although there is much more that could be said here, the point of this article is simply that the Genesis record, taken at face value, shows immediately that modern human “aging” should not automatically be considered “normal” for the human body. We may be engulfed by a misconception. If we take biblical history seriously, should we then conclude that average death at age 75 is not as normal for humans as we might think?

Back to my story at the beginning. If Jesus had been in that restaurant, I believe He would have healed that bent-over man, if the man had asked. How do I know?

Because that’s what He did. And by extension, that’s what Christianity does.

The Church is the hands and feet of Christ in the world. It has been this way for over two thousand years.

If studying the observational data in the book of Genesis, along with our advancements in modern understanding and technology, can allow us to alleviate the suffering of old age and save millions of lives, it would be a crime of unimaginable proportions to ignore it. It would certainly be anti-Christian.

If you have followed our family in any way over the last five or six years you know we sometimes talk about “anti-aging vitamins.” And we are not going to stop anytime soon. God forbid we do. 

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:2-5

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

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