Immortality: Coming To A Science Lab Near You!

An article in the Telegraph certainly caught my attention. The headline read, "Immortality Only 20 Years Away." That's a pretty bold statement, and the implications of such an attempt are important in so many areas.

God told Adam in Genesis 2:17, "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (ESV) That seems to be pretty straightforward: sin=death. The implication of the statement is that before sin entered the world, death was not present in the world. In one sense, the desire to not die is part of the original makeup of humans. Death impacts us so greatly because it seems "wrong" to how we know things ought to be.

Consider what science is attempting to offer and compare it to what God offers. Science wants to offer us immortality or the opportunity to not die, while God offers us eternal life. Science wants to keep us "from" dying, while God wants to "give" us life.

Books and movies understand that immortality is not all it is purported to be. In reflecting on the various media that I have encountered in my life that address the theme of immortality: pain, suffering, misery, evil, and even death surround those who are immortal.

Immortality is the dream of those who forget God or fear God. For the follower of Christ, the inevitability of death is overwhelmed by the hope of eternal life in God's presence. For those who do not know Christ, the first death leads to the second death, so postponement is a preferable.

The pursuit of medicine and science to ease suffering an increase the quality of life is a God-given gift to mankind. We honor God when we pursue those noble purposes. The quest for immortality can never deliver what it promises because it never addresses the issue of our soul, nor does the promise of never dying mean that it will allow us to really live.

Doctrine Matters... A Lot!

I've been re-reading a book by one of my upcoming seminary professors, and it just reaffirmed what I already knew: doctrine matters. The book is The Shape of Faith to Come by Brad Waggoner. The book is built around surveys they did with church attendees as to what they believed about particular doctrines and the results were abysmal. Two examples are:

The Bible is the written Word of God and is totally accurate in all that it teaches. Only 54% strongly agreed

Christians must continually work toward their salvation or risk losing it. 23% strongly disagreed


That is horrible. I know that teaching about doctrine is not the most interesting topic in the world for some people, but doctrine shapes worldview, and worldview shapes practices. If our doctrine is wrong, it leads to wrong actions. I hope you would commit with me to to pay attention to doctrine. Learn it, teach it, and correct poor doctrine, because our influence in the culture will continue to slide if we don't correct poor doctrine.

Review of Culture Shift

A great book on which to start learning more about the changes taking place in our culture, and how to respond to those changes is written R. Albert Mohler Jr. titled, Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth. The topics he covers are far-reaching: politics, law, genetics, public schools, atomic weapons, to name a few. He does so with great insight into the current reality of our culture, and he brings to bear God's Word to help Christians know why the issues being addressed matter.

Of all the topics covered, the one area that he addresses that caused me to re-think my own position deals with public schools. I have always been an advocate of the decision about where a parent sends their child/children depends upon the make-up and needs of each individual child. Public school, private school, and home school are all equally valid options.

Though they all remain as valid options, Dr. Mohler's essay helped me envision a time when the public option may no longer be as good an option as the others. Not because of the quality of teachers. There are many fine teachers in our schools today, Christian and non-Christian. However, as the school boards start mandating more and more topics that are addressed in schools that fall outside what Christian parents should allow their children to be taught, it may be that leaving public schools might be the right answer.

How do we avoid having to make this decision? Be involved in our public schools. We need good Christian teachers who will stand for truth. We need qualified Christians running for public office. Not to be a "Christian public official", but to be a public official serving all of the community, whose worldview is Christian.

Go buy this book, read it, and give it to others.

Interesting Commentary on Family and the Workplace

Lucy Kellaway wrote an article for the Financial Times last Monday that was humorous, while being a sad commentary about the workplace culture. She wrote her article in anticipation of "Take Your Dog to Work Day" in the U.K.

First, she writes that "the scheme is a considerable improvement on Take Your Children to Work Day... in that scheme, pretty much everyone loses." Her points about the issue are accurate, but it would seem that it says as much about adults ability to teach children about work, as it does about our workplaces.

A more interesting point is found in the following passage:

A further difficulty with dogs at work is that they are out of tune with the ethos of the modern employee. For a start, they are loyal, and this trait went out of fashion in the 1980s. Secondly, they aren't very clean, and hygiene is in, as I reported last week.

The cat is a much better model for the fickle knowledge worker. They will rub around your legs if they feel it is in their interests to do so, but then sod off as soon as it suits them. They are self-starters with a can-do attitude.

I too am a fan of hygiene, but I am also a fan of loyalty. Our work experiences would be more richer and beneficial if we had more loyalty on the part of employees and employers. This loyalty would allow people to grow and mature with a business.

Unfortunately, we do have too many "cats" in our workplaces. The only reason people seem to interact is if it suits their own purposes. This selfish attitude is an underlying attitude that has led to the decline in loyalty.

The challenge for Christians is to be great employees or employers, regardless of what benefit we might receive. Paul admonishes Christians to serve others as though we are serving God. That alone should lead us to being the kind of employee or employer that others want to be around.

Who We Are Affects What We Do

I was reflecting recently on the opening verses of the book of Titus, and had an interesting observation (at least to me) about how Paul structured his introduction. Paul started his letter, as he does with every letter, identifying himself in relation to Christ. In this case, Paul identifies himself as "a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ." Of course, because these are letters to individuals or churches, it is customary to identify yourself in a letter.

I believe there is another reason behind his self-identification, and it is seen in Titus. I believe Paul lived with an awareness and identification of who he was in Christ all the time. Paul is the anti-thesis to today's self-esteem culture. He did not go around thinking about his self-esteem or what others thought about him. His identity was tied up in who he was in Christ.

In Titus, he offers his identification then launches into a purpose statement of why he has sent the letter (at least in part) to Titus: for the faith, knowledge, and hope of the churches in Crete. He does this before addressing Titus. It seems that Paul is implying that purpose only comes about after properly identifying yourself in light of who are in Christ. I think Isaiah 6 demonstrates the same truth. Only after Isaiah sees God, sees his own sinfulness, and is forgiven of his sin, is Isaiah then able to respond to God's call to go and serve.

The point I'm trying to make is that we often find ourselves approaching issues from the wrong "angle." We want to spend all of our time pursuing what to do, and ignore the relationship with God. I would argue that Scripture calls on us to spend our time pursuing the relationship with God, and the purpose and actions we are to do will follow.