A new study now confirms the biblical teaching that human beings were never meant to die.
“The new research, published Wednesday in the Royal Society Open Science journal, wades into the debate by analyzing new data on supercentenarians—people aged 110 or more—and semi-supercentenarians, aged 105 or more,” MSN.com reports.
The study concluded that once human beings pass 100 years old, their likelihood of dying actually decreases. The data suggests that people living to 130 years old is very likely. More than that, the study reported evidence that there is reason to believe a person doesn’t technically have to die.
Currently, the oldest verified living person in the world is Kane Tanaka of Japan, who is 118 years old.
Believe it or not, Kyodo News reports that, “Tanaka, born on Jan. 2 1903, was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living person in March 2019 aged 116. Those born in the same year include British novelist George Orwell. She also set an all-time Japanese age record in September last year at 117 years and 261 days.”
Of course the Bible records that people have lived much longer than that!
Some famous biblical patriarchs are known to have lived extraordinarily long lives. Joshua lived to be 110 years old (Josh. 24:29), Moses lived to be 120 (Deut. 34:7), Abraham lived to be 175 (Gen. 25:7) and the first recorded man, Adam, lived to be 930 (Gen. 5:3-5).
None of these however, lived to be as old as Methuselah, the oldest recorded being to have walked the face of the earth. Methuselah died at 969 years old (Gen. 5:27).
Behind all of this is the fact that people die because of sin in the world. God admonished Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Likewise, the apostle Paul affirms that, “Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death has spread to all men, because all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
Christians have an amazing promise of eternal life through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
While every person will one day die due to sin, we hold fast to the promise found in the book of Revelation, where the apostle John records, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death. Neither shall there be any more sorrow nor crying nor pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
Amen. Let us continue to pray for the speedy returning of the Lord! {eoa}
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