The Bible’s Viewpoint

Can Science Bring Everlasting Life?

YEARS AGO, such a question would have seemed preposterous. Now, though, some people are considering the prospect seriously. Already, scientists have been able to double the life spans of fruit flies and worms by using techniques that some feel might be applied to humans.

Research has shown that normal human cells are mortal, dividing only a finite number of times. After that they stop dividing. It is a process that has been compared to an internal clock that controls when people age and die. Scientists are now working to reset this clock.

One popular theory holds that the key to aging lies at the ends of each DNA strand, a region called the telomere. The telomeres have been compared to the plastic caps at the end of shoelaces, designed to protect the laces from unraveling. Scientists have observed that each time some cells divide, the telomeres shorten like a burning fuse. Eventually, it seems, the telomeres shorten to the point where the cell stops dividing. With the presence of a certain enzyme, however, telomeres do not shorten. Thus, according to the theory, this could give the cells the potential to continue dividing indefinitely. An official of one company involved in this work said: “This is the first time that we can conceive of human immortality.” But not all scientists agree.

How Death Came to Be

Of course, people who have faith in the Bible have believed in the possibility of everlasting life for humans for millenniums. Their trust is not in human scientists but in the Master Scientist, who created all living things, Jehovah God.—Psalm 104:24, 25.

The Bible shows that human death was not a part of the Creator’s purpose. The first human couple were created in God’s image and placed in a paradise garden. They were perfect, with no defect of mind or body. As such, they had the prospect of living forever on earth. That was God’s desire for them. He instructed them to bear children and gradually to extend Paradise throughout the earth.—Genesis 1:27, 28; 2:8, 9, 15.

As shown in Genesis chapter 3, Adam, knowing that the penalty was death, deliberately  rebelled against God. Moreover, by pursuing a course of disobedience, he brought sin and death upon his unborn offspring. The apostle Paul explained it this way: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) In other words, because Adam sinned, his body was no longer perfect. He gradually grew old and died. His offspring inherited that defect.

Human death thus came as a result of Adam’s rebellion and the subsequent judgment of God. Humans will not succeed in reversing that judgment. Though science has made many medical advances, the inspired words of Moses, written 3,500 years ago, still ring true: “In themselves the days of our years are seventy years; and if because of special mightiness they are eighty years, yet their insistence is on trouble and hurtful things; for it must quickly pass by, and away we fly.”—Psalm 90:10.

Jehovah’s Provision for Everlasting Life

Happily, there is hope! Though at present all humans eventually die, it is not Jehovah’s purpose that this situation continue indefinitely. While Adam and Eve deserved to die, God knew that there would be many among their unborn children who would respond appreciatively to his loving oversight. For such people he made provision for endless life on earth. The psalmist wrote: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.” (Psalm 37:29) But how will this be accomplished?

This was not to occur as a result of humans’ unlocking the mysteries of DNA. Rather, everlasting life is a gift that Jehovah will bestow upon those exercising faith in him. Recognizing that the offspring of Adam and Eve needed rescuing, he provided a means for them to gain everlasting life—the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus referred to this provision when he said: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”—John 3:16.

Like Adam, Jesus was a perfect human. Unlike Adam, Jesus was perfectly obedient to God. Jesus was thus able to sacrifice his perfect human life to pay for Adam’s sin. By means of this loving act, which balanced the scales of justice, Adam’s children could be released from condemnation to death. Consequently, all who exercise faith in Jesus will receive God’s gift of everlasting life.—Romans 5:18, 19; 1 Timothy 2:5, 6.

If humans were able to overcome imperfection and bring about everlasting life for themselves, there would be no need for the ransom. The Bible gives this wise counsel: “Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs. His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish. Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, of the sea, and of all that is in them, the One keeping trueness to time indefinite.”—Psalm 146:3-6.

Everlasting life will result, not from scientific research, but from Jehovah. Whatever God sets out to do, he can and will accomplish. “With God no declaration will be an impossibility.”—Luke 1:37.

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