The word immortality seems to be appurtenant with mythology; the traditional stories belonging to a culture with tales of gods and heroes depicting the answers to some of the greatest questions the human race encounters. Why we are here, how we got here and what we are to hominify as uniquely created beings.
Greek Glimpse of Immortality
Calypso offers Odysseus immortality using time as a conciliatory tool in her persuasion. She states, "For us there is no before or after, only now, wherein all things are and always were and always will be. Time, you see is a little arrangement man has made for himself to try and measure the immeasurable mystery of life." She proceeds to show him his past and future along with promises of imaginative variety to sway him.
Odysseus sees the pitfalls of the kind of immortality Calypso was selling. He placates her with adulation and states, " I can not be immortal, never to die, never to grow old. What use is courage then?" This statement sums up the idea man has one life, confined within time and growing old gracefully leading to a final end is a heroic, virtuous endeavor. Mortality in its indeterminate freedom is better than being a captive immortal.
Greek Mythology certainly champions the humanistic view that we have all that is needed within ourselves to successfully maneuver through the journey of life. Yes, people can live moral, good lives aside from God and even do some heroic amazing things that benefit human kind. Although some good may come of this, this way of life is pitted with paucity. It blinds one to the fullness God has in store for those who submit to His ways. Humanism has its end in self glorification which is limited by human bounds and has no eternal merit. Humanism is essentially a Dead End. (Matthew 23, Romans 3:10, John 15:5)
A Modern Glimpse of Immortality
The modern age has regurgitated Greek immortality in the form of entertaining comic heroes and heroines such as; The Avengers, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and these stories mix humanisms' diegesis. In today's culture immortality is touched upon with a new mythology in the form of Transhumanism. Transhumanism is a belief that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental capabilities, especially by means of science and technology.
We have seen some of the effects of Transhumanism in the controversial human genome project. Robert K. Grahams, Repository for Germinal Choice was a precursor to current attempts at Genetically Engineered human perfection. MIT is currently at the forefront of furthering these attempts at human advances towards immortal features. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein comes to mind when I read about these technological advances.
Without going into more detail of our modern day, unethical, god-complex, humanism on steroids attempts at defining reality, I want to stop and define what real human immortality is. It must start with God and His immortality. He is the pure expression of immortality. Psalms 90:2 states His existence before anything created. God himself states his immortality in His name (Exodus 3:14) when he tells Moses, " I AM." I AM signifies his self-existence and the Being of all beings.
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| Time and Eternity Photo by: lumix2004 |
Human Immortality: A Truth
Since God is the ultimate immortal being, who created the human race (Genesis 1:27), we can now define what human immortality is. We know that we have a beginning through the fact of birth, philosophers throughout recorded time have tackled the issue of mind, body and spirit and the Internet definition of the word 'immortal' talks about the state of our current reality in this sentence, " Our mortal bodies are inhabited with immortal souls."
So it seems immortality has a basis in something outside of ourselves. It lies in something bigger than ourselves. I'm getting ahead of myself here, I need to stop and clarify a few facts regarding human immortality. Please bare with me as I try to explain a line of thought.
Calypso says time was a man made arrangement as a witty jab towards Odysseus' apprehension towards her offer. In the realm of truth, God invented time for our benefit (Genesis 1:14). Time is placed in human history as a measuring tool. Time tells us we have a physical beginning and an end and in between these marks we have decisions and choices to make regarding the promises God has given us regarding eternity. Time is a mouthpiece of our mortality yet God intervenes in this medium through conditional, future promises outside of the confines of time in order to save us from the finality of mortality; Death.
The fact is God made humans in perfection, in His image then sin entered the world and corrupted the physical as well as spiritual aspects of His creation. Yes, in this lifespan our bodies are mortal, decaying towards death but our souls are immortal and when physical death occurs the soul lives eternally. (Hebrews 9:27)
This is where I need to bring my thought line back to the idea immortality is bigger than ourselves. I pose a question I'm sure has been asked before but is good to discuss under this subject matter. If our souls live on no matter what, why do we need God?
This is where the term death needs to be addressed further. Not only do our physical bodies experience a real death with all its physiological elements, our spiritual condition is either alive or dead as well. If your soul is spiritually dead, meaning without the redeeming value of Christ's promise accomplished on the cross, something humans can not ever accomplish on their own merit, your soul will live in a state of eternal separation from what constitutes life. There is no moving forward so to speak, it is a constant state of stagnation and want. (And making a statement of faith in Jesus does not constitute a free pass, salvation is an ongoing process through time).
Time is God's way to shake us out of our blind stupor, to see the reality outside of ourselves, and make every minute count towards what matters in life, sloughing off the things that hinder us in relationship with Him in the present state of being and solidify what will be made true in the future.
One more point and I'll end my speal. Calypso tries to seduce Odysseus with the promise of youth and says, " I was 2,300 years old yesterday. Look at me. Do you see any wrinkles." The world will promise us self gratification and stroke to our vanity now. God cares for your right standing with Him, he makes sure this is priority in our brief life in the point of time He places us in. If we can grasp the importance of Who He is, His nature, Why we are here (an interactive relationship with Him that CHANGES us) in that period of time before eternity he also promises us a new body, whole and without decay along with the mind of Christ outside the limits of time.
Human immortality brings us back to the perfection God intended for us in the first place; in body, mind and spirit!
PRAISE GOD!
Resources:
Bible Versus About Immortality
The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evelin
Note: Ulysses is the name Roman culture gives to Odysseus. Odysseus is the name Greek culture uses).
More Thoughts:
I find it interesting Eliphaz, a 'friend' of Job who unjustly accuses him of being punished by God because of his sin, does get the basic idea that humanism is wrong in his statement found in chapter 4 verse 17. "Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?"
I Corinthians 15: 35-58 is a glorious passage written by Paul to explain the future promise God has given us regarding immortality. This makes me thankful for any service or sacrifice that God may require of me during my lifetime.
A Great Memory from 2014:
Alex is learning about the Universe. The latest lesson was listing the characteristics of each planet. One thing that popped out to us was the measurement of time for each planet. There is rotation and revolution. Mercury takes 59 Earth days to rotate and 88 Earth days to revolve around the sun. This got us thinking about the characteristics of time. All these planets are spinning at different rates, we certainly compare these to the constant we know, Earth. This got us thinking about Psalms 90:4 "For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.." (The entire chapter is about our life in the span of time and how we need to be attentive to the accountability we have to God.) We find it amazing that God set the Earth's rotation and revolution as it is 1 day (Rotation) and 365 Day revolution. (It would take too long to go into all the details that make life happen because of this detail.) When we look out into space to study it, we are looking into something other than what we tangibly know and when we look outside of ourselves to God our perspectives have to change as well. In reading Psalms 90 it sure seems God has given us the mechanism of time as a benefit for our soul (verse 12). Is it a correct statement to say, time is a gift to help finite humans understand the 'position' we are in and to learn to trust the eternal infinite God? (It certainly looks like God doesn't 'need' time)
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