Does Getting Old Have to Be Bad?

The Christian concept of apocatastasis includes a restoration of the world to its original state, as in the Garden of Eden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
Psalm 90:9

New International Version (NIV)

        Sure, we can blame our circumstance on Original Sin, but that's no excuse for disobeying God.  Our sin is not Adam's fault, Eve's fault, nor the fault of anyone else but ourselves.  We can cower from God or resent his authority over us, yet the fact remains that God rules and his wrath upon unrepentant sinners is real.

         Some may laugh at the concept of an all-powerful Creator/Savior.  Many scoff at the laws of living as presented by scripture.  Woe to those who go through life without accepting God's grace and understanding His plan of salvation.    These are the ones who will be excluded from a glorious eternity with the one who put us here in the first place.

         Should we fear growing older, the degeneration of our mortal shells, and our eventual demise?   Uncertainty is the primary component of fear.   When we make the rules and live life according to our own plan of understanding, then we end up not understanding much and wasting away into the creation of a self-made world that offers no lasting hope.   We cannot save ourselves.

           There is hope for those of us who look beyond the limitations of our humanness.   God loves us and wants us to grow in His Word and His Way.   In our discomforts, we can be comforted.   We can conquer doubts and fears with God's power.   God is with us in this life.   And if we are with God then we have an eternity of blessing ahead of us.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

New International Version (NIV)

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Death #atozchallenge

View over a cemetery in Belgium, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Behold, all souls are Mine;
The soul of the father
As well as the soul of the son is Mine;
The soul who sins shall die..."

Ezekiel 18:4

New King James Version (NKJV)

       When sin was brought into a world created for perfection, that world was defiled.  Satan's importation of evil into the world also brought a process of entropy.  The world, the universe, and mankind is in a gradual process of decay until the point when the old will be destroyed and restored to perfection for all eternity.

      Through their Original Sin Adam and Eve brought the consequence of death to themselves and all humans thereafter.   We are now all susceptible to sin, hence death.  

      Death is something we all accept as a reality yet most of us go through life as though we ourselves may never die.  We know that death comes to all humans, but death is such a peculiar mystery that it is difficult to imagine ourselves in that state--or non-state if that is a way to think of it.

      We should strive for a sinless existence even though this is an unattainable goal for any of us.  To claim that we are sinless is to commit the sin of lying.  Sin is part of our human nature and we cannot rid ourselves of that part of  us.  We will sin and we will eventually die.

        This seems like a bleak proposition, but there is a wonderful flipside.   Death will not be a permanent state for those who look to God, accept Him, and love Him.   Jesus waits for us to join Him in an eternal paradise.   

         God is in charge of eternity.   Have you made the choice that will reserve your place in that eternity?

For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

Romans 14:8

New King James Version (NKJV)

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Consequences #atozchallenge

Adam and Eve are being sent out of the garden of Eden  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:16-17

New International Version (NIV)

       If God loves us so much why does allow sickness and death?

       This is a question that is posed often by nonbelievers and believers alike   The answer is given earlier on in the Bible.   

        Eden was a paradise. Adam and Eve were created with perfect bodies intended to last forever.  They were physical perfection yet they had that fatal flaw shared by Satan--pride.  Apparently it was not enough to enjoy God's company and rule over a perfect domain given over to their charge.  God expressly commanded for them to not eat the fruit of one tree in the Garden, yet tempted by Satan they choose to disobey God and eat of that fruit.  As God warned, the consequence of their disobedience was death.

         We can speculate as to whether there was or was not a literal tree with tangible edible fruit or if the account is more metaphorical or symbolic.  Either way the result was the same.  Physical perfection was lost and Adam and Eve were expelled from the most perfect place.  Their eventual fate would be death.

         This was the Original Sin that set the standard for all of the human descendants of Adam and Eve.  From that point on the Bible tells the stories of early mankind and the consequences of repeated disobedience.   Every bad thing that happens in this world is the consequence of something that came before whether it be poor judgement, disobedience, sin or the entropy related to the Original Sin.

           We are all sinners therefore we are all destined to die.  However, through God's loving grace we can return to perfection and paradise.  


For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

New King James Version (NKJV)

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