Man desires immorality. We all crave to live forever and continue our existence into eternity. This was designed in us by the Creator. For in Eden Adam and Eve were meant to perpetually live; never dying. Then the serpent, Satan, tempted them to eat of the Forbidden Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and immediately what followed was a change and fulfillment of the words of Lord which said, "The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from 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." (Genesis 2:16-17).
This desire to never perish, to remain forever existing in body was addressed by only One. Jesus Christ not only promised Eternal Life, but a Resurrection of our bodies! The Lord said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.." (John 11:25). The Apostle Paul goes on to say, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (Philippians 3:20). These and many other promises in Bible tell us that we shall live on as spirit in heaven which is an eternal place and that one day a resurrection will take place and we will be, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51).
In Jesus Christ there is the promise, "whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal (everlasting) life." (John 3:16). We as believers are suppose to be looking to the return of Christ with great expectation, for it means eternal life coming down to Earth! As Paul wrote inspired by the Holy Spirit who is One with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, "We shall be changed," if we still live at the Second Coming of Christ or we shall "be raised from the dead imperishable." This is the promise that we cling to and yet the world, or should I say Satan has counterfeit. Yes, there is another immortality being offered to immoral peoples of this world. One that does not come through Christ.
The New Immortality is not like the fables of a "Fountain of Youth," nor is it like a land where time is stilled. The New immortality is found in technology. The ability to copy the consciousness (mind, memories, and make up) of a person and implant it into a chip that can be transported to different bodies is at the moment science fiction, but its basis can become reality. In "Man of Steel" Jor-El played by Russell Crowe copies his consciousness and uploads it to a ship. In "Oblivion" starring Tom Cruise, the consciousness of Cruise's character is planted in clones, so that he may live forever. This concept is the new immortality and its actually the most feasible fable yet.
The Wachowskis Brothers in their "Matrix Trilogy" explained how your consciousness can be "jacked" into a computer by being "plugged in." The idea in laymen terms is like when you put a disc, flash drive, DVD, or Video Game in your computer. The disc or plug is in this case your consciousness and the computer is able to preserve it in the medium of cyberspace and on the hardrive if necessary. Even simpler, the idea is just like how you can download a program, game, or music to your computer, you would be able to download your mind, memories, and emotions. In same way you can collect pictures on your phone and send them to facebook and your computer; technology would allow you to upload your real memories and identity. This digital self could live on long after your body dies and spirit departs for the hereafter. But the question is, is that really you? and can you copy the spirit and soul?
Cloning is part of the thrust behind godless immortality. It is man's desire for eternal life without Emmanuel. The belief is that if you can clone someone, their entire essence would be copied, but the problem that bio-engineers and scientists are running into is that cloning a brain is incredibly difficult and complex. Movies like the "6th Day" starring Arnold Schwarzeneggar, commented on the morality and ethics of cloning. It showed how this process would lead to cheapening life; who cares if you kill someone if they have "cloning insurance" and why fear losing a beloved pet when you have "Re-Pet: Cloning Services" which creepily now exists!
Scientists say Christians are backwards thinkers and afraid of this new unknown. But the truth is that we are more sensible. Cloning and transferring consciousness to another body or device is dangerous. What if during the upload of consciousness (brain) to new body or device, something happens, and you lose something or it gets damaged in mid-transfer; then a whole part of you is lost forever. But more importantly, who wants to live forever in this life? Aside from the fear of death, which I have dispelled in another post (see name of post coming soon), living forever in this world is purgatory and even hell itself. Why would we want to live on this earth in torment when we have promise of living eternally in heaven with God who loves us and new body and future with Him that says, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4). I do not know about you, but that sounds good to me!
There was a film I do not recommend, called the "Highlander," which had song that went, "who wants to live forever?!" The premise of the film was that there were immortals who wanted mortality. They can never die from falls, downing, stabbing, gun shots, and etc. However, they can be killed if their head is cut off, and the prize for the last immortal who kills all the rest will gain mortality. The film, its sequels, and the series is very demonic, so do not watch them (or you will be effected negatively spiritually), but the point is that in the case of the Highlander and even the latest film, "Age of Adeline" the prize is mortality, not immortality. And the truth is yes, we should be like St. Paul who said, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." (Philippians 1:21-24). The way Paul saw it is how we should see it, to live is to keep laboring in cause of Christ, to die is to gain being with Christ in heaven and then get our new bodies on His return and making of the New Heaven and Earth (Revelation 21:1).
This world wants to create an eternity without God and that is impossible. For eternal life only exists in Emmanuel; in God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. "Everything was made by Him and for him." (Colossians 1:16). Man's pride in thinking he can attain immortality without God is folly. What he will create is monsters. Clones because they have no Spirit or Soul, will become fodder for demons who crave flesh and blood (see Mark 5:12 and Matthew 8:31, "demons ask to enter the pigs.") and probably will create something akin to the cannibalistic Zombies that so many are obsessed with today ("The Walking Dead" being an example). Technology will be able to preserve memories, but not the essence of a person. For instance, two years ago I was different person than I am today. The device that transfers my memories from two years ago to a cyborg body will not be who I am today; because I have changed, and grown in Christ. Therefore, the technological transfer will be limited to only preserving to certain state and cannot anticipate or grow as we grow because we make different choices; machines must be programmed and machines can only predict what we would have done if we were still alive.
Our trust cannot be technology, it must be in the Truth who is Jesus Christ ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" John 14:6). The eternal life and immortality our Lord and Savior offers is not continuing to live in this world where people use, abuse, and bruise us. No it is an eternal kingdom where we shall be in perpetual joy and be made whole. Heaven is not harp stringing and hallelujahs on loop; it is being with Christ and having access to all the people, the saints of old. It is going to be a delightful den of discipleship; and the Newly Created Earth will be a place of creativity; for God made us with desire to create, because He is a Creator. The distortion of heaven as place more akin to hell is a scheme of men who want us to buy the lie and sign up for consciousness transfers, cloning, and other immortal cures (like those crèmes/creams). The consciousness uploading and cloning are going to be big businesses and so the salesmen and saleswomen will be peddling lies about the paradise we know is promised to us so that they can fill their pockets at the price of our souls! Do not believe these charlatans, but trust in Christ's promises of eternal life (John 3:16) and Resurrection Day (1 Thessalonians 4:16)!
I end this post with a sermon by St. Paul: "For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:1-10).
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