Insight on the News
Dream of Life Eternal
● “The dream of everlasting life is probably as old as mankind,” wrote Dr. Viktor Tobiasch in “Ausblick,” a West German journal. He cited various efforts to lengthen the human life-span. These have included use of organ extracts and even the ‘freezing’ of the body in liquid nitrogen so that it might be thawed out “to a new life.”
Prof. Tobiasch also said that around 1955, in highly developed lands, average life expectancy rose to about seventy years. However, he explained that this was due to improvement in life expectancy for the newborn and small children. The average life-span for adults has not increased.
These comments underscore two points made in the Bible. First, “in themselves the days of our years are seventy years; and . . . because of special mightiness they are eighty years.” (Ps. 90:10) Second, it is not surprising that mankind should dream of everlasting life, for “even time indefinite he [Jehovah God] has put in their heart.” (Eccl. 3:11) Of all earth’s creatures, humans alone have a God-given concept of past and future time indefinite or eternity. Moreover, life eternal is Jehovah’s purpose for those who love him.
What of the Future?
● “A Query into the Quarter Century” is the title of a message issued recently by twenty experts from various fields who met under the sponsorship of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation and the Wright-Ingraham Institute. They concluded: “Famine, social unrest and possible political chaos may not be far away. . . . By the year 2000 the problems in food production, storage, transportation and distribution will make today’s problems appear as child’s play.”
Humans themselves can never solve such problems, for “it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jer. 10:23) God alone will end social unrest, assure adequate food and remove man’s other difficulties. Jehovah soon will ‘make a banquet for all the peoples’ and bless godly persons abundantly. (Isa. 25:6-8; Rev. 21:4) With those pleasant prospects in view, appreciative ones wisely pursue a course of dependence upon the Creator, as did David, who prayed to God: “Let my steps take hold on your tracks, in which my footsteps will certainly not be made to totter.”—Ps. 17:5.