David Jeremiah - Old Age in the Golden Age
Is it reasonable for us to hope that lifespans will increase in Christ's millennial kingdom? Yes, it's more than reasonable and we can more than hope. We can believe in the historical testimony of God's Word and we can rely on the incredible authority demonstrated by Jesus during his earthly ministry, and we can accept in faith, the inspiring promises God has already given us for that golden, glorious age. Now, remember, two groups of people will go into the millennium, the 1,000-year period. Those of us who have been raptured or resurrected will be there with Jesus. If you're a Christian here today, you'll be in the millennium. You don't have to do anything, you'll just be there.
If you die before then or Jesus comes back before then, we'll go to heaven, but when he comes back at the end of the Tribulation, we come back with him and we go right into the millennium. We who are the raised or raptured will never die again, so you don't have to worry about that. We'll dwell with him for 1,000 years, then we'll make a transition into the new heavens and the new earth, and we'll be with him forever. No more death for us, nor sickness or sin, no more pain, no pining away. If you've accepted Christ, the only thing you're gonna know about that's what's left of this world and our existence here. Once you get into eternity and you go to heaven, that's all history. And when you get to the millennium, you will live for 1,000 years in the millennium and then go to heaven.
How's that? The other group who goes into the millennium are those who were saved during the Tribulation period or survived the Tribulation, and the people who will be born to those families in the Tribulation, these people will experience the kind of longevity reminiscent of the early days of Genesis. I'm gonna discuss that with you in a moment. That's the focus of this message. Some of these Tribulation survivors will die during the millennium, but death will be very rare, and people's lifespans will extend for centuries. Let me show you. When God created the human race, he had eternity in mind. Death was no part of God's original creation. Death is the result of sin. Death is the result of disobedience. But God has placed eternity in our hearts. And even after the fall, after Adam and Eve sinned, humans lived for vast periods of time.
The oldest man in the Genesis record is Methuselah. He lived to the ripe old age of 969, almost a full millennium. But he wasn't the only example of long life. He wasn't even an outlier. Adam lived for 930 years, and Seth lived for 912 years, and Jared, Adam's great-great-great-grandson, lived to be 962. How would you like to have a grandchild 962 years old? Lamech, the father of Noah, was 777 when he passed away, and this one kind of gets lost because of what happened. Noah was 600 years old when God flooded the earth. He lived for 350 years after the flood and died at 950 years of age. So what are we to make of these numbers? Are these exaggerations intended to show the stature of these great people? Are they the result of mishaps in the translation of the Bible? I know you've read those ages when you've read through the Bible and you thought, what in the world, 900 years old? And some of you have said, who wants to live 900 years?
I don't think any of these explanations are true, when it comes to scripture, it's always been my firm belief that we should take God at his Word, meaning that when the Bible speaks in plain language and offers a common-sense explanation for its claims, we should take it. And in this case, Genesis presents these extended ages as historical information, and we should accept them as such. Then you say, "But Dr. Jeremiah, how would it be possible for human beings to live so long"? Well, I can't say for sure, but here are some possible explanations. Perhaps the climate of the earth was so much different in those early days that it allowed for increased longevity. Many scholars believe there was a vapor barrier or a canopy around the earth that made our atmosphere more conducive to long life.
Something akin to the ozone layer. Maybe this canopy collapsed or dissipated during the flood. Maybe something completely different is responsible. Maybe the genetic pool was so young that people were more vigorous. Perhaps the grace of God was so fresh that his children lived for many centuries. What the book of Genesis does make clear is that something happened after Noah's flood. Not only was the physical structure of our planet altered in major ways, but the span of human lives decreased significantly. For instance, Shem, one of Noah's sons, lived for 600 years. But Shem's grandson, Salah, lived for 433 years. Terah, who was Abraham's father, lived for 205 years. In Genesis 6:3, God adjusted the human lifespan. Here's his adjusted statement, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years".
In Genesis 6, the age limit was adjusted. The patriarch, Jacob, may have been referring to this when he told Pharaoh this. He said, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers". In other words, I'm not nearly as old as my mom and dad or my grandpa and grandma. The cycles of human life continued to decline until Moses declared, "The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason the strength they are eighty years, they boast only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away".
The Bible says after 70, life gets harder. Can I get a witness? From long lives of centuries, to shortened lives of approximately 120 years, to 70 and 80 years. That's the progression of God's providence over the lifespan of people on earth. John Piper wrote about this and he said, "My suggestion is that God granted those long lives so that we, looking back, could see from which we have fallen. In other words, those long lives testify that death was not part of the perfect creation. God ordains, as a lesson to us, that the force of life be preserved for hundreds of years in very long lives in those early centuries, to show that life, not death, was his design and our portion in creation at the beginning. So, the long lives of those first humans stand as a testimony of how utterly short our lives are and how God's design at the beginning and his design in the future is eternal life".
From old age at the beginning, through shortened life in the here and now, to the ultimate long life in the millennium. I have one other thought about it. Perhaps it is the mercy and grace of God that reduces the amount of time we spend in this veil of tears we call the earth. I've already said it once, let me say it again: Life is hard. Life is hard, and this world is a war zone for the soul. Job says, "Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward". And the apostle Paul longed, "To depart and be with Christ," which he said, "is far better".
Isaiah 57:1 is a fascinating verse. Here's what it says, "Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come". You know, there's something to be thought about in that verse. If things are the way they are now, what do we say to one another when we're talking? We say, we pray for our children and our grandchildren. If it's like it is for us now, what in the world is it going to be like for our children and our grandchildren? I look at my children and my grandchildren and I often have those thoughts. Do you have those thoughts? The Bible says sometimes, death comes to protect us from the evil that is to come. I guess I should say there are things worse than death, even though we don't want to go into detail about what they are.
So we talk first about why life is reduced, but let's talk now about why there is a restoration of longevity. Praise the Lord, things will be different in the millennium. Here's some reasons why that's gonna be true. We already have learned the devil will be bound. The earth will again become the healthiest environment we could imagine for human life. God will extend the lifespans of the men and women who come out of the Tribulation and who produce children. People's lifespans will be extended, again as they were in the early days of Genesis, so they can enjoy the good to come. Christ will be at the center of the millennial kingdom, ruling on the throne of his ancestor David in Jerusalem. His power and authority will radiate throughout that kingdom for the benefit of everybody who are citizens.
On a spiritual level, that means the Lamb of God will repair the effects of sin and Satan in our world. He will restore what was lost and reclaim everything that was taken away in the original curse, and his intent for creation will be restored. On a practical level, that means our physical bodies will no longer reflect the consequences of sin. We won't deal with the kinds of physical problems that the world faces now. Jesus gave us a preview of his power and authority while he was on this earth, more than 2,000 years ago. And there were many moments when his kingly nature broke through and he asserted his authority over sin and sickness. Here's one brief example, Luke 5:12, "And it happened when Jesus was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and he implored Him, saying, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.'"
Now, leprosy was the most feared of all the afflictions in ancient times, and there was no cure, and lepers died slowly from the escalating degradation of their bodies. Worse still, they were not allowed to be a part of the Jewish community, they were considered cursed, segregated, isolated, living in leper colonies. Can you hear the pain in this man's words, when he begged Jesus for healing? He said, "Can you make me clean"? Jesus responded, not as the sacrificial Lamb of God, but as the now and future King, and here's what we read his response to be. "And He put out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' Immediately the leprosy left him".
In the millennium, Christ will do for everyone what he did for that sick and handicapped man in the gospels. He will remove all sickness, all deformities, all handicaps. In the coming golden age, his reign will be over a world where there is no blindness, no deafness, no muteness, no need for eyeglasses. Can I get a witness? No hearing aids that go off during church. No speech therapy, no wheelchairs, no crutches, and I love this one, no walkers. We have these promises, and I told you, so much of the information about this period of time is kind of salted in the Old Testament scriptures. And I've done the research so you don't have to, I'm showing you where these verses are.
And here are some of them, Isaiah 29:18, "In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness". Isaiah 35:5 and 6, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing". And Jeremiah 30:17 says, "I will restore health to you, and heal you of your wounds". During the thousand-year reign of Christ, sickness and death will not exist among the resurrected saints, and among the survivors of the Tribulation, it will be a very rare occurrence. So we've looked at the reduction of longevity and then the restoration of it.
Here's the redemption of longevity. In the year 1900, the average expectancy of a United States citizen was 47 years of age. For more than a century, that number increased, reaching its peak in 2019 when the life expectancy for a U.S. citizen was 79 years of age. Quite an improvement, but that number dropped dramatically during and after COVID. As of 2021, the average expectancy is now 76. Despite the best efforts of our medical experts, there is little chance that any of us will become another Methuselah. But all that will change during the millennium. In that age, human longevity will return to pre-flood levels. Even better, the lives of the redeemed who ruled this world with Christ will return to pre-Eden levels, we will once again live forever. It is as though history will come full circle. The quantity and quality of our years will once again reveal the goodness of our Creator and reflect his infallible design.
This is how Isaiah describes it, "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; and the one who dies at a hundred will be thought to be a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed". Not only will people live much longer, but there will be a tremendous increase in the birth rate, as children are born to those who survive the Tribulation. Jeremiah 30 says, "I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as before, And their congregation shall be established before Me".
Scholar Alva J. McClain says, "Disease will be abolished, the crisis of death will be experienced only by those incorrigible individuals who rebel against the laws of kingdom. The ordinary hazards of physical life will be under the direct control," listen to this, "Of the voice of the one who said, 'Peace be still to the winds and the waves.'" Time Magazine recently wrote an article called, The Man Who Thinks He Can Live Forever. That man is Bryan Johnson. He's a tech multimillionaire who has spent more than $4 million developing a life extension system called Blueprint. Johnson's goal is to claim victory over death. His own death, specifically, but also death that haunts humanity. And he believes death is a choice we accept, not a reality we cannot avoid.
Now, let me tell you, he's wrong about this, but let me tell you the rest of his story. In order to prevent death, Johnson goes through a rigorous daily routine designed to de-age his organs. Prescribed by a team of doctors and run through an artificial intelligence algorithm, that routine includes taking 111 pills every day. I'd rather be sick. He wears a baseball cap that shoots red lights into his scalp, collects his own stool samples, ruthlessly monitors his sleep, completely avoids all unhealthy foods, applying eye drops to prevent cataracts, has daily workouts, and much more. He said, "I don't think there's been any time in history where homosapiens could say with a straight face that death may not be inevitable until now".
He doesn't read the Bible. The Bible says, "The soul that sineth, it shall die". And death is a certainty for every man, woman, and child until Jesus comes back. You and I know that Bryan is very wrong. No human being alive today can prevent death. The millennium is where we will begin to experience our true destiny, our true design. Through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and under the authority of his reign, our lives will stretch into the centuries with only the promise of paradise on the horizon. But the question is, so that's great, and that's gonna happen someday, and praise God for his provision of the millennium. But what do we do until then?
Someone told me some years ago that there are three options that we have as humans. We can wear out, we can rust out, or we can live out. Some folks wear out, and if we're not careful, that's what life will do to us. It is possible to wear out the human body before its time. I remember walking into the office of a chiropractor back in Fort Wayne, and on the wall was this sign, "If you wear out this body, then where will you live"? Good question. Some people wear out, some people rust out. They don't wear out, they just don't do anything in there like an old car that's left out with no protection. They just rust out and vanish. And then, there's some people who live out, and that's God's plan for us, to treasure this life he has given us.
Yeah, it's not 1,000 years, but life is good, and we should take every day as a gift from him and be thankful for it, and we should be good stewards of life, work hard to correct all the issues we face, never give up, never say, "Okay, that's it, I quit," and we should do everything we can do for the glory of God and live as long as we can, and knowing that when life is over, it even gets better. That's the attitude we should have. Now, the Bible has some things in it that you may not be aware of, and while I've been aware of them, I was not aware of what I'm about to share with you. I know that in the Bible here and there it says, if you do this, you'll live long, but this week, I discovered there's well over 20 passages in the Bible that say that, over 20. And these passages are found primarily in the book of Proverbs and in Psalms.
And I need to explain to you, they are proverbs, they're not promises. Do you know the difference between a proverb and a promise? If you don't, you'll get confused when you read the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs are the wise sayings of Solomon, and they are the sayings about life as it normally is. Here's an illustration. So many of you, if you have trouble with your children, will be directed to a verse that says, "Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it". And then you do what that says, and it doesn't happen. And what happened to, "The book of Proverbs made me a promise, and the promise wasn't kept".
The book of Proverbs didn't make you a promise, it just said, this is what normally happens. There are promises and there are Proverbs. And these statements about long life are Proverbs. They are important proverbs, and they give you clues about the quality of your life. So just like you can go to a seminar and learn about how to do things to help your physical life, this is kind of a little short seminar on how to live your life and the characters that God will honor if you do. I'm not gonna go through all 20 of them, because I don't have time, so I picked my favorite 10. Are you ready? Here we go.
Number one, keep God's commandments. 1 Kings 3:14, "If you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments. I will lengthen your days".
Number two, tell the truth. That's an odd one for the world in which we live. Wipes out every news channel you can find right there. There are three long life principles packed into 3 verses in Psalm 34, and the first is to tell the truth, "Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies". People who tell lies run the risk of not living as long as they could.
Number three, turn from evil. "Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? Turn from evil and do good," Psalm 34:12 and 14. Search for peace. Here's a good one, "Does anyone want to live the life that is long and prosperous? Search for peace, and work to maintain it".
Don't be a troublemaker, be a peacemaker. Now, I know that doesn't sound like something you'd have to say in church, but you have to say that in church maybe more than you would ever say at any place else. Don't be a troublemaker, be a peacemaker. Now, I know you know some cantankerous old dude who's pushing 100, but he's an exception.
Number five, I like this one, love the Lord. Psalm 91 says, "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; And with long life I will satisfy him". When you love God, God wants to help you live long. Do you love God? You say, how do I know if I love God? Well, here's the answer to that question. Are you serving? Because you love God by serving God. I didn't make that up, that's in the Bible.
Here's one of my favorite ones, treasure God's wisdom. Proverbs 3:16 says, "Length of days is in wisdom's right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor". And Proverbs 4:10 says, "Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many". Years ago, I was visiting my son, who was playing football for Appalachian State University. And during the time I was there, I met the head coach, a man by the name of Jerry Moore, who was a Christian. And when I went to lunch with him, he showed me a book, a little book. "And in this book," he said, "are the Proverbs and the Psalms". And I said, "Can I see it," and I looked at it, and it was very worn, it looked like he'd had it for a long time, and it was well used.
And I noticed that in this book, there was one chapter out of the Proverbs and five chapters out of the Psalms, and if you read every day what was in your daily portion, you would read Psalms and Proverbs through every month. And he said he'd been doing it for 12 years. He'd been reading Psalms and Proverbs every month for 12 years, and in the book were some pictures of his players that he was particularly praying for. I asked him if there were copies of that book, and he said it was out of print. I found out that the publisher was Tyndale House and I went to see them and asked them if we could take it back into print. They granted it to us. It was printed in the Living Translation and we created our own version of it in a leather cover called "The Focused Life". And I made it available some years ago, and we still have it at "Turning Point," if you want to know about it, you can call over there or email them or whatever.
When you take this book and you just use it, you can take it anywhere you want, fits in your pocket, fits in your purse, every day, you just look for the day in the calendar. This is the fourth, you read everything under the fourth. And when you do that, you read a whole chapter out of Proverbs and you read five chapters out of Psalms. And you're doing good till you get the 119th Psalm in your daily reading, and you've got to take half the day off to do your reading. But let me tell you what I've learned, Psalms keeps you connected with God in worship and praise, Proverbs helps you to understand how to deal with people. So if you're reading Psalms and Proverbs every day, month after month, you are being taught wisdom. And the Bible says, if you treasure God's wisdom, the years of your life will be many. What a wonderful truth that is.
Number seven says, fear the Lord, "The fear of the Lord prolongs days". Now, I know many people sort of take the teeth out of that promise, and they say the fear of the Lord is not being afraid of the Lord, it's being in awe of the Lord, and that is true. It also means being afraid of the Lord. You know, there needs to be someone in your life of whom you are afraid, in a good sense, and God wants us to fear him in awe and worship, but also to know he's not someone to be messed with, can I put it that way? You don't mess with God.
Number eight, this one is gonna be hard for all of us, and we might wanna put this at the bottom of our list, control your tongue. "Those who control their tongue will live a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything". That's what the scripture says, isn't that true? If you control your tongue, you've got a chance at a long life, if you keep opening your mouth in the wrong way, it'll ruin everything.
Cultivate true humility. Proverbs 22:4, "True humility and the fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and a long life". Now, humility is such a misunderstood thing, and I'm always afraid to talk about it, that you think, "Yeah, I know what it is, or that I am that". As soon as you start talking about humility and trying to tell people what it is, you lose your own humility. You become like the guy who wrote a book called, "The Ten Most Humble People in the World and How I Discovered the Other Nine".
You know, you don't want that. But humility is something the Bible has a lot to say about, and one of the simplest things I can say to you is this, humility is not thinking less about yourself, it's just thinking about yourself less. A big difference between those two things. Humility is not a worm theology, you hear that sometimes around Christian people. God has made you great and thank God for his goodness, but the story is not always about you. The Bible says, "Let another one praise you, and not yourself".
Number ten, honor your parents. That's the most famous one on the list, and they saved it till last. "'Honor your father and mother,' which is the first commandment with promise: 'that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.'" My father and mother were good parents, and we didn't have a lot of rules, but I don't know where this came from. My dad especially had this deal about lying. And he would say to me often, "I'll be very patient with you, David, about anything, but don't you lie to me. Don't you ever lie to me". I never did, but a couple of times, and I remember what happened like it happened yesterday. It gave me new meaning about long life.
Tell the truth, honor your parents. And it's not just about when you're growing up under their leadership, it's even after you get married. Honor your parents, love your parents. Sometimes that's hard, takes something out of you. But the Bible honors those who honor their parents. That's just what the scripture says... now, those are just ten things in the Bible, all of them have the same thing in the verse, and that is length of days or long life.
The World Health Organization reports that 166,000 people die every day. The global leading cause of death is heart disease, followed by strokes, lung disease, neonatal disease, and Alzheimer's. All kinds of causes of death and all kinds of articles, but the real cause of death is sin. The Bible says, "The soul who sins shall die". And Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death".
Only the great physician can give us everlasting healing of body, mind, and soul. And you cannot know the blessing of the millennium unless you deal with your sin. The way you get to be a forever person is to ask Jesus Christ into your heart, tell him you're sorry for your sin, and that you want to be a Christian. When you become a Christian, you get all the benefits of what a Christian is, all these things we've talked about today, and then heaven on top of it all.
So my final question to you is this, are you a Christian? And I mean, not do you go to a Christian church or did you grow up in a religious family, are you a Christian? And if not, why not? The way you become a Christian is by praying a simple prayer and asking Jesus Christ to come and live in your heart, and meaning it from your heart, affirming it from your heart, determining in your spirit that you're gonna live for him from now on. You're gonna do the things like we've talked about today and learn what it means to live the Christian life. So I'm here to tell you, if you've never become a Christian, you can become one today. This could be your beginning of your journey to the millennium. It starts today. The golden age is on the horizon for you today, but it starts now when you accept Jesus.