A sister Ms. Duffield asked the following questions:
Question
Why do you think the generation from Adam down to Moses and the rest….why did they live so long?
Answer
Death reigned from Adam to Moses. After Moses (i.e. the dispensation of the law), death was overthrown and NOW LIFE (ZOE) reigns [Rom 5:14; Rom 8:2; John 3:16; John 10:10]. The former generation lived longer because sin was not as saturated within the human race and existence as it became with the passage of time. In addition, before the law was instituted, GOD winked at disobedience (Acts 17:30)….meaning he did not punish it. The strength of sin is the law (1Cor 15:56). Rom 5:13 says sin is not imputed when there is no law. Thus before the Law i.e. before Moses, because sin was not imputed, men were not to pay for the wages of their sins so they could live longer. Once the strength of the sin [the law] was introduced, man started to pay the wages of their sins because sin was now imputed to them. In other words, penalty of sin was enforced after the law was introduced. The wages or penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23) so after the law was introduced, men started to die earlier. After Christ, sin is once more no longer imputed to the believer (Romans 4:5-8) because he became sin for us and we became righteousness. In the NT its righteousness that’s imputed. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John1:17). Imputation of sin leads to death and imputation of righteousness, grace and truth leads to LIFE. Whenever you see life, it refers to Zoe.
Zoe is “the absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic “logos” and to Christ in whom the “logos” put on human nature.” It is also defined as, “life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last forever”.
When man was created he was not created to die but rather in the image and likeness of GOD—to be immortal. He was full of the life (Zoe) of GOD. GOD cannot die so man could not die either. Then a virus was introduced into the system called sin. The wages or result of sin included but was not limited to physical death (Romans 6:23). Prior to sin there was no death. As time increased, sin also increased so life expectancy declined. People died earlier. This continued until Christ. It is my firm belief that when Jesus took upon himself “sin and its wages [i.e. death]” man was to die no more even physically. But men still died and continue to die. Question is why? It is simple. You can only have what you believe and receive (lambano). If you believe that eternal life which is called Zoe [i.e. the GOD kind of life] extends to your mortal body (Rom 8:19-11), then you will never die.
This revelation of life will come slowly. Revelation is still being restored to the church from the dark ages. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The church has gotten the revelation of the way. We are now in the phase of acquiring the truth. Eventually the revelation of the life will hit us and we’ll start growing longer and longer till we die no more. Jesus talked about how we were not to die any longer.
Read the following carefully:
Joh 11:25-26 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (26) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Christ called himself two separate things. We know this because he used a conjunction “and”. What are they? First he called himself…
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The RESURRECTION: meaning those who had died before his coming [like Lazarus] and those who will yet die for lack of belief in Zoe or the GOD kinda life, he will raise the up when he returns.
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The LIFE: Those who live and believe in him thus attaining eternal life of John 3:16 and John 10:10….these folks should never die.
He then categorised two groups of folks:
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Those that believe in him and died
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Those that believe in him and were yet alive
The first received qualified for the resurrection because they died. The second do not have to die if they accept him as the LIFE.
If folks who have attained Zoe die, it is not Zoe that failed, rather they suffer from what Elisha suffered from (2Kings 13:21 c.f. Hosea 4:6) i.e. a lack of knowledge or unbelief in the truth about Zoe. Elisha had soo much life in him that his dead bones could raise the dead. Why did he not use some of that power to cure himself? Jesus is not a liar. What he said in verse 26 is true. If you read on, Martha answered the question like most of us by saying YES, I believe but when Jesus said roll away the stone from the grave, she objected meaning she did not really believe. He is still asking: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Notice the last phrase he asked her. Believest thou this? Or Do you believe this that I have just said. Sadly most of Christianity is pleased to accept the resurrection but not the life. Why? Because we interpret truth based on our experience and not based on what the master says. If I died of Cancer, it does not mean 1Peter 2:24 is a lie. It simply means I did not enter the rest (Heb 4:2). The WORD never fails.
Question
Did God have to shorten the age of men?
Answer
Honestly GOD did not have to. He gave us a choice…to partake of the tree of life or ZOE (which produces ever-lasting life/Zoe right here on earth) or to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which takes away life. Humanity through Adam and Eve chose the latter. So man reduced the lifespan of man…not GOD. GOD simply gave a choice.
But that which was lost i.e. the Zoe is what he came to restore according to John 3:16 and John 10:10.
