Wait, "Anti-Aging" Is REALLY About THIS?! | Pastor Reacts

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For the first time in human history, one can say with a straight face that we may be able to go after death.

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I just wonder if, as someone who grew up in a religious community, if part of you, maybe deep inside, fears that when you start to say things like we can defeat death, that you won't be smoked down by the

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God of the universe. Yeah. For assuming his role. Yeah. Do you worry about that?

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Not in the least bit. Never crossed my mind. You're either very brave or very foolish. Never crossed my mind.

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Unfortunately, you know, if your presuppositions are rooted in a godless material universe, which it sounds like that's the case for Johnson, then much of what you endeavor to do in this life is gonna miss the mark.

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I think he's a sincere person. Seems very likable, friendly. He's just not gonna, he's not gonna succeed.

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The only one who can reverse death for us is Jesus Christ. Brian Johnson went on Tucker Carlson's show to talk about his efforts to live forever.

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Have you seen this man? He is all over YouTube. He's documenting everything about his life, what he eats, how he sleeps and exercises, everything so that he can reverse the aging process to live forever.

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Not figuratively, but literally. But this raises some questions that we'll seek to answer in this video.

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What does the Bible have to say about this? Can Christians get behind this idea? What is Johnson's motivation for doing such a thing?

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And I think his answer actually might surprise you. We're gonna get into all of this in just a moment. If you're new here, welcome to Wise Disciple.

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My name is Nate Sala, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be. Before I jumped into this ministry, I was a pastor and a

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Bible teacher. And from that experience, as well as an interesting mix of other skills, I make these videos.

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To learn more about all of this, to get your son or daughter equipped so that they can do what I do on this channel, go to summit .org

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forward slash wise disciple. You can save $200 when you use the code wise24. So I wonder, as I was reading about you, the effect on you and your life, like what's it like to focus on your body that much?

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Yeah, oh, I love it. It's, there's one thing about building a product. We oftentimes think of as our work, as our immortality, what we produce in our careers, our reputation, our accomplishments.

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And when you think about it this way, you are the product. So full disclosure,

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I don't have a psychology degree. None of my degrees are in the realm of psychology or psychoanalyzation or anything like that.

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I'm a teacher and a pastor by training, but man, the alarm bells start to go off when

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I hear things articulated in a certain way. Let me back up. I think we're all psychologists to a degree out of necessity or else we won't appreciate what's going on in our own lives.

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And then of course, with regard to the people in our lives, we need to understand on a very basic level how people think, what motivates them and draws their interest, if nothing else, in order to have better relationships with the people in our lives, which is part and parcel to why

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God made us. So while I'm not a trained psychologist, I'm not disqualifying myself either to make certain observations.

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And I hear this phrase, our work is our immortality. And I immediately wanna know what that means, right?

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Because there is no way to live forever in this world, okay? Just to show you my cards right at the outset, what this man is doing will not work.

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That's my opinion. I could be wrong, but I formed my opinion based on the scripture and we'll talk about that, okay?

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But to say that for a lot of us, our work is immortality, and then to propose his own physical immortality, it tells me something about him.

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Even his T -shirt, don't die, right? That tells us something about this man.

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It's just a series of clues that I'm noting out loud at this particular moment.

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You are your own best creation. And so it's been energizing. I've loved being. You are your own best creation.

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And consumed by it. I think that, yeah, it's one of the happiest endeavors I've done in my life. Really? I've taken the opposite approach and I'm not claiming it's superior to yours, but I had my appendix swole up and burst.

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And I never, and I had it, of course, taken out. I never asked like what the appendix is because I didn't really wanna know. I don't know what a spleen is.

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Like I've really made an effort to not focus on those things because it seems - I'd love somebody to spleen what a spleen is.

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It seems like a lot of self -focus and it seems like a short trip from there to say narcissism, which is obviously death. So are you worried about that?

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My observation really is philosophical. I did this thought experiment where - You know what's great about Carlson?

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Because I think I've said this before, but I haven't seen his show all that much at all.

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But this is a great question. And I love Carlson, his tone and tenor is such that he can get away with asking a very challenging question.

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That's what this was. This was a very challenging question that was asked in a non -confrontational way.

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He essentially asked Johnson if he's worried that he'll become a narcissist. That's not likely going to endear folks to you when you ask a question like that.

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That's why it's so important that it's offered with the type of tone and tenor that Carlson gives. Let's hear what

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Johnson has to say. When I was 21, I came back from Ecuador. I had lived among extreme poverty for two years and I had this burning desire -

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You were on a Mormon mission. On a Mormon mission, yes. And I had this burning desire to be - Okay.

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Okay. It's starting to click for me here. Are you picking up what

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I'm picking up? Okay, I get it, right? So if I had to guess, I would say

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Johnson has no religion, at least not any of the major religions, right?

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That he would adhere himself to, because his efforts to live forever would run up against the major religions,

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I suppose. That's my guess. But he went on a Mormon mission. Are you familiar with LDS theology?

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You know what I mean? Like, do you know what exaltation is? I don't know if I can give it justice in a sentence or two, but if you do know what exaltation is, it seems like Johnson is trying to achieve a physical version of exaltation without even dying.

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That's fascinating. So I decided that I wanted to do something that would be useful to the world. I didn't know what or how. And so I thought I'll make a whole bunch of money by age of 30.

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And then when I'm 30 years old and I have a whole bunch of money, I'll decide what to do then. And so I've been searching for this mission my entire life.

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And upon doing that, I organized dinners with my smartest friends. And I said, let's imagine we're existing in 2050.

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And this was 2016 at the time. And the world is amazing. What did we do in 2016 that would make that possible?

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And then I listened very intently to everybody's responses. And then I put them in a box. And I made a rule that I can't do anything inside that box.

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I have to do something outside that box. And what nobody was working on was trying to solve death. That it was always inconceivable that you could try to legitimately conquer death.

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And that's what I set my sight on is. But what's interesting, I mean, now, and now, okay, so we're at the philosophical part of this.

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And my friend who recommended this interview said, you know, he's really interesting on the practical stuff, the serum transfers and all that, but he's much more interesting on the philosophical questions.

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And I think you will be. So let me ask, you grew up in a world of the Mormon world that believed and taught you that it had already solved the question of death through Jesus.

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You no longer think that? It would be helpful if there was some evidence. Yeah. Okay, so you've abandoned that worldview or at least your agnostic,

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I guess, would be the word on that worldview, right? Yeah, and this happens quite a bit. A lot of ex -Mormons realize that the

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LDS faith is not rooted in evidence, that its claims largely trade on authority, but not verifiable historical evidence.

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Even the book of Abraham was shown to be a farce. Anyway, that's a rabbit trail. What's unfortunate is these folks realize they've been had, and instead of being precise in what they are discarding, what they are rejecting, which would be the

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LDS religion, they end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater and discarding Christianity as well. Which is a shame.

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And it sounds like that's what Johnson did. But, and this is fascinating, like he apparently has not discarded some of the principles inherent in the

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LDS religion, which again entails exaltation, becoming a God and living forever.

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Johnson, I suppose, is doing everything he can to make that happen, even though he rejected everything else about the

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LDS teaching. Not to get too personal, but I'm just interested because a lot of people would say, you know, religious people, Christians, would say, well, we've already solved death.

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Right. You know, don't need to solve that. It's solved. But there's also, of course, no evidence that eternal life is possible in a corporal sense, physical sense.

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Right. Because it's never been done. So what gives you faith that you can do it? Yeah. That's a great question.

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That, like, that's a great question. It's as if Carlson has been doing interviews for a while now.

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I'm kidding. By the way, this right here, Johnson's answer to this question is the most replayed moment of this entire video.

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So let's pay attention. If you look at the speed in which artificial intelligence is advancing, we are gaining new abilities we've never had before in every domain of society.

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You pair that with our ability that we now, in this moment, we can predictably design biology and the physical world, atom by atom.

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You bring those things together for the first time in human history, one can say with a straight face that we may be able to go after death.

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Now, I'm not saying we can. I'm not saying it's guaranteed. I'm saying that it is rational and reasonable and supported by where the realities are today.

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And so with what I've been trying to do is to show a glimmer of hope that, because what I'm really trying to do is demonstrate age escape velocity.

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That is so when one year of time passes, I remain the same biological age. So we're never going to arrest aging altogether.

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But if I, let's say I age 0 .4, and then I can reverse that 0 .4 with therapies and stay the same age biologically.

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Right now I'm 0 .64. So I've already started at one and I'm all the way down to 0 .64. If we keep on inching down, it might change everything.

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You know, it's one thing to have a philosophical conversation. It's another thing to say I can be youthful and have energy and feel great.

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I think everybody wants that. 100%, live long and prosper. Yeah. I don't think Johnson's answer can be fully appreciated without,

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I guess, backing up a bit and surveying the historical landscape and seeing how really

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Johnson's answer is a direct result of the Enlightenment period. So again, I mean, I don't want to like zoom way too far out, right?

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But pre -Enlightenment, pre -industrialization, we all lived in agrarian societies, in agrarian cultures, right?

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Farmers, farmlands, right? That's why Jesus parables are often about planting and farming, right?

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It was an entirely different world pre -Enlightenment. In other words, if a farmer wanted to plant something, he was beholden to the weather.

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He could not control the weather. He was beholden to the soil, right?

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There's really not a lot you could do to control the soil either. So in other words, the laws of nature dictated how life would go in that age.

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Post -Enlightenment, there are all kinds of things that we can do to mimic favorable weather, to genetically modify crops, to withstand bad conditions.

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We can change the soil. You know, we can run fresh water into our crops year round.

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We're not now beholden to the seasons either. We can do all of these things and more because of scientific advancements.

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And it has slowly changed our attitude about what we can do to change ourselves. Can you see that?

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It's fascinating how we got here as a society. To the point where, you know, now we're watching a man say with all sincerity,

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I'm going to use science to live forever. Hey, real quick, I hope this video is blessing you.

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Would you do me a favor and like and subscribe to the channel? It really does help me to get this video out to more and more people. I really do appreciate it.

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Prosper, for sure. And that seems like a virtuous goal and what you're doing to that extent is virtuous. I just wonder if, as someone who grew up in a religious community, if part of you may be deep inside fears that when you start to say things like we can defeat death, that you won't be smoked down by the

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God of the universe for assuming his role. Do you worry about that?

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Not in the least bit. Never crossed my mind. Well, you're either very brave or very foolish. Never crossed my mind.

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Really? So when you say I can defeat death, aren't you saying I'm God? I'm saying that the universe speaks in irony.

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That's for sure. And that the story we've told is that God created us and the actual story may be that we are going to create

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God. Wow. Let that sink in.

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The actual story of humanity and of the universe is that human beings are going to create

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God. Johnson's not the first person to speak like this. You just flip through the

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Rolodex of history and you can come up with some other important public figures who said similar things.

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By the way, even if this were true and Johnson lives forever he would not be making himself like the

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God of the Bible because the qualities and characteristics of the God of the Bible still places

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God on a strata way above Johnson. Johnson would essentially become like a demigod or something like a

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Marvel superhero or something. Still just a product of the universe itself.

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That's not the God of the Bible. By the way, again, even if Johnson does succeed he can still die though.

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I mean, it's just, it's a fascinating subject and I don't wanna get too morbid with it but Johnson still could die.

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It just would not be of old age. There's just many different ways to die in this world.

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And it would be horrifically ironic if he succeeded in reversing his age indefinitely and then just died in some unnatural way the same way that many of us die every single day.

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You know what I mean? Golly, that is morbid to even say that out loud.

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But what an interesting discussion. By the way, what are your thoughts? Will Johnson succeed here?

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Why or why not? Let me know in the comments. I'd love to get your thoughts. In a moment, I will go to the scripture and I'm gonna let it inform us about how to think through what

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Johnson is doing here. Like I said, I don't think he's going to succeed. I'll explain why, but let's finish this clip. What kind of God?

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This is the question we face as a species. I mean, right now we have organized society around capitalism.

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We strive to make money, have power and wealth. We engage in warfare. Everyone's angling for their best interests.

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And I'm suggesting that this is not about me trying to live forever. This is me trying to answer the most pressing question in existence.

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What do we do as a species? Now, when death is inevitable, you're gonna have an answer like, well, I'm gonna live fast and die young, or I'm going to conquer territories and be immortal for my quest, or I'm going to make up your meaning of life game.

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But if death is not inevitable, we can extend our lifespans to some unknown horizon. The meaning making games we have as a species all change.

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Of course. And that's what I'm suggesting this moment is that. So that's interesting. You see how

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Johnson's worldview shines through his answer? You see how mine shine through as well?

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I mean, Johnson and I are essentially the same age, right? But look at, so I'll give you my answer and I'll try to reveal what's underlying my answer in a moment.

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But Johnson presupposes that meaning is something that you can create.

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Did you catch that? I suppose in the same way that you would create yourself to be a

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God, meaning is just one of those other things that you can create and manipulate. He referred to them as meaning games just a second ago.

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And so he says, well, you know, if we're able to live forever, then our meaning would change. That's only true if his presupposition is correct and that there is no

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God and that you create your own meaning. If there is a God and you do not create your own meaning, but you instead discover it, well then even if you were to live forever, your meaning would not change.

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You see that? The reason why I'm bringing this up and I'm focusing on these things is because Johnson's endeavor can be largely explained by understanding his presuppositions.

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If you can identify what those are and you do that by asking pointed questions and listening closely, okay?

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And you understand those presuppositions, then everything that he's doing makes sense. Unfortunately, you know, if your presuppositions are rooted in a godless material universe, which it sounds like that's the case for Johnson, then much of what you endeavor to do in this life is gonna miss the mark.

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Why? Well, because you did not understand reality. You forgot to include the

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God who was there and his purposes for mankind and his purposes for death even.

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Romans chapter five, verse 12 says this, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

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Yet, here it is, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who is to come.

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Take a look at verse 17. For if because of one man's trespass, death, here it is again, reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,

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Jesus Christ. Friends, the Bible is incredibly clear about this. Death is everyone's problem.

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Death reigns in authority over all mankind. Why? Because of sin. What Johnson is missing is the biblical account of a person's physical condition.

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You see, the Bible gives you the full spectrum of a human being. The biblical account works in a category that Johnson leaves out, and that's the spiritual condition.

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So in other words, the human is made up of both physical and spiritual. These categories are interwoven together into the fabric of a human being.

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And spiritual death apparently leads to physical death. Okay? And the diagnosis from the

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Bible is terminal. Ephesians 2 says it like this. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

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Human beings are spiritually stillborn, according to the Apostle Paul, and this spiritual death, which theologically is also synonymous to being separated from God, leads to our physical death.

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It's like a flower that has been separated from its nourishing root. You know, we appear for a number of years healthy.

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We continue to persist like a flower would, even though spiritually we are dead. And it's only a matter of time before we begin to wilt and we begin to fold up on ourselves like a rootless plant.

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There is a relationship between the physical and the spiritual, ladies and gentlemen. And what Johnson proposes is working on the flower, the rootless flower, without ever paying attention to the root.

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The root cause of death, both physically and spiritually, is separation from our creator.

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That means the only solution to this is going back to the root. The Bible describes this as eternal life.

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And it comes down to returning to the Edenic relationship that mankind once had with God in the

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Garden of Eden. Jesus says it like this, John 17, three, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true

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God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This type of knowing, this knowledge, is a deep, intimate, relational knowledge.

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The type of knowledge that a man has with his wife and vice versa. It's a relationship with our spiritual creator.

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That's what gives us eternal life. To miss this important concept is to miss the mark entirely.

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That's why I'm saying what I'm saying. And that's why I say, Johnson's not gonna succeed here. I think he's a sincere person, seems very likable, friendly.

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He's just not gonna succeed. The only one who can reverse death for us is Jesus Christ. Why is that?

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Because Jesus heals us of our sin. He actually goes to the problem in the first place.

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This is how the Apostle Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 24. Then comes the end when he,

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Jesus, delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

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For he must reign, Jesus, until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

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Look at this. That's why Christians can say this. Verse 54, when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

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Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? We sing this now as Christians Sunday morning, right?

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But we only sing it because of Christ and his accomplishment. Verse 56, the sting of death is sin.

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There it is. And the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. That, that right there is the promise for anyone who is interested in living forever, in eternal life.

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There is only one way, ladies and gentlemen, and it's not Johnson's way, it's Jesus's way.

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My sincere hope and prayer is that Johnson realizes the futility of his efforts while there is still time.

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And that's it, isn't it? I mean, while there is still breath in our lungs today, let us go back to the creator and be with him.

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And accept his invitation to know him and for him to know us. Amen? Well, I think you should definitely watch the whole discussion here.

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I'll leave a link for it. But hey, now it's your turn to sound off. Will Brian Johnson succeed in his efforts to live forever?

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Am I wrong? Are his efforts compatible with Christianity or not? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to get your thoughts.

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