WHAT A ‘DEATH TEST’ BRINGS
A prophecy against the Valley of Vision:
What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, 2 you town so full of commotion, you city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. 3 All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away. 4 Therefore I said, ‘Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.’
5 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision,
a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains. 6 Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield. 7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates. 8 The Lord stripped away the defences of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest. 9 You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. 10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall. 11 You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.
12 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. 13 But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! ‘Let us eat and drink,’ you say, ‘for tomorrow we die!’ 14 The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: ‘Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,’ says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
ISAIAH22:1-13.
The Sunday Times published an article titled: “Laser Test to Tell Us When We Will Die” on 11th August this year.
It reads that scientists have developed a ‘death test’ that can tell how many years people have left on the planet. By measuring the oscillations within the capillaries, scientists claim they can calculate the length of time before someone dies. The test is pioneered by physics professors from Lancaster University, Aneta Stefanovska and Peter McClintock. Also, in another study, a revolutionary new blood test is reported to be able to tell you how long you will live, and how quickly you will age, thanks to a chemical “fingerprint” in the blood.
These studies are expected to lead to the development of powerful new treatments for age-related conditions such as bone problems and heart disease. The following article explores some possible outcomes if this death prediction becomes a reality in this godless sinful world.
Scientists have designed a possibly disturbing, non-invasive test which can give an indication of how long a person has to live. The test is the first of its kind in the world. The test, which has been called the “death test,” consists of a painless laser pulse applied to the surface of the skin through a wristwatch-style device. This measures how a person’s body will decline with age by analyzing endothelial cells. (The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that lines the interior surface of blood vessels.)
According to the Sunday Times, by measuring the movement inside the cells, the scientists say they can calculate the length of time before death and also test for diseases including cancer and dementia. The result is graded from 0 for death to 100 for optimum functioning. Scientists believe that the predictions will become more accurate as more data is added.
This test can open the door to some very troublesome possibilities. How does one react if they went to a doctor and were told the results of the test showed they had a short time to live? This has already happened with increasing frequency as medical technology advances. Some people write “bucket lists” and abandon their families, while others would cherish every moment and spend time with the important people in their life and with God.
Man, with his sin nature, may fall prey to darker urges and do things they wouldn’t normally do. Who knows what one would do if they knew their time on earth was short? A bigger concern is what others would do with that information.
Currently, there is no law regarding the use of this test, so a company could use it as part of a pre-employment exam. What if the results of the tests showed that there was a good chance that you would die within ten years’ time? The employer may decide it is not worth employing the person because they wouldn’t get much value out of the employee. Insurance companies could deny people a life insurance policy or provide one with an expiration date, based on the results of a test.
Governments may also find ways of misusing the tests. Countries with socialized medicine may decide that a course of medical treatment for chronic illnesses may not fit a cost-benefit measure if the projected life span is only five years. Some governments may also decide that a person will not be allowed to attend college because their net contribution to society will not cover the education expense.
Although 1 Corinthians 15:26 states that death is an enemy, Paul thought of death as necessary in order that believers may receive immortal, incorruptible bodies (1Co.15:50–57). This is a guarantee that requires no test to verify.
Prophet Isaiah illustrated how the decadence of man’s nature could be exposed when one is faced with a “death sentence” in the passage of prediction of the final Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 588-586 BCE, or possibly the Assyrian siege in 701 BCE as quoted at the beginning.
According to 2Chronicles 32:3-5 and verse 30, Hezekiah, king of Judah blocked off all the springs and the streams that flowed through the land, including the upper outlet of the Gihon spring, and he channelled the water down to the west side of the City of David as preparation for the invasions by Sennacherib. He also repaired all the broken section of the wall, built towers on it, and then built another wall outside that one and reinforced the supporting terraces of the city.
According to 2Kings 18:15-16, Hezekiah also gave all the silver and some gold from the Jerusalem Temple and the treasuries of the royal palace, by stripping off their doors and doorposts, in response to demands by Sennacherib king of Assyria and in an effort to avert the Assyrian’s siege of Jerusalem. All such efforts by Hezekiah were in vain, and in 701 BCE, the kingdom of Judah faced the Assyrian invasion. However, when Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, prayed in earnest, it was God that miraculously intervened into the situation and saved Jerusalem and Judah.
In the passages quoted at the beginning Isaiah depicts man’s corrupted, self-abandonment nature when one encounters a situation of hopelessness and despair: ‘“Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”’. This is the appalling reality of godless man. How vulnerable man is, if he/she does not know the presence of God and only believe that this world alone is his/her purpose to live on. In the context of the prophecy against ‘the Valley of Vision’, i.e., God’s city Jerusalem, God says that it is because of His people’s sinful ignorance and lack of recognition of Him who as the sovereign designer of all creation and history, that such a terrible day of terror has to come to God’s city Jerusalem and His people. When such a day came, they could not help but helplessly utter a cry of abandonment.
Paul quoted this verse of Isaiah and used it as a fitting philosophy of godless life, in that he argues that if there is no resurrection after life, he will find no reason to fight against his enemies in Ephesus: ‘And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day – yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’’ (1Co.15: 30-32). Thus, Paul taught on the tangible hope of eternal life after death.
In the Old Testament time even godly people had a limited view of death as Hezekiah’s prayer revealed:
‘I said, “In the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?” I said, “I will not again see the LORD himself in the land of the living; no longer will I look on my fellow man, or be with those who now dwell in this world. Like a shepherd’s tent my house has been pulled down and taken from me. Like a weaver I have rolled up my life, and he has cut me off from the loom; day and night you made an end of me. I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion he broke all my bones; day and night you made an end of me. I cried like a swift or thrush……I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. Lord, by such things people live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back……The living, the living – they praise you, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about your faithfulness. The LORD will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the LORD’ (Isaiah 38: 10- 20).
However, in the New Testament time, Jesus Christ brought eternal life to those who believe in His salvation through the cross, in which the believers have finally been freed from bondage of sin and death. After death, being even without physical body, believers still remain conscious in spirit and soul with the Lord until the time of His Second Coming when all of them will be given a resurrection body to live eternally.
By the appearing of Christ as an incarnated God on earth, a new light has been shed on a limited concept of death in the Old Testament time, as written
‘He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’ (2 Tim.1:9-10), and
‘Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death’ (Heb.2:14-15).
If only we acknowledge and believe in God’s promise of eternal life, we will not be threatened, try to escape from reality, or fall into self-abandonment, by the knowledge of how short we may have left on earth. Whether or not we believe in God makes our perspective against ‘death test’ completely different. We have already entered an unpredictable age where many unprecedented things are happening all over the world.
Paul taught on how life will be in the end times, suggesting that the way of this world would drastically change and that for believers in the Lord, life would get harder and harder. There has already been a huge shift in values in this world, with widening of the gap between standards of this world and teaching of the Bible. This is set to worsen as we approach the end and there will be widespread persecution of Christians:
‘But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away’ (1Co.7:28b-31).
One of the recent most uncontrollable serious incidents worldwide would be the continuing leaks of contaminated cooling water at the Japanese nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was crippled by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 11th March, 2011. Water which contained extremely high concentrations of radioactivity leaked into the ocean the following April and May, and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) was prompted to install silt fences. The concentrations are believed to have been diluted as the contaminated water spread, although radioactive materials have since accumulated at the bottom of the sea. Radioactive cesium detected in fish samples is understood to be derived out of the accumulation.
Despite continual investigation of the leak, TEPCO so far seems to be unable to cope with the operation, which has seen hundreds of tons of radioactive water escape into the Pacific Ocean. On 7th September at the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before its final decision of Tokyo as host of the 2020 Olympic Games, Japanese Prime Minister Shhinzo Abe assured the IOC that the problematic situation of radioactive water was under control. However, doubts have been cast over his assurance, in which he also convincingly remarked that radioactive water has completely been blocked within a certain area in the harbor of the Fukushima No.1 plant.
Nevertheless, according to the operator of the plant and local fishermen who were barred from going to sea since the accident, the fact of the situation appears beyond both logical and empirical knowledge and estimate, despite efforts and good-will on human side. In a nut shell, it appears to be utterly beyond human control and it seems that God is stripping Japan of its self-reliance layer by layer until He is accepted within this nation and her sin will be atoned for, exactly as He would do with His own people, Israel in the end times.
The time which the Bible prophesied has already come when all the nations should spiritually wake up, acknowledge and believe in the only living God because our Saviour, Christ’s Second Coming is very nigh.
NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-NEWS-
This month, a money gift of £**** has been sent to Frederic in Burundi to support the whole cost of registration and transportation for the dump-truck which is soon to arrive at the end of this month, and also for his travelling expenses to Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania.
Please remember him in your prayers so that he can use it for his and his flock’s livelihood, for his country Burundi’s restoration projects and the Lord’s service effectively.
