LONGEVITY OF LIFE AND THE BIBLE PART I

Good morning everyone! Well, my daughter still hasn’t had her baby! We are waiting a long time for this blessed little one to arrive! But I suppose that is all relative. To the pre-flood people,  nine months would be a snap of the fingers. Why? Well, let’s take a closer look.

Many places in the Old Testament refer to the longevity of life for the pre-flood and even some of the post flood people. For example, Noah was 500 years old when he began construction on the ark, which took 100 years to build, then he lived another “…three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.” (Genesis 9:28-29). Adam lived a long life as well “And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” (Genesis 5:5). “And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.” (Genesis 5:8). Enos lived nine hundred and five years, Cainan lived nine hundred and ten years, and there are many more long lived people written about in Genesis.

What does all this mean? You might be like I was when I first became a believer. I didn’t know what to do with these long ages so at first I didn’t believe it. And then when I tried to wrap my brain around it and except it, I believed people could live such long lives (only because the bible said so) but didn’t know what to do with it -so I ignored it. For many years.

But then I discovered through wonderful organizations like Answers in Genesis and Institute for Creation Research that there is an explanation. There are actually, two major factors involved in the prolonged life spans of the peoples who lived in the former world; environment and genetics.

model of a water vapor canopy 

Let us take a look first at the environment. How much did the earth differ in the pre-flood world than it is today? The bible tells us it was very different! “The world before the Flood was quite different from the world today. A global water vapor canopy encircled the earth and contained vast amounts of water vapor (Genesis 1:6–8). Furthermore, the topography was much less pronounced since all present mountain ranges are made up of sedimentary rocks or volcanoes attributable to the Flood. Since it didn’t rain before the Flood (Genesis 2:5), yet rivers flowed (v.10), there must have been great subterranean reservoirs of water. ‘And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so’ (Genesis 1:7).” Here we can see that the bible establishes there were waters above the firmament. The bible does not say clouds or thunderheads. Most creation scientists believe there was a thin layer of water vapor that surrounded the earth.

What does that have to do with long life spans? Well, one of water’s properties it that it gives protection against the sun’s ultra violet rays. For example, people who work outside in hot arid environment where there is little moisture in the air tend to wrinkle faster than those who have the same amount of outdoor exposure in foggy, rainy areas such as the far north west. Wrinkles are a sign of the breakdown of epidermal (skin) cells and it is a well known fact that ultra violet rays from the sun contribute to this (thus the invention of sunscreen).

So with a water vapor surrounding the earth, the pre-flood people would have been protected from the sun’s harmful rays, which in turn would promote longer life spans. In addition, it is believed that the pre-flood world had an ideal temperate climate, similar to the Mediterranean of today minus the intense rays of sun. Also it is believed that the oxygen content was greater in the former world than it is now. All would contribute to cellular health and longer life spans.

But is that enough to account for nine hundred years of life in a single person? The answer is no. Tune in next time to see what else could have cause increased the longevity of life!

Until then, God bless and take care!

Willow =),

In the sky this week:  “Jupiter's moon Europa disappears into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 1:11 a.m. Saturday morning EST (10:11 p.m. Friday evening PST). A small telescope will show it fading out of sight a little off the planet's western limb.” Then on Saturday , November 10^th, “Jupiter's moon Ganymede reappears out of eclipse from the planet's shadow around 10:35 p.m. EST, only to disappear behind Jupiter's western limb 20 minutes later. A small telescope will show these proceedings.”

References:

Morris, H. M. 2006. The New Defender's Study Bible. Nashville, TN: World Publishing,                             Inc.

http://www.icr.org/article/more-mysteries-for-science-long-life/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance