Why don't we live as long as they did in early Bible times?

[Lou Newton]

Why don't we live as long as they did in early Bible times?


Lou Newton, former Steel Mill Crane Designer and Physics Teacher



People lived longer before the flood. It had not rained before the flood and the earth was probably surrounded by a lot of clouds of water vapor. These clouds might have filtered the radiation from space and mankind got less radiation before the flood. Notice that immediately after the flood men started living shorter life spans.

Another factor could well be that the longer men walked on the earth the more their disobedience caused harm to our environment and so men lived shorter and shorter lives. It got so bad that the life expectancy in some African nations was well under 40 years.

1 view · Answer requested by Nathan ..................

[Lou Newton]

Glen B Smith
To:Lou Newton

Aug 19 at 3:12 AM
If the Bible student desires a natural explanation, I am surprised you did not include the differences in diets before the flood and after the flood.

Genesis 1
²⁹ And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. ^(T)You shall have them for food. ³⁰ And ^(U)to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Genesis 9
³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
==========
On the other hand, there is a theological explanation, not a natural one. The longer man rebelled against God the greater became the spiritual distance between God and man. Because God is the source of life (spirit or breath), the greater the spiritual gulf between God and man, the weaker the breath of God became in mankind. Therefore, a shorter life span.

Obedience to God is measured in the relative distance to God. Therefore, a measurement of the spiritual life received from God, which in Genesis is the exceedingly long life spans, become shorter the longer the rebellion continues.
The longer the life, the closer mankind was to the source of life.
The shorter the life, the farther mankind was from the source of life.
In the plan of redemption:
Those who were going to live along time are so close to the Lord Jesus that the New Testament describes Christians as in Christ. How does being in Christ change life span? Life becomes so long that it is everlasting states John 3:16. Methuselah has lost his record.

The first 11 chapters of Genesis are about people and the heavenly beings who deceived them in rebelling against the rule of YHWH. The Lord starts over twice, first with the flood and second with the confusion of language at Babel and the assignment of the nations. Neither restart stopped the rebellion.

The third restart is with Abraham (Genesis 12). The divine promise is that Abraham and his spiritual descendants will be the children of God. The criteria for a relationship with God will no longer be based upon obedience, because that has failed thrice (the fall in Eden, the flood, and Babel) and will fail again to secure for God a people through the Law delivered to Moses. The new criteria through Abraham is faith through grace. The Lord does all the work so His children are securely His as-long-as they are in Christ. Rebellion will still shorten your life - significantly!!!

The Lord's act of redemption, planned before any of the above became history and recorded in the Bible, included the failures of mankind. Why? For the benefit of His children. Believers must read the examples of what cause death and cannot produce everlasting life. Scripture, that is the Bible, was written for the believers' benefit. Otherwise, Christians would miss Noah's boat and go off and build a tower in Babylon to reach God while trying to keep the Law given to Moses. The Bible has its purpose, if you really want to follow Jesus.

19 August 2019 the old scribe