Everlasting Place
  • Home
  • One way
    • Proof
  • Sadie Sparrow
    • Sadie Sparrow Excerpt
    • Author Chat
    • Articles
    • Book Reviews
  • Memoir
    • Memoir Excerpts
    • Reviews, interviews & endorsements
  • Blogs
    • Eternal eyes: a blog about forever
    • Golden years: a blog about the elderly
  • Old folks
    • Planting tips for Christians
  • Messages from Chris Carrillo
  • Library
  • Bookstore
  • Contact

Do you believe in fairy tales?

2/13/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The feminists of the ‘70s talked about moments of epiphany that they – we, actually – called the “click.” They were moments when we realized that reality did not match the feminine ideal, supposedly. But in practice it meant the increasingly frequent realization that we were in the presence of a male chauvinist pig or one of his drones.  

Well, I’ll tell you – a feminist “click” is nothing compared to the epiphanies that become practically a daily occurrence for a new Christian intent on learning about her Lord just as quickly as possible. 

Many of my clicks have come from a piece of scientific, historical or cultural information. For instance, one day not long ago I was lunching at a Chinese restaurant with some friends. We each had a “Chinese New Year” placemat, and while everyone else was busy looking for their birth years and those of their mates, I amused myself by looking at the animals chosen for the Chinese zodiac:

Dragon

Rat

Ox

Tiger

Rabbit/cat

Goat

Monkey

Rooster

Dog

Pig 

Snake 

Horse

I looked again at the first animal: Dragon. 

My stomach flip-flopped, just as it had when Paul Newman and Julie Andrews had seen the second bus following them in Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain. 

How is it, I wondered, that the ancient Chinese had chosen 11 real animals, and one mythological critter?  

I remembered hearing, too, that all major cultures have dragon myths (not to mention “great flood” myths), and that ancient dragon images have been found all over the world, from Babylon and Egypt to China; they’ve been found drawn on Viking ships, shown in relief sculpture in Aztec temples, and carved into bones by Intuits. And when I thought about all the dragon drawings I’d seen over the course of five decades, they all blurred into just a few types of creatures.

But of course, scientists have managed to explain these similarities away. Because of course the alternative is unthinkable: We couldn’t possibly admit the possibility that these dragons had actually lived with man, that they were in fact dinosaurs (a word that wasn’t invented until the 19th century), that – horrors! – maybe “millions and millions of years ago” was nothing more than the opening words of today’s adult fairy tales.  

Click.
______________

Excerpted from Heaven Without Her, pp 122-124
0 Comments

The cost of complaining

2/5/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about complainers. You’ve probably known some in your life: You walk into their presence and before you even sit down, you’re getting the low-down on everything that’s gone wrong in their lives – things that are clearly someone else’s fault.

As I type these words, I’m getting flashes of my own predilection for complaining: Yesterday's traffic was monstrous,  I’m so tired of winter, the dog kept me awake half the night, there’s cilantro in my salad – you name it, I can come up with a complaint.

It’s a habit I’d better begin eliminating immediately. Because while my life is full to overflowing right now, if I live long enough there may come a time when I’m facing hour after empty hour. And if I’d like to fill at least some of them with unpaid companionship, I’d best learn to be a source of happiness to others.

I’m reminded of this every time I visit  friends at the nursing home. Just about everyone living there for the duration has some measure of trial and sorrow in his or her life. Some may have more pain than their neighbors, others may be more disabled physically or mentally, and many have outlived all their friends and relatives.  Yet such circumstances seem to have little impact on where these individuals land on the happiness index; some wallow in misery, while others radiate joy, regardless of their personal tribulations.    

To make sure I’m not offending anyone, I'll use some examples from the way-distant past.

A woman I’ll call Gladys always seemed to be a happy camper. She was 98 when I met her. Childless and widowed, her mind was no longer as sharp as it must have been once upon a time, but we always had wonderful visits. She liked to talk about God and gardening, about the perfectly lovely food she was enjoying here, about this or that  aide who had gone out of her way to be kind to her next door neighbor that morning, about the beauty of the spring blooms or autumn leaves or pristine snow outside her window. 

Gladys and I also talked at length about the good old days. When asked, she didn’t mind sharing experiences from her past. But she was never self-focused. Even though her short-term memory was often on the fritz, she always managed to ask me about something important in my life, from our progress with a kitchen remodel to the health of a sick old dog. How she managed to recall such details week after week, I'll never know. Perhaps she jotted down a few notes after I left, and reviewed them just before my regular weekly visit. Or perhaps she asked the Lord to help her remember. 

You can probably understand why I loved visiting Gladys, and how sad I was to learn one day that she had died. There was no drama in her departure: One night she’d simply gone to bed with “a little stomach ache,” and never woke up. This surprised no one. She hadn't been one to complain about her health. I even commented on that once; she said that she would have to be one ungrateful old lady to complain about anything in light of all the blessings the good Lord had showered on her throughout her life. 

Then there was Clara, 87 when I met her.  

Clara was one of the most unhappy women I’ve ever known. A professing but apparently non-practicing Christian, she too was widowed. But unlike Gladys, Clara had two children – a son who dropped in for a quick visit every week, and a daughter who showed up once or twice a year.

I could certainly understand the daughter’s point of view. With Clara, the complaints started before you even put your purse down, and ended only as you were walking out the door. Look at the messy job her aide had done with her bed this morning! You wouldn’t believe the slop they had served in the dining room this week! Old Eva across the hall snored all night long again! Wouldn’t you think someone with half a brain would come visit her now and then? 

Surely Clara said something nice about someone in the four years I visited her, week after miserable week. But I honestly can’t think of a single example.  I can’t even remember her smile; it’s quite possible that I never saw it.  

Clara died a long and lingering death, having given anyone who would listen a detailed play-by-play of her illness for the last three years of her life. I went to her funeral at a nearby cemetery. There were 50 seats in the hall she’d chosen for her service, the same hall that had been packed for her husband’s funeral five years earlier.  Alas, this time there were only four of us in attendance: her son, her daughter and son-in-law, and me. 

Sadly, people like Clara are often bitter to the bone. There is hope for them, of course – but they have to be willing to acknowledge their own imperfections, to repent, and to receive the free gift of eternal life. Then, prepare to be blessed: Complaints seem to be few and far between from those who are pointed toward a glorious eternity!  
0 Comments

Is yours really "the one true church"?

1/29/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Dear Disciple of the One True Church,
 
Some years ago, an elderly woman told me that I was welcome to visit her, as long as I didn’t say anything about the Bible. She said she was a life-long member of a certain Christian denomination. “It’s the one true church,” she assured me. “and I already know I will ultimately be in heaven. I’ve always done all that I’ve been taught to do and I’m a very good person.”
 
Sound familiar? It's very similar to what you recently told me about yourself and your church, which is definitely not the same as hers.
 
I think you’ll agree that you can’t both be correct; there can be only “one true” anything, right?
 
So which one of you is in the "one true church"?

How do you know?
 
And what about all the other “one true churches” out there, each of them prescribing a different set of doctrines, rules, sacraments and sacrifices to be a member in good standing?
 
How confusing!
 
Then there's that pesky bottom-line issue of what gets us into heaven. You told me this: “Getting to heaven requires Jesus plus doing the works that have been revealed to my church’s founders. That is how we deal with man's sin problem.”
 
Funny that the Bible doesn’t say anything about this. In fact, from Genesis through Revelation, the Bible says that there’s not a thing we can do to earn heaven. “Jesus paid it all,” as Elvina M. Hall’s 1865 hymn so proudly proclaims—meaning, of course, that on the cross Jesus paid the world’s sin penalty in full, so that there’s nothing we need to or indeed can do to save ourselves. Instead, we need simply believe in Jesus Christ.  
 
The Bible makes this point repeatedly. Consider just a handful of pertinent passages:

  • Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:28-29)
  • For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
  • And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 1:13-14)
  • [N]ot by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)
  • [Know] that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:18-19)
 
So doesn’t this make you wonder why your church orders you to do all these works to get to heaven? 
 
Here's the thing. 

There really is only one true church. It consists of those who are, quite simply, believers in the Jesus Christ who has revealed Himself, and His plan of salvation, in the pages of the Bible. 

But don’t take my word for it. Investigate the subject for yourself, approaching the Bible with the heart of a child seeking truth.
 
It’s my prayer that you will do so without delay. After all, none of us knows when it will be too late.

Sincerely,

Kitty 
0 Comments

Ambushed by evil

1/23/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Do you ever play the “Whatever Happened To ….?” game, googling up some names from your past to find out where old friends or foes landed, and what they’re doing? I played it again recently, looking up a once-close friend I lost touch with decades ago, and was saddened to find him making appearances on New Age web sites of the “may the world unite in love, prosperity and happiness” ilk. 

In retrospect, it's not too surprising. This friend -- let's call him Nate -- grew up in what we would today call a thoroughly dysfunctional family. The worst blow: When he was just setting out on his own, his father committed suicide after a long struggle with depression and a devastating business failure. 

Nate didn’t handle it well. Crushed by both his loss and the stigma associated with suicide in that “less enlightened” era, he plunged into drinking and drugs and partying so wild that even I, ever the party girl, gladly let our friendship evaporate.

So I was happy to learn that he has apparently pulled himself out of that lifestyle. He’s now a psychologist, sporting a neat goatee and expensive suits and pursuing an avid spiritual life amongst those who worship Mother Earth or Mankind or Self or All of the Above.

Which is very sad. Apparently in his quest for peace and purpose, Nate failed to make truth a prerequisite. And that failure may well haunt him for all eternity, because by embracing the New Age he is rejecting Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth and the life”; as He said, “no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).  

Nate and his family attended church back in the day, but in the wake of his father’s suicide, he turned his back on its teaching.  I’m sure there were a lot of reasons that he did so.  But I’ll bet that a major one was the gossip he and his siblings had to endure. Not that anyone ever said anything to their faces; but they couldn’t help but overhear. “Suicides can’t go to heaven,” a slew of professing Christians whispered when they thought the grieving kids were out of earshot. “Thou shalt not murder, you know. He’s surely in hell now!”

I don’t personally know where Nate’s dad is spending eternity. But neither do these self-appointed judges. Murder is not the unforgivable sin, nor is suicide; the unforgivable sin is, quite simply, unbelief. And no one has a right to judge what another human being holds in his heart at the moment of death.

Yet some uninformed people insist that, according to Christianity, suicide invariably leads to hell. It’s a common and evil myth – one that can understandably ambush suicide's uniquely grief-stricken survivors, driving them out of the arms of Christ and into false religions that promise happily-ever-afters for everyone. Never mind that such promises are nothing more than flimsy wishes built on the lies of these false religions; for someone who has lost a loved one to suicide, such lies are preferable to the hellfire prescribed by those who have never bothered to investigate what the Bible says about much of anything.

I've tried to reach out to Nate, of course, to no avail. After decades of building up resistance to the truth of biblical Christianity, he may be too hard-hearted to even give me a hearing. But “with God, all things are possible” (Mark 10:27); only He knows if someone will ultimately reach Nate with the truth.

0 Comments

Is this the perfect "church" for you?

1/16/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Are you an independent thinker who refuses to be locked into a single system of thought? 

Do you scoff at “dogmatic” people who cling to a single Higher Authority – especially the Higher Authority who supposedly inspired the Bible, which you're personally certain is no better than any other book? 

Do you ever find yourself rubbing shoulders with such people, in a vain search for a like-minded friend who adheres to just the right amount of “religion”? 

If you answered "yes" to these questions, have we got a recommendation for you – the absolutely perfect “church” for those who know that the greatest virtue is tolerance!

It’s called Unitarian Universalism (UU – not to be confused with Unreal Units or User Unknown).  Its roots can be found in the late 18th and 19th centuries, just as the early strains of Zionism began to be heard. If you don’t know the significance of that movement – well, it’s a long story and you’d have to study the Bible to understand, so it’s easiest to just shrug it off. Suffice to say that this was the beginning of an era in which a number of exciting new religions emerged, from Jehovah’s Witness, Mormonism and Christian Science to Spiritism and the Baha’i Faith. The common denominator? All deny the divinity or humanity of Christ, or the sufficiency of His atonement, or both. 

But I digress. The important thing is that with UU, you can believe whatever you want! For instance: 

  • What is truth? Who knows?
  • Is there a God? Who cares?
  • How about sacred texts? Read none or all -- what difference does it make?

The important thing is that, with UU, there's none of that pesky dogma. And how cool is this: no UU will ever try to trip you up with words like “truth” or “source of authority,” except perhaps in the sense that “truth is whatever you think” and “the best source of authority is your own intellect.” 

Is UU for you? Here’s ​a quiz to help you find out.  

Now excuse me while I return to my meditation on John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." 
0 Comments

Dear New Age Evangelist

1/9/2019

4 Comments

 
Picture
Dear New Age Evangelist (NAE),
 
I would like to thank you for your most enlightening visit to our nursing-home Bible discussion. I just wish that I’d found some way to politely address each of your objections to our faith–and, one would hope, to allow you to think about what you were hearing from us.
 
Alas, I failed. Instead, NAE, I allowed each of my attempted responses to be swallowed up by your own heartfelt and firmly delivered beliefs.
 
But perhaps you would allow me to address a few of your contentions here, on my own blog. I’m hoping that you’ll actually read the copy of Heaven Without Her that I gave you, that you’ll then visit me here to comment on it, and that you’ll see this post. It’s a long shot, I admit, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
 
You said that all things are true, and so all religions are correct.
 
But if that’s so, then nothing is true. According to the universally accepted law of non-contradiction, contradictory views cannot all be true. Not even two of them can be true. And all these worldviews contradict each other!
 
To apply this principle to the issues we touched on in our Bible discussion, consider this: Either Christianity is true, or it is not. For example:

  • Either Jesus Christ is the one and only Creator God, as the Bible says and Christianity teaches, or He is not, as every other religion in the world claims. 
  • Either we reach eternal life in heaven by repenting and trusting in Jesus’s payment for all sin on the cross, as the Bible says and Christianity teaches, or we must hope that our own self-righteousness is adequate, as every other religion in the world claims.  
  • Either we can know that we are heaven-bound, as the Bible says and Christianity teaches, or your guess is as good as mine, as every other religion in the world claims.
 
You said that you don’t believe the Bible to be true.
 
Thanks to James Sire’s book The Universe Next Door, I realized early on in my own turn-of-the-millennium search for truth that this is the foundational issue: Is the Bible true or not?
 
And thanks to readily available evidence on everything from its scientific statements to its prophecies fulfilled, after just 16 months of intense research, I arrived at the rock-solid conclusion that the Bible is indeed true – divinely inspired and, in its original manuscripts, error-free. There’s no doubt about it.
 
You said that you need no evidence, that you know your beliefs are true because you feel it in your heart.
 
I’m sorry to say that you won’t find a much more unreliable truthometer than your own heart. As the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah pointed out, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
 
I don’t know what gives people the idea that the big issues of life can be resolved through heart-felt thought. But we sure seem to believe that; I’ve been there, done that myself. In my pre-Christian decades, I routinely conducted extensive research before arriving at conclusions about economic, political, financial or cultural questions. But I always felt that thought and emotion were perfectly adequate to the task of discerning ultimate spiritual truth.

As I put it in my memoir:
 
In the past, my discussions had been with any number of like-minded girlfriends who would agree with me wholeheartedly when I’d say, in a confidential tone, “I don’t know what I believe.”
 
“Me neither,” the girlfriend would say, sometimes adding something along the lines of, “But Buddhism is really a beautiful philosophy, don’t you think?”
 
“Yes, I do,” I would respond, knowing absolutely nothing about it. “And I’ve always liked the Hindu people.”
 
 We would talk as if our conclusions had been the product of intense thought, and as if thought alone should be the only mental activity needed to arrive at the ultimate truth – the Hercule Poirot “little gray cell” school of theology.
 
--Heaven Without Her, p. 77
 
Dare I suggest that it would be wise for you to leave such foolishness behind, NAE? You’re no spring chicken, and you’ll be face-to-face with eternity sooner than you think. It’s about time you sought the evidence you think you don’t need. ​Here’s a good place to begin.
 
You said you were saved the day you were born.
 
This idea is undoubtedly the product of New Age thought. But what if you’re wrong? What if there really is only one way to heaven, and this ain’t it? Are you willing to gamble your eternity on this empty claim? Really?
 
Please don’t. Forever is an awfully long time to be wrong.
 
Let’s cut to the chase.
 
I’m pretty sure you heard little of what I tried to say to you. But I know you heard two comments from my dear friend Marjie, and I hope you will give serious consideration to both:

  1. “Read that book!”
 
She was referring, of course, to Heaven Without Her. Good advice.
 
     2. “Why are you here?” 

You made it clear that you don’t believe the Bible. But we who gather weekly for this discussion do believe every last word of it, and we get together specifically to learn more about it. I don’t imagine that you intended to intrude upon our precious time together. I don’t imagine, either, that you intended to be rude to us.
 
But then I wonder what would have attracted you to a session billed, straightforwardly, as a “Bible discussion.” Could it be that you are in the early stages of seeking God? So early, in fact, that you don’t even realize it yet? We all hope and pray that this is the case.
 
This post is far from comprehensive. In less than a half hour, you told us many other things about yourself and your thinking. I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with you one day to discuss all of your objections to Christianity and the Bible.
 
If that sounds like something you’d like to do, please get in touch with me here.
 
What do you have to lose?
4 Comments

"The Perfect Gift"

1/2/2019

2 Comments

 
Picture
The post-Christmas letdown is upon us. Once again, too many are finding that the gifts which so delighted them on Christmas Day have lost their charm – that even the loveliest of them have failed to satisfy their deepest desires.
 
For people who feel this way, the problem may well be that there’s a gift they forgot to open. It’s the uniquely perfect gift, one that lasts forever.
 
Could you be among those who’ve missed it? Happily, it’s not too late. To find out what it is, and how to receive it, please listen to this magical message from Chris Carrillo, delivered on December 30th during the Christian Music Hour at Care-age of Brookfield:
To hear more of these life-changing messages, please visit our Messages from Chris Carrillo page. 

(If you’re reading this via email, simply click on the title above to be taken to the audio recording of Chris’s message.)
2 Comments

What if it's true?

12/27/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Some time ago, I attended the funeral of a wonderful woman who had died, surrounded by her loving children, after having lived 89 happy, faith-filled years. 

Her funeral was held in a Lutheran church packed with family and friends. Over the course of an hour or so, we sang some of her favorite hymns – “In the Garden,” “When Morning Gilds the Skies,” “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” – as well as the contemporary song “Shout to the Lord.” We heard some comforting readings from Scripture and a homily, as well as her grandson’s lovely (and often humorous) tribute to his grandmother. And of course we shared in a number of prayers. 

There were some tears, but mostly shed over brave smiles. It seems that most of the woman’s family members are believers themselves. They haven’t lost her; they know exactly where she is, and know that they will be reunited with her eternally one happy day. And so they are able to rejoice over her home-going.

What a contrast to some of the funerals I’ve been to, where uncertainty or unbelief have reigned. 

It makes me wonder once again what it is in our nature that allows us to approach certain death without looking into what comes next, and what our options might be.

Seriously: What if Christianity is true? What if eternity exists, and you will spend it in either heaven or hell? What if your ultimate destination depends not on how good you have been in this life, or how popular or how rich, but solely on whether or not you trusted in Christ to have paid the penalty for your sin? 

Millions upon millions of people have believed just that over the centuries. Some of us even came to this conclusion after investigating the subject exhaustively.

Doesn’t it seem like the epitome of foolishness to refuse to look into it?

I spent the first 48 years of my life in precisely that state. Year after year, I told myself that no one could possibly know what happens after death, although I have no idea where I got that idea – certainly not as a result of any great intellectual inquiry. That journey was reserved for the 15 months following the biggest heartbreak of my life, and it led me to the doubt-free conclusion that Christianity is truth.

If you haven’t yet investigated this most important question, what exactly is stopping you? It can’t possibly be worth risking your eternity. 

Here’s a good place to begin. I sincerely hope that you'll check it out. 
0 Comments

10 tips for witnessing to seekers

12/19/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s clearly our duty to help the lost-but-looking find their way to Christ. As the apostle Peter wrote, “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15b).  Sincere seekers will gladly listen to the evidence you present. Here’s how.

  1. Pray for opportunities and wisdom. God is the only one who can soften a seeker’s heart, and the only one who knows exactly what he or she needs to hear.
  2. Help frame the questions. We don’t know what we don’t know, and the lost may not even know what questions to ask. Answering these questions can be a good place to begin: Can I be sure that there a God? If so, which one is the real deal?
  3. Point to the Creator. Ask the $64,000 question: How can we logically credit a painter for a painting, or a sculptor for a sculpture, and yet deny that a Creator was responsible for the creation? 
  4. Clarify the candidates. Which One is the real God? To give your seeker a grasp of the alternatives, offer a copy of James Sire’s The Universe Next Door – or familiarize yourself with its content and present it in a nutshell. Then challenge him or her to find evidence for Christianity’s competitors. (Good luck with that!)
  5. Amass evidence that the Bible is absolute truth. Determine whether your seeker is most interested in prophecy, history, science, or logic, and then present the pertinent evidence to demonstrate scripture's truth and divine inspiration. 
  6. Explain the gospel – that we’re all sinners headed for hell, but that Jesus paid our personal penalties for sin so that we can spend eternity with Him in heaven – all in exchange for repenting and trusting in Him rather than our own non-existent “goodness.”
  7. Pray some more. Ask the Lord to do whatever it takes to usher your seeker safely into His fold – and to help you walk worthy before him or her.
  8. Count the cost. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake” (Luke 6:22). It’s going to happen, if you’re witnessing effectively. Recognize it as a small price to pay for your salvation.
  9. Encourage yourself. In the end, heaven is the only treasure worth pursuing in this life – for yourself, and for everyone you know. Always keep your eye on the prize: eternal life with the One who died for you.
  10. Be patient. You may not see much progress in your seeker’s heart today, or next week, or even after years. It may not even happen in your lifetime. Rest secure in the knowledge that you’ve been faithful to plant the seeds of faith, and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. 
0 Comments

The myth of increasingly spectacular lifespans

12/12/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
“The Bible can’t possibly be true,” a skeptical friend insisted back at the turn of the millennium, when I’d just launched my search for ultimate truth. “As if people could ever have lived to be hundreds and hundreds of years old. Ridiculous! Don’t you know that we’re now living far longer than ever before, thanks to evolution and medical science?” 

This woman was right about one thing, it turned out: the Bible does document outrageous lifespans, such as 969 years for Methuselah and 950 for Noah. But everything went rapidly downhill from there, the Bible seems to indicate, presumably because genetic mutations had begun their relentless process of deadly accumulation. 

So who’s right, my friend or the Bible? Is there any evidence that we’re really living longer these days? Or have we actually lost longevity ground over the centuries? Is it possible that evolution isn’t doing anything to extend our lives? That modern medicine is, at best, keeping us in a holding pattern? 

These are significant questions – so significant that I’ve researched the subject now and then over the years. And what do you know: It seems that today’s “ripe old ages” are really nothing new.  

Consider how long these famous people lived:  

  • Third Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, 1303–1213 BC: 90 years
  • Spiritual leader Lord Buddha, c. 563–483 BC: 80 years
  • Greek philosopher and educator Plato, 424– 348 BC: 76 years
  • Early theologian Saint Augustine, 354 –430: 76 years
  • France’s first queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1122-1204: 82 years 
  • Italian painter  and sculptor Donatello, 1386-1466: 80 years
  • Italian sculptor, painter and architect Michelangelo, 1475 – 1564: 89 years
  • Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo, 1564 - 1642: 78 years
  • English mathematician and scientist Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727: 85 years
  • French philosopher Voltaire, 1694 – 1778: 84 years
  • Samuel Adams, 1722 – 1803: 81 years
  • German philosopher Immanuel Kant, 1724 –1804: 80 years
  • Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826: 83 years
  • Russian author Leo Tolstoy, 1828 – 1910: 82 years 

Interestingly, those who document these vast ages never seem to comment on their subjects’ longevity. How come? If most ancients really dropped like flies in young adulthood, wouldn’t you think someone would exclaim over those who slipped through the early-death cracks?  

Instead, such comments seem to be limited to comparisons of today with the 18th and 19th centuries -- centuries when, we are told, people only lived from 35 to 45 years. The underlying message: Aren’t we children of the 20th and 21st centuries absolutely amazing to have so vastly extended human lifespans?  

But apparently we have not done so. Apparently, like every other historical fact ever uncovered, dates such as those above confirm the biblical record. 

Doesn’t this suggest the wisdom of considering what the Bible has to say about what happens after we close the book on our earthly lives?  
2 Comments
<<Previous

    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

    Archives

    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Care to subscribe?

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from tracie7779, Luci Correia, Maxwell Hamilton, giardinaggio, Doug1021, Angel Xavier Viera, Damian Gadal, Reboots, mRio, HikingArtist.com, guymoll, csath07, Guudmorning!, fred_v, ishaip, jinxmcc, freeparking :-|, CallMeWhatEver, BryonLippincott, simpleinsomnia, csread, nicephore, Doug Beckers, mandydale, berniedup, tontantravel, h.koppdelaney, Jill Clardy, anieto2k, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, QuidoX, Ryo | [ addme. ], TinyTall, proggy-yahoo, Infiniteyes, Genista, kippster, Speculum Mundi, HerPhotographer, megallypuff, harshxpatel, Waiting For The Word, CoreBurn, Gordon Chirgwin, {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, John McLinden, Patrick Feller, jikatu, Peter O'Connor aka anemoneprojectors, byzantiumbooks, bizmac, H o l l y., Peter Blanchard, sheriffmitchell, Tony Webster, hectorir, City of Overland Park, luis_cunha, Sam Howzit, bertknot, QuotesEverlasting, iturde, ejmc, VARNISHdesign, Cimm, Good Book Reader, Renaud Camus, banjipark, romana klee, 00alexx, erix!, branestawm2002, amsfrank, m01229, cbcmemberphotos2477, rhode.nel, Veronique Debord, joshjanssen, zenjazzygeek, h.koppdelaney, Laurel Mill Players, quinn.anya, *ErinBrierley*, Ben Pugh, Photographing Travis, BarnImages.com, anees.waqas, swambo, Alan Miles NYC, glenngould, Patrick Feller, davecito, wade in da water, Endre Majoros, France1978, dainamara, theseanster93, eliduke, volker-kannacher, cogdogblog, Editor B, poshdee, brewbooks, J D Mack, ThomasKohler, mayeesherr. (in West Bengal!), TEDxHouston, Ms. Phoenix, PBoGS, Eselsmann™, Inside Guide To London, ShironekoEuro, Tom Anderson, flequi, cogdogblog, njaminjami, Search Engine People Blog, ShanMcG213, Julie Edgley, randihausken, pescatello, Waiting For The Word, moriza, Iain Farrell, Arizona Parrot, digitalmindphotography, enjosmith, www.WeisserPhotography.com, STC4blues, Holidayextras, Randy Roe, goprogresswent, BenDibble, kstoyer, Rennett Stowe, williac, ImNotQuiteJack, Life Mental Health, Jose Antonio Cotallo Lopez, gruntzooki, electricinca, adactio, miheco, Zemlinki!, bnilsen, chispita_666