Eternal Youth Part 2

Q: Thank you I appreciate your vanity angle on the issue. My concern lies more with faith versus fear. Ive been thinking about Luke 17:33 and also trying to figure out how the Antichrist might win his followers. By also promising life/salvation in the form of eternal youth. However clearly inferior to immortality which God will give to us. But what if the reason is more for practical reasons? Can there be a good reason?

A: Do you believe it to be an act of faith or fear to be concerned about going after eternal youth? It seems to be more of one motivated by fear. Fear of how you will be accepted by others or how their acceptance makes you feel about yourself based on appearance. Fear that God may be unfaithful to you as you see the ravages of time and sin on your looks. The bottom line is that someone focused on eternal youth is, ultimately, focused on their flesh and not on the things of the Spirit. I don't see where one can be resting in all they have in Christ, and sharing what they have received from Him with others, when they are preoccupied with eternal youth. It is not just a matter of vanity, but identity. As I tried to address previously, God designed us with a desire for unconditional love and total acceptance. However, He designed us in such a way that only He can satisfy that desire through the indwelling Holy Spirit. When we don't believe we are receiving that unconditional love and acceptance from God, through faith in Jesus Christ, our only alternative is to try and get it from the world. And all the world offers can only be attained through some of form of sin.

Scripture clearly says that "everything that does not come from faith is sin (Romans 14:23)." And one risks putting faith in how they look and not in who they are in Christ when they go after eternal youth. Luke 17:33 says, "Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." Jesus is talking about eternal life in this passage, but it definitely applies to this conversation. If you are going after eternal youth are you focused on this life or the things of eternity? The answer would seem to be clear. Whether the future Antichrist uses mankind's obsession with youthfulness to lure them into following him remains to be seen. But, the spirit of Antichrist is already well at work in the world. The ultimate example of going after eternal youth is seen within the entertainment industry. All you see coming from Hollywood is a fixation on appearance. And because of the idolizing that many people have towards members of that community, what they are focused on becomes what their fans and the culture focuses on as well. And nowhere in the midst of all that is the Lord being glorified or even mentioned.That is because the majority of these people are unbelievers, dead in their sins, and trying to fill that void in their spirit through any available means the world offers.

There is definitely a good reason that can be taken from this focus on eternal youth. Those involved will never achieve the results they expect to receive from it. And when they come to the end of themselves, tired from the endless pursuit of youthfulness, they may proclaim like Paul, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24-25)!"Whether it is the Antichrist deceiving people into following him or just the indulging of the flesh that unbelievers have no choice but to engage in, the lure of eternal youth will always be a poor substitute for the eternal life we have in Christ. As a Christian, it doesn't make sense for me to pursue eternal youth, in a body destined for the grave, when I already know I have a new body and eternal life promised to me in Christ. "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands (2 Corinthians 5:1)." That "new building from God" is a body unlike anything we can imagine on this side of eternity. No doubt, the last thing on our minds will be going after eternal youth because you cannot improve on perfection.

For an unbeliever, they have no choice, but to put faith in the things of the world. Therefore, going after eternal youth is just one of countless sinful pursuits at the disposal of the lost. For a Christian, if they are going after the same thing, it is evidence of one of two things or both. One, they are immature in their faith and unaware of all God has given them through faith. Therefore, they end up looking to the world to fill the deepest desires of their heart that can only be met in Christ. Or two, they are not true believers and need to come to faith in Christ. God has not necessarily promised us immortality, but rather the promise of being resurrected. Philippians 3:21 says that Jesus, "who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like His glorious body."Our bodies will be nothing like the ones we presently inhabit. Therefore, it doesn't behoove us to try and improve the imperfect bodies we have, by pursuing eternal youth, when we will have fresh, new resurrected bodies given to us in the future. That is nothing to fear, but something to put faith in based on what God has already done for us in His Son. Be blessed.