KASPARS OZOLINS
An influential news outlet here in the UK recently reported on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ “quest for eternal life.” That’s no joke. This is how the article begins: “What does the world’s richest man still want after making all those billions? More time to spend them. Jeff Bezos is said to be one of the investors in a well-funded Silicon Valley start-up recruiting some of the world’s top genetic scientists to seek the secrets of eternal life.”
Jeff Bezos is the man in Jesus’ parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:16–21:
And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
The founder of Amazon, at 57, has no place (or time) to store his billions. So he is looking for one. Having rejected the true gospel, the good news of eternal life through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Son of God, he seeks in vain for a false one, the good news of eternal longevity through man’s ingenuity.
Yet even Jeff Bezos knows in his heart, as do we all, that “it is appointed once for man to die, and then the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Irrationally, this knowledge is suppressed in unrighteousness, as Romans 1 explains, and drowned out by worldly thinking. The rejection of God as the source of eternal life, and the endless search for eternal longevity in a futile quest to avoid death––is worldly thinking.
Is Jeff Bezos an extreme outlier? What about the ordinary man on the street? Others may not have the billions to pour into this quest, but their lives and behavior equally betray the same kind of reasoning. On the streets of Cambridge where I live, there is a famous clock in the old town with a Latin inscription from 1 John 2:17: Mundus transit et concupiscentia eius (“The world and all its lusts are passing away”). Yet most people passing by that clock on the cobbled street live their brief lives in such a way that they effectively try to do everything in their power to suppress this terrifying reality.
Adventist worldliness
Perhaps surprisingly, this sort of thinking is on full display in Adventism. Let me illustrate with a few recent news items. Adventist Today reported last week that Adventist Health, the West Coast health system owned by the denomination, had acquired the famous “Blue Zones” organization. Back in 2005, National Geographic featured a cover story titled “The Secrets of Long Life.” The piece opened with an enticing question: “What if I said you could add up to ten years to your life?”
One of the original “blue zones” described was Loma Linda, California, a world-renowned Mecca of Adventism. Some of the habits touted in the piece include the following: “Eat nuts and beans,” “Observe the Sabbath,” “Have faith.” An Adventist pastor interviewed for the article explained his religion in quasi-clinical terms: “To accept Christ is to be free, which reduces stress.” The secular NatGeo author was impressed by Marge, a centenarian Adventist. He quipped (rather blasphemously): “God may or may not have something to do with Marge’s vitality, but her religion has. Marge is a Seventh-day Adventist.”
That author, Dan Buettner, went on to write a best-selling book on the subject, eventually founding an organization by the same name, Blue Zones. In an ironic twist, Adventist Health has now ended up acquiring the organization that was originally birthed by an idea nowhere better embodied than in its current new owner. In Adventism, one finds a blend of “spirituality” and an obsession with health that is utterly appealing to our modern Western world. One of the main ideas touted by Blue Zones (even prior to its current acquisition by Adventist Health) is called “The Power 9”:
- Incorporate movement into your daily life.
- Find and cultivate your sense of purpose.
- Enjoy regular downtime, especially on Sabbath.
- Stop eating when you’re 80 percent full.
- Aim to fill 95 percent of your plate with plants or plant products.
- Enjoy time each day with friends and family.
- Cultivate a sense of belonging through faith and fellowship.
- Put your loved ones first.
- Enjoy the benefits of a lifelong circle of friends.
Each item sounds very pleasant and reasonable to modern ears; the word that comes to mind is sensible. The company explains item 7 in the following way: “All but five of the 263 centenarians we interviewed belonged to some faith-based community. Denomination doesn’t seem to matter. Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month will add 4–14 years of life expectancy.” Denomination doesn’t matter. God doesn’t matter. What matters is man’s highly utilitarian and self-serving practice of religiosity.
In a recent Pulitzer Center interview last month on the same subject with Loma Linda Adventists, Adventist Ester van den Hoven explained: “I feel my faith has given me a lot of peace. Always be honest, trust in God, and believe in spiritual things. To some people it may sound silly, but if I wouldn’t have had that hope, I would be very much lost.” Believe in spiritual things. What a perfect encapsulation of a kind of aimless pretend-Christianity, utterly driven by pragmatic concerns. The author approvingly summarizes: “Religion gives these Seventh-day Adventists rest, peace, and purpose; a recipe for longevity.”
As it turns out, the religion of Adventism, far from being rooted in Scripture and preoccupied with the things of God, is thoroughly occupied with the things of man. Adventism is worldy. And no wonder. Having warped the gospel and the cross of God’s beloved Son, Adventism falls directly under Christ’s stern rebuke to Peter in Matthew 16:23: “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man!”
Scripture and physical health
But what could be so wrong about being concerned about our health and the health of our loved ones? Long life and good health are certainly wonderful gifts from a kind God, who sends rain upon the just and the unjust alike. Moreover, the numerous scientific breakthroughs and medical advances we enjoy today are all undeserved gifts from a God who deserves the real credit. With all this, the Bible clearly majors on the heart, and eternal things of the soul, while it minors on the physical health of the external body in this brief lifetime. In the greeting of 3 John, the apostle does express a wish for both the spiritual and physical well-being of Gaius. But Paul evaluates the worth of each by admonishing Timothy that “while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8).
In fact, when you think about it, the Bible has surprisingly little to say about human health. Human bodies, like everything in this universe, are subject to the curse of the Fall and degrade over time, eventually leading to death. The certainty and inevitability of death has an ironic way of undermining the premium that the world ceaselessly places on physical safety and good health. A recurring theme in the psalms and prophets (also echoed in James) is that man is like a fading flower that is here today and gone tomorrow. When the world glorifies physical security, good health, and longevity––it profoundly contradicts Scripture. It is drowning out the Bible’s warnings about its sin, judgment, and death, while refusing to come to Christ, the fountain of living water, for eternal life.
By contrast, the apostle Paul put no confidence in his flesh (with all the meanings and implications that word carries), but instead counted “all things as loss because of the surpasssing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.” The world would certainly have characterized his lifestyle with regard to his health and safety as reckless, senseless, irrational. Just consider what his body endured:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure (2 Cor. 11:24–27).
Yet despite all this, Paul did not lose heart. Instead, he boldly proclaimed a profound truth that is a bedrock reality for every believer in Jesus Christ: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). It is sadly the reverse for the unbelieving world. The physical bodies of people in the modern West advance in longevity year by year, through scientific breakthroughs, carefully balanced diets, and sophisticated risk assessments. Meanwhile, the inner soul of the post-Christian West is rapidly shriveling up as the black darkness of our civilization’s night approaches.
Our present situation
As of this writing, 4.55 million people worldwide have died from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Over six hundred thousand of those are Americans. Every human life lost has been devastating for the families left behind. Moreover, many are suffering serious lasting side effects from the virus (a condition known as “long COVID”). Speaking personally, we were extremely worried earlier this summer when a young pregnant woman and her husband, friends of ours, ended up being hospitalized because of the virus.
Yet despite all the devastation that COVID has wreaked, none of its consequences can ultimately compare with the far deeper spiritual crisis of the modern unbelieving world. It is a world that is enthralled with its own sophisticated medical advances, obsessed with health and safety, yet paralyzed by fear of death. The modern world’s unprecedented responses––lockdowns, vaccine mandates, physical shunning, masking of little children, business restrictions––have exposed a devastating theological reality. Whatever your opinion of the efficacy of such measures, in the aggregate, they inescapably paint a picture of a society which has rejected its Creator and is instead vainly clinging onto this mortal life.
What is more, the virus and our response to it has also exposed a crisis in the Western evangelical world. An evangelicalism that has lived in safety and comfort for centuries has been forced to fundamentally reassess the worth and significance of such basic things as physically gathering together as a church and living as the body of Christ. Just how important are these things––taken for granted by so many for so long––in the face of a new deadly virus, governmental restrictions, and sharply divided opinions within broader Christendom?
Counting the cost
In many ways, Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:24–26 are fast becoming more than a Bible memory verse for many of us in the West:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Young or old, we are all dying. Yet he or she who has the Son has eternal life. “Behold, we live!” exclaims the apostle Paul (2 Cor. 6:9). It is worth giving up everything for the sake of Him who stood in our stead and was crushed for our iniquities. Let that spiritual reality shape all your thoughts and actions, and your relationship to God’s people and to the world. In the days to come, we must know this reality in a way that we have perhaps never felt before: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). †
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