Most scientists agree that aging and death seem somehow programmed into our genes. The question is: When, how, and why
did they enter our genetic code, as it were?
The Bible gives us the simple answer--even though it does not present it in terms of genetics or DNA. Romans 5:12 reads:
"That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to
all men because they had all sinned."
The first man, Adam, had the prospect of living forever. His body was designed with the necessary faculties to live and
enjoy eternal life. Eternal life was conditional, though. Adam had to collaborate with and be obedient to the Source of
life, his Creator, in order to maintain his life perpetually...
"And Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of
it. And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: "From every tree of the garden you may eat to
satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from
it you will positively die."--Genesis 2:15-17
Adam chose to disobey the Creator. In effect, Adam claimed that man is better off ruling himself independent of God.
Thus he sinned. From that point onward, it was as if his genetic code was altered. Instead of passing on everlasting
life as an inheritance to his offspring, Adam transmitted sin and death...
"For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our
Lord."--Romans 6:23
Only God can reveal what happens after people die, and he has done so in his written Word, the Bible. This is what the
Bible says: "As the [beast] dies, so the [man] dies; and they all have but one spirit . . . All are going to one
place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust." (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20)
There is no mention here of a heaven or fiery hell. Humans return to dust--to nonexistence--when they die...
"For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all,
neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten."--Ecclesiastes 9:5
We have no immortal soul... ;)
Death is called an "enemy" in the Bible, and God does not cooperate with mankind"s enemies. To the
contrary, he promises to destroy death as well as all other enemies of man:
"As the last enemy, death is to be brought to nothing."--1 Corinthians 15:26