SIGNS FOR THE END OF THE AGE

by Jack Kinsella

According to biologist Aubrey de Grey, the person that will live to be 150 years old has already been born.  Moreover, he says, the person that will live one thousand years will probably be born sometime in the next couple of decades.
Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist and chief scientist at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) in (where else?) California.  He describes aging as the lifelong accumulation of various types of molecular and cellular damage throughout the body. 

"The idea is to engage in what you might call preventative geriatrics, where you go in to periodically repair that molecular and cellular damage before it gets to the level of abundance that is pathogenic," he explained.

Exactly how far and how fast life expectancy will increase in the future is a subject of some debate, but the trend is clear. An average of three months is being added to life expectancy every year and experts estimate there could be a million centenarians across world by 2030.

To date, world's longest-living person on record lived to 122 and in Japan alone there were more than 44,000 centenarians in 2010. Some researchers say, however, that the trend towards longer lifespan may falter due to an epidemic of obesity now spilling over from rich nations into the developing world.

Jeanne Calumet, died the world’s oldest person in 1997 at the age of 122 years, 164 days old.
In 1965, aged 90 and having outlived all her heirs, Calumet signed a deal to sell her apartment to a French lawyer on a kind of reverse mortgage deal. 
The lawyer (who was 47) agreed to pay Calumet a monthly sum until she died, whereupon the apartment’s ownership would transfer to him.
It sounded like a terrific deal.  She was ninety, he was not yet fifty.  He expected to pick the place up for chump change.  Instead, it probably deserves a place in history as the worst deal ever. 
The lawyer died at aged 77 of cancer.  His widow continued to make the payments until Calumet’s death.  In the end, they paid almost $200,000 – more than double what the place was worth.
Years ago, science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein published a fantasy novel called, “Time Enough For Love” that centered around an experiment in longevity and explored the many problems associated with living beyond a normal lifespan.
In the novel, the long-lived “Howard Families” were hunted and hounded by what Heinlein called the “ephemerals” because of the unfair advantage their longer lifespans afforded them.  
Ultimately, because they didn’t die, they were forced to emigrate to another planet, which itself became overcrowded.   
It was a fascinating book because it is a fascinating subject.  If there is anything that all human beings would agree on, it is that life is too short.  All of us would like to live longer, healthier lives.   
Until you give it a little thought.  In 1930 the world population passed the two billion mark for the first time in history.  In 2012, the world population is projected to cross the SEVEN billion threshold.
What would happen if we extended the human lifespan a hundred years?  Or a thousand?  Where would we put everybody?  How would we feed them?
That's why God put a limit on the human lifespan. 
Assessment:
In the Bible’s story about the tower of Babel, Nimrod united all men in an effort to defeat God by building a tower that would ‘reach to heaven’ to which they could flee another flood.

“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

The Bible says that God confused their languages and separated them into nations to demonstrate the folly of attempting to defeat God.  There is a limit to how far God will allow mankind to go before He steps in.
So it is no coincidence that as we approach the end of this age, science is on the threshold of defeating God by reversing the curse of death. 

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Daniel 12:4)

According to Moore’s Law of Computing, computer processor capacity doubles every eighteen months.  That means that computers will be ten times smarter in just four years.  As a consequence, so will we.
Ten years from now, it is entirely possible that science will have figured out how to reverse the aging process.  If we are still here ten years from now, which seems less likely with every passing day.
The Book of Daniel was ‘sealed’ – that is to say, the symbolism used throughout was unrecognizable except to the generation to whom the prophecies contained therein were intended.
Thus, since the signs given to Daniel are taking place before our very eyes, we know that the end time prophecies found in the scriptures are for today.
We live in an age of miracles.  In this generation, calling down ‘fire from heaven’ is a more a technological miracle than a supernatural one.  It is to this specific generation that the prophecies are addressed.
Consequently, it is this generation whose attention is most closely focused on the books of Daniel and the Revelation.
Look at all the movies about the end times.  They are not being produced by believers for believers, but by Hollywood for unbelievers.  Hollywood believes in prophecy, it just doesn't believe in God.
The same can be said for many unbelievers.  To them, prophecy is a parlor trick, but to us, it is the power of God.

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Prophecy is the ONE miracle no human being can recreate with technology.  It is what makes the Bible unique among all other sacred writings.  
No one knows the exact day and hour, but we can know when His return is near.  The unbelievers of Noah's day were taken unawares, but Noah was not surprised.  Noah knew one hundred and twenty years beforehand that the flood was coming.

Noah did not know the exact day of the flood; but when Noah finished building the ark, he knew the flood was near.

We are witnessing the construction process for the last day's ark coming to an end.

Prophecy is not given to remain a secret forever, but at the proper time God gives understanding to those who will take notice and believe.You are an example of fulfilled prophecy for the last days.  You are one of the 'watchmen on the wall' that Scripture anticipated and Bible scholars have awaited for centuries. 

"But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." (Ezekiel 33:6)

Sir Isaac Newton, in addition to being one of the world's greatest scientific minds, was also a devout believer who was a careful student of Bible prophecy.  He made a sort of prophecy of his own that he extrapolated from the Scriptures.  According to Newton,

"About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up, who will turn their attention to the prophecies, in the midst of much clamor and opposition."

The Bible says the last days' Church will have watchmen appointed, and scoffers (both saved and unsaved) that will require warning.
The Tribulation is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble and has no relationship with the Church.  But we can see from this side of the Rapture, the Tribulation looming on the other side.
One can tell a storm is coming by watching the gathering clouds.  You needn't wait for the rain, if you can read the signs.