Wonderful message! Thank you! At 79 years of age, this is my winter, and I firmly believe it is my preparation for the end of my physical life and transition to my eternal life. Not wishing this physical life to cease, and I have no fear of death, because I firmly believe I will then experience eternal life with my Lord and Savior, as well as being reunited with my daughter who will wait patiently for me to join her. God has always guided my life and protected me throughout my life. I know this to be true ... me, a sinner ... always humbly aware of His constant love and forgiveness. What a training ground has been provided throughout my life.
The love of family and an abundance of loving and genuinely caring friends through my entire life. I have been, and continue to be blessed. ๐
However, I feel that you have not understood the resurrection to eternal life. It is not an "eternal physical body" as you have said, but a totally spiritual body we will have, or Jesus would not have said:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again.
The wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot not tell where it comes, and where it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:3-9)
Spirit can manifest as the physical, as did Jesus to the disciples after his resurrection, but he was a spirit being then.
We are to be one with God, who is a spirit being.
And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
I can't stop other things this morning to read through everything here but I scrolled, looking for Leviticus 19:32 and there you have it. I'm 75 and very well aware of that verse. It was part of my upbringing. Hair aside and its associated "ageism", I see the risks that older folks take just going to church. I've not actually been tripped or knocked down by children or younger adults, but I have to be constantly on guard. I walk with a cane now and it has a certain visible "threat" value that gets the attention of young children that would otherwise take me out. Zero awareness. Never taught by parents also with zero awareness.
I get along OK. God provides for me. But what is to become of those who disregard this "Old Testament" warning?
Rocka, your seasonal framework โ spring, summer, fall, winter as stages of human life with distinct purposes โ is an attempt to read biblical pattern into human experience, and there are genuinely valuable elements there. Scripture does speak of stages of life (e.g., train up a childโฆ and finish your course with joy), and the Church has long honored the dignity of elders and the body as part of creationโs goods. The insight that modern culture often idolizes productivity and overlooks the wisdom of age is a real social concern. ๏ฟผ
But the argument you build from this framework has multiple weaknesses that are clarified once we see the first scroll in its full context.
To begin with, the seasonal metaphor is descriptive, not prescriptive. Natureโs seasons and human life stages are analogous, but they are not identical in structural necessity. Christian theology always treats analogies to creation with caution: they point toward truth without becoming the truth itself. The Church recognizes that there is biological ageing and there is spiritual formation. The fact that Scripture uses imagery of harvest and planting does not justify systematizing human life into rigid seasons with mechanistic spiritual functions. Analogies can illuminate, but they cannot replace theological precision.
Second, while it is true that Western culture often diminishes elders and overvalues youth and productivity, the articleโs representation of that as a kind of cosmic rebellion overshoots the actual problem. Caring for health, seeking medical care, maintaining agency in old age, and even pursuing rejuvenation are not intrinsically acts of denial of Scripture. They can be wise stewardship of the body God gave us. When you label anti-aging medicine and cosmetic practices as โcosmic rebellion,โ you deprive Christians of the nuance the Church has always employed in moral distinction: something can be good in itself but disordered in practice, and not every instance of pursuit of health is a denial of death or resurrection.
More importantly, the theological claim that aging itself trains for death and that cultural denial of aging is spiritual rebellion needs more nuance. Christianity does not regard the physical decline as a kind of divinely ordained spiritual pedagogy automatic in itself. Scriptural witness sees aging and physical suffering through the lens of original sin and redemption in Christ, not as a designed curriculum. The true formation of the soul in its passage through life depends on grace, repentance, virtue, sacramental life, and union with Christ, not merely on biological process.
You also frame the dismissal of elders as part of a cultural โBabylonianโ assault on memory. This narrative of cultural erasure is vivid, but it presumes that elder testimony is a reservoir of unmediated truth about how things ought to be and that cultural change equates to amnesia. In reality, cultures evolve โ sometimes for good, sometimes for ill โ and elders may remember patterns that need to be reconstructed or reinterpreted, not simply imposed back onto new contexts. The Churchโs reverence for age is not an automatic endorsement of the past, but a recognition that experience, when united to faith and wisdom, can inform the community.
There is also a theological dissonance in how this framework treats preparation for death and preparation for eternal life. Christian theology does indeed teach that death is transformed in Christ and that resurrection is not a return to this life but a renewal of creation. The Creed affirms the bodily resurrection of the dead. But this is not primarily a sequel to seasonal biology. It is a work of divine grace made available through Christโs death and resurrection. The article blends biological metaphor with eschatological doctrine in a way that sometimes loses that distinction. Metaphor can illustrate, but it cannot become the substrate of theology.
Furthermore, the essayโs consistent framing of cultural patterns as โBabylonโ tends to reduce complex moral and social dynamics to a single enemy. Modern societiesโ discomfort with aging is real, but not every trend that modernity exhibits is a unified assault against biblical anthropology. The Church can critique cultural idols, yes, but it should do so with careful moral theology and historical discernment, not with blanket civilizational diagnosis.
Finally, your valorization of aging and death preparation is correct insofar as it recognizes the dignity of lifeโs later stages. But the framework becomes problematic when it implies that spiritual readiness for death is a function of recognizing oneโs season, rather than a function of participation in Christโs death and resurrection through faith, hope, and charity. Aging is not inherently spiritual formation; it is the context in which formation may occur if one cooperates with grace.
In Catholic theological terms:
1. Human life stages have no salvific currency in themselves. Biomythologizing aging as a built-in spiritual curriculum risks making phenomenology the basis for soteriology.
2. Eternal life is not an extension of seasonal logic. It is the gift of participation in Christโs resurrected life.
3. Cultural critique should be grounded in tradition and Scripture interpreted in community. Metaphor is a tool, not a foundation.
Your concern that Christians misunderstand aging and death is legitimate. But the remedy is not to overlay a seasonal system that ascribes spiritual meaning to every biological stage. The Christian conviction about resurrection and the dignity of elders is deep and historic; it precedes any cultural pattern of aging in modernity. It rests on the Gospel, the sacraments, and the Churchโs communal life โ not on an analogical mapping of human seasons onto salvation history.
you have not understood the resurrection to eternal life. It is not an "eternal physical body" as you said:
There is a natural physical body, there is a spiritual body, that is what changes at the resurrection of the dead- at least that is what the scripture tells us:
โSo also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
(1Cor 15:42-45)
Why do you persist in thinking that we have a physical body???
Dude, what are you on about? You literally debunk your own claim with that verse.
1 Corinthians 15 isnโt denying the body itโs describing its transformation.
Paulโs contrast isnโt physical vs non-physical but perishable vs imperishable.
The โspiritual bodyโ (sลma pneumatikon) simply means a body animated by the Spirit, not a ghost or vapor.
If you read the whole chapter, Paulโs target is the Greek idea that matter is evil and resurrection impossible, the very Gnostic error that keeps trying to creep back in.
Christ rose with flesh and bone (Luke 24:39) and became the pattern of what we will be: still embodied, but incorruptible, glorified, death-proof.
The Covenant promise is not escape from creation but its renewal.
Do you even realize you are preaching Gnosticism, not the gospel?
We will be the Sonโs of God, not the sons of Adam.
Adam was a physical human with a mortal life and did not have the Holy Spirit in him.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Physical life was only ever meant to be a training ground for immortal spirit life as the Children of God, when we will be one with God.
We will still have bodies, but they will not be physical or human, for we will move like the wind:
Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. The Spirit breathes where He desires, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes, and where He goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:4-8)
What don't you understand about " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"- we will not be physical super dudes we will be spiritual beings like God.
โBehold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.โ
John 20:27
โThen saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My handsโฆ be not faithless, but believing.โ
Romans 8:11
โHe that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.โ
Philippians 3:20โ21
โThe Lord Jesus Christโฆ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.โ
Job 19:26
โAnd though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.โ
Romans 8:19โ23
โThe creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.โ
Revelation 21:1โ4
โAnd I saw a new heaven and a new earthโฆ the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.โ
Isaiah 65:17โ18
โFor, behold, I create new heavens and a new earthโฆ be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.โ
1 Timothy 4:1โ4
โSome shall depart from the faithโฆ forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving.โ
1 John 4:2โ3
โEvery spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.โ
Colossians 2:8โ9
โBeware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceitโฆ For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.โ
This is why I donโt buy your "non-physical resurrection" talk, Scripture never teaches escape it teaches renewal.
You are preaching the same heresy the apostles fought and warned about. Repent.
Yet if we are to be "physical" in the first resurrection, then it is a very different type of physical for when we are resurrected we can move like the wind and shall be one with God, we shall see him as he is and live forever- none of these attributes are what we would call "physical" today.
I think you are getting caught up in semantics and trying to tie down things that we can not possibly know- yet you accuse me of Gnosticism.
Gnosticism is a very broad term which basically means to know something that is unknown to the normal man, for it is hidden knowledge given to the few special people.
You accuse me of Gnosticism, but you claim to know everything about the Bible, yet we are told by Paul:
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
(1Co 13:12)
Perhaps you are getting confused between the first and second resurrection, the first is to immortal spiritual life, the second to physical life in order for judgement.
Wonderful message! Thank you! At 79 years of age, this is my winter, and I firmly believe it is my preparation for the end of my physical life and transition to my eternal life. Not wishing this physical life to cease, and I have no fear of death, because I firmly believe I will then experience eternal life with my Lord and Savior, as well as being reunited with my daughter who will wait patiently for me to join her. God has always guided my life and protected me throughout my life. I know this to be true ... me, a sinner ... always humbly aware of His constant love and forgiveness. What a training ground has been provided throughout my life.
The love of family and an abundance of loving and genuinely caring friends through my entire life. I have been, and continue to be blessed. ๐
The truth has spoken! Thank you ๐๐ป
This is just beautiful! Thank you for posting this. Your words went straight to my heart and made it shine. Wishing you a wonderful day today!
HALLELUJA, I READ THIS AMAZING POST RIGHT BEFORE BED. ABSOLUTELY PURE TRUTH! BLESSINGS ON YOU ROCKA, AN OLD MAN NEEDED TO READ THIS TONITE!
I have just read this.....
I am putting it down and coming back to read it again tomorrow.
It is too much for me to get my head around in one setting... have I been under a rock my whole life?
Read it at least once every day. Understanding also comes in cycles, planting seeds and waiting.
Excellent post, well written and encouraging.
However, I feel that you have not understood the resurrection to eternal life. It is not an "eternal physical body" as you have said, but a totally spiritual body we will have, or Jesus would not have said:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again.
The wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot not tell where it comes, and where it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:3-9)
Spirit can manifest as the physical, as did Jesus to the disciples after his resurrection, but he was a spirit being then.
We are to be one with God, who is a spirit being.
And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
(John 17:20-23)
https://friendswithgod.substack.com/i/141976112/our-relationship-with-god-the-father
I can't stop other things this morning to read through everything here but I scrolled, looking for Leviticus 19:32 and there you have it. I'm 75 and very well aware of that verse. It was part of my upbringing. Hair aside and its associated "ageism", I see the risks that older folks take just going to church. I've not actually been tripped or knocked down by children or younger adults, but I have to be constantly on guard. I walk with a cane now and it has a certain visible "threat" value that gets the attention of young children that would otherwise take me out. Zero awareness. Never taught by parents also with zero awareness.
I get along OK. God provides for me. But what is to become of those who disregard this "Old Testament" warning?
Rocka, your seasonal framework โ spring, summer, fall, winter as stages of human life with distinct purposes โ is an attempt to read biblical pattern into human experience, and there are genuinely valuable elements there. Scripture does speak of stages of life (e.g., train up a childโฆ and finish your course with joy), and the Church has long honored the dignity of elders and the body as part of creationโs goods. The insight that modern culture often idolizes productivity and overlooks the wisdom of age is a real social concern. ๏ฟผ
But the argument you build from this framework has multiple weaknesses that are clarified once we see the first scroll in its full context.
To begin with, the seasonal metaphor is descriptive, not prescriptive. Natureโs seasons and human life stages are analogous, but they are not identical in structural necessity. Christian theology always treats analogies to creation with caution: they point toward truth without becoming the truth itself. The Church recognizes that there is biological ageing and there is spiritual formation. The fact that Scripture uses imagery of harvest and planting does not justify systematizing human life into rigid seasons with mechanistic spiritual functions. Analogies can illuminate, but they cannot replace theological precision.
Second, while it is true that Western culture often diminishes elders and overvalues youth and productivity, the articleโs representation of that as a kind of cosmic rebellion overshoots the actual problem. Caring for health, seeking medical care, maintaining agency in old age, and even pursuing rejuvenation are not intrinsically acts of denial of Scripture. They can be wise stewardship of the body God gave us. When you label anti-aging medicine and cosmetic practices as โcosmic rebellion,โ you deprive Christians of the nuance the Church has always employed in moral distinction: something can be good in itself but disordered in practice, and not every instance of pursuit of health is a denial of death or resurrection.
More importantly, the theological claim that aging itself trains for death and that cultural denial of aging is spiritual rebellion needs more nuance. Christianity does not regard the physical decline as a kind of divinely ordained spiritual pedagogy automatic in itself. Scriptural witness sees aging and physical suffering through the lens of original sin and redemption in Christ, not as a designed curriculum. The true formation of the soul in its passage through life depends on grace, repentance, virtue, sacramental life, and union with Christ, not merely on biological process.
You also frame the dismissal of elders as part of a cultural โBabylonianโ assault on memory. This narrative of cultural erasure is vivid, but it presumes that elder testimony is a reservoir of unmediated truth about how things ought to be and that cultural change equates to amnesia. In reality, cultures evolve โ sometimes for good, sometimes for ill โ and elders may remember patterns that need to be reconstructed or reinterpreted, not simply imposed back onto new contexts. The Churchโs reverence for age is not an automatic endorsement of the past, but a recognition that experience, when united to faith and wisdom, can inform the community.
There is also a theological dissonance in how this framework treats preparation for death and preparation for eternal life. Christian theology does indeed teach that death is transformed in Christ and that resurrection is not a return to this life but a renewal of creation. The Creed affirms the bodily resurrection of the dead. But this is not primarily a sequel to seasonal biology. It is a work of divine grace made available through Christโs death and resurrection. The article blends biological metaphor with eschatological doctrine in a way that sometimes loses that distinction. Metaphor can illustrate, but it cannot become the substrate of theology.
Furthermore, the essayโs consistent framing of cultural patterns as โBabylonโ tends to reduce complex moral and social dynamics to a single enemy. Modern societiesโ discomfort with aging is real, but not every trend that modernity exhibits is a unified assault against biblical anthropology. The Church can critique cultural idols, yes, but it should do so with careful moral theology and historical discernment, not with blanket civilizational diagnosis.
Finally, your valorization of aging and death preparation is correct insofar as it recognizes the dignity of lifeโs later stages. But the framework becomes problematic when it implies that spiritual readiness for death is a function of recognizing oneโs season, rather than a function of participation in Christโs death and resurrection through faith, hope, and charity. Aging is not inherently spiritual formation; it is the context in which formation may occur if one cooperates with grace.
In Catholic theological terms:
1. Human life stages have no salvific currency in themselves. Biomythologizing aging as a built-in spiritual curriculum risks making phenomenology the basis for soteriology.
2. Eternal life is not an extension of seasonal logic. It is the gift of participation in Christโs resurrected life.
3. Cultural critique should be grounded in tradition and Scripture interpreted in community. Metaphor is a tool, not a foundation.
Your concern that Christians misunderstand aging and death is legitimate. But the remedy is not to overlay a seasonal system that ascribes spiritual meaning to every biological stage. The Christian conviction about resurrection and the dignity of elders is deep and historic; it precedes any cultural pattern of aging in modernity. It rests on the Gospel, the sacraments, and the Churchโs communal life โ not on an analogical mapping of human seasons onto salvation history.
you have not understood the resurrection to eternal life. It is not an "eternal physical body" as you said:
There is a natural physical body, there is a spiritual body, that is what changes at the resurrection of the dead- at least that is what the scripture tells us:
โSo also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
(1Cor 15:42-45)
Why do you persist in thinking that we have a physical body???
Dude, what are you on about? You literally debunk your own claim with that verse.
1 Corinthians 15 isnโt denying the body itโs describing its transformation.
Paulโs contrast isnโt physical vs non-physical but perishable vs imperishable.
The โspiritual bodyโ (sลma pneumatikon) simply means a body animated by the Spirit, not a ghost or vapor.
If you read the whole chapter, Paulโs target is the Greek idea that matter is evil and resurrection impossible, the very Gnostic error that keeps trying to creep back in.
Christ rose with flesh and bone (Luke 24:39) and became the pattern of what we will be: still embodied, but incorruptible, glorified, death-proof.
The Covenant promise is not escape from creation but its renewal.
Do you even realize you are preaching Gnosticism, not the gospel?
We will be the Sonโs of God, not the sons of Adam.
Adam was a physical human with a mortal life and did not have the Holy Spirit in him.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Physical life was only ever meant to be a training ground for immortal spirit life as the Children of God, when we will be one with God.
We will still have bodies, but they will not be physical or human, for we will move like the wind:
Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. The Spirit breathes where He desires, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes, and where He goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:4-8)
What don't you understand about " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"- we will not be physical super dudes we will be spiritual beings like God.
Luke 24:39
โBehold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.โ
John 20:27
โThen saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My handsโฆ be not faithless, but believing.โ
Romans 8:11
โHe that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.โ
Philippians 3:20โ21
โThe Lord Jesus Christโฆ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.โ
Job 19:26
โAnd though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.โ
Romans 8:19โ23
โThe creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.โ
Revelation 21:1โ4
โAnd I saw a new heaven and a new earthโฆ the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.โ
Isaiah 65:17โ18
โFor, behold, I create new heavens and a new earthโฆ be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.โ
1 Timothy 4:1โ4
โSome shall depart from the faithโฆ forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving.โ
1 John 4:2โ3
โEvery spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.โ
Colossians 2:8โ9
โBeware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceitโฆ For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.โ
This is why I donโt buy your "non-physical resurrection" talk, Scripture never teaches escape it teaches renewal.
You are preaching the same heresy the apostles fought and warned about. Repent.
Interesting reply.
Yet if we are to be "physical" in the first resurrection, then it is a very different type of physical for when we are resurrected we can move like the wind and shall be one with God, we shall see him as he is and live forever- none of these attributes are what we would call "physical" today.
I think you are getting caught up in semantics and trying to tie down things that we can not possibly know- yet you accuse me of Gnosticism.
Gnosticism is a very broad term which basically means to know something that is unknown to the normal man, for it is hidden knowledge given to the few special people.
You accuse me of Gnosticism, but you claim to know everything about the Bible, yet we are told by Paul:
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
(1Co 13:12)
Perhaps you are getting confused between the first and second resurrection, the first is to immortal spiritual life, the second to physical life in order for judgement.
https://friendswithgod.substack.com/i/161152615/the-judgement-of-the-second-resurrection