LOOKING FOR LIFE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

This week we turn to the political…and bizarre. 2016 is a presidential election year and I’m sure between now and November we will all see our share of yard signs and TV ads. But there is a presidential candidate you may not have heard of---Zoltan Istvan, who is running as a candidate for the Transhumanist Party. I think its safe to say that neither the Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton campaigns are losing any sleep worrying about Mr Istvan. In fact Zoltan himself doesn’t think he can win the election, but hopes Hillary will pick him to be her running mate.

But who is this man running for our nation’s highest office and what is the connection to theology? Based on information from his website and several news reports, Zoltan Istvan Gyurko, a former reporter for National Geographic says his goals (should he become president) is to “put science, health and technology at the forefront of American politics.” Impressive words…until you read the Transhumanist Party’s platform, then it becomes scary. You see---Zoltan Istvan wants to live forever by being transformed into an “im-mortal cyborg.” He believes in a few years humans will be able to upload their minds to achieve immortality and live forever on earth.

The Bible is very clear about the reality of immortality and the afterlife. The scriptures emphatically declare there is only two eternal realities; heaven or the lake of fire. The lake of fire is our eternal default destination because of Adam’s fall in the garden (Romans 5:12). But God has graciously added one (and only one) alternate detour---heaven, ac-quired through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Ephesians 2:8-9). The theological concept of conditionalism points to the fact that immortality is the property of God alone. Simply stated, because God is immortal (1 Timothy 6:15-16), immortality can only come to humans as a gift of eternal life through faith in Christ (2 Timothy 1:10; Romans 6:23).

Zoltan Istvan is driving all over America in a bus shaped like a coffin that he calls it his Im-mortality Bus to bring awareness to man’s search for immortality (through technology). Apparently Zoltan is unwittingly echoing what the Bible says---that immortality is not something inherent to humanity, but rather something to be sought after (Romans 2:7). Poor Zoltan…he’s looking for life in all the wrong places. We’ll have to wait to see if Hillary picks him to be her vice presidential running mate. Think about it.