Believe it or not, scientists have discovered the seeds of immortality God gave us at creation are still in you. They are called stem cells.

When God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Lord never intended them to die. Man was created to live forever side by side with our Heavenly Father.

But at creation, God warned Adam if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die (Gen 2:17). When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the rules of life changed instantly. The curse of death was put on them.

"By the sweat of your face you will earth bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you will return." (Gen 3:19).

At this point, man's immortality had ended. But there appears to be a second curse of death found in Genesis 6:3. In this verse, God issues a second edict limiting man's life span to 120 years.

It's difficult to determine if this was a second judgment or just a follow up on the first. I tend to think it was in addition to the original judgment.

Though people died during this preflood era they lived long lives (Gen 5:5-30). The most famous of this group was Methuselah who lived 969 years. Noah lived to be 960 years old. Both of them exceeded the life span of Adam who only lived to be 930.

But after Noah, there was a rapid downward spiral in man's life expectancy. Shem, Noah's son, lived 600 years marking the first significant drop in lifespan. There was yet another adjustment in man's genetic make-up, in this instance it only had to be made in Noah's family for it to be passed on to all humanity.

The issue that sparked this second death pronouncement was the marriage of the sons of God with the daughters of men. This passage has certainly garnered its share of controversy on what is referred to here. (I am convinced Noah's flood was not sent to judge sin, but purify the gene pool Read: When did satan take over the world?)

In his column, Odd Body -- published in the National Post -- Dr Stephen Juan confirmed this 120 year limit. Addressing the issue of old age, he said, "Some cell biologists now believe there is a definite biological limit to human cell reproduction making the maximum age possible for human life to be about 110 to 120 years."

On December 12, 2006, Elizabeth Bolden of Memphis, Tennessee died at age 116. Until her death, she was recognized officially as the oldest person in the world. Guiness World Records says the earth's oldest person is now Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico, 115. Though God has given us the ability to reach 120 years, other factors are hindering this achievement. According to Dr. Juan good diet (high vegetable content), no smoking, low body fat, regular exercise and low stress are keys to longevity.

Seeds of immortality

Now scientists are discovering that within each of us are the seeds of immortality God gave man at creation -- Stem cells.

The Stem cells are the only cells in the body that actually create new cells. They create different types of tissue cells necessary to make our skin, blood, organs, brain, bone, etc.

You may have heard of the controversy surrounding the extraction of stem cells from embryos. Scientists want stem cells for replicating or repairing organs and stems cells are the only cells that can do the job.  Scientists have restored sight to mice by using stem cells to repair the damaged eye cells.

When you and I were in our original embryonic state we were composed solely of stem cells, so stem cells are easy to extract. There seems to be only one kind of stem cell, i.e. you don't have stem cells that create brain tissue and another that creates blood. The same stem cell is used to create all tissue cells and it seems to know what needs to be created and when

But our adult bodies also contain stems cells. These cells are necessary for our growth into adulthood and for the repair of damaged tissue. However, adult stem cells look exactly like the other tissue cells and since their numbers are small, scientists compare the search for stem cells in the adult human body to looking for a needle in a hay stack.

But this is where it gets interesting --  theologically. Stem cells are commonly referred to by scientists as "immortal cells" because they never die. When kept in a culture, stem cells show no signs of aging.

As our tissue cells die off, they are replaced by the stem cells. This is accomplished by the stem cell splitting in half. The stem cell creates a copy of its DNA which is inserted in one of the cells that becomes the tissue cell, while the original DNA remains in the other cell -- the immortal stem cell.

One of the curious traits of stem cells is over time they replicate tissue cells of denigrating quality which is what we see in the aging process.

Meanwhile, it seems the originating stem cell remains in its perfect original condition. The immortality that God promised man in the beginning is still there -- evidence of our original creation.

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