My idea of a "perfect" lifeform would include immortality, since not dying is preferable to dying...
Why not? If you have the resources and knowledge to make life from scratch, making it immortal is not difficult.
But why does Jesus need to be incarnated at all, when God can simply free us with no effort on his part?
I didn't mean the speed at which God takes action; I meant that we will arrive at "miracle"-level nanotechnology ourselves, and, if my ideas of the timescale are correct, (I've heard the judgment will be in 500-1000 years) we will invent that technology ages before God's judgment. (The computer was invented less than 3 generations ago. Think what could happen in another 5.)
No. Man being unable to direct himself is a consequence of being stuck on an Earth with finite resources. This is true of any sufficiently large collection of people of any design. Yet the Earth's finite resources was a decision of God's, so why did God set us up to fail deliberately?
No single one of us is ruining the Earth. In fact, no single one of us is making more than a negligible poke at the Earth. It's the fact that there are 7 billion and rising of us that is the problem.
The earth can support more than 7 billion. It is world-wide distribution of wealth and resources that is more likely the problem. Mankind can ruin earth in more than a physical way, but also in a spiritual way. There was great moral damage before the Flood or Noah's day and Sodom and Gomorrah.
Ancient Israel was destroyed by the outside political world for abandoning the pure moral worship as outlined in Scripture. God used the political world as his 'ax' to bring such false worship to a ruin. Today the world's religions have polluted the world with immoral worship contrary to God's will and have run afoul proving itself false to God and his Word. So God will use the political world as a military 'ax' to turn on the world's religious sector. We are not set up to fail. God always warns first before he acts. We are being warned today that as individuals we can choose to live by God's Golden Rule or not.
What would the world be like if all lived God's moral standards and lived by the Golden Rule? __________
Surely it would not be failure.
Absolutely, - Not dying 'is' preferable to dying.
No doubt then you like the words of Rev [21vs4,5] that: death will be no more?
Think: Was Adam offered immortality? No. Adam was offered everlasting life or eternal life. Life that was dependent on condition. Obey God and live forever. Disobey God and be forever dead. The dust to dust thing.
Someone that is immortal is death proof. Adam was not death proof.
However, Adam could continue to live forever if obedient to God.
Jesus offers us the same deal. Everlasting or eternal life starting with the living at the time of the start of Jesus millennial reign over earth.
Jesus needed to resurrected. Like us, Jesus could not resurrect himself.
Only God could resurrect Jesus. God could only do that if Jesus died faithful.
Jesus died faithful and that is why Jesus was resurrected to life in the spirit realm or heaven. God is freeing us. Except for those of Matthew [12v32] , Romans [6v7] applies to us. Death 'frees' or 'acquits' us from sin.
However, we still can not resurrect oneself or another. Since God gave Jesus the power of the resurrection then through God then Jesus will resurrect us.
What is unique to our time frame is the possibility of being still alive at the time of divine intervention of Matthew [25vs31,32] and remaining alive and keep on living right into the start of Jesus 1000-year reign over earth with having the prospect of eternal or everlasting life as was originally offered to Adam.
When you're discussing the validity of a document, quoting that very same document is nonsensical. (And the passage is about John telling his disciples to love each other. How does that let us sort out which of 30,000 variations on the Word is correct?)
