Aging: The way it was, the way it is, and where things stand.

Steve:
Buried deep in the book of Isaiah, there is a shocking prophecy that you may have never heard before. "For the youth will die at the age of 100, and the one who does not reach the age of 100 will be thought accursed. For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of my people."

Steve:
Hello and welcome to the BC Messenger Podcast. It's February 2025. This is season three, episode seven of the BC Messenger. My name is Steve Hall. As usual, I'm here with my wife, Jennifer, and we are so thankful that you have joined us on this episode of our podcast.

Jennifer:
This is episode number 31 here in February, which is, of course, the season of love.

Steve:
It's also the season of cold. And today, as we are recording this podcast, Jen, it's cold outside. When I got up this morning, it was negative, I think it said negative eight.

Jennifer:
Yesterday, you got up and you said, "Hey, it's warmed up. It's zero degrees outside."

Steve:
It's warmed up a little bit! No, it's been cold. We're in a cold spell right now here in Illinois, and it's cold today. But you know what? That's part of this time of year.

Jennifer:
On the show notes, we have a picture that represents what we just said. It is a pine tree covered in ice, and hanging on the pine tree is this little bright red felt heart symbolizing, I guess, a Valentine's Day decoration.

Steve:
Yes.

Jennifer:
So it's the season of love, the season of cold. So we're here in February with you, our listeners. Thanks for joining us. And we've got an episode for you today going in somewhat of a different direction, but a lot of familiar themes to our regular listeners.

Steve:
There's a very famous actor, entertainer in America, that if you've seen the show notes, you've seen a picture there of him and everybody knows of Dick Van Dyke. And we're going to be actually having Dick Van Dyke pop up in our episode here today quite a bit, Jen.

Jennifer:
So let's start with a quote from Dick Van Dyke. Okay. What is love?

Steve:
Oh, I thought you were going to be saying something like... "It's a jolly holiday with Mary." Something like that.

Jennifer:
Yeah. Here's a quote from Dick Van Dyke, a recent quote. "What is love? It certainly is a feeling of caring about the welfare and the life of the other person as much as you care for yourself." And that is from a video with a song playing on the video about Van Dyke, "You've got all my love."

Steve:
That was a video that our son, Josh, saw, some group called Coldplay. It's Cold Day.

Jennifer:
Well, the song will warm your heart. It's not cold at all. It'll get stuck in your head. And that song by Coldplay on that video, which is showing the life of Dick Van Dyke. And we're going to get to that more in a minute here. Yes. But that song, you've got all my love, it'll get in your head and, hey, it's a new song, love song. You can share with your sweetheart this Valentine's Day.

Steve:
That's right. And, you know, Jen, you and I, we got engaged in this month, February.

Jennifer:
We did on Valentine's Day. You gave me a little diamond ring.

Steve:
Yeah. I don't have one of those real fancy engagement, or you don't have one of those real fancy engagement stories.

Jennifer:
Well, that was back in 1997, I believe. You know, we didn't take all the pictures and posts on the social media and show everybody. All of our moments, but...

Steve:
We're talking about aging today. You're showing our age now, Jen.

Jennifer:
Right. Way back in the 90s. Yes. That was back, literally, our kids will say, "Dad, you were born in the 1900s!" "Back then did you have this or that?" Oh my goodness. Oh yes, February.

Okay. Yes. So many special memories and it's a fun time of year.

Steve:
Yes, it is. All right, Jen, give us the rundown for today's podcast episode.

Jennifer:
All right. Our featured topic, aging the way it was, the way it is, and where things stand. It's a big topic, a lot to cover there today. Then we will go into a section on, as a matter of fact, about the genetic bottleneck theory of the decline in lifespans. You may have heard of that. If not, you'll learn about it today. A quote of note from Isaiah, as you heard, a little tidbit at the beginning. Then Helen's View. She will share a day out of her life and many of the activities that are going on at the Aardsma Research and Publishing Campus in relation to the aging research and some of the brand new developments that are happening over there.

Steve:
One of the main topics that we discuss on our podcast and that is a main area of research here at Aardsma Research and Publishing is the topic of aging. And that is our main theme for this podcast, aging, the way it was, the way it is, and where things stand. We kind of have a three tiered podcast episode for you today. At the beginning of our episode, we introduced Dick Van Dyke. And why did we do that? Why did we bring up Dick Van Dyke?

Jennifer:
I'm sure that seemed a little random. That's not the direction we normally go.

Steve:
You know, it's interesting with Dick Van Dyke. I found out not too long ago from some locals here that the Van Dykes actually are originally from a town not far from us here in Illinois.

Jennifer:
A town where one of my brothers and his wife lives within an hour's drive of us here in Central Illinois.

Steve:
Dick and Jerry Van Dyke grew up in Danville, Illinois. Well, Dick turned 99 years old. You may have seen that in the news. That's hard to believe. 99. 

Jennifer:
Yes. And so that's what the video we referenced with the song is all about. It's about him as a 99 year old and then all of these clips of him from some of his shows when he was a young man, the Dick Van Dyke show, some of the memorable moments there. He still looks like he is quite lively and a lot of fun.

Steve:
And that's part of the really neat thing about that video is that he just he's dancing. You know, he's in his bare feet. He has socks on in a suit and he's just he's 99 and there he is. Yes, and you can still vibrant and happy.

Jennifer:
You can just see in his eyes, you know, all the memories, all the fun moments and he's re-enacting some of the dance moves a little bit and whatever.

Steve:
But as neat and as touching as it is. And you know, he's got his family, I assume all those people are gathered around him.

Jennifer:
He's got his children, great grandchildren circling around him, bringing him balloon singing with him. You've got all my love. It's very sweet.

Steve:
It's touching. At the same time, it's striking because it is quick succession between Dick Van Dyke and his old age. Suddenly there he is, you know, with the broomstick in his hand dancing around the chimney with Mary Poppins. And then there he is again, really quite bent over still able to do a lot. But the oldest old man. And then there he is with Mary Tyler Moore on the Dick Van Dyke show.

Jennifer:
And there he is with the fresh faced youthful eyes and, you know, just glowing skin almost there and Mary Poppins and whatever. And then there he is, you know, right beside that with his white hair and wrinkled skin, and still that twinkle in his eye. But what has happened with time, you know, over time you lose all that you had. Time is a thief when it comes to aging. It slowly takes away from you everything that you ever had. And we don't like to talk about that because to us, well, it's just life. That's just the way it is. And God's getting you ready for heaven. You know, we try to think of it in those types of terms because otherwise all you can say is it's just horrible.

Steve:
Well, that's all we know. And you know, we see a video like that and it's touching, but we're not struck because it's just all we've ever known. We've ever seen and so we have to be able to deal with it, of course. But what we are talking about today is... is God going to allow us to enter into a day when this is not going to be the norm anymore? And if someone were to see a video like that, they would be horrified because it wouldn't be the norm. It would be like, whoa, that person's severely sick. Something's wrong. Not something's right, something's normal. Something's wrong here with that poor person. And, because time is a thief when it comes to aging, as you said...

Jennifer:
It's the slow breakdown of the body. And so we're going to get into all of that today. As you know, as a Bible believer, if you are someone who has read the scriptures, it has not always been this way. And we're going to discuss that.

But before we leave the video, I encourage you go to the show notes, watch the video, watch it on Valentine's Day, get some tears in your eyes. You know, it's a very sweet and touching and it has a lot of merit just on its own. But we're using it as a jumping off point here today to talk about this topic of aging.

Steve:
Well, let's go back and talk about the way it was. The way it was in Genesis. We as Christians, as Bible believers, those that are listening to the podcast that are believers of the Bible, we have in our hands, when we open up the book of Genesis, as far as I know, the only window into a world of people who, this wasn't the norm. They lived ages we cannot even imagine and we even laugh at today when we think about it or look at it because it seems so ridiculous to us. And yet again, we hold the document that is the only window into that world. There are many people today who are working on aging, aging research. The scientists behind it, many of them very brilliant people, very capable, intelligent, who know their topic, they are more and more telling us, "We believe this can be conquered. This can be overcome. We can figure this thing of aging out." However, they don't believe Genesis, and so therefore they don't have this window, as science normally needs, to see that it can be done. To study the data of people who lived these ages. They don't believe it's ever happened before.

Jennifer:
Can you imagine if some population somewhere deep in the jungle or on some remote island or something was discovered and we began to find out that, "Oh, the people here are like 300 or 150, 130."

Steve:
How many years have you lived?

Jennifer:
If we began to find that out, can you imagine the firestorm of studies and activity that would begin to go on? What's happening? What is going on with these people? What is different from the rest of the world?

Steve:
Boy, that would make a great movie, wouldn't it?

Jennifer:
Sure would. And yet that's what you have in Genesis, far beyond even that, because you have some very specific data there, but yet it's cast aside, it's thrown out, and really it's quite shocking. I mean, the history of our world that's given to us in Genesis, I guess it's just been an extreme reaction against the overbearing religious dominance back then. Like the day of like Galileo, the theology people controlled the scientific landscape of the day. And so that was not good. So we've swung the other way where we want nothing to do with anything to do with the Bible as far as impacting our world in science.

Steve:
Well, and I think we've also lost, and Dr. Aardsma would agree with this, I believe wholeheartedly, we have lost any idea that the Bible contains data. The way he likes to word it is "a data-rich apologetic" is what we so desperately need, and we lost a long time ago, because we don't take the Bible as true real-world history anymore. Men used to do that back in Galileo's day, and so that's why there was the problem. Wait, wait, wait. The Bible's real. The Bible's true. The Bible has historical data, and Galileo's showing us something doesn't agree with it, right? So we have this problem. Well, today, no, the scientific community, the world believes the Bible's fables, fairy tales, fake. Of course, you can't have ages like this in Genesis. It's just a big fairy tale, and we're trying to show, no, this data is actually real, and insanely valuable, and this is one example of that.

Jennifer:
Right. So let's take a look here just for a minute. What does Genesis say about the way it was? And we're talking about five to seven thousand years ago in the history of our world. Just in a few brief chapters, we can glean a lot about the lives of these people in that day.

Steve:
Let me just read a couple verses here right from Genesis chapter five. "When Adam had lived 130 years." When? "When Adam had lived (not 30 years) 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. Days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Adam that Adam lived were 930 years." Now, do you believe that? Is that true real-world history?

Jennifer:
Well, that was probably just Adam, because he was directly created by God. So special superhuman. So he probably had a really amazing life, and then we got back to real-world stuff after that.

Steve:
Well, we have Seth, that son of Adam, who lived 105 years, and he fathered Enosh. Let me say it again. 105, that's a one and a zero and a five. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were 912 years. Enosh lived 90 years and fathered Kenan. He was a young fella. 90 years. Young fathered there. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years. What was going on in the world 815 years ago from us? I mean, what was a thousand years ago?Jennifer:
825, so that would have been a thousand years ago. It would have been 1,025. So the 1200s, I guess.

Steve:
Yeah, so 500 years ago was Martin Luther, Protestant Reformation. So this was back in like the three, four hundred years before the Reformation. I mean, that's when he would have been born and he's living today. Somebody's still alive today. That's this guy we just read about, Enosh here in the Bible. And you keep going down that list, and then we get way down there to Methuselah. Everybody has heard of Methuselah, right? His name is known to be Long Life.

Jennifer:
969, is that right? Yeah, 969 years and he died. And you know, I guess that was just a weird thing. This one guy lived a really long time, one time.

Steve:
No, no. And when you look, we've presented this before, when you look at a timeline of history, it's shocking. Because it's hard for us to get a mental picture of how long of a time frame we're talking. And I believe it was either one third or one fourth of human history. That these people live these ages.

Jennifer:
I think it's one third by the time the life spans fully dropped after the flood and in the time of Moses, they fully dropped to where we are today. It's like one third of human history from creation to Moses.

Steve:
Yeah, creation. And we're talking about the story of the world, you know, 7,000 years ago or so. So, I mean, we're not talking about a little span of time, or just a couple of people. We're talking about a major part of our world's history. These people lived these ages, if Genesis is true.

Jennifer:
And here's some more just fascinating facts. Okay, fun facts. Like you said, Adam had Seth when he was 130. Noah had sons when he was 500. And then there's a list of men who had children at different ages there. Shem, who was Noah's son had a son when he was 100. And then let's skip forward quite a few generations. Abraham had Isaac when he was 100. Now, we can only assume these numbers are rounded to some extent because we have a lot of 100s and things like that.

Steve:
We'll give or take a few. The point's the same, right?

Jennifer:
Now, let's move on from Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob. Do you know? Okay, Jacob and Rachel. We know the story. And Jacob fell in love with Rachel and worked 7 years. His father-in-law deceived him, gave him Leah, and he was a father-in-law. His father-in-law deceived him, gave him Leah as his wife. He worked 7 more years and then married Rachel. And that's a sweet love story and the sons that God gave them, of course, Joseph. Okay, so mentally, we picture a guy who's like 25. You know, he's going out to find a wife and leaving his father's house, maybe even younger, 20, you know, today. Do you know how old Jacob was when he met Rachel?

Steve:
Yeah, this was interesting. You shared this with me last night and I was, if I knew this in the past, I'd forgotten. But we just skip over these things. We don't think about it.

Jennifer:
He was approximately 70 years old.

Steve:
When you picture Jacob running out there meeting Rachel for the first time, you know, in that story...

Jennifer:
Yeah. And I mean, obviously this was like attraction. You know, why did he want to marry her? Because she was beautiful. We don't know how old Rachel was. Well, I am not sure if we know how old Rachel was. There's not near as much data given on the ages of the women as the ages of the men. But most 70-year-old men these days are not going out seeking a wife. And then also, we have a little tidbit there, he meets her, he waters all the flock, he rolls the stone away from the entrance to the well, something to that effect. Again, I mean, this isn't some little frail older man.

Steve:
He's 70 years old in the Bible, but he's physiologically apparently 25, you know, I mean.

Jennifer:
And then he has 12 sons. Yes. Now we're not back in Adam's day. No, I mean, this is Jacob. This is Jacob. Yeah. This is further down in the history, quite a ways. And so, and we see it all the way to what's the last one, the last character.

Jennifer:
Moses. So here's a few more tidbits. Moses dies 120, right? But he's climbing mountains like right before the time when he dies. But in his lifetime, he penned Psalm 90 and he talks about, "Now I am seeing people dying by reason of strength, you know, 70, 80." And doesn't that sound familiar?

Steve:
Let me encourage you in the light, we don't have time today to get into this on our podcast, but in the light of what our discussion is here today on aging, go back and read Psalm 90. And look at it in that light, Moses' words, "Return, oh Lord," what's Moses talking about? "Lord, your anger is more fierce than we ever imagined in your judgment." And it really does look like Moses at the end of these lifespans, seeing people dying younger and younger and younger probably thought, I mean, if this keeps going, you know, there's not going to be any more life hon earth. And he didn't realize, I'm sure, unless God revealed it to him, that it was going to get to a certain point and stay. And here we are still today.

Jennifer:
Right. Well, he didn't know. He may have thought, "Lord, if you keep this up, we're going to have people dying when they're 30."

Steve:
Twenty, fifteen, ten!

Jennifer:
I mean, where does this stop? He didn't know it was going to level out at 70 and 80. But he does, you know, say, "Lord, teach us to number our days." That's the Psalm that says that, Psalm 90, because they were just dealing with the fact that, "Oh my goodness, this is not the way it used to be." 

Steve:
Well, it did level out. And now for thousands of years, it's all we've ever known. And he talks about that. And you know, the Bible talks about 75, 80 years we have. But here's something that I think Christians need to grasp hold of. If a person is a Bible-believing Christian, then that person, those people, ought to be the most confident that people actually can live these lengths of ages. I mean, that would be a pretty good evidence that you actually have a true faith in the Bible, right? That those accounts are real, and that those ages can be lived by humans. It's not a fairy tale. It's not something somebody made up. It's not some grand movie that's not true. It's reality in the real world. And if they could live those ages in the past, then why would we not think they couldn't live these ages today?

Jennifer:
The human body is capable of this. But something broke. Something went wrong. The data set in Genesis 5 is 10 men, 10 generations, all before Noah's flood. And the youngest father listed there, which I don't know if this was their first child that's being documented, anyway, the youngest father was 65. The average age of those men, of those 10 men listed fathering children, was fathering a child at 155. And then the average age of those men, their lifespan was like 900 some years. So that's before the flood. And then we have the flood, then we have Shem, who is Noah's son, who died at 600. And then we have data of a little bit less, a little bit less, a sharper drop, a little bit less, a little bit less, all the way down to the time of Moses. So that's an incredible span of time and some very fascinating information. And people will say, "Oh, I think that the foods people ate were just a lot more pure back then, and they didn't have all the chemicals in their food like we have today." Well, that's true. But obviously, what happened there in history is a lot more complicated than just chemicals in our food today. 

Steve:
Well, and not only that, that's great thought, you know, whatever, that's been passed around. Everybody talks about that kind of thing. But we have the biblical data. That's the whole point of what we're trying to show here at biblical chronologists, that there's real world data, the real world aspect of those biblical accounts that are showing us the answers to these questions. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to say, "Well, it's probably because of the food we're eating." "Well, it's probably because now there's harmful radiation that didn't used to come in there." Whatever the answer may be. No, no, no. Go to the data. Right? That's what science does. You go to the data and you see those lifespans and then keep going. What happened in the earth that suddenly seems like it stopped those lifespans? Oh, maybe something that took place in that horrible flood caused these lifespans to drop. And sure enough, you know what you find out? Dr. Aardsma has found it out, that we can find the answer as to what actually happened. And so that's again, the whole point of what we're trying to do here is to make these things real, to show that they are real in the real world.

Jennifer:
All right. So the way it was in Genesis, we've covered that pretty good, pretty well here, I think. And so keep that in mind, that this happened on the same dirt we walk on, the same earth we live on, people actually just like us, people with emotions and families and problems and houses and civilizations. But yet the span of time of somebody's life was so, so different.

Okay. So now the next section we have, which is going to be very brief, is the way it is. Which we've already mentioned some of it. So that's the way it was. Now the way it is. And we all know, we can look around, we know, we're very well aware that if Granddad lives to be 99, that's incredible. That kind of thing. And I will just say here, another example that's been in the news is President Jimmy Carter, who recently died just right before the end of the year last year. He was a hundred years old. And again, you can see photos of him as a hundred years old, photos of course of him during his presidency. And you know what his grandson said right before the death of Jimmy Carter, he said, "My grandfather is doing well, but he is very physically diminished." Now, of course, I mean, that's the way it is today. I don't think that any of those men in Genesis were very physically diminished at age one hundred.

Steve:
They were just having kids apparently.

Jennifer:
They were thriving. They were like in their prime.

Steve:
Well talking about presidents, we just had a presidential inauguration, President Trump. And you know, looking at him, he's doing quite well obviously, and vibrant even at his age. What is he, 70, what did we read? In his mid-70s or something or late 70s actually. But you can tell even when he's talking, you know, he's getting older, right? This is the normal experience that we have.

Jennifer:
You see all those previous presidents come down through the inauguration. You can't believe it. And you're like, "Oh man, have they ever aged?"

Steve:
President Biden is going out of office and we can all see there's something not quite right here. What's going on in his mind? Well, physically diminished, yes. And this is the way it is today and to us, it's normal because it's been this way for so long. I pastor a church, and just last night, I was in the hospital visiting a lady in our church that is in her mid-90s and you know, again, very physically diminished. It wasn't very long ago she was doing great. But this is our experience today, the way it is today.

Jennifer:
So we know that. We're not going to dwell on that. We are going to move now into where things stand. I wonder if we should bring our quote of note in right here. Switch up the order right here.

Steve:
Can we do that? Is that legal?

Jennifer:
Okay. All right. Switch up the order. The way it was, the way it is, and where things stand. But maybe we can interject here that in the prophecies of Isaiah, we have a little picture of the way it's going to be. So we've known the way it was, the way it is, the way it's going to be. We have a little glimpse into a future world.

Steve:
At least as best as we can understand it. Right? I mean, these prophecies are in the Bible and this one specifically in Isaiah chapter 65 is just striking. And I don't think it's happened yet. I don't see...

Jennifer:
We are not there yet. As far as any literal sense at all of this prophecy.

Steve:
And from what I can tell, this is happening in the real world. This isn't in some planet somewhere far away. I mean, that we read at the beginning of this podcast episode in Isaiah 65. Yeah.

Jennifer:
Let's read it. Let's read our quote of note here.

Steve:
Isaiah 65 through 22 says, "No longer will there be in it an infant who lives only a few days, or an old person who does not live out his days. For the youth will die at the age of a hundred, and the one who does not reach the age of a hundred will be thought accursed. They will build houses and inhabit them. They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will not plant and another eat. For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of my people. And my chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands."

Quite a prophecy. Quite a passage of Scripture. I think mentally, in my past, I would take something like that and just kind of mentally projected into Never, Never Land. You know, it's kind of like all these prophecies, well, that's somewhere out there. But to see this as prophetic in this world potentially, and we don't know all the details. We don't know what God's going to do and not do fully, but there it sits in Isaiah 65.

Jennifer:
And so you can very easily see that what Isaiah is saying is that it's going to be the way it was in Genesis. It's going to go back to that type of a lifespan. And instead of time being such a thief, in a few short decades, you lose everything, it specifically says here, they're going to build their houses and enjoy them. Not build the house for the next generation to come and inhabit because you're losing your health so quickly. They're going to plant the vineyards and enjoy them themselves. They will fully enjoy the work of their hands.

Steve:
And what did Christ come to do? He came to save the souls of men and to begin the process of reversing the curse, you know, to restore all things to the Father, to God. The restoration of all things. To bring us back to the garden.

Jennifer:
Surely, that includes the brevity of the shortened lifespans as part of the judgment of the flood.

Steve:
Now here we're getting into some eschatology ideas and whatever you might believe as far as God's timing of things in the world, God's plans eschatologically with the end times and all that. You know, the truth is we have no idea what God's timetable is.

Jennifer:
And you know what? I'm going to make a shocking statement right here that has never been said on this podcast before.

Steve:
Uh-oh. Okay.

Jennifer:
You ready for this? Okay. When it comes to biblical prophecy, timelines are not important.

Steve:
Did you just say timelines are not important?

Jennifer:
Do I dare say that? Do I dare even say that? Um, actually, I think that's the case. We saw a quotation on this from someone with probably some very unusual eschatological views, but we agreed with it. I think we did. I agreed with it. Um, see if you agree with it. The goal of eschatology, which of course is future events, biblical prophecy of the future, the goal of eschatology is not a timeline. Not to say this is going to happen then and then this and then that. And then when this happens, this will happen. That's not the goal of eschatology. The goal of eschatology is a game plan. Where are we going? What are we supposed to be doing as we look towards the future? So as we consider this verse in Isaiah, we don't know when that's going to be. There's many differing opinions on that, but what a great idea to be working towards that day.

Steve:
And would not God be honored?

Jennifer:
To be saying, you know what, maybe God wants me to have a part in this, bringing in of this new day into the world.

Steve:
Definitely. Now, that's what we see in the scripture. Let's bring it back here because, and let's take it into what's being done and where things stand right now. There's a lot of aging research going on. If you are up on that, you're studying that, you know, there's names like Aubrey Degree, there's names like David Sinclaire. There's institutions and they're all over the place, and billions of dollars is being put into these programs to study aging because these people believe this is able to be done. But as far as I know, there is nobody else who's approaching this topic from a biblical perspective than what's happening here at Aardsma Research and Publishing and Dr. Aardsma. He's approaching the same question, the same goal, longer life spans from a biblical perspective, looking at the only data we have in the world, this window of people who live these ages. So where do things stand here? That's our next topic that we're talking about. There have been other Christians who have tried to present answers to this question. Other young earth creationists, because we can all see if we're Bible believers that there are, oh, we do have this in the Bible. So what happened? So what could that have been? Well, what are the answers, the attempts of answers that have been made? Well, we've heard of things like we talked about last month on our podcast, the vapor canopy. So there was some vapor canopy that kept people alive, didn't let in harmful radiation, whatever, and then the flood. Well, we showed last month that it's pretty clear now with, I think, most Christians, most people that that's a false theory, a very poor attempt.

Jennifer:
Another popular one is the genetic bottleneck. We'll get to that one here later on the podcast. But these types of explanations are usually just a wave of the hand. "Well, you know, it was this and nothing we can do about that today. So this is just inevitable. Now we're under this curse and we sadly have reduced lifespans."

Steve:
And really, it is a wave of the hand kind of thing because, you know, you just kind of chalk it up, well, God can do anything.

Jennifer:
And it's God's will. You know, it's just God's will that we all die before age 100 now. And we should not try to intervene with that. But I would say, you know, as far as God's will, and he shortened these lifespans after the flood, which he did, and it was a terrible judgment, there were a lot of other terrible judgments that came as a result of the flood. For example, Noah and his family, when they got off the Ark, they didn't have any houses to go live in. Did they just accept that as, oh, okay, this is God's will. He's judged us and now we don't have any houses. No. I mean, they began to solve the problems that they were now facing because of the judgment of God. And I don't see this aging topic as any different. You know, this is a terrible judgment. But under the power of the Holy Spirit and through the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can solve these problems.

Steve:
And there are people that need real answers. You know, if I grew up with Christianity and trust the Bible because mom and dad did and grandparents, wonderful. But there are other people who don't. We just got on TikTok. I can't believe I'm on TikTok.

Jennifer:
The BC messenger is on TikTok.

Steve:
But through TikTok, we've got this guy who has now he's conversing with us through a post that we put up. And he seems legit. He's a young fella, legitimately has questions and saying things like, if you can give me solid answers to these things in the Bible, that'll be the best. He said something like that would be like the best day of my life. That'll be the best gift ever. The best gift ever.

Jennifer:
He's from another country and he's making videos and he sends back to us in response to our video.

Steve:
He believes the Bible is a bunch of fairy tales because it can't be proved. He's like scientifically.

Jennifer:
He says, "You're not you're not doing science because you are starting with fables, these are not real observations. So you can't call it science."

Steve:
Right. So what's the term that they use? Confirmation bias.

Jennifer:
You already believe it, so now you're trying to show reasons why it's true. 

Steve:
And so we are glad to be able to go back and say, no, wait, we have real solid answers, and we hope he really will dive into it and look into it. That's what we're doing here. That's where things stand here that, no, no more of these wave of the hand answers. Let's look at the data and let's see. And that's what Dr. Aardsma has been doing for decades now. And there are answers here.

Jennifer:
So any robust theory as to why these lifespans declined is going to have to explain and navigate the unique and precious data set contained in Genesis. It has a lot of curious features, a lot of odd things demonstrated there in the data. So our theory, Dr. Aardsma's most recently developed theory of aging quantitatively explains the data through rigorous mathematical modeling. He has developed a theory of aging that navigates all of the features of the data set contained in Genesis of the life expectancies of those people, and the events happening, mostly Noah's Flood, and the results in the earth. So this is what a theory is going to have to do. If the theory cannot do that, cannot navigate, well, here's why in Moses lifetime there was another sharp drop. You have one feature in that data set between Eber and Peleg, father and son, where you have the son living half the length of the father. And so the son would literally have aged and died before the father aged and died. The father would have had a younger appearance and more vitality and strength longer than the son, as the son was getting sick and dying of aging. So obviously that is a very curious feature in the data set.

Okay, those are some really crazy things to have to be able to explain. And if your theory cannot do that, then it is not a legitimate theory to move forward with. And it's not acceptable to just say, oh, it's probably that. Let's move on. Because we're talking about people's lives. We're talking about people's futures. Going back to the quote at the beginning, love is a concern for the welfare and the life of the other person. And so what a humanitarian effort to stop people from this terrible decline and suffering. So no, a hand wave, a shrug of the shoulders explanation isn't going to do. We need a robust theory that can explain all of that data.

Steve:
And let me mention this, we haven't talked about. There's another group of Christians who, I guess it's sort of another wave of the hand. They just kind of say, well, it's not to be taken literally. That these ages, you know, we're learning lessons here and it didn't really mean they lived those ages. And you know, well, once again, look at the data. Is that really what we have here? Just fables, fairy tales, you know, that really give us moral lessons? Not at all. And you pointed out that thing where there's one father, one son living longer. I mean, why is that thrown in there? You know, I mean, if this is just moral lessons and not to be taken literally. I mean, there's data here. That's the point. That we can follow it, track it along. Dr. Aardsma has already done it. He's done the work. He's done the research. You can get the book, "Aging: Cause and Cure". It's in its third edition. And you can go, you can buy it, it's on the BC store, or you can download for free.

Jennifer:
On the front of the book, there is a tree. Half of the tree is dead. The other half of the tree is alive. And it's definitely a reference there as the lifetime of a tree, so will the days of my people be. Okay. So Dr. Aardsma's theory of aging started out with the theory of aging being a deficiency disease. The unique characteristics of deficiency diseases definitely fit what we see in aging, that it was possible for some people not to age until they were 800. And then later it was possible for people to start aging when they were 100. So a variable time of onset fits the deficiency disease category, and many other characteristics there. So that was the beginning of the theory. Okay. A deficiency disease, something happened in the earth, in the environment that caused the breakdown of the body sooner and sooner and sooner.

We have a video of Dr. Aardsma that we are going to play the audio here on the podcast. He is answering the question, "Why do you say aging is a disease? Why would you even say that?" A deficiency disease, any kind of disease, what's your reason for that? So let's listen to him answer that question.

Dr. Aardsma:
Well, it's because aging is actually a disease. There are, of course, all kinds of different diseases. We had to find an explanation for how it would be possible for people's life spans to change with time. Back before the flood, life spans were over 900 years on average, and then after the flood, the life spans declined over the course of about a thousand years down to what we know of as being normal today, down to about 75 years on average. And how can we explain that such a thing, how could it happen? There have been several attempts to explain this by different people, but all of them run into serious problems somewhere along the line. The explanation which works is that aging is a vitamin deficiency disease. So like scurvy, if you don't get the vitamin C that you need, you will eventually die of scurvy. If we stop giving you vitamin C when you're 20 years old, you will die shortly thereafter, maybe within one or two years anyhow. If we stopped giving everybody vitamin C when they were 20 years old, then it would appear that the whole population was aging, or at least getting sick and dying by the time they were 24 years old. And so the same sort of thing is what has happened with what we call aging. There is a vitamin which was previously unknown, which we all need and which none of us is getting. Before the flood, people were getting it. And they were living very much longer as a result because they were not dying of this disease, vitamin deficiency disease, which we now call aging. After the flood, the vitamin became less and less available in the environment. People weren't getting it. And so they were dying at younger and younger ages because of this disease."

Steve:
Now that video was published some years ago now, and the research has gone on. That was kind of a, some sort of a starting point, I guess, when that was videoed.

Jennifer:
That was after the discovery of the first vitamin. Right, as he says. So it's a little bit worded differently there, but nothing major at all in that video has changed. I mean, that is the same theory that he's operating on today. And it is interesting to note that there were three editions of the Aging: Cause and Cure book published. We are on to the third edition now because there have been some wrong turns in some of the theory, although the basic vitamin discoveries haven't changed. But 2017 was the first one, 2021 was the second, and then 2023 for the third edition. And it has refined the theory each time. And of course, when you're dealing with aging research, you don't have the luxury of just, let's just keep this all quiet until we get every detail figured out. Because if you do that, you're just letting people die with no attempt to help them with what you already have found out.

Steve:
There's a moral obligation. You feel like, we are holding this in our hands. How can we be quiet about it? Now that can cause you to look kind of nutty in people's eyes. But you know what? What else can you do?

Jennifer:
Page 95 of the Aging: Cause and Cure book, this section, little section is titled, "Why Life Spans Changed?" That's what we want to know, right? Okay. Here you go. Here's a little summary by him at this stage of the development of the theory in the book.

"This intake dependent time of onset characteristic of vitamin deficiency diseases provides an explanation of the change in human life spans following the flood, which Genesis records. It implies that human life spans changed because the availability of dietary vitamin X changed. This could happen if vitamin X was somehow produced and metered out by Earth's environment to all individuals globally in a rigidly fixed intake from the time of birth on. This leads to the conjecture that life spans diminished following the flood because vitamin X became increasingly scarce globally after the flood so that by 2500 BC, 1000 years after the flood, vitamin X had dwindled to the seriously deficient level which characterizes it today. Subsequent chapters will demonstrate the success of this conjecture, explaining why vitamin X of availability dwindled the way it did."

Steve:
Yes. Now, let me give to you Dr. Aardsma's theory of modern human aging. This is a sum up of where things stand today in the research here. This, what I'm about to read to you, is so valuable... you do not even know. The effort that has gone into this to get to this point where I can read this to you on a podcast. It's just so crazy because, this is life. This is the story. Little old us over here in middle of nowhere Illinois, you know that you are going to hear something here that in days to come, if this is the truth, and we believe there's great evidence that it is, is going to be some of the most valuable information this world has ever had.

Jennifer:
Yes. And definitely, I agree with you as far as you will never hear anything as valuable as this in aging research in the field of aging. I saw David Sinclair on X recently saying, "A new study is out that shows that exercise is not as important in longevity as we previously thought." Okay. Exercise is good for you, but obviously it is not going to help your lifespan exceed the limitations that we know today. There's plenty of people who've devoted their entire lives to exercise and they have not been able to live past the limitation that we have today on longevity. So thank you for that, David Sinclair. But that is not groundbreaking research as to, how can we get the cells in the body to live longer, have energy longer, be vital and thriving for a longer period of time. How can we do that?

Steve:
Right. And we're thankful for the work these other people are doing, but again, they're coming at it from a perspective, they don't believe Genesis, so they do not have any data like Dr. Aardsma has over here. And that's why we have this theory of modern human aging that they don't have. They need it. They need to hear this. They need to have it. And all of these people need to work together.

So let me just go ahead and give it to you here. The theory, where things stand, the theory of modern human aging.

"Modern human aging is a congenital nutritional deficiency disease syndrome called MHA (Modern human aging) of two newly discovered closely related vitamins, methylphosphinic acid, MePiA, and methylphosphonic acid, MePA. Vitamin MePiA functions as an antioxidant within the mitochondria, protecting them from free radical damage due to reactive oxygen species (ROS). The fundamental cause of death resulting from vitamin MEPIA deficiency is cellular energy starvation due to decreased energy output from ROS damaged mitochondria. Vitamin MePA functions as its own unique vitamin separate from vitamin MePiA. It is involved in multiple biochemical pathways similar to members of the traditional vitamins, and like them, its dietary deficiency gives rise to its own unique potentially fatal disease."

So there we are. That's where presently in the research things stand.

Jennifer:
Now I can hear somebody thinking, you know, saying, that's just a theory. That's just a theory. You don't have any proof. Well, theories can be tested in multiple ways. And actually it's not that unusual in science to operate on a robust theory that has been corroborated many times and tested, but not quote "proved". Think about the model of the atom, for example, okay, atomic theory. I believe it's changed over the years. It's developed, but all scientists pretty much agree on it today. Has anybody ever proved it as far as seen it? I don't believe so. I believe it is operating on theory, but yet we have things like nuclear power because of the atomic theory. So that's me as a layperson. So it's okay to operate on theory. It's okay to let the scientists say this is the best theory we have. It's corroborated in numerous ways. It may not be proved for everyone to see, but we're operating on this theory. We're moving forward on this theory until it is falsified. That is the way science works. And it's okay to do that.

Steve:
Yes. And here in the research, many may or may not know that there are experiments going on that have to do with mice and fruit flies. And we do hope to see the theory working out in front of our face. As you mentioned with the atomic illustration, with actual observation of mice, flies, and eventually, of course, ultimately human lives. And that's what's going on in the laboratory. So let's get an update here about where things stand with the experiments.

Jennifer:
We did get an update. I emailed Dr. Aardsma, my father, with some questions just a few days ago because I was wanting to get updated myself. I know they're very busy over there with setting up new mice experiments and they've have some that have been going. And I'm talking hundreds of mice. It's not like three mice in a cage to see what happens. These are very professionally done experiments and laboratories like you would have in other big time aging research.

Steve:
Lots of work, lots of upkeep, very little help to do it. Small budget.

Jennifer:
Yeah. So I wanted an update myself so we could share it with you, our listeners. So I asked him a series of questions and he sent me some answers and we're going to go through these here quickly. It's fascinating to think about how this is being tested and what a researcher goes through. Where do things stand on the experimental side of the research?

First I asked him, "When do you expect to be publishing results from the recently concluded mice experiments?" He's been doing mice experiments for years and has published many of the results. But I was under the impression that there were some results that he had in hand that he had not yet published. But I found out that he said, there are no recently concluded mice experiments. The oldest mice are still alive from the experiments that were started in 2022. They will not all be dead until at least three years of age. And then of course, if it treated mice live longer, then that makes it even longer. So you may not have known that. It takes three years at least to get results off of a mice experiment. That's some significant investment of time, effort, energy, maintaining the mice and gathering the results. But he says many of those mice have died and so that it's making room for new experiments to start even as those are still being concluded.

Steve:
We also asked him, what is the focus of the new mice experiments that they are starting over there. He said the focus right now is learning the optimal intake of MePiA with the present mice that they are working on. They believe that they have the daily intake figured out.

Jennifer:
On the MePA, the first vitamin that was discovered, because it's a normal water-soluble vitamin. And so it has a pretty large range of acceptable intake for the body.

Steve:
But the MePiA is more complicated. The way he words it, it appears to have an upper limit. The latest experiments, the mice are all getting the same healthy daily intake of MePA, but different groups are getting different MePiA daily intake.

Jennifer:
And he says we're especially interested to see what happens if we go to a very low dose of the MePiA. The antioxidant.

Steve:
So again, just giving you an idea. This is the kind of stuff that's going into this, the tests. And we would love to see other people get a hold of this and just, multiple thousands of tests going on all over the world.

Jennifer:
And the brilliant minds all over the world.

Steve:
But this is what's happening right now.

Jennifer:
I asked about the fruit fly tests. We had gotten some verbal reports on some things and I followed up on that and was told that they have changed up some methodology with the fruit flies and are still in the testing phases of that. They were able to get consistent lifespan results of untreated fruit flies, which is the first step, of course, to knowing that your new method is going to be a good method to use for feeding the fruit flies and raising them and whatever all has to happen. But of course, with fruit flies, I think you get results just within like a month or two. So it's not the same as a mouse and the mouse is not the same as a person, but all of these things contribute to developing more knowledge.

Steve:
We also asked him, do you still think the early results that showed life-lengthening, which we did have with one or a few mice, were legitimate? You can go back in the newsletters and you can see a graph, very detailed information on some data that came out some years ago. His answer to that was, absolutely. "I believe the data we have for long-lived mice are incontrovertible. Whether we correctly understand the total meaning of the data is still not settled. The overall theory of aging and its cure seems now reasonably complete, but the final pieces of the puzzle are not yet in place." So that's the answer to that research and results that came out some years ago on life-lengthening that we had here.

Jennifer:
And then the final question I asked was, do you feel that each experiment done is helpful, even if you don't see life-lengthening? And he says, "Yes, every bit of data helps shape our understanding of what is going on with aging and its cure in mice. And this is expected to give added insight into what is going on with aging and its cure in humans." He talks about how risky mice experiments are as far as the investment that has to go in, and then maybe getting totally different results than you expected. Meanwhile, you're having to move forward and start new experiments without fully concluding the first one. And so, he says that mice experiments are probably more squanderous than most experimental research, but this can be compensated for in part, at least, by sometimes learning the most unexpected things from a mice experiment, things that it was never actually designed to show you or by it instigating a whole new line of previously unimagined possibilities.

Steve:
We're not scientists, but so it's so interesting to hear this and to share this with you and of what goes on in the laboratory. So you have an understanding that this is where things stand and this is ongoing. And if you're taking the vitamins, you have a part in this. We'd love to hear your testimony if we're always seeking for that kind of thing, to get more data from those taking, experiential data from those taking the vitamins. We are as a family. So we're trusting God in it and we're very excited about these updates and this ongoing research and excited about what God's going to do with this in the future.

Jennifer:
Now, the last part of where things stand with the theory of aging here is this brand new recommendation with the NR.

Steve:
Right. And NR does not stand for new recommendation, right?

Jennifer:
No, but that's kind of hilarious. New recommendation, take NR.

Steve:
NR. There's something called NR that is a new recommendation, but NR stands for something.

Jennifer:
Nicotinamide Riboside.

Steve:
Right. Well, what is this all about?

Jennifer:
Okay. So the theory of aging is that if you get the anti-aging vitamins, which we do make available here, the MePA, MePiA in the dropper bottle and start supplementing those every day, you have cured aging at its root in the cell. The firestorm of free radicals is quenched, okay? And there's no more of this constant damage to the mitochondria from the free radicals. The MePiA specifically takes care of it and deals with it.

Steve:
Let me insert in here that if I'm not mistaken, this is the same message that a lot of the aging research is telling us.

Jennifer:
Yeah. As far as antioxidants.

Steve:
Right. This is an agreement with the research going on out here in the world that Google is pumping billions of dollars into and on and on. That's the same thing they're saying, that this is one of the foundational problems.

Jennifer:
Not the specific vitamin that we have here. They don't know it's MePiA, but they do know that antioxidants are important in a general sense.

Steve:
So the MePiA is solving that problem, is the theory.

Jennifer:
Right. But then what do we deal with in the body? We deal with a whole bunch of damage in the body that has resulted from the lack of the vitamins, right? And what that damage is actually called is microheteroplasmy, where you have a whole bunch of damaged copies of mitochondria all throughout the body, trillions of them.

Steve:
It's the damage of aging.

Jennifer:
And the damaged copies is just random. Like, you know, it's not one thing to fix. It's random copy errors in all the mitochondria. And those are still there. So the free radical damage is stopped, but the damaged mitochondria is still damaged.

Steve:
And can it be healed?

Jennifer:
So initially, after the third edition of the book, it was like, well, Dr. Aardsma said, I'm going to turn my attention to some other areas of research, and we're going to see if the body seems to be able to heal itself. And in that timeframe, he did some other fascinating work. We are now circling back around to the experience and some of the experiments done to say, okay, no, this damage, this residual damage is not being healed. And so therefore, the body isn't really able to regain youthfulness because it can't restore the damage that's already there.

Steve:
Well, I guess better to state it, we don't know if it's being healed. If it is, it's such a slow process, right? That it's not going to be healing fast enough to make much of a difference in time. So yes. Well, where does this NR come in?

Jennifer:
Okay. So if the body can't... so the body needs a certain thing for energy to the cells. The energy molecule for cells is adenosine triphosphate. Okay. The dysfunctional mitochondria that's damaged doesn't have enough of that. Okay. And that's where it gets energy from. So without boring us all to death, basically the NR is a way of providing the body with that energy producing molecule. So if you, for example, have a low thyroid problem, your body's not making enough of the thyroid hormone anymore. The doctor will give you artificial or synthetic thyroid hormone to replace what your body's not making. That's commonly done in medicine. And that is basically the same thing with this NR. Your cells need this energy producing molecule. They don't have enough of it because all of the mitochondria are already damaged and they're continuing to be starved for energy. This NR comes in as a workaround for the body. Here you go. And the theory behind it is very careful. This is not just pull out of a hat, let's try this, but we are now adding this recommendation as a workaround for the body to be able to provide to the cells what it needs and thereby work around the damage already done.

Steve:
And those in the aging research community are also recommending this NR supplement. Dr. Aardsma is making it very clear that he does not recommend the NR supplement without the MePiA, without the anti-aging vitamins. That is an important thing to know and to understand that the NR is only recommended here in conjunction with the anti-aging vitamins.

Jennifer:
Interestingly enough, I made a negative remark there about David Sinclair a minute ago who is an aging researcher tied in with Harvard University. But, guys like him are well familiar with something like NR. NAD is a commonly taken supplement for aging today, because their research has been able to show that these types of things do provide energy to the cells. And so it's very interesting to me that in this new recommendation with the anti-aging vitamins, we now pull in a segment of mainstream aging research to play a part here. Now if you go with the NAD, the NR, that these groups promote, recommend, sell, whatever, but don't have the anti-aging vitamins, yes, you're providing more energy to the cells, which is going to produce more free radicals, and you don't have the anti-aging vitamins to stop the damage from those free radicals. So in the end, you're doing more harm than good in years down the road. And that's why Dr. Aardsma says, yes, that was going to give you a short-term boost, which is what these researchers see with this NR, NAD. But in the end, it's not going to lengthen your life. And sure enough, that's what we see. A lot of people supplement these things today, but you have to have the anti-aging vitamins with it. But I just love to see how every now and then we touch on the mainstream. We pull in something that is talked about and known in aging research.

Steve:
Now we do not provide NR here. If you want to get it, we provide links. There's apparently a lot of forms of this NR that you can get that's combined with other supplements or whatever. Dr. Aardsma at this point is only recommending a pure NR supplement, which you can get through Amazon. There's a company that we get it through and we put in the show notes. Particular. Particular.

Jennifer:
But yeah, get the link from us. And then you'll know that's the one that Dr. Aardsma recommends that has no byproducts in it. And get that along with the anti-aging vitamins and you will be fully up to speed with where things stand here. Now let's just talk on a little personal level. Of course, this is very early and anecdotal only. Dr. Aardsma and Helen report increased energy levels, focus levels, increased strength since taking the NR. And Steve and I, the past, well, we started December the 7th with the NR. It's pretty new. So we haven't even been two months yet. But every now and then, just to be honest, I've had a few weird things happen, and it pops in my head and I think, this reminds me of when I was a lot younger. So who knows? I mean, it's anecdotal and life is weird and you can never really pin down what's from what. But I have seen some improvements in a few issues I was dealing with. So that's all we can say at this point.

Steve:
And at this point, we can say, number one, it certainly doesn't seem like it can hurt and the benefits far outweigh the negatives. And if you want to take action, you know, here in a second, where does all this stand with you, the listener? You know, you can choose to disregard, of course, must not be true. This is crazy talk, whatever. You can choose to wait, you know, wait till my doctor recommends it... wouldn't recommend that. Or you can choose to take some action and say, well, this has come across my path. Maybe God's led me to this, to see this and understand it. We here have tried to make things as easy as possible. On our end, it's not easy to do that, but to try to set things up so people can get this with us, as a very, very small operation over here. So we hope that you will choose to take action and choose to spread the word, and take advantage of this very vital information for yourself and for your family.

Jennifer:
So that's where things stand with the research. And I think we've covered that pretty well. The theory of aging, there's a lot more, of course, in that, but I think you get the gist that there were two vitamins made naturally available in the environment that went missing out of the production in the earth at the time of Noah's flood, tied in with the southern oceans and the way the flood happened. And then that supply of that vitamin went down over the course of a thousand years after the flood, which is fascinating to know that it takes a thousand years for the ocean waters to turn over from the bottom to the top. And by the time that that thousand years was up, the supply of the vitamin in the ocean waters was completely depleted. Of course, it went up into the atmosphere, it came in the rainwater, people drank it. Okay.

Steve:
Now we're giving people a lot of information here.

Jennifer:
That's the theory of what happened.

Steve:
But it's so interesting and we hope you'll continue to read up on it, spread the word, look at the information that's posted on the website, www.biblicalchronologist.org.

Jennifer:
There's so much there. I mean, you can study up as much as your heart desires. The research is there. And just like other vitamins, we can make it. Okay. So you can get vitamin D from the sun, you can get vitamin D from a supplement. To the body, it's exactly the same chemical compound or molecule there. Vitamin C, same thing. You can eat an orange or you can take a vitamin C pill. With this, with the anti-aging vitamins, these two, methylphosphinic and methylphosphonic acid, they are no longer in the environment. So the only way you're going to get it is from the supplement.

Steve:
Okay. Now, let's just mention where things stand with the communications team here. That's you and me, and Helen, and trying to get the word out about the aging research and everything else going on here. It's not an easy job. You know, we've been doing this, Jennifer especially, since 2017, a little bit. And then we really got heavily involved in 2019. And you know, we're doing what we can, trying to figure out the best ways to get the message out about this.

Jennifer:
To get the information into people's hands and then get them to take action. I saw something recently, a quote, "I believe if you have a big enough 'Why', you'll definitely figure out the 'how'."

Steve:
Yes. And I think we have a big "Why" here.

Jennifer:
A big enough "Why" I mean, it's that same quote from Dick Van Dyke at the beginning. I mean, if you care about people, you love them, you care for their welfare and their life. And so, yeah, that's a pretty big "Why".

Steve:
And then another "Why" is the glory of God. You know, if this is the hand of the Lord leading in all of this, that's a very big "Why", a concern for people's lives and ultimately for the glory of God.

Jennifer:
And God's future plans for the world.

Steve:
And that is love here in February, the season of love. That is the "Why". So "How"? Well, we keep trying things.

Jennifer:
Yes. The how is the big question. Right. The big challenge for us. Tell them some of the things we've done.

Steve:
We've done some press releases over these years. We've done ads, print ads, digital ads, social media, again, working from a limited budget that we have here, personal contact, which really is one of the main ways we've had some success. News coverage. We've tried to contact big names. In our world today, of so much information, so much contact, that's not easy, you know, to get somebody's attention. Of course, our podcast that you're listening to now, events that we've gone to. We are getting ready to be at an event this week, actually, to try to get this word out about the vitamins, a health and wellness fair, expo. Now, doing mailings.

Jennifer:
We have tried many, many tactics to try to put this in front of people and say, "Hey, please slow down in your busy life and pay attention to this and listen to this, consider this."

Steve:
But it's a huge message, right? This is one of those things we talked about in our podcast about too crazy to be true, you know. And so, unless you're coming at us with an initial position of trust in the first place, it's very hard to get attention, but we're going to keep pushing it. We're going to keep trying.

Jennifer:
We are going to keep trying so that at least future generations will not say, "Well, why didn't you tell anybody?" You may feel that the task is impossible, but if God's given it to you to do, you keep going in the face of the impossibility, knowing that God is the God of the impossible. And I heard President Trump say on his inauguration speech, "Americans specialize in doing the impossible" or something along those lines. And I thought, "Well, that's good to hear you say that because we've got some stuff over here we'd sure like you to look at that sure seems to be an impossible task and maybe you could lend a hand."

Steve:
Right. Well, and hey, we put this out there and you're listening to it, you know, is there anything you could do to help get the word out, spread the news about the podcast, share it on your social media, the vitamins, you know, order them if you haven't done it yet and begin to take them. There's many ways people can help doing little things here and there. Ultimately, we are trusting the Lord. And again, we mentioned it a minute ago, where do things stand with you as the listener?

Jennifer:
Where does this all come down to where the rubber meets the road for you listening on the other side of the microphone?

Steve:
You can choose to disregard it, can choose to wait on it, or you can choose to take action.

Jennifer:
One time after we did a mailing, a man called in and he said, "Here's what I think needs to happen with this research. You all need to get a hold of the American Medical Association." And I mean, hey, you know, I don't disagree with that, but at this stage of things, that's a nigh unto an impossibility for us here. But that will happen one day. But that gentleman on the other end of the phone, I thought, Well, you can wait for us to get the attention of the American Medical Association with our Bible/science research, but in the meantime, you're going to die. I mean, are you really sure you want to wait? Be proactive when it comes to your own health. Don't wait for someone that you trust to tell you what to do with this. This is one of those things. You've got to figure it out for yourself.

Steve:
At this point, that's right.

"You May Have Heard it Said"

Okay. Moving on here today, we are going to go into our section called, "You May Have Heard It Said." And in this section, we are being a little bit feisty. Is that the word we're trying to...

Jennifer:
A little bit confrontational...

Steve:
Poking the beast a little bit.

Jennifer:
Stirring the pot. Yeah. You know what? This works really well on TikTok because these little topics that we're doing here, you may have heard it said, as a matter of fact, they make really nice short videos and then stirs the pot with the person watching it.

Steve:
Right. We're hitting issues that are maybe controversial and we're trying to come at it from a different angle and say, "Wait a minute. You may have heard it said, but as a matter of fact, this is what we're finding out." So here we go. You may have heard it said that the reason life spans... Staying on our topic for the day... the reason life spans dramatically declined after Noah's flood could have been due to a genetic bottleneck that happened at the flood and at the Tower of Babel. And if I'm not mistaken, this is kind of the thing going now with young Earth creationism and the answer that's being given, that there must have been some genetic bottleneck that happened at the flood.

Jennifer:
And therefore, because the population reduced so suddenly at the time of the flood, which it did, and that's when genetic bottlenecks happen is when there's a drastic reduction in the population all of a sudden from a natural disaster or disease or something, then the long-lived genetic was lost. Okay. So, I mean, that sounds kind of good. And then they say there was another one at the Tower of Babel. That's the two things that they say where the genetic bottleneck happened. I mean, is this a good theory? Is this a good way to explain the data in Genesis and just accept it? Well, we can't get that gene back. So I guess we're all just doomed. We're going to live really short now.

Steve:
Well, right. Again, it's kind of a hand wave answer. Like, well, see, we do have answers, but just believe God, believe Bible, and it's never coming back. Right?

Jennifer:
The genetic bottleneck theory falls short of explaining the biblical lifespan data that we do have, which is so precious there in Genesis. There are several drops indicated by the lifespan data, not just one after the flood and another one after the Tower of Babel. Shem had a shorter lifespan than Noah, much shorter, hundreds of years shorter. And Shem was born before the flood and therefore before any kind of genetic bottleneck where the gene would have been theoretically lost. But Shem suffered from a shorter lifespan. A sharp and final drop in the lifespans occurred during the time of Moses. And we know that there were millions of Israelites alive during the time of Moses. So there was no bottleneck going on at that time. So why did everyone lose even more longevity at that time? So just with a very passing view of the genetic bottleneck theory, we can see that does not work very well. There are too many anomalies in this dataset that do not work with that simple theory. 

Steve:
And you know, if genetics were the reason for the loss of lifespans that we see in that data in the Bible, surely somewhere in the world today, we would see some differences, right? We would see some variation in the genetics with some people, but we don't. Everybody's exactly the same across the board. There is no evidence anywhere of a genetic issue going on within the lifespans that we see. So no, it's unfortunately, it's a good...

Jennifer:
Actually fortunately, because if it was a genetic bottleneck, there would be nothing we could do. Nothing we could do. We can't go back and get that long lived gene again.

Steve:
So there you go, "You May Have Heard it Said", and "As a Matter of Fact".

 

Helen's View

Jennifer:
Okay. So now we're ready for "Helen's View" and she's going to share a day out of her life here in the recent weeks. And there's a lot of stuff in there about what is practically happening over there with her and Dr. Aardsma, a few employees there, in the aging research, and how she plays a part in unique ways. And it's always interesting to get a glimpse into somebody else's world. So here is Helen's view.

Helen:
A day in the life. Wednesday, January 15th, 2025. I arise at 6.30. It is just beginning to get light outside. A freshly fallen snow blankets the ground. I read a proverb or two for the day. Today's verse to ponder, Proverbs 25, 17. "Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house or he will become weary of you and hate you." My version for me to think about today. Let my words on social media, on phone calls, texting, in general conversation. Your neighbor's house? Be few or folks will become weary of you and tune you out, unfollow you, avoid you or block you in some form or another. I do a quick run to the warehouse down the hall from our apartment and check to make sure things are set for the day and then unlock the front doors of the building. Gerald and I eat breakfast and then I fill my bird feeder with sunflower seeds. Baby it's cold outside. Wind chill of minus 10. So many pretty junkos. Snowbirds this morning. Gerald takes out his binoculars to watch them. I figure out what is for lunch and get rice going in the rice cooker.

I go to my office and begin my work by checking my workers to-do lists and updating them if necessary. I check my email and deal with a few things there as well as checking tracking on two deliveries that are due today. I print off online orders for my workers to fill and then I put them in the shipping room. The article I am currently writing is due today so I work on that before heading into the shipping room for the morning. I plan several photos that need to be taken to be used in this article. We are getting 108 mice for the aging research delivered today. Gerald and I will be setting them up in their cages after lunch. We are also expecting a pallet of 10,000 bags for use in packing orders in the shipping room. I put some salt down on the driveway to melt off a little ice before the delivery trucks arrive. Robert arrives. He is in the student work program at the local high school. He starts packing up a pallet of orders to go out for Friday's pickup. Johnny arrives and begins filling mail orders, the first item on his to-do list for the day. Sam, my grandson, arrives. He will label bags for me. Robert has completed wrapping the pallets. I head to the shipping room to work with him bagging oat bran for orders that need to go out next week. Robert heads off to school at 10.15 a.m. Sam joins me, bagging oat bran until noon. The pallet of oat bran is now complete, all bagged up in five pound sizes.

Lunchtime. Gerald and I chat as we sit in the wonderful bright sunshine. We chat about our morning, any business related items, and our work for the afternoon. I check my email, pay some bills, and check for online orders that will go into tomorrow morning's packaging and mailing. UPS has dropped off a load of parcels. Gerald has been assembling and setting up some lab equipment to do some chemistry on the new nicotinamide riboside N-R. He is recommending to individuals over 40 who are taking the anti-aging vitamins. Gerald is working on monitoring NAD levels, so daily intake of N-R can be adjusted to optimize the NAD concentration in blood plasma, and also to minimize N-R supplementation expense. This is a different kind of work than he has ever done before as it requires making measurements at very low concentrations on blood samples. I have been ordering used lab equipment on eBay for this purpose. These are the parcels that are currently arriving. Research is very expensive. The universities in the USA spent a total of $97.8 billion on R&D in 2022. I don't even know what that number means, but I know it is a lot of money. ARP, on the other hand, has spent quite a few billion dollars less. We are able to do research on a very small budget. These packages are examples of how that happens. Gerald needed a Shimadzu LC6 liquid chromatography pump for his N-R research and sent me the link from eBay to purchase it. Prices on new pumps can range from $3,000 to $20,000. The asking price for this used pump on eBay is $374.99. I begin the purchase. When I say begin, I mean begin because it is a several-step process. I never give them their asking price, but make an offer. I usually start at half the price they are asking. I am familiar with the art of the deal as I have been doing this kind of thing for over 50 years and I really enjoy the bargaining process. The only time I will pay a full price for anything is for lemonade and cookies from a child's lemonade stand. So offers go back and forth with me raising my offer by a little each time. Eventually I wear them out and they sell it to me. We got this pump for $275. We can take a risk ordering used equipment because if it turns out that there is something wrong with it Gerald can generally fix it. Normally people are good at either theoretical things or at practical things. Gerald is good at both.

The truck with the mice has now arrived. Everything stops to take care of the mice. Down to the basement mouse lab Gerald and I go carrying three large boxes containing mice. We have already gotten their cages and bottles set up and tagged and ready to put the mice in. All the bottles have colored zip ties on them to let us know which vitamin regimen of treatment they are getting or no tags if no treatment called the control group. We get a routine going to minimize the time used for this job. It takes a while to get in sync as it is a small lab built for only one worker at a time. Two hours later we are done. I am happy to get that job behind me for a few months. We are hoping to build another large mouse lab this year. We need to run quite a few more experiments and with results taking at least three years that is how long mice normally live we need to do what we can to speed the vitamin research up.

Once back upstairs I find that the mail has arrived with several parcels for me to open and deliver to their proper departments. All junk mail goes into a box to be used for stuffing boxes that are being shipped out. All empty boxes get flattened and recycled for use on the bottom of pallets that we ship out. Johnny and I then do the daily mouse chores together. I am training Johnny to do a lot of this work to free me up to do other work that only I can do. 36 cages need to be cleaned every day, new water and vitamin drops given, and new bedding. This takes about one hour every day and then another hour for Johnny to finish up the cleaning.

Once that job is done Johnny and I head back up into the shipping room to start bagging garbanzo beans or chickpeas, you know what you make hummus out of. I call these marbles because if they spill on the floor it is like sweeping up marbles. The first thing that happens as the garbanzo beans are poured into the machine is a big spill all over the floor. No names will be mentioned. The pallet of bags still has not been delivered so I am watching for the truck as I work on the garbanzo beans with Johnny. While we are working we listen to a BC podcast. Seriously we do. It makes for stimulating conversation and helps me refresh and retain the podcast content which helps me with the communications that I do for Gerald's work. The shipping room is pretty much autopilot kind of work so this is a good use of time. We work until 5pm when Johnny goes home.

I am beat. I get the robotic vacuum cleaner set up and close the shipping room for the night. We usually go walking mid-afternoon but there was no walk today as it is too cold. When it gets below 14 degrees Fahrenheit we don't go walking. It's just too cold. We try to play ping pong in the evening when we can't go walking but Gerald recently sprained a rib while playing ping pong against me so we are taking a break and waiting for that to heal. In the meantime don't make him laugh or sneeze. Number is at 5.30. Gerald likes schedules. I make some pumpkin muffins and work on this article. I worked on the ST1s over the weekend and needed to complete that work today to meet the Illinois deadline. ST1s are for when we collect sales tax on our online orders which we then have to send to the state. Sounds easy but believe me that kind of paperwork is why people don't stay in small business. Gerald wrote a computer program to help with this many years ago. It saves hours. My brain is getting a little foggy but I stumble through the forms and get the math to work out finally and email the form and money into the state. I do a dance around the living room once this is completed. Always a mini celebration after this is done every year.

The truck delivery with the bags finally arrives at 6.30. Very cold and very dark out there. The pallet is broken turning a normally simple task into a lengthy one. I can now cross that off my list for the day. With renewed vigor I look at the news and comment on any articles that have anything to do with climate change. Always lots of climate change stuff. Or with Israel or biblical historicity or aging. I am doing what I can to let folks know that when you put the Bible and science together as they should be, wonderful true answers to today's real world pressing problems appear. I plan the work for the next day. Answer emails, finish writing this article and then head to the kitchen and do the dishes of which there are many from my baking.

By 8pm I am pretty much done in. It is time to relax, read, enjoy our double tub, watch a movie and go to bed by 10.30.

Day is done. Gone the sun. From the lake. From the hill. From the sky. All is well. Safely rest. God is nigh. From Taps by General Daniel Adams Butterfield 1874.

Closing Comments

Steve:
So wrapping it up here today, if aging could be figured out in this world, if God would give us that ability, and it sure seems like he is, if it could be conquered even within our lifetimes... you know, we could change, Jen, some of the lyrics to some love songs. This is February, the season of love. There's a love song you introduced me to called "Grow Old Along With Me." Listen to the lyrics. "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be." Hey, we could change these lyrics to say, what? "Grow young along with me. The best is yet to be..." Wouldn't that be great? But we're going to just play that song as we leave you here today on this podcast episode. Take the information you've heard today. Take it to heart. And if you're a Christian and you know that data in Genesis, we ought to be the first one to say maybe God could bring those ages back. And think about it. We're glad you joined us here today and we will see you in March.