Elixir?

March 9th, 2019| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

That people don’t want to die, but live forever is well attested.

As a character in the 1975 Woody Allen play, Death, said:

It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

The first emperor of a united China, Qin Shi Huang, who ruled from 220–210 B.C.E., tried some stunts to keep himself alive (more about that here).

Another report from ye olde country, China, came last October.

A bronze pot was discovered by archaeologists in a tomb belonging to a wealthy family that lived in the Henan Province of central China. The burial plot dates back to the time of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BCE–8 CE). Alongside the pot were other decorated clay pots, jade and bronze jewelry, and a goose-shaped lamp.

Oh, and of the inhabitant of the grave, Xinhua declared:

The remains of the tomb occupant were well preserved.”

But it was the contents of the bronze pot that sparked interest—about a gallon of yellowish liquid with a strong alcohol-like smell. Possibly wine, the archaeologists figured, for the benefit of the deceased’s afterlife, a practice not infrequent in those days.

But, reported Xinhua, further laboratory analysis showed that the fluid was alcohol. It was composed primarily of potassium nitrate and alunite. Potassium nitrate was being used in meat processing, fertilizers, and fireworks, and alunite to manufacture alum, which is used in pickling and baking powder.

And guess what? Ancient Taoist texts document such a combo as the main ingredients of an elixir of immortality! (After all, the ingredients of said potion were involved in “processing” and “pickling.” Perhaps that is why they came to be included in an elixir of immortality?)

Observed Shi Jiazhen, head of the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in Luoyang:

It is the first time that mythical ‘immortality medicines’ have been found in China. The liquid is of significant value for the study of ancient Chinese thoughts on achieving immortality and the evolution of Chinese civilization.”

Though, of course, the fact that the elixir of immortality was found in a tomb with the remains of its putative owner throws a different light on the effectiveness of said concoction.

As one commenter noted:

Well, it did ‘stop’ the guy from aging!”

That’s true. One way or another, the guy didn’t age (beyond the date of his demise, that is).

He tried.

But there is only one way to eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

Believing that Jesus Christ is one’s only God and Savior, who died and rose again, paying the price of one’s sins.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

And so, by the work of Jesus Christ, believers in him can say:

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” …
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55, 57

The victory of eternal life.

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He who has the Son has the life;
he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,
so that you may know that you have eternal life.
1 John 5:11–13

Nope, no elixir needed!