The 300 Year Old Man

      George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “The world will never progress until everyman lives 300 years.” In response G.K. Chesterton quipped that, “If George Bernard Shaw lived 300 years he would undoubtedly be a Catholic.” Part of Chesterton’s genius is his poetic nature; that is his ability to touch on a deep truth in a small economy of space.

            Part of the curse, a side effect of the fall of man, is his now myopic vision. Adam, in wanting equality with God, in wanting God-like knowledge, by being self interested, set the course of mankind on an endless cycle of self-centeredness. It is difficult to avoid the trap of believing that right now is the most important moment; this election is the most important election, if only we could fix this or that problem than everything would change. Shaw may have been right. If everyman could live 300 years, we would see progress. If everyone lived 300 years, everyone might be backed into the truth of the gospel.

            Imagine the now 300 year old man. He would have seen endless revolutions that promised hope but delivered death. He would have seen moments that promised to be climatic that came and went with nothing but a dud. He would have been built up on the back of hope only to be gunned down to the ditches of human depravity.

            Some forty years ago he would have been witness to the promise of hope in the form of the “crowning achievement” of gender equality. He would then proceed to have his body drug through 50 million aborted fetuses. He would have seen capitalism defeat communism, only to result in the greed of the Wall Street hedge funds. He would have seen the achievement of science, of Einstein and Planck, and then 160,000 incinerated Japanese in the streets on Hiroshima. He would have seen the War To End All Wars give birth to the WWII. He would have seen Aristocracies replace monarchies, aristocracies overthrown by dictators, dictators replaced by democracies and bloodshed, greed, and unthinkable feats of human cruelty achieved by each.

            As each well-spring of hope dried up, hopeless, the man, given enough time, might stumble upon an ancient truth—a truth that gave the proper apportionment of power to princes and principalities. He might find a truth that defined the true meaning and application of freedom, of equality, of justice, and of wisdom. He might be taught the only true way to love, to have community, to unite with one voice, to join a unified chorus. Given 300 years, a man would be hard-pressed to deny and suppress the complete catholicity of the covenantal love found in the community that is the Triune God. He would see that there is no solution without ultimate teleology. If there is no design, there is no proper way to fix the individual parts. The man would be forced to humble himself before the cross of grace. He would know, with first hand experience, that there is no solution, and no hope without Christ.