Does God Determine The Date & Time Of Our Death?

           For many of us, living during the Covid pandemic is to stare death in the face.

            It’s not that in pre-covid times we took life for granted, but, then the chances of living were more than the chances of our dying. Today it is not so; the chances of our death have increased exponentially.

            Death seems so much closer to us than ever before.

            Although we hope to die peacefully without being a burden on any one, we are not in control over our death. Some deaths are peaceful, some brutal and violent, and some deaths are sudden and unexpected. We are painfully unaware as to how and when we would die.

            In this context, we may be more secure if God determines the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ of our death i.e. the date, time, place, and the nature of our death. To know that God is in total control of our death is to know that God would be with us when we breathe our last breath (cf. John 14:17). If God is with us, we could be secure and peaceful during our final moments of this mortal life.  

            When we say that God determines our death, we are not alluding to the notion that God knows every detail about our death. Of course, God, as the maximally great being, would know everything – that includes every detail of our death.

            To know something is distinct from determining something. Consider a casual example. I may know that you would be travelling to your destination in public transport. On the other hand, if I play an active role in you using public transport for your travel, I am rather determining the nature of your travel. (The more I increase my involvement in your journey, the more I determine your journey.) Knowledge of an event is included in determining an event. So determining an event includes both knowledge and an active participation of the causal agent in causing that event to occur.

            When God determines our deaths, God is actively involved in the date, time, place, and the nature of our death.

            This does not mean that God is the cause of all suicides. God will not violate man’s freewill.

            God allows man to commit suicide [although in certain instances, God, being a sovereign being, can prevent a man from committing suicide]. In other words, man decides freely to commit suicide. While using his freewill to commit suicide, man chooses to either actively or passively ignore or violate God’s perfect will.

            Unhealthy lifestyles could also usher an early death. But an unhealthy lifestyle is not God’s perfect will for man. However, if man chooses to disobey God to live an unhealthy lifestyle, God, in all likelihood, would allow that man to exercise his freewill.

            So a suicide or an unhealthy lifestyle or a rash decision could usher an early death. But the exercise of man’s freewill does not diminish God’s perfection by any means. God would still determine or be actively involved in the death of every Christian.

            Does the Bible teach that God determines the death of every Christian?

            Consider these verses:

            God has ordained all our days on earth. This includes the days of our birth and death. (Psalm 139: 16 (NIV) “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”)

            God is in absolute control over our life. (Matthew 10: “²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” - NIV)

            God gives us our life and our death. (Acts 17: 25 “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” - NIV [Emphasis Mine].)

            The Lord decides our death. (James 4: “¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”” - NIV)

            (Also refer Deuteronomy 32: 39; 1 Samuel 2: 6; Job 1: 21, 14:5 etc.) 

            To conclude, we may stare death at the face, but worry not, the Triune God who created us and sustains our life is in control over your life and mine.

            On a personal note, my prayer, when I die, is that I will be sane and diligent to pray, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.” (Psalm 31:5 ESV; cf. Acts 7: 59).

How To Die In Peace?

            Some Christians may be absolutely terrified by the prospect of death. How could they overcome their fear?  

            Death, to a Christian, is the gateway to heaven. If death leads a Christian to heaven – a place without injustice, evil and suffering, then one could wonder why a Christian should fear death.

            Apostle Paul did not fear death (Philippians 1: 21). Christ’s disciples did not fear death for they voluntarily chose death over life. Andrew, the brother of Peter, preached the gospel of Christ for two days after being scourged and nailed to the cross.¹

IS FEAR OF DEATH A SIN?

            Hebrews 2: 14-15 says that we should not fear death, “…that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” (Emphasis Mine). The Bible does not mention the fear of death as a sin.

            Would we be genuine Christians if we fear death? Fear of death is not a criterion to decide the authenticity of one’s Christianity.²

DANGER IN FEAR

            If those who were with Jesus abandoned HIM, what prevents us from abandoning the Lord? Christ’s disciples abandoned HIM because of their lack of faith in HIM (cf. John 6: 61-62, 66).

            Those who fear death could recant their faith under persecution. This is the most significant danger of being fearful of death.

CHRISTIAN MARTYRS

            Instances of Christians not recanting their faith in the Lord and dying for HIM reinforce the possibility of Christians not fearing death. Other than those mentioned in the Bible, there are many instances where Christians have offered their lives for the sake of the Lord Jesus.

            Czech priest, Jan Hus, did not recant his faith in Christ and was executed.³ Eritrean refugee, Elsa, did not recant her faith in the Lord Jesus while being persecuted.⁴ We could go on and on.

HOW DO WE NOT FEAR DEATH?

            We possess a theoretical knowledge of death, but death is a virtual unknown to the living. Hence, the “fear of unknown” is a possibility. But is it a valid possibility?

            If Christians have offered their lives voluntarily, it is obvious that the “fear of unknown” could be overcome. How do we overcome this fear?

            It is possible that those Christians who fear death do not believe that they would be with the Lord upon their death. If one’s faith is in question, the understandable need is to strengthen their faith in Christ.

            How do we strengthen our faith in Christ? Love for the Lord is the only means to strengthen our faith in Christ.

            Christians do love the Lord; else they would not be Christians to begin with. But how do we increase our love for the Lord so to not fear death?

            Immersing ourselves in the knowledge of God’s Word is an important prerequisite to love the Lord. Have we read and studied God’s Word to an extent that HIS Word remains in our mind always (cf. Deuteronomy 11: 18)?

            Studying the Bible and prayer goes hand in hand. Prayer intensifies our relationship with God. Prayer is an act of not only speaking with God, but being constantly vigilant to receive God’s counsel into our lives. The precious Holy Spirit counsels us always. We only need to receive HIS holy counsel into our life.

            If we fear death, let us not worry, for we have a way forward. That way forward is for us to plunge into studying the Bible and praying to the living God.

            God is the only one who can remove the fear of death from our lives. HE would replace that unholy fear with love. When we are utterly certain of HIS love for us, we would instinctively love HIM more than ever.

            If we fear death, we should also talk to our pastor or an elder of our church or a godly person whom God has placed in your life.

            Some Christians may not fear death per se, but they may fear loneliness or a painful sickness that could lead to death. In this instance, they do not fear death; rather they fear the possibility of severe pain in their lives.

            The best testimony I have heard in this very context is that of Mabel. Here is the story of Mabel as narrated by Dr. William Lane Craig, “I saw an old woman strapped in a wheelchair. Her face was an absolute horror. The empty stare and white pupils of her eyes told me that she was blind. The large hearing aid over one ear told me that she was almost deaf. One side of her face was being eaten by cancer. There was a discolored and running sore covering part of one cheek, and it had pushed her nose to the side, dropped one eye and distorted her jaw so that what should have been the corner of her mouth was the bottom of her mouth. As a consequence, she drooled constantly. I also learned later that this woman was 89 years old and that she had been bedridden, blind, nearly deaf, and alone for 25 years. This was Mabel.

            I don't know why I spoke to her. She looked less likely to respond than most of the people I saw in that hallway. But I put a flower in her hand and said, “Here is a flower for you, Happy Mother's Day!” She held the flower up to her face and tried to smell it, and then she spoke, and much to my surprise her words, though somewhat garbled because of her deformity, were obviously produced by a clear mind. She said, “Thank you, it's lovely, but can I give it to someone else? I can't see it you know, I'm blind.”

            I said, “Of course,” and I pushed her in her chair back down the hallway to a place where I thought I could find some alert patients. I found one and stopped the chair. Mabel held out the flower and said, “Here, this is from Jesus.”4

            It was then that it began to dawn on me that this was not an ordinary human being. . . . Mabel and I became friends over the next few weeks, and I went to see her once or twice a week for the next three years. . . . It was not many weeks before I turned from a sense that I was being helpful to a sense of wonder. And I would go to her with a pen and paper to write down the things she would say. . . .

            During one hectic week of final exams, I was frustrated because my mind seemed to be pulled in ten directions at once with all of the things that I had to think about. The question occurred to me, what does Mabel have to think about? Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, not even able to know if it is day or night. So I went to her and asked, “Mabel, what do you think about when you lie here?”

            And she said, “I think about my Jesus.”

            I sat there and thought for a moment about the difficulty for me of thinking about Jesus for even five minutes. And I asked, “What do you think about Jesus?” She replied slowly and deliberately as I wrote, and this is what she said,

            I think how good he has been to me. He has been awfully good to me in my life, you know. . . . I’m one of those kind who’s mostly satisfied. . . . Lots of folks would think I’m kind of old-fashioned. But I don't care. I'd rather have Jesus, he is all the world to me.

            And then Mabel began to sing an old hymn:

            Jesus is all the world to me,

            My life, my joy, my all.

            He is my strength from day to day,

            Without him, I would fall.

            When I am sad, to him I go.

            No other one can cheer me so.

            When I am sad, he makes me glad.

            He’s my friend.

            This is not fiction. Incredible as it may seem, a human being really lived like this. I know, I knew her. How could she do it? Seconds ticked and minutes crawled, and so did days and weeks and months and years of pain without human company and without an explanation of why it was all happening – and she laid there and sang hymns. How could she do it?

            The answer, I think, is that Mabel had something that you and I don't have much of. She had power. Lying there, in that bed, unable to move, unable to see, unable to hear, unable to talk. . . , she had incredible power.5”

            We need that power to not fear. That power is not in us. That power is God’s power. God alone can bless us with that power in our lives. God would enable us to be powerful if we look to HIM constantly by praying and studying HIS Word.

            We study the Bible when we are not suffering from any painful sickness. But when we are sick, we can pray to God. When we seek God, God will pour HIS power into our lives, so that we can remain peaceful.

            Let us trust in God always. God will enable us to be powerful Christians. Amen.   

Endnotes:

Websites cited were last accessed on 10^th November 2016.

¹http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/killing-jesus/articles/how-did-the-apostles-die/

²http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.in/2015/03/fear-of-death-are-you-genuine-christian.html

³http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/galleries/4-amazing-stories-of-martyrdom-and-costly-discipleship.aspx?p=3

⁴http://www.christiantoday.com/article/persecuted.christians.in.eritrea.the.guards.offered.to.let.us.go.but.only.if.we.renounced.our.faith.in.jesus.we.said.no/84990.htm

Fear Of Death; Are You A Genuine Christian?

            Some fear death and consider it evil. In contrast, the illustrious Greek philosopher Plato, who lived much before the Lord Jesus, ridiculed mankind’s fear of death, “No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.” ¹

            The Bible teaches that death is not to be feared. Apostle Paul welcomed death (Philippians 1: 21). Psalm 23 urges its believers to not fear death (verse 4). Having been seated at the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2: 6), Christians should eagerly await their death (Philippians 3: 20-21).

            If Christians fear death, it is because they remain ignorant of the biblical teaching behind life and death. When a Christian fears death he remains spiritually weak.

            So our question is, “If a Christian fears death is he a Christian?” Or, “Do genuine Christians fear death?” 

            Genuine Christians (those with mature faith in Christ) welcome death. Genuine Christians understand that they are crucified with Christ; they no longer live but Christ lives in them and their life is lived by absolute faith in Christ (cf. Galatians 2: 20). In other words, these Christians would have entrusted their life – all of it – to Christ.

            In my blog written in 2013, I had expressed my lack of fear of death, “Until I experienced God through HIS Word and deed, I was fearful, apprehensive and didn’t desire death. But when I believed in Christ and became aware of the glorious life that awaited me, the fear of death vanished. Today, I welcome death anytime, for when I die I will be with my God forever. The fear of death is dead in my life (cf. Psalm 23: 4; Romans 8: 38-39; 2 Corinthians 5: 8; Philippians 1: 21-23), for death is the gateway to a glorious eternity with God.” ²

            Am I a genuine Christian because I do not fear death?

            Many non-christians do not fear death. So lack of fear of death cannot be a primary criterion to measure the genuineness of a Christian.

            Christians would not cease to be Christians because they fear death. If a Christian fears death, we ought to examine the extent of his faith in Christ.

            A common deterrent to faith is wealth. A Christian’s absolute faith in Christ could be suspect during his prosperity. 

            Wealth and faith are mutually antagonistic. A wealthy Christian would not be too concerned about the financial welfare of his family, even if he were in his deathbed. On the other hand, a poverty stricken Christian or a sole breadwinner-christian would worry for his family’s welfare.

            Wealthy Christians ought to ask themselves whether they trust Christ or their wealth. The Bible teaches that it would be difficult for a wealthy Christian to trust Christ completely (cf. Matthew 19: 24 & Mark 10: 25).   

            So should we infer that wealthy Christians cannot trust Christ completely? How then can wealthy Christians trust Christ totally?

            Wealthy Christians cannot be attached to their wealth (cf. Matthew 6: 24, 19: 21-22). Nothing should come between Christ and the Christian (cf. Matthew 19: 29; Romans 8: 38-39).

            Wealthy Christians could be champions of faith in Christ. These wealthy Christians either give sacrificially or do not hesitate, at any point in time, to give up all they own for the sake of Christ.

            Uncertainty is another deterrent to faith in Christ. Those who fear death could be plagued by uncertainties.

            A couple of common questions predicated on uncertainty are:

            1. Will I really go to heaven when I die?

            While asking this question, the Christian doubts his status as a Christian. He doubts the promises offered in the Bible. More importantly, he doubts the Lord Jesus Christ.

            2. What will happen to my family when I die?

            This question is loaded with unbelief in God. This question implies that, if I live, I will do all that I can to support my family. This is incorrect.

            God enables us to care for our family. We support our family only when God blesses our life with health, sanity and wellness. Superficially it may appear that we are doing our utmost to care for our family, but we cannot do anything without God’s blessings.

            When God has enabled us to provide for our family, why should we doubt that God would not care for our family upon our death? Excessive concerns about our family, disputes God’s presence and goodness.

            On a side note, some Christians may not fear death but they may fear the manner in which they may die; paranoia of a long and painful death may haunt some. This fear may be unnecessary, since our death may or may not be painful.

            We fear because we forget that God is in total control over everything, and that God will help us even if we are to go through pain. Suffering Christians who are strong in their faith would testify to this fact.

            How do Christians overcome their fear of death?

            Faith in the Lord Jesus should replace our uncertainties and our security in material possessions. Let us totally trust God that HE will usher us into heaven because we believe and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us totally trust God to care for our family even if we were to die, because God cares for us while we live.

            When we totally believe in Christ, we would not fear death. If our faith is not strong, we could earnestly ask Lord Jesus to increase our faith (Luke 17: 5). Amen.

Endnotes:

¹ Written by Plato in his work “Apology,” (universally known as Plato’s ‘Apology’ of Socrates), p27.

² http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.in/2013/08/death-suicide-and-euthanasia.html