Myth 2: God Takes People In Death To Be With Him
A 27 year - old mother who was dying and leaving three children behind told a Catholic nun: " Don't come in and tell me this is God's will for me.... I hate it when somebody else tells me this." Yet, this is what many religions teach about death - that God takes people to be near him.
Is the Creator really so cruel that he would callously inflict death on us, knowing that this breaks our hearts? No, not the God of the Bible. According to 1 John 4:8, "God is love." Note that it does not say that God has love or that God is loving, but it says that God is love. So intense, so pure, so perfect is God's love, so thoroughly does it permeate his personality and actions that he may rightly be spoken of as the very personification of love. This is not a God who takes people in death to be near him.
False religion has left many confused as to the whereabouts and condition of the dead. Heaven, hell, purgatory, limbo - these and various other destinations range from being incomprehensible to being downright terrifying. The Bible, on the other hand, tells us that the dead are unconscious; They are in a condition best compared to sleep. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; John 11:11-14) Thus, we need not worry about what happens to us after death, any more than we worry when we see someone sleeping soundly. Jesus spoke of a time when "all those in the memorial tombs" would "come out" to renewed life on a paradise earth. - John 5:28, 29; Luke 23:43.
Continued-Next time: Myth 3: God takes little children to become angels.
9.24.2005
9.17.2005
A Closer Look At Some Myths About Death
Throughout history, man has stood perplexed and apprehensive before the dark prospect of death. What is more, fear of death has been fueled by a mix of false religious ideas, popular customs, and ingrained personal beliefs. The problem with fear of death is that it can paralyze one's ability to enjoy life and erode one's confidence that there is meaning to life.
Popular religion is especially reprehensible for promoting a number of popular myths regarding death. By examing a few of these under the light of Bible truth, see if you personal perceptions about death can be clarified.
Myth 1: Death is the natural end of life.
"Death ...is an integral part of our lives, " says the book of Death - The Final Stage Of Growth. Comments like this reflect the belief that death is normal, the natural ending of all living organisms. In turn, such a belief has fostered a nihilistic philosophy and opportunistic behavior in many.
But is death really the natural end of life? Not all researchers believe so. For instance, Calvin Harley, a biologist who studies human aging, says in an interview that he does not believe that humans "have a program to die." Immunolisist William Clark observed: "Death is not inextricable interwined with the definition of life." And Seymour Benzer, of the California Institute of technology, muses that "aging can be better described not as a clock but as a scenario, which we can hope to edit."
When scientists study the design of humans, they are baffled. They find that we have been endowed with resources and capabilities that far exceed the needs of our 70 - 80 year life span. For example, scientists have found that the human brain has immense memory capacity. Our reseacher estimated that our brain can hold information that "would fill some twenty million volumes, as many as in the world's largest libraries." Some neuroscientist figure that during an average lifetime, a person uses only 1/100 of 1 percent (.0001) of his potential brain capacity. It is appropriate to ask, 'why do we have a brain with such a large capacity when we utilize only a tiny fraction of it in an average lifetime?'
Consider also how unnaturally humans react to death! For the majority, the death of a wife, a husband, or a child can be the oust upsetting experience of a lifetime. People's entire emotional makeup is often jarred for a long time after the death of a person dearly loved. Even those who claim that death is natural to humans find it hard to accept the idea that their own death will mean the end of everything. The British Medical Journal spoke of "a common expert presumption that everybody wants to live as long a possible."
In view of man's general reaction to death, his amazing potential for remembering and learning, and his inward longing for eternity, is it not clear that he was made to live in it? Indeed, God created humans, not with death as the natural outcome, but with the prospect of living on indefinitely. Note what God set before the first human pair as their future: "Be fruitful and become multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28) What a wonderful, lasting future that is!
Continue:Next time: Myth 2: God takes people in death to be with him.
Throughout history, man has stood perplexed and apprehensive before the dark prospect of death. What is more, fear of death has been fueled by a mix of false religious ideas, popular customs, and ingrained personal beliefs. The problem with fear of death is that it can paralyze one's ability to enjoy life and erode one's confidence that there is meaning to life.
Popular religion is especially reprehensible for promoting a number of popular myths regarding death. By examing a few of these under the light of Bible truth, see if you personal perceptions about death can be clarified.
Myth 1: Death is the natural end of life.
"Death ...is an integral part of our lives, " says the book of Death - The Final Stage Of Growth. Comments like this reflect the belief that death is normal, the natural ending of all living organisms. In turn, such a belief has fostered a nihilistic philosophy and opportunistic behavior in many.
But is death really the natural end of life? Not all researchers believe so. For instance, Calvin Harley, a biologist who studies human aging, says in an interview that he does not believe that humans "have a program to die." Immunolisist William Clark observed: "Death is not inextricable interwined with the definition of life." And Seymour Benzer, of the California Institute of technology, muses that "aging can be better described not as a clock but as a scenario, which we can hope to edit."
When scientists study the design of humans, they are baffled. They find that we have been endowed with resources and capabilities that far exceed the needs of our 70 - 80 year life span. For example, scientists have found that the human brain has immense memory capacity. Our reseacher estimated that our brain can hold information that "would fill some twenty million volumes, as many as in the world's largest libraries." Some neuroscientist figure that during an average lifetime, a person uses only 1/100 of 1 percent (.0001) of his potential brain capacity. It is appropriate to ask, 'why do we have a brain with such a large capacity when we utilize only a tiny fraction of it in an average lifetime?'
Consider also how unnaturally humans react to death! For the majority, the death of a wife, a husband, or a child can be the oust upsetting experience of a lifetime. People's entire emotional makeup is often jarred for a long time after the death of a person dearly loved. Even those who claim that death is natural to humans find it hard to accept the idea that their own death will mean the end of everything. The British Medical Journal spoke of "a common expert presumption that everybody wants to live as long a possible."
In view of man's general reaction to death, his amazing potential for remembering and learning, and his inward longing for eternity, is it not clear that he was made to live in it? Indeed, God created humans, not with death as the natural outcome, but with the prospect of living on indefinitely. Note what God set before the first human pair as their future: "Be fruitful and become multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28) What a wonderful, lasting future that is!
Continue:Next time: Myth 2: God takes people in death to be with him.
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