Death and Dying (1)

Christians tend to assume that people die when God decides that their life is done. They assume that we die when he turns off the switch, but I think that it is more complicated than that.

• It seemed to be true for my mother-in-law who did not wake one Sunday morning when she was in her eighties. She looked so peaceful that, it seemed like God had just turned off the switch.

• I knew a lady who was confined to bed for a couple of years in her nineties with dementia and a body that had stopped functioning. Although, she was a faithful, Christian, it seemed like God had forgotten to turn off the switch.

• My aged mother died within half an hour of her youngest sone arriving from another city. She had been unconscious for a couple of days, but it seemed like she waited for him to arrive before giving up her hold on life.

• My Dad died in the middle of the night, on the first night in several that no one sat with him through the night. I think that because he had been a farmer, he felt that dying was something you should do in private on your own.

Dying is more complicated than God turning off a switch. Several factors come into play in the death of a human.

• For some people, death is like God turning off a switch when their life is done.

• Some people die after a serious attack or accident that causes them fatal injuries.

• Others people are killed during a war.

• The vast majority of people die when they are overcome with an incurable illness.

The timing of a human’s death is an interaction between three influences.

• God has promised us seventy to eight years (Ps 90:10). He promises that when his Kingdom comes to fulness, the lives of his people will not be cut short (Is 65:20).

• The spiritual powers of evil love to kill and destroy (John 10:10). I presume that they are the cause of the deaths of many people who are struck by incurable disease or fatal accident or attack.

• People seem to have some control over when they die. Some who fight against dying seem to have long painful deaths. Others who surrender to the inevitable, go quickly and quietly.

So the common understanding that people die when God turns off the switch is only part of the story. Death is often the consequence of a serious spiritual struggle against the spiritual powers of evil. This means that many people die too soon. They are defeated before getting to the point where God can turn off the switch. They do not get the chance to complete God’s purposes for them on earth.

Christians tend to say that a person who died young was taken by God because he wanted them with him. This is our is a way of putting a positive spin on our disappointment when the spiritual powers of evil win a battle.

Christians need a much clearer understanding of spiritual protection. It is not something that we can do alone. Spiritual protection comes through submission to people that we love and trust.