DEATH

Death is not a destination. It is not the end of the line, a final stop that ends in the grave. A tendency within our world is to see death as something murky at best, and as a concept we can but speculate on. Even those in the Church look at death with some apprehension, fear, and doubt.

When understood aright, however, we see death not as a destination—but a gateway. For you and I, from our conception, were born eternal. ETERNAL. This is true for believers and non-believers alike. In the Bible we read that, upon death, believers ascend to Heaven and everlasting union with our Creator, while non-believers are committed to everlasting damnation. To those who take these views as truth this means the moment of death is no more than an infinitesimally quick shift from one phase of being into another. Dying itself may be time-consuming, but death is not. A Christian view also rejects a prevailing worldly notion that the dead are “finally at rest”. Rest, one suspects, is not the activity one is greeted with upon meeting our Lord in heaven or incurring His wrath in Hell.

Why is death inevitable? It is the natural result of the sinful, fallen nature of man. And because it is inevitable it is worth our attention. But in giving this attention, we are not to fear or welcome death itself: fear or welcome what comes after we die.

Ironically, one cannot understand the infinitesimally small moment of death without understanding the totality of everlasting life. Death is that appointed time when you and I continue our existence, simply in different spiritual form. There is no simple dying and fading to nothingness… this will never happen. Not for a millisecond. Nor, at some point in ten thousand years from now, do we eventually pass from spiritual existence. Everlasting means everlasting. You and I will never cease to exist. See yourself as living eternally from now forward and you see yourself rightly.

So this means the most important decision you will ever be called to make is where you hope to spend this everlasting existence. In this sense, the concept of death is vitally important because the biggest distinction between pre-death and post-death existence is that before we die we still have decisions to make. We can still choose life, if He has chosen us as well. We can still choose to evangelize to others, to spread the Word, and to lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven. But once we die, the clock has run out on our ability to choose God and Godly things. So in this sense death should weigh on us… creating great consternation about our current life and choices, but not making us fretful about some vague afterworld whose standards we do not know. We DO know what awaits us after death. The Creator has emphatically told His Creation what awaits those who believe and those who don’t. Consider what we are told in 1^st Corinthians 2:9, that we cannot even imagine the wonders of heaven:
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”

And then consider one of the descriptions of hell:
"(They) shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from
the glory of his power," – 2 Thessalonians 1:9

And:
“Cast ye the unprofitable servant
into outer darkness:
there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth"- Matthew 25:30

So when we contemplate death, let us understand it in its right context. Let believers understand it as a gateway to an existence the Lord tells us is beyond our imagination. And for non-believers, may it be understood as a gateway to an eternity without God and without possibility of redemption.

In conclusion, here are Jesus’ words in John 14:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

You know the way to the place where I am going.” .