(Photo Courtesy of Unsplash, Mike Haupt)
Have you ever been afraid of dying? We all know that everyone dies at some point. There are no exceptions. As a doctor, I’ve dealt with death a lot. I’m not talking about illness now. I’m talking about Death. But is there anything that we can do about Death? I’m quite serious. Is there anything that can be done to forestall this problem of Death or is it just a foregone conclusion that we will all die and that that's the end of it, the end of everything? Have you ever been to a funeral and heard a visitor say to a bereaved family member “He’s in a better place now”? What could that possibly mean? And did the person who said it have any idea what he was saying? Frankly, I very much doubt it.
If we want to "get a handle" on Death does it not make sense that we must know the cause of Death? We must find out the etiology of Death, what the underlying cause is, if at all possible, because then we might be able to find an effective treatment for Death just as we would for any other illness or condition. So, can we get to the root cause of Death itself? Can we uncover the fundamental reason for Death?
It seems to me that it is reasonable to say that Life and Death are connected even though they are, in a sense, opposites. So could it be that if we found the cause of Life that that might help us to find the cause of Death? To my knowledge no scientist, including experts in the field of evolutionary biology, has ever been able to find the ultimate cause or origin of Life. So could it be that we need to look outside the field of Science for answers to the questions of the underlying causes of Life and Death? I believe that the answer is an emphatic yes. Now we want to be entirely reasonable here. We don’t want any fantastic explanation or explanations used to explain the origins of Life and Death. We want to deal in facts. At this point, I think we definitely have one fact that we can hang our hats on. Here is that fact: Science cannot explain the ultimate origin of Life and of Death.
Now please don't misunderstand me. I know that cancer can kill, I know that a blocked coronary artery can cause a heart attack that can kill, and I know that a major car crash can kill, and I know that Science can sometimes help with these things. But I’m talking about Death on a much deeper level, a level that transcends all of these things that unfortunately happen every day in our world. If we must seek answers outside the realm of Science for the ultimate cause of Death, from what realm should we seek the answers? And is there a realm that might provide a narrative that clearly explains things and that clearly provides a solution to our problem? We need a practical and an understandable answer, and a solution, to the problem of Death.
So what realm do we search in, if not Science? What other realm do we look to that will still keep us dealing with facts and will keep us thinking in a logical and practical manner? I believe that we need to search for answers in the field of philosophy, specifically in the field of metaphysics, which deals with fundamental or first principles. But where would knowledge of first principles come from? My dear reader, knowledge of first principles comes to us from the Bible which is the word of God.
Are you now going to tell me that you don’t believe the Bible? Perhaps we’ll talk about the reliability and infallibility of the Bible another time but for now please permit me to ask you one question. Do you have a better source of knowledge to tell us the ultimate cause of Death? Perhaps you’d like to wait just a bit before you answer, until after I show you what the Bible has to say on this subject.
There is a verse in the Bible that can shed light on the fundamental cause of Death. It’s from the New Testament.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
What is this verse telling us? It’s telling us that Sin caused Death. It, Sin, came into the world through one man. That man was the first man, Adam. Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden by disobeying God.
Let’s read from Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Genesis has something to say about first causes.
Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (bold added).
Please note that God commanded Adam not to eat of the specified tree and God told Adam that if he broke this commandment he would die that very day. We know that Adam did not die physically the day he broke this commandment. The death he experienced that very day was spiritual death. He became separated from God. He and Eve had to leave the Garden.
Did you know that some ancient rabbis even taught that there is no death without sin? (Shabbat 55B, Babylonian Talmud)
Please observe that we know that Sin entered Adam because the verse in Romans tells us that this happened.
Adam consciously and knowingly sinned by disobeying God, and Sin entered into Adam and became part of his constitution, part of who he was. We, Adam’s posterity, all sinned because all of us were literally in Adam, in an inchoate form. We came from Adam. And all people yet to be born, future to the time of this writing, also were in Adam. We were all in Adam when he sinned, so we sinned then too and since Death comes through Sin, we will all die. Even a seemingly innocent baby sinned in Adam because every baby was in Adam when Adam sinned. That’s why even babies can die.
Now you might not like what I’m telling you here. But God, speaking to us through His word, is telling us that we were all in Adam when he sinned and therefore we also sinned, including even Moses and Aaron.
There’s something else that I want you to know. Because Sin became part of Adam’s constitution after he sinned, and because each and every one of us is descended from Adam, Sin is part of our constitutions too. Because of that we all have a rebellious and sinful nature just like Adam did, and just like Moses and Aaron did, and because Sin is part of each one of us, we are all born spiritually dead. There are no exceptions. At birth, we are by nature rebellious and antagonistic to God.
Is there anything that can be done about this? Yes! Most emphatically yes! We now know what the root cause of Death is. It is Sin. Knowing this we can now seek a cure. We must be born again, born from above. We must be born spiritually alive. We must be brought from Death to Life. How can we do this? We can’t do this but God can. That is why God sent Jesus to die on the cross and we can now seek a cure for Death from God. We can ask Jesus to save us. You see, Jesus conquered Death. Please read what He, Jesus, said to Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin and a famous Jewish teacher.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
You see, we are talking here in eternal terms. Eternity is forever. Wouldn’t you like to have eternal life? Please, ask Jesus, Yeshua, now to forgive all your sins, to be your Lord and Savior. He will never turn you down and He will give you the gift of eternal life. Don’t wait.
Hey Art,
Great article! Thank you for your faithful service for the Lord.
Thank you 🙏