By James Lee
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead.” – Ecclesiastes 9:3 (NKJV).
Reflecting on this verse, it is indeed a big wake-up call. Everyone, every living creature that we know and do not know will eventually die. James 4:14 illustrates this well, “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
Another tough pill to swallow is that in truth, you can be rich, you can be poor, you can be good all the time, or you can sin all the time, but one day you will die like everyone does. Sometimes the sinner lives longer than the good, sometimes the poor live longer than the rich, and vice versa. How can God let this happen? This is a question we can never quite understand.
However, some understanding can be obtained from the bible. For example, in the case of Job when he cried out to God asking why He let all this suffering happen to him, despite Job being a very faithful man. God in return answered his cry in a way that says where were you (Job) when I laid the earth’s foundation and everything in it since the beginning of time? Alongside all the complexity of such marvelous design and synergy of so many things happening simultaneously throughout this earth. There is always a reason why God allows certain things to happen. Even so, remember that our God is not unjust (Job 34:10-12).
Another good reference that shows God allows all this to happen is mentioned in the parable of the weeds by Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30. It explains how the farmer allowed the weeds that were planted by evil man to grow alongside his wheat, only to separate them on the day of harvest.
Coming back to the fact that everyone will die, what’s even more scary and it’s never in our thoughts until we are in an unfortunate situation or when it is too late when we are on our death bed, is that we will never know when we will breathe our last here on planet earth. There is a saying that we keep ourselves occupied daily to prevent our minds from thinking about death.
Do we ever ponder what happens to our thoughts, our memories, our self-realization of who we are once we die? Or is it just pitch black and nothingness and you just disappear into thin air as if you were never born. Some beliefs say that you can be reborn into something else, but you still can’t remember anything of your past life. Thus, what’s the point?
I remember watching a Black Mirror TV episode that really made me question my faith. In that episode, it reveals that humanity has finally figured out a technology that is able to absorb, clone, and store 100% of your brain’s memory and your self-consciousness. It is then saved into a hard disk where you can choose the type of life that you want to be in after your physical body dies.
So that means consciously you are still very much alive within a com-
puter-generated system. And within it, let’s say you eventually get bored because you can’t die, or you are faced with a moral dilemma, then you can opt to really die; and they’ll erase you from the system. Interesting yet
mind-boggling.
I’m saying this to point out that these are quite valid questions that one can self-ask, whether you are a Christian or not. Having an answer to this question on the other hand, however, thankfully is revealed in our bible provided that you seek, ask, and study hard enough.
Thus, as Christians having read all the evidences the bible has to offer and it answering many questions pertaining to the reasons why God allows certain things to happen even though in our limited knowledge and understanding, it seems unfair. Remember this often-used powerful verse, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” – 1 Corinthians 1:25.
Unfortunately, having said all this, the reality is that all will still die. However, praise God Almighty that He has provided us with a way that as Christians from what we have learnt, known and believed that when we were baptized into the church of Christ, we are in good faith that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ revealed Himself to us, walked with us, taught us, suffered for us, died for us to forgive us of our sins, rose from the dead and be a mediator for us to be reconciled together with our Father in Heaven.
With this, we have the sound assurance that there is still good hope of life after death for us who do the will of God. Be not anxious for when your life ends, you will never know but know this, that every day as you wake up from sleep and open your eyes, is another opportunity to do God’s will and spread the good news, that there is hope for life after death!!
However, be wary and stay vigilant because if we do not find favour in the Lord’s eye as depicted in the parable of the weeds, we will be cast away into the fiery pits of hell everlasting on the day of judgement. “And as it is appointed for man to die once, but after this the judgment” Hebrews 9:27.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16.
