The Scout motto is "be prepared," but it's hard to be prepared for death, be it our own or a loved one's. Halloween, 2014 marked the one-year anniversary of the day my father (Ronald Cromes, Sr.) died of Stage 4 Metastasized Lung Cancer. And even after 365 days — that being 8,766 hours; 525,,949 minutes; 31,556,926 seconds — I was STILL not "prepared for it." I've talked with people who have lost one or both parents after facing this world without them for 30 or 40 years, and pretty much all of them have told me the same thing. They would say: "You never stop missing them. And you never REALLY 'get over' their death. It just becomes more and more 'acceptable' as time goes on." And there are most days that I am okay. But there's also those brief painful moments when it feels like not ONE of those 31 million 556 thousand 926 seconds have even passed. It feels just as fresh as the day it happened. So, I guess it's true. I may never really "get over" my father's death, but through time, it has gotten and will become more and more "acceptable."
Too much is unknown about what dying feels like or what (if anything) happens after you die to ever feel truly ready. After over forty years of life, I can't say that I've ever been amongst the sick and the dying. However, I have been amongst "the dead." The older you get, the more often you become "those who are left behind;" those who are in the realm the living and yet having to bear the pain of losing a friend or a loved to death. At first, it's like a nightmare that you can't seem to wake up from. It's like your heart knows it's true, but your mind needs more convincing. But then, it happens. You attend their Wake. You walk up to the coffin, and there they are. But honestly, the hardest part is when you muster up the courage to touch them; to touch their cold hands that feel like they're chiseled out of stone. That touch is electric. That's when your mind is convinced. That's when know it's for real. That corpse that is lying in that coffin; that empty shell of lifeless material is no longer your friend or loved one. It is a thing; an object; an object as inanimate as anything you have lying around your house. It doesn't even know that you're standing over it. And it doesn't care. At this point, how one would act and react is unique to the individual. After all, each and every one of us are truly unique. That is how God made us. Still, whether the death is slow due to terminal illness or senescence (i.e. old age) or whether it comes suddenly while a person is young (e.g. in a car accident), we ask ourselves: Why? I mean, we know how, when, and where they died, and (if applicable) what they died of. And yet, during such a difficult time, the "why question" remains within us all. Why? Why did this person die? If you want to get deeper, you can ask: "Why do we die?" It's about as simple a question as "Why do we live?" If we were to look at it at a Secular level, we can look at life and death at a cellular level. Yes, our cells divide and produce more cells to replace the ones that die. But this is all directed by the information stored in our DNA.
Let's imagine for a moment that as the DNA gets copied over and over from the original template present in the egg+sperm zygote-embryo, some mistakes might occur and the integrity of the genetic material will generally degrade. This is generally the basis of why our bodies start to fail on a cellular level (e.g. cancer). Even though we produce "new" cells, the DNA has already been copied over and over and subjected to external sources of damage (e.g. UV radiation or harmful chemicals in the environment). Kind of like if you were to make copies of an original document on a traditional scanner, and repeating that process over and over again. In mammals and other Eukaryotes, DNA is arranged into structures called: Chromosomes, capped by a compound structural component called: Telomeres, which protect the end of the Chromosomes from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring Chromosomes. They are kind of like the plastic tips at the end of our shoelaces that keep them from coming undone and maintain its structural integrity. The more times a cell has replicated, the shorter these Telomeres become. Why? Because the cell can't replicate the DNA to the very end of the strand. Once the Telomeres reach a certain "shortness," it signals the cell to die, thereby effectively limiting the number of times a cell can divide. It is generally believed that this also has some effect on lifespans. Also, some cells do NOT replicate (e.g. heart muscle or most neurons). During a heart attack, more and more heart muscle begins to die off. And once heart muscle dies, it can't be restored. So, even if you do survive a heart attack, after a significant level of heart muscle has died, your heart is weaker and less tolerant to strenuous activity as a result, thereby making you more prone to additional heart attacks. It is the same with neurons in the brain. Once you maintain damage to your brain, it can't be easily repaired, especially considering the complexity of neural networks that you have formed over a lifetime. And since your brain controls many other bodily functions, once you lose that, you're out of luck. You can think about this on the level of the cell, the level of the organ, or the level of the body as a functioning whole. But no matter how you look at it, it all comes down to the same theme of an eventual reduction in the integrity of the system that can no longer be repaired. But is that ALL there is to it? Are there OTHER REASONS why we die that is beyond the physical realm? Death is a vast mystery, but there are things we can definitely say about it. First, it is inevitable. Second, it is irreversible. And third, ts timing is unknown. So, we know THAT we're going to die, and that once we do die, we're not coming back. And yet, we never know WHEN we're going to die. In the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, death was briefly defined as "the separation of the soul and the body," Each dictionary summarizes the definition as "the action of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism." But notice that even though the phenomenon of death was defined, it did not have a reasoning behind it. Once Science came into play, death not only had a definition, but also had a description and a criteria.
Death is now defined as a permanent and irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. The Medical Definition is: the permanent cessation of life and of all vital bodily functions (e.g. cerebral function, respiration, pulse, circulatory function, skeletal-muscular function, eye movement). For legal and medical purposes, the following definition of death has been proposed. Broadly speaking, the events that cause our death can be divided into three categories: (1.) "accidental deaths," which result from bodily injuries sustained in events like car accidents, falls, and drowning; (2.) "violent deaths" due to homicide or suicide; and (3.) "natural deaths," which include diseases and passings that occur due to old age. Death by "natural causes," according to death certificates, is: one that is primarily attributed to an illness or an internal malfunction of the body not directly influenced by external forces. For example, a person dying from complications from influenza (an infection) or a heart attack (an internal body malfunction) would be listed as having died from natural causes. Old age is not a scientifically recognized cause of death; there is always a more direct cause, although it may be unknown in certain cases and could be one of a number of aging-associated diseases. In contrast, death caused by active intervention is called "unnatural death." The "unnatural" causes are usually given as accident (implying no unreasonable voluntary risk), misadventure (accident following a willful and dangerous risk), suicide, or homicide. In some settings, other categories may be added. Additionally, a cause of death can be recorded as "undetermined." When a person has died, it is also said they are gone or they have passed away, passed on, or expired, among numerous other socially accepted, religiously specific, slang, and irreverent terms. To understand death at a biological level, we would have to go into the world of thanatology. Thanatology is a section of Forensic Sciences in which the biological description or academic study of death and dying and the psychological mechanisms of dealing with them (e.g. helping to explain what happens, psychosocially, to individuals in the moment of dying and after-death bodily changes, so that the events that took place at the time of death and post-mortem can be clarified). Thanatology is the science that studies the events surrounding death, as well as the social, legal, and psychological aspects of death. This subject encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including the sociology, biology, theology, psychology, economics, and literature surrounding death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a course of study at numerous colleges and universities. The word is derived from the Greek language. In Greek mythology, Thanatos (thánatos: "death") is the personification of death. The English suffix -ology derives from the Greek suffix -logia (-lógia: "speaking" or "for study or discourse"). But when it comes to death, what is it that we find so morbidly interesting? What is it that we want to know? The process of it? The philosophy of it? What happens to us soon thereafter? There is a wide range of questions that we curious humans have concerning death. Probably because nobody has directly experienced it (at least, not knowingly). And if we do experience biological death, we are unable to live to tell others about it. Oh sure, you hear stories of people having near-death or out-of-body experiences. And those experience may have really happened. I am not 100% skeptical on such experiences. But did they really biologically "die?" Did they truly "experience death" biologically?
You know, after my father pass away last year and we had that dreadfully long cold winter, while experiencing my Cabin Fever, I began an interest in researching death. It almost became an obsession. But in that time, I gained a wealth of information that I didn't know before. It may have even helped me with my grieving process. There was even information that I was able to pass on to others that may have indirectly helped them through THEIR grieving process. So, let's start with the basics and move up from there, shall we? Before we can look at death, let's first look at life... In the Encyclopedia Britannica, "Life" is defined as: matter that shows certain attributes that include responsiveness, growth, metabolism, energy transformation, and reproduction. So, "life" is something that occupies space that reacts to stimuli quickly and sympathetically, undergoes a positive change (both physically and abstractly), goes through a set of chemical transformation that is life-sustaining, possesses the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity (changing one form of to another), and are produced by "parents" and can produce "offspring" by a sexual or asexual process. Sounds pretty complex, doesn't it? Hey, that's just the tip of the iceberg. But one thing is for certain... From the moment we're born and take our first breath, our bodies are self-sustaining. As we inhale and exhale; as our blood courses through our arteries and veins; as our cells reproduce over and over again, our bodies are doing everything they can to stay alive. And by staying healthy, we help our bodies along by keeping them fed and hydrated, maintaining its cleanliness, and so on and so forth. Amazing, isn't it? Did you know that your heart will beat about 35 million times in a year? The expected average life expectancy is roughly 75 to 80 years nowadays. That means that your heart will beat between 2.625 and 2.8 billion times in a lifetime. Of course, life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age in a statistical sense. It is important to note that life expectancy is an average value. Just because the life expectancy is set to a certain number doesn't mean that one can't exceed or be devoid of this set number. In other words, you could die at age 35 (or younger) or you could live to be age 95 (or older). But how do you know if you will live to be bellow the average age, the average age, or above the average age? The answer? We don't! Why? Because, as mentioned a few paragraphs ago, the timing of death is unknown. Nobody knows when they're going to die (whether natural or unnatural). The exact time of death cannot be predicted, nor can the exact manner in which a person will die. However, we do know a bit about the process that occurs in the days and hours leading up to a Natural Death, and knowing what's going on may be helpful you and in a loved one's last moments. The last stages of life can be very stressful for the dying person and those caring for him/her. You will observe changes that may be upsetting and unfamiliar. Learning about the dying process will help. After all, that is the question that goes through our minds during those agonizing moments... What happens to the body while it is "dying?"
THE DYING PROCESS:
Generally, whenever a death is due to terminal illness or senescence, the body goes through changes. During the dying process, the body's systems shut down. The dying person has less energy and begins to sleep more and more. The body is conserving the little energy it has, and as a result, needs less nourishment and sustenance. In the days (or sometimes weeks) before death, people eat and drink less. They may lose all interest in food and drink, and you shouldn't force them to eat. That I cannot stress enough. In fact, pushing food or drink on a dying person could cause him or her to choke, because, at this point, it has become difficult to for them to swallow and the mouth and throat is very dry. It is hard for most people to respect the dying person’s lack of appetite. It is important to remember that as the physical body is dying, the vital organs are shutting down, and nourishment is no longer required to keep them functioning. This is the wisdom of dying, and the body knows exactly what to do. As the person takes in less food and drink, he or she will urinate less frequently and have fewer bowel movements. The person may also experience loss of bladder and bowel control. People who are dying may become confused, agitated or restless, which could be a result of the brain receiving less oxygen. "Terminal Delirium" is a condition that may be seen when the person is very close to death, marked by extreme restlessness and agitation. Although it may look distressing, this condition is not considered to be painful. There are medications available to control symptoms. Often a day or two or even a few hours before death, the person may have a surge of energy, wakes up, becomes alert, can sometimes eat or talk and can spend some quality time with loved ones. The person may be alert and talkative. However, you need to keep in mind that this does not mean that there will be recovery; the person is still dying. Use this as a "window of opportunity" to say what you need to say and have closure. This is a very special time for final spiritual practices and mental preparations, which can be shared with loved ones, if it is the dying persons wish. This is a very precious time because it normally doesn't last long, as most people become unconscious (unresponsive) hours or days before they stop breathing. Be aware there may be unfinished business. Dying persons may try to hold on until they feel a sense of security and completion. The skin will also show the effects of slowing circulation and less oxygen — the extremities, and later, the entire body, may be cool to the touch and may turn blue or light gray. Some skin may exhibit signs of "mottling," which is reddish-blue blotchiness. This is the result of reduced blood circulation. As the person gets closer to death, it will become harder and harder to breathe. Respiration will be noisy and irregular; it will sometimes seem as if the person can't breathe at all. During this time, many of the dying experience a common phenomena known as Deathbed Visions. Deathbed Visions refer to a range of paranormal experiences that occur to people who are dying. Although some dying people report seeing angels and other religious figures (and sometimes even mythical figures), the vast majority claim to see familiar people who had previously passed away. Very often, the friends and relatives seen in these visions express directly that they have come to help take them away. The dying person is reassured by the experience and expresses great happiness, reporting to staff working in hospices that the Vision is comforting. The scientific community consider Deathbed Visions to be "hallucinations." However, do not judge or be critical of what is the person is experiencing. Just be as silent and as supportive as possible. Refrain from discounting the experience and orienting the dying person to "reality." This IS their reality. Most often, these "Visions" are reassuring, and they comfort the dying. Rarely do they upset them. Meanwhile, when there's fluid in the lungs, it can cause a sound known to the ancients as the death rattle. It may be possible to alleviate the gurgling and congestion by raising the person's head. If the dying person is experiencing pain, he or she will usually be given medications to manage it. It's important to remember that every person experiences dying differently. Some people have the need to say "goodbye" or to hear from another person before death, some don't. Doctors and other professionals who manage end-of-life care advise loved ones to take their cues from the dying and avoid projecting their own desires or needs onto the person. They also urge loved ones to continue speaking comfortingly to a dying person — hearing may be one of the last things to go. Clinical death occurs when the person's heartbeat, breathing and circulation stop. Four to six minutes later, Biological death occurs. That's when brain cells begin to die from lack of oxygen, and resuscitation is impossible. The eyes may open wide and then close, or remain partially open. The lower jaw muscles may relax and the jaw falls open. Many people report feeling "cheated" or as if they "let down" a loved one by not being there at the moment of death. But those who work in hospice think it's the other way around: Passing away often happens minutes after loved ones leave the bedside, as if the dying person is choosing to spare them the final moment. This is especially true, they say, with individuals toward whom the dying person feels protective. Signs of death or strong indications that an animal is no longer alive are:
- Respiratory Arrest (cessation of breathing), due to failure of the lungs to function effectively, preventing delivery of oxygen to the body. This lack of oxygen will cause inadequate cerebral perfusion and lead to loss of consciousness and Cardiac Arrest.
- Cardiac Arrest (no pulse or heartbeat), abrupt cessation of pump function in the heart, and thus, cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively. Cardiac arrest is synonymous with Clinical Death.
- Pallor Mortis: paleness which happens which happens in those with light/white skin in the first 15–25 minutes after death due to a lack of capillary circulation throughout the body.. It is also known as Postmortem Paleness, which leads to Livor Mortis.
- Livor Mortis: a settling of the blood in the lower (dependent) portion of the body, causing a purplish red discoloration of the skin, starts twenty minutes to three hours after death, and is congealed in the capillaries in four to five hours. It is also known as Postmortem Lividity, Hypostasis, or Suggillation.
- Algor Mortis: (or the Death Chill): the reduction in body temperature following death. This is generally a steady decline until matching ambient temperature. Each hour, the body temperature falls about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.83 degrees Celsius) until it reaches room temperature.
- Rigor Mortis: the limbs of the corpse become stiff (Latin rigor) and difficult to move or manipulate caused by chemical changes in the muscles after death, anywhere from three to twelve hours after death, and gradually dissipates until approximately 24 hours.
- Decomposition: the reduction into simpler forms of matter, accompanied by a strong, unpleasant odor. Generally, the person is long embalmed and buried by this time. People who have had to describe such horrific odors, nearly all have stated that the two most recognizable smells combined to make the one body scent are: Ozone and meat. They say it's like a piece of rotting meat over which someone has sprinkled a few drops of some cheap perfume.
- Skeletonization: the last vestiges of the soft tissues of a corpse decayed or dried to the point that the bones of the skeleton are exposed. By the end of the skeletonization process, all soft tissue will have been eliminated, leaving only disarticulated bones.
Various suggestions were made to test for signs of life before burial to avoid the horrifying experience of vivisepulture, ranging from pouring vinegar and pepper into the corpse's mouth to applying red hot pokers to the feet or into the rectum.
Now, notice that after the process of dying, there is a cessation of a lot of things; a stopping and ending of actions. Are they breathing? No! Do they have a heartbeat or pulse? No! Do they possess any of the five senses? No! Do they move or talk? No! They do nothing of the sort. In fact, they don't really DO anything, do they? Some say that death is the OPPOSITE of life, just like tall is the opposite of short or fast is the opposite of slow. But when we talk about an "opposite," we're are talking about something that is totally different from or the reverse of something else. So, when we talk about tall and short, is there a height present for both? Yes, there is! When we talk about fast and slow, is there a speed present for both? Yes, there is! That is how you are able to compare them. Both opposites have an existence and rely on the existence of something else. The difference? They are totally different from or the reverse of each other. But when we talk about a heart beating, or respiration, or movement, or anything that resembles "life," there are no opposites. There is no opposite of a person breathing. There is no opposite of a heart beating. There is no opposite of someone moving around. When it comes to these actions, they are simply done or not done. You either breathe or don't breathe. Your heart either pumps or it doesn't pump. A person either moves around or they don't move around. All of the things that you find are not present in a person who has died (i.e. cerebral function on EEG, circulatory function on EKG, skeletal-muscular function on EMG, eye movements on EOG — all as flat-line) cannot be considered an opposite because they do not possess an existence, nor do they depend on the existence of something else. So, after the permanent cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism, all of the attributes that would be present in a LIVING organism do not possess an opposite but an absence. There is an ABSENCE of respiration. There is an ABSENCE of cerebral function. There is an ABSENCE of circulatory function. There is an ABSENCE of skeletal-muscular function. When you look up a synonym for the adjective: "dead," one of the words you will come up with is "lifeless." That is, something without life. So, death is not the opposite of life, it is the absence of it.
When people define life, they find that it is possible to define it in terms of consciousness. When consciousness ceases, a living organism can be said to have died. One of the notable flaws in this approach, however, is that there are many organisms which are alive but probably not conscious. A human being asleep is the best example. So, even though death is the absence of life, could it be the absence of consciousness, too? Well, we must first define consciousness. Consciousness is: the quality or state of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined as: sentience, awareness, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind. In medicine, consciousness is assessed by observing a patient's arousal and responsiveness, and can be seen as a continuum of states ranging from full alertness and comprehension, through disorientation, delirium, loss of meaningful communication, and finally loss of movement in response to painful stimuli. The English word "conscious" originally derived from the Latin "conscius" (con- "together" + scio "to know" or scius "well-informed"), but the Latin word did not have the same meaning as our word—it meant knowing with, in other words having joint or common knowledge with another. There were, however, many occurrences in Latin writings of the phrase conscius sibi, which translates literally as: "knowing with oneself," or, in other words, sharing knowledge with oneself about something. This phrase had the figurative meaning of: knowing that one knows, as the modern English word: "conscious" does. Many people believe in the existence of a third form of consciousness: universal consciousness. Universal Consciousness is: a continuation of the unconscious mind, connecting you to your belief system. It is the sum of all consciousnesses (souls) unified into a single entity moving beyond space and time. Albert Einstein told us that "everything is energy;" that "a human being is a part of the whole called by us [the] Universe." Consciousness, as a subjective phenomenon with no physical form, must be a byproduct of the interactions between the various matter that an object is made of.
There is no scientific evidence that suggests consciousness survives the death of an organism. In human societies, the nature of death and humanity's awareness of its own mortality has for millennia been a concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical inquiry. This includes belief in resurrection (associated with Abrahamic religions), reincarnation or rebirth (associated with Dharmic religions), or that consciousness permanently ceases to exist, known as "external oblivion" (often associated with atheism). Let's look at each of these...
- Reincarnation and Rebirth: The concept that the individual soul survives, after biological death, and begins a new life in a new body (mainly Hinduism and Buddhism). Reincarnation is connected by the notion of karma:. But what is Karma anyway? Teachings on the laws of karma originated in Hinduism, but Buddhists understand karma somewhat differently from Hindus. The Hindus theory of karma harps on the Newtonian principle that "every action produces an equal and opposite reaction," (i.e. Newton's Third Law of Motion, "Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis," 1686). Every time we think or do something, we create a "cause," which in time will bear its "corresponding effects." And every person is entirely responsible for their own karma. Hindu philosophy holds the doctrine that if the karma of an individual is good enough, the next birth will be rewarding, and if not, the person may actually devolve and degenerate into a lower life form. In Buddhism, karma has a more specific meaning, which is volitional or willful action. Karma is a Sanskrit word that means "action." Sometimes you might see the Pali spelling, kamma, which means the same thing. Things we choose to do or say or think set karma into motion. The law of karma in Buddhism is also a law of cause and effect. However, a common misconception is that Buddhist (just like Hindus) believe karma is the "result" of something, when karma is actually the "action" of something. So, for example, if we seem stuck in old, destructive patterns, it may not be the karma of the past that's causing us to be stuck. If we're stuck, it's more likely that we're re-creating the same old patterns with our present thoughts and attitudes. To change our karma, and change our lives, we have to change our minds. What does the Holy Bible have to say about reincarnation? Well, the whole thrust of the Holy Bible opposes reincarnation. It shows that man is the special creation of God, created in God’s image with both a material body and an immaterial soul and spirit. He is presented as distinct and unique from all other creatures—angels and the animal kingdom alike.
- Atheism: Atheists believe in the concept of Eternal Oblivion after death. Eternal Oblivion is the philosophical concept that the individual self "experiences" a state of permanent non-existence ("unconsciousness") after death. Belief in Eternal Oblivion denies the belief that there is an "afterlife" (such as a Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell), or any state of existence or consciousness after death. The belief in "eternal oblivion" stems from the idea that the brain creates the mind; therefore, when the brain dies, the mind ceases to exist. So, after death, you are no more aware that "you ever existed" than you had "knowing you were going to exist" before you were born. You don't remember the past before you were born because (for you) there was no past to remember. You were not around. After you die, not only will all of the memories of your life disappear, you will not be able retain new information of your surroundings because (for you) there will no longer be a functioning brain, and thus, no information to retain. Although the information will still be there, you won't be able to retain it because (just like before you were born), you will no longer exist. All that will remain of you is the memories that friends and loved ones have of you. Some reporters describe this state as "nothingness." In nontechnical uses, nothing denotes things lacking importance, interest, value, relevance, or significance. Nothingness is the state of being nothing, the state of nonexistence of anything, or the property of having nothing. In physics, the word nothing is not used in any technical sense. A region of space is called a vacuum if it does not contain any matter, though it can contain physical fields. In fact, it is practically impossible to construct a region of space that contains no matter or fields, since gravity cannot be blocked and all objects at a non-zero temperature radiate electromagnetically. However, even if such a region existed, it could still not be referred to as "nothing," since it has properties and a measurable existence as part of the quantum-mechanical vacuum. The Holy Bible teaches that at death, while man’s body is mortal, decays and returns to dust, his soul and spirit continue on either in a place of torments for those who reject Christ or in paradise (i.e Heaven) in God’s presence for those who have trusted in the Savior. Both categories of people will be resurrected, one to eternal judgment and the other to eternal life with a glorified body (John 5:25-29).
- Christianity: In Christianity, death is the separation of body and soul. There is what is know as an "afterlife," which is is the concept of a transcendental realm in which an essential part of an individual's identity or consciousness continues to exist after the death of the physical body in the individual's lifetime. So, it may be the end of our (physical) personhood, but not the end of our existence. When we die, our bodies become lifeless and are no longer the place where we "reside," but we continue to exist as souls, either with Christ in glory or separated from Christ in shame. There are five main point Christians firmly believe. First, Believers will be taken into the presence of Christ in Heaven. Christ is in heaven now (Acts 1:2, 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:7), and Believers will go to be with Him (Isaiah 57:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). Second, Heaven is a place of resplendent glory, and being with Christ in the glory of Heaven will be far superior to our present earthly lives. Third, when in Heaven we will be continue looking forward (as we should be already in this life) to the resurrection of our bodies from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Fourth, at the moment of death, Believers will be made perfect and cleansed from all sin. And fifth, those who did not trust Christ in this life will be separated from God and enter a reality completely devoid of His common grace and blessing. Scripture speaks often of the painful reality that awaits those who do not place their faith in Christ to be rescued from sin (Matthew 13:30, 25:41; Luke 12:5; John 3:36; Romans 2:8-9; Hebrews 10:29). The Holy Bible compares death to sleep more than fifty times. When we are asleep, we are unconscious; we are not aware of the passing of time or of what is going on around us. That is what death is like as well. The Holy Bible says: "for the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing… their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished." (Psalm 146:4 & 115:17; Ecclesiastes 9:5) (NKJV). Many Christians say that the soul is an immortal entity within us that goes on living after death. "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7). So, God breathed His life-giving spirit into the lifeless body Adam—and the result was a soul, or a living being. When a person dies, the reverse takes place. The "breath of life" departs from the body, and the soul continues to exist. "The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Your spirit no longer dwells within your physical body. "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8). As Believers who accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior (Isaiah 53:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21), we receive what is called "eternal life," which is: the life everlasting in the presence of God (Matthew 19:29, 25:46; John 3:15-16, 3:36, 4:14, 4:36, 5:24, 6:40, 6:47, 6:54, 10:28, 12:25, 12:50, 17:2-3; Acts 13:46, 13:48; Romans 2:7, 5:21, 6:22-23; Galatians 6:8; 1 Timothy 1:16, 6:12; Titus 1:2, 3:7; 1 John 1:2, 2:25, 3:15, 5:11, 5:13, 5:20; and Jude 1:21). Jesus said in John 11:25: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."
So, according to the Holy Bible, God created everything. On the fifth day, He created all the creatures of the Earth (Genesis 1:21). He made mankind in His image (Genesis 1:26-28). He breathed "the breath of life" into the first human being, Adam (Genesis 2:7), let Adam name all of the other creatures of the Earth (Genesis 2:19), then God made the first woman, Eve (Genesis 2:22-23). God’s creation was without blemish, defect, disease, suffering, or death. There was no "survival of the fittest." Animals did not prey on each other. The original creation was a beautiful place, full of life and joy in the presence of the Creator. It wasn't until Genesis 3:6 when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that death even entered into the picture of mankind. Genesis 3:17-18 reveal that the ground was cursed. Thorns and thistles were now part of the world. Animals were cursed, the serpent more than the rest (Genesis 3:14). The woman was cursed with "severe painful childbirth" and have "her husband to rule over her" (Genesis 3:16). The man was cursed by having all humans work for their food "by the sweat of their brow" and until they "return to the ground," since from it they "were taken" (Genesis 3:19). This is where death came into play. The last of Genesis 3:19 states: "for dust you are and to dust you will return." And the Old Testament reiterates this, at least, five times in Job 34:15, Psalm 90:3, Psalm 104:29, Ecclesiastes 3:20 & 12:7. The world was no longer perfect but sin-cursed. Suffering and death was now abounded in that once-perfect Creation. And so many times, when tragedies happen and things go wrong, man's usual response to tragedy is to blame God. Charles Darwin, who was best known for his contribution to the Theory of Evolution, blamed God for the death his beloved (precocious and inquisitive) daughter: Annie Elizabeth at the age of 10 on April 23, 1851. In 1849, Annie caught scarlet fever along with her two sisters, and her health thereafter declined. Her death was a terrible blow for to Charles and his devoutly religious wife: Emma. This is completely understandable because there is nothing natural about having to "bury your child," and how devastating it can be on the marriage of any couple who loses a child. Charles wrote in a personal memoir: "We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age; she must have known how much we loved her; oh that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly we do still & and shall ever love her dear joyous face. Blessings on her." (Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, his Daughter, and Human Evolution by Randal Keynes, 2001). In a 1991 biography "Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist ," A. Desmond and J. Moore stated on page 387 that: "Annie’s cruel death destroyed Charles’s tatters of beliefs in a moral, just universe. Later he would say that this period chimed the final death-knell for his Christianity.... Charles now took his stand as an unbeliever." Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the founder of the American Atheists, was angry with God because the father of her (as yet) unborn child would not leave his wife for her. In fact, during her pregnancy in the early spring of 1946 strode outside in a Midwestern violent electrical thunderstorm, alone, and challenged God to strike her and her unborn child dead, waving her first and cursing God, unleashing blasphemies intended to provoke violent wrath from God. As time went on, Madalyn became angrier with God over the choices she had made for herself and the consequences of those choices. Keep in mind that this is the very God that she, for decades, strongly proclaimed didn't even exist. She fought the U.S. Supreme Court to take prayer out of schools and was even branded "the most hated woman in America." And she thrived on that! She even once said: "I want three words: Woman, Atheist, Anarchist. That's me." Still, she was consumed with hatred and anger against a God that she claimed didn't exist. In fact, Bryan F. LeBeau quoted Madalyn in his biography saying: "We find God to be sadistic, brutal and a representation of hatred." (The Atheist, page 85). It's almost as if her very hatred for God manifested her belief in God. After all, how can you express utter contempt for a God who doesn't exist?
Nevertheless, not all atheists have been scorned in life and not all scientists deny the existence of God. Still, this raises a question from Believer and non-Believers alike... If it was Adam and Eve's decision to disobey God that brought sin into the world, why do we all have to suffer punishment? That's a pretty legitimate question, wouldn't you say? I mean, none of US ate the apple, right? Why should WE be punished for something that a couple of people did thousands of years ago?... Well, let me ask you THIS... When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Most likely, you're going to say: "I see myself," right? But the question wasn't "Who do you see?," it was "What do you see?" I'll tell you what I see when I look in the mirror... I see that I have two dimples in the same place on my forehead as my father. I see that I have his eye structure and his nose. I also see that I have my mother's mouth and my maternal grandfather's build on my upper torso. When I look at my left wrist, I see that I have a mole on the exact spot as my mother has on HER left wrist. How did it all get there? I "inherited" it! I didn't ASK for any of these physical traits, they were "passed down" to me through heredity. Heredity is: the passing of traits to offspring from its parents or ancestor. This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. After Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:20–24), they began to have children. Each child "inherited" Adam and Eve’s sinful nature, and each child rebelled against his or her Creator (i.e. God). Every human is a descendant of Adam and Eve, born with the same problem: a sinful nature. When Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord cursed the Universe. In essence, there was a change, and along with that change God began to uphold the Creation in a cursed state. Suffering and death entered into His creation. The whole universe now suffers from the effects of sin (Romans 8:22). As children of Adam and Eve, we all "inherit" their sinful nature. We have all, at some point, disobeyed a command from God, so we all deserve to die and suffer eternal punishment in Hell. We must understand that not one of us is innocent before God (Romans 3:23). Not one of us is worthy to stand before the Creator of the Universe because we would each bring a sinful, rebellious nature into His presence. No, we didn't ASK for it. It was "inherited." So, you may ask: "So, that's why God created death?" The answer? No, because God didn't create death. Sin created death. Look closely at your Catechism, my friends. It will clearly tells you that God is not the creator of death.
Catechism 413 states: "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. . . It was through the devil's envy that death entered the world." In Catechism 416-418, it states: "By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings. Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called: 'original sin.' As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called: 'concupiscence')." You see, for Christians, concupiscence refers to what they understand as: the orientation, inclination or innate tendency of human beings to long for fleshly appetites, often associated with a desire to do things which are proscribed. Where was Adam prior to his creation? The answer is simple: he did not yet exist. Does that mean he was dead? No, he had not yet lived. However, once his life ceased, he was dead. There has to be LIFE (some form of existence) first before there can be death. Adam and Eve were created alive, and were created to live forever in their physical bodies. We go on to read in Genesis 2:15-17: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.'" Now, here is where we start getting to the point. God told Adam and Eve they "would surely die" in the day they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. So, did God create death that day? No, but God created LIFE, and the day Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the life God created in Adam and Eve ceased to exist. Adam didn't die physically in the very same day that he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In fact, he fathered Cain, Abel, Seth and other children and lived a total of 930 years. Now, it may be true that the natural aging process we experience began in Adam on that day, but in order for God's Word to be accurate, the idea of death has to mean something other than cessation of biological life. It's important to remember that in the Holy Bible, death always speaks of separation, not annihilation. Sometimes this can mean separating the soul from the body as in "physical death." But it can also mean separating the soul from God, which is defined as "spiritual death" or "dead in our sins" (Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 2:5). The consequence of The Fall in the Garden of Eden was the entrance of sin into the world, The penalty of death into the world for humans is a spiritual one (and a physical one, God removed the Tree of Life, which we see returns in the New Creation in Romans 5:12 and Revelation 22.) So, you see, our "physical death" is the consequence of our sin, not the payment for it. It was Jesus’ death on the Cross that was the payment for our sin. Proverbs 10:16 says: "The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death." This is further reiterated and reversed in the Romans 6:23 when it says: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Unfortunately for us, the effects of our sin continue even after we have been forgiven. If the effects of sin were to stop in forgiveness, then we should also not have any sickness, plagues, deformities, death of animals, etc. All of these things, which are the consequences of sin, should likewise disappear. But, they have not because Jesus' death on the cross bought us "spiritual life" with God. He purchased us from the death that is separation from God due to our sin (Isaiah 59:2). He bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24) so that we could be justified by faith (Romans 5:1). The result is having eternal life with Him (Romans 6:23; John 3:16 & 10:27-28).
This would lead us to our next question, which is: "Okay, what about unnatural deaths? This may explain why we die of old age or of a terminal illness. What about murder? What about suicide? Unintentional drug overdoses? Car accidents? Plane crashes? Misadventures? Adverse outcome to surgery? Death during childbirth? How could a loving God allow such things to happen? If we are all destined to die, why would God such unnatural deaths a person's final destiny on Earth?" Did the psalmist not write in Psalm 31:15: "My times are in your hands;?" In other words, the length of our life and when we will die are up to God and as we see in Psalm 139 and Acts 17:26, God has already ordained and established what the length of our life will be even before we are born. By faith, we know we must put our life into God’s hands and not try to act on our own. The Lord will take our life when it is the right time according to his plans for us. Unfortunately, this has made many people misunderstand what the Scriptures mean, say for example, if a person is murdered or commits suicide and they say "It was their time" or "It was God's will." The truth is: murder and suicide are not God-pleasing deaths. In fact, they are forbidden by the Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13 & Deuteronomy 5:17) and punished by God (Matthew 5:21). Murdering a person or committing suicide (self-murder) is a sin committed against Christ, while preserving a person’s life is an act of kindness to Christ Himself. Human life has value and divine sanctity, being a time of grace to come to God for mercy and salvation. Isaiah 55:6-7, Acts 17:26, and Hebrews 9:27 make it clear that a person’s life is so valuable to Him because his life is the time the Lord gives him to repent of his sins and to believe in Jesus Christ for his Salvation. His life is his time of grace. When he is dead and has not accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, it is too late for him to be saved, for then he has met his judgment.
But what about the other unnatural deaths? Well, that's where free will kind of comes into play. King Solomon himself did say that there was a time and a season for everything. In fact, in Ecclesiastes 3:2, he says that there is: "a time to be born and a time to die..." And due to the fact that God gave humans a free will to choose or not to choose to follow Christ, not all deaths are natural. Also, remember, God does not want us to know the future. And the future includes how, where, and when we will die. Ecclesiastes 8:8 says that: "As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death." King Solomon further tells us in Ecclesiastes 9:12: "For man no more knows his own time: as fish taken in a fatal net, and as birds caught in a snare, Like these, the children of men are taken when the time falls suddenly upon them." Why? Look at the ending to the verse before it. It says: "time and chance happen to them all" ("all" being "every human"). The Voice Translation says: "time and MISFORTUNE happen to them all" and the NLT says: "It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time." So, even though God foreknows everything, does He really predetermine everything? The truth is: He foreknows things that are dependent on us, but He does not necessarily predetermine them. He neither wills evil to occur nor forces virtue on anybody. What God DOES predetermine are things which are NOT dependent on us, according to His foreknowledge (i.e. the things He has already judged, according to His goodness and righteousness). So, no matter how, where, and when you will die; it was NOT God's will. My father died of a terminal illness. That was not His will. People are killed in car accidents and plane crashes, are murdered, or commit suicide. That is not His will. What IS God's will is that when you DO die, you go to be with Him and Jesus in Heaven; in paradise (Luke 23:42-43) for eternity. Remember what Jesus promised. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that 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." (John 14:1-3). And where is Jesus? Heaven! Heaven is a place free of sin! After all, true freedom isn't freedom to sin, but freedom from sin. The Apostle Paul really "nailed it" when he said in Philippians 1:21: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Always remember, my friends, whether we believe in Him or not, God sees us as His. And once we accept Christ into our hearts, we become "children of God through faith..." (Galatians 3:26) "If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord." (Romans 14:8).
