Let's Talk about Death!
April 15 is known in America as “Tax Day.” This year, it is also Good Friday, the day that Jesus’ death in our place took place about 2000 years ago. So, let’s talk death and taxes! Yea!
Though the topic of death is addressed in pretty much every funeral service in every culture and religion in the world, it really isn’t something that is necessarily discussed when sitting around at the social time after the funeral or at the cafe the next day. It just doesn't seem relevant, or we’re too busy with life to think about or talk about death.
So, for something that effects all of us and for something that is so final, when is an appropriate time to talk about death? Well, the same can be said about taxes. We really only want to talk about taxes (outside of complaining and venting) when we have to. Plus, we only want to talk about it with somebody that knows what they’re doing, can answer questions about it, and can even get us out of a predicament that we find ourselves in.
This is where I will seek to answer this question by posing and answering a few different questions. Why do many people that were raised going to church still think that their hope for life after death lies in how good they are? Why does it seem like many American churches spend more time telling you how to succeed in this life without making clear that you can know of your success in eternal life? How do the many mainline church get away with leaving its people in the lurch when it comes to life after death? I would argue that it is more insensitive and disrespectful to keep millions and millions of people guessing regarding their eternal destiny than it is to address death with somebody that’s recently lost a loved one. Now, I’m not advocating a non-compassionate approach around a grieving family, but my point is that the Bible makes it clear how a person can KNOW about life after death . . . yet the Roman Catholic church (along with others) uses its OWN authority instead of (not alongside) the authority of the Bible, which they claim to follow.
Here's what we know:
Jesus says . . .
· I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
· I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, (John 11:25)
· Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
· Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)
· Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
Elsewhere in the New Testament, it says this about Jesus:
· For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
· God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. (Romans 3:25)
· If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. (1 John 4:15)
· This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
· He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
Would you go to a tax expert or to someone who claims to know the tax expert for your taxes? You want to hear some accurate information from the source, right? Let’s stick to the source, Jesus! And, yes, those words in the Bible CAN be confidently followed as HIS words. No other book has gone through the critique and ridicule, yet still survived and thrived and changed lives for millenia!
