14
DEATH
Fix No. 14: Prepare for the Recall
During nearly seven decades on this earth, one of the things that has really struck me is the temporary nature of all living things. As I told you earlier, American men can expect to live about seventy-six years, maybe a few more if we’re lucky and a lot less if we’re not so fortunate. Women can expect to live a little longer than men, and the healthiest among us might even live to be about ninety years old or older.
Hey, we should be counting our blessings. If you look at some of the species in the animal kingdom, they have much shorter life spans than humans. Rabbits live for an average of only nine years (and reproduce like, well, rabbits while they’re here), and hamsters and guinea pigs live about four years. Dragonflies, which hover over ponds and rivers like miniature helicopters during the summertime, only survive for an average of about two months. A dragonfly might remain in its nymph state for four years, waiting for the perfect time to begin its life, only to stay on earth for around sixty days or so. A mayfly, which is one of the main sources of food for fish on a river, might live less than twenty-four hours. Naiads, the larval form of mayflies, live up to a year in the water before becoming adults. After mayflies wait so long to become full-fledged insects, they might live for only a few minutes, or a few days at most.
After reading and studying the Bible over and over again during the last four decades, I’m convinced that God originally created humans to live for hundreds of years. I think He did it to populate the earth. It took humanity a long time to get the population going, especially after God wiped out all but eight humans with the Great Flood, so He programmed them to live a lot longer than we do now. It probably helped that they didn’t have fast-food restaurants and other junk food around to pollute their bodies!
You might have heard the saying “He’s as old as Methuselah.” The oldest man who ever lived is believed to be Methuselah, who was linked to Adam and Noah and lived to be 969 years old. God introduces us to him in Genesis 5:21–27:
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.
The United Nations estimates that there were about three hundred million people living on earth when God sent Jesus to live among us. It took one thousand years for the population to increase to three hundred ten million and then another two hundred and fifty years for it to reach four hundred million in 1250 AD. You have to remember that they didn’t have antibiotics like penicillin around back then, and people around the world dropped like flies when they became sick. If you had some kind of contagion like the plague going around, oh my goodness, it really put a dent in the world’s population. That’s one of the reasons the world’s population kind of flatlined for so long.
It took about sixteen hundred years for the world’s population to double to six hundred million in 1600 AD. It didn’t reach one billion until 1804. Then, in the span of only two hundred years, the population increased more than six times over to more than six billion in 2000. In the twentieth century alone, the world’s population increased from 1.65 billion to six billion. That’s a lot of procreating! The UN estimates the world’s population will reach ten billion people by the year 2200. People are still dying across the world, obviously, but a lot more people are being born every year. Plus, humans are living a lot longer. The life expectancy of a human has increased by twenty years since 1950, and the UN predicts it will increase to seventy-six years across the world by 2050.
Hey, folks, we’re running out of real estate on planet Earth! Now you know why scientists are so interested in other planets like Mars and Saturn. They’re looking for somewhere else for everyone to live. How in the world are we going to feed ten billion people in less than two hundred years from now? I guess that’s one of the reasons birth control, including abortion, is sanctioned by so many governments nowadays. Countries all over the world are looking for every kind of way known to man to curtail Earth’s population.
But here’s what the save-the-planet groups and census counters forget: the Bible tells us that one day Earth will be discarded like a worn-out dishcloth. The Scripture tells us it will get paper-thin and wear out, so let’s be realistic about saving the planet. Conserving fossil fuels is a hot political issue in America, and we’re aggressively searching for other forms of energy, like wind, solar, and nuclear. Scientists say there’s no way fossil fuels will sustain us, not with more than seven billion people consuming them around the world. You can only punch and drill so many holes in the earth, so they’re looking for other ways to fuel our automobiles, heat and power our homes, and cook our food.
I’m telling you right now that it’s an exercise in futility. Of course we must be good stewards of the earth God gave us and care for and respect it the best we can, but we have to remember that God didn’t design our planet to last for eternity. “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:1–2). The Hebrews writer wrote that scripture in about 65 AD, and he was already referring to the “last days.” It has been Earth’s final days ever since Jesus came here. Up until then, things were rocking along and God was working with His people “at many times and in various ways.”
Now it’s 2014. How many more dramatic things are going to happen, biblically speaking? There’s only one last event—Jesus’ return—because everything else has already occurred. God created the cosmos and then drowned everyone on Earth. After the Great Flood, God gave humans the Law of Moses, putting everyone under a code a couple of thousand years before Jesus was born. Then God sent us Jesus, His only Son, and He was crucified and then rose from the dead. Jesus has already gone back to heaven, so what’s the only thing left?
The only thing left, according to the Bible, is the return of Jesus. Then Earth and everything on it will be destroyed. Men won’t destroy it; God says He’s going to destroy it this time. Read the scripture again. When the Hebrews writer says, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,” that’s the reason we need to get behind Jesus. Jesus is the heir of everything, and He’s our only escape hatch off Earth. He’s the radiance of God’s glory and is the exact representation of His being. He sustains all things by His powerful Word. After He provided us with purification from sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. He went back to where He came from.
When is Jesus coming back? What’s the holdup? We don’t know when Jesus is coming. Second Peter 3:4 says: “They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ ” The unbelievers forget that long ago, according to God’s Word, the earth was formed out of water—and then He destroyed it with water. They forget that God has already drowned mankind once before. The present heavens and earth are reserved for fire. He did it with water the first time, with fire being reserved for the Day of Judgment. Trust me, we’re not going to destroy Earth—He is. Of course we can and should be good stewards of the earth while we’re on it, but we can’t “save” it. It’s meant to come to an end. I’m with God, and I don’t want anyone to perish, as Peter says in 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” That’s my desire, too. I want everyone to come to repentance. My desire is to help others out. That’s why I’m te
lling everyone to turn from their sins and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Now, we’ve heard plenty of predictions about the end of the world throughout the history of mankind. Nostradamus predicted the world would end in 3797 AD. Remember the Y2K phenomenon, when our calendars turned to January 1, 2000? People around the world predicted doomsday scenarios of the rapture, the war of Armageddon, the second coming of Jesus, and the appearance of the antichrist. But other than a few computers shutting down, nothing really happened. Some scholars believed that the Mayans, who lived in Central America from about 1500 BC to 1519 AD, carved into their calendars that the world would end on December 21, 2012, but that day came and went without anything happening. From Branch Davidian leader David Koresh to a woman in Conyers, Georgia, who claimed to see images of Mary and Jesus, people all over the world have predicted the end of Earth. Obviously, none of it ever came true.
We have to remember that no one knows when Jesus is coming back. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:10). Hey, so much for making a prediction about when Earth will end. He is going to come back like a thief, and no one knows when a thief is going to rob you, right? God is an eternal being and time doesn’t pass for Him, not one second. Time only goes by for us. He’s outside of time and is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (present everywhere). He’s a spirit and one super-powerful being.
When Jesus returns, here’s what’s going to happen, according to 2 Peter 3:10–13:
The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
Now, use your own judgment about what was just said there. I have an idea: God is going to resurrect and make another Earth, one in which we’ll have eternity with God. Simply put, God created it all, created us, waited, and no time has passed for Him. Then He is going to step back in and destroy it all. But the ones who put their faith in Jesus will live eternally like Him, and we’ll get a new heaven and a new Earth. God, in His love and mercy, has made human beings so they can live eternally like Him, instead of being swept away forever and ever.
Being cast to hell is missing the opportunity to live eternally. Whether you believe that hell is an actual burning fire or that the descriptions of hell in the Scripture are metaphors, the bottom line is that you can live forever with God, or you can be separated from him for eternity.
Because of my faith, I’m not one who cries at funerals and mourns a loved one’s death. Sure, I hate that they’re not here on earth with me anymore, but I know one day soon we’ll be together again with Jesus. I believe Jesus died and rose again, so I believe God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. I don’t think He’ll take our bodies from the cemetery. When Jesus makes His final return, He’ll bring back our souls and spirits, whether our earthly bodies were laid to rest one thousand years ago or ten years ago. Our souls and spirits will be reunited with a glorified body, an eternal body. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it—we’ll have some kind of body. That’s why Jesus came back from the dead bodily. His disciples touched Him and fed Him fish. Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended from the earth and returned to the heavens. His eleven disciples were looking in the sky, saying, “Good grief. That’s a glimpse of the body we’re going to get when Jesus returns.” That is the story the Bible tells us, and I personally think it’s a little too wild for humans to dream up.
When we physically die on earth, our heart stops beating and our loved ones bury our bodies in a cemetery or cremate us. We leave our bodies behind, but we’re still alive in soul and spirit. No time will pass as we wait for Jesus to return.
A few years ago, I underwent surgery to have a kidney stone removed. The kidney stone was pretty painful, so I finally relented and had it surgically removed. I usually have a pretty good pain threshold, but that sucker was painful.
As I was lying on the operating table, the doctors gave me anesthesia and I closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was waking up. “How long did that take?” I asked the doctor.
“About an hour,” he told me.
“Now I understand the resurrection,” I said.
The doctor looked at me and then turned to a nurse.
“He’s hallucinating,” he said.
“I’m not hallucinating,” I told him. “I lost that hour because I was dead asleep. Look, it could have been ten hours. It would have been the same thing. I would have closed my eyes and then woken up. I would have still been dead asleep. It wouldn’t have made any difference because no time was passing for me.”
Honestly, it might have been one thousand years, no difference. You close your eyes and then open them. That’s resurrection time. No one is sitting in their grave, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the second coming of Jesus. They’re dead asleep, but their soul is alive and waiting. When is Jesus coming? I don’t know and neither does anyone else. Let’s look at 2 Peter 3 one more time. It tells us never to forget one thing: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (verses 8–9). Jesus is waiting, and He wants more of us to turn from our sins and repent. He doesn’t want anyone to perish.
As I think about the second coming of Jesus, I’m reminded of the recall notices I find in my mailbox from time to time. It seems like automobile manufacturers are recalling their vehicles more than ever before because of safety concerns. If we’re spending an arm and leg to purchase a new car or truck, you would think the automobile companies would build them safe the first time. In 2013 alone, auto manufacturers recalled twenty-two million cars and trucks in the United States. Jesus’ return is like a recall on mankind. We don’t know when it’s coming, but don’t believe that it won’t happen. Eventually, we’re all going to have to stand before God and give an account of our lives. And make no mistake about it: He’s going to recall us because we’re broken. We’re all sinners, but it’s not too late to turn from our sins and come to Christ Jesus.
15
GOOD NEWS
Fix No. 15: Embrace Jesus Christ
In the last two chapters, we’ve talked about the bad news: sin and death. We can’t really understand how good the Good News is until we understand how bad off we are without it. But there is a way out of our sad predicament. Are you ready for it? Here it is: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
If this statement isn’t true, then you can pretty much disregard everything I’ve written in this book.
But I’m going to warn you: we wouldn’t be better off for it. We’d be far worse off, because if Jesus didn’t die to save us, then we have six-foot holes waiting for us and that will be the end of us. However, if the statement is true—and I certainly believe that it is—then we have hope beyond the grave. If Jesus didn’t die for us, then we all lose, and the grave ends it. If He did, then some of us will win, and sadly, the people who don’t place their faith in Him will lose.
After reading this book—especially the last two chapters—I hope I’ve helped you reach the conclusion that there are two problems we can’t fix. We can’t solve them for ourselves, the government can’t solve them, and medical technology can’t solve them.
The first problem is sin, and it’s what’s plaguing the world today. When we come from our mothers we don’t yet have a sense of right and wrong. But when
we reach a certain age and know right from wrong, we all violate what we know to be right (see Romans 2:15). Romans 1:20 says that through His creation, God has made Himself known to everyone: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” When we’re old enough, we violate whatever law we know in some form or fashion. In fact, most of us violate it over and over again. Once we commit the first violation, we die spiritually in the eyes of God. All we have to do is never violate what we know to be right, and we’ll have nothing to worry about. Well, since we’re all humans, we all sin and none of us are perfect. So the bad news is: sin is a real problem.
But sin isn’t our only problem. After we’ve sinned, we walk around the rest of our lives waiting on physical death. The first problem is spiritual death, and then physical death comes along. But if we’ve accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our problems are solved. Jesus Christ is the solution to sin and death. He is the one we count time by—ever since He came to this earth 2,014 years ago. He is the one who was, in fact, God in flesh. God was born to a human mother, just like we were. The difference between Jesus and us is that He never violated the law. God, in His kindness and love for us, chose to fix our sin and death problems—which would have separated us from Him for eternity—by allowing Jesus to take our punishment on Himself and become the perfect sacrifice.
unPHILtered: The Way I See It Page 14
