Death

November 7, 2013 | No comments yet

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by:  Staci Stallings

The other night I was reading through some of things people have highlighted in some of my novels.  Very interesting to say the least.

One of the things that many had highlighted went like this:

“Did God make evil? One day a young man went to his college class, and the professor asked if the young man believed that God made everything.  The young man said, ‘Yes, He did.’ The old professor puffed up and said, ‘Then if God made everything, that means He made evil. Who has need for a God that would make evil?’  The young man was silent for he had no answer to this question.  As the professor started on with the lesson, a second young man spoke up and said, ‘May I ask you a question, Sir?’ The professor assented, and the young man began, ‘Sir, is there such a thing as cold?’  ‘Of course,’ the professor replied, ‘Haven’t you ever been cold?’ ‘Actually,’ the young man replied, ‘cold does not exist. It is simply a term that we have constructed to mean a state of being without heat.’  The old professor didn’t say anything, so the young man continued. ‘Is there such a thing as dark?’ “‘Well, certainly,’ replied the professor. ‘We’ve all seen the dark.’ ‘On the contrary,’ the young man said. ‘Darkness does not exist. It is only the way we have come to explain an absence of light.  The absence of something does not exist except to define when what does exist is not present. So, I ask you then, does evil exist?’ ‘Of course it does. Look around there are murders and rapes and robberies.’ ‘Actually, Sir, evil does not exist. Evil is only the absence of God.’  When he sat down, the professor had no more argument.”

We name things that exist, and we name the OPPOSITE of those things to explain when that thing is absent.

Got that?

So light is a thing.  Darkness is when light is absent.

Heat exists.  Cold is when heat is not present.

Interesting, don’t you think?

The other night I was in church, and I had just read these the day before.  They started going to through my mind as the priest discussed the communion of saints — the togetherness we will be in when we all stand before the throne of God in eternity.  This “communion” is a “common” “union.”  We will be together praising God!

Cool, right?

The priest went on to say that our life’s purpose is to live in that communion now just as we will in eternity, to work with each other to bring God’s Kingdom into the world now.

As the sermon ended, the light/dark argument poured into my mind.  I began to think of the moment of the communion of saints, when we are all together… forever.  And my mind struck on the concepts of life and death.

The communion of saints in eternity will take place after our “death,” right?  But then I struck on that.

What does “death” mean?  ”Death” is the absence of life.  There will come a day when our earthly bodies die, but we don’t believe that is the end.  In fact, we believe that death is a marker in the road, not the end of the road.

My mind flashed forward to what death means because it can’t mean the absence of existence.  Because, though our earthly bodies cease to exist, our souls, our life continues.  So death isn’t the point at which we cease to EXIST.  It can’t be because our souls will continue into eternity.

So what then is “death”?

It is the absence of something, right?  It is the absence of life.

But we’ve just said that both of these are not about our existence, which continues long after we leave this earth plain.  No “death” has to mean the absence of something other than “existence.”

Then what?  What is death the absence of?

Okay, let’s go about this from the other angle.  What is life the existence of?  What gives you life?

God.

God is the short answer and the only real answer to that question.Lucky Ad 2-2014

God gives you life.  Life is a free gift, and one that only YOU can chose.

But if there’s a choice, what is the other option?

That’s easy.  Death.

Death is the other option.

You get to choose between life and death.

But what does that mean?  It can’t mean you get to choose whether to exist or not because you DO exist.  You didn’t get to CHOOSE that…

Following?  Tracking with me?

Life = a relationship with God!

Death is the absence of that relationship!

More next time….

 

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