I Was Just Thinking

by Pastor Vincent Imwensi

A lot of times, when people have suffered a serious tragedy or are facing severe hardships/difficulties, they often wish for death. And if they die in such a situation, it is common to hear their loved ones saying it was better for them to die than to have continued to live. Death is seen as a relief in such circumstances.

In fact, this is the same kind of thinking that has led and still leads and tempts many people to deliberately take their own lives by committing suicide. Could they be making a serious mistake?

Even though there is a verse of scripture (Ecclesiastes 7:1) that tends to subscribe to that philosophy, it is important that we know the sense in which it can be true that the day of one’s death is better than that of his birth and the sense in which it is not.

Here are some key questions to answer:

Do I know why I am here or how I got here?
A lot of people do not know the reason why man is on earth to begin with. The question of how we got here and what we are here for need to be answered to give meaning to our existence on earth. A person who lives through life without even knowing what being here is all about is like one who lived in the dark. Sad to say, that is the story of countless millions.

Some think and actually teach that we just happened out of nowhere. According to some university intellectuals and their adherents, we are a product of a “big bang” brought about by the fusion of certain atoms sometime in the distant past. But they are yet to tell us who made those so called atoms (or maybe they just happened on their own too!). As ridiculous as that is, many still believe it!

And thanks to Mr. Darwin and his proponents, we are a product of evolution. In fact, man’s great grandparents were apes. But one simple question they have not been able to answer is what stopped the process?

Till this very day, birds are still hatching out birds after their kinds, goats are giving birth to goats, lions to lions, dogs continue to produce dogs, fish produce fish after their kinds in their numerous varieties and even apes themselves are still birthing apes.

So if apes evolved into humans, what stopped the process? When last did anyone see an ape that evolved into a human being?

Let’s stop fooling around with all these misleading and baseless theories and accept the plain truth that there is a God who made all things including man just like the Bible tells us.

To my own mind, no one is supposed to live and die without knowing how he got here or who sent him here. How can the day of death be better than of birth when a person dies without finding an answer to the most basic question about his life on earth?

Where am I going when I leave here?
This is another basic question. If it was true that life ends in the grave, then in all situations and circumstances, death will be a relief, a way out of a life of troubles and problems.
But that life does not end in the grave is a fact that cannot be contested beyond any reasonable doubt. If fact, there are more evidences (even scientific ones) that confirm that physical death is not the end of a man’s life.

For instance, think of “near death experiences” (NDE). There are several real-life accounts of people who died, were confirmed dead by medical doctors but later came back to life to narrate what happened when they left their dead bodies. They found that they were alive somewhere else after death.
Such experiences are not a product of mere psychological hallucinations or trauma as is often alleged by those who would prefer to brush them aside.

Then think of Jesus Christ who was crucified, died and was buried but on the third day, He resurrected from the dead and forty days after, before the watching eyes of many people, He ascended alive into heaven (see Luke 23 and 24).

And not only that, there are also numerous passages in the Holy Bible that explain that man’s life does not end in the grave – there is life after death.

But here is a key point: We learn also from the scriptures that those who die do not all go to the same place. You either go to a place of pleasure and glory when you die or to a place of unending torment and gloom – it all depends on one crucial criterion – whether or not your soul is saved. Click here to find out how.

For someone to die without knowing where he is going is like taking a leap into the dark.
If an individual dies without being saved meaning that he is going to a place of unending torment after death, how can the day of death be better than that of birth for that individual?

Death is not an escape route neither is it a relief from sufferings except your soul is saved through the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This statement may not be politically (or even religiously) correct but it is true according to the word of God.

So dear friend, is your soul saved? Make sure it is before you leave here! Want to know how? Click here.

Watch out for part 2.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 25th, 2011 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Life After Death. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.