A friend recently asked me to suggest some Scripture to comfort a mutual acquaintance who had lost his son in an accident. To our knowledge, neither the father nor the son had trusted Christ. I was stymied. The harsh truth will be no comfort; the son is gone and there is no hope for a blessed eternity for him – not if you believe the Bible. I am certain this type of situation is what makes the idea of reincarnation popular. It may also explain why annihilation appeals to some. If my departed loved one will come back in some pleasant form, that is comforting. Likewise, if death is the end of life and not a beginning as the Bible teaches, annihilation erases the painful thought of eternal punishment.
Regardless of what a non-believer thinks, as believers we
have a responsibility to share truth. After giving it some thought, I
recommended my friend share Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 for starters. It is biblical
truth that death is part of life, and though it offers no comfort, at least it
states the inevitability and universality.
I suggested she follow that up by saying that our Christian
faith teaches us to weep
with those who weep. It is a Christlike thing to show sympathy for those
who are mourning. I suggested that at some point, it would be appropriate to
ask the grieving parent if he was comfortable with his own idea of the
afterlife. She might try something like the Evangelism Explosion tactic of
asking why God should let him into Heaven – assuming he believes in Heaven. If
that’s too harsh, she could simply ask what he thinks comes after death. It may
sound heartless to push this kind of thing on a mourner, but that state of mind
is often where we make our most dramatic descoveries.
Sadly, this situation is going to become more the norm than
the exception as our society becomes more fully pagan. It is surprising how
quickly we have traveled down this road. My parents’ generation either professed
Christianity or at least used biblical language to excuse or accuse their behavior.
There was an undercurrent of Judeo-Christian thought that provided a basis for
conversation with almost any American. Even the people who spurned Christianity
would often admit that they were probably going to Hell, but they pretended not
to care. “Foxhole prayers” were common among those who otherwise had no
relationship with the God of the Bible.
It has taken less than fifty years to almost fully erase God-consciousness
from our society. We often point to the removal of the Bible and prayer from
schools as the cause of this tragic situation, but I suspect that was more a
symptom than a cause. Had the parents of the 1960’s and 70’s been more
concerned and involved with such decisions, the move to secularize education
might have been thwarted. Many of those who were concerned did what I did:
withdraw from public education and join the Christian school movement. That was
a fine thing, but I feel a little guilty that we didn’t do more to fight
against the ruination of public schools. The late twentieth century concepts of
values clarification and situation ethics has morphed into what we see today: WOKE
attitudes toward gender and morality, critical race theory, and outright enmity
against anything Christian.
As believers, we need to prepare for more of those awkward
funerals. The best way to do that is to talk to our pagan neighbors before we have
to attend their wake. I have previously
alluded to W.B. Yeats poem, “The Second
Coming.” I am surprised at how prescient his observations were. We have witnessed
his prediction:
Things
fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere
anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The
blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The
ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best
lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full
of passionate intensity…
Surely
some revelation is at hand;
Surely
the Second Coming is at hand….
And what
rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches
towards Bethlehem to be born?
The Bible predicts that things will get worse and worse before
the end comes. That fact is not a reason to hunker down and wait; it is rather
the very reason we should redouble our efforts to spread the news that God’s
kingdom has come and to make every effort to see His will done on earth as it
is in Heaven. Everyone we reach with the good news is rescued from the awkward
funeral. Everyone we bring to the Savior born in Bethlehem will be safe from
the rough beast whose hour seems to be coming round at last.
Related posts: Why Witness;
Hell? Yes!;
Today’s
Chaldean Chastisement; I Pray for America
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