Three deaths in one week!

Last weekend I wrote about death and its impact on our lives when it hits us. In the process of my argument, I made strong reference to the Bible and what it says about both natural and spiritual death.

As expected, the article drew varying reactions, from both atheists and those who believe in creation as an act of God and by God Himself. The sad thing though is that both groups failed dismally in addressing the issue of death, which was the main theme of the article. That has been my disappointment with respect to the responses.

In that article, I praised God for having spared us from the trauma of death in the family or among close relatives and, or friends.
As the week began, my family and I were looking forward to the happy event of a family wedding.
So, my Saturday had already been set aside for this happy event in the family. Little did I know that by the time I wrote this article, I would be dealing with the agonising questions of which of three funerals would I be attending and why.

In the evening of Tuesday, we received a call to the effect that one of my dearest brothers-in-law had suddenly died, without showing any signs of ill-health.
That shocked both my wife and I and we wondered how this sad news would be received by his daughters who are both married in South Africa.
We went to bed feeling numb, even failing to have a meaningful prayer.
We woke up still trying to make sense out of this whole tragedy.

I thought of who could be my entry point for confirmation of the death among my in-laws. It was just that difficult to pick any one who could not be in shock as we were.
As we were still pondering on who to call, a call came from my pastor, giving us further shocking news!
The first-born daughter of one of the elders in our church had died suddenly at a certain university in South Africa.
That was devastation above all devastation.

This young woman grew up in front of us in my family, not just because we worshipped in the same church but also because our two families are friends, a relationship that had been embraced by our children.
That is why when we told our children about the tragedy, they were all shocked.

Devastating

Such is the impact of death in our lives. It is devastating, taking away all our strength to confront it.
As if these two deaths were not enough, as I got to the office, another call came in, this time from a colleague of mine in political and social activism.

He was telling me that one of our fellow activists had suddenly died, leaving behind, a daughter who is critically ill.
So, you can just imagine what a day Wednesday was for me: hell on earth.
Last week I argued that death was decreed by God when Adam and Eve violated God’s instruction or commandment. See Genesis 3:19, where it says: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it, you were taken.
“For dust you are, and to dust you shall return”.  

This is our fate in natural death. We return to the ground from where we were taken. I said a lot too about spiritual death. I do not intend repeating that today.  Instead of pursuing that kind of argument, my heart goes out to all those who lost their loved ones this past week.
May they be comforted by the knowledge that God had given, and it is still Him who has taken? Amen.
May I now turn to those who deny that human beings are a product of God’s creation? One thing for which I thank this group of young intellectuals is that they were academic in their arguments.

At no stage did any one of them attack me as a person but they all referred me to compelling literature on the subject of evolution.
I respect each one of them for that kind of approach. Yet, one thing they all shied away from was to address the subject of death and its negative impact on our lives. They also all shied away from addressing the issue of where we go when we die. However, that argument is for another day.
I must state that my argument is not based on any other source but from the Holy Bible which I believe to be God’s Word and is complete, meant to equip the God-fearing to ready to perform God’s good works while here on earth.
I believe that those who wrote the Bible did so under God’s inspiration.

See the Book Second Peter 1: 19-21 where it says: “So, we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as the light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for no prophecy ever came by the will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
To me it is a matter of faith that I hold this to be the truth.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines faith as: “trust, strong belief, unquestioning confidence in God.”
In Hebrews 11:1 faith is defined as follows: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, of things not seen.”
I believe that God created every thing on earth and the heavens, so I am not persuaded by theories that would have us believe that Man came from primates like monkeys or apes.

I hold this to be true that God created Adam and Eve, and that death came as a consequence of these two having disobeyed God’s commandments.
Even today, the Word of God still says that the soul which sins shall die.
In my reading of such literature as the one by Charles Darwin, and comparing them with the Bible, I still find the Bible to be more consistent for all the epochs. People have a right to believe whatever they choose to believe but I will always believe that I came from God and that I live because He has chosen to be that gracious to allow me this time.
In fact, this reminds me of what one of my doctors said in 2011 when I went to Millpark Clinic in Johannesburg, at the point of death.

Guarantee

After seven hours of checks and diagnosis, my doctor said these words: “Mr Hlophe, we have done all that we learned from science and medical schools. We believe we have found the cause of your illness and have prescribed the drugs we are giving you. But we cannot guarantee healing because that comes from the hand of someone up there in the heavens. Some call Him God, others call ancestors or Nkulunkulu; yet others call Him Allah, while others call Him Buddha or something like that. We choose to call Him God and He holds the power to heal. We now commit you to His healing power.”

I met my doctor again on June 5, in Johannesburg for a check up.
This time he told me that my healing was nothing but a miracle!
I looked up to the heavens and praised my God.
In conclusion, let us talk more about how we can prepare ourselves to be ready to deal with the impact of death, whether we are atheists or Christians.

How can we deal with death such that we are not devastated when it hits us?
May our God help us to learn to meditate about our end day, amen.

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