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Ask the pastor: Why are believers afraid of dying?
Mark replies:
There could be several reasons for this:
1. Being a person of faith – or belief in God – is not the same as being a Christian believer. The Bible suggests that our reason for hope is entirely due to the ‘Christ events’ on planet earth 2000 years ago. So if people of other faiths are frightened of death, it is because they are not recipients of the Christian hope, and if Christians are afraid, it is because they have failed to understand our basis for hope. Which leads me to my second point:
2. It is vital Christians are familiar with the basis for our hope as revealed in scripture. The Bible makes clear a range of issues that should inform our ideas of the future – the theological word is eschatology. These include the eternal significance of the resurrection (1 Cor 15), God’s future plans for his cosmos culminating in a new heaven on this planet (Rom 8), His future character and actions being based on those already revealed in history, and the notion that the all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God has all time, peoples and creation in His hands (the overriding message of the book of Revelation). One slightly clichéd saying that helps me is that “Because God has done it, God will do it.”
3. Of course, one of the reasons Christians may not want to face up to death is because they are concerned about Hell, a subject that Christians are a little loathe to talk about. Again, grasping biblical revelation is important here. Basically the Christian doctrine of hell suggests two possibilities: Firstly, some Christians believe in ‘continuous, conscious punishment’ (See Matt 24), that is the notion that unbelievers will be subject to a terrible eternity of continuous punishment. Others (including myself) are drawn to the idea of annihalationism, which is the idea that, whilst hell is still a terrible destiny, it is not eternal, but is proportionate.
4. So, why do unbelievers not worry about death? Because the notion of eternity or immortality is not accepted; because education only gives credence to the physical realm, even though more than 50% of people in the UK believe in an afterlife; because our culture doesn’t embrace death (cf the Mediterranean culture); because ‘dangling over the pit’ preachers are a thing of the past and their message is viewed as outdated, and because traditional Christian spirituality has been marginalised in today’s society. All the above and more contribute to this failure of people to think about their longer term futures never mind their eternal destinations.
Do you have a question you'd like to "Ask the pastor"? Simply send it to us in an email. Please note that Mark cannot enter into personal correspondence (this isn't an agony uncle column) or answer questions of a legal nature. He also reserves the right to choose which questions he answers and which he doesn't.