Life and Death PDF
Life and Death PDF
Life and Death PDF
Life ...
Were alive! Pardon me for stating the obvious, but lets not pass over this simple fact. The mere existence of life is absolutely amazing. Anyone who has witnessed the birth of a child understands a bit of the wonder and amazement, and realizes that the existence of life is not so simple to explain. Explain it?! Why do we even need to explain it? Why cant we simply enjoy it? People have always asked questions such as Why am I here? and Whats the meaning of life? because if life is simply a cosmic accident, then your life has no more meaning than the existence of a lump of coal. But the very fact that were having this discussion the fact that youre sitting there thinking about all this says that your life indeed has great meaning! So, pull yourself back from the despair and emptiness of that way of thinking, because life didnt just happen. Nature by itself cannot explain life. What do you get with Time plus Slime? Some say, Time plus Slime makes something Sublime. In other words, give inanimate elements (slime) a long enough span of time and they will eventually get together and come alive (something sublime, wonderful and living). This idea is the exact opposite of what we see happening around us everyday. For example, allow a book to sit undisturbed for a period of time, and observe what happens. Its pages yellow, the backing becomes brittle So we dont even need to mention scientific terms and physical laws such as the Second Law of Thermodynamics in order to understand that Time plus Slime makes Grime. There must be a supernatural explanation. No random event, and no amount of time, can explain the complexity of things around us, let alone explain life. For example, a single strand of DNA on a single strand of hair on your head is simply too marvelous and complex to be explained by chance. So most cultures, ancient or modern, have a supernatural explanation for the existence of life and understandably so! Now carry this thought to its next logical conclusion: Because life springs from someone supernatural, life is precious. The Bible says that an eternal God created the world and everything in it, and that He made it teeming with life. When God breathed life into people, the man and woman became, not simply living things like the plants and animals, but rather living beings. We are alive, and we owe our very life to God our creator.
and Death
Were alive (see above), but we all die. Again, pardon me for stating the obvious, but we must come to terms with this simple fact, also. The wonder and amazement of life stands in stark contrast to the unspeakable tragedy and sorrow of death. Perhaps death needs no explanation. Its all-too easy to destroy, to stop physical life. But we have said that life comes from a supernatural source, so the question arises, Why does the creator of life allow people to die? Before attempting to answer the question directly, let us first note that God is sovereign, and owes us nothing. Because He is greater than we, and because He is our creator, He can do with us as He will. The life He has given us is something we could have never gained for ourselves, anyway. And so we should thank Him for life, and not presume to complain that we die.
But the Bible says that death is not the end. In fact, the Bible is our guide for life, to prepare us specifically for the time of our death. Life is essentially a test of our faith, and it is at the point of our death that lay down our pencils and wait for our answers to be graded. Obviously, we who are left alive when someone dies experience much sorrow, and lives are changed in very unpleasant ways. And so the basic issues are the same for death as they are for the whole topic of human suffering. But real tragedy and sorrow only come to those who die unprepared.