Death – the commercial

Is your channel-surfing age imposing its culture on your views of eternity? I’m told the attention span of the modern couch potato is four seconds. If it isn’t grabbed by then, down goes the thumb on the remote.

Photo: Piotr Cichosz, Unsplash

(If you are still reading, either this is riveting or you don’t qualify for the couch potato Olympics.)

But is that remote coloring your perceptions of death? Is it, as many believe, no more than a short two-minute commercial between channels? Reality TV today, Superman tomorrow— with a rather unpleasant break called ‘Death’ in between.

Reincarnation declares we come around again as something or someone else. The idea that my chicken dinner may have been Great-Granny leaves me speechless, to say nothing of Granny-less, and probably dinner-less. I simply cannot swallow that one.

And yet we are all too quick to run from what may happen, because of the implications, not for then but for now. For none of us know what death will be like, because none of us have been there and lived to tell the tale. We must guess, or take it on Better Authority.

Better Authority tells us we shall meet our Maker, who will judge us according to what we have done. That makes us uncomfortable, because it implies changing our behaviour now. Uncomfortable perhaps, but at least it makes sense.

Others, desperate to avoid that commercial, thumb the remote to the Self channel, the Science channel, the Religion channel, the Sex & Drugs channel, the Astral channel, the Horoscope channel, even the Magic channel.

The trouble is, life only has one channel, and this is it. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except by me.” So don’t keep switching channels. For He’ll be back, right after this.

“All share a common destiny” – true or false?

What about this one? “Man has no advantage over the animal.” Anyone who knows their Bible knows they are both wrong. The destiny of those born-again, the sheep, is with the Lord; that of the goats—eternal destruction.

And unlike the animals, mankind is made in the image of God. So both statements are false. But both are in the Bible! (See Ecclesiastes 9:2 & 3:19.) Confused?

Hans Peter Gauser, Unsplash

Ecclesiastes is full of such errors. Written by King Solomon before his death, it is also rich with wisdom. Some scholars believe it’s the outpouring of a confused mind—worldly thought on the one hand, and godly wisdom on the other.

Placed at the center of the Bible, I see it like the bullseye of a target, painted black to highlight the surrounding white. It reflects the contrasting mindsets we all wrestle with. But it’s more than this.

The antidote

It’s also a heads-up for careful Bible study. We dare not take every verse literally, but consider each in the light of all Scripture. Many passages seem to be inconsistent with God’s love, placed there for our reflection and encouragement to read the whole, not just the part.

There’s another danger. If King Solomon, the wisest king, could fall into such confusion, what a warning for us more humble mortals! The cause of his decline? Idolatry.

Solomon became distracted by political correctness, marrying hundreds of wives. To keep the peace, he allowed their idols and even bowed down to them himself.

Are we falling into the same trap? Compromise and political correctness are fear of man; faithfulness and trust are fear of God. Let us not become confused.