Tag: mortality

Marks

Gary Pollard

Every normally functioning person is acutely aware of something wrong within them. Most people subconsciously or consciously understand that they’re horribly wrong somehow. Historically we’ve tried to fix this in different ways. The Pharisees and Sadducees are two archetypal mentalities among religious people — one extreme goes to the right and mandates excessive behavioral restrictions in an attempt to earn God’s favor through what is not far from asceticism. The other side says, “What’s the point in dwelling on it?” and mostly ignore the problem.


The problem with both groups is that they cannot control their bodies’ enslavement to sin. Paul warns against the legalist and traditionalist by saying, “These rules may seem to be wise as part of a made-up religion in which people pretend to be humble and punish their bodies. But they don’t help people stop doing the evil that the sinful self wants to do” (Col 2.23). He warns against those who show no self restraint when he said, “So do you think we should keep sinning so that God will give us more and more grace? Of course not!” (Rom 6.1).


Right now reality is enslaved to death. Death is still a thing because sin is still a thing. Death was not a part of earth’s reality until sin was. Sin introduced death to earth, and it hasn’t left us since. Sin is a proof that we will die — everyone carries that proof because everyone is going to die at some point.


We carry a different proof with us, though. We still have the proof of sin because we’re all still going to die (Hb 9.27). But we also carry proof of immortality. Paul makes it very clear in I Corinthians 15 that our death is no different from a seed being planted. It is planted as one thing, it comes back to life as something much more impressive. So death is imminent for each person because of sin, but our death brings us life! Just like sin is transcendent proof of imminent death, grace is transcendent proof of imminent immortality!

What Could I Say At The Funeral Of A Non-Christian?

Dale Pollard

God is far wiser than we are, and there’s plenty of guidance for such potential scenarios (2 Pt. 1.3). Here are some quick things to fill your mind with before you walk into a room filled with the grieving. 

First, we all need to be reminded

“A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.

It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.” – Ecc. 7.1-4 

A funeral is better than feasting… for three reasons. 

  1. Because a funeral serves as a motivator for needed change. 
  2. Because it serves as a reminder that life is finite. 
  3. Because we inevitably think of what will be said at our own funeral. 

Your name is assigned at birth but defined in life. 

The Trans–Siberian Railway which connects Moscow with the Russian far east is still the world’s longest direct rail route, running for 5,753 miles. The journey passes through the Ural Mountains, Siberia’s birch forest and Lake Baikal, and the entire trip, were you to ride from beginning to end, would take six days. 

We’ll all reach the end of the line at some point. Each of our journeys are at various stages of completion, some just beginning, some farther along, but the meaning of life is that it stops. However, it doesn’t end. The vast majority of all the world’s religions teach and believe in an eternal existence of some kind. 

Death is a reality that’s juxtaposed. 

It’s the end and it’s the beginning. Or as Solomon said, “…the destiny of every man.” 

Many would rather not think of their final destination because they feel it’s unknown while others avoid the thought because the subject of death is an unpleasant one. While we should celebrate the accomplishments and one’s life, funerals have always been for the benefit of the living. 

The “house of mourning” requires at least four areas of focus in order for it to benefit us. 

  1. A time to grieve loss.
  2. A time to reminisce. 
  3. A time to comfort one another.
  4. A time for reflection. 

It’s healing, it’s healthy, and it’s enlightening. Every culture on every continent would attest to this, but more importantly— God’s provided us with this truth. 

Use the time, while in the house of mourning, for the  intended purpose. 

Don’t dismiss any sobering thoughts of mortality and use this valuable time properly. 

“I will not doubt, tho all my ships at sea come drifting home with broken masts and sails 

From seeming evil worketh good to me. 

And tho I weep because those sails are battered, 

Still will I cry,while my best hopes lie shattered, ‘I trust in thee’ 

19th Century poet, Ella Wilcox 

Mbah Gotho, Methusaleh, And Mortality

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Neal Pollard

Incredibly, his residency card and his nation’s official documents, state his birthday as December 31, 1870 (The Guardian). For clarification, that was almost three weeks before Germany became an official nation, only five years after the end of the Civil War (reconstruction was just underway and Ulysses Grant was president), 28 years before the Spanish-American war, 33 years before the airplane was invented, 44 years before the start of World War I, and America was less than 100 years old. Mbah Gotho died in 2017, making him 146 years old at the time. The only reason it is questioned is because his native Indonesia did not begin recording births until 1900. Officials stand firm that it is accurate. Can you imagine? What was it like to live almost a century and a half? To see almost all of 15 decades? 

To put it in perspective, the ancient Methuselah lived almost seven times longer than Mbah. He died at almost 1,000 years old.  Genesis 5:27 faithfully records, “So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.” Methuselah was contemporary with Adam and Shem, a gap of over 1,600 years. In a day of pristine gene pools and a water canopy-covered atmosphere, everyone and every thing lived much longer. But God determined a general rule of thumb to which humanity has almost universally submitted, saying, “Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” (Gen. 6:3). Thus, an Mbah Gotho is an almost singular oddity. The official oldest age in modern times was reached by Jeanne Calment, who was 122 when she succumbed in 1997. 

Average life expectancy throughout much of recorded time falls more closely in line with what Moses states, in Psalm 90:10, somewhere between 70-80 years of age. War, disease, famine, poverty, and the like sometimes curtail those numbers, but what is true of those who die at birth or who make it 122, 146, or even 969 years is that they do die. Hebrews 9:27 affirms the inevitability of it barring only the second coming of Christ in one’s lifetime (1 Cor. 15:52).

Most people make decisions as though they will live forever. People who know better put off obedience to the gospel, put other things before Christ in their priorities, serve sin, and neglect their reason for existence. While too many do this in ignorance, how tragic for the untold number who know how they ought to spend their lives but either deny or delay doing it. The moment of surrender will come. The body and spirit separate (Jas. 2:26). The body returns to dust and the spirit returns to God (Ecc. 12:7). At death, one’s eternal existence begins (Mat. 25:46). God gives one only the moments between birth and death to prepare for that existence, but He does not tell any of us how long that is. He simply tells us to be ready (Mat. 24:42,44). May we all get ready and stay ready for that day!

The Appointment We Cannot Escape

Neal Pollard

William T. Turner was captain of the Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a german U-boat in May, 1915. He was one of the few officers saved (Montreal Gazette, 6/24/33, obituary). The Atlantic writes in an article that Turner was “relieving captain” of the SS Ivernia when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat on New Year’s Day, 1917, and he once again survived (James Gould, 5/7/15). Turner was a man renowned for heroics and not a coward, which makes a captain surviving the sinking of two ships all the more incredible. But in 1933, after three, bed-ridden months, Turner succumbed to intestinal cancer (Gazette).

A few years ago, I wrote about Roy Sullivan, the park ranger who had survived seven lightning strikes (Preacher Pollard Blog). What an incredible tale of survival, but Sullivan insured his own mortality when he committed suicide in 1983 (ibid.). The man was incredible, but not invincible.

Jeanne Louise Calment is thought to be the world’s longest living person in modern times. She was born in 1875 in France, met Vincent Van Gogh as a young teenager, but eventually died in a nursing home in 1997, 122 years old! She took up fencing at 85, rode a bicycle until she was 100, ate two pounds of chocolate each week and quit smoking at 119 (http://anson.ucdavis.edu/~wang/calment.html). Back in the antediluvian period, in a purer world closer to creation, several lived over 900 years. But in each case, scripture punctuates their earthly existence by saying, “…and he died” (Gen. 5:5).

I have been involved in so many funerals as a preacher, from the first I assisted with Gary Hampton in Gainesville, Alabama, in 1992, until as recently as a couple of weeks ago. What strikes me as much as anything, whether in preparation for it visiting with the family or during slide shows during the service, is watching the progression of life unfolded in photos. Usually they are arranged chronologically, so that the fresh faces of the baby becomes the look of vitality found in children and young adults gives way to the robust strength of early to middle adulthood. Signs of aging subtly appear as the photos fade in and out, the added pounds or gray hairs or the advent of wrinkles. Pictures eventually show frailty and signs of physical deterioration. Then, one in attendance simply needs to gaze at the casket, if present, to see that this once fresh, new physical life does not go on forever.

The writer of Hebrews speaks in hopeful, positive terms to Christians as he proclaims the superiority and potency of Jesus, our great High Priest. At the cross, He offered His own life to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (9:26). Having a human body, Jesus was destined for death “inasmuch as it appointed for men to die once…” (9:27). Death is unavoidable, but it does not have to be unhinging. Death is followed by judgment, but that day can be the day of salvation realized and eager anticipation (9:28). What happens on the other side of death depends on what we do with Jesus on this side of it.  Whatever we decide, we will make the appointment Turner, Sullivan, Calment, Adam, and billions of others have already made. We must decide if we will meet it prepared.

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Jeanne later in life

What We Learn From The Video Of The Fatal SUV-Semi Crash

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Neal Pollard

A relative sent me an inbox message earlier containing a 34-second video of an SUV that loses control and ultimately is destroyed by an oncoming semi-truck.  It is unquestionable that the driver dies instantly and the footage is incredibly disturbing.  While the details given were not accurate—this does not occur in the states nor is there evidence that it involves texting or distracted driving, the end result does not change.  The best information is that the driver in the February 24, 2012, crash was a 32-year-old Moscow resident named Alexander. Driving on the notoriously treacherous M-7 highway in Russia, he lost control of his Nissan Navara, collided with another vehicle, and then drifted into the path of an oncoming Freightliner big rig.  The much bigger semi obliterates the black Nissan into so many pieces and a young man races into eternity (information found and verified on snopes.com).  As I watched this tragedy, a flood of things went through my mind.

  • There can be but a breath between life and death, time and eternity.
  • Death is no respecter of persons, taking the very young, the very old, and every age in between.
  • Seeing something like this cannot but help one appreciate more deeply the value of life and the irreversible nature of death.
  • Statistically speaking, the chances Alexander died in a saved condition are very small.
  • A momentary loss of self-control can have permanent consequences.
  • Our mistakes and misdeeds impact others, too.

Perhaps there are other things to glean, but I would hope that the benefit we might derive from seeing or reading about something like this is to take some time to contemplate the reality of eternity.  Something about considering our mortality, which a video like this should cause, cuts away our rationalization, excuses, and pride.  It opens us up, if only momentarily, to our accountability and what is really true and truly real—that death is appointed and followed by judgment (Heb. 9:27), that we must each appear before Christ’s judgment seat and give an account of our lives (2 Cor. 5:10), and that life on earth is relatively brief (Job 14:1).  This life is about preparing for the next life.  Whether it is the return of Christ or the end of life, the time for preparation may end at any moment.  Let us live ready for that moment!