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Does Islam cause terrorism? Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Moral Equivalency Applied Islamic History 0409.htm
Is the Bible God’s Word? Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Is the Bible the Word of God.htm
Why does God Allow Evil? Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Why Does God Allow Evil 0908.htm
Is Christian teaching from ancient paganism? /Bookhtml/Paganism influence issue article Journal 013003.htm
Should God’s existence be proven? /Apologeticshtml/Should the Bible and God Be Proven Fideism vs WCG.htm
Does the Bible teach blind faith? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Gospel of John Theory of Knowledge.htm
Can
You Die Before Your Time?
Could you die before you are “supposed to”? Of course, some people in Scripture killed themselves, such as King Saul (I Samuel 31:3-4) in order to avoid capture by the Philistines in battle. But to examine this issue more generally, it’s obvious that in Scripture people have a certain level of freedom of the will. As part of that reality, people can choose to die earlier than they could have, such as when they sin. Consider this warning in Scripture, issued by God through Moses just before Israel entered the promise land (Deut. 30:15-19): “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may life, you and your descendants.” Here God warns Israel that if they sin, they will die much earlier than if they obey Him. The built-in assumption is that God can’t plead with people to choose life if they didn’t have the freedom of choice to choose (an earlier) death as well. The spirit of the blessing and cursing chapters of Leviticus 27 and Deuteronomy 28 are similar: After having accepted the covenant with Jehovah, Israel will be blessed if they obey God, and punished if they don’t. And the punishments plainly include death in this life. These sections of Scripture aren’t about gaining eternal life and entering God’s spiritual kingdom after the resurrection. They are about what would happen and did happen to the people of Israel during their physical lives on earth.
Similarly,
Christians can choose to die earlier than planned when they are martyred. Paradoxically, in light of the passages
cited from the Old Testament above, here the cause of their
earlier-than-planned deaths is because of their faith in God. Those who died in the faith (including in
the Old Testament) that are mentioned in Hebrews 11:37 died before they would
have had they disobeyed God. The deacon
Stephen could have avoided being martyred in Acts 7:57-60 had he never had
professed Jesus as His Messiah and Savior.
So
it’s clear from Scripture that Christians can choose to die before their time
by either seriously sinning without repentance or by obeying God when they are
martyred.
Eric
Snow
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Why does God Allow Evil?
Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Why
Does God Allow Evil 0908.htm
May Christians work on
Saturdays? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Protestant
Rhetoric vs Sabbath Refuted.htm
Should Christians obey
the Old Testament law? /doctrinalhtml/Does
the New Covenant Abolish the OT Law.htm
Do you have an immortal
soul? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Here
and Hereafter.htm
Does the ministry have
authority? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is
There an Ordained Ministry vs Edwards.html
Is the United States the
Beast? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Are
We the Beast vs Collins.htm
Should you give 10% of
your income to your church? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Does
the Argument from Silence Abolish the Old Testament Law of Tithing 0205 Mokarow
rebuttal.htm
Is Jesus God? Click
here: /doctrinalhtml/Is
Jesus God.htm
Will there be a third
resurrection? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Will
There Be a Third Resurrection.htm
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