Many years ago, I had the honor of accompanying my former
boss, Senator Mark O. Hatfield, to the Capitol Rotunda inWashington, DC where Billy Graham was being presented with the Congressional Medal of
Honor. If you’ve ever visited the
Rotunda you’ll know that it’s lined with statues of famous Americans. When the aged Dr. Graham rose to speak in
front of the Vice-President, senators, congressman, and various evangelical
leaders he gestured to the statues and asked the simple question, “What do all
these men have in common?” After a long
pause he answered, “They are all dead.” Then Dr. Graham proceeded to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
I’ll never
forget this experience. With such
earnestness and conviction Graham reminded all of us of our mortality and the
reality of eternal punishment. He
reminded lowly staffers and august committee chairmen that we are all destined
to die and face judgment.
Long before
Billy Graham, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) taught his young son a lesson about
death. In 1755 Jonathan Edwards, Jr. was
only 10 years old. He was away from home
when he received a letter from his father exhorting him to follow the Lord,
“Take heed that you don’t forget or neglect Him. Always set God before your eyes, and live in
his fear, and seek him every day with all diligence.” Nothing too unusual here; Edwards clearly
wanted young Jonathan to be mindful of God. However, notice what Edwards reported next:
The week before last, on Thursday,
David died; whom you knew and used to play with, and who used to live at our
house. His soul is gone into the eternal
world. Whether he was prepared for
death, we don’t know. This is a loud
call to you to prepare for death. You
see that they that are young die, as well as those that are old. David was not much older than you. Remember what Christ said, that you must be
born again, or you never can see the Kingdom of God. [Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards (Banner of Truth), 394-95]
These words sound strange to our 21st century
ears, don’t they? A father warning his
ten year old son about death? It’s one
thing for Billy Graham to remind a roomful of adults that death is coming, but
for Edwards to put the fear of death in his ten year old boy, well that’s going
a little too far, isn’t it? Or is it?
We will
leave for another day the important discussion of how to talk to children about
death—though I should say I don’t think Edwards was far off the mark—especially
given the mortality rates of the 18th century. For now, I simply want to assert—with my
personal experience as my only evidence—that we evangelicals don’t talk about
death and hell and, for that matter, heaven, nearly enough.
I am very thankful that in 1990 a girl by the name of Brenda Riverman was bold
enough to talk to me about death. She
didn’t try to sugarcoat the Gospel—I wouldn’t have appreciated that. I was a senior in high-school in Hillsboro, Oregon and as part of a class assignment we went to see a play together. At this play I discovered that Brenda was a
Christian. I was shocked—Brenda was the
smartest girl in school and, as far as I knew, Christians weren’t smart (you
have to understand, everything I learned about Christianity I learned from watching
television). I was intrigued, to say the
least, that Brenda believed the Bible; that she believed in Jesus Christ; that
she believed in heaven; and that she believed in hell. I asked her a straightforward question,
“Brenda, are you saying that if this is how I live my life [with myself in
charge] and this is what I believe [that Jesus in not the Lord] I’m going to hell when I die?” Brenda did not hesitate, she did not
equivocate, she simply said, “Yes, Aaron, that’s what I’m saying.” Her honesty about spiritual death and hell
changed my life forever. I wasn’t
converted immediately but, by God’s grace, I was converted, and as I look back
at the transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit, the work began in my soul
when Brenda told me that death is inevitable and hell is real.
I, for one,
am thankful that Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, and, yes, Brenda, knew how to
talk straight about death and hell. The
church today could learn something from their example.
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Aaron, Thanks for the
Wed, 05/24/2006 - 05:32 — Glenn (not verified)Aaron,
Thanks for the reminder that we need to embrace, not deny, the reality of death. This made me realize that recently my dreams-- and thus what I hope in-- have centered on some rather earthly things.
You may want to edit this to
Wed, 05/24/2006 - 08:09 — Doug Patteson (not verified)You may want to edit this to note that Dr. Graham received the Congressional Gold Medal (Congress' highest honor), rather than the Congressional Medal of Honor (our nation's highest military honor).
Not intending to nit pick, but did think it warranted a note so as note to distract from the entry itself.
Dear Doug, I don't think this
Wed, 05/24/2006 - 14:42 — Aaron (not verified)Dear Doug, I don't think this is nitpicking at all, thanks for the note. I think that the Congressional Gold Medal and the Medal of Honor are both popularly referred to as the Congressional Medal of Honor. Seems strange to me that this would happen--rather confusing--nonetheless, that explains why they referred to it that way the day Dr. Graham received the award. Anyway, thanks again!
Glenn: Since you're a writer
Thu, 05/25/2006 - 15:57 — jd (not verified)Glenn:
Since you're a writer and one who appreciates the perfect word for the occasion, I'm a little surprised that you would choose the word "embrace" when talking about death. Can you clarify your position on that? Perhaps it's just a little slip, in which case it's simply out of character for you. However, if you're standing by your choice, I don't get it.
JD, Good question. The
Thu, 05/25/2006 - 21:37 — Glenn (not verified)JD,
Good question. The context in my crazy head was the research for and then writing of a chapter on death and dying for an academic publication a year ago. One of the frequent themes in the literature is that Americans and many Western peoples have a "denial of death" culture. We have developed practices and beliefs that keep the thought of our mortality denied or at a distance.
Like Tyler Durden in Fight Club, I think we need to embrace the reality that someday our mortal lives will cease. The Christian hope is that our perishable bodies will be raised imperishable. The second death was embraced by Christ so that we don't have to embrace the second death.
However, by embracing the reality that our temporal lives will end in death, we can set our hope fully on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It is in denying death that we tend to set our minds and hearts on things below.
Glenn, I agree entirely that
Thu, 05/25/2006 - 22:53 — Aaron (not verified)Glenn,
I agree entirely that we simply have to find a way to embrace death in a culture trying to keep it at arm's distance. It must mean something to say, for the believer, that death has lost it's sting.
Recently, I made a mental note of some pieces of literature that deal with death as a theme and I was struck by how often authors deal with death. It can't simply be because death is a natural part of life. Birth is also a natural part of life but I would venture to guess that death is treated more often--perhaps for some obvious reasons.
It makes me wonder if the "denial of death" mentality that you describe is a theme of contemporary literature because even the modern authors seem to deal with it quite a bit. I'm not disagreeing with you, but if you are right, if theme of death is making an exit from Western literature, this is a huge change and one worth noting.
Glenn: Maybe it's just the
Fri, 05/26/2006 - 06:45 — jd (not verified)Glenn:
Maybe it's just the word "embrace" that bothers me. There may be lots of things I want to do with death but embrace is not one of them. I'm sorry, but when someone says we should embrace death, I think that someone has never really experienced it.
Did Christ embrace death? I know he asked God to take it away. Then he acquiesced. He resigned himself to it. He accepted it.
Anyone who has experienced death first hand rages against the injustice of it. He probably shakes his fist at God. He probably has the same reaction C.S. Lewis did in Shadowlands: "No. No. Don't talk to me about it."
I have experienced death first hand. I am able to talk about it. Since I have become a Christian I don't fear it anymore. But I will never be able to embrace the horror of the devastation that death leaves behind.
You quote The Fight Club. I haven't seen it. But it seems kind of ironic that people whose main vocation is fighting would embrace death.
I quote Dylan Thomas: "...rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Forgive me if it appears that I have missed the point of the post. I will be happy to explain my thoughts further.
Aaron, I like what you wrote
Fri, 05/26/2006 - 07:12 — Glenn (not verified)Aaron,
I like what you wrote and hope someday you'll do a follow-up post on what you've seen in literature about death. That would be very interesting to me and probably some other readers.
JD,
I'm not suggesting that we dance a jig of joy or in any other way revel in the fact that our mortal lives will cease.
When I write, "...embrace the reality of death," I mean that we should think through and accept as fully as we can the fact that we will die. I.e., not participate in the mentality that is called "denial of death."
If we live with the mentality that our days are unnumbered, we will live in ways less in accord with biblical thinking. In the Scripture we are told to number our days that we might have a heart of wisdom. Perhaps we can infer from that that if DON'T number our days-- i.e. denial of death mentality-- we will not have a heart of wisdom.
Dear Doug, I'm not sure if
Fri, 05/26/2006 - 08:12 — Aaron (not verified)Dear Doug,
I'm not sure if you missed the point of the post or not but I do appreciate your pointed comments--especially as someone who has experienced the pain of death.
The point of the post is that Christians need to talk about death and not just death, we need to talk about what happens after death -- heaven and hell. We need to talk about the reality of death since, after all, it is destined for man to die once and face judgement.
The point you seem to want to make is one I agree with--death is unnatural! This is a point Christians have been making for centuries. Death is a result of the Fall. Therefore, were a Christian to say that he embraced death, it is not compliment to death. Death itself is interwined with wickedness. This is clear throughout Scripture, isn't it? Especially Genesis 3 and Romans 5. So, what you have profoundly experiences I would argue that the Bible also explicitly teaches: death is unnatural.
Nonetheless, Paul did say in Philippians 1 that to live is Christ and to die is gain. For Paul death did lose its sting. I do think Paul embraced death. I don't know how else to understand Paul's amazing attitude as he sat in jail. He had a longing for death. But we get tripped up at this point. It was not "death" per se, that Paul embraced--it was heaven. To die was gain because to being with Christ is better by far.
Anyway, I wanted to chime in to say, again, that the point of my post is that we ought to talk about death and hell because those who are not Christians--whether they have experienced the pain of death or not--need to know that eternal life hangs in the balance.
Thanks, Aaron and Glenn, for
Mon, 05/29/2006 - 14:04 — jd (not verified)Thanks, Aaron and Glenn, for clarifying. I can see that I have no disagreement with either of you on the subject. I agree that we don't talk about the reality of death. And I would go even further to say that until a Christian faces his own mortality, his faith will be immature.
I came face to face with that fact twice in the last few years. Once with my mother-in-law who lost a child, and kind of poured herself into drink and pleasure--she never really faced her pain and grief.
And one time more recently with a supposed pillar of my local church. Perhaps you heard about the carload of Taylor University students who were killed by a truck driver who simply crossed the center line. I believe four students were killed.
This charter member of our church, elder and long-time opinion maker has a connection to this accident through his children. His reaction has been tremendous anger about life--"what's it all about? Is that all there is?"--I had dinner with him and was totally surprised by the immaturity of his reaction. I asked him if this was the first time he had ever faced something like this and he said, "I guess so." I don't know how anyone can live for 70+ years without facing the Giant Despair.
JD, That is a heart-breaking
Mon, 05/29/2006 - 18:05 — Glenn (not verified)JD,
That is a heart-breaking story about the Taylor students. I sympathize with the elder in his grief. I hope he returns to Hope. As Phillip Yancey writes, "So it seems that the only alternative to disappointment with God is disappointment without Him." Disappoint comes-- death comes-- but God has entered into Time and into relationship with us to disappointment with us. Walking alone without Him seems hideous; while walking with Him through disappointment doesn't make the loss in death a happy thing, He does give us comfort and hope. Again, I hope for that elder a return to Hope.