by William W. Orr, A.B., M.A., Th.B., D.D.. Pastor and Teacher.
Death is part of God's plan. While it is true that death is the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23), it is also true that God pronounced this plenty. Death marks the end of one span of human life, but it also provides the entrance from time into eternity.
In it's highest sense, death has become but a step in God's program. What we call life was never intended to be an end in itself. God has not designed that the usual threescore years and ten on earth should be all of our existence. Physically oriented life is simply the introduction into spiritual oriented life.
A completely physical view of life is inadequate. If we can see only worldly things, we are missing the true picture. God has always wanted us to live with an eternal perspective. We are destined for better things than we can experience now. The Lord's overall plan always included everlasting, abundant life lived in His immediate presence.
It is, therefore, incorrect to view death as an accident or a tragedy. Man was never intended to live forever on this planet, for God's plan inclouded a transition into celestial realms. Physical life from the beginning was to be temporary. While we may gasp at the implications involved here, it is nevertheless true that God's heart of love always has longed for our permanent companionship. He was not the Author of sin for He cannot sin (James 1:13; I Pet. 2:22), but He turned the results of man's sin to His own purpose.
To view death as norma and necessary (since it came into the world through sin) is vital to a proper understanding of life itself. Our years hold many inequalities, inadequacies, and injustices. There are disappointments and discouragements. All around us are evidences that sometimes crimes does pay. Frequently the thief and the murderer get off scot-free. Evil often appears to be on the throne. Will a just and righteous God allow this to continue -- always?
As Christians, our lives are years of training. This experience, it seems, is a school with difficult studies and hard examinations. We learn, to be sure, but the process is a painful one. Must such training go on forever? No, for death becomes a graduation.
Can we not look at death from God's standpoint? It is not the end, but the beginning. It's not defeat, but victory. It is not failure, but success. It is not an accident, but the plan of God.
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THE FIRST 5 MINUTES AFTER DEATH-what really happens immediately after death?
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