The VOICE of Prophecy! Final Fulfillment Edition, 20/20
PAGE 11 – Let’s Talk About DEATH!
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Let’s Talk About: DEATH
CHARLIE GARD DIED YESTERDAY.
For those who haven’t heard (and are presumably living in a country without electricity?); Charlie Gard (4 August 2016 – 28 July 2017) was a British boy from Bedfont, London, who was born with a rare genetic condition known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome that causes progressive brain damage and muscle failure, including the muscles needed to breathe. There is no treatment, and it causes death in infancy. (Wikipedia)
AS FAR AS WE KNOW CHARLIE IS NOT: Riding the rainbow train (or ‘the pale horse’); Beyond the grave; Crossing the Jordan; In Abraham’s bosom; Joined to an invisible choir; Sleeping with fishes or Passed away: THESE ARE JUST A FEW EUPHEMISMS USED TO DESCRIBE DEATH, or rather to refer to someone (or something, in the case of a pet animal) who has died. Another I have not included BECAUSE IT IS TRUE, and also to my mind hilarious is: “Achieved room temperature.”
FOR MOST PEOPLE the death of a family member, friend or even an acquaintance is not a time for HILARITY (this may not be true among the mafia, drug gangs or in some criminal fraternities; and sadly it is not true in all families). For most, death, particularly sudden and or perceived, “untimely” death is an occasion for seriousness, sensitivity, sympathy and sobriety (although, in my recent experience, playing at a couple of funeral “wakes,” many use the occasion to imbibe a surfeit of alcohol to achieve intoxication).
PEOPLE FREQUENTLY ARE HEARD TO SAY (or perhaps think) “I don’t know what to say” faced with someone recently bereaved; hence the sensitivity around the language used when talking about the dying and/or deceased, Of course there is a lot of “mystery,” “mythology” and “religiosity” that surround death; much of which leads to confusion, misapprehension and FEAR. MANY, MANY PEOPLE (in western cultures) prefer not to talk, or even THINK about death! Sometimes go so far as to AVOID the bereaved!
I BELIEVE OUR APPROACH AND MISUNDERSTANDING OF DEATH IS WORTHY OF RIDICULE – IN OTHER WORDS, IT’S RIDICULOUS!
We know we can and will die, but won’t talk about it! We are touched or moved by the suffering of one helpless innocent (as we should be) and practically insensible to the plight of 10,000 such innocents whose names we do not and will probably never know or care about. Perhaps we have to be this way? I wrote a line in my song “The Traveler,” (1975) “…A million people died today, how can it bother me?” It’s if the enormity of the suffering brings us to a point of emotional overload? In reality we should care equally for all 10,001; and in our hearts we probably do – but how to cope?
ALL “RIGHT-THINKING” PEOPLE will (like Pope Francis and Donald Trump) have had sympathy for both Charlie Gard and his parents, the more so because on top of their private suffering they (even if by choice) had to endure their trial in the agony that public prurience inevitable adds; as evidence by the receipt of “death threats” to staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital caring for their sick baby. FOR THIS ONE FAMILY IT IS A TRAGEDY! But the public fixation on the minutia of this case (leave aside the debate about the “rights of parents” vs. “the rights of the child” that gave it such notoriety) obscures perhaps a thousand tragic life and death situations in the UK and perhaps MILLIONS WORLDWIDE!
EVERY CHILD, every human life is priceless, BUT NO HUMAN LIFE IS PERMANENT, not a single one! Neither is there a guaranteed “lifespan” for any of us! As King Solomon, famed in Jewish history for his wisdom, observed: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” If one continues to read this passage in the Book of Ecclesiastes 9:5-10, Solomon’s conclusion is: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest“ (KJV)
There are probably millions of ideas or theories of what happens after a person dies – take your pick! But based on his experience, as a king with the literal power over “life and death,” SOLOMON’S ASSESSMENT IS: WHEN YOU’RE DEAD, YOU’RE DEAD! (However, Solomon was also a believer in the same Creator, God who reveals through Christ His power and plan to resurrect everyone at some point in the future). Solomon advises us to live life to the full, and who can ague with that?
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
The big UNANSWERED, and important question; many seem satisfied to go UNANSWERED, is not just HOW it is that we are alive, as unique, conscious, self-aware entities, BUT WHY? Without an answer to this question, and Solomon didn’t seem to possess it, we will ultimately draw the same conclusion as he did: “Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 3:19 (NIV)
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PAGE 11 – Let’s Talk About DEATH!