Month: October 2026

How Do I Prepare To Die?

The content discusses the inevitability of death and the importance of understanding one’s faith to prepare for it. It emphasizes being spiritually connected to Jesus to face death confidently and highlights the importance of discussing end-of-life decisions with loved ones. Living wills and open dialogues about death can ease the transition.

You don’t have to be obsessed with dying or on the verge of dying to ask this question. This question goes with, “How should I live?” We are all going to die. That is a fact. Jesus makes possible an excellent future beyond your death. If you understand God’s plan and you have been connected to Christ, then you are ready for departure. You can maximize your closing years, be emotionally ready, and prepare those you love for your day of departure. It is never to early to think about such things.

Let’s talk about first things first. You definitely want to be covered by the blood of Jesus, as the saying goes. Death isn’t positive at all for those who plan to just appear before God on their own merits, or imagine that physical death is the end, or cling to some other kind of hope. There is a rude awakening waiting for such a person. You are definitely not good enough to stand before God on your own. God’s standard is steep. You had to be perfect. You are not. That is why Jesus kept God’s Law for us. Secondly, we all fail to obey God and there is consequence for that. Severe consequence. The worst part is being forsaken (abandoned, forgotten) by God forever. God doesn’t waive that. Jesus experienced it for you over a 3 to 3.5 hour period on the cross. His life and his death become your life and your death by what God does to you when you are baptized. You are connected to Jesus.

Many people who know these things still struggle with doubts about whether they believe enough. First, believing is more of a first symptom than directly the cause of being saved. You can’t see directly if you are connected to Jesus. You can observe the symptoms: Trust in the historicity of Jesus’ story, trust in God’s promise of forgiveness of sins and then eternal life, a growing love for God, a growing certainty of eternal life, a growing love for other people, and more. The symptoms can show up unevenly depending on who you are. Faith is not never entertaining doubts. You should look at more objective things than your perceived depth of faith. Were you baptized? Do you trust the story? Do you think that God is faithful? You will always find places that could be better. You won’t be without sin at your death. You can have Christ’s righteousness as your own before God. If you can observe some of the objective signs of God reaching you, you can look forward to a good death. Relax. Praise God. Look forward to the trip.

Once you are certain of where you are going next and why, you can seek to maximize your remaining time here. One of the toughest parts are health decisions. There are reasons to try and stick around here, and reasons to want to leave as early as possible.

Sometimes death just takes a person. There is no planning and nothing to decide. You don’t get to choose this or to sign up for this kind of departure. If you could, I would do it. Usually we must break down significantly to get to the point where we can leave. The medical arts give us means to delay the breaking down, but do we really want to delay? For a non-Christian the answer is absolutely. For a Christian it is more complex.

I am willing to stick around if God and others I love truly need me, and I have the faculties to be helpful. Otherwise, I want out. So at some point I am disinclined to use extraordinary medical means. Once dementia is a clear diagnosis, I am a “do not resuscitate”. If I am or will be bed-fast, the same. If I have experienced significant brain damage from a tumor, stroke, oxygen deprivation, let me go. I had a man in my congregation whose lungs were destroyed by Covid and he could only live with a machine breathing for him. It wanted it turned off. I agree. You could argue for a lung transplant. He was cognitively O.K., but past 80. Leave the lungs for a younger person.

Love ones don’t want to grieve you. That is nice, but they will eventually have to. If a person is in Jesus, we don’t want to stay. A greater existence lies just ahead. Minimize the medical. I think it helps to have a living will. It helps more to really talk it out with your medical power of attorney and all who will grieve you. If you are conscience and get a grievous diagnosis, consider getting out now.

What if you are otherwise healthy and get a cancer diagnosis? This is very common. Treatment can provide a cure, lessen pain, or at least prolong life. Do you have a clear reason to prolong it? This may be your way of getting off this ride. It is very individualistic.

If you can, you want to spare your family from making a lot of decisions for you. Be clear. Talk about death. We want to get to the point where dying has as much impact as moving to another country. You are not lapsing into non-existence. You are moving. You are moving up. Seriously up. Those who grieve you will see you later if all are in Christ. Talk like that with each other.

Why Judgment Day Waits

The Bible describe three things which factor into the arrival of Judgment Day. They are the spread of the Gospel to all nation, a complete number of martyrs, and God wanting all to be saved.

The people of the first generation of the Christian Church were getting antsy. Jesus had not come yet. Some of their brothers and sisters in faith had been killed as martyrs. Others had even died naturally. Where was Jesus? He had said, “Yes, I am coming soon.” (Rev. 22:20). What is “soon”?

“Soon” is a relative word. Usually, it is a brief period of time by our accounting. In this case it is not. There were clues that this period of time before Jesus’ return was going to be protracted. As Jesus prepared his disciples for their work before Judgment Day, He shared the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14). While the Master in this story is on a journey, the servants were to work. It doesn’t say it, but it seems implied that this could be a long journey. There is work to be done first, a lot of work. Judgment Day isn’t delayed, but why hasn’t it happened?

First, you like me, we should be glad it hasn’t happened. If it had happened in the first century, we wouldn’t be a part of the Kingdom of God. We live at a time when there are more people on Earth than ever. In fact, some argue that there are more people now and there has been cumulatively. That means there is a lot of work to do.

The Bible does give some metrics for when Judgment Day will come, but these metrics do more to explain the work than they do to give a date. The first and most well-known is that the Gospel must be preached to all nations.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14 (ESV)

This whole mission of spreading the Gospel started among a completely Jewish crowd. Then, quite controversially, it spread out among the Gentile peoples of the Mediterranean basin. The disciple Thomas, traveled a long distance to get things started in India. That was the reach of the first generation. People in my family tree maybe were exposed to the Gospel by 1000AD. Here we are still working at it. We are still working on people groups in India! When God said, “all nations” he meant all. How does He define “nations”? I don’t know. Maybe by language. Maybe by genetics. We will find out. The important thing is that it included you. Whoever you are. The New Heavens and New Earth were not going to kick off until you had a chance to get in on it.

There are other parallel metrics. Here is one you may not know.

10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. Revelation 6:10-11 (ESV)

The full number of martyrs is not so much a goal, as is Gospel to all nations. It is more a parallel statistic that speaks to the nature of the Gospel mission. It is dangerous. Not everyone will receive you with open arms. Many will see the bringing of the Gospel as a threat to culture, or family tradition, or economic opportunity, or governmental control, or cherished worldview. They will deal with this perceived threat with death sometimes. Those who give their lives for the sake of others receiving salvation will be highly honored. It is as Christ-like as you can get.

Does the Gospel threaten the things mentioned above? Yes, some of them. Culture is formed by many things, including religion. If the religion within a culture is transformed or replaced then culture changes. It still can remain unique. God loves certain aspects of cultural diversity. There would be growing pains for families. Some would have to repent of their cherished ways. Worldview is radically changed and people resist that. I don’t see Christianity as a threat to government unless it dictated religion like North Korea or Rome, but in combination with other forces a governmental change could be facilitated anywhere.

There is one other Judgment Day metric that I overlooked for a long time, and it is so obvious.

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 2 Peter 3:8-10 (ESV)

God’s timeline is not ours. We think He is slow. He is working quickly. It says God doesn’t want any to perish. How does this work? With successive generation more are saved, but even more are lost. I have to bring this passage along side of my most disliked passage:

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

Where is “destruction”? There are things to suggest that this is a reference to Gehenna, the lake of fire, Hell. A similar word is used to talk about the Antichrist as the “son of perdition/destruction”. Is that the son of the place or the son of process or condition? He destroys. I don’t feel like a word study of the Greek (apoleion) gets us anywhere. Jesus is saying most people will not experience life but will experience destruction. My question is where and is this permanent? If this is Sheol and before Judgment Day, is there some process that closes the gap that makes the 2 Peter 3 passage make sense?

The early Christian church fathers all taught about posthumous salvation in connection with Jesus’ descent to Sheol. Some (i.e. Origen) took it too far. We can see from other passages (like Matthew 25:31f) that there are people being eternally damned at Judgment Day. So if there is posthumous salvation it is not comprehensive. The percentage suggested by Matthew 7 for those saved during life seems small. “Few” is a relative word, too. But it seems below 50%. Is the delay of Judgment Day in order to give time to Christ’s work in Sheol? I hope so. I don’t know so.

In the end, we have our mission. We want people to avoid the ultimate judgment in Gehenna. We want them to avoid a more immediate judgment in Sheol. We want them to experience Heaven at their death. That is a worthy mission, even if it is dangerous. When God had established us with a place in eternity with Him through what Jesus did, then we have little to lose and people to gain. Judgment Day will come at just the right time. I won’t worry about it. I will worry about the salvation of others.