DEATH CAME THROUGH SIN
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote the following to me:
“Please help me regarding the statement below, I personally think it is wrong but would like your opinion about it!
With regards to the death of a loved one, you will sometimes hear that the reverend/pastor/preacher will say: “The Lord has picked the most beautiful flower for His garden” but certainly it is NOT the Lord that causes death, or am I misunderstanding it completely.”
I want to begin by saying that as I understand the Word, death never formed part of our Lord’s ‘blueprint’ for His creation.
I do not know how exactly our Lord wanted to do it originally but then, I also do not need to know how He wanted to do it because, to know or not to know – it cannot bring or take away anything from my salvation, or of my proclaiming His loving gospel as I understand it.
What I actually read and understand from the Word, of which I believe every word, is that ‘death’ is the direct result of humanities disobedience. In other words, the people’s sin brought death into the world.
ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
Firstly, about your statement:
“…certainly it is NOT the Lord that causes death.”
If you cut it to the bone, our Lord occasionally uses death, because as I understand it, people naturally have so much awe/reverence towards death.
I give you one example from the New Testament.
You can read the whole section for yourself. I am sharing with you only what is relevant:
ACTS 4:33-35
33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all
34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.ACTS 5:1-11
1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.
2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart (Why do you allow satan to fill your heart?) that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? (By giving only part of the money)
4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
What was shocking to me in your writing was that there are even reverends/pastors/preachers that can make such an absolutely ridiculous statement and I quote you:
With regards to the death of a loved one, you will sometimes hear that the reverend/pastor/preacher will say: “The Lord has picked the most beautiful flower for His garden”
The mildest way that I can express myself when I hear that a trained theologian has made such a ridiculous statement, is to say in my opinion, it is a ‘sick’ statement to make. I read that Jesus through His Word says to you and me that we are His children, everyone who have accepted Him as their Redeemer and Saviour:
JOHN 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
I have said that the mildest way I can personally express myself, is that it is a ‘sick’ statement to say that our Lord kills someone because for example He: “has picked the most beautiful flower for His garden”
In Luke I read the following events:
LUKE 9:51-56
51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;
53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.
54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them.
56 Then he and his disciples went to another village.
The King James Version (KJV) reads as follows:
LUKE 9:53 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
LUKE 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
Did you see Jesus’s response when someone wanted to kill someone on His behalf?
LUKE 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
Naturally there always is a reason why a person dies but in many, many instances we do not know why our Lord allowed that person to die and even why that person had to die in such a manner in the way that he/she died but as child of our Lord I know that there is always a good reason why it happened the way it happened, even if I do not understand it most of the time.
ROM 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.
For example I do not why John of which Jesus Himself said –
LUKE 7:28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; …”
As I have said, I do not know why John had to die in the prime of his life and it in such a vicious manner.
MAT 14:8-10
8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted
10 and had John beheaded in the prison.
One thing that I certainly know about this event – If you asked John after this event if he wanted things to be different, I believe his answer would certainly be something like the following:
“Never! I am now in Heaven.”
No, certainly we do not always have the answer about why someone died but praise the Name of our Lord!
How gloriously wonderful!
We know why Jesus died:
JOHN 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
JOHN 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Have you already accepted Jesus as your Redeemer and Saviour?
The Word says about Jesus:
JOHN 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Remember, whatever the people say around you about how you can earn eternal life and how you can inherit Heaven –
Jesus says, there is only one way to live in Heaven with our Lord.
JOHN 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Greetings,
Sakkie