Is anyone reading this post “on the verge of death”?

In the usual parlance, nobody disputes that circumstances that make one “hang by a thread” certainly qualify, e.g. crashing car/airplane , falling off a building as in 9/11, etc. Additionally, people with major diseases have shorter life span, like Diabetes, CVA, myocardial infarction, kidney/liver failure, and especially metastatic cancer in spite of advances in treatment modalities. The possibility of death is everyone’s concern because there will be a time when all of us will experience this scenario, one way or another.

Strictly speaking, though, all of us are indeed “living on borrowed time” ,as in:

James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

Job 8:9 “…Because our days on earth are as a shadow.”

Psalm 102:11 “My days are like a lengthened shadow, And I wither away like grass.”

1 Chronicles 29:15 “…our days on the earth are like a shadow,”

It must be a heart-rending event as many will not be prepared when the time of death comes. Our response depends on what we know about death and why we die.

Why do we die?

Two reasons why we die depending on what type of “death” one means. As explained in the referenced hyperlink in my previous post, it depends on whether the death referred to is “reversible or irreversible death”.

1. Reversible death, the one all humans go to, i.e., “hades” (aka., grave) and will be resurrected from, happens because of how and what we are made of, i.e., “matter-composed”and therefore, just like any “physical matter”, we deteriorate, have expiration date and are not immortal.

To help understand these concepts, from the get-go, one has to acknowledge a “Creator God” who, by “Intelligent Design”, created all “visible and invisible”, the God of the Old Testament El Shaddai/Yahweh/Word who incarnated to “man Jesus Christ”. This Creator God made us what we are, as in:

Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:..,”

Genesis 2:7 “Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground (material or matter, therefore earthy) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, (coming from spirit-composed God and therefore spirit-composed and heavenly) and the man became a living being.”

As explained in my previous post, there is a Creator God who created humans with 2 components. The matter/flesh-composition of man came from the non-living “dust/aphar” of the ground, earthy. The other component, “breath/nshamah” of life” was “breathed ” into his nostrils and he became a “living being/nephesh”. Without that “breath of life”, man was dead. This “breath of life” came directly from a living Spirit-Being, the Creator-God, (not from earthly materials) and therefore heavenly. This breath-of-life is otherwise known as “spirit/of-man or mind” as in:

Job 32:8 “But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding”. (Notice that the brain functions but it is the “spirit of man” aka breath of the Almighty/ breath-of-life that “gives understanding”. It is the “energy/force” that activates the brain to function and made understanding possible.

So man is composed of “aphar” + “nshamah“= “nephesh” or living being/soul.

As such, we are “inadequate/incomplete“,“temporary”, a “template”, an “image” that will expire naturally but created on and with “hope” in the future, as in:

Romans 8:20 “For the creature was made subject to vanity(frailty-depravity), not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope

Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD:“

Romans 15:4 ESV “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

My researched post in “ongoing creation” will help explain that the hope was on the incarnation of the Creator-God/Yahweh Elohim Lord-God into “man-Jesus Christ”, his willful death to reconcile mankind and the receiving of the promised “Holy Spirit” (directly from the Father) by resurrected Jesus thus enabling him to “complete and re-create” the “marred clay” by “in-dwelling in us” through that energy/power, aka., the Holy Spirit. Adam made himself and all humanity “marred clay” because he sinned.

2. Irreversible death, the final end in which the person dies eternally in “Gehenna fire”. This type of death is the ultimate end of life and hopeless; was intimated in:

Genesis 2:17 “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Remember that Adam & Eve did not actually die and instead was vanished from the garden of Eden alive and lived 930 years; proof that this death was not immediate and referred to “reversible death”, that has hope although the subsequent “irreversible death” attributed to the “sin of Adam” (in the garden of Eden” will still be effective in the future. However, Adam will also be resurrected in the future with mortal body and be given his first chance of “in-dwelling Holy Spirit” to be guided, an opportunity for sanctification.

Matthew 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell(Gehenna fire).”

Matthew 13:49-50 “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Summary

Our life is “fleeting and like a vapor, meaningless” that can snap anytime, whether by accident, diseases, calamities, crime, etc. All are destined to die (with exception for those living at the “last trump”) because of what we are made of, mortals from the beginning. But, this “death to hades” is reversible and all will be resurrected back to “mortal bodies” to have their chance of “in-dwelling Holy Spirit at appointed time”. What we do at that time, post-resurrection , will determine whether we end up in “Gehenna fire” or be transformed to “immortal bodies”.

Our destiny has been planned from the beginning and the plan of salvation from “irreversible death”.

Hopefully, we will be one with God at that time by following his guidance of sanctification to do good rather than evil.

God bless👍🙏😇

Please tap on hyperlinks for references.

Critique is welcome after reading all for context.