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What is this thing we call death—this thing all try to avoid, yet everyone will experience?  What is this thing that controls the destiny of individuals and nations?  What is death and why does it happen?

The Bible teaches that death is simply the separation of the soul and spirit from the body.  The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:8, concerning believers in Jesus Christ; “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”  All of us try to avoid death because God put in us the natural desire to live in order to preserve this physical life so we can accomplish His purpose for us in this world.  However, when we rejected God’s plan for us in the Garden of Eden, we received death as the penalty for our sin.  The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)  Because we chose to walk in separation from the will of our Creator, we received separation as an eternal state.  The word death means separation.  From that day on, mankind has lived in the fear of death.  Knowingly, or unknowingly, the actions of the entire human race since that day have been motivated by the overarching certainty of death.  The Bible reveals that all men who have not known Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal Savior have lived “…through fear of death…all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:15)

Because of the Bible being the “basic textbook” for Americans in the years of its founding, America’s Founders showed what life could be like when one has a higher reason for staying alive than just trying to avoid death.  When we are in the purpose of God for our life because we’ve submitted ourselves to Jesus Christ’s will for that life, we have peace about both living and dying.  The Bible says,

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(Romans 5:1)

This is why men like Patrick Henry could stand and say,

“…give me liberty or give me death!”

(The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming Revell Co., 1977), p. 269.)

Most of America’s Founders, believing in Jesus Christ as the only, “…way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6) wrote of dying without fear.  Their last “will and testaments” reveal this.  Samuel Adams, the Founder of the American Revolution wrote,

“In the Name of God, Amen…Principally & first of all, I commend my Soul to that Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying upon the merits of Jesus Christ, for a pardon of all my sins.”

(Providential Perspective, S. McDowell; Vol. 19, No.4;,p.1; August, 2005)

John Jay, Signer of the Constitution and the 1st Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote in his “will”:

“Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good…His protection has accompanied me through many eventful years…and his providence has conducted me to this tranquil situation…”

(Ibid. p.3)

Robert Paine of Massachusetts, Signer of The Declaration of Independence, wrote in his will:

“I am constrained to express my adoration of the Supreme Being, the Author of my existence, in full belief of His Providential Goodness and his forgiving mercy revealed to the World through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state…”

(Ibid. p.3)

Are you afraid to stand up and speak the truth in government meetings or school board meetings because you’re afraid of the death it may bring to you—death to things or others’ acceptance, or physical death?  Through Jesus Christ, you too, can say with boldness:  “Give me liberty—or give me death!”

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—
and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson this has been Think About It.