Death's Advance

Even though all people will face death at the end of their time on this earth, the believer in Christ has
a glorious hope awaiting him or her. 1st Corinthians 15 says:
55 "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Death has a different outcome for the Christian vs. the non-Christian.  Believers in Christ can see death, the passage from this world, as a gateway into the next - our permanent home with Him. However, those do not believe in Him have no hope for the afterlife, and they will spend eternity in a place of separation from God, enduring eternal punishment.  They don't cease to exist nor cease to be conscious - hell is a place of unspeakable torment.  But, heaven, the destiny for all who believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, is a glorious place where we shall forever be in His presence.

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The certainty of eternal life once we leave this world is underscored in the first four verses of 2nd
Corinthians chapter 5:
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Thousands of concertgoers at a venue in Manchester in the United Kingdom last night had no idea that it was coming - and, then the unthinkable happened...a bomb detonated in the foyer of the arena during a concert featuring pop star Ariana Grande. The BBC reports that 22 were killed and 59 injured. Prime Minister Theresa May called it an "appalling, sickening, terrorist attack."

The report says that the attack was carried out by a "lone male suicide attacker," who "set off a homemade bomb." A 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Eyewitness accounts described "seeing metal nuts and bolts among the debris, and spoke about the fear and confusion that gripped the concertgoers."  As the BBC stated: "It is the worst terrorist attack in the UK since the 7 July bombings in 2005 in which 52 people were killed."

President Trump, in Israel as part of his first foreign visit, stated from Bethlehem, according to ABC News: "So many young, beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life...” He said, "I won't call them monsters because they'd like that term. They'd think that's a great name."  He extended condolences to the victims - the injured and the dead - and the victims' families, adding, “We stand in absolute solidarity with people of the United Kingdom.”

He also stated: "“We cannot stand a moment longer for the slaughter of innocent people and in today’s attack it was mostly innocent children,” adding, “The terrorists and extremists and those who give them aid and comfort must be driven out from our society forever."

This came days after the President addressed 55 Muslim leaders, saying, according to analysis on the Family Research Council website: "There is still much work to do," adding, "That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires. And it means standing together against the murder of innocent Muslims, the oppression of women, the persecution of Jews, and the slaughter of Christians... There can be no coexistence with this violence. There can be no tolerating it, no accepting it, no excusing it, and no ignoring it."

In a message directed at terrorists, the President said: "If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and your soul will be condemned."

No matter what you may think about the President, he did capture the essence of an important message to send to purveyors of terror worldwide and called on governmental leaders to join him, to join us, in the fight against radical Islamic terror.

One could say that death is no gentleman - even when it does not come suddenly, the process can be devastating.  I think of our friend, Carmen Falcione, who was a significant spiritual leader for the Montgomery area, who had endured the onset of an aggressive form of cancer which eventually took his life.  But, Carmen, like others that have experienced the pain of passage from this life, is facing the joy of being with His Savior.  And, that's another thing about death...

For the believer, death is the transition into a glorious afterlife with the Lord.  Even though loved ones and friends on earth may look at death as a thief; and though we may miss them, they have departed this life into a better one.  Those who have died in the Lord, as it's been said, are more alive today than when they were with us.

I don't know how many concertgoers who lost their lives in Manchester had pondered the topic of their eternal destiny.  I would dare say that no one was expecting to die that night.  But, we never know when our last moment on earth will occur.  That is why we have to be ready - for those who believe in Christ, we know that we will spend eternity with God in heaven.  But, for the unbeliever, he or she has chosen to be separated from God in hell.  It is the choice of every person.  God has set up the system, if you will, and He gives each of us the free will to decide.  I think it's so very important to settle the matter, because one never knows when the time will come, tomorrow is not promised to us.