On Death and Dying: Our Future Hope

God created human beings to enjoy eternity in a loving relationship with Him and His creation. But this relationship was distorted by the mysterious appearance of sin within the heavenly courts (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:12-19, Revelation 12:7-12) and the subsequent fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-19, Romans 5:12). Tragically, death engulfed not only the human race but all life, as well. Expressions of death can be seen today in the leaves that fall from the trees, the flowers that fade in our vases, our innocent pets who die in agony, and our beloved ones who are taken from us so brutally. Our world is full of suffering and unwiped tears.

Image © Pacific Press

Longing for a better world, people have painted for themselves many “paradises” in which they would like to live. For example, in 1933 English novelist James Hilton released his book, Lost Horizon, which a few years later was turned into a film under the same title. The film captures the plight of an airplane that runs out of fuel, eventually crashing into the snow-covered Himalayan Mountains. The pilot dies in the crash, but the few who survive are pulled from the wreckage and escorted by a group of Tibetans to the paradisiac valley of Shangri-La. Isolated from the outside world, the inhabitants grow in love and wisdom, living an almost immortal life of enduring harmony and joy.

Of course, it’s only fiction.

As mortal human beings, we need assurance in the present and hope for the future. As well-stated by the Swiss theologian Emil Brunner, “What oxygen is for the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of human life. Take oxygen away and death occurs through suffocation, take hope away and humanity is constricted through lack of breath; despair supervenes, spelling the paralysis of intellectual and spiritual powers by a feeling of the senselessness and purposelessness of existence. As the fate of the human organism is dependent on the supply of oxygen, so the fate of humanity is dependent on its supply of hope.” — Emil Brunner, Eternal Hope (London: Lutterworth Press, 1954), p. 7. Indeed, the biblical hope sustains us during the existential crises we face in our journey toward eternity.

In contrast to the fictional Shangri-La of the Lost Horizon, our hope of eternal life does “not follow cunningly devised fables” (2 Peter 1:16, NKJV). It is based on God’s trustworthy promise of a perfect world with no more tears, pain, or death (Revelation 21:1-5). This precious promise inspired the apostolic church and was held, and cherished, by many Christians throughout the centuries. Without ever losing its power, this same promise gives meaning and purpose to our present lives. It allows us to look with confidence into the future. It assures us that all our beloved ones who died in Christ will finally be raised from the dead to inherit eternal life.

The present Bible study guide deals with the subject of the great controversy between good and evil from the perspective of two major themes. One is the origin and ongoing existence of sin and death. The other theme is God’s enduring work to solve these problems and bring the world back to its original perfect condition. Special emphasis is given also to the mortal nature of human beings and how the resurrection is what leads to immortality. In reality, we should not fear death because Christ died for us and overcame the power of death. Actually, we are assured that He holds “the keys to death and to the place of the dead” (Revelation 1:18, NCV).

This quarter we will explore the painful subject of death, but through the lens of the hope offered us through Jesus.

Alberto R. Timm, PhD (Andrews University), is an associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. and a member of the Biblical Research Institute Committee (BRICOM) and the Geoscience Research Institute Committee (GRICOM). Previously he served as president of the multi-campus Latin-American Adventist Theological Seminary (LATS).

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Part 13: Preparing to See Jesus

By Andrew McChesney

The evil spirits have fallen silent. Father believes Christ won a victory over Satan with the baptism, and that is why the devil tried so hard to prevent it.

Image © Pacific Press

Peace has filled the family home. Mother is a church deaconess, and she still sings in the choir. Junior is 17 and finishing high school.

Father, who is 43, has shared his incredible story in churches around Brazil, and many of those who have heard it have committed their lives to Jesus. In Coari, where Father decided to follow Jesus, 16 people gave their hearts to Christ after hearing his testimony.

Father credits the Holy Spirit, not his story, for changing hearts.

“My experience is shocking, but I see the Holy Spirit working in their hearts as they listen,” he said.

In addition to sharing his story, Father sells Bibles and has presented them to his mother, his older sister, and his two younger brothers. He is praying for them. His mother stopped worshiping in the Candomblé temple long before his baptism. When she learned that evil spirits were trying to kill him, she resolved to have nothing more to do with them.

While Father is rejoicing in his new life in Christ, he remains watchful by praying and reading the Bible every day. He remembers 1 Peter 5:8, which says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (NKJV). He also is mindful of the warning in Matthew 12:43-45, where Jesus said, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ’I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

But Father is not afraid. “Even now, the devil has no power over me,” he said. “That’s what I preach in every church that I visit.”

He dreams of the day when he will meet Jesus face to face. “I pray that the Lord will never give up on me. I also pray not to give Him up,” he said. “I pray that I remain faithful and persevere until the end. I have hope that I will see Him. That is my hope.”

Your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open eight churches in the South American Division, including four in Brazil, where Father (Eduardo Ferreira dos Santos) lives with Mother and Junior (pictured).

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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Further Thought:

Read Ellen G. White, “Gethsemane,” Pages 685-697, and “Calvary,” Pages 741-757, in The Desire of Ages.

“Three times has He uttered that prayer.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Three times has humanity shrunk from the last, crowning sacrifice. But now the history of the human race comes up before the world’s Redeemer. He sees that the transgressors of the law, if left to themselves, must perish. He sees the helplessness of man. He sees the power of sin. The woes and lamentations of a doomed world rise before Him. He beholds its impending fate, and His decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself. He accepts His baptism of blood, that through Him perishing millions may gain everlasting life. He has left the courts of heaven, where all is purity, happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world that has fallen by transgression. And He will not turn from His mission. He will become the propitiation of a race that has willed to sin. His prayer now breathes only submission: ’If this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, Pages 690, 693.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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We might as well get used to it: as long as we are here, in this world, we are going to suffer. As fallen creatures, it is our fate. Nothing in the Bible promises us anything different. On the contrary …

What do the following verses have to tell us about the topic at hand? Acts 14:22, Philippians 1:29, 2 Timothy 3:12.

Image © John Clement Collection at Goodsalt.com

Yet, in the midst of our suffering, two things we should keep in mind.

First, Christ, our Lord, has suffered worse than any of us ever could. At the cross, He “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4, NKJV); what we know only as individuals, He suffered corporately, for us all. He who was sinless became “sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), suffering in a way that we, as sinful creatures, couldn’t begin to imagine.

But second, as we suffer, we should remember the results of Christ’s suffering, that is, what we have been promised through what Christ has done for us.

Read John 10:28, Romans 6:23, Titus 1:2, and 1 John 2:25. What are we promised?

Whatever our sufferings here, thanks to Jesus, thanks to His bearing in Himself the punishment of our sin, thanks to the great provision of the gospel — that through faith we can stand perfect in Jesus right now — we have the promise of eternal life. We have the promise that because of what Christ has done, because of the fullness and completeness of His perfect life and perfect sacrifice, our existence here, full of pain, disappointment, and loss, is no more than an instant, a flash, here and gone, in contrast to the eternity that awaits us, an eternity in a new heaven and a new earth, one without sin, suffering, and death. And all this is promised to us and made certain for us only because of Christ and the crucible He went into so that one day, coming soon, He would see “the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11).

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Christ in the Crucible streamed live from the inaugural Hit the Mark Spiritual Summit in Atlanta, Georgia. Join the panel and Summit attendees as they discuss our last lesson of the quarter. Question: Is this True, Somewhat True, or False?: There is nothing we can do to increase our value with God. 

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