On death anxiety:
“Now, since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2: 14-15
If I could confess something to you, the reader: the fear of death has gripped me since I was a child. I hate the idea of it. Death disturbs me. In my lifetime, the fear of it has paralyzed me. For many years, I was constantly running to the doctor just to be told, “You are not dying…” But here is the reality: I am dying. We all are. Decay set in upon the fall (Gen. 3), and from then on, all men, righteous and unrighteous, have been subjected to death.
“The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 40:7-8
Since the inevitability of physical death has caused me great fear and sadness throughout my lifetime, I wanted to comfort you in the same way I have been comforted.
Death is a separation; the soul separating from the body. This is why God said in Genesis 2:17, “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam and Eve did not immediately die, but there was a separation that occurred between man and God: spiritual death, which ultimately brings physical death. The spiritual always precedes the physical.
Praise God for Christ, who mended that spiritual separation and ultimately our physical separation between body and soul, through His death and resurrection.
However, we think about the separation that happens at death through the lens of unbelief, that there is nothing to mend that separation, and it is tragic. It is the epitome of loneliness. There are many ways we can view death, and it seems to me that any fear associated with death has to do with being influenced by a variety of other perspectives (lies), which bring uncertainty, terror, or despair.
Unbelief is something even Christians will struggle against (Mark 9:24, John 20:25), but it can have devastating consequences. Not only does unbelief serve as a deceptive relief for the unbeliever who doesn’t want God, but unbelief also robs the believer of their assurance, their joy, and their peace.
To embrace an atheistic view of death is the most devastating consequence. As the body shuts down, no one can stop the process. No human being can prevent the brain from shutting off forever. On an atheistic deathbed, if one were to remain intellectually honest, ultimately, there was no meaning to life; it was all in vain. The next thing to happen is to be sent deep into the earth, to be forgotten within 100 years or less. Never to embrace a child again. Never to look into the eyes of another human being again. Never to feel a cool breeze or the warmth of the sun, ever again.
Many atheists would even suggest that religion was created to ease death anxiety. “Religion is a fairy tale for those afraid of the dark.” - Stephen Hawking. It is often paired with a counter-quote by John Lennox: "Atheism is a fairy tale for those afraid of the light." Thomas Nagel, one of our leading philosophers of our day (once an atheist, but has recanted his atheism), admitted to this in a chapter entitled Evolutionary Naturalism and the Fear of Religion,
“I am talking about something much deeper—namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well‐informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”–The Last Word, 130-31.
Atheism is for those who are afraid of and resist God’s authority. They do not enjoy contemplating the reality of standing before Him after death, or being subjected to Him in this life. However, in their pursuit of this, it leads to nihilism, meaninglessness, and ultimately, no hope in the face of death.
To embrace an agnostic view of death is the most uncertain. “Will I just sleep forever? Or will sudden devastation come upon me?” According to this view of death, no one can truly know. There is no personal God to know, but hopefully, there is something that will allow my conscience to remain. Still, the atheistic death could certainly be true…but hopefully not. Humans with the agnostic view of death will never have comfort from a place of anchored hope. “It could be something, it could be nothing. But certainly nothing sure to hope in.”
To embrace death from an Eastern Hindu or Buddhist lens brings great uncertainty with little hope. Brahman is an impersonal force, considered to be ‘all of reality’, so to enter into spiritual liberation after death is to be absorbed into Brahman, losing the self (identity, which is an ‘illusion’) completely. How could one enjoy spiritual liberation if they are not a conscious ‘self’? The innahilation of self seems hellish, promising to be enjoyable. This seems like another ploy of Satan. According to a Hindu, if you have bad karma to burn off, then instead of the great satisfaction (a satisfaction that cannot be experienced, personally) of being absorbed into Brahman, death will only bring you into further bondage in the next life.
However, you will not know whether this will happen or not, and you will never remember from one life to the next. It can be as endless as eternity itself, from one bondage in the karmic cycle to another. There is no promise of rest, but only the high probability of paying for your previous life. No forgiveness is available because it is not necessary. Brahman is impersonal and without distinction, including good and evil. Everything just ‘is’, and varies on levels of ignorance. However, once you arrive at full awareness, you become nothing again. There is no hope for personal freedom and love from a personal God in the afterlife, only hope to escape (samsara) the bondage of karma. The Eastern view of death is a sum-zero view: death has nothing better to look forward to. The best hope is to simply cease to exist.
To embrace death from an Islamic perspective is with much less certainty and no assurance of ‘getting in’. Good deeds must outweigh the bad, which can create an existential fear for the one who will only know Allah’s affection or lack thereof once they die. The Islamic promises and privileges in heaven are what Christians would deem as ‘worldly pleasures’, such as virgins and other pleasures. Receiving a virgin in heaven means there will be sex in heaven, which is a worldly, blasphemous thought. Spiritual liberation, in that sense, means something more sensual to a Muslim than a Christian would deem spiritual liberation. Christians desire to be completely rid of sin. Muslims, on the other hand, treat heaven as a place of indulgence. But there is no comfort prior to death; no way of knowing if Allah is pleased or displeased, which can create great anxiety at death. Not only that, but a rude awakening for the Muslim who never repented and placed their faith in Christ as Lord.
However, to embrace death as a Christian means there are promises and assurances that can be counted on. The Christian is not accursed if he/she struggles with the fears associated with death, but has a great peace available to them, because Christ has promised to ‘never leave us, nor forsake us’ even walking ‘through the valley and the shadow of death’ (Ps. 23). The Christian’s identity is not annihilated in the afterlife, but solidified and renewed. The Christian is promised forgiveness of all sins committed, not having to continue to pay for them. Heaven is not just about getting pleasures, but getting Christ Himself, who is our creator and savior, and friend. Jesus even assures us,
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…” (John 11:25).
Our God has gone before us through death and will not abandon us in the grave. We will not be lost forever in the dirt sea of decaying bodies, but rather, we will be resurrected with an incorruptible one. We do not have to guess what it is like, but simply trust and not fear. Death, for the Christian, is the putting off of sin and corruption, and stepping into the liberation of all things that have caused separation between us and God. Even though death was brought into existence through disobedience, for a Christian, death is a tool to bring new life.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” - Jesus in John 12:24
It is understandable that as we grow in our trusting Christ that we may still have some death anxiety to deal with. We are not supposed to love death because it is the enemy of life. However, Jesus even calls us to ‘die to self’ - that is, a death that brings life - the seed planted in the ground to sprout into a large, beautiful tree. “While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” - Leonardo da Vinci
“No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.” – Plato. While Plato may not have had a perspective of ‘death being good’ in the same way we would define it, he could have perceived that the fears surrounding death do not have to be there. At least, for the believer in Yahweh.
The devil thought that death would have the final say, but God knew otherwise. He laughs at the plans of the wicked.
“But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.” Psalm 37:13
Rev. Len G. Broughton, a preacher and medical doctor in the 1800s, wrote a book that explored the topic of the afterlife, titled "Where Are the Dead?"
“…but they (longings and dreams) point to an underlying fact in the very nature of men — the necessity for a future state in which the dreams, ideals, and plans of his life are to be matured. But still again, we see immortality suggested in the indestructibility of matter. Nothing is destroyed. We may start out with ever so strong a determination to annihilate this or that thing, but we will only return from our efforts realizing that we had undertaken an impossible task. After all our efforts, at annihilation, there will not be one atom less than when we began. Of course, we may change the order of existing atoms, but we do not annihilate them when we change them. Now, it is perfectly natural that we should conclude that if atoms of matter live on forever, so shall man, who is the highest touch of God’s creative genius (p. 26-27).”
Broughton is essentially saying that reordered atoms can cause physical death, but do not cease to exist; therefore, the hope of resurrection is absolutely possible by God’s power. As Christians, the crux of our faith is that death has been overcome by Christ. He even subjected Himself to it! He walked through the process of death as a forerunner,
“…where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:20
Therefore, we have nothing to fear because Christ has gone before us, even in death. He experienced the physical process, the mental anguish, and the spiritual experience of it. This means death for a Christian is not utter loneliness in these experiences, but fellowship with Christ, who overcame it all.
Death no longer has the final say!
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:55
We do not just escape death, but we are also blessed with true spiritual blessings and liberation. These are not worldly blessings, as the Muslims or heathens believe them to be. Charles Spurgeon wrote,
“To my mind, one of the best views of heaven is, that it is a land of rest— especially to the working man. Those who have not to work hard, think they will love heaven as a place of service. This is very true. But to the working man, to the man who toils with his brains or his hands, it must ever be a sweet thought that there is a land where we shall rest. Soon this voice will never be strained again; soon, these lungs will never have to exert themselves beyond their power; soon this brain shall not be racked with thought; for I shall sit at the banquet table of God; yea, I shall recline on the bosom of Abraham, and be at ease forever.
Oh! Weary sons and daughters of Adam, you will not have to drive the ploughshare into the unthankful soil in heaven, you will not need to rise to daily toils before the sun hath risen, and labor still when the sun hath long ago gone to his rest, but ye shall be still, ye shall be quiet, ye shall rest yourselves, for all are rich in heaven, all are happy there, all are peaceful.”
Broughton further wrote, “Certainly, the old Patriarchs looked forward to a state of blessedness after death.”
“You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.” Psalm 73:24
“He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 25:8
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Job 19:25-27
“But the greatest argument after all to the believer is that which he finds in Jesus Christ Himself. He is the revelation of immortality; He was dead, and behold, He is alive forevermore. And because He lives, we shall live also. We can not die while He lives…" (Broughton, p.30)