The world has become infatuated with death. Television is full of reality
series showcasing death, psychotic killers and even a popular show titled,
“1,000 WAYS TO DIE!” It's quite amazing the strange ways that many people
kick-the-bucket (die). One man died while listening to music, because she
turned it up so loud that the sound waves generated from the giant speakers
killed him. An overweight woman deliberately ate a tape worn to lose weight,
and she certainly did, but then she became horribly ill and died. Those people
didn't plan on dying when they did.
Wikipedia has a few interesting stories... In 2012 Erica Marshall, a 28-year-old British veterinarian in Ocala, Florida, died when the horse she was treating in a hyperbaric chamber kicked the wall, released a spark from its horseshoes and triggered an explosion.
In 2006 Mariesa Weber, a petite 38-year-old woman, asphyxiated when she became wedged upside-down behind a bookcase in her bedroom while trying to adjust a plug on her television set. Her family, believing she had been abducted, searched for eleven days before finally finding the body. Can you imagine the fear and tormentuous claustrophobia as she slowly died? How tragic.
In 2010 Mike Edwards, founding member and cellist for the band ELO, died when a large round bale of hay rolled down the hill and smashed his car while he was out driving.
In 2006 Erika Tomanu, a seven-year-old girl in Saitama, Japan, died when she was sucked 10 metres [39 feet] down the intake pipe of a current pool at a water park.
In 2005 Lee Seung Seop, a 28-year-old from South Korea, collapsed of fatigue and died after playing the videogame StarCraft online for almost 50 consecutive hours..[1]
How sad and tragic! DEATH is predictably unpredictable. You just never know when it's your time to go. In heard in the news not too long ago about a deranged 21-year-old man, high on bath salts, who took a knife and killed a grandmother. He then stabbed her daughter, who consequently dropped her baby on the pavement. They were tourists. Four people were murdered and a dozen transported to a local hospital. Those people were enjoying their vacation, going about life as usual, but DEATH came suddenly and without warning (as it often does). 'SLAYER' Band Founder Called 'A God' Dies From Spider Bite (Slayer sang, 'God hates us all').
I read the sad story years ago in the news about a 5-year-old boy who was playing hide-and-seek with his sister. The boy climbed into one of those old bulky microwaves with a locking lid and he closed the door, sealing his tomb. They found the body days later.
If you ever want to read some interesting stories, read about scuba-diving deaths. Statistically, 1-in-every-8,000 scuba divers dies! I was fascinated how many ways a scuba diver can die. Some scuba divers go into ship wrecks, disturbing the soot which has settled on everything for decades. It quickly obscure the water, so that the diver cannot see his hand in front of his face. Since you only have a limited amount of air in your tank, you don't have the leisure of taking all the time you need to find an exit. Many divers perish this way. Furthermore, when they start to panic as time in running out and they cannot find where they came in, their hyperventilating and using up much more air than usual, which creates an emergency situation almost immediately.
I could write a large volume of
books on just the incidents of death I am aware of, let alone the plethora of
stories that exist. We've all seen and heard about death. Tragically, most
people don't take DEATH seriously until it's too late. The Bible says to
Ecclesiastes 12:1 and 13-14, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy
youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt
say, I have no pleasure in them... Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty
of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing,
whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
The Bible Plainly Teaches A Second Death
Oh, my friend, the most important thing is whether you are saved or not. We must all die the first death, but no one needs to die the second death. If you're born once, you die TWICE; but if you're born twice, then you die ONCE! In other words, “YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN” as Jesus commanded in John 3:5-7. Since Adam sinned, sin and death have been inherited (passed along) to all mankind (Romans 5:12). We were all born physically into the world spiritually dead, without God. To be “born-again” means to have He (Jesus) Who is the beginning, born in us. It means to be born of the Spirit of God from above (from Heaven of course).
But anyone who DIES IN THEIR SINS without Christ as their Savior will die a SECOND DEATH in the lake of Fire for ever and ever...
- Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
- Revelation 20:14, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
- Revelation 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
The “first resurrection” mentioned in the
preceding Scripture in Revelation 20:6 is the
pretribulation Rapture
of the saints, which could happen at any moment (even so, come, Lord Jesus!).
The second death is the Lake of Fire (Greek: Gehenna). Everyone must
die the first death; but only Christ-rejecters will die the second death.
Please note that the second death is NOT the same as spiritual death, because
the unsaved are ALREADY spiritually dead from conception (Ephesians 2:1-2).
The first death is a SEPARATION of our soul and spirit from our physical body.
And the second death is a SEPARATION of our body, soul and spirit (Matthew
10:28) from God for all eternity in Hell, fire and damnation (2nd
Thessalonians 1:8-9).
Eternal Life is a Gift Offered Freely In Jesus Christ
God desires for all people to come to Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life. 1st Timothy 2:3-4, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” If you reject God's free gift of eternal life and forgiveness by way of faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you have made your own bed in Hell forever. The Bible repeatedly warns against leaning upon one's own human reasoning. Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Are so so foolish that you are willing to go against the Scriptures?
Gene Roddenberry, producer of Star Trek series, blasphemed the God of the Bible. Mr. Roddenberry is in Hell forever! The same is true of Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone TV series. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin (all three men were commonly referred to as 'The Rat Pack') are burning in Hell forever. On his death bed, Dean Martin (1917-1995) desperately sought to find peace with God, but went to Hell at the hands of a reprobate Catholic priest...
When Dean Martin was dying, fear, guilt and shame gripped him. He often sent for the local Catholic priest to come and visit him at his mansion in L.A. When this "show-busy" priest arrived to comfort him, all he could do was tell him how "all was good with God," and then start singing some of Martin's songs. This gave him no comfort at all, for he had long lived a reprobate life yet he needed the forgiveness of God, but according to his daughter, Deana, he never had this assurance, only an unsaved singing priest as lost as his was.
SOURCE: Ex-Catholics For Christ - Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Oh, the loss of humanity. The Creator of the universe has made a way of escape from the inescapable judgment to come for all humanity. Only through faith in Jesus, the Messiah, can anyone have peace with God the Father. Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The world praises Satan, and blasphemes God.
Dean martin lived his life in sin, forgetting about God; but then at the last moment sought to find God and couldn't. Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Oh, the way of the wicked has prevented multitudes of humanity from coming to the light to be converted.
John 3:19-20, “And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” Please
don't allow love for this sinful world to hinder you from seeking the Lord
while He may still be found. The time may come when you want to be saved, but
you won't know how, because when you had the opportunity you didn't care. Dean
Martin desperately sought for salvation on his death bed, but it was too late!
Instead, he was led into the fires of Hell by a heathen Roman Catholic priest
who doesn't
know how to get into Heaven himself.
Do You Believe the Bible is God's Inspired Word?
I believe that the King James Bible is the preserved Word of God in the English language. It comes closest to the original teachings of the Hebrew and Greek languages, in which God gave us His original Word. Most people today scoff and mock at the Word of God, thinking it only a collection of men's writings, and fables. One man told me, "I won't believe that Bible until God Himself hands it to me." The common consensus in the world is that men wrote the Bible, and it can't be trusted.
However, each person must read the Bible and decide for them self if It is God's Word, or just the words of men. I am fully convinced that the Bible is indeed, the incorruptible Word of God. 1st peter 1:23 states, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." If men would write the Bible, they couldn't; and if men could write the Bible, they wouldn't. There is no way possible--that 40 men, over a time span of 1500 years, could write 66 different books that all perfectly interconnect, with continuity and contextual integrity. 2nd Peter 1:21 gives us the answer, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." God is the Divine Author of the Bible, who enabled men to write It.
Having said that, I want to ask you
again ... Do you believe the Bible is God's Word? If not, then you might
as well stop reading, because you have already made your decision to reject
Jesus Christ. To deny the Written Word of God is to deny the Living Word
of God, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God" (John 1:1). If you desire to know the truth, then please continue
reading.
Benjamin Franklin Didn't Believe the Bible
Below is the gravesite of former
president, Benjamin Franklin. It was Benjamin Franklin who stated,
"I have
found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absented
myself
from Christian assemblies." Sadly,
Mr. Franklin is burning in Hell today. Franklin said in his autobiography,
“He (the Rev. George
Whitefield) used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but never
had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard.”
"He escaped the theology of terror, and became forever incapable of worshiping a jealous, revengeful, and vindictive God" (Life of Franklin, Vol. i., p. 71).
Benjamin
Franklin shirked the preaching of God's Word, and rejected Jesus Christ. Benjamin Franklin died in his sins without Jesus Christ as his Savior. Franklin may have been a good and virtuous man, but he was not a Christian. As so many people today, Franklin believed in a god, but not the God of the
Bible. Many Christians today foolishly think that America was founded as
a Christian nation; but, it was not. The United States was founded from
day one as an occult Masonic nation, which is evidenced by the abundance of
Masonic symbols in Washington. George Washington was a Freemason.
Mark Twain Didn't Believe the Bible
Below is a photo of the grave where Mark Twain
(real name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is buried. The world renowned author, Mark Twain, stated, "If there is a God,
he is a malign thug." Mr. Twain also said, "Our Bible
reveals to us the character of our god
with
minute and
remorseless exactness ... It is
perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes
Nero an angel of light … by contrast." Mark Twain was an
educated fool, who is now burning in the fires of Hell. I say this with
sadness.
Mr. Clemens said, "I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious -- unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force" Now, I would agree with Twain that religion is the worst thing that ever happened; BUT, Jesus Christ is the Savior, the ONLY way to Heaven. So many people, like Mark Twain, fail to see the truth amidst the lies of religion. The truth is there is people want it, so they are without excuse.
Please read, Is God Unfair to the Heathen?
Do You Believe the Bible?
Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) didn't believe the Bible, and scoffed at the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So many people today claim to believe in a divine being, but it is a false god. There is NO God other than the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. Woe unto unbelievers, and those who scoff and mock at God. How dare Mark Twain call God a "malign thug." Any man who would dare call God evil is certainly on his way to Hell. No Mr. Twain, it is you who were evil, not God. God is just and righteous. It is we, humanity, who are despicable and filled with all sorts of unrighteousnesses (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10,23). Our problem is that we demand for God to obey us, instead of we Him. We are created in God's own image (Genesis 1:27), and mustn't strive to RE-CREATE God in man's image instead. We are the creatures, Jesus is the Creator.
One only needs to look at all the evils in this world, to know that there is a conspiracy against God. If there is no God, then why are the masses of this world against him? Why do men commit great evils (such as homosexuality and abortion), yet twist the Bible in an attempt to condone their sins? Sin cannot be justified, no matter how much you try to pervert the incorruptible Word of God. It's bad enough that most people don't believe the Bible nowadays; but now some people are deliberately corrupting the Word of God, to deceive the masses, and justify sin.
Life is so short my friend, and death will be upon you before you know it. We all have an appointment with death (Hebrews 9:27). Most people die unexpectedly, without warning. Will you be ready to meet your Creator? Will you trust the words of men, who offer you a false security; or will you trust the Words of God and His eternal Word, the Bible? Psalm 118:8 gives us some good advice, "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."
The bottom line is this my friend, you are a
sinner, deserving of Hell (Romans 6:23). Jesus came to this awful world,
to pay for your sins (and mine) with His blood (1st Peter 1:18,19). Jesus died, was buried, and rose again for our justification (1st Corinthians
15:1-4). All Jesus asks of us to be saved is to completely rely upon
Him, by believing upon Him (Acts 16:31).
The gospel is the good news that Jesus died, was buried and then miraculously resurrected three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). The plan of salvation is not complete if it doesn't include the cross upon which Christ died and the resurrection. I hear many preachers say to admit that your a sinner and then believe that Jesus died for your sins to be saved. But that's not the gospel my friend.
Most unsaved heathens believe that a man named Jesus lived at some point in history and died, but they totally reject the idea of a supernatural resurrection by the power of God. They reject the miracle of the virgin birth, which proves that Jesus DIDN'T have an earthly father. The gospel message is that Jesus died, was buried and raised up triumphantly over sin, hell and the Devil. Jesus said to rejoice and be of good cheer in John 16:33, for He has risen up and overcome the world.
Do you believe Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah? Will you trust Him now to forgive your sins, and save you? If you'd like to prepare yourself for death, which is simply a gateway into eternity, then you need Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you'd like to be saved, it's just as simple as reaching out and taking a gift (Romans 5:15; 6:23). It just as easy as walking through a door (John 10:9).
It's just as easy as drinking a glass of water (John 4:10). It's just as easy as eating a piece of bread (John 6:35). Jesus stated in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." If you'll receive the gospel as payment for your sins, you will be saved immediately. The gospel is the “good news” that Jesus is the Christ Who died, was buried and resurrected after three days from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:1-4).
1st Corinthians 15:55-57, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Amen! God the Father has given every Christian believer the VICTORY over death through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Isaiah 45:22 so beautiful proclaims, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."
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