{"id":13727,"date":"2019-07-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reasons.org\/god-s-mercy-in-death\/"},"modified":"2019-07-22T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T13:00:00","slug":"god-s-mercy-in-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/god\/is-god-good\/god-s-mercy-in-death","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Mercy in Death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n<\/p>\n

A question that is frequently posted on my Facebook page is: Why, if there is an all-powerful, all-loving God, do good people die while they are still young? Here\u2019s a recent example:<\/p>\n

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A famous Christian singer I admire, very passionate about his faith, died young from cancer. Doesn\u2019t the Bible state that God will not let you suffer and will grant you long life if you are his faithful child? Why did this singer die of cancer? This death is messing up my belief in God.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From my scientist\u2019s perspective, here is how I briefly answered this question:<\/span><\/p>\n

First, none of us is \u201cgood\u201d in a biblical understanding of goodness. Only God is perfectly good. However, God is on a mission to make people good who want to become good.<\/span><\/p>\n

God subjects all humans to the laws of thermodynamics, gravity, and electromagnetism as tools to discourage us from committing sin and evil acts and to encourage us to come to him for redemption. These laws ensure that the more sin and evil we commit, the more pain, more work, and more wasted time we will endure. These laws and our biological makeup are such that we find extra work, pain, and time unpleasant and, thus, are motivated to avoid sin and evil. As we discover our inability within the laws of physics and our physical and spiritual makeup to entirely avoid sin and evil, we are motivated to seek deliverance from our sin and evil by the Redeemer-God who created us. I explain all this more completely and in greater detail in my book, Why the Universe Is the Way It Is<\/em><\/a>.1<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

Humans need continual exposure to the laws of physics to have any hope of deliverance from our sin. Because of these laws of physics, though, we all experience decay, suffering, declining health, and eventual physical death. On rare occasions God miraculously intervenes to deliver someone temporarily from the consequences of the laws of physics, but only when that deliverance brings about a stronger response to his offer of redemption than allowing the laws of physics to run their course.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaiah 57:1\u20132<\/a> may apply to the singer you admire. God knows the future for each one of us. If that future involved suffering for the singer, God would have known it and may have decided to allow him to \u201cgraduate\u201d early. Another possibility is that God used the death of this singer in a similar way he used the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7<\/a>), to bring others to faith in Christ. <\/span><\/p>\n

As finite creatures, death can be perplexing to humans. As such, we can identify four categories of mystery: (1) Why does God allows \u201cgood\u201d people to die young? (2) Why are \u201cgood\u201d people required to spend much longer lives on Earth than what they desire? (3) Why are some evil people permitted to live long lives? and (4) Why do other evil people have their lives cut short? In each case there are Scripture passages that explain why. What follows are selections of Bible passages that first address the physical death of humans in general followed by lists of Bible passages that address each of the four categories of people. <\/span><\/p>\n

Background References on Physical Death<\/strong>
\nGenesis 2:16\u201317<\/a> Isaiah 65:19\u201325<\/span><\/a>
\nGenesis 3:22<\/a> Ezekiel 18:20\u201332<\/span><\/a>
\nGenesis 6:3<\/a> John 16:5\u201311<\/span><\/a>
\nProverbs 16:4<\/a> 1 Corinthians 3:12\u201315<\/span><\/a>
\nEcclesiastes 7:2\u20134<\/a> Hebrews 9:27<\/span><\/a>
\nEcclesiastes 8:8<\/a> Revelation 20:11\u201315<\/span><\/a>
\nEcclesiastes 9:2\u20136<\/a><\/p>\n

The righteous sometimes die young<\/strong>
\n\u2014to protect from future torment
\n\u2014to protect heavenly rewards
\n\u2014as an instrument for good
\n1 Kings 14:6\u201313<\/a> Isaiah 57:1\u20132<\/a>
\n2 Kings 20:1\u201321:16<\/a> Acts 4:32\u20135:11<\/a>
\n2 Chronicles 32:22\u201333:6<\/a> Acts 7:54\u20138:4<\/a>
\nIsaiah 36\u201339<\/a> Acts 9<\/a>
\nPsalm 23:4<\/a><\/p>\n

The righteous sometimes die old<\/strong>
\n\u2014to maximize heavenly reward
\n\u2014to protect a spiritual heritage
\n\u2014to provide an opportunity to achieve an ignored priority
\nPsalm 116:15 <\/a> Ephesians 2:10<\/a>
\n1 Corinthians 3:12\u201315<\/a> 2 Timothy 4:6\u20138<\/a>
\nPhilippians 1:21\u201326<\/a> Revelation 14:13<\/a><\/p>\n

The wicked sometimes die young<\/strong>
\n\u2014because of a lack of wisdom
\n\u2014because they are led astray by folly
\n\u2014to stop the spread of wickedness
\n\u2014to limit judgment on the wicked
\n\u2014to limit the grief of their relatives
\n\u2014to transfer wealth to the righteous
\nGenesis 38:6\u201319<\/a> Proverbs 5:21\u201323<\/a>
\nJob 20:4\u201311<\/a> Proverbs 29:16<\/a>
\nPsalm 55:15<\/a> Ecclesiastes 2:26<\/a><\/p>\n

The wicked sometimes die old<\/strong>
\n\u2014to give them time to recognize their evil ways and repent of their evil
\nEzekiel 18:23<\/a> 2 Peter 3:9<\/a>
\n1 Timothy 2:4<\/a> Revelation 2:21<\/a><\/p>\n

Whenever I conduct a funeral or graveside service, I always hand out these Scripture passages. Afterward, I hear from many people how much comfort, assurance, and understanding these passages bring. They also get people thinking about the most important issues of life, issues that all too often those who are \u201cliving the good life\u201d ignore.<\/p>\n

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Endnotes<\/h5>\n
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  1. Hugh Ross, Why the Universe Is the Way It Is<\/em><\/a> (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 147\u2013181, https:\/\/support.reasons.org\/purchase\/why-the-universe-is-the-way-it-is.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

    \n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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But can purpose be something we create, or is it something greater than ourselves?\r\n\r\nWhen life is easy, the question may feel distant\u2014but in hardship, it demands an answer. Is there meaning even in suffering? If so, where does it come from? The search for purpose ultimately leads us back to our Creator. His design shapes not just what we do, but who we are becoming. Explore how God\u2019s plan gives life meaning that extends beyond the present moment.","cat_name":"Meaning of Life","category_nicename":"meaning-life","category_parent":64009},{"term_id":63997,"name":"Is God Good?","slug":"is-god-good","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":63997,"taxonomy":"category","description":"If God is truly good, why does he allow suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? From acts of injustice to natural disasters, it can be difficult to grasp how God fits into it all. 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Examine the evidence and discover what it truly means for God to be good.","cat_name":"Is God Good?","category_nicename":"is-god-good","category_parent":63995}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":70604,"name":"Christian Worldview","slug":"christian-worldview","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":70601,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":162,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":70646,"name":"Species Classification","slug":"species-classification","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":70643,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":35,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":70606,"name":"Christian Faith","slug":"christian-faith","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":70603,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":375,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/586"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13727"},{"taxonomy":"discipline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline?post=13727"},{"taxonomy":"reading-level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-level?post=13727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}