Death Is Not a Friend
Some people welcome death, believing it will end all their pain, suffering, and sorrow. Feeling that death is impending, others rush to tie up the loose ends of their lives and make peace with family members. Death is sometimes thought of as a way to heaven, to a new beginning.
Yet the Bible clearly tells us that God created us like Him (see Genesis 1:26, 27, 31). God created you and me perfect. God is Life, and death is the opposite of Life. Death is never brought about by God. From this Biblical premise, the belief that death is a friend is incorrect, predicated on an erroneous conclusion that our lives are solely physical and material and that we have little or no control over circumstances. The laws of God, known as Christian Science, reveal each one of us to be the spiritual reflection of God in His eternal glory -- the reflection of divine Life.
Life and intelligence do not exist in mortality, which cannot represent God. It is the false assumption that we are mortal that brings death. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, grasped what Life is. She wrote, "Life is the everlasting I am, the Being who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 290). The belief that death is inevitable closes our eyes to possibilities for good that are here, now.
According to the Bible, Christ Jesus overcame death; he never acquiesced to it. He showed that God created us to be spiritual, and that we can demonstrate God-given spiritual freedom here on earth.
While he was still walking the earth, the Apostle John saw ". . . a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away" (Revelation 21:1). Like John, we, too, can discover the spiritual consciousness that brings evidence of life, not death, to human circumstances.
Understanding Life never to be in matter ends the inclination to believe that death will free us and bring us closer to God, or to a more heavenly way of living. In truth, we are always one with God, who is Life. Mrs. Eddy wrote, "The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone out of mortality into immortality and bliss. The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them. He was 'the way.' To him, therefore, death was not the threshold over which he must pass into living glory" (Science and Health, p. 39).
We don't have to die in order to have new beginnings. It's a sad denial of God's power to postpone the good that God is giving us today. The Apostle Paul understood that it is living in accord with the teaching of Jesus that brings renewal and healing to human lives. He said, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17).
Fear of, or even embrace of, death should not be the catalyst that makes us be more loving to others. Because God is Life, and He is All, we need never dwell in the land of the dying. Truly, we find through spiritual understanding that we dwell in God now, and therefore in the full and present consciousness of His love. Today and tomorrow, we have endless possibilities for good in our lives. If that means a need for the healing of physical disease, prayer is reliable in bringing it. Death is not inevitable.
Every hour we have opportunities to choose between life and death. Any belief that good must come to an end is a choice for death. God cannot permit an end to good; He is all good. Accidents, illnesses, unemployment, layoffs, rising divorce and suicide rates -- all these suggest that death is a natural part of God's creation. Understanding God to be omnipotent Life is fundamental to solving these problems. Knowing God brings renewal and reveals vital reasons for living. Moment by moment, God is causing us to express Him in a purposeful manner that exemplifies His nature -- in principled, loving, and active living!
God never brings about the death of our health, happiness, harmony or well-being. He causes them to become more apparent.
