Where do we go from here? - Facing the fear of death

Almost as universal as the fact of death is the fear of death. The American film producer Woody Allen famously said, ‘I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens’, but this was just his quirky way of twisting the truth.

Most people are reluctant to talk about death and try to avoid doing so. Death troubles and torments them, frustrates and frightens them, the Bible going so far as to say that ‘through fear of death’ some people are ‘subject to slavery’ (Hebrews 2.15).

One of the most obvious reasons for the dread of death is the fear of pain. The English priest and poet G. Studdert Kennedy once said that a person who is not disturbed by the problem of pain is suffering from hardening of the heart or softening of the brain. A whole encyclopaedia of ailments such as toothache, migraine, arthritis, sciatica and pleurisy can cause pain, which at times can be severe, though most causes of pain are not terminal and many respond to treatment. However, nobody in their right senses can look forward to the prospect of prolonged and increasing pain, knowing that it will eventually bring life to an agonising end.

Personal loss?

Then there is the fear of personal loss. At the end of one of his most profitable years on the European Tour, the English professional golfer Simon Dyson was asked, ‘Is there anything that frightens you?’ Dyson replied, ‘Death. I’m in a position now where I can pretty much do as I want… Dying wouldn’t be good right now’. The prospect of losing all of their possessions is something many people dread.

Another is fear of the unknown. We all live in a world with which we are familiar, every day filled with sights and sounds that give us a sense of belonging. We are surrounded by our chosen possessions and friends, and our minds are crowded with our personal hopes, ambitions, plans and dreams. Death removes all of these and propels us into unknown territory, where everything is a dark and fearful void, with no signposts or landmarks.

Then there is the fear of meeting God. For many who give little thought to him (except, perhaps, when attending a funeral), there is sometimes the disturbing instinct that they will one day meet their Maker. The British racing driver Stirling Moss has been called ‘the greatest driver never to win the World Championship’ and was known for his great courage and daring on the race track, yet when he was at the height of his fame he told a newspaper reporter, ‘I am frightened of death. I know it means going to meet one’s Maker, and one shouldn’t be afraid of that. But I am’.

The judgment

Tied in to this is the fear of final judgment. When the well-known humanist Marghanita Laski was asked what were the most important issues any person had to face, she replied, ‘We are lonely, we are guilty and we are going to die’. Her reply points to the influence of the conscience and to the fact that people have a gnawing fear that coming face to face with God will not be party time. Instead, it will be a moment when their lives will come under the searching review of One who is utterly holy and who has said of the kingdom of heaven that ‘nothing unclean will ever enter it’ (Revelation 21.27). In the words of the contemporary British theologian J.I. Packer, ‘No man is entirely without inklings of judgment’.

The Bible gives several vivid examples of man’s fear of God’s judgment. When the apostle Paul warned Felix, the heathen governor of Judea, about ‘righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment’, the ruler was ‘alarmed’ (Acts 24.25). In a dramatic prophecy of the last judgment, the Bible pictures godless multitudes hiding themselves in rocks and mountains and crying out, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’ (Revelation 6.15-17).

Should this surprise us? Surely there could be nothing more terrifying than to know that when death strikes it would bring us face to face with a righteous and holy God in our present moral and spiritual condition and with no further opportunity to put things right?

Be prepared

Death is the ultimate reality for every human being, and the only sane approach is to face it honestly, examine it carefully and prepare for it wisely. This booklet has been written to help you do all three of these things, guided not by human speculation but by the clear light of the Bible, ‘the living and abiding word of God’ (1 Peter 1.23).

This is an adapted extract from John Blanchard’s evangelistic booklet Where do we go from here? (Evangelical Press, 40 pages, £14.95 for a pack of ten). For further information, visit http://www.evangelicalpress.org).