When we hear that a loved one or friend has an illness that has been diagnosed as "terminal," we invariably react with feelings of surprise and sadness. We humans seem to have a built-in blindness to the reality of death. However, from birth, we are all "Terminal"!

Despite this inane idea that somehow it will always be the other person who dies, one day it will be your turn. In Hebrews 9:27, it is written, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."

Despite all the advances in medical techono1gy, the words of the Psalmist still ring true: "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away" (Psa. 90:10, NASV). Truly, unless the Lord comes you will not get out of this world alive. And those whose strong constitution extends their lives find that the so-called "Golden Years" bring an added burden of illness, pain

and loneliness. Despite all of the efforts to diet, exercise and stay fit, aging and physical death are still out there! Job sized the matter up by writing, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He corneth forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not."

So, physically we are all terminal. The fleshly body was not engineered to stay here very long!

However, we need to remember that all the foregoing applies to the flesh and does not address itself to the spiritual side of man. The Scriptures teach that man is more than flesh and breath. Rather, inspired, holy men of God, in both Old and New Testaments, teach us that man has an eternal soul.

The Scriptures teach that Jesus lived and died to make salvation possible. Truly, we must die, "But after this the judgment." Now is the time to prepare for death, judgment and eternity.

Guardian of Truth XXIX: 6, p. 179
March 21, 1985