In our fifth cliche of the series (for previous posts, see here, here, here, and here), I'd like to tackle a very common and very controversial idea. This post certainly ties back into some of the other issues already explored. Further, this idea is also deeply rooted in much Christian thinking. As with our other cliches, there is some biblical rooting for the idea, but the lack of nuancing with which it is portrayed is troublesome (at least to me. In this post I will address the question of whether God determines when people die. Frequently in Christian circles, we may hear or utter a phrase like “It was their time,” or “God called them home,” or “God needed them in heaven.” Now as we explored in our last post, there are problems with understanding our earthly habitation as a negative notion. The reason God will renew creation is for redeemed humanity to live on it and cultivate it as He originally intended. Likewise, God is self-sufficient and never in "need" of His creatures.
But what about the idea that God decides "when it is our time?" Is this biblical? I lean towards a cautious "no," for a few reasons we will explore below, but first, there are a few biblical passages from which this idea emerges. They are Job 13:15; 14:5; Psalm 31:15; 139:16; Heb 9:27. First, in Job 13:15, the most commonly quoted form of the passage, from the KJV, reads, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him." It is easy to see why some take this to mean that God causes individual human deaths. The context of this passage is, however, Job's daringness to confront God. The Hebrew text of the book of Job is notoriously difficult, so it is not surprising that different translations render this verse in slightly different ways. Tremper Longman suggests the best rendering of Job 13:15 is: "See, he will kill me, I have no hope" (Longman, Job, 386). The verse is less a statement about God determining when people die than that Job knows his confrontation against God has put him at dangerous odds with the Sovereign of the Universe. Job 14:5 states, "If his days are determined, the number of his months is with you; you have appointed his boundaries, and he cannot cross them." It is quite possible that this is intended as a statement of God's foreknowledge but not necessarily of his foreordination of the exact number of days which someone will live (what is "with Him" is His knowledge of the number of our days). The "appointing of the boundaries" in the verse could also be read as a description of the limit of human lifespan, in general (cf. Gen. 6:3), and not necessarily God's determination of when a person will live and die. Psalm 31:15 states, "My times are in your hands." This again could be taken to mean that God determines all the events of our lives. The verse occurs, however, during the "turn" of the psalm where the psalmist moves from despair because of his enemies' to trust in God. In other words, it is a word of assurance for the psalmist that in spite of his circumstances, he will trust the Sovereign God anyway. It seems unnecessary to read any further notions into it. Psalm 139:16 reads, "Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book they were all written, days fashioned for me when there was not one of them" (LEB). It is unclear in the Hebrew here whether or not "the things" written in the book are the "members" of the psalmist's unformed substance or his days. In either case, this could also simply by an acknowledgement of the foreknowledge of God rather than his determining all the events of the psalmist's life. Finally, Hebrews 9:27 states, "And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this, judgment." This passage, like the others, could easily be read as a general statement to simply mean that all people die and will be judged rather than that God determines the specific time and means by which individuals perish. Outside of these five texts, the Bible has little else to say in the way of God deciding when a person will die. In contrast, there are some indications in the New Testament that death is in conflict with God's plans rather than a part of them. In Hebrews 2:14-15, the author writes, "Therefore, since the children share in blood and flesh, he also in like manner shared in these same things, in order that through death he could destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and could set free these who through fear of death were subject to slavery throughout all their lives." Here clearly death is not something determined by God but a weapon wielded by the enemy against his creatures. Jesus' death sets free those who were subject to the destructive powers of the evil one. In John 10:10, Jesus comes to give life, and to give it abundantly. Death has no place in His kingdom. Finally, in 1 Corinthians 15:26, Paul tells us that the last enemy which Christ's reign will destroy is Death. Death is an intrusive force into God's world. God is not a co-conspirator with Death and He is not beholden to Death's sway. God is Life. He is the Giver of life and the Sustainer of life. He is not the source of Death and dying. Does this mean that God never intervenes in human affairs to bring about an individual's death? That conclusion is, I think, probably an overdetermination from the evidence. God could certainly do that if He so chose. Should we conclude, however, in cases when an infant dies, or someone is killed in an accident or by a tragic set of circumstances, that this was God's doing to "bring them home" or that "there time was up?" Is all human death determined by God both in terms of its timing and the means by which it occurs? I would hesitate to affirm that in light of what we have explored above. God certainly knows the future and our individual fates. God's foreknowledge of these events is not the same as His determining them. If the enemy wields Death as a weapon against humanity, and if Death's origin is ultimately from Sin, and if God is Life and the Source and Sustainer of it, then what has Life to do with Death? This should at least give us pause before asserting that someone's "time was up" or that "God called them home."
2 Comments
Steve Jones
3/30/2015 08:27:31 am
I appreciate your exegesis of the texts you mentioned, and I am still unsure of where I stand on this issue. I don't want to come off as fatalistic, but there are other Scriptures that need to be addressed such as 1John 5:16 and the sin unto death, or the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21, or prophecies of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, or the Shunnamite woman's son, or Methusela's death. And even Jezebel and Belteshazzar. So it seems that God does in some sense dictate someone's death. I welcome any comments.
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Chad Thornhill
3/30/2015 08:44:34 am
Just to comment briefly, in the conclusion I noted that God could do this if he so chose. My concern was with thinking of all death as something determined by God. Since 1 John 5 has it's own controversies, I'll just say that could certainly be a situation where God could act in that way. We also see special situations such as Ananias and Sapphira, where clearly some sort of supernatural activity is involved (it is not specific as God, but certainly seems to be associated with Him). Daniel 5:30, Luke 12:13-21, and the other cases mentioned seem to fit nicely into the "foreknowledge" category. There is no explicit divine agency in those passages.
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