What do the scriptures say? Does God decide? This is what you often here when an older person dies or especially when a young person or infant dies of natural causes. Do you decide? This seems to be the theory when the obese man dies of a heart attack or the middle age man takes his own life? Or does one’s purpose on earth simply end? We often use this one of people that live through near death experiences. “God still had things left for you to do.” Or it is random? Do the wages of sin just hit each of us at different points?
So,some relevant passages:
Psalm 104:29 When you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. (referring to God’s “creatures”)
Luke 12:20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
Acts 13:36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers.
2 Peter 1:14 Since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
James 4:15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
1 Kings 19:4 And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
Psalm 90:3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
Matthew 6:27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Job 1:21 The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Why do I care? Well if ultimately God has a date set for each of us from the get go, bring on the cheeseburgers and the hot fudge sundaes daily. I have a stationary bike I need to sell. Make that appointment for me to go skydiving.
And maybe more important, I care because we need comfort people at the time of death with truth and not platitudes. And often people say things with good intentions that are received with great disgust. One of my friends tired of hearing that God wanted her dead boyfriend with him, even when the circumstances were far from natural. Did God really arrange the car wreck to take him to himself. Wouldn’t a massive heart attack in his sleep been more gracious and loving?
So what do the scriptures teach? Certainly the scriptures affirms that no one’s death is without God’s knowledge and never apart from his will. But by will, do we mean his active or permissive will? Does God allow it or cause it?  I am not sure. Some verses seem to imply the former, while others the latter.
Or is this just another area that our rational minds try to systematize that the scriptures never do. Do we want a one size fits all solution that does not exist in reality?
I tend to think after studying and thinking that this is exactly the case. I don’t believe such speculation into the mystery of the time of death is beneficial. In fact, it distracts us from thinking on what we do know clearly. When a child of God dies, we need not speculate as to the ultimate reason for their time of death. Rather we need to comfort each others with two simple facts.
1) The one who the doctors call dead is but resting with our Lord Jesus.
2) They will not rest forever. They will be raised on that Last Day.
That is all we need to know.
