For those Who Pass

I don't know why it occurred to me to make this statement today, but perhaps someone needs this comfort:

For those passing into rest in Christ:
Let not your passing be troubled by those you leave behind. We are in God's hands.

Dying With Dignity

House doesn't usually make profound statements. Revealing, yes. Insightful, yes. Vulgar, yes. Profound, no. But in a rerun I was just watching, he made a profound statement. A patient was dying and decided that it would be better to to just go ahead and die with dignity rather than being constantly tested. However, House finally made the correct diagnosis - she had a worm in her brain. (It's always something exotic on House.) So House goes in to talk to her and in the process makes this statement:

"You can live with dignity, but you can't die with dignity."

I suppose we have a romanticized notion of a dignified death where the family is gathered around the bedside and the dying person drifts quietly and painlessly into inanimacy. But this is a false notion that aids only mourners who have no faith.

For the believer, we have confidence that one who has had faith has been received into paradise to be with Christ as He promised the thief on the cross.

But the death of the body speaks of a need rather than a reward. Our bodies die because this world is thoroughly corrupted with sin. There is no dignity in that and the death of the body, whether of a believer or an unbeliever, shows the extent of the corruption that we have brought upon the image of God with which we have been created.

There is no dignity in death, but all dignity will be restored in the resurrection.

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant - Julie Brown

I never met Julie Brown, but I look forward to meeting her on that day. Why does the death of someone I've never known bring tears to my eyes? Yet these are not tears of sadness, but the rejoicing of a life given by God, the breaking of a spirit of sin for the sake of reconciliation with Him, that came to faith. My sister in Christ is with my Lord and He used her to touch the untouchable.

Jerry Falwell - RIP

"Guys, this just in...Jerry Falwell is now a Calvinist!"

I found that off-topic quote among comments of a post at Triablogue. As a Reformed theologian (aka: Calvinist), I have to admit that I chuckled. Jerry Falwell was anything but a Calvinist. He is being remembered now, as he was observed last week, to be a colorful character. The best any of us can say of ourselves is that we are redeemed by Christ. Jerry bore that message as well. I suggest that whether its Reformed theology or some other theology, he likely knows the Truth now. Nevertheless, of all the things we say of him, may we say that he has given his best for God and that God has blessed us for it.

My highest regards to his family and to those who knew him well. Our prayers are with you.

Death in the Line of Duty

I’ve been distancing myself from political commentary, but I couldn’t resist this one. The big news in the Charlotte Metrolina is the death of two police officers in the line of duty.

I stopped by to visit my parents on the other side of town and they were watching the hours-long live coverage of the funeral. Of course, our tragic local news media tragically overused, if they used it once, to the tragic word “tragic” to describe the anything-but-tragic deaths of these police officers. As you may know, the only reason they use the word is part of the emotional appeal to the viewers. Why the appeal? Ratings? Whatever the reason, the fact that the appeal works at all illustrates that death yet has a grip on this world.

I didn’t watch that much of the funeral. Yup, it’s a funeral. Yup, he’s dead. Yup, it’s sad. Doesn’t anyone realize that the death rate is 100%? It had to happen sometime. I kept thinking about how the media touts the deaths of American troops in Iraq as an obviously fallacious argument for running from there with our tails between our proverbial legs. By the same logic, we would have to conclude that we should now withdraw the police force from Charlotte, NC, so that no more police officers die.

I can hear the argument now: “But Iraq is over there and has to do with people other than ourselves. Charlotte is our own place to worry about. The Iraqis should be the ones to defend themselves. Anyway, it’s a civil war and they’d be fighting their own people. We shouldn’t be there because of this.” This argument would be made by otherwise staunch internationalists who love the U.N. and would just as soon there be one big socialist world government. In this respect, these would be our people and we, who are so rich and should support the rest of the world should be providing the apparently abundant American resources to keep the peace in just another neighborhood of the great world state.

So why don’t liberals see the obvious contradiction in their own positions? Truth be told, we’re not in a world government yet and with so many conservatives around to prevent this occasion, the only way liberals see the demise of American nationalism is to weaken our military position. To cut and run is to encourage other countries to come here to attack us. It’s happened and can happen again.

They may return the argument that conservatives are nationalistic, favoring local governments over federal ones and that we shouldn’t be inclined to defend other than our own localities. Actually, the World Wars proved otherwise to us. With the rise of internationalism, coming to the aid of other localities for the purpose of helping the people there maintain self-government in the face of the threat of international control is an activity that has become quite necessary for us. Our own civil war ended with the preservation of our federal union which paradoxically has made us strong enough to do this.

The struggle between nationalism and internationalism has a parallel in our Christian denominations. Internationalism can be seen as somewhat parallel to hierarchical denominational government while nationalism can be seen as somewhat parallel to congregational government. Apostate movements have apparently had a much greater impact on hierarchical governments than congregational governments because apostates with intent have sought control in key hierarchical offices. In this way, sweeping denominational policies can be affected by only a very few compromising the correlation between doctrinal truth and practice. Once that happens, truth falls handily as true doctrine is no longer practiced, for knowledge of the truth is not the end of truth. Practice (or application by another name) is the next step, for in the practice of true doctrine through the transformation of our hearts is God glorified.

So, in the death of America's finest is set the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Christ Himself died in the line of duty...

...and therein the battle was won.