I received the news last night that my uncle passed away.  After having visited him in the hospital so often these past few weeks, having seen him hooked up to what seemed like every tube imaginable, I must admit I prayed that he would be with the Lord which I know is a far better place.  Paul tells us as much in Philippians 1, and surely to live in the hospital in that state could not be better than being with the Lord.

But one thought struck me, what if my uncle did not know the Lord.  Then surely he should be scared to death, or scared of death.  As more and more of my parents’ generation leaves this earth, I continue to think of death and life eternal.  How could someone go to the grave apart from Christ?  What hope is there for such a person?  At best, a life without Christ eternally would be the Buddhist nirvana of nothingness.  People would have nothing to hope for but to become nothing.  But that is not what the Bible tells us that remains after life apart from Christ.  Jesus tells us that the final destination for such a person is hell (Matthew 13:42) where there is nothing but the weeping and gnashing of teeth, not for a moment, or a day, or a year, or ten thousand years, but eternally.  Can there be anything more horrible than such a notion?

So for my uncle, who I know trusted in the Lord, today he is with Jesus in Paradise, like the thief of the cross who trusted in Christ.  But for those who do not believe in Jesus, death has an eternal sting, and no horror movie, or even earthly horror, not even the worst of crimes against humanity, can replicate the horrors of hell.  That is something to ponder.