The following post is from April 6:
It was just an off-hand comment made to a friend at work probably close to forty years ago. Why it came to my mind I don't know....possibly because I read a lot of biographies earlier in my life....but I would take particular notice when a celebrity of any kind would die. My comment was that as for statistical analysis alone....the ultra-increasing numbers of celebrities in our culture would someday have to provide an ultra-increasing number of daily celebrity deaths. Only a few years ago my friend reminded of this. It seems today that every few days at most we see the death notice of some athlete or entertainment celebrity or business tycoon or criminal or anyone really who had their fifteen minutes of fame.
To this day I refuse to refer to Saigon as any other name. The deadliest day for Americans in Vietnam saw 246 killed.....some weeks there were over 500 casualties. I was stationed on the coast for eighteen months....and when I look at photos of that city today it sickens me....for it looks like a vacation spot on the Mediterranean. Between 200,000 and 400,00 Vietnamese 'Boat People' died at sea....at sea....escaping the terror. I understand why so many students protested....but it was their protests that eventually gave that nation over to communism.
I lost twelve friends to Covid....as far as I know....in a short period of time. I haven't heard of any friends passing away in quite a while. Over a million Americans died in that pandemic....as the foremost evangelical pastor in America stood before his congregation...I watched this....and motivated by politics said...."There is no pandemic."
How are we going to handle the mortality of the maelstrom that surely must be ahead for us? Whatever Biden would do to defend the country....we would attack it. It doesn't matter what he would do. If he does it....we have to make sure that it doesn't succeed....unless we recommended it in the first place. That is the mode that we have been in for a long time....on both sides of our political spectrum. How will we even handle a military draft? Trump says that he wants to defund the FBI and Department of Justice. Is your imagination even capable enough to realize how our enemies and terrorists and criminals of all kinds would benefit from such an insane action. Trump doesn't even mean this. It's all a game....the art of the deal. There is only one being of importance and exaltation in the world to him....and that is him. Wake up evangelicals. You have been hoodwinked! You had put a false prophet into the most powerful position in the world!
What I'm trying to get to here….in a very roundabout way....is this question....what is our concept of death? Has it changed? Is it even rational? In one way a million deaths hasn't seemed to affect us at all. That same prominent pastor....and I heard this myself....glibly said about the Covid deaths...."Hey....we all got to die anyway"....as the congregation laughed at the comment. This is what politics did to the fiercest defender of the faith that we have today! It should shake all of us to the core.
In one sense a single death in the news draws outrage....once again on both sides of the political divide....depending on the specifics of the news....but in another sense it is possible that another million could die and we wouldn't think twice about it....as long as it wasn't close to us.
One of the reasons that we have so many mass murders today is that we as a people do not consider what happens after death. So to the murderer it is just the end of existence. In the latest mass murder the perpetrator made the comment on a social media post that they would see a friend in the afterlife. They apparently had no concern at all about any kind of judgment.
How many times do we read after a celebrity has died....a musician maybe....that they will be playing their music in heaven. The celebrity in question may have had no interest in God whatsoever. It doesn't matter.
Look around you if you will....at friends and loved ones. The evangelical today doesn't even seem too overly concerned about the loved one's eternal state. The new and modern gospel of the day is almost all-inclusive....as we seem to be saying...."surely God will judge them as I see them! This 'born again' thing had gotten a little out of hand. Fortunately we are back to....just be nice." The only judgment that we will entertain in our minds is that of the politician who does not do what we want them to do. They will be judged in the next election!
Take the time....brothers and sisters in Christ.....To read slowly through the book of Jeremiah. Concentrate on every warning that he gave....and there are many, many of them....over a period of about forty years! These Israelites denied Jeremiah's allegations that they set up their own idols....which were nothing but broken cisterns....(Trump is a broken cistern....as is all of our perceived power to defend ourselves)....and God very clearly asked of them how it was that they could deny that they were in rebellion to Him?
If we read....we will see....and we will be humbled. If we do not read God's prophets....and the Olivet Discourse....(Matt 24, Mk 13, Luke 21)....and if we are not in Revelation....particularly the seven letters to the seven churches....of we which we ourselves are represented somewhere! (wouldn't we want to know what Jesus....of whom every knee will bow....who will say to multitudes of surprised evangelicals...."I never knew you"....wouldn't we want to know what it was that He said that we must change?)....then we will surely remain in the dark as to our own culpability.....and be terribly surprised at what is about to happen....and how we refused all the warnings and commands.
Note: I only leave these long 'ruminations' posts up front for a short time....and then move them back a month or two....under the same title.
