The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 Corinthians 15:26 (ESV)

Supporters of euthanasia are trying to paint a rainbow on the Grim Reaper’s face. “Death [is] a friend to be welcomed,” said one, “not an enemy to be defeated.”1 To most people, that kind of reasoning sounds hopelessly artificial; and rightly so, for it is one of the oldest and deepest instincts of humankind to loathe and shrink from death. The thought of welcoming death as a cherished friend—this cruel inflictor of unending sorrow and horror in human experience—simply offends the human spirit. But destroying it? Now there’s a reason to celebrate!

The Apostle Paul confronts some in the Corinthian church who denied there would be a resurrection of the dead. Challenging their belief with their own profession of faith, he tells them Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was merely the first-fruits of victory. At the end of time, Christ will finally and completely subdue every enemy hostile to His reign, the last and greatest of which, Paul says, is death itself. Death then is not a natural part of God’s creation. It is an intruder into what God created and declared to be “very good” (Gen. 1:31). A consequence of human sin (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 6:23), death is mankind’s most ferocious enemy, enlarging its throat and opening its mouth without limit to swallow up both wicked and righteous without distinction (Isa. 5:14). It is no wonder Paul rejoices to think of its demise at the hands of the resurrected Christ—the same Christ who “was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled” along with the family and friends mourning the death of Lazarus (John 11:33).

Judeo-Christian influence has deeply ingrained in Western culture this biblical understanding of death as an unnatural intrusion into God’s order. It has also provided a philosophical grounding for modern medicine’s determination to resist death. The strategy of euthanasia advocates is to convince people death is no evil at all, but something rather to be embraced and planned and even celebrated. John Shelby Spong once said the Apostle Paul was flatly wrong to call death an enemy; actually it is the one thing that makes life precious, and one ought therefore to count it a friend.2 Derek Humphry, founder of the pro-euthanasia Hemlock Society in the U.S., writes mistily of elderly people gathering with family and friends for “farewell parties” just before their pre-arranged date with a lethal injection.3 Death is made-up and beautified, airbrushed and painted in soft pastels, so that perhaps the evil of deliberately killing human beings will not be quite so apparent.

Christians are not so naïve as to think death must always be resisted to the bitter end and at any cost. The Bible teaches clearly that death is inevitable; every individual, barring the return of Christ, will experience it. So there comes a time when holding on to life solely by means of artificial supports is more denial than heroism. Even so, removing a person’s artificial respirator is a far cry from injecting them with a lethal poison. Christians believe what the Bible says about death, so they never blithely give their loved ones into death’s arms. On the contrary, they grudgingly surrender them with a reminder to death that its time, too, is swiftly approaching.

Christian pastors must take care not to be hypnotized by the rhetoric of the pro-euthanasia lobby. Their Lord Christ has declared war on death, and clasping hands in alliance with His enemy is nothing short of treason. The compassion and love Christians ought to show the dying does not mean hastening their end. It means comforting them—if they know Christ—in their pain, assuring them in their fear, and rejoicing with them that “Thanks be to God! Death has been swallowed up in victory!” (cf., 1 Cor. 15:54-57).

Footnotes:
1
John Shelby Spong, “Death: A Friend to Be Welcomed, Not an Enemy to Be Defeated” (Address to the Hemlock Society, January 10, 2003), Dying With Dignity Website, http://www.compassionandchoices-indiana.org/files/Death-AFriendtobeWelcomedNotanEnemytobeDefeated2.pdf (accessed March 26, 2014).

2
Ibid.

3
Derek Humphry, “Why I Believe in Voluntary Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide” (Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, 2004), http://www.finalexit.org/lit-essays.html.
article adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located one and a half miles east of Rt. 222.