Best or favorite model for understanding value of death?

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Curious to hear what you have found as the best (or your favorite) explanation for how to reconcile the loving parent model of God and a world where it looks and feels like we and our loved ones die.

I’m certainly hard-pressed to imagine a scenario where good comes from a human parent making their child think people die when they go to sleep at night.

Thanks!
 
Neoplatonist said:
Curious to hear what you have found as the best (or your favorite) explanation for how to reconcile the loving parent model of God and a world where it looks and feels like we and our loved ones die.

I’m certainly hard-pressed to imagine a scenario where good comes from a human parent making their child think people die when they go to sleep at night.

Thanks!
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Not at all easy for me. Death is just hideous!

ICXC NIKA
 
Neoplatonist said:
Curious to hear what you have found as the best (or your favorite) explanation for how to reconcile the loving parent model of God and a world where it looks and feels like we and our loved ones die.

I’m certainly hard-pressed to imagine a scenario where good comes from a human parent making their child think people die when they go to sleep at night.

Thanks!
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Death is just a portal we go through to the next Life.
 
Right, but a terrifying portal that mommies and husbands and school friends go through and it seems like we never see them again.

There are any number of things that would lessen that terror, so I’m trying to understand how this system is the most compassionate one. I can hope that it is, based on faith, but can’t understand it.
 
Neoplatonist said:
Right, but a terrifying portal that mommies and husbands and school friends go through and it seems like we never see them again.

There are any number of things that would lessen that terror, so I’m trying to understand how this system is the most compassionate one. I can hope that it is, based on faith, but can’t understand it.
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what do you mean by “system.” ?
 
Techno2000 said:
what do you mean by “system.” ?
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The system of laws that governs human life and requires us to die.

God could easily take human death away, as He did for Mary, but for his own reasons chose not to.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
The system of laws that governs human life and requires us to die.

God could easily take human death away, as He did for Mary, but for his own reasons chose not to.

ICXC NIKA
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Oh that system.🙂
 
After my mom passed away, I became a little less scared of death, because I thought if she could do it, then I could. But after a while I realized how much she accomplished and how much I still have to do.
 
Techno2000 said:
We all have to go through it, just like Jesus had to go through the system.🙂
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But Mary didn’t.

And given that people have **slept **longer than our LORD was dead, that isn’t much help, either.

ICXC NIKA
 
Neoplatonist said:
Curious to hear what you have found as the best (or your favorite) explanation for how to reconcile the loving parent model of God and a world where it looks and feels like we and our loved ones die.

I’m certainly hard-pressed to imagine a scenario where good comes from a human parent making their child think people die when they go to sleep at night.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Man’s problem has always been one of faith-faith/trust in God-because only a God could guarantee that this universe holds any kind of future for us anyway. We cannot know or guarantee this for ourselves whether we exist in some edenic state or in this particular life. Because we are* creatures.*

To the extent that one has faith, which is what Christ’s advent is all about producing or restoring, death becomes a loss-but a temporary, not a final one. So a purpose of death, along with the other evils that threaten us throughout this life, is to actually help produce this faith as we come to fully recognize our dependency on “Something” outside of ourselves.

This is a good thing. Humans tend to reject this dependency, this faith, preferring ourselves to God. This obstacle to faith is also known as pride, a very ugly and destructive human trait, one that sets itself up against God, and even, unreasonably, seeks to deny and defy death as we often tend to pursue ego-driven goals in life that are futile and worthless in the end.

But since death is a great equalizer, considering that all, from the least to the greatest, must succumb to it in the end, it can be a teacher, granting the wisdom that says that no man is the end-all and be-all of his universe. Faith, and ultimately, love, triumph over all. That’s the message of Christ’s willingly dying, then resurrecting. Death is an enemy, but one that, together with grace, can help teach us humility and right perspective.
 
fhansen said:
Man’s problem has always been one of faith-faith/trust in God-because only a God could guarantee that this universe holds any kind of future for us anyway. We cannot know or guarantee this for ourselves whether we exist in some edenic state or in this particular life. Because we are* creatures.*

To the extent that one has faith, which is what Christ’s advent is all about producing or restoring, death becomes a loss-but a temporary, not a final one. So a purpose of death, along with the other evils that threaten us throughout this life, is to actually help produce this faith as we come to fully recognize our dependency on “Something” outside of ourselves.

This is a good thing. Humans tend to reject this dependency, this faith, preferring ourselves to God. This obstacle to faith is also known as pride, a very ugly and destructive human trait, one that sets itself up against God, and even, unreasonably, seeks to deny and defy death as we often tend to pursue ego-driven goals in life that are futile and worthless in the end.

But since death is a great equalizer, considering that all, from the least to the greatest, must succumb to it in the end, it can be a teacher, granting the wisdom that says that no man is the end-all and be-all of his universe. Faith, and ultimately, love, triumph over all. That’s the message of Christ’s willingly dying, then resurrecting. Death is an enemy, but one that, together with grace, can help teach us humility and right perspective.
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Right, one should take comfort by the idea that your life here is only temporary, and that there is a better place than this miserable life on Earth.
 
Techno2000 said:
what do you mean by “system.” ?
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Trying to model God and thinking of death as a system is a problem in and of itself.

The sooner we accept that God and death are ineffable the sooner we are at peace about them. Not everything can be explained.

The OP speaks of the “most compassionate system.” Compassion doesn’t always make something easy. A compassionate doctor may still have to amputate a gangrenous leg to save someone’s life and God takes our life so that we can get it back again. The fact that it is painful or terrifying doesn’t mean that God lacks compassion.

-Tim-
 
For me death is the easy part. Mine and everyone else’s. Life is the hard part.
 
Techno2000 said:
Right, one should take comfort by the idea that your life here is only temporary, and that there is a better place than this miserable life on Earth.
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I don’t believe our creator, whoever he or she is, wants us to characterize life on Earth as miserable. For millions of people, life on Earth is a wonderful experience, me included.

AJ
 
atjar said:
I don’t believe our creator, whoever he or she is, wants us to characterize life on Earth as miserable. For millions of people, life on Earth is a wonderful experience, me included.

AJ
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And for millions life on Earth is miserable.
 
atjar said:
And that’s of our making. Not the Big Guy
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That’s true but remember man got kick out of eden and now must earn a living by the sweat of his brow, but hopefully we can get back into the heavenly eden.🙂
 
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