Does God decide when it's your time to die?

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In arguments about euthanasia it’s often said that only God decides when it’s your time. And most people believe that anyway. Something strikes me though. Life expectancy is much higher than it was. This graph shows that in 1840 a boy in Britain could only hope (on average) to live for 40 years: ohe.org/page/knowledge/schools/appendix/life_expectancy.cfm Today a boy born in Britain can hope to live for 80 years.

Why are people living 40 years longer if God decides when you die?
 
I’m not sure God “decides” when it’s your time to die. Think of it this way-if a plane crashes, is it the justice of God? If it doesn’t, is it the mercy of God? Perhaps it boils down to bad luck?
 
If I go out right now and am hit by a drunk driver and killed, it’s because the driver, exercising his/her free will, drank too much and got behind the wheel of a car.

I think there’s a whole lot of free will good choices/bad choices going on in the world.
 
PaulinVA said:
If I go out right now and am hit by a drunk driver and killed, it’s because the driver, exercising his/her free will, drank too much and got behind the wheel of a car.

I think there’s a whole lot of free will good choices/bad choices going on in the world.
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It’s also bad luck as well. It’s not just choices and free will.
 
Your time of death is within the permissive will of God but not necessarily in His purposeful will. God allows the cancer to grow in one’s body but He does not will it. If one dies of a brain aneurism, God did not put it there. The many factors of our death; (ie. accidents, disease, evil acts) are all a result of our fallen nature but not willed by God. Once we die, however, then God uses that event to make better whatever is needed for the spiritual growth of those left on this journey. God knows that we all will die and he knows when. God doesn’t intrude upon our free will so if we continue to smoke three packs a day He will take us when our destroyed bodies give out… teachccd
 
teachccd said:
God doesn’t intrude upon our free will so if we continue to smoke three packs a day He will take us when our destroyed bodies give out
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Good point. I think it’s important to be careful with our bodies. I’m no expert, but we’ll probably (hopefully) get some form of body back to us in the resurrected form someday.

I’m no health nazi, I smoke cigars and pipes, and I do drink a bit, but the key is not to go overboard.
 
teachccd said:
I am not aware that “bad luck” are theological terms but then I am open for corrections
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I’m not sure either. Call it whatever you want.

I just think “luck” or whatever you want to call it comes into play. IE-plane crashes. How come plane X went down while plane A didn’t? The DWI option as well.
 
Rascalking said:
Good point. I think it’s important to be careful with our bodies. I’m no expert, but we’ll probably (hopefully) get some form of body back to us in the resurrected form someday.

I’m no health nazi, I smoke cigars and pipes, and I do drink a bit, but the key is not to go overboard.
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Our expert, Jesus Christ, promised us a resurrected body even though we do not know exacltly what it will be like. I used to smoke cigars and I would go back if it wasn’t for the health hazard, expense and lingering smell on the clothes. 😃 I was just using one example but there are many others… God bless…teachccd 🙂
 
Rascalking said:
I’m not sure either. Call it whatever you want.

I just think “luck” or whatever you want to call it comes into play. IE-plane crashes. How come plane X went down while plane A didn’t? The DWI option as well.
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That’s why investigations take place. Precisely to answer the “whys” of what occurred. “Bad luck” would never be entered on a crime scene or accident report. But what do I know? Anyhoots, I do not want to derail this thread…teachccd
 
teachccd said:
The many factors of our death; (ie. accidents, disease, evil acts) are all a result of our fallen nature but not willed by God.
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But our fallen nature takes forty years longer to have its effect and cause our death compared with in 1840(see my link).
 
Yorkshireman said:
In arguments about euthanasia it’s often said that only God decides when it’s your time. And most people believe that anyway. Something strikes me though. Life expectancy is much higher than it was. This graph shows that in 1840 a boy in Britain could only hope (on average) to live for 40 years: ohe.org/page/knowledge/schools/appendix/life_expectancy.cfm Today a boy born in Britain can hope to live for 80 years.

Why are people living 40 years longer if God decides when you die?
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I have heard it said that God’s will can be divided into two categories: God’s “purposeful will” and God’s “permissive will”. God’s “purposeful will” is basically any direct intervention on His part; God’s “permissive will” is that he allows nature to take it’s course. The thing about this belief is that in essence, nothing goes on without God - the entire world is dependent on God.

And if you would believe the Bible is literal truth, many in the Old Testament were living a multitude of years - some even managing to clock 900 years before they passed away.

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
 
Bohm_Bawerk said:
I have heard it said that God’s will can be divided into two categories: God’s “purposeful will” and God’s “permissive will”. God’s “purposeful will” is basically any direct intervention on His part; God’s “permissive will” is that he allows nature to take it’s course. The thing about this belief is that in essence, nothing goes on without God - the entire world is dependent on God.

And if you would believe the Bible is literal truth, many in the Old Testament were living a multitude of years - some even managing to clock 900 years before they passed away.

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
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So, if people are living longer it’s down to medical science, better sanitation, etc, rather than because God now wants us to live longer? Would you say people are surviving cancer longer these days solely because of medical science? If you say God prefers to let nature take its course then why pray for someone with cancer to get well? Either the doctors will save them or they won’t.
 
Yorkshireman said:
So, if people are living longer it’s down to medical science, better sanitation, etc, rather than because God now wants us to live longer? Would you say people are surviving cancer longer these days solely because of medical science?
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Generaly, yes.
Yorkshireman said:
If you say God prefers to let nature take its course then why pray for someone with cancer to get well? Either the doctors will save them or they won’t.
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God does not *ordinarily *intervene in miraculous ways. That does not mean he *never *does. And even when he does not, that does not mean prayers lack efficacy.

Our prayers are efficacious, if not physically then spiritually. Christ himself taught us to pray to the Father. God does hear our prayers.
 
Yorkshireman said:
So, if people are living longer it’s down to medical science, better sanitation, etc, rather than because God now wants us to live longer? Would you say people are surviving cancer longer these days solely because of medical science? If you say God prefers to let nature take its course then why pray for someone with cancer to get well? Either the doctors will save them or they won’t.
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Everything that happens is a result of an incomprehensible [to mortal minds] milieu of God’s prevenient will, God’s permissive will, and the choices of creatures with intellect and will. It is a mystery which does yield to statistical analysis.

Furthermore, the whole “system” operates outside of time. Intercessory prayer, for example, can be efficacious in what to our maimed intellects is the past.

As far as what God wants or prefers, the revelation of Jesus Christ makes it clear that God wants us to be happy and in communion with Him and one another. Everything that opposes that end is the result of sin. Rather than vainly trying to comprehend every detail of these realities, we are better served by striving to lead virtuous lives.

AMDG
jsa
 
Rascalking said:
I’m not sure God “decides” when it’s your time to die. Think of it this way-if a plane crashes, is it the justice of God? If it doesn’t, is it the mercy of God? Perhaps it boils down to bad luck?
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Calvinists would say that the length of your life was determined before the universe began. In which case I suppose luck doesn’t come into it.
 
I really don’t like the whole “because it was God’s time for that person” or “because God wanted them in Heaven” excuses spouted when someone passes.

I honestly think its to do with Natural Law and the fact we now live in flawed bodies. However, everyone is different, genetically, their environment, the way they live, the medical science they have available to them.

If a plane crashes, the people who die on board were both subject to Natural Law in that their bodies will not survive a burning plane slamming into the ground at 500kph and the plane is under the “natural law” of physics, so if someone did something incompetent to the plane’s operating systems, or someone decided to blow themselves up, the plane is simply responding to those interferances.

It’d also be like murder, obviously God doesn’t want Bob killing Steve, but He won’t interfer with free will and Steve’s body is under the response of Natural Law, ie. its not within the bounds of natural law to survive a shot gun blast to the head resulting in 90% of your brain being splattered on the wall behind you.

But as others have said, God allows [due to non-interferance with freewill/NL] but doesn’t will.
 
It’s often said we are here as part of God’s plan. When someone dies others say the departed has fulfilled his part of God’s plan. That suggests when the plan is finished God calls you in.

The alternative is that our deaths are purely random but how would that help any heavenly plan?
 
The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow. For mildness is come upon us: and we shall be corrected.

Psalms 90:10
Douay-Rheims
 
God has a plan for all of us from the moment of conception to natural death. However, we as humans don’t always obey God’s plan for us. When we choose to disobey God our disobedience can have a direct affect on other people. Example: Adam and Eve disobeying God resulting in original sin. I don’t think anyone would wanted to have original sin, but we have at because of what Adam and Eve did… Drunk person hops into a car, crashes and kills a guy going home to his family. Again who did the action and who suffered from it?

Free will is a powerful tool. We are asked to follow His will, but we have the choice not to. When we choose not to, not only do we suffer, other people suffer too. Some times it’s in a small non-life-threatening way. Other times it can be death of many people. :eek:
 
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