Does God Determine Our Death

  • Thread starter Thread starter lakotak
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lakotak

Guest
Does God determine how we are to die, or does he just permit the circumstances to happen that will bring about our death?
 
lakotak said:
Does God determine how we are to die, or does he just permit the circumstances to happen that will bring about our death?
Click to expand...
“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matt 10:30
 
lakotak said:
Does God determine how we are to die, or does he just permit the circumstances to happen that will bring about our death?
Click to expand...
I do not believe God determines how and when we die but he does know the how and when.
 
lakotak said:
Does God determine how we are to die, or does he just permit the circumstances to happen that will bring about our death?
Click to expand...
Your question is an interesting one.
Have consider that as creatures with free will we make choices that will ultimately determine our destiny, therefore our death. However, I beleive that if it is the plan of the Lord for us to be active participants in his plan He will do whatever he wills including the way and time of our death.
 
thistle said:
I do not believe God determines how and when we die but he does know the how and when.
Click to expand...
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION

1011 In death, God calls man to himself. Therefore the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul’s: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ. "579 He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father, after the example of Christ:580

My earthly desire has been crucified; . . . there is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.581

want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.582

I am not dying; I am entering life.583

Pax Christi
 
Interesting question. Death and sin are a result of the fall, but the OT talks about an Angel of Death in Exodus. Perhaps when death entered the world after the Fall God used the Angel of Death as His way to directly control even that.
 
Lancer said:
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION

1011 In death, God calls man to himself. Therefore the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul’s: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ. "579 He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father, after the example of Christ:580

My earthly desire has been crucified; . . . there is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.581

want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.582

I am not dying; I am entering life.583

Pax Christi
Click to expand...
That is not saying that God determines who dies when and how.
 
Hi lakotak,

By choosing to create this world out of an infinite number of possibilities, God chose every single event that happens. So in that sense, God has chosen time, place and mode of death.

But in actual fact, there are numerous factors, not necessarily willed directly by God, that determine our death : free will, genetics, natural disasters etc etc.

Verbum
 
That is known only to God. Remember, He is out of time and sees all of creation at once, so He can see the choices we make and the consequences of those choices yet He is free to intervene or not intervene as He sees fit for out benefit.

So, if I die right now (I pray I do not) is it because God decided that I need to die at this moment and has sent a blood clot to my brain or is it becuase He has not intervened in all those cheesesteaks I have eaten over the years? From my perspective, it does not much matter, does it? I will be before Him in judgement regardless of how I got there.

I worry more about how I live each day and how I can do penance and transform my life to please Him more in whatever time I have left.
 
I think for some yes, for others no…
He knows the way we are going to live our lives from the very begining; it is something we learn by living our lifes. The aborted babies, the same, He knows the way they would have lived their lifes. I dont understand it, but I am not supposed to understand everything.
 
Lets say that somebody dies a violent death. God knows his possible life without this event, up to the death of old age. Does this count in the day of judgement? Maybe one would have repented his sins, or some other person would fall in a blasphemy…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top