You’ve probably heard people say, “God has already chosen
your time of death and when it’s your time to go, it’s your time and there’s
nothing you can do about it.” Well, is that right or not? I would argue that the
statement is a bit confusing. It might be able to be understood in a proper
sense, but it could also be understood in a completely wrong way. That is
because it does not make some distinctions that are very necessary when
discussing matters like this.
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| The Three Fates by Francesco Salviati. In Greco-Roman mythology, the Fates determined the length of a person's life. Even the gods could not go against the Fates. |
Making proper distinctions is at the heart of theology. The
Bible doesn’t just spout abstract ideas devoid of context, but it teaches us to
understand how words, phrases, and sentences are to be understood. Sometimes a
phrase may be used in the Scriptures approvingly and other times it might be
rejected as a false teaching. It isn’t that the Bible is disagreeing with
itself about a particular matter, but rather the apostles and prophets who
wrote the Bible knew that the way that even sound language may be pressed into
the service of bad theology. Usually every heresy has a half-truth at its core.
Rather than being an out and out lie, a heresy has taken a correct idea and
oversimplified matters or pressed it into the service of an illegitimate idea.
Obviously, on such a matter as important and mysterious as
the day of our death, it is easy to oversimplify in a way that does not teach
the whole counsel of God. And so we do well to ask ourselves why we are
phrasing things this way, for usually when people oversimplify matters it is to
gratify a selfish impulse. Often when people say that God has chosen our time
in advance and there’s nothing you can do to speed it up or slow it down, they
are excusing the way they neglect their bodies. Those who reject that idea and
argue that life is pretty much under our control push God out of the picture, as
if He had no say over our lives. But a proper understanding of this matter will
both glorify God and keep us from shirking our responsibilities.
On the one hand, Scripture emphasizes God’s role in all things,
including matters of life and death. It teaches us that God both knows all
things in advance and governs the world so that things turn out according to
His will. Let me unpack those statements. First of all, we say that God knows
all things, including what will occur before it happens (see Psalm 139:1-4;
Romans 11:33-36). He knows the good that people will do as well as the evil. We
call this His foreknowledge. By itself God’s foreknowledge doesn’t imply
causation. Think of it in this way. I have seen a person clumsily knock a bowl
off a table. I know what will happen before the bowl hits the ground. In that
sense I have foreknowledge, limited though it may be. But my knowledge that the
ceramic bowl will break and the contents spill across the floor doesn’t cause
the bowl to break or the person to be clumsy. In the same way God is not the
author of evil, even if He knows what evil people will do.
But God does more than simply know the future. He controls
it, and we call this His providence. He not only knows such details as
the number of hairs on our head, He also controls such details as
whether a sparrow will fall to the ground or not (Matthew 10:29-30). To be
sure, God is not pleased by everything that happens in the world. He does not
approve of people’s evil (Psalm 5:4), even if He permits them to do some evil
so that they can show what is in their heart and thus in the end glorify Him
for being a just judge on the Last Day. (This is what Proverbs 16:4 is getting
at: not that God created certain people with the intention that they do evil,
but that evildoers will in the end glorify God by getting their just desserts.)
But while He allows some latitude—enough rope for people to hang themselves,
you might say—God limits the effects of evil. The plans that evil people make
often turn out for the good of God’s people (Genesis 50:20). Evil is not
permitted to snatch the elect from God’s hand, leaving them in despair and
without faith (Mark 13:20). Evil is not permitted to separate God’s faithful
people from His love in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35-39). And it certainly will
not hold sway for very long, let alone permanently (Psalm 1:4-5).
So, according to what we have learned so far, it is
appropriate to say that God has numbered our days and knows when they will come
to an end (and will Himself make sure that they end at that time). This
doctrine is meant to comfort us with the knowledge that our life and our death are
no accidents but are guided by His loving hand.
But, given my earlier remarks, you know that there is an “on
the other hand” coming. Indeed, there is. God has given us this information so
that we would trust in Him, not so that we would use it to become presumptuous.
Instead, God has told us not to pry into His hidden purposes or counsels (Job
42:1-6; Psalm 131:1; 139:6). When Job wanted to know all the whys and
wherefores of the suffering in his life, God said that Job would have needed to
be able to explain all the marvels of creation, including the boundless power
of the sea, in order to understand God’s answer (Job 38-41). Instead of urging
us to find that hidden knowledge, He gives us our vocations, prudence, and
wisdom. Moreover, God does not want us to put Him to the test (Deuteronomy
6:16; Matthew 4:7). He promises to take care of us, but He does not want us
deliberately to put ourselves in harm’s way to see if He really will act (cf.
Matthew 4:5-6).
Furthermore, God has known the answers from eternity, but we
human beings do not live outside of time. We are creatures of time and space,
while God is neither a creature nor a being bound by time and space. For that
reason He allows our life to unfold before us over time. We see a series of
events. Sometimes we see an action followed by its reasonable consequences. Other
times God spares us from the bad consequences of our deeds. Still other times
we do not see the good consequences we had hoped would result from our diligent
work. Through these events we are led to pursue wisdom. We discern that on
average it is better to do good than to do evil, even if things do not always
turn out the way we might expect. And we also discern that it is wisest to
trust in the LORD, even when things are going badly at the moment.
It helps us to distinguish, then, between God’s providence
viewed from above and it viewed from below. In the Scriptures we are given enough
of a glance “from above” to know that things do not happen merely by chance,
but that God is firmly in control. And yet we can look at our lives only “from
below,” at least as long as we are in this life (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17). We see
a progression of events, one after another. We are called to make wise choices,
as much as we are able. We know that even our best efforts may fail, if God has
other plans in mind (Psalm 127:1-2). And yet we are called to make the most
prudent choices, commending the results to God’s care.
Thus, we will believe firmly in God’s providence without
becoming fatalists or irresponsible. We cherish the idea that “precious in the sight
of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15). We are not frightened
by the thought that our days are numbered, but ask that God would use that fact
to give us the wisdom to live wisely (Psalm 90:12). And that wisdom will teach
us to avoid carelessness and presumption so that we may have a blessed end.
