Yesterday a dear sister in Christ asked me what she thought to be a "weird question," which was this: "Do you think our LORD would share with us when our time of passing was near? Do you ever know of this happening?
Here was my response:
Here was my response:
I don't think that's a weird question at all. It's probably one that many people ask in their mind but never get around to verbalizing.
Looking to Scripture as our first and foremost authority, I think we can say with absolute certainty that God does at times give people a sense that their time of death is drawing near. We certainly see this with Jesus, who knew when and when not it was His "hour." Also, Paul wrote in his last letter to Timothy, "The time of my departure has come" (2 Tim. 4:6). One of the clearest such examples is that of Peter, who explicitly wrote, "I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me" (2 Peter 1:14).
Based on these and other scriptural references, it seems that God does sometimes share with certain of His children when their date of departure is drawing near. Furthermore, I think that human experience shows this to be true as well. My uncle Jack passed away suddenly just two weeks ago - one week after we had visited him in South Carolina! Uncle Jack's son told my brother that he thinks his dad knew that his death was imminent. The weekend before his death, he had his son make the two-hour trip to his home specifically for the purpose of going over his will. How about that! No doubt countless other similar stories could be told.
Having said all this, I do think we must be careful not to put too much stock into our own premonitions. If we sense that our time might be near, who knows if that is the Lord's spirit speaking to us or our own? First Corinthians 4:6 tells us "not to go beyond what is written." Though in this context Paul was dealing with pride and factions within the church, the general principle holds true for all of life. Everything should be weighed and evaluated in light of Scripture. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." Theologians draw a distinction between God's revealed will and God's secret will. Those things which God has revealed to us through Scripture are given so that we might obey God's will. God's secret will includes those hidden decrees by which God governs the universe and determines everything that will happen. Such hidden decrees typically include the time and manner of our deaths.
As Christians, we should live each day as if it were our last. "For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Romans 14:7-9).If the TruthWalk readership have other scriptural insights they would like to add, I'd love to read them.