Many believe the date of their death is already predetermined by God. “You’ll not die before your time!” How many times have you heard that statement? A widely held belief, but erroneous, like many other beliefs held by professing Christians. The wisest man who ever lived penned these words: “Be not over much wicked, neither be foolish, why should you die before your time?” (Ecclesiastes 7:17). Many confuse the scripture statement “it is appointed unto men once to die” with a NON-scriptural statement, “the date of your death is already appointed and predetermined.” (See Hebrews 9:27). A heroin addict will most likely die before his time. Those addicts who abandon the habit generally live longer lives than those who do not. Surprised???
Just as we have it within our power to shorten our lifespan, the Russian Roulette player understands this perfectly well, so, too, do we have it within our power to lengthen our lifespan! Note well: “My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments, for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they ADD TO THEE.” (Proverbs 3:1-2). “Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life SHALL BE MANY.” (Proverbs 4:10). “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. For by me thy days SHALL BE MULTIPLIED, and the years of thy life SHALL BE INCREASED.” (Proverbs 9:10-11). “The fear of the LORD PROLONGS DAYS, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.” (Proverbs 10:27). Have you noticed I have firmly established this truth by quoting from but two books of the Bible – Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, both of these books found in the Old Testament? Those who say, “I don’t get my doctrine from the Old Testament,” generally are the ones you will hear saying, “You’ll not die before your time.” They cut themselves off from vast oceans of divine truth when they refuse to hear what their Creator had to say to His intelligent human creation for thousands of years – those many centuries when He spoke to man and His children solely through the Hebrew prophets and their writings. Many think the New Testament replaces, nullifies, voids, cancels out all that God had said before to Abraham, David, Solomon, etc.
I wish to God this was the only gross error held and believed by many professing Christians, but it is not. There are several more just as easily shown to be error. But many will not be corrected by the Hebrew Scriptures. In fact, they won’t be corrected by the Greek scriptures either. They believe what they believe and, generally, they will hold to those beliefs to their dying day – which, of course, they think is predetermined. Kind of sad, isn’t it? Any wisdom or insight I have in these matters has been afforded me simply because I have repented of my sinful past, submitted myself to the continuous, on-going LORDship of Jesus Christ and long ago set out to “PROVE” all things of a spiritual nature, as COMMANDED to do so by scripture. (See I Thessalonians 5:21). Try it yourself, reader, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley