The Appointment

by
Gene poore

Are not funerals an appointment for the living because the deceased has shed
their “house of clay?” Around the remains, displayed in public, do not relatives
and friends collect to reflect verbal generosities? Does God use this sting of
death as an appointment to reassemble families for brief moments? Yes.
In this day of family detachments, God uses “funeral reunions” as an
appointment to heal family rifts because the reality of death jolts people back to
earth’s final appointment. “It is appointed unto men once to die. . . .” (Hebrews
9:27.) That is earth’s final appointment. No place in God’s Word does God state
how each person will meet earth’s final appointment. God promised only death, not
old age.
Only through human viewpoints are certain ends of life labeled horrible. A
fatal automobile collision is most horrifying, but fulfills scripture’s final
appointment. As does murder, disease, heart attack, drowning, and electrocution.
All final appointments are within God’s plan. Any departure from the body
completes earth’s final appointment, because each person is appointed to die even
if--from carnal thinking--an undeserved death.
What death could be more undeserved, more revolting, than the death of Jesus
Christ? Jesus’ death was horrible. Jesus’ death was grotesque and brutal. Jesus
did not deserve how He met scripture’s appointment. Slapped around, spit on,
scourged, jabbed with a thorny crown, humiliated, and cursed. Then three nails
pinned Jesus to a filthy cross. Even when a spear punctured Jesus’ side, that
action was within God’s plan.
Yes, all men are appointed to die once, even God’s Son. However, “We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God. . . .” (Romans
8:28.) The good that Christ’s death brought was redemption for humankind. Yet, how
does an early death of anyone today work together for good? One may never know
until they reach heaven, but God uses every final appointment to advance His plan.
For example, Ethel Barrett, the writer, tells about the death of a little
lady before she was one year old. What a waste, one cries. How could a good God
allow that to happen?
Ms. Barrett relates that because this child went to be with the Lord, a
broken marriage healed. After years of interfamily hostility, the grandparents
reunited. The child’s parents committed themselves to Christ, which influenced
their community and spread to other communities. From this child’s death, a Church
was born.
How many will find salvation in and around that church because God called
His child home early? Was she not a precious “Seed” in God’s plan to draw people
closer to Him? Yes. That was her appointment.
Because it is appointed unto souls once to die, souls die neither late nor
early. Each soul’s clock hands point at the appointed second, fulfilling
scripture’s appointment. Dying once is a soul’s earth appointment with death.
Dying twice is not. The second death appointment threatened in Revelation 20:14 is
a personal choice. Accepting Christ as Savior revokes that second death
appointment through a new birth.
Thus, born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. Through a rebirth in
Christ, God left the number of deaths as a personal choice, but not the how of the
first.