Death¶
In our modern world, we tend to ignore and neglect death, hiding from its inevitability with pithy dismissals like "death and taxes." We pretend its ravages will be painless, failing to plan for the final stages of life -- years of suffering between retirement and the grave for most. Ancient views lacked such luxury, confronting death continuously, weaving it into the fabric of our existence as a stark reminder of our fallen state and the hope of redemption.
Isaiah 28:18
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
Death Enters the World¶
Death entered at the fall of man, forging a covenant with humanity -- a grim inheritance from man's rebellion. Before sin, creation knew no decay; life was eternal communion with God. The serpent's deception brought corruption, and our rebellion sealed it: the serpent condemned to eat dust, symbolizing its dominion over the dead, while man returns to dust in toil and sorrow.
This covenant binds us to mortality, yet Scripture promises its annulment through Christ, who tramples death by death. In ancient cosmology, death is not natural but a parasitic intrusion, the domain of the devil, devouring the living like dust.
Genesis 3:14
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
The earth itself swallows the rebellious, as seen in Korah's fate, referencing death's pit -- a foreboding darkness pulling souls from life.
Numbers 16:33
They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.
Death and Time¶
The very nature of what we call time presupposes death -- a relentless march toward decay, born from the Fall. In Paradise, existence was timeless, unchanging union with the eternal God. After the Fall, time became a measure of corruption, ticking toward dissolution.
St. Maximus the Confessor teaches that time is eternity measured by movement, ceasing when creation returns to rest in God. Death and time are intertwined: without death, no need for the striving of survival, no evolution as we know it. Modern theories posit evolution as life's adaptation to death, but in truth, death birthed such mechanisms -- a divine mercy allowing life's continuation amid certain death.
Fitness for survival echoes in spiritual realms: Christianity's endurance proves its divine origin, evolving through trials while rooted in unchanging truth. Yet, this is no endorsement of Darwinism; rather, it highlights death's tyranny, conquered only by Christ.
Hebrews 2:14-16
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
A World Without Death¶
What would a world without death look like? Paradise: no decay, no predation, no suffering. Animals fed on plants, man on fruit; virginity reigned, procreation unnecessary in eternal bliss. The pre-Fall cosmos was incorrupt, vibrant with divine energy, free from time's corrosive flow.
Ancient views grasped this: death as unnatural, a curse from rebellion. Pagan myths echo it -- Hades, Hel, Thanatos, Abaddon -- realms of shadow, referenced in Scripture as conquered by Christ. The Harrowing of Hades joins earth to the underworld, shattering its gates, freeing captives.
The living God reigns over life, not death; spirits of the dead are created consequences of sin, not divine. Satan, the fallen seraph, holds power over death -- eating dust eternally -- until Christ's victory.
Revelation 9:11
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
2 Peter 2:4-6
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly
The Three Realms¶
In ancient cosmology, three realms exist: heaven (divine order), earth (fallen creation), and the underworld (realm of the dead). Scripture often joins heaven and earth, but rarely earth with the underworld -- a place of darkness, unnatural to God's order.
This realm corrupts man, time, and space profoundly. Yet, on the Cross, heaven, earth, and hell converge: Christ descends, harrowing Hades, binding the strong man, and rising victorious. Pagan echoes -- Yanwang in Diyu, or Greek Tartarus -- point to universal awareness of death's abyss, but only Christ redeems it.
As seekers of truth, we must face death not in fear but in hope: it reveals our need for the Savior, who turns dust to glory.
Matthew 22:30-32
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.