No matter how heavy is load of
testimonials we parade in different forms of media, and libraries we could not avoid the reality that regardless of age, social status, gender and education there are
still people whose heart are clouded with disbelief about the
mystery of death. The unbeliever would
basically say to the believers, “Prepare food and wine sumptuously, eat and
drink, for tomorrow we will die!"
Is it not nice to hope that there’s unimaginable glory of a second life
after death than veiling our thoughts with the assumption that life is all what
we make it here on earth and nothing more beyond this after we breathe our last?
Nevertheless, despite the reluctant
heart of the few especially the atheists, I continue to do this evangelization to untiringly proclaim
that there’s a gift of a second life that awaits everyone. I’ve been doing this not for personal
satisfaction (although there is fulfillment and gratification in here especially when people
appreciate) but because I know personally how it feels to be rejected especially when it comes
to the entry to God’s Heavenly Abode.
In all honesty, creating this write up is not
an easy task which entails heart, mind and conscience to come up with something
that may bequeath hopes for edification than division and hatred to any religious
affiliation. My eyes complain working
this on computer but my mind, heart and conscience pull me to do this
tirelessly. It even came to the point that
I applied to different affiliate programs hoping that I could earn through
placing their advertisements on my website on the thought that if this turns to be productive I
don’t need a full time job anymore, to have focus on this ministry which has
been developed through my engagement in Friends of the Divine Mercy but unfortunately placement of advertisement (as you see in here) does not work out as forecasted.
I’ve been in sales almost half of my
life where rejection ratio is 10:1 and you could imagine how we exercise our
creativity and resourcefulness to at least get that unique one (1) potential
client out of ten (10) rejections.
It’s painful to be cast off on earth; what more if it is deprivation of
admission to second life in heaven brought by disbelief. Is it not nice to visualize that after we
retire of this age, we could at last embrace God who creates this life that
we have been enjoying in this earth? If
we’re yearning to see our loved ones after we have been disconnected with them
for a long time because of our professions and personal errand, can’t you feel the same desire
to personally thank God physically for
all the enjoyment we nourish at home, career, community, church and
environment?
Let me quote what the writer says, “A man may live a lie but his deathbed tells the
truth.”
Mother Theresa of Culcutta (1910-1997), "How
can I be afraid of death? I desire it; I await it because it allows me finally
to return."
Pope John Paul II “Let me go to the house of the Father.” The pontiff died six hours later.
Apostle Paul said, "For to me life is Christ, and death is gain." (Philippians 1:21), and "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your
sting?"(1 Corinthians 15:55).
Adoniram Judson, American
missionary to Burma said, “I go with the
gladness of a boy bounding away from school. I feel so strong in Christ.”
Augustus Toplady, preacher and
author of the hymn, “Rock of Ages”: “The consolations of God to such an
unworthy wretch are so abundant that He leaves me nothing to pray for but a
continuance of them. I enjoy heaven already in my soul.”
Charles Spurgeon, beloved
preacher and author, on his deathbed he said “I
can hear them coming!” He sat straight
up in bed and asked: “Don’t you hear them?
This is my coronation day. I can
see the chariots, I’m ready to board.”
Dwight Moody, the famous
Christian, shortly before he died says, “Earth recedes. Heaven opens before me.
If this is death, it is sweet! There is no valley here. God is calling me, and
I must go.” And Moody’s son said, “No, no,
Father. You’re dreaming.” And Moody responded,
“I am not dreaming. I have been within the gates. This is my triumph; this is
my coronation day! It is glorious!”
John A. Lyth, “Can this be
death? Why, it is better than living! Tell them I die happy in Jesus!”
John Knox, Scottish
clergyman and founder of the Presbyterian Church was asked on his
deathbed: “Hast thou any hope?” Unable to speak, he slowly lifted up
his arm, and with his index finger pointed heavenward, and with a peaceful
countenance he died.
John Pawson, minister: “I know I am dying, but my deathbed is a bed
of roses. I have no thorns planted upon my dying pillow. In Christ, heaven is
already begun!”
Lady Glenorchy, “If this is dying, it is the pleasantest thing
imaginable.”
Martha McCrackin, “How bright the
room! How full of angels!”
Mary Frances, “Oh, that I could tell you what joy I possess! The Lord
does shine with such power upon my soul!”
President George Washington, “Doctor, I am
dying, but I am not afraid to die.” With
his folded hands over his chest he said:
“It is well.”
Sir David Brewster, scientist and
inventor of the kaleidoscope: “I will see Jesus; I shall see Him as He is! I
have had the light for many years. Oh how bright it is! I feel so safe and
satisfied!”
Sir Michael Faraday, (brilliant
English scientist 1791 – 1867), when asked shortly before his death: “What are your speculations now?” He answered:
I have no speculations. I rest
upon Jesus Christ who died, and rose again from death.”
In Contrast, let’s try to distinguish
how atheists and non-believers utter their last words on their deathbed:
Adams, the unfaithful said: “I’m lost,
lost, lost. I am damned forever.” His anguish was so great that as he died, he
ripped the hair from his head.
Aldamont, the infidel: "My principles
have poisoned my friend; my extravagance has beggared my boy; my unkindness has
murdered my wife. And is there another hell yet ahead?"
Anton LeVey is the author
of the Satanic Bible and high priest who is fanatical on the worship of Satan.
One of his renowned quotations say, “There is a beast in man that needs to be
exercised, not exorcised”. His dying words were "Oh my, oh my, what have I
done, there is something very wrong…there is something very wrong….”
Caesar Borgia, "I have provided, in the
course of my life, for everything except death; and now, alas! I am to die,
although entirely unprepared!"
Charles Darwin, near his
death, he said: “I regret that I
suggested a theory, and that gullible men gobbled it up, as though it were
fact. I never intended that.”
Charles IX, was the French king who was exhorted by his mother, ordered the carnage
of the French Huguenots, in which 15,000 souls were massacred in Paris alone
and 100,000 in other regions of France, for no other reason except that they were
believers of Christ. The guilty king suffered miserably for years after the
crime. He died, bathed in blood bursting from his veins. In his last hours he
said to his doctors: "Asleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the
Huguenots passing before me. They drop with blood. They point at their open
wounds. Oh! That I had spared at least the little infants at the bosom! What
blood! I know not where I am. How will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost
forever! I know it. Oh, I have done wrong."
Clarence Darrow, the Scopes Trial lawyer in the famous 1925 debate on his deathbed entreated several clergymen to
“please intercede for me with the Almighty. During my life I have spoken many
times against Christians, and I now realize that I may have been wrong.”
David Hume, atheist philosopher famous for his
philosophy of empiricism and skepticism of religion, on his death bed he said, "I am in flames!" It is
said his "desperation was a horrible scene".
David Strauss, leading representative of German
rationalism, after spending a lifetime removing belief in God from others’
minds: "My philosophy leaves me utterly forlorn! I feel like one caught in
the merciless jaws of an automatic machine, not knowing at what time one of its
great hammers may crush me!"
Edward Gibbon, author of the
'Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire', “All is lost, irrecoverably lost. All
is dark and doubtful.”
Honore Mirabeau, a
leading political organizer of the French Revolution: "My sufferings are
intolerable: I have in me a hundred years of life, but not a moment's courage.
Give me more laudanum, that I may not think of eternity! 0 Christ, 0 Jesus
Christ!"
Nietzsche, died insane,
completely out of his mind.
John Donne, the English author, wrote:
"Death is a bloody conflict and no victory at last; a tempestuous sea, and
no harbor at last; a slippery height and no footing; a desperate fall and no
bottom!"
John Wilkes Booth, who
assassinated Abraham Lincoln: "Useless! Useless! The terrors before
me!"
Josef Stalin, who slaughtered many millions of his countrymen, in a Newsweek interview with his daughter Svetlana Stalin, the latter told of her father's death: "My father died a difficult and terrible death. . God grants an easy death only to the just. . At what seemed the very last moment he suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance, insane or perhaps angry. . His left hand was raised, as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse on us all. The gesture was full of menace. . The next moment he was dead."
Julian the Apostate (Roman emperor
who hated Christians), was leading his forces in the battle for Persia in 363
AD. He was fatally wounded, and on his
deathbed in the battlefield, picked up some of his own blood, mixed with dirt,
hurled it skyward and said: “Thou hast
conquered oh Galilean.” (a reference to Jesus).
Karl Marx, on his deathbed surrounded by candles flaming to Lucifer and yelled at his nurse who asked him if he had any last words, “Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.”
Mazarin, French cardinal and adviser to
kings: "0 my poor soul! What will become of thee? Wither wilt thou
go?"
M.F. Rich, "Terrible horrors hang over my soul! I have given my immortality for gold; and its weight sinks me into a hopeless, helpless Hell!"
Mohandas K. Gandhi, roughly
15 years before his death he wrote: "I must tell you in all humility that
Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being, and I
find a solace in the Bhagavad and Upanishads." Just before his death,
Gandhi wrote: "My days are numbered. I am not likely to live very
long-perhaps a year or a little more. For the first time in fifty years I find
myself in the slough of despond. All about me is darkness; I am praying for
light."
Napoleon Bonaparte, the
French emperor, and who, like Adolf Hitler, brought death to millions to
satisfy his greedy, power-mad, selfish ambitions for world conquest, "I
die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth. Such is the
fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my
deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ!”
Phineas T. Barnum, the
famous circus showman of yesteryear, died in his 82nd year, his last words were
a question about the big show's gate receipts at their latest Madison Square
Garden performance. Then he was gone!
Ptolemy Philadelphus, one
of the generals of Alexander the Great, inherited Egypt and lived a selfish life amid
riches and comfort. He was haunted by the fear of death as he grew old, and
even sought the teachings secret of eternal life from the Egyptian priests. One day, witnessing a
beggar lying satisfied under sunshine, Ptolemy said, "Alas, that I was not
born one of these!"
Queen Elizabeth, grabbed the
doctor by the sleeve and pulled him down over her bed and said: “Half of the British Empire for six month of
life.” He could not even bestow her six
minutes then she died.
Robert Ingersoll, noted lecturer
and anti-Christian, on his deathbed he said:
“Life is the cold and barren value between two eternal peaks. I strive in vain to see beyond the distant
height. I cry out and the only answer I
hear is the echo of my empty wail.
From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word. O God, if
there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul!" (Some say it was this
way: "Oh God, if there be a God, save my soul if I have a soul, from hell,
if there be a hell!")
Rousseau, "No man dares to face death without fear."
Severus, Roman emperor who caused the death of thousands of Christians, "I have been everything; and everything is nothing!"
Sir Francis Newport ,the head
of an English Atheist club, to those gathered around his deathbed: "You
need not tell me there is no God for I know there is one, and that I am in His
presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already
slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know
I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! …Oh, that
I could lie for a thousand years upon the fire that is never quenched, to
purchase the favor of God and be united to Him again. But it is a fruitless
wish. Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my
torments than one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever!, Oh,
the insufferable pangs of Hell!”
Sir Julian Huxley, English
evolutionist, biologist and loyal atheist, on his deathbed: “So it is true after all, so it is true after
all.”
Sir Thomas Scott,
Chancellor of England "Until this moment I thought there was neither a God
nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to
perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty."
Tallyrand was one of the most cunning French
political leaders of the Napoleonic era. On a paper found at his death were
these words: "Behold eighty-three passed away! What cares! What agitation!
What anxieties! What ill-will! What sad complications! And all without other
results except great fatigue of mind and body, a profound sentiment of
discouragement with regard to the future, and disgust with regard to the
past!"
Thomas Carlyle ,"I am as good as without hope;
a sad old man gazing into the final chasm."
Thomas Hobbes, the political philosopher and
skeptic who dishonored some of England's great men: "If I had the whole
world, I would give anything to live one day. I shall be glad to find a hole to
creep out of the world at. I am about to take a fearful leap in the dark!"
Thomas Payne, originally one
of America’s great patriots in his book:
'The Age of Reason' mocked the Christian religion. His friends gradually shied away. He left
America and while in England faced an untimely death. On his deathbed he said to a friend ‘I would
give worlds if I had them, if the ‘Age of Reason’ had never been
published. Oh Lord help me. Christ help me. You stay with me. It is hell to be left alone.”
Voltaire is one of the few men in Europe who
attempted to get rid of the Bible and the knowledge of God from the minds of
the people. The Christian physician who attended Voltaire during his last
ailment later wrote about the experience: "When I compare the death of a
righteous man, which is like the close of a beautiful day, with that of
Voltaire, I see the difference between bright, serene weather and a black
thunderstorm. It was my lot that this man should die under my hands. Often did
I tell him the truth, 'Yes, my friend,' he would often say to me, 'you are the
only one who has given me good advice. Had I but followed it, I should not be
in the horrible condition in which I now am. I have swallowed nothing but
smoke. I have intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head. You can
do nothing for me. His nurse said: "For all the money in Europe I would not want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness."
William Pitt, British
statesman and youngest recorded prime minister:
“I throw myself on the mercy of God, through the merits of Jesus
Christ.”
William E. Henley, an
atheist, wrote a famous poem, the last two lines of which have often been
quoted: "Out of the night that covers me, "Black as the pit from pole
to pole, "I thank whatever gods may be. "Beyond this place of wrath
and tears "Looms but the horror of the shade; "And yet the menace of
the years "Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. "It matters not how strait
the gate, "How charged with punishment the scroll, "I am the master
of my fate; "I am the captain of my soul. " Men who have been
audacious in their rebellion against God praised Henley's poem, but most of
them were unaware that he had later
suicide.
This reminded me of comments on FB page where I posted an article which talked about death. I
asked them permission if it’s alright to share it. I do not know if they
responded because it’s really hard to filter my notification which reaches up
to 200 a day. If ever they
coincidentally read, I can remove this should they express their disapproval:
If
asked, which do you prefer, the one who is dying with a peaceful and grateful
mind that says, “Lord, thank you for this life.
Though I did not see You in my entire life, I followed Your will to turn
not only to what is beneficial to me but to the people around me.”? Or the one
while on his/her deathbed feels the desire to fill the missing gap which is too
late enough and remain grumbling even up to the point of his death than
appreciation of what he had gone through out of this life because of mentality
that clouded his/her heart that, “to see is to believe” than to believe before
you see.”
We
should be reminded that not all that could be found in this earth are
visible. We can’t see how our heart
responds when it feels the desire to love but we see how blissful and prolific
we are in our affairs at home, corporate commitment and social relationship
because of disposition that is enveloped with love. We can’t see how our conscience processes
when it balances the right and wrong but we continue to believe and be connected to our conscience
because it filters everything what our minds feed that is significant not only
for our personal gratification but for the common good. We don’t see how our brain organizes the
concepts of productivity that the opportunity gives us but we continue to
believe on the provision of our thoughts that we can go further because we
believe that it is perfectly created for our own survival. When interwoven together, these beliefs on
our faculties whose activities are not internally visible but whose output are
externally perceptible, we continue to believe on ourselves. Similarly, although we don’t see God
physically, we continue to believe Him because His golden rule which is to
“Love your neighbour as you love yourself” has been proven as the strongest foundation
that links to unity, decency, tranquility and optimized harvest at home,
community, church and society.
References:
- Jarrod Jacobs, A Man may Live a Lie - but His Deathbed Tells the Truth!,
- How Atheists and Infidels Die, http://www.present-truth.org
- Elijah C. Clark, Atheists' Famous Last Death Words, http://www.darkfiber.com
- James E Archer, An Atheist's World View: 15 Principles of Atheism, http://www.unitedstatesatheists.com
- The Ethical Atheist Test, http://www.atheism-analyzed.net
- Kristy Mapp, Last Words, http://www.oh-mag.com
- Mother-Teresa-s-words-on-fear-of-dying, http://www.catholicforum.com
- http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9377134/ns/world_news-europe/t/let-me-go-house-father/#.VDzVjbCUcw8
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4257994.stm, John Paul's last words revealed
- The Last Words of Famous Atheists in History, http://www.godvine.com/The-Last-Words-of-Famous-Atheists-in-History-33.html
- Famous Atheists Last Words before Dying, http://www.nairaland.com/746723/famous-atheists-last-words-before
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