CAUSE OF PHYSICAL DEATH

CAUSE OF PHYSICAL DEATH

 

From the Immediate and Material Viewpoint, Physical Death is the Result of What men call "Natural" Causes, and Which are Recognized in Scripture

Gen. 3:19 - Materiality; but this is not merely because of material. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Psa. 103:15-16 - Man's life is as grass. "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more."

Psa. 90:10 years - old age "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

Luke 13:1 Violence "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices."

Luke 13:4 Hazard "Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?"

Acts 9:37 Sickness "And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber."

Prov. 10:21 Lack of understanding "The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom."

Note: These are not final causes. They would never have been causes, if man had not sinned in the beginning. Because of that sin, the world was thrown out of joint. That is, God permitted such judgment upon the world. Actually, in the original creation man was created to live--in the body, in fellowship with God, forever.

Morally, Physical Death is the result of sin

Gen. 2:17 "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die"

Rom. 5:12, 21 "By one man sin . . . death to all."

1 Cor. 15:21 "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead."

Psa. 90:7-11 (Very good) "For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath."

James 1:14-15 "Sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death"

Note: By this we mean sin is the occasion or the procuring cause of death (cf. Gen. 3:22-24). Thus it may be seen that death does not lie within the nature of sin itself. Actually death comes from without the individual. "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

Metaphysically, God Himself is the Ultimate Cause of Physical Death

Luke 12:5 "Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell."

Rev. 2:23 "I will kill her children with death."

Note: God ordained the Moral Law which demands death for the sinner, and also the Physical Law which obeys the demand.