WE LEARN from a diagram recently issued that moths live three to four days; roaches, twenty-six days; common snails, two to three years; canaries, ten to fifteen years; pigeons, ten to twenty years; cuckoos, thirty-two years; lions, thirty-five years; bears, fifty years; ravens and parrots1 a hundred years; golden eagles, one hundred and four years; pike, carp and elephants, two hundred years; the swan, three hundred years.
But what do you suppose far exceeds them all, not according to the diagram, but according to God’s Word? It is the believer in Christ.
A true believer is one who knows he is a sinner and merits only the judgment of God, but he believes Christ died for his sins and he has trusted Him as his Saviour. To such a one God gives eternal life. “Whoever believeth in Him [shall] not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:1515That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:15).
If a believer dies, his body is put into the grave to await the glorious resurrection day, but his spirit goes to be with the Lord. He is “absent from the body,... present with the Lord.” 2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8). For him death is but a door to eternal happiness and peace.
An unbeliever is one who knows not Christ as his personal Saviour. He is still in his sins. If such a one dies unsaved, then death for him will be a door to everlasting damnation, from which there is no return.
Oh dear reader, which will it be for you? Life or death? Heaven or hell? Where will you spend eternity?
Scripture Quotation
ML-12/22/1963