Thanatophobia 101

[WebersHome]

[font=Verdana]-
â—� Gen 2:15-17 . .The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

I'm confident in my own mind that death was common in Adam's garden due to the natural life cycles of bugs, birds, beasts, and vegetation. So he fully understood the threat. But apparently the prospect of his own death gave Adam no cause for alarm; he ate from the tree in spite of God's warning.

â—� Gen 3:6 . .When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Now, prior to tasting the forbidden fruit, Adam and his wife were comfortable in the buff.

â—� Gen 2:25 . .The man and his wife were both indecently exposed, and they felt no shame.

A very definite transformation occurred in Adam when he ate the fruit; easily seen by the fact that he suddenly became no longer comfortable in the buff like before.

â—� Gen 3:7 . .Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they became aware that they were indecently exposed; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Not only did Adam become uncomfortable in the buff, but for the very first time on record he experienced fear.

â—� Gen 3:8-10 . .Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was indecently exposed; so I hid."

In other words: in spite of his little apron, Adam still felt indecently exposed; and not only that; but he also felt vulnerable; defined by Webster's as capable of being physically or emotionally wounded and/or open to attack or damage.

Where before; prior to eating the forbidden fruit, Adam was indifferent to death; all of a sudden it loomed large in his thinking because of his newly-acquired sense of vulnerability.

Thanatophobia is psychological jargon for fear of death. Everybody has it to one degree or another. Most of us merely dread death; i.e. we're aware it's inevitable but we don't let it get to us except maybe in times of mortal danger; while others suffer all the time with a stubborn, deep-seated anxiety about dying.

According to the Bible; fear of death associates humanity with the Devil.

â—� Heb 2:13-16 . . "Here am I, and the children God has given me." Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the Devil --and release those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Christians aren't freed from the fear of death via their trust in Christ's crucifixion. No, they go right on dreading it as usual. I'm 74 years old and have been among Christians all my life; both in church and out of church. In all my years I've yet to meet even one Christian who no longer dreads death; they all continue to dread it and I'd really have to question both their sanity and their honesty if they didn't.

But due to Christ's crucifixion, the fear of death no longer associates the children of God with the Devil; viz: though their fear of death isn't gone, the association is gone. In my mind's eye that is really important because people associated with the Devil must certainly be on track to share his fate.

/[/font]

[WebersHome]

[font=Verdana]-
Sometimes people that talk bravely about death are fearing it and don't know it.

Take for example Peter:

â—� Matt 26:31-33 . .Then Jesus told them: This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered." Peter replied: Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.

â—� Matt 26:55-56 . . At that time Jesus said to the crowd: Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

When I was an eighteen year-old youngster in training to be a paratrooper back in 1962, I thought it would be easy to jump out of a Hercules C-130 until the jumpmaster opened the exit door on the first flight. From my location in the plane; I could look almost straight down and get a good feel for the altitude. When I saw how far below the ground was, and all those man-made features in miniature, and the patchwork quilt of property lines stretching far and wide below us; it struck me that I would be leaving the relative safety of the plane and falling into an abyss. For a moment I panicked, but managed to pull myself together in time to follow the other guys out into the sky.

It's only at the moment of truth when we find out just how brave we really are. Most of us have never gone thru death before. It will be a new experience: for many of us, it will be our very first jump; so to speak.

/[/font]

[WebersHome]

[font=Verdana]-
Fear of death isn't reasonable, it's emotional.

Fear of death is also organic; it's triggered by centers in the fleshy parts of the human brain called amygdalae.

It's easy to be rational about death when all is calm; but when a cause of death comes their way, people usual react without thinking. Take for example the recent school shooting in Florida. Nobody thought to throw things like chairs and books at Nikolas Cruz to distract him. He went about his grizzly business unopposed because most everyone lost their minds and panicked.

/[/font]