Thursday, October 18, 2007

Comfort After the Loss of a Loved One

Arthur Pink, the noted biblical expositor, wrote a short meditation on Psalm 116:15: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." This comforted us much after the loss of my mother-in-law about a year ago. Pink's essay is on line and gives insight to those mourning for one who has departed the body to be with the Lord.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doug - yes, this is an outstanding article. I recalling having read it when in the same week both you and Bob Wright had recommended it a while back. I understand, as well, that Pink has an excellent and rather hefty, biographical work on the life of David. I would love to some day have the time to read it.

Paul D. Adams said...

Pink makes some interesting and encouraging observations. Thanks, Doug!

I want to pick up on a theme in Christendom and presupposition of Pink's that is often negelected.

What of a biblical view of life after death? I'm curious what others think.

According to Philippians 1:21-23...

a) Paul seems certain that death ushered him immediately into the presence of Christ. There is no hint of unconscious existence or “soul sleep” here — only conscious existence with Christ.

b) Paul implies a disembodied state when present with the Lord (cf., 2 Cor. 5:8; 12:2-3). This is not to say that this state is indefinite, since elsewhere he speaks of inhabiting a resurrected body (1 Cor. 15:35-58).

c) Most likely Paul believed in some kind of intermediate-disembodied state and a future-embodied state of the believer.

Thoughts?

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Paul:

I think you are right on the theology of the afterlife. The psychology of death is another, but related, matter.