Kravitz
‘I call on people from around the world to pray for him’ – Rev Al Sharpton, civil rights campaigner
‘His star will shine forever’ – Mariah Carey
‘We are out of our joy. He is out of his pain’ – Rev Jesse Jackson
‘He is now the brightest star in the sky’ – TMF music channel
What effect does this have?:
It is important to be clear about two things before we draw general implications:
I am no judge of man. My opinion of people, whether celebrities or not has no bearing on their eternal destiny. God is the only judge. I am therefore not judging or indeed implying anything about Michael Jackson. I hope he came to faith in Christ before he died. But we also have to be realistic or we too are chipping away at truth. Therefore we must consistently proclaim that God is clear in his Word about the way of salvation only being through his Son Jesus Christ and his atoning death on the cross. If anyone dies without this repentance of sin and faith then their eternal destiny is also very clear.
The reactions above I would suggest are generally typical and imply the following assumptions:
The person is at peace and out of pain – As explained above the bible tells us that this is the case only if they follow God’s prescribed route to salvation, through His son Jesus Christ. That the person can still be prayed for, as that will somehow help – The bible tells us that death is the gateway to one of two destinies. There is no way to change that after the event.
Poetry
I was recently at a funeral and one of the family members read Henry Holland’s famous poem to the congregation.
‘Death is nothing at all’
Henry Scott Holland