R.C. Sproul on Death

There has been an interview with R.C. Sproul on His Latest Book Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in the Christian Life. You can read the full interview here. Here was one of the questions and his response.

QUESTION: You observe in the book that death is a vocation. Can you explain what you mean by that?

SPROUL: What I mean by vocation is that it’s a “calling.” During my life I can be productive as a teacher of the Word of God. But there may come a time where I’m incapacitated. I may contract a terminal illness, and at that point I have a new calling, and that is to die, and to die in faith. The Bible speaks about two ways of dying. A person can die in sin, or die in faith. It’s important for Christians that we die in the faith. If we look at our deaths and our illnesses as simple accidents of nature, or the fickle finger of fate, then it’s difficult to summon the courage and the joy to persevere in the midst of that affliction. But if we realize that it is of God that we are in this situation and that He has called us to bear this at this time, it makes all the difference in the world in terms of how we’re able to handle the difficulties attached to the suffering.