Death comes to us all, and God can and does work through even this for good to those who love him (Romans 8:28), but never lull yourself into the lie that death itself is anything but the terrible wages of our sin, from which we desperately need salvation (Romans 6:23). Remember that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Scripture is abundantly clear that we were never meant for death. And lest we forget, the experience of grief — to borrow from C.S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain — shouts as with a megaphone to remind us.

“What do you consider a ‘good death’?”
A furrow creased my eyebrows. The interviewer and I had spent the last ninety minutes discussing the intricacies of end-of-life care, delving into hard topics such as life-support measures, hospice, and advance directives. I navigated those delicate subjects with confidence, but this question so troubled me that I lapsed into silence. “I hate that phrase,” I finally answered.
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Really? Why?”
While she awaited my reply, a plethora of faces and voices cluttered my mind. I saw swollen eyes and tear-stained cheeks. I felt desperate grasps of my arm as loved ones crumpled to the floor in agony. I recalled the questions that hung in the air after the dying drew their last breath. I heard cries of shock and heartbreak echoing on and on, like breakers on a relentless sea.
“Because death is never good,” I said. The memories gripped me, and my voice caught. “Grief testifies to the backwardness of it. That we cry hints at an undoing of God’s created order. He designed us for something different.”
Is Death Ever Good?
The question of a “good death” may seem reasonable, even natural, given shifting views on death in Western countries. In 2021, ten thousand people in Canada died by physician-assisted suicide (PAS), wherein a doctor prescribes a lethal dose of medication for a person to self-administer, ending his own life. Canadian law now permits individuals with mental rather than terminal illness to pursue the practice. In other words, those who are otherwise healthy but suffer from psychological conditions, like depression, can seek medical help to end their own lives. In the United States, the legalization of PAS creeps across more and more states yearly.
Such trends hint at an increasingly prevalent viewpoint that death, rather than a terrible consequence of the fall, is a reasonable option to escape suffering. According to this thinking, death can be “good” if it provides relief from pain. What is more, the movement reflects a culture that upholds self-determination as an ultimate good; we live for ourselves, rather than for God.
Dear friend, when you encounter such ideas, remember that Scripture refers to death not as a phase to celebrate, but as the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Death comes to us all, and God can and does work through even this for good to those who love him (Romans 8:28), but never lull yourself into the lie that death itself is anything but the terrible wages of our sin, from which we desperately need salvation (Romans 6:23). Remember that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
Scripture is abundantly clear that we were never meant for death. And lest we forget, the experience of grief — to borrow from C.S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain — shouts as with a megaphone to remind us.
For Now We Groan
God has confronted me with the harsh realities of death and grief more frequently than I ever would choose. As a trauma surgeon, I witnessed deaths both sudden and prolonged, peaceful and traumatic. Many of these losses imprinted on my memory, the tragedies and sorrows burned into my mind as with a branding iron.
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Written by Rachel M. Coleman |
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Because women are the only members of the human species that bear children—that is to say, because women bear in themselves the future of humanity—if there is an attempt to change, foundationally and fundamentally, what it means to be human, the attempt will manifest first and most visibly in women. Byrne writes that “what is a woman?” is “the main question” of TWG’s third chapter, and as anyone who pays attention to this discourse knows, that question may be the most volatile question to ask in our current moment. Why doesn’t it occur to Byrne to ask why the definition of “woman” is in contention rather than “man?” Kellie-Jay Keen knows why, as well as the radical feminist philosophers I mentioned above: because the very fabric of who and what we are is at stake.

It is not an overstatement to say that the question of sexual difference, and its counter-concept, gender, is among the most contentiously debated today. We should think about why the topic inspires such vitriol, but one possible reason is that everyone has skin in the game: to be human is to be either a man or a woman, and therefore, being human requires us to think about what it means to be a man or a woman. Every bit of ourselves is expressed either as male or female, and therefore, the questions surrounding sexual difference touch on—or perhaps coincide with—questions of our humanity.
One of the consequences of this, however, has been an absolute morass of once unquestioned terms. On the face of it, this seems silly: there are men and there are women, and we all bring something different to the table when it comes to being human. It shouldn’t be that complicated.
And yet those who pay even the least attention to this discourse (and even perhaps those who wish to pay no attention) know that it is complicated. Part of the reason is that sexual difference is more nuanced than we have previously thought it to be, but another part—probably the larger part—is that the terms of the discourse are intentionally confused and obfuscated by gender ideologues (those who contend that gender is different from sex). Gender ideologues want us to think that sex and gender are much more complicated than most of us can understand, and that the evidence we collect from the world with our own senses (as well as that of the billions of humans who preceded us in history) is not reliable.
Alex Byrne’s Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions (TWG) is a mostly successful attempt to cut through the intentional discomposition of the terms of discourse about sexual difference. In an extremely well-researched manner, Byrne addresses many of the “fictions” gender ideologues use to make their arguments. One example: many note that 1.7 percent of the population is intersex, which would mean one out of almost every fifty people have some combination of both male and female genitalia. As Byrne demonstrates in chapter three, that number was made up by Anne Fausto-Sterling in her article “How sexually dimorphic are we?” and that the number is probably 0.015 percent. Such research and clarification alone make the book worth reading.
As Byrne himself writes in both the Introduction and Coda, TWG is a book about sex—not sexual intercourse, but human beings as sexually differentiated creatures. Byrne’s thesis is that “using ‘gender’ to mean anything other than sex is to obscure important issues for no good reason.” In making his argument, Byrne provides a great deal of evidence from biology, history, sociology, and psychology. He carefully sifts through a great deal of nonsense that passes for research in the fairly new subject of “gender studies,” exposing the gender ideologues’ faulty logic. 
On this score, Judith Butler is Byrne’s main target: the title of the book is clearly aimed at Butler’s Gender Trouble, first published in 1990 and largely understood to be a foundational text for gender studies. There, Butler expands on Simone de Beauvoir’s famous proclamation from The Second Sex that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” and concludes that sex and gender are both socially constructed. Byrne criticizes Butler mostly on grounds of how unclear her writing is rather than any full examination of her first principles. Lack of clarity and precision seem, for Byrne, to be the deepest sin a thinker can commit.
Byrne explores cases of individuals to whom gender ideologues often point to demonstrate that “sex is a vast, infinitely malleable continuum.” These are generally people who have some sort of chromosomal or hormonal abnormality that leads to their being not immediately identifiable as their natal sex, and are thus raised by their parents as the opposite sex (the author makes it clear early in the book that such abnormalities do not result in a “disordered person: indeed, he or she may be the most wonderful human being you could ever hope to meet”).
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Prayer is the way that we demonstrate that we are not simply materialists who think that all our blessings come to us through material means, but know that every good and perfect gift comes to us from our Father. Prayer demonstrates that we believe God is the source of our lives and the sustainer of our lives—that we do not, “live by bread alone.” 

Do you believe in God? This post isn’t about evidence for the existence of God—not an apologetic seeking to convince unbelievers of God’s existence—they know. This blog is for you: average Sunday-going, Bible-believing Christian. Do you believe in God? This post isn’t about evidence for but demonstration of belief. 
“Of course I believe in God! I’m in church every time the doors are open, and serve wherever I’m asked”, might be your reply, Thank you for that. I hope the Lord blesses you in that service, but that’s not what I’m asking.
“I’ve read through the Bible multiple times,” and maybe you’re able to quote obscure tidbits from it, and you know it well. That will absolutely serve you and is good to know.
“I know our standards and have read through them and multiple systematic theologies.” Or, “I’m a moderator on a very popular Facebook group where our entire purpose is to discuss God and the things of God.” 
Great! But none of those answer my question. 
I’m not asking if you know lots of things about God. There are lots of blogs on the internet that talk about God. There are lots of apologetic ministries that will give you tools to argue the minutia of the transcendental argument, the teleological argument, or any number of arguments. There are lots of Facebook groups and pages that discuss any number of points of Biblical interpretation or theological points or argue politely or not so politely. Beyond that you can study theology and even memorize large chunks of the Bible. But again, none of those things answer my question. 
Now, out of all those things, which one shows you truly believe?How much do you need to know in order to show that you believe? Do you need to be able to cite and recite topics concerning God? Again, being able to do all of those things is great and can lead us into deeper knowledge of the Lord—and we definitely want that! But at the end of the day, what one thing puts rubber to the road and demonstrates that you believe in God? 
What is it that shows you recognize who he is and who you are and you are in desperate need of him, and that you believe that he alone is able to supply you with life and with spiritual growth and with mercy you need to get through each moment? What is it that demonstrates your belief in the Lord?
Prayer. 
There is nothing else that demonstrates that we understand our dependence upon God for every part of life like prayer. Prayer is an admission of utter dependence and reliance upon God. If it any point we attempt to undertake our lives without recognition of our dependence upon God we are functional agnostics or even functionally atheists.
We are not first and foremost materialists who think that the answer for every problem is to search after it in a way that is visible. We don’t think that God wound up the world and now it’s up to me to discover and find ll that I need. No. He is actively and intimately involved in his creation. He has every holy resource available to me for the asking. It is not my striving that will meet all my needs, it is his blessing that will. 
How do I know him more? Attend to my Bible reading or theology study with prayer asking his blessing. How will I overcome in my battle against sin? Prayer. How will I see my needs supplied and met in a way that I am content and not greedy for more or dissatisfied with my lot? Prayer. How will my lot improve? Prayer. 
Prayer is the way that we demonstrate that we are not simply materialists who think that all our blessings come to us through material means, but know that every good and perfect gift comes to us from our Father. Prayer demonstrates that we believe God is the source of our lives and the sustainer of our lives—that we do not, “live by bread alone.” 
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