Death

Death is the Belief in Guilt/Hate/Fear

Death is a human affirmation of a belief in hate. That is why the Bible says “There is no death,” and that is why I demonstrated that death does not exist. - ACIM

You were not born to die

You were not born to die. You cannot change, because your function has been fixed by God. All other goals are set in time, and change that time might be preserved, excepting one. Forgiveness does not aim at keeping time, but at its ending, when it has no use. Its purpose ended, it is gone. And where it once held seeming sway is now restored the function God established for His Son in full awareness. Time can set no end to its fulfillment nor its changelessness. There is no death, because the living share the function their Creator gave to them. Life’s function cannot be to die. It must be life’s extension, that it be as one forever and forever, without end. This world will bind your feet and tie your hands and kill your body only if you think that it was made to crucify God’s Son. For even though it was a dream of death, you need not let it stand for this to you. Let this be changed, and nothing in the world but must be changed as well. For nothing here but is defined as what you see it for. How lovely is the world whose purpose is forgiveness of God’s Son! How free from fear, how filled with blessing and with happiness! And what a joyous thing it is to dwell a little while in such a happy place! Nor can it be forgot, in such a world, it is a little while till timelessness comes quietly to take the place of time. - ACIM

There is no Death

“As you approach the beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death. There is no death, but there is a belief in death.” - ACIM

Life Eternal

“In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” - Proverbs 12:28 (KJV)

Thus does the miracle undo all things the world attests can never be undone. And hopelessness and death must disappear before the ancient clarion call of life. This call has power far beyond the weak and miserable cry of death and guilt. The ancient calling of the Father to His Son, and of the Son unto his own, will yet be the last trumpet that the world will ever hear. Brother, there is no death. - ACIM

ACIM LESSON 163: There Is No Death

There is no death. The Son of God is free.

Death is a thought which takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety, or doubt; as anger, faithlessness, and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you. All such thoughts are but reflections of the worshipping of death as savior and as giver of release.

Embodiment of fear, the host of sin, god of the guilty, and the lord of all illusions and deceptions, does the thought of death seem mighty. For it seems to hold all living things within its withered hand, all hopes and wishes in its blighting grasp, all goals perceived but in its sightless eyes. The frail, the helpless, and the sick bow down before its image, thinking it alone is real, inevitable, worthy of their trust. For it alone will surely come.

All things but death are seen to be unsure, too quickly lost however hard to gain, uncertain in their outcome, apt to fail the hopes they once engendered and to leave the taste of dust and ashes in their wake, in place of aspirations and of dreams. But death is counted on. For it will come with certain footsteps when the time has come for its arrival. It will never fail to take all life as hostage to itself.

Would you bow down to idols such as this? Here is the strength and might of God Himself perceived within an idol made of dust. Here is the opposite of God proclaimed as lord of all creation; stronger than His will for life, the endlessness of love, and Heaven’s perfect, changeless constancy. Here is the will of Father and of Son defeated finally, and laid to rest beneath the headstone death has placed upon the body of the holy Son of God.

Unholy in defeat, he has become what death would have him be. His epitaph, which death itself has written, gives no name to him, for he has passed to dust. It says but this: “Here lies a witness God is dead.” And this it writes again and still again, while all the while its worshippers agree, and kneeling down with foreheads to the ground, they whisper fearfully that it is so.

It is impossible to worship death in any form and still select a few you would not cherish and would yet avoid, while still believing in the rest. For death is total. Either all things die, or else they live and cannot die. No compromise is possible. For here again we see an obvious position, which we must accept if we be sane: What contradicts one thought entirely cannot be true unless its opposite is proven false.

The idea of the death of God is so preposterous that even the insane have difficulty in believing it. For it implies that God was once alive and somehow perished—killed, apparently, by those who did not want Him to survive. Their stronger will could triumph over His, and so eternal life gave way to death. And with the Father died the Son as well.

Death’s worshippers may be afraid. And yet can thoughts like these be fearful? If they saw that it is only this which they believe, they would be instantly released. And you will show them this today. There is no death, and we renounce it now in every form, for their salvation and our own as well. God made not death. Whatever form it takes must therefore be illusion. This the stand we take today. And it is given us to look past death and see the life beyond.

Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your love, which shines in everything. We live and breathe in You alone. We are not separate from Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your will. And we abide where You have placed us, in the life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever. We accept Your thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. Amen.

In the Gospel of Mark, generally agreed to be the earliest Gospel, written around the year 70,[4][5] Jesus predicts his death three times, recorded in Mark 8:31-33, 9:30-32 and 10:32-34. Scholars note that this Gospel also contains verses in which Jesus appears to predict his Passion and suggest that these represent the earlier traditions available to the author. Some scholars, such as Walter Schmithals, suggest a redactional formulation of the author, though Schmithals states there are "vexxing questions" relating to the sayings.[14] Meanwhile, other scholars analyze these arguments and present a different view, and believe these sayings are historical. Ultimately, no consensus has emerged among scholars.[15]

The setting for the first prediction is somewhere near Caesarea Philippi, immediately after Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus tells his followers that "the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again".[16] When Peter objects, Jesus tells him: "Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men". (Mark 8:31–33)

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew 16:21–28 includes this episode,[17] saying that "from that time", i.e. on a number of occasions, Jesus "began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed ...".[18]

The Gospel of Luke 9:22–27 shortens the account, dropping the dialogue between Jesus and Peter.

Each time Jesus predicts his arrest and death, the disciples in some way or another manifest their incomprehension, and Jesus uses the occasion to teach them new things.[19] The second warning appears in Mark 9:30–32 (and also in Matthew 17:22–23) as follows:

He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.[20]

The third prediction in Matthew 20:17–19 specifically mentions crucifixion:

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"[21]

The fourth prediction in Matthew is found in Matthew 26:1–2, immediately before the plot made against him by the religious Jewish leaders:

"As you know, the Passover is two days away — and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

The hypothetical Q source, widely considered by scholars to be a collection of sayings of Jesus used, in addition to the Gospel of Mark, by the authors of the Luke and Matthew Gospels, is not thought to contain any predictions of the death of Jesus.[22]

Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of Luke follows the same basic pattern as Mark and Matthew in recording Jesus' predictions of his death, though with some notable differences in presentation and emphasis. Luke includes the three main predictions found in the other Synoptic Gospels, but often shortens the accounts and omits certain details.

The first prediction appears in Luke 9:21–22, where Luke drops the dialogue between Jesus and Peter that is prominent in both Mark and Matthew. Luke simply records Jesus saying:

The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.[23]

The second prediction is found in Luke 9:43–45, where Luke emphasizes the disciples' lack of understanding:

But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.[24]

The third and most detailed prediction appears in Luke 18:31–34, where Jesus tells the twelve disciples:

We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.[25]

Luke again emphasizes that "the disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about."[26]

Scholars note that Luke's treatment of these predictions tends to emphasize the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and the disciples' inability to comprehend Jesus' words until after the resurrection.[27] Luke also includes unique material, such as Jesus' statement in Luke 13:33 that "surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!"[28]

Gospel of John

In the conversation with Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, Jesus pointed Nicodemus towards his death when he said

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up[29]

Jesus was intimating that something similar would happen to him as in Numbers 21:4-9,[30] where Moses raised a bronze statue of a serpent up on a pole.

In chapters 12 to 17 this gospel also mentions several occasions where Jesus prepared his disciples for his departure, which the gospel also refers to as his "glorification":[31]

Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.[32]

Comparison of Synoptic Gospel predictions

In each of the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus foretells of his own death and resurrection after three days. The concordances are summarized in the following table:

the prediction given by Jesus in Mark 9:32 has one of its main references in the Wisdom of Solomon:[13]

12 Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education. 17 Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience. Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.

— Book of Wisdom 2:12, 17-20 (KJV translation)