Cowardly Or Courageous?

Cowardly Or Courageous?

Two of America’s greatest presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, often exchanged letters. In one, written in 1816 when they were 81 and 73 respectively, Adams wrote that the British statesman, Bolingbroke, had said that “his philosophy was not sufficient to support him in his last hours.” He added that the French philosopher, D’Alembert, said on his deathbed, “Happy are they who have courage, but I have none.” Adams summed up the life of another French philosopher of the same period this way: “Voltaire behaved like the greatest coward of them all at his death, as he had behaved like the wisest fool of them all in his lifetime.”

Adams then penned his own thoughts about death and the afterlife to Jefferson, in contrast to those of these three men who had lived according to a “hollow and deceptive philosophy” that left them fearful in their last hours. They had trusted the teaching of men instead of Christ. They had lived according to the “basic principles of this world” and not according to Christ (Col. 2:8). Then came the hour of death, the time of testing for all philosophies of life, and they knew they were without hope.

When death comes our way, will we be like Bolingbroke, D’Alembert and Voltaire – fearful cowards with a philosophy of life that has failed us at death? Or will we victorious like the Apostle Paul who wrote: “Death has been swallowed up in victory ... Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:54,57)? Want help deciding? We can show you how.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”(Colossians 2:8NIV)

By Larry Ondrejack