A reflection on mortality and morality
Last night’s vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and J. D. Vance had no decisive winner, according to a poll conducted just after the event. Unsurprisingly, Democrats overwhelmingly sided with Walz, while Republicans overwhelmingly picked Vance as the winner.
The debate was widely watched for at least three reasons. One was that one in five Americans said they did not know the candidates before the debate. Another was the obvious desire of viewers to learn more about the two parties and their visions for the future.
And another was the fact that when the presidential inauguration takes place in 110 days, one of these two men will be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.
Of the forty-five people who have served as president of the United States, eight died in office. The vice presidents who succeeded them were a varied lot: Andrew Johnson was impeached, avoiding conviction by a single vote, while Theodore Roosevelt became one of our most admired presidents and Harry Truman helped end World War II.
Consequently, what happened last night could shape our national future and invites us to consider two imperatives.
Beware the illusion of immortality
If you were seeking a unifying theme for the day’s news, human mortality and finitude would be high on your list. For example:
- Iran launched a missile attack on Israel yesterday, threatening to escalate the conflict in the Middle East. (For more, see my Daily Article Special Edition.)
- A suspected terror shooting yesterday in the central Israel town of Jaffa murdered seven people and wounded dozens more.
- The flood damage from Hurricane Helene is apocalyptic, according to meteorologists.
- Another major hurricane could strike America later this week.
- An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus (for which there are no vaccines) is raising concern over the possibility of international spread.
- A wave of hoax shooting threats is jolting schools across the country.
- The dockworker strike at US seaports could wreak havoc on global supply chains and the economy.
- A teen suicide crisis is continuing in America.
Nonetheless, we avoid the subject of mortality wherever possible.
We can do so in part because medical advances have pushed death further into the future than ever before. New oncological treatments, for example, have enabled President Carter to live nine years with brain cancer that otherwise would have quickly proven fatal.
In addition, with advances in hospitals and hospice care, few of us actually witness death these days. And video games, movies, and television shows make death more fictional and less real.
But there’s a spiritual factor at work here as well. Satan’s first lie to Adam and Eve is one he repeats to us every day: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). He wants the unsaved to die unsaved and the saved to ignore the fact of their mortality lest they live each day ready for judgment and eternity.
And he uses the illusion of immortality for his nefarious purposes.
Beware the peril of prosperity
Our spiritual enemy employs a second, closely related strategy as well: the peril of prosperity.
Both vice presidential debate candidates did their best last night to convince us that their party would lead Americans to greater flourishing. But we should beware a biblical pattern here.
As the people of Israel prepared to claim their Promised Land, God made this prediction: “When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant” (Deuteronomy 31:20). As a result, Moses warned them: “In the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands” (v. 29).
It was after King David led Israel to peace and prosperity (2 Samuel 10) that he fell into his disastrous sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). The Lord grieved over Israel: “The more they increased, the more they sinned against me” (Hosea 4:7).
By contrast, the psalmist testified: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). Now he can say, “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v. 72).
Wars, crimes, natural disasters, and diseases remind us daily that “we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). One way God redeems them is by using them to turn our hearts from temporal prosperity to eternal realities.
Charles Spurgeon was right: “Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity.”
A resolution that changed history
To experience God’s best today, it is vital that we admit our mortality and choose biblical morality. To this end, as a teenager, Jonathan Edwards resolved:
“Never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”
He later became America’s greatest theologian and the leading preacher of the First Great Awakening.
What if you and I made the same resolution today?
Wednesday news to know:
*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.
Quote for the day:
“On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine will be.” —Charles Spurgeon
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