![]() They do not become phantoms or shadows, the mere echoes of a life once possessed. They do not pass away, as if they slowly receded from sight and from importance. The biblical understanding of the fate of those who die in Christ is entirely in the other direction. ![]() Should we really use the same term to speak of friends and family members we hope to see again? The Apostle John claims that the darkness is passing away, as well as the “world and its lusts.” Their future is inconsequential. Paul, for example, says that the world in its present form is passing away. ![]() “Passed away” is not only imprecise it has negative overtones in the Bible. They passed? Passed what? Were they driving a car? Passed where? I would understand, “They passed this way,” but not “they passed away” - away to where? What is wrong with saying that someone “passed away,” or as some people say, with even greater economy, “he passed”? There is nothing wrong with it, but it is imprecise. But I have also been dissatisfied with euphemisms like, “he passed away,” or workarounds like, “he’s gone to heaven.” When my best friend’s younger brother said to me, “Your brother died!” it felt as if he had twisted the blade that was lodged in my soul.īecause of that experience, I have tried to be tactful, delicate even, when speaking of someone’s death. I never wanted to think about my brother’s death, and I hated to hear other people speak about it. When I was in sixth grade, my brother died, and I carried his death inside of me, a sword that had pierced my own soul. I understand the desire to spare people pain.
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