The Living Dead
The will to live is one of man's strongest drives and instincts. Until the twentieth century the will to live was threatened only by the usual enemies - poverty, disease, and an occasional war limited in scope and killing power. But as man's weapon-making became more knowledgeable, his killing power became more menacing.
Then science developed the nuclear weapon. Suddenly a mushroom cloud enveloped whole cities; and although physically it soon dissipated, psychologically it remains with us - its threat hangs over us like the sword of Damocles.
We are what Noel Coward calls the "death-sentence generation." Week after week I receive scores of letters asking, "Will civilization be destroyed?" "Is the end of the world near?" "Do my children have a future?" "Is there any use planning for tomorrow?" "Is there any promise of life after death?"
Before the Last Mile
There is a hopelessness and a pessimism in the air not felt by any previous
generation. Bars and night clubs are filled with people who are saying,
"What's the use? Let's eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we
may die." Our revelry, our desperate pleasure - seeking, our thoughtless
actions, our drunkenness, our obsession with sex, even our juvenile
delinquency, are all expressions of a pessimism, a despair, peculiar
to this death-sentence generation.
We are like a convict condemned to death who is given his choice of food and drink before he walks the last mile. There is a sense of impending doom in the world. There is a feeling in the air that something terrible is about to happen. There is a growing conviction that things cannot go on as they are.
We are the living dead, who walk but have little goal or destination. We talk emptily about all the things that do not matter, but are silent and unconcerned about eternal values. We are like men under hypnosis; we seem to be under the spell of a power outside ourselves. We are men who have wrestled with principalities and powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places - and lost. The spark, the drive, the glow, the thrill of life is gone. Noel Coward wrote in one of his musical plays:
"In this strange illusion,
Chaos and confusion,
People seem to lose their way.
What is there to strive for,
Love, or keep alive for?"
We are the death-sentence generation. The Bible also calls us the death-sentence generation. Ever since Adam rebelled against God, man has been under the sentence of death.
The Pull of Life
The Bible knows all about us and tells about us:
- Because of Adam all human beings will die a physical death
- The consequences of sin is spiritual death
- We are constantly sinning in our thoughts.
- Our sinful acts and thoughts will kill us.
The Bible reveals the marks of death which are upon this death-sentence generation.
What are the characteristics of the living dead ?
First, not one of us is without sin. It is easy to do wrong and difficult to do right. The pull of life is downward. Our failure to cope with evil has given us guilt feelings which have sent us to the psychiatrists. The burden of sin we bear is too great a strain for our souls, and millions are breaking under the load. One-half of all the hospital beds in America today are occupied by mental patients, many of them driven there by a sense of guilt.
We are Spent Arrows
Our trouble is that we are out of harmony with God. The chief end of man," says the Westminster Catechism, "is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Sin is the catalyst, the dividing force, that isolates man from God. We were not made to serve sin; we were made for God, and without Him we suffer all kinds of psychological problems. We have missed the mark. We are like spent arrows, fashioned beautifully for a specific purpose but shot aimlessly into the air with no purpose in view. This is what the Bible calls sin; it is missing the mark.
Sin is the mark of the living dead. It makes us impervious to God, insensitive to His justice of love, and deaf to His Holy Spirit. Sin deadens, hardens and callouses. That is a telling mark of this generation that is sentenced to death.
The second mark of the living dead is the words
that come out of our mouths. Your lips were made to praise God,
but instead you profane His Name. This
is a mark of a death-sentence generation. Christ said that it
is the words we speak that defiles us.
In this age of cynicism and bitterness we have become past masters at the art of profanity and obscenity. We hear filthy talk on television, in modern movies and in private conversation. The words "damn" and "hell" are bandied about as nonchalantly as simple words like "and" and "well.". Our throats have become an "open grave" from which all kinds of putrefaction and filth emanate.
But profanity is not the only thing that comes out of our mouths. Irreverence, uncouthness and rudeness, criticism, gossip and slander proceed from the mouths of those who are under the sentence of death. Respect for God always engenders a respect for the dignity of the individual; and when God finds no place in our lives and in our talk, disrespect for others flows out of the cesspool of our conversation. Many of our modern writers are so filled with sin that they can only think the dirty and the evil and the obscene.
Restlessness is a Symptom
Third, the restlessness of this age is a symptom of our lostness and separation from God. Highways are jammed, airports are crowded, people are on the move. Doctors' offices are packed, psychiatrists' couches are worn, hospitals are overcrowded, with people seeking release from the tensions and anxieties of modern living. We are surely like men in the death cell awaiting the footsteps of the guard who will lead us to the death chamber. We are ill at ease, nervous, tension-filled, restless. We are the living dead, the death- sentence generation.
Fourth, today the average individual has no fear of God. He does not live "with eternity in view." He has forgotten that he is not an animal but is created in the image of God, a living soul. He is not aware that he will have to answer to God. "He who has no vision of eternity," said Carlyle, "has no hold on time." John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, said, "I've had a long life to look back upon and an eternity to look forward to." You don't hear much about eternity today. "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Yet, a Radiant Picture
I have drawn a morbid, dark picture for you. But it is no darker, no more morbid, than the Bible depicts it. The truth is, God looks upon all who are out of Christ as members of the death-sentence generation.
But, using what we are as a background, He paints a radiant picture of what we can be in Jesus Christ. Through Christ we can experience a wholeness and fulness of life. Just as certainly as Jesus Christ walked to the tomb of the dead Lazarus and called him forth, new and alive, He will impart to you His redeeming and life-giving resurrection power.
He will change your nature so that, instead of going "out of the way," you will walk in His way. He will convert you so thoroughly that instead of your throat being an "open grave" from which flows profanity and obscenity, it will be a well of praise and adoration to Him. He will take away your heart of stone and give you a new heart so that your every desire will be to please Him and serve others.
You who have known no peace will be given God's strengthening, perfect peace. Instead of living irreverently, you will know God to be real and personal. He will share your burdens, strengthen you, and be a true Companion who will guide your feet in life's perilous journey.
And, He will forgive all your past sins. The load of guilt with which you are so burdened at the moment will be lifted, and there will be the fresh, exhilarating sense of forgiveness.
From Criminal to Citizen
This is the good news of the Gospel. The hopeless are given hope, a new lease on life. The sinful are forgiven, the slate of the past wiped clean. The condemned are given a new life; they are no longer members of the death-sentence generation, but citizens of heaven, members of the "commonwealth of the redeemed."
We are sentenced to death because we have sinned and rebelled against God. But that sentence of death fell upon Jesus Christ at the Cross. And the Bible says that because He died, because He took the judgment, hell and death for us, we can have new life, we can have forgiveness, we can be new creatures in Christ Jesus and become citizens of heaven. It is all yours today - free - if you will receive Christ into your heart.
Adapted from “Billy Graham Speaks on Issues of Life and Death”, © 1982 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
