Sitting with a group of people who were chatting away, I overheard a man advising a middle-aged woman. “Be aware of the actuarial table,” he told her. I didn’t know what he meant by this statement.
So when I went home, I did some research and found out that actuarial tables are neatly arranged columns of data on a spreadsheet used by the life insurance industry to predict the average life spans for people of different ages. For instance, a 59-year-old will, on average, have 23.6 years left to live. They may also contain a column listing the probabilities of persons of different ages suffering death in the next year and perhaps another column listing the probabilities for persons of different ages suffering death within the next 10 years.
I suppose what the man meant when he said, “Be aware of the actuarial table,” was for the lady not to squander away her time when she only had a limited amount of it.
“Beware of the actuarial table” is good advice for every person because it reminds us that we will not live forever and that life at best is very uncertain. We have a limited amount of time on this earth, and then eternity begins.
Even if a person lived to the ripe old age of 100, 200, or even 400 years old, what is this amount of time in comparison with eternity? It’s almost nothing! And we are all headed to eternity.
What Comes After Death?
Actuarial tables predict the probable age someone will die. For this reason, they are sometimes called morbidity tables. But they cannot tell you where you will spend eternity after that death. To find this out, you need to go to God’s Word. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). Eternal life is only “through” the Lord Jesus. He is the One who conquered death and arose from the grave.
Those persons who have repented of their sins and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ will, in the future, enter into heaven. On earth they came by God’s grace to know the love of Him who died on the cross. In heaven they will come to know this love in all its surpassing greatness. When it comes to Christ’s love, what we know of it on earth could never be more than a short prelude to the endless symphony we will hear in heaven. There is nothing morbid about heaven. It is all about life. Those in heaven will exude life. Death will be swallowed up of life and have no part to play there.
On the other hand, people that never repent will be sent away to hell at death, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:4444Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:44)). Hell is the exact opposite of heaven in every way except for one — its duration. Both will last forever.
Hell is a morbid place where death never dies. In this life, death comes once at the end. But those sent out of God’s presence for rejecting the Lord of life will experience the grief of death non-stop for all eternity. The sufferings in hell will never be extinguished. It is a place where misery abounds and knows no relief.
The Lord Jesus spoke more about hell than any other person in the Bible. Here are three things He said about the subject:
Heaven and hell are the two eternal destinies, and if you don’t end up in the joys of one, you will surely end up in the misery of the other.
God has given each one of us only a limited amount of time to make the all-important decision to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. No one knows how long that time may be. Those who put it off run the risk of losing their never-dying souls in hell.
Won’t you wisely consider the shortness of life and come to the Savior of sinners who said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-2625Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:25‑26)).
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
You will make a choice that lasts forever, but you may not realize that you are actually making your choice right now. In the next story you might consider, Was Betty Heath aware she was making Her Fatal Choice?