SYNOPSIS The text reflects on the recent deaths of two well-known men—Christian opera singer Jubilant Sykes and actor-director Rob Reiner—both allegedly killed by their adult sons in similar stabbing incidents in California. The author contrasts the two men’s lives and legacies: Sykes is portrayed as a devoted Christian who used his musical talent to glorify God, while Reiner is described primarily through his political activism, Democratic influence, and secular beliefs. The piece emphasizes core Christian doctrines about sin, repentance, salvation through Jesus Christ, and the belief in only two eternal destinies—heaven or hell. It argues that merely admiring Jesus’ teachings is insufficient without true faith and repentance. While expressing some hope that Reiner may have converted before death, the author concludes by urging readers to reflect on mortality, eternal judgment, and the necessity of confessing Jesus as Lord, citing Romans 10:9. The text ends by noting similar reflections shared by Pastor Don Green.
In this reflective piece, I contemplate the profound and often staggering reality of death, drawing parallels between historical battles and contemporary mortality rates. Citing biblical accounts, particularly from 2 Chronicles and Isaiah, the narrative explores the weight of human loss throughout history, emphasizing the eternal significance of souls lost to death.
The essay reflects on the futility of life pursuits outside of divine love, drawing from Ecclesiastes and Charles Spurgeon’s insights. I share personal experiences of striving after worldly pleasures, revealing a deep spiritual yearning that only God’s grace can satisfy. The journey from emptiness to fulfillment in Christ is emphasized.
A young man on his honeymoon in Florida was tragically struck by lightning, highlighting the unpredictability of death. The piece reflects on the inevitability of mortality and emphasizes the importance of preparing spiritually for death through repentance and faith in Jesus. Life’s fleeting nature calls for persistent devotion to God.
A relative of mine died. My great-uncle’s son who would be my cousin once removed. He was 85. He was married for 62 years, ran our family business for 60 years, led an active, and by all accounts, a happy life.
I remember him as a jokester, lots of bonhomie, personable. In our large Italian family, the relatives all bought houses close to each other, and all us cousins played while the grownup men smoked cigars and played cards and the women sat around the table drinking coffee and talking. We were all around each other, all the time.
I hadn’t seen him in 50 years and I was not close. But still, as I age and my older relatives age even more, it is a time when I do think about eternity.
He was given a “Concelebrated Mass of Christian Burial at the Catholic Sacred Heart Church” which performs a Rite: Roman-Latin rite.
The life he is now living, the one living after death, is likely not as happy.
To the saved, death is something we may be concerned about, but we know our life after death will be filled to the brim with joy and love. Death is a mysterious and foreboding thing to the unsaved, woefully ignored until one’s number of days is up. But as to the other demographic of humans who will face Jesus, the unsaved who THOUGHT they were saved, departing this life into the next will come as a huge shock.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; LEAVE ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.‘
If a person is a lifelong atheist, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Wiccan, Druid or any of the other religions, and does not repent before death, they will go to eternal hell. That is what the Bible teaches. Jesus said,
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me”. (John 14:6).
If you do not go through Jesus who died to cleanse us, then the person will remain in their filthy sin and be punished forever for it.
Matthew 5:22, But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be answerable to the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
Matthew 10:28, And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 13:42, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25:41, “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;”
He is the ONLY way. He is the way, the door, the narrow path. All other religions are false, including Catholicism.
What is hard to see, too, are misguided comments on the Obituary page. I see these all the time. People say things like,
You’re in the loving arms of Jesus now
Rest in peace
See you on the other side
You are now in the residence of the Lord. You will find peace and comfort in his arms.
Until we meet again
No, none of these comments are true if the person spoken of did not repent of the neglect of their soul, address their sin, and seek the One True God. But the unsaved do not really want to contemplate fiery hell, eternal torment, and gnashing of teeth. And the ones who falsely believe they’re saved think they are all set for heaven.
I don’t know the final state of the souls of my relatives who have passed, of course, but it doesn’t look good. One hopes for the best but prepares for the worst upon the Day of Judgment. Time will reveal.
The Rich Man in torment in Hades begged Abraham on the other side to send a message to the Rich Man’s brothers so they would not have to come to this place.
But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'” (Luke 16:29-31).
And Who rose from the dead? Jesus. He lived the perfectly holy life that we cannot, pleasing God the Father. Jesus died on the cross as the sacrificial lamb that God requires, shedding His blood for us. God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus ascended to glory to be seated at the right hand of the Father. If we repent of our sins, Jesus will apply His blood to our lives and we are covered, forgiven, and may join Him in glory when we pass.
Some say that a discussion like this at a time of someone’s mourning is inappropriate. But when, WHEN is the time? It is a perfect time to speak the truth in love. It’s evident that those giving misguided consolation need to hear this, even if it is too late for the departed.
Satan deceives many. But there is only one way to heaven. No matter how many platitudes one may write on an obituary page, there is a reality that is more real than even the real earth, and that is eternity.
for He says, “AT A FAVORABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON A DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “A FAVORABLE TIME,” behold, now is “A DAY OF SALVATION” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness” (Hebrews 3:7-8).
Romans 13:11 And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.“
There was a woman taking out trash in the early pre-dawn who was hit by an illegal alien. His car knocked out of her socks and her body was a hundred feet from her trash can. The DA decided not to press charges.
We read stories like this all the time these days. I’ve mentioned several times recently that we are living in a culture of death. That culture will climax in the moment when all the world rejoices that the Two Witnesses of the Tribulation are killed and lay putrefying in the street. They celebrate their deaths by giving gifts. As opposed to Christmas when we celebrate the life of Jesus birthed on earth in the flesh to live among us.
The dignity of life is nothing these days. The fact that humans are made in the image of God means nothing to an increasing amount of people.
We have become inured to death. There have been over 63Million abortions since it was legalized in 1973. Abortion is death. It kills a human being.
Movies and televisions shows today routinely show death, and as a culture, we are fascinated with seeing death, watching serial killers, true crime, and horror movies. Even TV show title covers and movie posters are literally dark.
I watch the Aussie TV show City Homicide which started in 2007. They begin every episode with this title card:
In today’s real world, there seems to be rare honor in preserving life, caring about life, bringing justice to a life cut short. Oh, I know it exists, but increasingly what we see in the news is that the loss of a human life just doesn’t have the same punch for people. Children raised on vicious and violent video games laugh when someone gets hurt, shot, or killed. They think it’s funny.
But God! We Christians are released from death to live life and live it abundantly! We have life eternal. We among all people know what Life IS, and what death really is. We can and should display the joy that comes with this sure knowledge.
When we are in Christ, we are In the Person who will never die. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind, (John 1:4).
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms on account of My name, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29).
These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46).
You will make known to me the way of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalm 16:11)
You have put joy in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine are abundant. (Psalm 4:7).
So therefore let us be joyful, let our faces shine with peace and happiness that we are saved and entered into full life of joy with the savior. In a culture of death, this will stand out to those staggering under weight of sin and specter of death. As death gleefully chokes our culture with its maniacal joy, let true joy of eternal life flow out from us who know the savior.
I like visiting cemeteries. I always have. I grew up next to a large one. It was beautiful and even had a beautiful name. Stone columns adorned either side of the entry and a babbling brook ran in front and all along the side. Gentle hills were fun to swoop my bike down and were not hard to pedal up. Huge pine trees looking like Christmas trees allowed a solitude-seeking girl to part the boughs and lay inside the greenery on a bed of pine needles, reading Nancy Drew, at once protected and apart from the world. I liked that cemetery for its quietude, but I was not yet old enough to really ponder the eternality of those residing in it, under the ground.
I woke this morning to horrifying news. I’ll relate the news then below I’ll discuss a personal connection to the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
A container ship flying under flag of Singapore, the “Dali,” apparently lost power twice briefly just before passing under the Francis Scott Key Bridge, bouncing it off course for safe navigation under the bridge and causing a collision with a pier. This occurred at about 1:30 AM. The bridge immediately collapsed within seconds, taking whatever traffic was upon it into the Patapsco River, along with the iron trusses, concrete, and a construction crew working on the bridge.
Reportedly, the an officer on board the Dali called a mayday prior to the collision, alerting bridge workers to the danger. Thank the Lord he did, because workers were able to halt traffic from that moment on.
“Police radio traffic recorded at 1:27 a.m. captured responders rushing to evacuate and hold traffic on the bridge after an officer announced that a ship had lost control of its steering, according to records from Broadcastify, an open-source audio streaming service“, reports Washington Post. Sadly, not ALL traffic was cleared because reportedly 7 vehicles went into the water and also the construction crew who were on a meal break.
Reuters aerial view of Francis Scott Key Bridge. It is outermost bridge going up the Patapsco River headed to busy Port of Baltimore. The entire port is now cut off.
Road map showing position of bridge. The entire river to this busy port will be clogged for months as workers rescue, then clear it. Road traffic that used Rt 695 is affected also. The bridge is part of the beltway road system around the city.
“The bridge is more than 8,500 feet, or 1.2 miles, long in total. Its main section spans 1,200 feet and was one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world upon its completion, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance.”
“About 31,000 vehicles a day use the bridge, which equals 11.3 million vehicles per year, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.”
“The river and the Port of Baltimore are both key to the shipping industry on the East Coast, generating more than $3.3 billion a year and directly employing more than 15,000 people.”
The 1,200 feet (366 m) span bridge was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland which crosses the Patapsco River has reportedly Collapsed within the last few minutes after being Struck by a Large Container Ship; a Mass Casualty Incident has been Declared with over a Dozen Cars and many Individuals said to… pic.twitter.com/SsPMU8Mjph
These were reactions on Twitter that I thought were of interest,
Justin Z, @JayZMD Going to be a nightmare for a while. Daily Commutes, interstate Travel to and From NY/ Philly, Shipping to and From the Port of Baltimore, and Amazon has a huge facility right there.
David Hobby @strobist The port of Baltimore has also just been severed. Huge downstream economic impacts for the city.
0:21
Bridge is destroyed utterly.
I’ve sailed under that bridge and I’ve driven over it. The Patapsco River is an important river on the eastern seaboard leading to one of the busiest ports. It receives and sends a lot of container ships but what Port of Baltimore is known for is one of the largest if not THE largest roll-on roll-off ports. That’s items shipped that can roll on and off, like cars, farm machinery, anything that can roll. After the search and rescue turns to recovery and cleanup, which will take months, the port will be closed to all marine traffic. This will cause a disruption in many of our supply chains. Forbes wrote that the port closure will be:
“[P]otentially causing major economic interruption, as the bridge crossed over one of the largest ports in the U.S.—and the single largest port for cars. Besides the impact on car imports, 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo moved through the Port of Baltimore in 2023, worth more than $80 billion, the state said.“
“Outside of the maritime problems, the lack of the bridge will also affect the movement of goods and leave delivery drivers on the East Coast with fewer routes. A number of major companies also have distribution warehouses in an industrial park on the north end of the bridge, including Amazon, BMW, Home Depot, FedEx and Under Armour, Bloomberg reported.”
When I lived on our sailboat cruising up and down the Eastern Seaboard, we passed under the Key Bridge. It is named for Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814. He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry” which when put to music became the Star Spangled Banner we know today. The Coast Guard sets a red, white, and blue striped buoy at the spot where Key had witnessed the British attack, in commemoration.
We sailed under the bridge, and up to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We anchored there for a few days and saw the sights. Then we upped anchor and sailed back down the Patapsco. When we traveled across country in our VW camper, we drove across the bridge. It’s a nice looking bridge, and serves a highly important function- We used it to avoid the traffic around the city of Baltimore. It’s part of Rt 695, a beltway around the congested city.
As much as I like bridges and admire their architecture, I am not a fan of driving on bridges. I’ve always been scared of traveling over them. The Jamestown Bridge in RI was built in 1939 and opened in 1940. Our family used to go for “Sunday Drives” and we’d head over to Newport to enjoy looking at the Mansions from the Gilded Age. To get there you had to drive across the Jamestown bridge. There were metal grates on top that clacked loudly as you went over them. I used to worry about falling through and plunging to Narragansett Bay many feet below.
I’ve walked over the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the Tower Bridge and London Bridge in London the Forth of Forth in Scotland, Chesapeake Bay bridge, 7-mile bridge in Florida, Sunshine Skyway, Golden Gate, sailed under AND traveled over the Brooklyn Bridge (as well as the other NY bridges). Some were white-knuckle traversals, others like Ponte Vecchio and 7-mile which are barely above the water were less anxiety inducing. I have a horrible fear of drowning in a car, unable to get out from some body of water the car plunged into.
I wonder if the people traveling over the Key Bridge had a fear of bridges or if they commuted that way and had become used to it. Either way, the Lord speaks truth. We all have a number of days to live. I cannot imagine the horror of driving over the bridge and suddenly the bottom drops out from under you. The drivers surely didn’t know what was happening exactly, except that death was coming for them.
We all must be ready to meet Jesus at any moment. Death is a specter we all face, the end of our fleshly existence can come at any moment. For 6 of the construction workers eating a meal in the shadow of the night lights from the port, suddenly they were tumbling down 185 feet to the 47 degree water below, to arrive at their final destination moments later. Which destination will it be for you when the end comes? You might not know it’s coming, as the poor unfortunate folks at 1:30 am last night didn’t. Our bodies die but life continues in heaven or in hell.
Repent of your sins to Jesus, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross absorbing the wrath for your sins, was buried, rose again, and ascended to heaven. If you repent He will forgive you and you will escape your due and just punishment because Jesus already took it. Be cleansed, be prayerful and repentant. If you are already saved, be grateful for salvation and His assurance as one of His children that on the day of your death you will be safe forevermore in heaven, alive and joyful.
He was comfortably retired. He was old. On a fine and bright winter’s day in Sunny Florida, an unconverted man left his fine and comfortable home, and drove toward town. Where he was going…only God knows. Perhaps to the store to pick up a newspaper or milk. Perhaps to the diner to commune with cronies. Perhaps just to take a nice drive along the shore and admire the day.
I like visiting cemeteries. I always have. I grew up next to a large one. It was beautiful and even had a beautiful name. Stone columns adorned either side of the entry and a babbling brook ran in front and all along the side. Gentle hills were fun to swoop my bike down and were not hard to pedal up. Huge pine trees looking like Christmas trees allowed a solitude-seeking girl to part the boughs and lay inside the greenery on a bed of pine needles, reading Nancy Drew, at once protected and apart from the world. I liked that cemetery for its quietude, but I was not yet old enough to really ponder the eternality of those residing in it, under the ground.
the-end-time.org 