Thanatophobia 101

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WebersHome

Senior Member
Dec 9, 2014
1,940
32
0
#1
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Gen 2:15-17 . .The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of
Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man,
"You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
surely die."

I'm confident in my own mind that death was common in Adam's garden due
to the natural life cycles of bugs, birds, beasts, and vegetation. So he fully
understood the threat. But apparently the prospect of his own death gave
Adam no cause for alarm; he ate from the tree in spite of God's warning.

Gen 3:6 . .When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for
food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she
took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with
her, and he ate it.

Now, prior to tasting the forbidden fruit, Adam and his wife were comfortable
in the buff.

Gen 2:25 . .The man and his wife were both indecently exposed, and they
felt no shame.

A very definite transformation occurred in Adam when he ate the fruit; easily
seen by the fact that he suddenly became no longer comfortable in the buff
like before.

Gen 3:7 . .Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they became
aware that they were indecently exposed; and they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves loin coverings.

Not only did Adam become uncomfortable in the buff, but for the very first
time on record he experienced fear.

Gen 3:8-10 . .Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God
as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the
Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the
man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was indecently exposed; so I hid."

In other words: in spite of his little apron, Adam still felt indecently exposed;
and not only that; but he also felt vulnerable; defined by Webster's as
capable of being physically or emotionally wounded and/or open to attack or
damage.

Where before; prior to eating the forbidden fruit, Adam was indifferent to
death; all of a sudden it loomed large in his thinking because of his newly
acquired sense of vulnerability.

Thanatophobia is psychological jargon for fear of death. Everybody has it to
one degree or another. Most of us merely dread death; i.e. we're aware it's
inevitable but we don't let it get to us except maybe in times of mortal
danger; while others suffer all the time with a stubborn, deep-seated anxiety
about dying.

According to the Bible; fear of death associates humanity with the Devil.

Heb 2:13-16 . . "Here am I, and the children God has given me." Since the
children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his
death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the Devil
--and release those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of
death.

Christians aren't freed from the fear of death via their trust in Christ's
crucifixion. No, they go right on dreading it as usual. I'm 74 years old and
have been among Christians all my life; both in church and out of church. In
all my years I've yet to meet even one Christian who no longer dreads
death; they all continue to dread it and I'd really have to question both their
sanity and their honesty if they didn't.

But due to Christ's crucifixion, the fear of death no longer associates the
children of God with the Devil; viz: though their fear of death isn't gone, the
association is gone. In my mind's eye that is really important because people
associated with the Devil must certainly be on track to share his fate.

/
 

LibrarianLeo

Senior Member
Feb 8, 2018
191
2
0
#2
There was a lot of "weird stuff" going on in the Garden Paradise. Particularly the part where man was banished from the Garden. This leads me to believe it was not earth as we know it.
 

WebersHome

Senior Member
Dec 9, 2014
1,940
32
0
#3
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Sometimes people that talk bravely about death are fearing it and don't
know it.

Take for example Peter:

Matt 26:31-33 . .Then Jesus told them: This very night you will all fall
away on account of me, for it is written: "I will strike the shepherd, and the
sheep of the flock will be scattered." Peter replied: Even if all fall away on
account of you, I never will.

Matt 26:55-56 . . At that time Jesus said to the crowd: Am I leading a
rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?
Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

When I was an eighteen year-old youngster in training to be a paratrooper
back in 1962, I thought it would be easy to jump out of a Hercules C-130
until the jumpmaster opened the exit door on the first flight. From my
location in the plane; I could look almost straight down and get a good feel
for the altitude. When I saw how far below the ground was, and all those
man-made features in miniature, and the patchwork quilt of property lines
stretching far and wide below us; it struck me that I would be leaving the
relative safety of the plane and falling into an abyss. For a moment I
panicked, but managed to pull myself together in time to follow the other
guys out into the sky.

It's only at the moment of truth when we find out just how brave we really
are. Most of us have never gone thru death before. It will be a new
experience: for many of us, it will be our very first jump; so to speak.

/
 

Grandpa

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2011
11,551
3,188
113
#4
1 Corinthians 15:54-57
[SUP]54 [/SUP]So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
[SUP]55 [/SUP]O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
[SUP]56 [/SUP]The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
[SUP]57 [/SUP]But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.


 

WebersHome

Senior Member
Dec 9, 2014
1,940
32
0
#5
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Fear of death isn't reasonable, it's emotional.

Fear of death is also organic; it's triggered by centers in the fleshy parts of
the human brain called amygdalae.

It's easy to be rational about death when all is calm; but when a cause of
death comes their way, people usual react without thinking. Take for
example the recent school shooting in Florida. Nobody thought to throw
things like chairs and books at Nikolas Cruz to distract him. He went about
his grizzly business unopposed because most everyone lost their minds and
panicked.

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