DYING AND DEATH
Getting rightly prepared for the inevitable
By Joel R. Beeke and Christopher W. Bogosh
Reformation Heritage Books. 106 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 601 786 500
‘Death comes to all of us, sooner or later. It does not ask if we are useful members of society, loving spouses and parents, obedi-ent children, or pillars of God’s church, imbued with large doses of godly piety. Death takes no bribes; it knows no denials. The appointment book is in God’s hand.’
Thus Joel Beeke and Christopher Bogosh begin Dying and Death, their compact but wide-ranging book on a vital but sorely neglected topic. The book comes in three parts: ‘The Basics’ (which introduces the topic culturally and surveys the Bible’s teaching on death), ‘Jesus’s Dying and Death’ (which reviews Gethsemane and the cross in a most moving reflection), and ‘Contemporary Issues’ (which reflects on medical ethics, and the wise preparation for death).
Grappling with eternity
There is much to be thankful for in Dying and Death. The unashamed grappling with eternity that is rare in contemporary evangelicalism, the devotional section on Jesus’s own suffering which makes for powerful reading and praying through, the frequent and powerful quotations from Reformed and Puritan voices on death, dying and eternity, all make this a book I’ll want to come back to.
However, there were a few niggles: I’m not entirely sure who the book is for – it moves between a resource for pastors seeking to support the dying and the bereaved, to a comforting reminder for the mature Christian facing death, to an evangelistic tract urging the unbeliever to get right with God. Certainly the preferred usage of the KJV in the Scripture quotations seems to take the book away from the truly lay reader. I felt that the reflection on the Christian’s hope of heaven could have pushed further into the reality of life in the new creation after the return of Christ. And the warning against ‘disobeying biblical principles in an attempt to prolong physical life at all costs’ (p.68) could have been better unpacked, given the authors’ strength of accusation.
Given those concerns, I wonder whether John Wyatt’s Dying Well (IVP, 2018) might remain a preferred turn-to book on the topic for many.
