Fear Not! Death and the Afterlife from Christian Perspective, by Ligon Duncan
 
I have had the honor of conducting about fourteen funeral services in the three and a half years I have been a pastor in North Dakota. Every time I conduct a funeral service I have been so grateful for the training I received at Tenth Presbyterian Church’s (in Philadelphia) Round Table discussions. I don’t even remember the name of the pastor who led it, but he had many years of experience ministering to the dying and the bereaved.
 
I was delighted, then, when I read Rev. Dr. Ligon Duncan’s new book entitled Fear Not!, for all the same emphases were there. In fact, this book is a gem, because it states the issues not only eloquently, but pastorally. This is the perfect book to give to someone who is bereaved or on their death-bed. It is not long, but is full of comfort and truth.

 
What is so good about this book? These things: it shows the true character of death as sin in full flower; it shows the bankruptcy of the worldly way of thinking about death; it shows that death is unnatural and yet defeated; it shows the difference between Christian grief and non-Christian grief (the latter having no hope); it shows the vital importance of the resurrection as the lodestar for comfort; it concentrates heavy emphasis on the physical nature of the resurrection (so important because in large part it is the physical nearness of the beloved one that the bereaved miss) without de-emphasizing the importance of the vindication of truth that the resurrection provides; and finally takes all the sting out of death and judgment for the believer, while proclaiming the Gospel clearly to the lost. What more could you want in a single book dealing with death? May this book not only be instrumental in death-bed conversions, but may it spread comfort to Christians facing death and to Christians facing bereavement, and may it help Christians be equipped to help others in these kinds of circumstances.
 
Here are some helpful quotations from the book:
 
“Very often friends will attempt to comfort you in the hour of death by making diminishing remarks about your loss by finding something positive to say. This is yet another way human beings try to cope with death. Overwhelmed by the emotions associated with death, people sometimes come up with little platitudes to put on a happy face. But we see a glimpse of the goodness of God in that the Bible does not deal with death by denial or pretending like it is no big deal; instead, His Word prepares us by facing the problem of death head on” (p. 12).
 
“Christian grief has mingled with it an inextinguishable, inexhaustible, irrepressible hope, the type of hope that enabled Job to say, ‘Though he slay me, I will hope in him…’ (Job 13:15). In the face of death, a Christian does not approach death with stoic indifference or emotionless detachment because of the hope that is theirs in God. Do not think for a second that we are commending a stoic approach to death-instead, we are commending an approach that is filled with the comfort of God because of the certainty of His promises, even in the midst of the difficulty of it all” (p. 26).
 
“The sight of Jesus as the Judge – as awesome as it will be – will be the very thing that will give peace to the hearts of believers. My Savior; the One whom I love; the One who first loved me; the One who died for me – He is the One who is my judge. What comfort this will bring to the hearts of the redeemed. But unbelievers will tremble, because they rejected and neglected Him. When the Last Day comes, it will be far too late” (p. 76).
 
“What we need to know about heaven is not so much where it is, but who is there. Heaven is where my Savior is. Heaven is where the One who has saved me and the One in whom I delight dwells. Therefore, I really do not care where heaven is located, as long as I am there with Him and with all of those who love Him” (p. 88).
 
Fear Not can be ordered here.
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Rev. Lane Keister is pastor of Hull Christian Reformed Church and Hope Reformed Church, both in Hague, N.D.