Spiritual Death

A brave woman may have saved hundreds of lives in India by waving her red sari to stop a train—after spotting broken tracks further down the line. Omvati Devi waved the flowing red garment in front of an approaching train after noticing part of the line was faulty. Spotting the woman, the driver was able to stop the train just in the nick of time, avoiding potential disaster.

Omvati’s quick-thinking benefitted between 150 to 200 passengers aboard the train in Uttar Pradesh, India. The woman, who’s been praised for her heroic actions, was quoted saying:

I was on my way to work and it was then when I stumbled to found a broken track. I was quick to realize that this could result in a massive tragedy. Well, I had heard a lot that red stands for danger. I used my sari to tie it around the track to thwart any untoward incident which luckily did work when the driver applied brakes.

The driver offered her 100 rupees, but she turned it down. “Then, he insisted that I keep the money, which I did.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

In the spiritual realm, Christians are called by God to wave a warning flag to rescue those who are perishing (Jude 1:23) before it is too late.

Throughout the coasts of the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and even in south Florida, there can be found a pleasant-looking beachy sort of tree, often laden with small greenish-yellow fruits that look like apples.

You might be tempted to eat the fruit. Do not eat the fruit. You might want to rest your hand on the trunk, or touch a branch. Do not touch the tree trunk or any branches. Do not stand under or even near the tree for any length of time whatsoever. Do not touch your eyes while near the tree. Do not pick up any of the ominously shiny, tropic-green leaves.

The aboriginal peoples of the Caribbean were familiar with the tree and the sap was used to tip arrows. It is believed that the Calusa people of Florida used it in that manner to kill Juan Ponce de Leon on his second trip to Florida in 1521.

This is the manchineel, known in Spanish-speaking countries as “la manzanilla de la muerte,” which translates to “the little apple of death,” or as “arbol de la muerte,” “tree of death.” The fruit, though described as sweet and tasty, is extraordinarily toxic.

Nicola Strickland, who unwisely chomped down on a manchineel fruit on the Caribbean Island of Tobago, describes what it was like:

I rashly took a bite from this fruit and found it pleasantly sweet. My friend also partook (at my suggestion). Moments later we noticed a strange peppery feeling in our mouths, which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat. The symptoms worsened over a couple of hours until we could barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain.

Over the next eight hours our oral symptoms slowly began to subside. Recounting our experience to the locals elicited frank horror and incredulity, such was the fruit’s poisonous reputation.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God also warned Adam and Eve about the far deadlier physical and spiritual consequences which would come from eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sadly, just as in this story, Eve not only ate but shared the fruit with Adam.

Jeanne Pouchain knows she’s not dead. But she has to prove it in court. The 58-year-old French woman was declared dead by a court in 2017 during a decade long legal case. An employee Pouchain had fired years ago sued her for lost wages and told a court that Pouchain was dead after she stopped responding to the employee’s letters.

Without evidence, the French court accepted the allegation and levied a judgment against Pouchain’s estate. The court’s decision set off a chain reaction in France’s bureaucracy, which scrubbed her from official records and invalidated her identity cards and licenses.

Pouchain recently told The Guardian, “I have no identity papers, no health insurance, I cannot prove to the banks that I am alive … I’m nothing.” Pouchain’s attorney then presented an affidavit to the court from her doctor attesting to her continued existence. Her former employee says Pouchain had been pretending to be dead in order to avoid paying the court-mandated damages.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Christians can also appear to be dead if they let their spiritual life lapse. This is true in church membership (Rev. 3:1) and also in the lifestyle they choose if they fall into worldliness (Eph. 5:14-15; Rom. 13:11).

On March 19, 2005, when a resident at an extended care facility in British Columbia, Canada, died, the medical personnel did what they usually did. They placed a call to Fraser Health Authority, who then sent a driver to pick up the deceased woman. The driver dutifully transported an elderly woman to the hospital morgue.

Unfortunately, the driver failed to check the wristband for identification and carried off the wrong woman. The 87-year-old resident he wheeled away was simply sleeping. And even after the driver left her on a gurney in the hospital’s corridor, she was still fast asleep.

Meanwhile, an employee at the extended care facility noticed the deceased resident was still in her room, but her living roommate was gone. The employee alerted the hospital, which promptly returned the woman to the facility in an ambulance.

In the spiritual world, it is a dreadful thing for those who are alive to be mistaken for dead.

I came across a book written by a cardiologist at the University of Tennessee that corroborates an important aspect of the biblical message. In the course of their emergency room work, Dr. Maurice Rawlings and his colleagues interviewed more than 300 people who claimed near-death experiences. What made Rawlings' study distinct is that the interviews were not conducted months or years later but immediately after the experiences had allegedly occurred—while the patients were still too shaken up in the immediacy of the moment to gloss over or to re-imagine what they had experienced.

Nearly 50 percent of them reported encountering images of fire, of tormented and tormenting creatures, and other sights hailing from a place very different from heaven. In follow-up interviews much later many of these same people had changed their stories, apparently unwilling to admit to their families, maybe even to themselves, that they had caught a glimpse of something like what the Bible calls hell.

Dr. Rawlings concludes, "Just listening to these patients has changed my life. There is a life after death, and if I don't know where I'm going, it is not safe to die."

The movie Dead Man Walking is based on Sister Helen Prejean's mission to care for the soul of death row inmate Matthew Poncelet. Poncelet awaits execution for brutally killing a young man and woman. Throughout the movie Poncelet vehemently denies any wrongdoing, even though the evidence contradicts him. At one point, Sister Helen gives him a Bible and tells him to read the Gospel of John. She persistently tries to help him face the truth, but he resists, blaming anyone else he can think of.

One emotional scene—the climax of the movie—shows Poncelet finally admitting his guilt.

Poncelet recalls, "My mama kept saying, 'It wasn't you, Matt. It wasn't you.'"

"Your mama loves you, Matt," responds Sister Helen.

Grieved by guilt, Poncelet begins to confess, but lapses as tears flood his eyes. As Sister Helen probes him further, Poncelet admits, "I killed [the boy]." Sister Helen then asks about Hope, the raped and murdered girl. Again, Poncelet forthrightly confesses.

"Do you take responsibility for both of their deaths?" probes Sister Helen.

Poncelet responds, "Yes ma'am.… When the lights dim at night, I kneel down by my bunk and pray for those kids.… I've never done that before."

Sister Helen comforts Poncelet, saying, "There is a place of sorrow only God can touch. You did a terrible thing, Matt, a terrible thing. But you have a dignity now. Nobody can take that away from you.… You are a son of God, Matthew Poncelet."

Sobbing deeply, Poncelet says, "Nobody ever called me no son of God before. They called me a son-of-you-know-what lots of times, but never no son of God.… I just hope my death can give those parents some relief. I really do."

"Well," continues Sister Helen, "maybe the best thing you can give to the Percys and the Delacroixs is a wish for their peace."

Poncelet says, "I never had no real love myself. I never loved a woman or anybody else.… It about figures I would have to die to find love.… Thank you for loving me."

Elapsed time: Measured from the beginning of the opening credit, this scene begins at 1:34:39 and ends at 1:37:25. Note: Before showing the clip it may be helpful to mention that the conversation can be difficult to understand at points.

Content: Dead Man Walking is rated R for depiction of rape and murder as well as for profanity.

Yesterday morning I was on the phone with our daughter who lives with her husband in North Carolina. We were having a great conversation. I was using a wireless phone, and suddenly the phone went dead, and her voice was cut off. I heard only static. I looked at the phone. A little red light was on, and I realized the battery had run out. Suddenly there was no contact.

God created us with the capacity to hear and send signals back and forth to heaven, but sin ruined that. It deadened the batteries of the soul. And Paul, in modern-day terminology, might say we're people with dead batteries. We have the ability to commune with God, but we can't because we're dead. Someone has to recharge the battery. Someone has to put a new battery in.

We live in a time of unprecedented discoveries, many of which tend to make life longer and living more comfortable and enjoyable. But with change and progress the inexorable law of change and decay also operates. Strange that so few in this world prepare for the inevitable.

On (Acts 26:28)--Almost persuaded to be a Christian is like the man who was almost pardoned, but he was hanged, like the man who was almost rescued, but he was burned in the house. A man that is almost saved is damned.