What must it be like when our final moment comes? What is death? Do we remain conscious in any way at the moment of death? Do we feel the journey from time into eternity? Will we know that we are crossing over that threshold?

It has often been pointed out that every second the clock ticks, someone, somewhere dies. Over 30 million people die every year, or 86,400 every day.

Everyone has to keep this final appointment. It is the great destination of life which draws everyone and makes no distinctions. Rich or poor, strong or weak, brilliant or simple, famous or forgotten - all will leave this life through the same dark doorway, for life is short and death is sure.

All through our lives we try to put that final day out of our minds. But from the moment we are born our bodies have already begun the long decay - the preparation for death. The poet Montgomery put it like this:

The arrow that shall lay me low
Was shot from death's unerring bow
The instant of my breath.
And every moment I proceed
It tracks me, with unceasing speed;
I turn, it meets me -
Death!...
Hath given such instinct to that dart
It points for ever at my heart.

Are we feelingfully conscious at the time of death? The answer of the Bible is emphatic. Even if we are unconscious right up to the end of this life we shall suddenly become conscious as we enter the next.

When the light of this world snaps off, the light of the next will come on. Immediately we shall realise that we have passed from time into eternity. The light, the atmosphere around us and the whole realm of sensation will be altogether different.

Our feelings
We shall be filled with an overpowering awareness that time is now behind us for ever, and that we are now disembodied souls. However, our feelings will vary tremendously.

For some, the sensations felt immediately they pass into the next life will be too terrible for words to describe. For others, the sensations felt will be marvellous.

Consider the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ about this final moment. Speaking to a tremendous crowd of people, He once described the death of a very wealthy man in a highly significant way. He described him as an expensively dressed man who dined daily on the most extravagant gourmet meals. He described him in terms of what he had, what he wore, and what he ate.

The Lord made no mention of what kind of man he was, what he did, what he accomplished, or what he knew. He described him by a few external things - possessions, clothes and food! This rich man apparently had no character, no depth, and certainly no spiritual relationship with God.

The Lord told how the rich man's death was marked outwardly by a flamboyant funeral befitting a man of his wealth and ostentatious ways. But his soul was instantly plunged into a state of indescribable anguish, remorse and despair.

There are countless people who will never grasp the value ,of their eternal souls until they have passed through the irreversible experience of death. Then it will be too late!

Time gone
Think of all the energy, all the days of life which they will have spent on external things such as possessions, clothes and fleeting luxuries, only to find that they have thrown away eternity.

Across the line of death everything completely changes. That is the great principle taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. We leave the values of this earth behind. Spiritual values count now.

But suppose we have none? Suppose we have had nothing to do with God, and have never sought Him or come to know Him? The rich man in the Lord's teaching prayed for the first time in his life when he was shut away from God, and it was too late.

He discovered, all too late, that there was a great gulf between Heaven (with the eternal presence of God) and the domain of rejected souls. The Bible teaches that everyone will have to face Chrtst one day, to be accepted or rejected by Him in the final Day of Judgement.

Interestingly, this subject is not only taught in the Bible. It is an undeniable fact that we all have a strong awareness built into us that this life leads towards a day of reckoning. An awareness that we are made by God, and that we are accountable to Him, is imprinted deep into our being.

Every land and nation has some kind of judgement system indelibly stamped upon its behaviour, thinking and literature, and this is a reflection of mankind's deep-seated realisation that wrongdoing must be judged.

But every individual knows it also. Everyone has a conscience. Everyone feels guilt and shame, even if we push such feelings as far away from us as possible. Everyone fears death, and in a remarkable way.

The fear of death which we all possess is not just a rational kind of fear arising from our not wanting to lose the enjoyment of conscious life. It is a far greater fear than that because even people who hate every minute of their lives still fear death (unless suffering from suicidal depression).

Awareness
The apprehension which surrounds death is something which cannot be explained, except by the fact that buried deep in every soul there is an awareness of a coming day of account. The inner being knows that there is something more to fear than the end of life and consciousness. There is an uncertain eternity, and there is God to face.

There is other evidence of a coming day of reckoning in the natural world around us. The way living creatures are 'designed' shows that there is an ultimate goal towards which everything is steadily moving. All living things are built to fulfil a definite purpose and follow a preset course of life.

Take the obvious example of the germ cell which is the beginning of every human being. Locked into that microscopic cell is all the design-data for the finished adult. A complete record of the future personality, physical aptitudes, intellect and appearance is there. It is almost a parable about destiny. Growing up from childhood is a journey to something definite.

Wherever we look we see in this world numerous similar indications of order and destiny. Everything has a definite, unfolding future.

How can we meander down the pathway of life as though there is no meaning or destination, when we are surrounded by so much evidence that it is a journey to somewhere?

The teaching of the Bible is that there must be a day of judgement because God is absolutely holy. He is both perfect and just and is therefore bound to judge and punish sin. All the selfishness, pride, deceitfulness and wretchedness which is in everyone of us must one day be eradicated from God's presence, together with all the sinful acts, words and thoughts which our sinful condition generates.

But because God is also full of love and mercy, He has made a way of escape for us if we seek it while here on earth. The Lord Jesus Christ (Who is God - a member of the eternal Godhead) came into this world Himself to make it possible.

He left the royal palaces of Heaven to enter into a body of flesh. He suffered and died in indescribable agony to bear the punishment of sin for all those people who seek His forgiveness.

Having done this He has the right to forgive and convert all the millions of people throughout history who are drawn to seek Him for pardon and new life.

Hidden memory
What will happen to us on the last day of life - when the light of this world is turned off? In that day there will be no hiding, for all must be completely exposed before the Judge of all the earth.

We live in an age of video, of 'instant replay'. But when we stand before God's throne of judgement, our whole lives will be replayed before us in seconds. We shall be aware of every sin we ever committed. We shall see the kind of people we really were. We shall be aware of our guilt in a way which we could not possibly imagine while here on earth. When our souls are naked before Almighty God absolutely everything will come back to us.

Sometimes we get some hint of the equipment of the soul within us. Everyone has experienced amazing tricks of memory. Sometimes when we have been day-dreaming by ourselves some recollection from way back in childhood has suddenly and strangely come to mind. Perhaps it was an event of no great significance at all, yet it has come back in vivid detail.

Sometimes it is as though we can taste the very atmosphere of some far off event, so strangely realistic has been the memory.

Such moments give us some hint of the amazing amount of data locked into our minds; the amazingly accurate pattern of events which is stored and maintained there. One day everything will be reviewed, everything will be known, as we stand before God while the history of our life passes before us.

Do we realise that in that day, if we have never repented of our sin and sought the forgiveness of Christ, we shall have no defence, nothing to say? We shall be speechless before God, and we shall realise that we systematically, wilfully, sinned away our entire life.

It will be shown us in that day how God on numerous occasions pulled at our hearts, moved in our consciences, and by various means urged us to seek Him and find Him. But each time we shrugged off these influences and went our own way.

For countless people death will mean that the spirit will make its terrible journey into a lost eternity away from the presence of a loving God and Saviour. In that tragic moment every good thing must be withdrawn from the soul - for all good things are only on loan from God.

For rejected souls, no beauty will ever meet the eye again. No happy sound will ever reach the ear. No peace of heart and mind will ever be felt. The soul will be gripped with unimaginable fear as those who die as rebels against God sense with unspeakable horror that they are now under the just sentence of condemnation from the Judge of all the earth.

They must pass into the moral blackness of anti-values, an everlasting swamp of selfishness and lies, anguish and despair. They must bear their own punishment. The value of an eternal soul will be learned too late.

But if we are among the great company of people who have sought and found Christ, and we know Him and live for Him, then it will be so different.

Last journey
When that last moment comes the soul will be overwhelmed with inexpressible anticipation. Excitement is far too small a word for this. The journey into eternity will be a million times more spectacular and amazing than any adventure or experience we could possibly known on earth.

New sights, new sounds and all the breathtaking scenery of the eternal realm will move us to ecstasy. We will find ourselves suddenly filled with a rush of knowledge and understanding, and we will know what life was all for.

All pain and disability will disappear and we will be filled with emotions such as we never imagined - amazing fulfilment, peace, happiness, love, and security. We shall mix and mingle with all God's people from every day and age.

All sin and weakness will be gone, and we will see and hear our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who we came to know and feel and love while here on earth. Death will prove to be not only a conscious experience, but the gateway to everlasting life.