I am terrified of death!!?

Question

I was born and raised a strict cathlic, going to church every sunday, knowing all the prayers, being extremely involved in the youth group and all that. Then I became a teenager and began to wonder and doubt everything I was taught. I mean, if men wrote the bible and obviously tampered with it (example: woman should be at their husbands cammand and woman are tempation and evil) then how do we know what to beilive?? Plus who invented God? and no one has ever come back from the dead to tell us what there is in the afterlife so how do we really know? People were ignorant when the bible was written so how do we know that Jesus was just a man pertending to be the mesaihah? And what if there is NOTHING after death, if we just no longer exist? that thought terrifies me!!! Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Your discription of yourself sounds exactly like me. I was raised on the catholic nonsense too.

It made me stop believing in God because it was so conflicting. I finally realised that just because someone told me a lie about God, it did not mean that God was not real.

Still for many years I had completly lost my faith in God. I was so lost He had to send someone to find me. This is how it happened.

Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Email if you think I can be of any assistance.

Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 2

I would say read the book of Genesis! You have to have faith as well. Have you had any encounters where you felt as if it was not for god that you would not be here. I mean if you don't have faith and believe that there is life after death then you would not get anywhere. It would be good to take up a Hebrew class as well I mean its all belief.I understand where you are coming from when you say that people tamper with the bible but the King James bible is the closes thing. Don't be afraid of death I mean everybody has to go through it! John 3;16 "For god so loves the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." I mean it all matter on what you believe in! GOOD LUCK

Answer 3

It doesn't matter to me whether you are Catholic or not, what matters is that if you base your religion on the Bible then you should know that the Christ(Messiah) taught the resurrection. So don't be afraid of death because God can raise you up from the dead after Armageddon into a new and cleansed earth. I would think that you could look forward to that.

Oh yes, did I tell you? The earth was not made simply for nothing, it was made to be inhabited by mankind and all sorts of life because God IS Love. Heaven is for The Holy Ones and it is God's realm, not man's. Man's realm is the earth.

oh, and one more thing---Yahweh(Jehovah God) IS the Author of the Bible (Holy Scriptures) and He made sure it was written and preserved by men for our instruction for the real life to come.

Answer 4

The Holy Bible Douay-Rheims Version

With Challoner Revisions 1749-52
1899 Edition of the John Murphy Company

IMPRIMATUR:
James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899.

Pope Damasus assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Roman Council in 382 A.D. He commissioned St. Jerome to translate the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin, which became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and was declared by the Church to be the only authentic and official version, in 1546.

The DR New Testament was first published by the English College at Rheims in 1582 A.D. The DR Old Testament was first published by the English College at Douay in 1609 A.D. The first King James Version was not published until 1611. This online DRV contains all 73 books, including the seven Deutero-Canonical books (erroneously called Apocrypha by Protestants). These seven books were included in the 1611 KJV, but not in later KJV Bibles.

The whole Douay-Rheims Bible was revised and diligently compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner in 1749-1752 A.D. The notes included in the text were written by Dr. Challoner.

The DR Bible was photographically reproduced from the 1899 edition of the John Murphy Company, Baltimore, Maryland, by Tan Books in 1971. Eventually, this edition was optically scanned to produce a large text file which this publisher used for creating this website, with the aid of text-processing software.

One important goal of this project was to preserve the original text "as is", without making any changes in the wording, because the original text had the Imprimatur of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, dated Sept 1st 1899.

The text file was checked quite thoroughly by software written by the publisher for punctuation errors and verses out of order. The index was humanly checked for misspelled words and the corrections were made to the text. However, some spelling errors may still be present in the text. Many verses were out of order in the original file. These have been corrected.

Every effort was made to ensure that this online version is an exact match to the original printed version. No words were added or ommitted from the text, except for correcting errors caused by the scanning process. No words were rearranged. No verse numbers were changed, except in the case of Psalm 9.

Psalm 9 originally contained 21 verses and there were 2 versions of Psalm 10, numbering 1-18 and 1-8. This obviously caused a conflict, so it was decided to make the first Psalm 10 as the last part of Psalm 9 and renumber the verses 22-39. This retains the same numbering as all the Douay Rheims. Note, in the Protestant Bibles the numbering of Psalms 10 through 146 differs by one.

Answer 5

Dear mari, thier is nothing more important than your eternal salvation, I want to speak to your consceince for a moment adn as we go through these you can decide whether your innocent or guilty. here are a few of the Ten Commandments............

Have you ever lied (even once--fibs, white lies, etc.)? Ever stolen (anything--the value is irrelevant)? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart." Have you ever looked with lust? If you have said "Yes" to these three questions, by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart; and the BIble says "he who hates his brother is a murderer" have you ever hated soemone? Have you always put God first in thought word and deed? (none of us Have), th8s is called idolatry when we put things beofre praise and glory of God. So mari, bearing in mind that God has seen everything and Nothing you’ve ever done is hid from His holy eyes. Will you be innocent or guilty on the Day of Judgment? Listen to your conscience. You know that you will be guilty, the terrible news is that God is Holy and Just, therefore he cannot simply turn a blind eye tward your sin, but rathjer he must give you justice in hell Is hell real? yes, The scriptures speak repeated;ly about its existence and that should greatly concern you. it wont matter how much we chose to disbelive in hell it will stil exist and is stil a place where you and I are headed because of our transgressions. but there is good news, God sent His Son to take our punishment: "God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He was bruised for our iniquities. Jesus then rose from the dead and defeated death.
Your own so-called “goodness” can’t get you into heaven any more than mine could. Jesus is the only way to Heaven. He is the "Door," the only "mediator." There is salvation in no other name and If you will Repent (turn from sin) and place your faith and trust in Jesus, God will forgive you of all sins past, present and futer and he will grant you the gift of everlasting life. Please, Think about these things seriously, I care for you and I hope you will deeply consider the need to get your hert right with God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
God Bless
WDJD

Answer 6

Are you terrified because either:
1. There is nothing after death. This is it and when it's over it is
over. Oblivion.
2. If there is something awaiting us after death and we are
called upon to answer for our earthly deeds and if
that answer is not satisfactory to providence then we will be
punished (maybe even for ever)?
It looks straightforward to me. If you tend to believe in point 1. above, no problem, enjoy all your days and worry not.
If you believe there is the slightest chance you might find yourself accountable at the end of your life, then don't commit any major sin (for the want of a better word). We are told that God is merciful and will forgive a pure heart.

Answer 7

Why are you scared of dying? It's simple reality. Everything that lives must die and everything that begins must end. It's the nature of the universe.

Think of it this way....

You never really leave. You may not be a consciousness that you are right now, but you'll always be here.

Your energy will dissipate and join the energy of the universe. Your body will decompose but its not really gone.

You're feeding new life. Without you, new life couldn't exist.

That's not exactly a bad thing is it? You're part of the cycle of the universe and it's a good thing you are.

In this way, you're not really gone, no one is. So don't let it frighten you. Instead, be glad that you're helping other life to exist.

Answer 8

My inner maximum condolences. Psychology area: This concern you have is quite organic and is commonest in human beings your age. this is because of the fact you relatively have not seen a lot of existence, and the doorways are commencing as much as open. you're petrified of uncertainty, and extraordinarily loosing your make certain, makes it harder which you may fall back on. As a statistic, the optimum suicides additionally are at this age and maximum come to a call to kill themselves for the comparable reason you expressed. right here is what you're able to do. you may initiate taking a highway to self success. locate out who you're, and what you're able to do. come across the worldwide and what existence has to supply. get rid of the sensation of uncertainty. Now you do understand that turning 18 is basically no longer a metamorphosis. you would be the comparable individual, yet you will now be a criminal person. reckoning on the form you artwork it out with your mum and dad, you've specific new household projects. Get use to signing papers, and commencing as much as administration your stuff at the same time with coverage, economic business enterprise money owed and so forth... Its particularly no longer that complicated and with a bit of luck your dad will make it easier to alongside the way. don't be afraid, its basically time and greater independence. no person is pushing you out of a airplane (yet you may now leap out of a airplane legally lol)

Answer 9

This is were Faith must step in and take control of your doubts in God. I know God is because he is. Simply as that!. Human beings don't come from nothing, but a higher power (God) and death is just a passing into a another state. And you shouldn't be afraid of death. Who wants to stay on this Earth forever (corrupt in sin)? I don't thinks so.

Answer 10

I too will pray for you. we have to believe in the word and the word is the bible. I am not afraid to die I'm just not ready to die. I know there is a better place than this and I want to see my Mama and my Daddy. But most of all I want to see Jesus. He is real, Heaven is real. Our maker is real and He shows His self all the time just look around you. the sky the trees, the four seasons. Jesus died for our sins and so that we might have the right to the tree of life. THAT'S REAL.