The Eternal Cure

Look around you. There is violence, fraud, hatred, rage, theft, murder, suicide, rape, war, depression, drugs, madness, disease. The world seems to have gone mad. We like to think that its a modern predicament. But if we look at Biblical history, the first murder happens right at the start of the human race, and the murder was none other than the brother of the victim. But all of this violence, all of this rage, all of this bloodshed, is a symptom of a sick humanity. Humanity seems to be sick at its core. There seems to be something seriously wrong with human beings. Today, we will try to find out what sickness lies at the core of humanity.

One thing is certain. This sickness is not physical. It is true that human beings suffer physical pain, and physical pain is universal. But physical pain in itself does not cause suffering. For example, childbirth is extremely painful, but it is not experienced as suffering. When you get a tattoo or a piercing, you feel pain but not suffering. When you work out at the gym and feel sore, or when you get hurt protecting a loved one, you feel pain, but again, not suffering. What’s the common thread? In all these cases, the pain serves a purpose. It’s connected to a cause you believe in. Therefore, physical pain that has meaning does not produce suffering. Only meaningless physical pain results in suffering. Therefore, we can conclude that meaninglessness, and not physical pain, cause suffering.

On Anxiety and Death

Do you remember your childhood? Did you experience anxiety or meaninglessness then? Likely not—because you were not aware of death. You weren’t even aware of time. You lived in an eternal present, a kind of timeless now. That is why Jesus said, “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Children do not experience anxiety because they are not conscious of death. They don’t dwell on a time before they existed or worry about a time when they won’t exist. And since death is always perceived as something in the future, a child who lives fully in the present cannot yet experience it.

But, unfortunately, every child must grow up. At some point, they become aware of death. This realization often comes through loss: the death of a pet, the breaking of a beloved toy, the departure of a loved one. In each case, the child invested emotional energy—libidinal energy—into something, and when it’s lost, it feels like a part of them has died. This is their first real encounter with death.

From this point on, the fear of death begins to grow, even if they don’t consciously recognize it. Most adults live their entire lives without realizing that the anxiety they experience is rooted in the fear of death. Any fear whose source is unclear is experienced as anxiety. And the fear of death is the root fear of all fears. After all, fearing the loss of anything is really feeling the partial death of the part of ourselves that was attached to it.

Coping Mechanisms for Death Anxiety

To manage this existential neurosis, the human psyche creates coping mechanisms. Here are a few common ones:

• Demonic rage, projected outward as destructive energy (e.g., Hitler, Nero).
• Depression, which is a refusal to participate in a life that feels meaningless without eternity.
• Suicide, the final rejection of a meaningless life.
• Constant activity, a way to avoid anxious thoughts from surfacing.
• Joking about everything, a defense mechanism of detachment.
• Belief in a higher power, with the hope of eternal life (e.g., Judaism, Islam).
• Trying to eternalize oneself through achievements—monuments, inventions, conquests.
• Trying to eternalize oneself through children, often resulting in unhealthy attachments.
• Investing all desire in a single pursuit or person, such as romantic love or career goals. This explains why “inability to find true love” can feel like a life-or-death issue—it’s a coping strategy rooted in death anxiety.
• Philosophical or mystical transcendence, such as Advaita Vedanta, Gnosticism, or Buddhism.
• Self-annihilation, as seen in some religious traditions (Catholic monasticism, Sufism, Bhakti movements, certain forms of Buddhism).
  

However, these strategies are ultimately ineffective. They demand great energy and often backfire, intensifying the very anxiety they aim to suppress. For example, someone who puts all their hope in a romantic relationship may feel even deeper despair after a breakup. It genuinely feels like a form of death.

Why Did God Create Suffering?

Now, the question arises, why would a god, who is good, create death in the first place, and how could a loving god tolerate so much suffering. Why does God not intervene and use his infinite power to fix everything? This is a question that all theistic religions (other than Christianity) are unable to answer. They say things like ‘God has put human beings in this world to test them.’ But this seems like a very cruel thing to do! Why would god create human beings and put them in a fallen world without their consent in order to test them? Why doesn’t he just make them perfect, ready for paradise? Only Christianity has an answer to this problem. Only Christianity can reconcile the idea of an absolutely good God with a fallen world. How does it do it? By associating the fall with Adam’s disobedience.

Why Talk About Death and Suffering?

Until you don’t know what you lost because of Adam’s sin, and that you are living in a fallen sinful state, and that you are heading for death and destruction, you would never be attracted to the Gospel. Human beings are selfish by nature. They do not pay attention to something unless they can see a profit for themselves. They say things like, ‘what’s in it for me?’ or ‘why should I care?’

Now in the same way, if I approach an impenitent sinner and say, “Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins,” it will be foolish and offensive to him. Foolishness because it won’t make sense. And offensive because I’m insinuating he’s a sinner when he doesn’t think he is. But if I show him the ten commandments and convince him that he has offended God by violating His law, then when he becomes convinced of his sinfulness, the gospel will not be foolishness, it will not be offensive, instead it will be the power of God that saves.

If I were to offer you a choice between a parachute or a million dollars, what would you choose? Now, if you were on a plane that was about to crash, which option would you choose? You see, the value of a parachute only becomes apparent when you’re falling from the sky. Similarly, if a doctor were to offer you chemotherapy, would you accept it? Maybe not. But if the doctor were to run some tests and prove to you that you had cancer, would you take it then? Christianity is like medicine—its value only becomes apparent when you realize that humanity is terminally ill.

When evangelists don’t start with first convincing their audience that they are sinners in need of rescuing, they have to find other reasons for sinners to respond to the gospel. As a result, they end up telling people that if they accept Jesus, they will be healed, they will prosper and all their problems will go away. You know this as ‘prosperity gospel’. The prosperity gospel has created a lot of fake converts, Christians who have not crucified their flesh, Christians who only go to Church to ask God to heal them, to become rich, and for God to fix all their problems. This kind of false gospel also results in many Christians leaving the Church when they do not get what they were promised by the prosperity preachers.

Can We Save Ourselves?

There are other religions out there that promise eternity, but only if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds. These religions place the burden of achieving eternity on the individual. You must earn it by obeying, pleasing, or sacrificing. And you only find out if you’ve succeeded after you die. If you fall short, it’s too late—hell awaits. So even as you try to serve your god, you live in constant anxiety, never knowing if you’ve done enough.

The law does not help us; it just leaves us helpless. It doesn’t justify us; it just leaves us guilty before the judgement bar of a holy God. And what was the bar that God set? It was the ten commandments, right? So let’s see how each of us compares against that bar. Have you ever told a lie? What does that make you? Have you ever stolen something, even if its small? What does that make you? Jesus said, ‘If you look at a woman and lust after her, you commit adultery with her in your heart’ (Matthew 5:28). Have you ever done that? Have you ever used God’s name in vain? Have you ever used a curse word with ‘holy’? If yes, then you have taken God’s name in vain and that is blasphemy. Have you hated someone? The Bible says, if you hate someone, you are a murderer. (1 John 3:15)

Then from your admission, you are a lying, thieving, murdering, adulterer at heart, and you have to face God on judgment day. Now if God judged you based on His law, would you be innocent or guilty? Would you go to heaven or hell? So you see, no one can justify themselves before God only through their actions. You, too, have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards. As a result, hell awaits you. Now, if someone was to pay the price for your sins by getting punished in your place, God’s wrath would be appeased and He will not throw you into eternal fire.

But the problem is, who would be willing to take the curse of your sin upon himself? And there is only one answer, Jesus Christ. He is the only person in all of history who offers the assurance of eternal life while you live. This confident promise frees us from death anxiety. It allows us to live—not in fear, but in assurance.

Jesus calls us to die to ourselves. Because as long as we cling to parts of ourselves that are temporary, we remain vulnerable to the fear of losing them. And the fear of death—simply put, death itself—remains in us. But when we invest our ultimate desire in Christ, who is eternal and cannot be lost, then the fear of death is overcome. Since the object of our desire is eternal, we no longer fear its loss. Thus, the fear of death is cured. This is also where the Baptism of the Holy Spirit plays an important part. It is a seal that confirms the promise of eternal life for the believer. When you speak in tongues at the time of Baptism, all doubts about the afterlife are put to rest, all death anxiety subsides and is replaced by pure joy.