“It Wasn’t My Time to Go”

The driver of a massive garbage truck lost control of his vehicle. The truck jumped the curb, hitting a couple and a 23-year-old man walking on the sidewalk. According to a New York City newspaper report, the couple was killed on the spot and the young man was knocked unconscious. When he woke up and saw what had happened, his first thought was: ‘I can’t believe this is happening. Please, God, let me get through this.’ He said, “It wasn’t my time to go.”

YOU have likely heard similar stories. When a person narrowly escapes a disaster, people say, ‘It wasn’t his time,’ but when someone dies in a freak accident, they conclude, ‘His time has come’ or ‘It’s the will of God.’ Whether they attribute the outcome to fate, luck, destiny, or God, the rationale is basically the same. Many people believe that events in their life and the outcome are predetermined and that there is nothing they can do about it. And this type of reaction is by no means limited only to when death or accidents are involved; neither is it limited to this day and age.

The ancient Babylonians, for example, believed that human affairs are influenced by the stars and their movements. They therefore looked to the heavens for signs and omens to guide them. The Greeks and Romans worshipped goddesses of fate, whose powers to dispense good and bad fortunes at times seemed to overshadow even the will of their chief gods, Zeus and Jupiter.

In the Orient, Hindus and Buddhists believe that what a person is presently going through is the result of what he did in a past life, and his actions in this life will determine what he will experience in the next life. Other religions​—including many churches in Christendom—​also give credence to such fatalistic beliefs by their doctrine of predestination.

It is not surprising, therefore, that even in our supposedly enlightened and objective age, many people still believe that their situation in life, the outcome of their daily affairs, and their ultimate destiny are all controlled by fate and that there is little they can do about it. Is that how you feel about life? Are life’s events and incidents, successes and failures​—even birth and death—​really predetermined? Is your life ruled by fate? Let us see how the Bible can help us to answer these questions.

[Picture Credit Line on page 3]

Ken Murray/​New York Daily News