Forget Halloween's ghosts and goblins; this column by Charles Krauthammer is scarier than anything the dark holiday can conjure up.
I'd suggest you read it slowly and then take a couple of minutes afterward to pray that such a horror is never unleashed upon the world.
But pray too that people thinking about this possibility as well as the present calamities we've seen in floods, fire, earthquakes, and so on, will cause people to make their peace with God so that death (which comes to us all) loses it's awesome sting.
That peace, of course, was offered by God to everyone when He sent Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. Trusting in His sacrifice (not in your own good works or in a false substitute) brings salvation from sin's penalties and powers...even as it opens the way into God's "forever family" that surpasses death.
"It is appointed for all men to die, and then the judgment," says the Bible. It is therefore an ultimate priority to prepare for it by receiving Christ as Savior. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
This is the answer, the only answer to the fears that death inspires. Whether it comes from epidemic, hurricane, an intruder in the night, an automobile accident, or whatever else -- what's important beyond all else is to be ready to meet God as welcoming Father rather than as Divine Judge.
Faith in the loving sacrifice Christ performed on the cross is the way to insure the former reception.
Are you ready?
