Expert: Todd Tyszka - 10/8/2010

Question
Hi my question is about fate.Does God predetermin when we are going to die or do we have influence it by how we live and what we eat.ect.thank you.

Answer
Hi Simon,
The Bible is clear that God always knows when and sometimes determines when we are going to die, in that sometimes God hurts or even kills (largely in the Old Testament period) and sometimes he protects. We also know from Scripture that we have angels who protect and watch over us. I personally believe I had an angel save my life when I was rock climbing in Kentucky (in the US) and I wasn't using protection as I thought it was an easy climb. I ended up getting stuck, I couldn't find a hold to place my hands to climb higher, and started falling backwards, hundreds of feet above the rock floor. By a complete miracle, I caught some rock with one hand while falling back, and was able to get out of that position and climb higher. I am convinced that the rock I grabbed wasn't there before or an angel helped me somehow. Regardless, we know that angels are watching over and protecting believers, although God allows terrible things to happen to believers. There are very good reasons for this which I can go into if you wish.

On the other hand, I believe God mostly lets us live our lives as we want in this world and we are essentially judged for what we do with what we have. I believe that we have some influence over when we will die, as you say, by how we live, what we eat, etc. However, I believe that God allows most bad things to happen, things that can even take our lives, and we are judged by how we react to these things.

So in short, God always knows when we are going to die, He usually lets things influence when we are gong to die (and we are judged accordingly), and in a way God determines when we are going to die (e.g. angels intervening).

Thanks for the excellent question and if you want me to go into more detail or the Scriptural support for any of this, let me know.

Todd Tyszka