{"id":10126,"date":"2025-11-12T02:30:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10126"},"modified":"2025-11-12T02:30:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:30:59","slug":"the-biggest-danger-of-all-isnt-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10126","title":{"rendered":"The biggest danger of all isn\u2019t what you think"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Robin Schumacher<\/span><\/span>, Exclusive Columnist Monday, November 10, 2025<\/span>iStock\/_jure<\/span><\/p>\n

In the movie\u00a0Addams Family Values, Wednesday is made fun of by other girls and is asked why she dresses in black like she\u2019s going to a funeral. \u201cWhy are you dressed like somebody died?\u201d\u00a0a girl asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait,\u201d Wednesday\u00a0responds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019s right. And the thing is, you don\u2019t have to wait long.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recent\u00a0stats\u00a0peg the number of deaths at 7.8 deaths per 1,000 people for 2025. In raw numbers: about 62 million people die each year worldwide, which breaks down to around 172,800 deaths per day globally in 2025, 120 deaths per minute, or about 2 deaths every second.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot of souls going into eternity, some of which got up today having no idea it would be their last. Stop and think about that for just a minute, and keep in mind that it could be any one of us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John MacArthur\u00a0talks\u00a0about that reality when he recounts being on the Larry King show the day after 9\/11:<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry King said to me, \u2018What is the lesson here.\u2019 I said, \u2018The lesson is everybody\u2019s going to die, and you\u2019re not necessarily in control of when.\u2019 The danger of death is around us, and what contributes to that death is both around us, and even in us. Everyone dies. A hundred years from now none of us will be around; that\u2019s inevitable. Life is the most comprehensive danger of all; no one escapes its inevitable end.\u201d<\/p>\n

I doubt you would select \u201clife\u201d as the biggest danger out of a list of other options, but I get what MacArthur is saying. In fact, it explains something Jesus said in one of His biographies that has always bugged me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When towers fall<\/strong><\/p>\n

The part in Scripture I\u2019m talking about is in Luke, and starts like this:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, \u2018Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish\u2019\u201d (Luke 13:1\u20135).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every day, skeptics throw out the problem of reconciling God and evil to Christians as their number 1 supposed issue with the Christian faith, and what do we do? We pull out our apologetics 101 course, turn to the section that covers the subject of evil, and see if it assuages their stance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both of the primary subgroups of evil are in the story \u2014 moral evil with the murders Pilate committed and gratuitous natural evil with the tower collapsing on unsuspecting people \u2014 \u00a0and yet we don\u2019t get an apologetics narrative or explanation from Christ about them. Instead, He tells His hearers: \u201cUnless you repent, you will all likewise perish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I used to think that was a pretty cold and unsympathetic response. Think about it \u2014 if you were a relative of someone killed by Pilate or in the tower collapse, how would you have felt after hearing that?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as usual, Jesus is zeroing in on the most critical thing in the account that those back then and we need to hear today, which is this:\u00a0No one dies in a tragedy or atrocity that wasn’t going to die.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether you or I leave this earth in an event like one of those or peacefully in our sleep, we all still die. And then what?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The people who died in the recent hurricane in Jamaica or the\u00a02012 Aurora theater shooting were not \u201cgreater sinners\u201d as Jesus put it, than anyone else (notice how he deep-sixes the concept of\u00a0karma?); in reality, none of us are immune from something like that. Thus, His point is you need to get right with God before you feel death\u2019s tap on your shoulder, however it comes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He emphasizes this again in the section that immediately follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd He began telling this parable: \u2018A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, Behold, that for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?\u2019 And he answered and said to him, \u2018Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down\u2019\u201d (Luke 13:6\u20139).\u00a0<\/p>\n

You see the illustration of bearing fruit in many places in Scripture, and they all refer to the outworkings of saving faith (see James 2\u00a0for an example). No fruit, no faith, no salvation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And no eternal protection from what the Bible calls\u00a0\u201cthe second death\u201d (Rev. 2:11).\u00a0<\/p>\n

So while we aren\u2019t given weighty explanations for the\u00a0problem of theodicy in this passage, we do have good news if we keep reading. When He delivered this teaching, Christ was headed up to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of Pilate, and to have his blood not mingled with other sacrifices as in the case of the murdered Gentiles, but made\u00a0the\u00a0<\/em>sacrifice itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like the pleading vineyard-keeper in the parable, Christ is our great intercessor who intervenes on our behalf where judgment is concerned. However, while God is very patient, His patience does not last forever. Notice that, in His story, Jesus asks for a reprieve for the tree not bearing fruit, not for its continued barren existence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a time of a nationwide illness, theologian\u00a0Warren Wiersbe\u00a0once asked a friend in a neighboring town about his city\u2019s death rate. His friend replied, \u201cOne apiece,\u201d then added, \u201cPeople are dying who never died before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just like you and I will someday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without Jesus, life is indeed the biggest danger of all. It\u2019s easy to forget that, especially when you\u2019re young or things are going well, and you get settled into that it-can\u2019t-happen-to-you mentality. But remember what Wednesday said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist Monday, November 10, 2025iStock\/_jure In the movie\u00a0Addams Family Values, Wednesday is made fun of by other girls and is asked why she dresses in black like she\u2019s going to a funeral. \u201cWhy are you dressed like somebody died?\u201d\u00a0a girl asks. \u201cWait,\u201d Wednesday\u00a0responds.\u00a0 She\u2019s right. And the thing is, you don\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1909,487,554],"class_list":["post-10126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-biggest","tag-danger","tag-isnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}