Cheating Death – Twice?

He was called “A Precious Storyteller” but now his voice will be silenced forever. His name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi and his claim to fame was a uniquely painful one.

On August 6, 1945 Yamaguchi was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was on a business trip for his shipbuilding company when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He was badly burned but somehow survived and returned home after spending one night in the decimated city. Home for Tsutomu was none other than the neighboring city of Nagasaki!

Three days after the first bomb leveled Hiroshima, a second blast destroyed much of Tsutomu’s home and quickly ended the war. Some 200,000 were killed by the dual mega-blasts. But by surviving the second blast Yamaguchi was the only person to be certified by the Japanese government as having been in both attacked cities and lived to talk about it. In his later years, Yamaguchi spoke about cheating death twice and often expressed his hope that such weapons would be abolished. Newspapers reported that Yamaguchi finally died of stomach cancer. The mayor of Nagasaki said "a precious storyteller has been lost."

Death is said to be the greatest enemy of man and all will face it at some point outside of some unique biblical ‘exceptions’. Some seemingly succumb early and quickly to the ‘grim reaper’’. Others, like Tsutomu Yamaguchi, may get chance after chance to escape his clutches – for a while!

But when death arrives, and it will according to Hebrews 9:27, those special ‘exceptions’ will be those who are alive when Jesus Christ returns for His precious church on earth. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 describes the awesome event. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Death is the most certain part of life – even more reliable than being taxed. And while the demise of the human body is typically unpleasant, it need not be viewed as a brutal defeat by the ultimate enemy. As a matter of fact, it can even be met with a degree of victory, peace, and even a deep-seated inner joy. (Philippians 4:7)

Paul the Apostle explained how this seemingly irrational reaction may be realized. In his first letter to the church at Corinth he records in verse 51, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Life is a precious gift whether it ends in the womb before or lasts longer than normal. When it is miraculously created, so is an eternal soul that will live on as long as the infinite Creator who authored it. But the point of life is not to see how long it can be stretched out or how many material things can be amassed throughout. God’s great goal is that those to whom He granted physical life also experience His spiritual life through His Son – a passion spelled out in 1 Timothy 2:2-4.

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Bill Breckenridge