Life cannot continue without death. The ancients recognized this, and it is one of the reasons why they made sacrifice, especially animal sacrifice. The greater the animal, the greater the sacrifice. A sacrifice was either given completely to a deity or to the earth herself; or it was partially consumed by humans. Either way, it continued to provide life by way of its death and the cycle continued. Therefore, death was not only recognized as the beginning, it was shown to be the beginning by way of the action of sacrifice.

The monotheist has always striven to short-circuit the process and to blind people to this understanding. The ancient Hebrews did it by making sacrifice an appropriation, a substitute, for human frailties and sins. The Christians did it by claiming Jesus as the final sacrifice. Islam, generally, practices no sacrifice at all.

Today Christian fanatics are determined that they will live to be taken up in a rapture (since we are in the end-times, according to them) and, thus, never die, again short-circuiting the process. Indeed, they are just haughty enough to believe that they somehow deserve to avoid death, by virtue of being the last generation, while everyone else in all of history (including Jesus himself) has had to taste death! But, as each one of these modern-day fanatical “prophets” die, one by one, history will record that fact, and the cycle will still continue as it always has. Even so, I still actually hope that Jack Van Impe really is the “final prophet”, as he claims to be, because, frankly, we don’t need any more like him (or the rest of them, for that matter). Indeed, if endings are what they all seek, then may this be the final prophetic age.