According to the Bible, has the date of our death already been predetermined?

Question

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2 (New Revised Standard Version) says:

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die."

Does this mean that our 'time' is a time already determined by God or by "Fate," and when 'our time is up,' that we have to go?

Answer 1

Not determined, it is known by God.  You do not know it.  As a Father or Mother you can more easily understand because you can guess in certain circumstances exactly how your child will react, say, do.

Answer 2

yeah well, according to the bible, donkeys talk.

Answer 3

yes of course not. we wil all go to h**l and determine are reason for being sacrfice...what sin did you commit? well in everyday study, we do much sin in our society everyday than we do to go lively in heaven

Answer 4

Yes.  We CAN'T die until God says it's time.  That's why some suicides are unsuccesful when it seems they shouldn't be, or some person is "miraculously" cured of some otherwise fatal disease: it's not their time.  We die when GOD'S ready:)  Hope this helped.  Bye!  xxxxx

Answer 5

God has placed every person exactly where He wants them in human history.

Yes, He knows prior to a person's life precisely when he/she will die.

Why? because He has written human history.

Within the sovereign will of God is His permissive will - what He will allow for a time. Sin has it's season and then it is ended forever.

Answer 6

It is up to God

Answer 7

We all have choices and how we make them determines what happens to us, not fate.

Answer 8

No I don't believe in fate and the Bible does not support it.

Consider this:

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Predestination and Free Will—Reconcilable?

Consider how Jehovah God made us. “In God’s image he created [man]; male and female he created them,” states the Bible. (Genesis 1:27) Made in God’s likeness, we have the ability to reflect his qualities, such as love, justice, wisdom, and power. God has also given us the gift of free will, or freedom of choice. This makes us unique among his earthly creation. We can choose whether we will follow God’s moral guidance or not. That is why the prophet Moses could say: “I do take the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you today, that I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the malediction; and you must choose life in order that you may keep alive, you and your offspring, by loving Jehovah your God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him.”—Deuteronomy 30:19, 20.

So the decisions we make have a bearing on what happens to us.

When Eccl. says there is a time for everything it does not mean a predetermined time. Perhaps this fact, more than anything else, is the reason that only the father knows the day and the hour spoken of at Matt. 24:36. Example: What determines when it is time to laugh or time to cry? Answer: the situation. If something is funny, it is time to laugh. If something is tragic, it is time to cry.  

If someone abuses their body by smoking and excessive drinking, drugs, lack of sleep, poor diet then they will likely die an early death. If someone takes unnecessary risks that too may result in an early death. If someone refuses to obey traffic laws that too could have the same result. Sometimes it is simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time per Eccl. 9:11 "because time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all".

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Also consider the following from the October 15th 1991 Watchtower, page 6:

Nowhere does the Bible espouse the idea that God has predetermined our time of death. It is true that Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2 says: “For everything there is an appointed time, even a time for every affair under the heavens: a time for birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted.” Yet Solomon was simply discussing the continuing cycle of life and death that afflicts imperfect humanity. We are born, and when the time comes, when normal life expectancy is reached—usually after 70 or 80 years or so—we die. Still, the exact moment of death has no more been predetermined by God than the moment when a farmer decides “to plant” or “to uproot what was planted.”

In fact, Solomon later shows that a person might die prematurely, saying: “Do not be wicked overmuch, nor become foolish. Why should you die when it is not your time?” (Ecclesiastes 7:17) What sense would this counsel make if one’s time of death were unchangeably predetermined? The Bible thus rejects the notion of fate. Apostate Israelites who adopted this pagan concept were severely condemned by God. Isaiah 65:11 says: “You men are those leaving Jehovah, those forgetting my holy mountain, those setting in order a table for the god of Good Luck and those filling up mixed wine for the god of Destiny.”

How foolish it is, then, to attribute accidents and mishaps to fate or, worse yet, to God himself! “God is love,” says the Bible, and to accuse him of being the author of human misery directly contradicts this fundamental truth.—1 John 4:8.

Answer 9

Yup. When God created the Earth and living things on it, he planned out the life of every human that would live. I know it sounds like that would take a while, but he can do all things. In the book of life, he knows your life. He knows the choices you have and will make, and therefore he knows every aspect of your life, includiong the day of your death.

Answer 10

No, it means all who are born will die. We die because of Adam's sin, it brought sin and death into the world. God knows everything, even the future.

Rom 5:12   When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.  

Rom 5:13   Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. And though there was no law to break, since it had not yet been given,  

Rom 5:14   they all died anyway-even though they did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. What a contrast between Adam and Christ, who was yet to come!  

Rom 5:15   And what a difference between our sin and God's generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God's bountiful gift.  

Rom 5:16   And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins.  

Rom 5:17   The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God's wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.  

Rom 5:18   Yes, Adam's one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness makes all people right in God's sight and gives them life.  

Rom 5:19   Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God's sight.  

Rom 5:20   God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful kindness became more abundant.  

Rom 5:21   So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Answer 11

I don't know.  I think we want to believe that death is not up to us because it is so difficult to accept. you look at people killed randomly ...they seem to be in the wrong place...people killed by sickness...and they are good people...cancer...and so on...is it random...in the cards?  who knows....but we would like to believe we did everything we could to stay alive....I think it is in the hand of God myself....because some people have every reason in the book to die and they just keep on living... some people have a healthy life, some are sick in one way or the other their whole life...who knows?  I guess I wonder if it really matters because I believe that we don't die...  it is a matter of if you believe you have a spirit...death in the physical reality will always be difficult but would it be possible to move past that to the true belief that we will meet again in a better place... it would be nice anyway

Answer 12

It is appointed once for a man to die, and then comes judgment.

The word, 'appointed' in the above quoted verse would imply that the answer is yes.

Answer 13

no....

our eating habits can affect it..

Answer 14

Yes - but it can be altered. See 'The Hiding Place' - a true Story of Corrie Ten Boom.

Answer 15

As God is all knowing, He cannot help but know the time when everyone will die. Not sure you could call that predetermined. He is just an all wise God.

Answer 16

No.

Yes in the present system of things, we are to die once.

That is also according to Paul.

But our individual death is not predetermined.

Answer 17

No that is not what that scripture is saying.

Answer 18

Yes it is, from the very start. Science have even found the gene that determines the life span. God set a time and limit on all things.

He said I am God he who reveals the end from the beginning. And he has.

Answer 19

Yup.

Answer 20

The bible is full of myths and nonsense.

There is no fate,... there is no god.