Born to Die
- Jeff Setzer
- Sep 3
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 7
It was the most unforgettable weekend in my life. In December of 1990, I was serving during a very busy time at Liberty Baptist in Pigeon Forge, TN.
I had gone there with great anticipation to serve with the pastor who was very instrumental in my Christian life, Pastor Robert Settle.
This was the man God used to lead Tabernacle Baptist in Hickory, NC to start a school, Tabernacle Christian school where I was blessed to attend 7th through 12th grades.
My mind goes back to fond memories in my high school years there of singing in special groups, getting out of class for a week with the Academy of Arts, playing soccer and basketball, and a special week of school camp each year at The Wilds in Brevard, NC.
It was through the school that I grew in my faith and learned many Bible verses along with how to apply them to my life. To this day, I am extremely grateful to the LORD for leading my parents to put me there after they learned of the school from our neighbors.
After having served with Evangelist Dave Kistler in a revival meeting at Liberty in Pigeon Forge, I felt honored that Pastor Settle would ask me to come serve as his assistant! My duties that year were directing the choir, overseeing children's church and the bus ministry, and running a bus route. The church usually performed a Christmas program each year, and that year I chose the cantata by Ron Hamilton entitled Born to Die.
Every morning, Pastor Settle came to the church for a time of prayer in the downstairs of the church parsonage. I cannot recall exactly which weekday it was, possibly Friday.
As we were just beginning the prayer time, Janie the head deacon's wife, came rushing downstairs to the phone exclaiming that there had been an accident!
Outside, a busy two-lane road took tourists from Pigeon Forge to Cades Cove. Each morning during the school year, the school bus stopped in front of the church to pick up or let off children. That morning, there had indeed been a terrible accident!
I'll never forget the scene as we ran to the road not knowing what had happened or what we'd see. A small crowd had gathered on both sides of the road as traffic had stopped and was backed up both ways, one side behind a school bus. In the other lane sat a dump truck a short distance from the bus. Between them in the middle of the road, was the body of a young boy face down in a pool of blood. The air was heavy with both the winter chill and the thickness of death. I watched with dismay as the older brother, apparently not understanding what happened, approached the body of his brother to pick up his hand in an apparent attempt to get him to get up and come with him, but no response from the child.
No one but the older brother and other children there saw what happened that day, but the thinking is that there were some children playing "chicken" in the traffic. When the older boy crossed the road in front of the truck, unbeknownst to him his younger brother followed him and the cement truck was unable to stop in time.
Some odd and memorable things transpired that tumultuous weekend: the tragedy on Friday, a wedding on Saturday, a cantata rehearsal Saturday evening, and the cantata performance Sunday evening. The receiving for the child was on Monday evening. The irony that weekend was the cantata title: "Born to Die." The second most memorable occurrence from that time happened a short while later.
You see, the brothers whose names I cannot now recall after 35 years, were in junior church at Liberty. I was overseeing junior church, hadn't been there very long and was still getting to know the names of the children. Within a week I was perusing the notebook which I used to keep track of points for attendance or Bible brought. As I turned a page looking for their names, I found the older one in the list with all of the others. However, as my eyes scanned the pages, I did not see the name of the younger one...until I flipped to the last page. A chill went up my spine as I saw the younger brother's name all by itself at the top of an otherwise blank piece of paper. As I removed the page, the thought hit me that it was as if the child had never been on the list...that he'd been "born to die." In truth, many "Why?" questions naturally run through one's mind after such tragedies, but only the God of Heaven knows.
That God has included the answers in His Revelation to mankind. His Word tells us where death came from and why it exists.
"For as in Adam, all die..." (1 Corinthians 15:22)
The "bad news" is that the just punishment of death exists because of our violations against God beginning with the first man, Adam, who was the head of the human race. All "bad things" are a result of that first man's choice!
But wait...there's more!
There's GOOD NEWS! The rest of verse 22 states:
"...even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
The wrong decision by Adam was made right by the "second Adam," the LORD JESUS Who died for Adam's transgression! Since all of humanity is "in Adam," Jesus' atoning death and subsequent resurrection was for all humanity!
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