And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)
David Brainerd, (well known missionary): “I am going into eternity and it is sweet to me to think of eternity.”
John Wesley, preacher and songwriter: “The best of all is that God is with us, farewell, farewell.”
Michelangelo, famous painter and sculptor: “I die in the faith of Jesus Christ, and in the firm hope of a better life.”
William Pitt, British statesman: “I throw myself on the mercy of God, through the merits of Jesus Christ.”
Sir Michael Faraday, (brilliant English scientist 1791 – 1867), was asked when he was near death: “What are your speculations now?” He answered: “I have no speculations. I rest upon Jesus Christ who died, and rose again from death.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, beloved preacher and author, on his deathbed: “I can hear them coming!” He sat straight up in bed and asked: “Don’t you hear them? This is my coronation day. I can see the chariots, I’m ready to board.”
Dwight L. Moody, famous preacher and founder of the Moody Bible Institute, while on his deathbed: “Can this be death? Why it is better than living! Earth is receding, heaven is opening. This is my coronation day”
Dietrich Bonhoffer, German theologian, standing in front of a firing squad during World War 2, for speaking out against Nazism, “This may seem to be the end for me, but it is just the beginning.”
Augustus Toplady, author of ‘Rock of ages.” His final words: “All is light, light, light.”
John Knox, Scottish clergyman and founder of the Presbyterian Church was asked on his deathbed: “Hast thou any hope?” Unable to speak, John Knox slowly lifted up his arm, and with his index finger pointed heavenward, and with a peaceful countenance he died.
President George Washington: “Doctor, I am dying, but I am not afraid to die.” He folded his hands over his chest and said: “It is well,”
President Lincoln, in the Ford Theatre, speaking to Mrs. Lincoln: “I’d like us to visit the Holy Land, we could go to Jeru”…..(at that point Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth).
P. T. Barnum the circus magnate on his deathbed asked: “How are the circus receipts today?”
Sir Francis Newport allowed his name to used on a brand of cigarettes. On his deathbed he cried out: “Oh eternity. Oh eternity”. And he uttered a groan of inexpressible horror as a cried out, “Oh the insufferable pains of hell, forever, forever.”
Clarence Darrow, the Scopes Trial lawyer in the famous 1925 debate, while on his deathbed asked several clergymen to “please intercede for me with the Almighty. During my life I have spoken many times against Christians, and I now realize that I may have been wrong.”
Edward Gibbon, author of the ‘Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire’: “All is lost, irrecoverably lost. All is dark and doubtful.”
Julian the Apostate (Roman emperor who hated Christians), was leading his forces in the battle for Persia in 363 AD. He was mortally wounded, and as he lay dying on the battlefield, picked up some of his own blood, mingled with dirt, flung it skyward and said: “Thou hast conquered oh Galilean.” (A reference to Jesus).
Famous French author Guy de Maupassant (1850 – 1893) of whom it was said: “critics praised him, men admired him, women adored him.” Before he went insane and died at the early age of 42, as a result of having contracted syphilis, he penned his own epitaph: “I have coveted everything, found pleasure in nothing.”
Sir Julian Huxley, English evolutionist, biologist and staunch atheist, on his deathbed: “So it is true after all, so it is true after all.”
Voltaire, one of history’s best known atheists, often stated that “by the time I’m buried, the Bible will be non-existent.” His last words were: “I am abandoned by God and man; I shall die and go to hell alone.” His condition had become so terrible that his associates were afraid to approach his bedside, and as he passed away, his nurse said that for all of the wealth in Europe, she would never watch another infidel die.
A few years after he died the Geneva Bible Society purchased Voltaire’s home and turned it into a print shop to print Bibles.
Robert Ingersoll, noted lecturer and avowed anti-Christian on his deathbed said: “Life is the cold and barren value between two eternal peaks. I strive in vain to see beyond the distant height. I cry out and the only answer I hear, is the echo of my empty wail.”
Queen Elizabeth I, grabbed he physician by the sleeve and pulled him down over her bed and said: “Half of the British Empire for six month of life.” He could not even give her six minutes and she died.
H.G. Wells, historian and the ‘apostle of modernism’, and a determined atheist: “Here I am at age 64, still searching for peace of mind. It is a hopeless dream”
Charles Darwin, on his deathbed: “I regret that I suggested a theory, and that gullible men gobbled it up, as though it were fact. I never intended that.”
Joseph Stalin, (who murdered many millions of his countrymen), while on his deathbed
– as related by his daughter Svetlana to Malcolm Muggeridge: “He suddenly sat up, groaned, shook his fist at the ceiling as if he could see beyond it, then fell back and died.”
Hobbs the atheist said: “I am taking a fearful leap into the dark”.
Talleyrand (called the most brilliant mind of his generation) when asked about his condition while on his deathbed replied: “I am suffering the pangs of the damned.”
Byron the famous English poet on his deathbed said: “My days are in the yellow leaf. The flowers and the fruits of life are gone. The worm and the canker and the grief are mine alone”.
Marilyn Monroe: “I don’t need your Jesus.” Related by Billy Graham who tried to present the Gospel message to Marilyn, just before she died at age 36.
Steve Jobs, the driving force behind Apple, uttered this about 3 hours before his death as reported by his sister Mona Simpson: “OH WOW, OH WOW, OH WOW.” Was he in pain? Did he reflect on his life? Did he see a vision? We’ll never know.