Dear Renee:

God knows the moment of our death because He knows all things.  To Him there is no past, present of future. He is in the eternal present. Thus, He knew the moment of our birth, the course of our life, and the moment of our death from long before the earth even existed.

God's knowledge of when we will die, however, is not a destiny schedule where God looks at His calendar and see that you have an appointment with death today so He zaps you.

The moment of our death, while known by God, is determined not by a schedule but be disease, accident, violence, or natural causes of old age.

You ask to support this with Scripture. That is not the correct question. Not everything is in Scripture. The Bible itself says that the teachings of Jesus are not all in the Bible (John 21:25).

Neither theory -- that there is an appointed time that we will die no matter what, or that we die according to circumstance is supported by Scripture. We learn these things from the Church, from Sacred Tradition which is ALSO the Word of God.

The idea of "the Bible alone" is not a biblical notion and is not found anywhere in the Bible.

We must remember that the Bible came from the Church, not the Church from the Bible. The New Testament was not even written for several decades after the death and resurrection of Christ, yet the Church still had teachings. Even when the Apostles began writing down things, there were many manuscripts circulating and being read in Churches that were not "scripture". It was not until the 4th century that the Church finally decided on which of the circulating manuscripts actually constituted New Testament Scripture. Part of the criteria to determine which manuscripts were in fact inspired Scripture was whether or not the manuscript was consistent with Church teaching, with Sacred Oral Tradition.

So the question, "support your point in scripture" is actually an unBiblical question. Just as God established his teaching Magisterium in Old Testament times on Moses, and what Jesus called the "Chair of Moses" in Matthew 23:2, to be his spokesman to interpret the faith, in New Testament times there is also a Chair of authority as God's spokesman to officially interpret the faith. That New Testament chair is founded on Peter.

God is not so cruel as to leave us to the whim of opinions on the faith. Jesus established ONE church and ONE faith. That requires ONE authority on earth charged by God to interpret the ONE faith. That is the way God has always done it and it is how he does it now. The alternative? Well, the alternative is groups of people with differing opinions on the faith starting their own churches. St. Paul condemns that:

Today we have some 30,000 groups out there all claiming to be following the Holy Spirit in the Christian faith, yet interpreting that faith differently and arguing about it.

The Catholic Church is the only one not in that mess. It is the original Church that Jesus founded, the only True Church in the fullness of the faith that has maintained the integrity of that faith unchanged for 2000 years. It is the Church that has the Magisterium that God established for the New Testament times, founded on Peter and continued on the Chair of Peter.

We understand our faith though the Bible AND through the Magisterial teaching of the Church. The Church interprets the Bible, not the other way around.

Sorry to go on so much about this, but your request to "support that in Scripture" is truly a loaded request based upon erroneous understanding of Scripture and the Church, and is, as I mentioned, an unBiblical request since even the Bible itself says that not all teachings are in the Bible.

BOTTOMLINE: The explanation I gave for when we die is based upon the theology of the nature of God. God gave us free will. He NEVER violates or intrudes upon free will. If we were appointed to die at a specific date in the future no matter what that would be a violation of our free will and the order of nature. Any death before that of old age is a death that in some way is determined by own own free will or that of others, or as a consequence of a fallen world (which also resulted from free will).

The only certain appointment we have is with death itself. If we do not die from disease, accident, or violence, we will die of natural causes of old age. Thus, on that score, we do have an appointment with death.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary