In 2017, the Bengaluru police had a tough time investigating the murder of a young man in the city. The crucial eyewitness in this murder case—a 32-year-old woman and probably the only witness—committed suicide within two hours of the incident. She was a friend of the victim, and it was her husband who shot her paramour dead. It was a tough hurdle for the investigators to overcome.
But a phone call made by the woman to her cousin just before her suicide came to the rescue of the police. A legal provision called ‘dying declaration’ allowed the police to rely on the statement she made over the phone. The term ‘dying declaration’ is derived from a legal maxim of Latin origin: ‘Nemo Moriturus Praesumitur Mentire’. It means “a man will not meet his Creator with a lie in his mouth.”.
A ‘dying declaration’ is admitted as evidence by the legal systems of many countries. The legal principle on which this is accepted is that “they are declarations made in extremity, when the party is at the point of death and when every hope of this world is gone; when every motive to falsehood is silenced, and the mind is induced by the most powerful considerations to speak the truth; a situation so solemn and so awful is considered by the law as creating an obligation equal to that which is imposed by a positive oath administered in a court of justice.”
This Latin term, ‘‘Nemo Moriturus Praesumitur Mentire', which is used by the law to make an exception for ‘Hearsay’ evidence, points to a more solemn truth. We will all stand before our Creator one day, and every person will be judged according to what he has done. Unlike the judges of human courts, God, the creator, doesn’t need material evidence to judge you. God is omniscient, and He sees your heart. If one cannot meet his Creator with a lie in his mouth, what about the other million sins he or she has committed? What about the injustice, greed, envy, sexual immorality, adultery, deceitfulness, and other numerous evils he has done in his body and heart? Who can stand before a holy God?
Centuries ago, the Bible recorded the dying declaration of another man. It was Peter, the disciple of Jesus Christ. After being convinced that it was time for him to depart from this world, he wrote, ” I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Peter witnessed about Christ in an earlier letter he wrote: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” The only way that sinful man can be made fit to come before holy God is to be purified and cleansed of his sins. And Christ Jesus accomplished this on the cross when He died for the sins of mankind and rose again on the third day.
A few days after writing these, Peter’s execution was ordered by the Roman Emperor Nero. Peter requested to be crucified upside down, as he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as Christ.
Well, he was prepared to meet his Creator.
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