07/25/2025
The Day the Prince of Darkness Died
Rich BittermanJuly 22, 2025
Ozzy Osbourne’s Final Appointment with Eternity – 1948-2025
I was 16 the first time I heard “Mr. Crowley.”
The way it began…haunting organ, crashing guitar…grabbed me by the throat. I didn’t know what the lyrics meant. I didn’t care. I was angry, curious, spiritually empty, and Ozzy Osbourne sounded like someone who had seen behind the curtain.
He felt untouchable.
Immortal.
A man who drank from the shadows and laughed.
But today, Ozzy died.
And I need to talk to you about that. Not about music. Not about controversy. Not even about Ozzy himself, really.
I need to talk to you about what happens when someone dies.
Because whatever else you believe about Ozzy, this is now true:
The man who called himself the Prince of Darkness has stepped into a kingdom he can no longer define.
--I Was 42 When the Light Finally Found Me--
I admired Ozzy long before I feared God. I wasn’t raised in church. I wasn’t hardened either. Just… unanchored. I floated through my teens and twenties chasing noise, like so many do. Music filled the void. Metal was a friend that never judged.
By the time I reached my early 40s, I had built a life, but not a soul. I was married. Employed. Civil. I could smile in public and curse in private. I knew how to hide the emptiness. What I didn’t know was how to heal it.
Then Jesus Christ found me.
He didn’t improve me.
He rescued me.
He came with the truth about life, and death, and judgment and I was smart enough, by sheer mercy, to bow.
So understand: I write this not as a critic of Ozzy, but as a man who once walked toward the same cliff.
--What Happens When We Die--
Ozzy’s death is not symbolic. His soul has separated from his body. His blood cooled. His lungs quit. But Ozzy didn’t disappear. He went somewhere.
And so will you.
You are not just biology. You’re not a collection of carbon, nerves, and brainwaves. You are soul and body, breath and clay. Death tears the two apart, but it doesn’t end you.
The Bible says it plainly: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”
Ozzy kept his appointment. You will too.
When you die, you will be awake. Aware. Unmistakably conscious. Not in some floating mist, but in a state of full, terrifying clarity.
You will either enter the presence of Christ or the horror of separation from Him.
And it will be immediate.
There is no purgatory.
No tunnel with a light.
No do-overs.
You will stand…spiritually, then one day bodily…in the place where your life’s choices carried you.
--The Resurrection Is Not a Myth--
There is a resurrection coming. One resurrection. All will rise. Some to joy. Some to shame.
Ozzy will rise. So will I. So will you.
Your body may be buried, burned, or lost at sea. It does not matter. The God who fashioned Adam from dust can call your atoms back with a word.
Scripture says our resurrection will be like the planting of a seed. The body you place in the ground is not the one that comes out. Just as a sunflower is not a carbon copy of the seed that birthed it, your resurrection body will be a glorified version, fit for eternity.
The believer will rise with a body like Christ’s. Immortal. Incorruptible. Built for worship.
The unbeliever will rise too with a body not to behold glory, but to endure judgment.
This is certainty.
--When the Music Stops: Ozzy Osbourne’s Death and the Courtroom of Eternity--
Every word you’ve spoken, every secret you’ve carried, every mask you’ve worn will be laid bare. Not before your therapist. Before your Creator.
The books will open.
And nothing will be missing.
You won’t get to defend yourself. You won’t be compared to someone worse. You won’t be able to lie or hide or charm your way out.
If you lived without Christ, you will die without Christ. And if you die without Christ, you will face the wrath of a holy God who offered you mercy and was ignored.
But if you are in Christ, if His blood has covered your guilt, if His name is written over your story…then the judgment will not break you. It will crown you.
Not because you lived well.
But because He died well.
Because your record has been swallowed up in His righteousness.
--Eternity Will Be Your Forever Home--
I don’t know if Ozzy Osbourne ever repented. I pray that he did. But I cannot speak for him. I can only say this: the lyrics he once sang are now irrelevant. Whatever jokes he made about hell, whatever symbols he wore, whatever darkness he flirted with…it is no longer stagecraft.
It is verdict.
And one day, it will be yours too.
Heaven is not a feeling. It is a place. A place where God is not just worshipped, but enjoyed.
Hell is not a metaphor. It is a prison. A place where mercy has ceased to be offered and every moment burns with regret.
Some will read this and roll their eyes. Others will scroll past and go back to their lives. But someone—maybe you—feels the weight. You know this is true.
You have pushed God off long enough. You have numbed yourself with distractions and convinced yourself that judgment is for other people. Not for you.
But you’re wrong.
The road ends. Every life ends. And only one name saves.
--Ozzy’s Death Is Not About Ozzy--
It’s about you.
The news of his death is not a tabloid event. It is a trumpet blast to the living.
The man who once stood on stage and howled at the moon is now silent. The crowd is gone. The lights are off.
And he is face to face with eternity.
So ask yourself: if the curtain fell tonight, would you be ready?
Do not play games with your soul.
Do not wait to become a better version of yourself.
Do not pretend that God is still deciding what to do with you.
He already has.
He sent His Son.
He opened the door.
And He promised…if you will repent and believe…you will be saved.
Not improved.
Not reformed.
Saved.
You will still die. But death will lose its power. It will become a doorway, not a sentence. And when the trumpet sounds, and your body rises, you will see Him—Christ—and He will not be your Judge.
He will be your Joy.
--The Last Song--
There are no encore performances in the afterlife.
When the music stops, the truth speaks. Not your truth. The truth.
The Son of God was crucified for sinners. That includes you. That included me.
I was 42 when I bowed the knee. Forty-two years of wandering and noise and pride. Forty-two years on the edge of hell, smiling like it wasn’t real.
But now I’m a pastor. A husband. A follower of Jesus. I live to preach the gospel I once ignored.
So believe me when I tell you: the only song worth singing is the one that ends with Christ on the throne.
And the only death worth dying is the one where you rise again.
