Near Death Experiences

To continue this discussion about the human soul surviving after the final death of the body I'd like to quote from a blog I wrote back around Christmas time, 2010. 

I've often shared what Alice, a delightful elderly lady of our parish, told me. She said that she had died during an operation on her body. She recalled leaving her body and rising above it to look down at the doctors and nurses desperately trying to revive her. Then in a blinding flash she found herself amidst her people, her parents, husband, aunts and uncles who had all gone before her. They welcomed her with laughter and delight and she was filled with joy. But then she heard a Voice tell her she must return. In a moment, Alice said, she was back in that hospital operating room, looking down at her body. And in the next moment she was awake. After that experience, she said she looked forward to death (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). 

Alice was quite reluctant to tell her story. She assumed that many would consider her a nut case for telling such a wild tale. I assured her I did not. Perhaps you will not either, because hundreds have told similar stories. There is even a Near Death Experience Foundation, although I would caution everyone not to base their hopes of life after death and the resurrection upon human science and human accounts (1 Corinthians 15:1-19).

 In his book, Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death,  Dr. Sam Parnia tells about his study of such near death experiences (NDE). He concludes, 

Today, the tantalizing question for science is, If the human consciousness or soul does indeed continue to exist well past the traditional marker that defines death, does it really ever die as an entity? Our new studies will continue to explore this and other significant ethical questions. For now, though, we can be certain that we humans no longer need to fear death. 

I do not know if Dr. Parnia is a Christian. His focus is upon human science.  He suggests that our soul "does indeed continue to exist well past the traditional marker that defines death." We Christians have long known that. Our faith is based upon solid evidence, often overlooked by the world. We always look to the fact of Christ's resurrection, a fact never disproved. Listen to the Apostle Paul—

• Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? - 1 Cor 15:1-12 ESV
• Paul himself, pronounced dead after being stoned to death at Lystra (Acts 14:19-20), speaks about his own near death experience: "I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses-- though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. - 2 Cor 12:1-6 ESV

The Bible writers witness to God's grace in Jesus Christ and to the glory that awaits those who put their trust in him. What about those souls who have turned their backs upon him and the cross? What happens to them after death? Is there such a thing as hell, darkness, eternal fire and suffering, as Jesus himself said?

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' - Mar 9:47-48 ESV (cf. Matt. 18:8-9)

More about that in my next blog about the survival of the soul after death.

Immortality Through Technology Is Still On The Horizon

It is the season of Advent as I write. We are busy preparing to celebrate again the birth of our Lord Jesus. As we make such preparations, we are also reminded about those who do not have the means to celebrate. Churches and various non-profit organizations appeal to us on behalf of the poor, the sick and the homeless. We Christians also pray to our Lord to rescue and restore them. And this he does—often through us, the members of his body (Rom. 7:4).

One such prayer reached Jesus (John 11:1-3). Two wealthy women of the village of Bethany, beloved friends of Jesus, appealed to him on behalf of their brother Lazarus. He was deathly sick and no matter how wealthy they were, they were helpless in the face of his illness. They needed Jesus, the Great Physician (Luke 5:31) who had healed many (Matt. 8:16; 12:15; 14:14, etc.). Jesus responded to their prayer in a strange manner.

But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. - John 11:4-6 ESV

I call this response strange, because Lazarus did die. His illness did lead to death. However, it did glorify Jesus, the Son of God, as he raised Lazarus from the dead. An important question arises at this point. What death or what type of death is Jesus speaking about? Its an important question, because modern science now suggests that we are in sight of conquering both illness and death within the next generation. And if that is so, we won't need Jesus any longer.

Here's a quote from the Postive Futurist:

Cutting-edge science and technologies, experts say, will one day provide everyone with radically increased intelligence, futuristic healthcare that prevents sickness and disease from ever happening, and a lifespan approaching immortality. . . 

Futurist Ray Kurzweil, in The Singularity is Near predicts that between 2025 and 2030, nanobot "cell-repair machines” will cruise through our bodies to prevent aging and stop pathogens before they cause harm. Nanobots will reprogram DNA where necessary keeping us forever young and in perfect health. . . 

In the 2040s, our 100% non-biological body will boast a zero failure rate. Even if a destructive accident were to occur, molecular nanotech would immediately construct a new body, retrieve our mind and memories, and allow life to continue; dying would be about as disruptive as a bee sting, and would take even less time to forget it even happened. 

Can this "magical future” without death become reality? This positive futurist believes it can!

Actually, I've examined this future in previous blogs over a year ago.

• Fear Not, The Technium Will Save Us! 
• Ray Kurzweil, MIT graduate, futurist and inventor believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become . . . more intelligent than humans and that science will ultimately discover the causes of biological death and eliminate them. . . Information defines your personality, your memories, your skills. And it really is information. And we ultimately will be able to capture that and actually recreate it. So then we will back ourselves up.

Michael Lindvall, a theologian and pastor of Brick Presbyterian Church in New York, pegs Mr. Kurzweil’s Singularity dogma as a modern iteration of the Gnosticism prevalent in the second and third centuries.

Gnosticism “was basically the idea that people save themselves by being smart,” Mr. Lindvall said. “By knowing these secret things, you would become cognoscenti, one of the few, elitist. Gnostics looked down on the hoi polloi Christian masses.”

As you may have guessed, Kurzweil and his followers are atheists. They don't need any God. Their technology is their god. So we are back to the days of the tower of Babel and human hubris.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. - Gen 11:1-6 ESV

More on this in my next post.