Visions and Out Of Body Experiences

We are discussing the question of visions and dreams. Can we expect them? Does God still speak to His people through them?

The Apostle Paul writes about his visions and out-of-body experience (OBE) with these words:

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. - 2Co 12:1-4 ESV

I've written about this experience in several earlier blogs. You can use the search button on the right to find others. Examples:

• Christ's Power in my Weakness
• After Death, Paradise
• Some Heavenly Questions
• What And Where Is Heaven?

You may also wish to search for my earlier discussions of visions and dreams. 

In this blog I want to discuss the question of visions and revelations of the LORD a bit further. Paul's word for visions is optasia in common NT Greek. The same word is used to describe the experience of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.  Luke says that the angel Gabriel came to him with the message that Elizabeth, his wife, was to bear a child and the child's name was to be John. He would go to the people in the spirit and power of Elijah to make them ready for the coming Messiah. The people saw that Zechariah couldn't speak when he emerged from the Holy Place. They assumed that he had received a vision (Luke 1:22).

Paul used the same word, optasia, when describing his experience to King Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great. Paul called it the ouranios optasia, heavenly vision. Heavenly is the adjective frequently used to describe God the Father, e.g. "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." - Mat 5:48 ESV. In those instances heavenly does not describe a place, but rather a condition or way of life. The heavenly Father is complete, in need of nothing. And He loves everyone. We, in turn, are like Him when we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

The heavenly Father dwells above and beyond our mortal existence. This is why the Bible speaks Him being in the third heaven, that inaccessible dimension beyond us. To enter it is to come directly into the presence of God Himself. As I wrote earlier:

The third heaven is that place to which Paul was caught up, the place beyond, the dwelling-place of God, the heaven of heavens (Deut 10:14; Psalms 115:16; 148:4) 

Paul says he was caught up to that heaven. He also calls it paradise, being in the intimate and personal presence of the heavenly Father.

Paul does not know whether or not he left his body when he was caught up. Only God knows that. So we are left to assume that Paul believed in the possibility of an out-of-the-body experience. He couldn't say whether such a thing like that really happened to him, but it was possible. Only God knows.

Modern day Jews have the same beliefs. Rabbi Elyahu Kin lectures on You Tube about NDE (near death experience) or OBE (out of body experience). He emphasizes that men have souls, that part of our being known in Hebrew as the shem, the soul. The soul, he says,  continues after the body dies. Like Paul he also accepts the fact that the shem, the soul, can leave the body.

Paul couldn't speak about his optasia. He was forbidden, but his experience was real. It was what confirmed for him his call to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

And so what about us? Shall we expect visions and OBE's ? Not necessarily. Paul, for one, did not seek out such. They were given at God's choosing, never at Paul's demanding. This, then, must be our position.

1. Yes, we have a soul that will survive after our body dies. 
2. It is possible for the soul to leave the body and be caught up in a heavenly experience and then return to the body—what is called in our day an OBE.  
3. And yes, if God chooses, we may receive a vision. 
4. But such a vision will be completely in harmony with all that God has previously revealed through His prophets and apostles. 

Praying To Our Father In Parallel Universes

A couple years ago I heard a lecture at Texas A&M U. by Dr. Hugh Ross. He was talking about the relationship between the Bible and science on the topic of creation. During his talk he said that Christians have long believed in some kind of a parallel universe. Its called heaven. I like his comment. It fits in with the very popular discussion in science—and science fiction—about parallel or multiple universes. I've touched on the topic frequently in earlier blogs:

• Heaven and parallel universes
• What and where is heaven?
• Where shall we live? 
• After death, paradise
• Glory to God in the highest (angels from heaven)

In the Matthew version of the prayer our Lord taught us, we read:

Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. - Mat 6:9 ESV

Why does our Lord wants us to pray to our Father in heaven. Does heaven also include the possibility of multi-verses or multiple universes? That question is not addressed directly in God's self-revelation other than in a mysterious manner like this:

Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. - Deu 10:14 ESV

"You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. - Neh 9:6 ESV

The Lord's prayer in the original actually says "our Father who is in the heavens (plural). The point made is that our Father is in it all, whether there is one or an infinite number of heavens. And yet He is beyond and outside it all, as Solomon acknowledged when he built his majestic temple.

But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him? - 2Ch 2:6 ESV

Scientific studies during the past century have radically broadened our concepts of the universe or universes. So much, so very, very much remains unknown. We have only to read books like The Hidden Reality—Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene to realize how little we know and how vast creation may be.

And yet . . . Jesus teaches us that this great and eternal Father is our Father and we may approach Him as little children approach their Daddy's, their Papas. This is how Jesus prayed during his final hours in the Garden of Gethsemane as he used the familiar Aramaic word for Daddy.

And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." - Mar 14:36 ESV

And because of Jesus' victory over sin and death we too may now pray to our Father in this most personal and familiar manner, as the Apostle teaches,

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" - Rom 8:15 ESV

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" - Gal 4:6 ESV

We may indeed be fascinated by the things physicists are opening up for us. There are some cautions as we place their speculations against God's revelation in Holy Scripture, but the descriptions of what there may be remain humbling and mind boggling. This is one of the reasons I remain an avid fan of some science fiction.

And yet there is great comfort in knowing that we may come to this Father, our Father in Christ Jesus, for we are His children. And He listens to and always answers our prayers in the best possible manner. So Jesus teaches,

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. - Luk 11:9-10 ESV

The Virgin Mary And The Resurrection

During this Easter season I am looking at various teachings of Holy Scripture about the resurrection of the dead. In this connection there is a very strange statement in Matthew's Gospel about resurrection.

The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. - Matt 27:52-53 ESV

That's it! Matthew writes nothing more about these saints. For that matter, who were they? The best we can do is guess. Some feel they were righteous believers from the Old Testament era and that after "appearing to many" in Jerusalem they were taken up or assumed into the temporary state of rest and happiness called paradise and then later brought into heaven. In that connection these writers quote Jesus' words to the thief on the cross next to him.

And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." - Luke 23:43 ESV

Beyond that—and it is a stretch to go there—we have nothing in Scripture to explain who these saints were and why Matthew included this information. We can only assume that their resurrection was a sign of the power and mercy of God now available to all who believe in God's Word and the Gospel.

And yet this Matthew passage is tied to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary as a round about way of pointing to the possibility of people being bodily assumed into heaven before Christ's Second Coming. We have no other records to tell that tells us these saints died and were reburied again. Arguing from silence, we are urged to conclude they were taken up or assumed into heaven like Elijah (2 Kings 2:1,11).   

Diego Velazquez - Virgin Mary

In 1950 the world learned about The Assumption of Mary, now an official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church (Munificentissimus Deus) that she, "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven." Pope Pius XII in his capacity as Christ's infallible Vicar on earth, does not say whether Mary died or not. Most think she did and was then resurrected and taken by God into heaven. When all this happened is based upon apocryphal  writings, like the Gospel of James. Also since prayers and references are made to this teaching in many of the early liturgies, Catholics assume traditions passed on support this teaching. Of course, for them, it is now a central dogma and celebrated as a major feast day on August 15. Read the Wikipedia article on the Assumption of Mary for further details.

Most of us Lutherans are very reluctant to embrace this teaching, especially since it is completely outside of God's revealed and inspired Word. Further, it is part of an ancient movement to make Mary semi-divine, something the Scriptures never do. Consider the implications of such titles as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Queen of Heaven which can lead to prayers and worship of her as Jesus' Mother with a special authority. There are many approved sites where she supposedly appeared and healed.

I can only encourage us to remain close to Holy Scripture as did Dr. Martin Luther. Of Mary he said,

She became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child. … Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God. (Luther’s Works 21:326ff)

After Death, Paradise!

One of the thieves crucified with Jesus asked Jesus to remember him. In so doing, the thief confessed that Jesus was both a king and would soon inherit a kingdom. To this strange confession Jesus replied, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). What and where is this Paradise?

Early church fathers used Paradise with a variety of meanings. Since the word itself refers to a beautiful garden, most of these exegetes understood it to refer to the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2-3). Since Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, they pointed to the work of Christ, the new Adam who has regained it for believers.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. —Rom. 5:14-16 ESV

Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. - 1Cr 15:45-48 ESV

The Apostle Paul spoke obliquely about himself being caught up to Paradise. He called it the third heaven.

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-- - 2Cr 12:2-3 ESV

In the light of this the teachers of the church claimed that Paradise has once again become accessible. In his Catchesis lectures Cyril explained to the newly baptized:

"When therefore thou renouncest satan, utterly breaking all thy covenant with him, that ancient league with hell, there is opened to thee the paradise of God, which He planted towards the east, whence for his transgression our first father was banished . . ." (Catechesis XIX.9)

Garden of Eden - Wonder of Creation 

What a beautiful picture, one among many presented to us in Holy Scripture. It is my favorite. I love thinking about what awaits us as we move from this life to the next. I love the thought of the Garden of Eden, a word that in Hebrew refers to delight and pleasure. The prophet comforts us all in this way:

For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. - Isa 51:3 ESV

What A Strange King Is This Crucified Jesus

Next Sunday is the final in the church's year of worship. It is often called Christ the King Sunday, especially since the Gospel for this Sunday tells of Jesus crucified with an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews" (Luke 23:27-43). The Jewish rulers in Jerusalem of that day scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" I plan to use this Gospel lesson as the basis for the sermon I will preach to a small congregation of Lutheran believers in East Texas. I will use the conversation of the two criminals as the text for meditation, focusing on the prayer of the one who repented, saying, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Such a strange king is this Jesus. He had but a few days before entered Jerusalem as a king, riding on a donkey colt in fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, "Behold your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." The multitude of his disciples rejoiced and spread their clothing on the road to honor him, shouting, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" Now he hung on a Roman cross, condemned as an insurrectionist and traitor, mocked by the leaders of his own nation. Such a strange king.

All this is connected to the title he accepted, the Christ or in Hebrew the Messiah, the Anointed One. The great King David was the first anointed one, the first Messiah. His sons were also anointed as the kings of Israel. From that line, said the prophets, one day would come the great king, the Messiah.

The descendants of Israel, the Jews, held the concept of the coming of the Messiah in the highest regard. The prophets foretold that he would usher in a great day of blessing, prosperity and peace. Isaiah, for instance, wrote about the Anointed One who would bind up the broken hearted, free the captives, comfort all who mourn and clothe them with garments of praise instead of a faint spirit. Their ruined cities were to be rebuilt and the restored nation would have foreign servants plowing their fields and tending their vineyards. They had lost so much when led into captivity in Babylon, but their fortunes were to be restored double (Isaiah 61:1-7). What a wondrous time the coming of the Messiah would be. No wonder that the Jews waited with longing and prayed each Sabbath for Messiah's return.

And yet here is this Jesus, directly descended from David, a true Son of David and hailed by the multitudes as Messiah, hanging upon the cross with this mocking inscription, "King of the Jews." I want to focus upon the strangeness of King Jesus. Pilate did not understand it. When he asked Jesus if he was indeed a king, Jesus affirmed that he was. However, his kingdom was not a worldly kingdom. Jesus said,

"My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice" (John 18:36-38). 

There are hundreds of questions flying around this statement. Jesus had no political aspirations nor was he intent on leading a rebellion against Rome. There were many who were ready to do so. Indeed thousands of Jews did rebel against Rome in the generation after Jesus lived on the earth. I will not get into all that in next Sunday's sermon. Instead I want to focus upon the faith of that single thief crucified next to our Lord who believed Jesus was indeed coming into his kingdom. Somehow he believed that Jesus' death was the path that would lead to his reign.

Who was this strange believer? And how did he arrive at such a belief? And what does he have to teach us today? These are questions I  want to explore with you this week and with the gathered believers next Sunday.