Near Death Experiences Of Heaven

In March, 2013, I submitted a post about near-death experiences. That was not the first time I wrote about this phenomenon. There remains much interest in this subject. After all, we all must die and most of us are interested in what happens after death. As we continue to hear the book of Revelation speak about heaven we naturally wonder if that is an adequate picture of what happens after death. Does the Revelation agree with the experience of those who died and returned from death?

Here are some of the stories these NDE (near-death experience) folks relate, taken from a 2015 book I've been reading (Imagine Heaven by John Burke). Burke, a convinced Christian, writes about many who have had NDE's. Typical is the first, Dr. George Ritchie, a psychiatrist:

George Ritche did claim to see much, much more, which we will explore in the following pages: Beauty surpassing earth's favorite vacation destinations, people alive and active in a world not unlike ours, yet so infused with such exhilarating love, purpose, and belonging that it made earth seem merely a shadow of the real Life to come. As the loving Being of Light sent him back after his tour of another dimension, George said, "From that loneliest moment of my existence I had leaped into the most perfect belonging I had ever known. The Light of Jesus had entered my life and filled it completely, and the idea of being separated from Him was more than I could bear." 

Burke goes on to quote from Dr. Raymond Moody's 2001 book: Life after Life:The Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death. Moody describes the commonly reported, overlapping elements of near-death stories. 

A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. . . He suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from his unusual vantage point and is in a state of an emotional upheaval. After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to his odd condition. He notices that he still has a "body," but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before—a being of light—appears before him. This being asks him a question, non-verbally, to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a panoramic, instantaneous playback of the major events of his life. At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next life. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that the time for his death has not yet come. At this point he resists . . . and does not want to return. He's overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, though, he somehow reunites with his physical body and lives.

How do these stories compare to what we've been reading in The Revelation? Here are some quotes about the saints in heaven in the first eleven chapters. Notice how Jesus, the elders and the great multitude are described, how they are clothed:  

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. - Rev 1:12-18 ESV

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. - Rev 3:5 ESV 

At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the

Heaven by Christian Graphic Design

throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. - Rev 4:2-3 ESV 

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." - Rev 7:9-12 ESV

Dr. J. Steve Miller (Near-Death Experiences As Evidence For The Existence of God) in 2012 wrote about various aspects of the afterlife:

1. Death isn't the end of life
2. Time is different
3. We will have spiritual bodies, different from and superior to our physical bodies
4. The mind can exist apart from the body
5. We know and understand things much more clearly on the other side
6. There are intermediaries between God and people
7. The other side isn't rosy for everyone
8. Heaven is a place you want to go

His conclusion: 

Unless further research overturns the results of the present research, we have strong evidence to support both life after death and the existence of a personal God. . . But there's more evidence for the supernatural beyond near-death experiences. 

What Does The Bible Say About Reincarnation?

My past several posts have explored the Christian teaching about the resurrection of the body and the promise of eternal life. One opposing view that I have not explored in any great depth is reincarnation, the idea that after death an individual survives and later enters a new body, not necessarily human. In April, 2010 I wrote The Mystery of a Butterfly,

Recently, I received an unpublished essay by an author struggling with the sudden death of his first wife while they were on vacation in Mexico many years earlier. He honored her request to be cremated at once and now struggled with the mystery of what happened and its meaning in his own life.  What had become of the molecules and atoms that once comprised her body? 

I will not attempt to emulate the beauty and profundity of that author's writing—he is a newspaper man with a working knowledge of modern scientific theories. He is also a Christian with a deep faith.

His questions:

• Is this universe all a matter of chance? 

• Or is there an omnipotent, all-knowing Creator who has designed it all? 

• What hope lies beyond death? 

• Is there some kind of parallel universe to which the dead go? 

• How does the promise of resurrection differ from reincarnation and the recycling of matter?

• Why do these mysteries demand humility?

Bob Schwarz was the author of that unpublished essay,  Tiger Behind Me, River Ahead. He permitted me to publish it in a series of three blogs in May, 2010. Check out,

DEATH, PARTICLE PHYSICS AND OTHER IMAGININGS ON MY PATIO

I now  had to believe that God very likely created just one building block for everything in this universe and that He is that building block or creation itself. He did name Himself  in front of Moses, "I AM."  Recalling that the Holy Grail for physicists today is a uniform theory that would explain how our universe works with the four fundamental forces of nature—the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity—I became audacious with another wish: that  physicists  poke around with an equation  even more straightforward than E = mc2 . Let them try: G = R—God Equals Reality. 

To follow Bob's other writings go to his blog: Exodus Trekkers. I especially recommend his comments about his brother Lester, A Trek From Bondage To Freedom.

If the misguided teaching about reincarnation troubles you or someone you know I further commend the following to your careful study: What does the Bible say about reincarnation? | Bible.org

Christianity rejects reincarnation for ten reasons. 

1. It is contradicted by Scripture (Heb 9:27) 

2. It is contradicted by orthodox tradition in all churches.  

3. It would reduce the Incarnation (referring to Christ’s incarnation) to a mere appearance, the crucifixion to an accident, and Christ to one among many philosophers or avatars. It would also confuse what Christ did with what creatures do: incarnation with reincarnation. 

4. It implies that God made a mistake in designing our souls to live in bodies, that we are really pure spirits in prison or angels in costume. 

5. It is contradicted by psychology and common sense, for its view of souls as imprisoned in alien bodies denies the natural psychosomatic unity.

6. It entails a very low view of the body, as a prison, a punishment.

7. It usually blames sin on the body and the body’s power to confuse and darken the mind. This is passing the buck from soul to body, as well as from will to mind, and a confusion of sin with ignorance. 

8. The idea that we are reincarnated in order to learn lessons we failed to learn in a past earthly life is contrary to both common sense and basic educational psychology. I cannot learn something if there is no continuity of memory. I can learn from my mistakes only if I remember them. People do not usually remember these past “reincarnations.” 

9. The supposed evidence for reincarnation, rememberings from past lives that come out under hypnosis or “past life regression” can be explained—if they truly occur at all—as mental telepathy from other living beings, from the souls of dead humans in purgatory or hell, or from demons. The real possibility of the latter should make us extremely skittish about opening our souls to “past life regressions.” 

10. Reincarnation cannot account for itself. Why are our souls imprisoned in bodies? Is it the just punishment for evils we committed in past reincarnations? But why were those past reincarnations necessary? For the same reason. But the beginning of the process that justly imprisoned our souls in bodies in the first place—this must have antedated the series of bodies. How could we have committed evil in the state of perfect, pure, heavenly spirituality? Further, if we sinned in that paradise, it is not paradisical after all. Yet that is the state that reincarnation is supposed to lead us back to after all our embodied yearnings are over.

The Bible.org site also quotes from The Bible Has the Answer by Henry M. Morris and Martin E. Clark

Further, reincarnation schemes make men’s spiritual advancement contingent upon his mortal efforts, attempting to make merit outweigh demerit. Christianity shows, however, that salvation cannot be earned by sinful man, but rather, it is merited by Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection for all who believe. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

Also, many theories of reincarnation hold that man’s spiritual, physical, and moral conditions are determined by a former life and therefore not under his control. Physically, this has led to a passive, pessimistic acceptance of untold misery that was actually unnecessary. Spiritually, it is even more devastating. The Bible reveals that no one is bound in his sins against his will, and though born under Adam’s curse, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Through God’s forgiving grace, “though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). Consequently, the Christian does not worry about his merit outweighing his demerit, for his sins have been forgiven, God having promised, “I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12). 

Finally, some people attempt to equate reincarnation with the Christian doctrine of resurrection, but in doing so, violate the meanings of both reincarnation and resurrection. Reincarnation advances a future life on earth, bound by similar constraints and physical laws, while the resurrection speaks of that time when earthly bodies with all their accoutrements will be transformed and fitted for their eternal estate (John 5:29). Reincarnation holds that matter is essentially evil, while resurrection demonstrates that there is no moral dualism between matter and spirit. Reincarnation posits a future life in a different body (or even a different order of physical life), while resurrection promises that one’s own body will take on a new, incorruptible, glorified form. Describing the resurrection, Paul stated, “It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body . . . it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42, 44).

What Does Happen After Death?

Many times I've had children, grandchildren and spouses tell me how much they miss their loved ones. If only they had a way to talk with them, learn from them, hear that everything is OK, discuss today's problems, etc. Those whose faith is not grounded in God's revelation can become quite vulnerable to charlatans claiming to assist them to get in touch with these deceased loved ones. That's why it is not unusual to read about so-called psychics taking advantage of this vulnerability. One such report surfaced last week.

Psychic Accused of Exploitation : Discovery News: A young woman told a jury today how a psychic tricked her into performing “like a porn star” in the hope of getting in touch with her dead grandfather.

Spiritualism is a many and varied belief system. Its hard to call it a religion. Essentially the idea behind it is that when one dies he moves on to some kind of spirit world. In that after-life world the deceased long to communicate with the living, but find it difficult to do so. For unexplained reasons the living cannot hear them. So they need a medium, someone gifted somehow with the ability to get in touch with the dead and tell the living what they are saying.

The entertainment business loves to tap into this phenomenon. Top among recent movies was Ghost (1990), starring the now deceased Patrick Swayze—who obviously has not returned from the dead. Swayze's character is Sam. Sam and Molly (Demi Moore) are a very happy couple and deeply in love. Walking back to their new apartment after a night out at the theatre, they encounter a thief in a dark alley, and Sam is murdered. He finds himself trapped as a ghost and realises that his death was no accident. He must warn Molly about the danger that she is in. But as a ghost he can not be seen or heard by the living, and so he tries to communicate with Molly through Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a psychic who didn't even realise that her powers were real. Up to this point she had been busily bamboozling people who wanted to communicate with the dead. After Oda Mae finally does tell Molly what's going on via Sam the ghost, Sam is free to whoosh on up to heaven—or something like that.

Ghost brought Paramount Pictures a gross income worldwide of $507,600,000. The movie won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Whoopi won a Supporting Actress Oscar as the fake medium. Not bad for all concerned.

Another bit of craziness in this after-life arena was Robin Williams' starring role in What Dreams May Come (1998). Talk about a syrupy plot. Chris Neilson (Robins' character) and his children die in a car crash. He finds heaven to be more amazing than he could ever have imagined. However, his wife is missing. Annie (Annabella Sciorra), in her grief commits suicide and ends up in hell. Chris discovers a way to visit Annie in hell and in love decides to stay there with her forever. However, the powers from on high are so moved by Chris's sacrifice that the both of them do indeed end up in heaven. Perhaps now they can be reborn on earth and live their lives together.

What Dreams May Come grossed $55,000,000 in the USA and $16,000,000 worldwide the year it was released. It continues to make money through rentals.

You get the picture. Pun intended. Tomorrow I want to take a sober look at this stuff by way of God's revelation in Holy Scripture.