Posted on 06/10/2006 9:45:53 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Despite lifelong beliefs that have been ingrained in my faith since childhood, I have to admit that like almost everyone else I have from time to time wondered if my existence will simply come to an end on the day I draw my last breath.
There is, after all, no way to prove one way or the other that human life continues in another realm after the body ceases to function. Nobody has come back to testify about it, with one notable exception of course, and those who reject his divinity also tend to doubt what he had to say about life after death. And the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the infamous atheist, hasn’t weighed in on the subject lately either.
Some would insist such doubts are implanted by the devil himself. Others counter there is no scientific basis for belief in a hereafter in the first place.
But just about every time I entertain such doubts, something comes along to reinforce my long-held belief in the hereafter. It’s often the experience of a dying saint getting their first glimpse, as an old gospel song puts it, of what’s over on the other side.
I’m told the Rev. Dr. Hollis Pistole appeared to have one such experience at his passing a little over a month ago. According to the story, Dr. Pistole, after a long battle with debilitating illness, raised up and put his arms out just before he drew his last breath. Apparently he received that glimpse of what awaited him.
My wife’s father had a similar experience, opening his eyes and reaching heavenward just before his passing.
I also recently went over my mom’s notes made at the time of my dad’s death more than half a century ago. “Under me? Under me? Thank you, Jesus,” he said.
A whole category of what have been termed near-death experiences have been catalogued by those looking for insight into what happens at the end of life. A common phenomenon is a light-at-the-end-of-a-tunnel vision. Many claim to have seen friends or relatives but were unable to reunite with them when they were suddenly jerked back into life.
My Uncle Melvin had such an experience, claiming to have seen his brother and another loved one at the time he was suffering a severe heart attack from which he recovered.
It is impossible to figure out the working of the subconscious, thus rendering any attempt at concrete conclusions problematic. Are any or all of these phenomena merely the gyrations of an active brain or might they be an indication of a link between this world and one to come?
Belief in life after death has been part of human experience as long as mankind has pondered its existence. It has been reinforced by the most sacred writings of most of the world’s major religions, including Christianity, which bases its entire concept on the idea of God personally demonstrating life after physical death through the manifestation we call Jesus.
In this life, of course, our existence is tied to our physical body. But to define human life according to our physical limitations is an obvious understatement of our role in the universe. Human interaction is limited by our physical senses. But the true self that has developed over the course of our lifetimes would seem to go far beyond the senses.
And certainly there can be no doubt that the rationality of human beings and their capability to build on their life experiences place them in a category entirely separate from other living creatures.
Is there life after death? The question defies physical proof, to be sure. But there would seem to be glimpses enough into the future to show that our existence has only just begun.
And anyway, by preparing for eternity, I think I’m building a pretty good life here as well.
Jim Bailey’s column appears on Sunday. He can be reached by e-mail at jameshenrybailey@earthlink.net.
Awesome. That's the laugh of the day.
You have freepmail
You should consult the words of God and not the words of men for your answers. The words of God can be found in the Holy Bible. The Bible of your forefathers. The King James Bible. There you will find the answers to all your questions.
"3-1/2 years later, and I still ponder things I cannot put into words."
Although I didn't get to complete the journey I got a tiny glimpse of Paradise...the lights I saw were beautiful... mere words can't describe them!
All the time the Paramedics were working on me I didn't have the fear of death and wasn't in pain.
In my grandparents day the family were the one's taking care of their dying loved one, so they got to hear all the first hand accounts as to what was happening.
We got to hear what Aunt Jane or Uncle John said as she/he was passing & who all she/he saw. Sadly once in awhile the dying saw the flames of Hell.
And for doubters who don't believe...here's a lady's account of what she saw when she was put to death at the hands of her Doctors, and brought back to life again.
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence01.html
I tend to look at NDE stories the same as I do the Shroud of Turin. If it truly is an event where people see God, great and wonderful. If it isn't, it wasn't the focus of my faith anyway.
Particularly for non-baseball fans, I will repeat the story of Astros pitcher Roger Clemens' mother. Bess died last September on a day Roger was supposed to pitch. She told Roger to go and pitch because he would win the game, 10-2. Roger laughed because the Astros had had trouble scoring runs for him all year. Well, the Astros managed to score 10 runs and led 10-1 in the top of the ninth. Then, a normally reliable fielder made an error that let in a second opposition run. Final score: Astros won, 10-2.
Roger's sister said that, as her mother was about to die, she kept repeating "Shoeless Joe Jackson". Shoeless Joe was a member of the infamous 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" that threw the World Series for gamblers, for which he was banned from the game a year later. The White Sox had never won a World Series since then.
Clemens and the Astros reached the World Series for the first time ever in October and their opponent turned out to be the Chicago White Sox who beat them in four straight, winning their first championship since Jackson's teams of WWI.
Coincidence? You decide.
Personally, I believe there is an after life.
I believe it because there just has to be a place for terminally ill and disabled children to go to, (if not the rest of us), where they are free from their afflictions- where they can experience the fullness of their being, and everything they didn't get to do while they were here.
The question "Is there life after death?" is so worrying
to so many, yet none bother to ask,"What was before life?".
It's not called the wheel of life for nothing.
I have struggled with these very same questions, especially since my wife passed.
When I was younger, I had no doubt there was a great plan. And that I was some part of it.
As I got older, it seemed less clear. Out of all the folks who had passed, why can't just one give some incontrovertible proof? Show up on the Tonight Show and give the lottery numbers for tomorrow night or something?
So where is the evidence? If I did live previous lives, why can't I remember one tiny bit? When you look at actual data, it doesn't look very supportive of extraordinary claims. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
Yet more of my examination have given new hope and direction. We are not just muscles and tissues. What makes us us is PATTERNS. Patterns of thought, patterns of awareness. There is no single cell in any of us that holds the "me" in it. Yet each and every cell is a tiny, living, individual being.
So we are much more than the simple sum of the parts. Wish I knew what, but maybe time will give the answer.
Can't remember where I read it(2/3 go UP, 1/3 go DOWN), somewhere... But we christians all remember Jesus saying : he who believes in me, even though he be dead, the same shall I recommend to the father. He also spoke of the "double death" : fear HIM that can both kill and cast into hell, which is the second death. Of course we're getting into theology here, a LARGE subject...Personally I take the more tangible route of rational science as belief alone can be a slippery slope; to wit, far more people have been killed as unbelievers than all the soldiers in all the wars in history. But don't be fooled by those who say science and religion are incompatible roads to TRUTH. A famous philosopher once put it as : x and y axes on the graph. In physics we say : look at it THIS way and you see particle, look at it THAT way and you see wave. So we sometimes say "wavicle"...Again then, we have TWO bodies much like right brain/left brain(child artist proposes the idea, engineer disposes of the idea as impractical)which are different ways of processing the same data-input.
You should consult the words of God [The King James Bible] and not the words of men for your answers. There you will find the answers to all your questions.
Fair enough. Let me ask this. If you were witnessing to the Hindu granddaughter, and she asks if her deceased Hindu grandparents are doomed to Hell... what would you say to her?
My uncle and my hubby's aunt don't know each other. Both have had similar near-death incidents as we read about...beautiful light, undescribable feeling of peace, not wanting to come back, looking down from above. Uncle saw the face of Jesus and cries with joy when he tells of his experience.
Your descriptions are remarkably similar to my own experience. Many years ago, after a terrible accident I was dead on the street (later revived by CPR). I remember a feeling of total acceptance and peace. I did not want to return. I was shown some of the things I had to look forward to and convinced to return (I was 15 at the time). For many years after that I met people, went to places, and did things that I had seen in advance. I was not shown everything about my future, just enough to tease me into coming back. After the experience my life was changed. One thing is certain, I have absolutely no fear of death.
I found a much lower figure (4%!) for hellish experiences:
The Bruce Greyson Lecture from the International Association for Near-Death Studies 2004 Annual Conference
Peter Fenwick, M.D., F.R.C.Psych. Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, U.K. Mental Health Group, University of Southampton
Retrospective Studies of NDEs
"The phenomena reported during NDEs included 66 percent who reported an out-of-body experience, 76 percent pastoral landscapes, 38 percent seeing deceased friends and relatives, 12 percent life reviews, 24 percent a barrier of some sort, and 72 percent a decision to return. Only 4 percent had hellish experiences."
http://www.iands.org/research/fenwick1.php
We can only understand events by our framework of life as a human, in the world we can see around us, and through our experience of how the world works.
Yet, God created this world and His realm is not limited.
What comes next is a creation of God and we cannot comprehend what it will be like.
A good explanation of this was a book called "Flatland" by Abbot. In it, man lived in a 2-dimensional world as on a sheet of paper - or "flatland". When God sent a sphere down onto "flatland" all the flatman could see was the dot where the sphere hit the sheet of paper. As the sphere passed through, the dot got bigger and bigger then smaller and smaller. When told to look up, he could not, just could look all around him on the paper - but not up to get a feel that the sphere was round - not flat.
This explains the hereafter to me - we do not have the environment to understand what God has planned because this world we live in is limited to the framework of this world. What comes next is in God's home and there may be many dimensions we have never even dreamed about.
Therefore, we would be wise to make sure we were allowed to live with God, rather than be cast out away from God.
I understand your belief.
Yet, does it matter what you or I believe God will do? Or, does it matter what God believes and says He will do?
There are millions upon millions of views of what God will do for eternity for man. Yet, anyone of them matters not a whit. The only one that matters is what God has decided. Just because we believe he will be kind to all - even though they reject Him and His Son during life - does not mean in the least, that God has to obey our view.
We tend to forget - that God is giving the salvation and will be the only One determining what it will require.
Same here, since my husband died. It seems to be getting worse lately.
Here's an interesting story: One of my sisters was an unwed mother. She'd graduated from college pregnant and instead of the fancy job, etc., she had to deal with the pregnancy and the new baby.
My husband had died about 4 months before she gave birth. She hadn't seen or heard from him in years while she was away at school. We were in another state when he died and considering the physical and emotional distance between the two, there was no reason for her to be thinking about him.
Well, she had a dream that the phone rang, and when she answered it was my husband. He told her that everything would be alright and just hold on. Then he said - "There are a lot of people here who want to use the phone. I've got to go." I have to smile thinking of all the people in heaven lined up to use the 1 phone to call their loved ones.
You were probably just making a comment on an idea, but it struck me........
What a pity that this is the only reason you believe in an afterlife. I wonder if you even realize how very sad that is?
We have the Bible, we have all mankind teaching about religion, millions of churches. Christ came, taught us and died for us and 2000+ years later, His short life has had the most profound effect on man of any being.
Yet - all of this is nothing to make you believe. You believe because you feel the sick must have a place to do the things they did not get to do here.
On top of this sad statement, you equate the total desire in life is merely a life equal to what healthy people had. That life of course was filled, with joy, and sadness, tragedy and death. Yet, God promises us so much, much more. We are promised eternal life with God, freedom from death and illness.
And, to get it, all we are required to do is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, be baptised for the remission of our past sins, and then we walk through this life with God and Jesus.
Yet - so very often - this is ignored, God is ignored, and Christ denied or man alters the requirements to get eternal life.
Why is man so very stupid? They continually discount God and His teachings and seek their own view of what God must require for eternal life, or find idols to worship instead of God.
(Note, I am not chastising you about your beliefs, but for some reason, your statement seemed so sad and so unaware of God's plan. It reminded me of how man goes to extreme lengths to ignore God or His teachings. Of course, you might have just been expressing a point.)
May God help you find your way to Him if you do not believe currently.
Here is a link to a website that shows proof - "Does God Exist".
John Clayton was an atheist who set out to prove that the Bible was wrong and inconsistent with science. Yet, instead, he found that he could find no inconsistencies. Very interesting discussions, charts, and materials on these questions.
http://www.doesgodexist.org/
The author is John Clayton, a retired physics, chemistry and earth science instructor from the public schools in South Bend, Indiana. Mr. Clayton holds a B.S. and M.S. from Indiana University in math and physics and a M.S. from Notre Dame University in Earth Science. He taught in the public schools for 41 years and has been doing presentations on the compatibility of science and faith for 38 years.
Given what we know versus what we don't know, I think it's arrogant to assume that this is all there is. The end does not have to mean oblivion; it's the start of the next great Story, as C.S. Lewis wrote.
I would say, as I say to myself on my unbelieving relatives already gone, that we just leave that to God as He will judge the circumstances and the hearts. Whether or not they are saved, has no bearing on what we do with our lives.
If we reject God based on the answer to that question, that is as insane as saying that if old Aunt Sue died of arsenic poisoning and I don't believe or accept that arsenic poisoning could kill someone because that just would not be fair IMHO, therefore, I too will take arsenic as I should not accept that it was harmful.
(Hope you understand what I am trying to say with my inept example that goes in circles.)
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