(Protestant) Minister Who Had Near-Death Episode Believes In Purgatory

Spirit Daily ^ | 2005 | Michael Brown

[churchillbuff]

Howard Storm, a former atheist whose brush with death turned him into a Protestant minister, says that he now believes in purgatory.

"It only makes sense," he says, "but I have trouble discussing this with my fellow ministers."

Featured here a couple months ago and also on MSNBC during Easter Week -- where he told his incredible story to a national audience -- Reverend Storm, considered by experts as one of the most convincing near-death cases, recounted his "dying" in Paris in 1985 from a perforated duodenum and after leaving his body finding himself with a group of hideous beings who attacked him as they led him to a foggy zone that descended toward "hell."

Storm says he was saved by Jesus after desperately pleading to God. After an extensive hospitalization he recovered -- and learned that a nun who had once been a student of his had been praying for him for years.

Storm credits that with saving him; after the episode he left his job as an professor at Northern Kentucky University and entered a seminary, becoming a minister.

He is now with the Zion United Church of Christ in Norwood, Ohio (near Cincinnati), and while some churches in that denomination can be ultra-liberal, he openly preaches against abortion and the New Age.

Still, we try to be careful with these cases, and we always issue the disclaimer that we can't endorse every view of such experiencers -- some of whom tend at times to put their own (and sometimes a nearly New Age) spin on what occurred. Like any form of mysticism, it is to be carefully discerned.

This is true in the case of Reverend Storm -- who himself acknowledges that some of his views have shifted since he became an active Christian ( including a few expressed in a book which was written before his faith was fully formed). These episodes are told through the filter of a person's framework.

But he is a man who exudes love (the single most important element of Christianity); many believe his experience was real; and he says he now believes not only in heaven and hell but also a state in-between where souls are "purged."

After his horrifying brush with death the concept of purgation was explained to him by a priest, says Reverend Storm, and "just rang so clear to me in my experience."

He says that when he "died" he was taken through a "foggy" region strikingly similar to what has been described in mystical literature [see An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory] -- and also similar to descriptions by modern visionaries who have told of a great "gray" area between hell and heaven.

Although a devout Protestant, Storm says that he considers Catholicism "the Mother Church" and is even interested in the Catholic apparition site of Medjugorje. He says God doesn't want division and that the main reason why he was on the road to hell was lack of love, pride, and disbelief.

[Jaded]

Wait till the rest of the crowd shows up. Ruh-roh, I used that word.... till/until

[magisterium]

I'm going to make this a recurrent theme of mine on this thread: "Read the early Church's witness!"

If they got this wrong, like Purgatory, the objection to which on your part I already answered in post 124, then they botched Christianity generally. If they did that, we both believe in a manifestly false religion, even in the basics, for reasons I also stated in post 124. I'm tired of having to be a broken record witnessing to people who object to Catholicism without reading any explanations from the Catholics on this board. I'm sure it's also getting tedious to wade through for the many lurkers on this site, who come here to learn. The same lame objections, over and over, fully refuted and countered over and over, often on threads that have been hijacked and taken into directions bearing no relation to the original purpose of the thread. Enough, already! Please *read* the countering to your objections, either here or in the archives.

Here are a few witnesses to the *early*, *literal* understanding of the Eucharist being the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ:

http://www.catholic.com/library/Real_Presence.asp

http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/eucharist.htm

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Wait till the rest of the crowd shows up. Ruh-roh, I used that word.... till/until

I give the rest of the crowd credit. They don't need an 11 page essay from Jerome to figure out what the word "until" means.

[mike182d]

These false doctrines weren't believed even by Catholics for several centuries, but were added at long intervals and then made dogma. If any of you Catholics believe that these dogmas like infallibility and transubstantiation go back to the beginning you had better check your history. They came along much later.

Once again, you really should study the history of Christianity.

Ignatius of Antioch (110 A.D.):

"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2–7:1)."

Justin Martyr (151 A.D.):

"We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66).

Hippolytus (217 A.D.)

"‘And she [Wisdom] has furnished her table’ [Prov. 9:2] . . . refers to his [Christ’s] honored and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper [i.e., the Last Supper]" (Fragment from Commentary on Proverbs).

Cyprian of Carthage (251 A.D.)

"He [Paul] threatens, moreover, the stubborn and forward, and denounces them, saying, ‘Whosoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]. All these warnings being scorned and contemned—[lapsed Christians will often take Communion] before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscience has been purged by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest, before the offense of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, [and so] violence is done to his body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and mouth than when they denied their Lord" (The Lapsed 15–16).

Council of Nicaea I (325 A.D.)

"It has come to the knowledge of the holy and great synod that, in some districts and cities, the deacons administer the Eucharist to the presbyters [i.e., priests], whereas neither canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer [the Eucharistic sacrifice] should give the Body of Christ to them that do offer [it]" (Canon 18).

Cyril of Jerusalem (350 A.D.)

"The bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ" (Catechetical Lectures 19:7).

And, of course, St. Augustine (411 A.D.):

"I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lord’s Table. . . . That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ" (Sermons 227).


I've given you evidence for the Catholic position. Where is the evidence for yours?

[mike182d]

Also, since you seemed to ignore my comments about Purgatory, I'm assuming you have no objection to them?

[mike182d]

To every papists satisfaction I'm sure.

Ok, despite the obvious evidence that an excavation in the Middle Ages revealed the burial place of Peter under the Old Basilica in Rome, let me ask you this:

In 1 Peter 5:13, when Peter says "The chosen one at Babylon sends you greeting, as does Mark, my son," what place is Peter referring to when he says "Babylon?"

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Ok, despite the obvious evidence that an excavation in the Middle Ages revealed the burial place of Peter under the Old Basilica in Rome, let me ask you this:

Lol.

In 1 Peter 5:13, when Peter says "The chosen one at Babylon sends you greeting, as does Mark, my son," what place is Peter referring to when he says "Babylon?"

Ah....Lourdes?

[Steve0113]

I'm surprised you didn't know that.

Are you really?

Of course not. Call it a Lenten exercise in self-discipline that I didn't say what I was thinking. It was a clumsy attempt at being charitable -- I'm not very good at it with his type.

Most former Catholics (I once was found, but now I'm lost) have a deeply shallow understanding of their former religion.

I've noticed that, too. They're remarkably consistent that way.

[mike182d]

When jesus says this is the rock I will build my churce upon he may have been talking about Peter (translates to small stone)

"Peter" only translates to "small stone" in the Greek. However, Peter wasn't named "Petros." That was Matthews clever attempt at an obvious play on words that seems to have become a liguistic maze for Protestants. Jesus spoke aramaic and Peter's name was changed to "Kepha," which in aramaic doesn't mean "small stone." It literally means "large rock." Evidence of this is in the Epistles of St. Paul. In the original Greek text of Paul's epistles, he refers to Peter as "Kephas," which is the Greek transliteration of "Kepha." No one throughout the New Testament calls him "Petros."

[mike182d]

Ah....Lourdes?

Lourdes? Lourdes?!

Are you serious or just being obtuse?

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Are you serious or just being obtuse?

Ok nevermind that one. How bout Notre Dame?

[ArrogantBustard]

Lourdes?

I once knew a gal named 'Lourdes'....

Ay yi yi yi yi!

Caliente!

[mike182d]

Ok nevermind that one. How bout Notre Dame?

*slaps forehead*

oi vey! lol

[Search4Truth]

I've had, what many have called, an "out of body experience". Perhaps I will write about it another time, and I'll let you be the judge of its authenticity.

Much has been made about OBE's as spiritual experiences. I never saw it that way. I viewed it as simply an extraordinary experience, probably resulting from all the mediations I had been performing at the time.

But I can tell you with all certainty, that the OBE I experienced, did not resemble in any way shape or form, the authentic spiritual experience of being born again into the spirit of Christ.

Leftist churches are the must apostate of all. They have Left the Word of God many years ago, pun intended.

FRegards, S4T.

[Search4Truth]

"Yes, references to Purgatory, a place of purification are in the Bible."

Book, Chapter, Verse, please.

[SaltyJoe]

"Near Death Experience" is relatively new a term for those suffering close to an absolute death of the body if not indeed an actual death.

Saints in the past may have been recognized to have physically died because others didn't know if death had actually come. You're right, though, that the Church is very leary of all private revelations. It takes a good deal of prayerful discernment to understand and a lot of joyful patients for God's answer.

Certain Saints are known to have divine visions gifted to them because such men and women have dedicated their entire lives to a devotion to Jesus:

of St Thomas Aquinas, would his ectasies have been concidered "near death experiences"?

"Towards the end of his life he had a divine revelation in the Chapel of St Nicholas in Naples it caused him to state,

"I can no longer write, for God has given me such glorious knowledge that all contained in my works are as straw - barely fit to absorb the holy wonders that fall in a stable," Three months later he died."

http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/christian/st_thomas/

I tried to search for St Don Bosco's life concerning a near fatal illness he suffered. Apparently close to death, he struck a deal with the Virgin Mary who interceded to extend his life that he may continue helping the children he adopted from the streets. This may be another example of a "near death experience".

[mike182d]

Book, Chapter, Verse, please.

Could you identify the book, chapter, and verse identifying the Trinity?

[Invincibly Ignorant]

I once knew a gal named 'Lourdes'....

Please I hope its not my sister-in-law. :-)

[Search4Truth]

I am not interested in games. I'm here to learn and share what I know as a KJV Bible believing Born Again Christian. But I'm sure there are some here who will endulge you in whatever you feel you need to prove.

[Romish_Papist]

And you would do well to not presume to tell Catholics what they do and do not know.