Posted on 09/25/2007 12:08:44 PM PDT by NYer
Just ‘wow’!
In his testimony at his website he talks about “waves of love” . . . that was my experience when I was called. Best way to describe it.
This story reminds me of one of the reasons I started believing in God again.
After being atheist for many years, I began to hear the stories of all these “near death experiences” (NDE’s). I began to study the topic intensely, and I found they were remarkably similar. Thousands of stories, and they all related seeing “one God” in a “paradise” after a “tunnel”. Some even included visions of Hell like this man’s.
Now of course there were two choices:
1. That this is real, and I’d better get my act together.
2. This is all fake, just the affect on the brain after oxygen deprivation.
I clung to #2 for a while until I realized that even that option gave me no hope. I realized that:
-If #2 really was what the “reality” of the situation was, then did I want my last moments of existence (experienced via oxygen deprivation), to be visions of Hell? In other words, if #2 is true, then the visions of Hell some NDE’ers experienced were also the result of oxygen deprivation. IOW, I’m NOT GUARANTEED a pleasant “hallucination”.
So, I then realized, even if #2 is the case, then I have nothing to loose to “get right with God”, because then, at least, however it is “done” in the deep recesses and subconscious of the brain, I will have a “nice hallucination” when I die. I can know this because everyone who had the “hallucination” of Hell were, by their own admission, NOT “right with God”. Therefore, there must be some region in the brain that can only be affected by faith in God, affected so that I’m assured a “nice death hallucination”.
Now, of course, my faith is not rested upon such cold analysis today, however, the logic cannot be denied. This is why I’m still amazed so many atheists/agnostics will shrug these NDE’s off saying “they’re just the result of oxygen deprivation”. It’s like they don’t think of the consequences beyond that.
Or maybe they never heard of the hellish NDE’s.
Quite a stunning story. God is so good!
I know of no drug that gives the same hallucination to people that take the drug.
Okay ... that begs the questions 'how, when & where' ;-)
God has truly blessed you!
My arms and legs dropped lifeless to my side and then I passed out. Yet sitting the the driver’s seat I could see and sense myself in the car from the rear driver side by the gas cap. Doesn’t really bother me when some disbelieve, because I know what happened. The view simply was not from inside the car. The only other thing I remember is the paramedics radioing in once they had extracted me from the vehicle, that I appeared to be a "quad".
I had emergency neurosurgery C5-T1 and was kept in a drug induced coma for almost 48 hours. The next day, I got up and walked, and now have no neurological deficit. I don't so much feel lucky that I was able to live and remain miraculously unparalyzed, as I feel privileged and humbled that I am allowed to continue God's work.
My arms and legs dropped lifeless to my side and then I passed out. Yet sitting the the driver’s seat I could see and sense myself in the car from the rear driver side by the gas cap. Doesn’t really bother me when some disbelieve, because I know what happened. The view simply was not from inside the car. The only other thing I remember is the paramedics radioing in once they had extracted me from the vehicle, that I appeared to be a "quad".
I had emergency neurosurgery C5-T1 and was kept in a drug induced coma for almost 48 hours. The next day, I got up and walked, and now have no neurological deficit. I don't so much feel lucky that I was able to live and remain miraculously unparalyzed, as I feel privileged and humbled that I am allowed to continue God's work.
Okay ... that begs the questions ‘how, when & where’ ;-)
_____________________
In my living room, a few years ago . . . I saw the back cover of John Paul II’s “Crossing the Threshold of Hope.” I had bought the book years and years before (I love beautiful books and this one was gold embossed, first english edition, awesome looking book). I’d never read it. Three words were on the back: “Be Not Afraid.”
I was 38, cynical about religions, not at all seeking, had not been to church in 26 years, since I was a boy. I had a good job, a baby on the way. I had explored western philosophy, stoicism, buddhism, and basically convinced myself there was no answer or that at a minimum I wasn’t the guy to figure it out, so I had stopped looking for spiritual answers.
I didn’t read the book. I didn’t read the Bible. I didn’t listen to a sermon or have an evangelist per se speak to me. I just saw the three words “Be Not Afraid” on the back of the book. The Holy Spirit filled me up when I saw them and that was it; I went into that day an agnostic/athiest and ended the day being taught by God. Wave after wave after wave. The Spirit came and went for days and days, constantly that first night and next morning and then in waves, shallower and less long, for a while after.
I found a church, read the Bible, and have been a believer ever since.
I was being prepared prior. When I wasn’t a Christian, a few weeks maybe before I was touched by him, I picked up a King James Bible and said to my wife let’s see what is in here for me, joking, but not fully; I was interested. I plunked down my finger into John 1 on this line:
42And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
Now, I think God has a sense of humor, because I made fun of that! I saw in scripture this man, Jesus meeting a man named Simon and telling him, out of the blue, not knowing him, that Simon would be called Cephas, a stone. I laughed.
If I had looked at the line above it, it says: “We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.”
If I had looked at the line below it, Christ says: “Follow me.”
But I didn’t look. I laughed.
A few years after I became a Christian, I went to a class about evangelism. They taught us to pray for the people in our lives that we want to help come to Christ. I said to my wife “I wonder if anyone ever prayed for me.” She laughed and named about 10 people. She had practically every Christian we knew praying for me to find Christ. I don’t know whether it’s to my wife’s credit or discredit that she didn’t try to proselytize to me directly; I think it’s to her credit. I think I would have been contemptuous towards anything but her example and personal faith if she or anyone else had come on too strong. I just thought it was all poppycock.
Not anymore.
Wow! What an amazing story.
Bump for after work.
Thanks, I don’t know about “wise” but that was nice of you to say, thank you!
An interesting point there, yes.
Powerful testimony in Post #13, God bless!
Oh my...........goosebumps!!
Once I read the title of this post I knew it had to do with some critter from Australia. What is it about that place?? Most poisonous snakes, spiders, jellyfish, [fill in the blank] ... Sounds like the animal life down there have a real chip on their shoulders...
I had not known that NDEs are different for atheists. I would like to know now how Buddhists and Moslems experience them. Surely they are not reserved for Christians and atheists.
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