Trying to get a glimpse of what’s over on the other side (Signs of Life after Death?)

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.

You offered, "The problem I have with that belief is that it must posit that death was a fact of life for millions of eons before death was introduced into the Genesis creation account solely as the result of Adam's sin in the garden." Eden may not be so long ago as eons, since the Eden story relates the advent of the spirit injected or breathed into the human soul. "If death is the inevitable result of sin ... uncountable quadrillions of 'upwardly mobile' animals who must have lived and died prior to Adam's entrance into the creation account must of necessity have been capable of consciously sinning against their Creator ..." If these animals had no spirit they could not sin against the spirit of God; remember, the death spoken of is a spiritual death not a physical death. "If God is not a perfectly just and unchangeable Creator, as the bible claims him to be, the entire biblical plan of salvation and the scriptural explanation of the absolute need for an infinitely capable and perfectly sinless Savior who died a substitutionary death in order to atone for man's sin falls apart at the seams." How do you reason this out when you take the death to be a spiritual death and calculate those lives not in the human family since Adam to be without a spirit component in their soul of life? The scriptures say that 'all of creation groans' since the fall of Adam effected even the animals and is corrected by the Grace in Christ Jesus. The scriptures do not include all the uncounted living things prior to Adam, rather the Bible starts the fall and redemption with the saga of Adam.

And finally, God's economy is very different from our human understanding. Without a more thorough understanding of what the universe is, we are floundering with partial theories about God's calculus. Perhaps that's why Physicists/Cosmologists are busy revealing more about the nature of this amazing universe.

Before my grandmother died she had been in a coma for days. I was sitting beside her hospital bed and just randomly opened the Bible and started reading a verse where my eyes focused. . .

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . ."

She opened her eyes and said "Where did you learn that?"

Then, she fell into a deeper coma for a few more days. Then, just before she passed, she raised her arms upward and was saying "Look at that beautiful little blond haired boy . . "

During the flu epidemic of WWI my grandfather caught the flu and she had nursed him back to health. She was nine months pregnant at the time and her baby was stillborn.

He was a fullterm blond haired boy.

My grandmother also looked so peaceful and beautiful as she died.

Reminds me of the "haint tales," as the hillbillies in east Tennessee call them, my grandmother used to tell us kids.

Her young life was spent in the days when people in the community would come and sit with the dying. One woman grandma said had been a very evil person. Granny swore her and other children were playing in the yard as the woman passed, and a half man/half dog like animal jumped up on the white picket fence at the very moment of the evil woman's death. Scared them something awful.

The Scotch Irish folks up in these mountains have a lot of tales, many gleaned from real life experiences.

Also, before Granny died she had been in the hospital for surgery. I went to visit her and asked her how she liked her roomate (in the other hospital bed).

Granny said, "That woman has been very mean." How do you know Granny," I asked.

He reply: "She moans and cries and begs for forgiveness all day and night." This lady was in the process of dying.

Although Dutch Reagan, because of the Alzheimer's, hadn't been able to return his wife's affection like he used to, somehow, someway, he managed to do it one last time just before he passed away...

"And as Nancy Reagan publicly showed her heartbreak, details of her final private moment with the love of her life were revealed last night as one of deep sorrow and miraculous surprise.

The former First Lady believes her long-suffering husband recognized her when he stared into her eyes for an instant before taking his last breath, his daughter Patti Davis writes.

"It was the greatest gift he could have given me," the former First Lady told her family.

Sobbing, shaking and knowing death was imminent, she held her husband's hand about 1 p.m. Saturday as he inhaled deeply and opened his eyes for the first time in five days.

While most thought Alzheimer's disease had robbed former President Reagan of all his memory, the last look he gave his wife was one of deep acknowledgment, Davis writes for People magazine in its upcoming edition.

"At the last moment when his breathing told us this was it, he opened his eyes and looked straight at my mother. Eyes that had not opened for days did, and they weren't chalky or vague," Davis recalls. "They were clear and blue and full of life. If a death can be lovely, his was."

Davis and her brother Ron were standing next to their father's bed when the astonishing interchange between their parents took place.

"In his last moment he taught me that there is nothing stronger than love between two people, two souls," Davis writes. "It was the last thing he could do to show my mother how entwined their souls are and it was everything."

The former President died just before Michael Reagan entered his father's room, but he said the look on Nancy Reagan's face revealed she had been given a gift even as she began to mourn her loss.

"His last earthy look was at his wife, his next look was at the face of God," Michael Reagan told People."

Same thing happened to me. A few nights after my grandmother died, I woke up to see a bright round light hovering across the room. It didn't wake my husband up. There was no sound or words but I knew it was my grandmother. She told me, without words, to tell my mother (her daughter) that she was an Angel and not to worry. My Mom is an only child and was very close to her mother. She really took her death hard. I don't know why she chose to have me relay the message unless it was because I would be more open to the possibility. Anyway, I didn't call Mom and tell her for a while because I thought she would think I was nuts but it stayed on my mind all the time. I finally got up my nerve and called her and she totally accepted it. She said it was funny because when she was going through my grandmother's things she found a photo that my grandmother had taken before she died and hadn't shown to anybody. She said that in the photo the lighting created a halo effect over her head. I've never had any doubts that what I saw was my grandmother. She was one of the sweetest natured people you would ever meet. I never, in my whole life, heard her say anything bad about anybody and never saw her lose her temper.

Glad you checked out his work. I heard him at a seminar at our church and thoroughly enjoyed the "update" of my scientific knowledge with all the new scientific discoveries since my school years. He also came at the Bible from a scientific point of view trying to list the inconsistencies - but, the first time through, did not find any to write in his notebook. He tried again, and the same thing - no inconsistencies.

Check out the probability of earth being created by "accident" or the "big bang". He picked 10 items required for earth to exist (out of the 100's in reality). Then he noted the probability of each building on the probability of the prior item (using the standard scientific probability ratio). It turned out the probability of all 10 being in existence at earth's creation was in the 000,000,000,000,000. (Some extremely high number I don't have available now).

Confused about your question but have two comments.....

- I was not meaning to indicate that death started because of the fall of Adam and Eve. I don't know that that was indicated as a result of their sin.

Eternal life is given "after" death in the next realm and was never meant to be given for life here on earth. This is not heaven - this is earth. On earth all life has death but only man is subject to our view of eternal life - because only man has the soul and was made in the image of God.

And, of course, death is required on earth because of the food chain. All animals provide a source of food for another level in the food chain and, therefore, they are killed when eaten. Look, we have no refrigerators in the wild and therefore, for fresh meat, each on the food chain is the living fresh meat for another level in the food chain. How else would there be a supply of food without spoilage?

- We can investigate, deduce and analyze forever about the beginnings of earth, and all workings of the universe. But, it is not necessary because we are "men" and have only our understanding. God is not required to reveal all to man in order to make him believe. You believe or you don't.

Look at it this way - if you were God and wanted to offer "man" a plan of salvation so that man could dwell eternally with God as His, how would you do it?

It has to be simple - because not all men are extremely intelligent and no man has the vast comprehension of God's realm. Some cannot even read - so how do you get the message to "all" men?

3 Ways

1 - you speak to your prophets and send your Son to speak to man during His life on earth and to sacrifice Himself to die for man's sins. You give the apostles the ability to prove you are God by the miracles and teachings.

2 - You do it by the Bible giving enough information for man to find salvation and leave the incomprehensible out. Man cannot understand it - especially, if man cannot comprehend the simple confess that you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, be baptised for the remission of your prior sins, and arise and walk with Jesus through your time on earth serving Him.

3 - you tell man to "go into all the world and teach the gospel". This spreads the written word found in the Bible to those not running across a Bible.

This should be sufficient. And, yet, no matter how much is done to offer God's plan of salvation, man often "chooses" to find an excuse to ignore the message, man turns to false gods rather than the true God begging them to follow Him, and often man will set about to rewrite what God requires for salvation and tell God that man's way is what is the truth and the Bible (God's written word) is untrue.

This is why we are told many will call on God but few will
be saved. Man forgets that he is man and God is God and is calling the shots.

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?

I would start by examining the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 11:25-37. Jesus is being tested by a Jewish scholar when he describes the parable of a man left for dead by robbers. The parable as a whole is important, but most important to this question is who Jesus puts into the parable. First, a priest passes without helping, then a Levite. Finally a Samaritan, who are not considered Jews, and generally looked down upon by them at that time, cares for the victim. The point of the parable is that acting according to God's will, rather than mere membership in a church, is what Jesus wants from us.

Another example would be Romans 2 1-16, where Saint Paul says:

" 12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law,
15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
16This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares."

Also, this question, as you would expect, has been asked before, and the Catholic Church maintains that the Hindu grandparents can in fact be saved.

Vatican II, #16:(1964 AD) "For they who without their own fault do not know of the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but yet seek God with sincere heart, and try, under the influence of grace, to carry out His will in practice, known to them through the dictate of conscience, can attain eternal salvation."

What else does one need besides Jesus's promise? Proof.

Proof? Proof was given and it was not enough for you to believe. Why would more proof suddenly make you believe? If you do not believe what has been given through the Bible, through Christ's life and death, through the biblical teachings all over the world - one more incident is not going to convince you.

Keep on waiting for God to appear magically at your bedside and explain all to you and convince you that He created the world, sent His Son to die for your sins so that you could be perfect enough to dwell in God's presence for eternity and that all you have to do is confess that Jesus is the Son of God, be baptised for the remission of those past sins and follow Jesus through life.

But, woe, that is just too hard. Need something else, like maybe a space ship to appear. Maybe a vision that appears only to me (not a result of my brain, or a drug). Yeah, then I will believe. Waiting........waiting......waiting......

Sure hope I don't have an accident and die before I receive my proof. Yet, all is not lost. I did not believe before, so therefore, I was not getting eternal life, I do not believe now because I have not recieved my personal visitation, so no loss.

I will just get this that I do believe........., yeah, that's it. As if you or any man has the ability to create the afterlife as you think it should be.

The Bible

Here is more proof developed through the eyes of an atheist searching to prove the Bible wrong. Check out the different documents - lots of charts, explanations.

http://www.doesgodexist.org/

But, for proof that God exists and created this earth - look at a rose, a bee, an ant, or just a newborn baby.
Look at the mountains. Now prove to me that evolution created the beauty of a rose, a bee, an ant or a baby.

Absolutely beautiful design, colors, uniqueness in each form of life disproves happenstance. Happenstance would create grayness, sameness, blandness - no variations.

There must be a Creator and that Creator shows that He is the Creator by his handiwork. Each insect is uniquely created for its particular purpose, miracle after miracle in the creation of the bodies and its workings. Each bird, each flower, each being on earth displays the handiwork of God if man chooses to view it.

And each man is given free will and a brain for his use in understanding - use it to be best of your ability as it is critical to your own wellbeing and your own determination of your eternal life.

"He was never able to return to work but did drop in to see us a few times. He said "I met Jesus that day in the warehouse". He started going to church and was saved. He was a changed person."

Every NDE I've read or heard about has changed their lives around for the better.

My Atheist relative had spent his life drinking & going around in a drunken stupor...until one day when he was riding his motorcycle & had a head on accident with a 1 ton truck. His odds of surviving the accident was very slim.

He had a NDE & was watching the doctors as they were working on him...he said he was up in the corner of the room watching.

He also continued on with his journey (NDE)& saw something there so fearful that he'd turn white & would be visibly shaken whenever we asked him what else he saw.

He changed his life around...stopped drinking...went to church, and would only tell us that he never wanted to end up in the place that he visited, for all eternity.

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