Posted on 09/25/2007 12:08:44 PM PDT by NYer
One night while diving for lobster on the island of Mauritius, an Australian named Ian McCormick was stung on his forearm by what local Creole fishermen call "invisibles": extraordinarily poisonous but hard to see "five-box" jellyfish, in the nomenclature of the trade.
Medics were called -- urgently. It was an emergency if ever there is an emergency.
"Found in the waters off northern Australia, the box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri is not the only marine invertebrate to use venom, but it is the possessor of arguably the most lethal venom in the world," notes one expert. "In the past half century, sixty-five Australians have been killed by it."
In other words, things didn't look very good for this lobster fisherman -- and by the time an ambulance arrived, he recalls, his body was totally paralyzed; necrosis had begun to set into his bone marrow; and two attempts at finding a pulse had failed.
"The doctors tried to save my life by injecting anti-toxins and dextrose into my body, but seemingly to no avail," he told a website called Bible Probe. "Within a few minutes I seemed to slip away. Apparently life ceased from my body for a period of approximately 15 minutes.
"And during this time, I found myself in a very dark place -- not realizing where I was. I tried to find a light switch, thinking I was still in the hospital -- but as I reached out into the dark I couldn't touch anything. Reaching to touch my face, I found my hand go straight through it. It seemed so bizarre, as I knew I was standing there but couldn't touch any part of my physical body."
It was a classic near-death experience -- something many thousands have reported -- but with this twist: instead of finding himself in a pleasant surrounding, Ian McCormick, a non-believer, and self-proclaimed sinner, found himself in what he perceived as the netherworld.
Ian had been raised as a general Christian -- although at the time of his episode was an atheist and the place in which he found himself -- the dark place -- resembled the place described by others who died and denied the existence of God.
Was it hell -- or deep purgatory?
Like another atheist, Dr. Howard Storm, whose near-death experience has been featured on national television, McCormick found himself harassed by dark forces -- voices screaming at him to "shut up," that he "deserved to be there," that indeed it was "hell."
And like Storm, he was saved by a sudden luminosity.
"I couldn't believe it, but as I stood there a radiant beam of light shone through the darkness and immediately began to lift me upward," says the Aussie -- now a convert. "I found myself being translated up into an incredibly brilliant beam of pure white light -- it seemed to be emanating from a circular opening far above me. I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight. This light wasn't just physical, but was giving off a living emotion. Halfway down was another wave of light -- this time it gave off pure peace -- followed by another wave -- of pure joy.
"Coming out of the end of this tunnel, I found myself standing in the presence of awesome light and power -- it seemed as though even the constellations in the universe must find their energy source from this focal point.
"As I stood there I wondered to myself if this was just an energy source in the universe or if perhaps there could be someone standing in the midst of this light! A voice immediately responded to my thought and asked me, "Ian, do you wish to return?"
If he wished to return to earth, said the voice -- the Voice (let's capitalize that) -- he must see "in a new light."
"Words appeared in front of me," claims Ian. "'God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).' I had never read a Bible before in my life so I didn't know this was straight out of the scriptures. God is light, I thought, is pure light -- I see no darkness here, I have just come from darkness -- I see no evil, no shadows -- this is pure light -- am I standing in the presence of God?"
It was God -- but in the form of Jesus.
No one see the Face of God and lives.
In fact, all Ian saw was the Light -- but a light unlike any on earth, a light others have described as brighter than a million klieg lights -- and yet not painful to look at.
As in most near-death experiences, McCormick described the Light as "unadulterated, unconditional love" -- confusing to this man who had ignored God all his life, "taken His Name in vain," and sinned (as he puts it, "slept around").
"I'm not a good man," Ian thought to himself. And yet there was that mercy. "His garments were shimmering white in color -- garments of light -- and I could see His bare feet and His hands were outstretched towards me as if to welcome me," Ian relates. "I knew I was looking upon God and as I looked toward His face the intensity of the light seemed to increase seven-fold; you couldn't make out the form of His Face as the Light was so bright -- such purity, such holiness, such beauty."
The Lord allowed Ian a glimpse of verdant pastures, a crystal clear stream, and flowers like none seen on earth -- flowers that some have described as swaying in tune with praises to God.
Now that he had seen the afterlife, Ian was asked, did he want to return to earth?
In some accounts, such a option is offered. In most such episodes, however, the near-death experiencers are told they must return -- despite their protests.
Ian decided he wanted to return because in a vision in front of a "tunnel" he saw his mother and knew she had been praying for him -- that she was the only Christian in the family, and that if he died, she would be heartbroken, thinking that due to his non-belief he had found himself -- as indeed he nearly did -- in hell.
With that, McCormick -- having accepted Christ -- decided to come back.
"God then spoke to me and said, 'If I wished to return -- I must see things in a new light.' I understood that to mean that I must begin to see through his eyes of Love, Peace, Joy, and Forgiveness, from His Heavenly perspective -- not my temporary earthly perspective.
"Looking back towards the tunnel again I now could see a vision of all my family, and thousands and thousands of other people. I asked God who all these people were, and He told me that if I didn't return then many of these people would not get a chance to hear about Him…."
What He asked of Ian was that he read the Bible, which the Australian was to do over the course of the next six weeks.
"As I opened my eye, I was lying back on a hospital bed with my right leg elevated, cupped in the hands of the young Indian doctor who had been trying to save my life. He had a scalpel or some sharp instrument in his hand and he was prodding the base of my foot like a dead piece of meat. He wasn't aware that I was looking at him. I thought, 'what's that man doing with my foot, what is he doing with that knife!!!!!!'
"At the same time something seemed to spook the doctor and he quickly turned his head to see my right eye open, looking at him. Terror struck his face and I got the distinct impression that he has just seen a dead man looking at him." As his eyes locked onto to nurses and orderlies, they jumped backwards.
"From what I can ascertain I had been dead for a period of some 15 minutes," he concludes. "I prayed to God that night and asked him to heal me and enable me to walk out of the hospital.
"That night God completely healed me, and enabled me to walk out of the hospital the next day."
Thank you. The prayers of wives seem to ping quite a few of us to unexpected things . . . I thought the man led the family!
You say “God spoke to me saying, in essence, ‘this is true, and you’d better straighten up.’” I didn’t really have words either, just understanding. I’m always impressed when people have an experience with God where they are given actual words. This fellow that was dead from the jellyfish actually saw words of scripture that he had never read before. Mother Theresa was told, with words, by Christ, to minister to the poorest of the poor. This impresses me. I don’t know why it impresses me more than learning without words, which is even more extraordinary in some ways, but it does.
Actually, I've had several "spoken to" experiences. While the experiences have always been useful, they've never been particularly "happy" -- they've always been God slapping me down over some personal conceit or other.
You could be right, cuz they don't get much press. I'd never heard about any of them until recently (on FR).
Jesus and The Father are hard to see because there are no shadows or shades to contrast Them against. Angels are like prisms or crystals, giving off arrays
Moreover, we see seven colors and seven diatonic [sp] notes; whereas, there are Zillions of colors and musical notes Up There.
Bump, thanks for the reminder! Thank God for the Sacraments too!
Doesn’t surprise me at all.
Thanks for the ping!
ping
“...Simon would be called Cephas, a stone. I laughed.”
You see the humor and beauty, too. After all, St Peter floats like a “rock” when trying to walk on waves without holding Jesus’ hand. The imagery is perfect for “fishers of men” who net souls from the darkness of the abyss.
Our Lord made quite a play on words in replying to Peter’s confession.
Not only is the statement that Jesus is the Son of God the rock, or foundation, upon which all of Christianity rests, but Jesus and the disciples were at Caesarea Phillippi, a city whose chief landmark is a very large and well-known rock cliff.
So Jesus’s words were a loving and, most likely, playful pun: Peter, a name that means “rock,” standing near a huge natural rock, uttering the confession upon which the Church still stands today. Beautiful.
http://www.ancientsandals.com/overviews/caesarea_philippi.htm
This would be the only biblical case then, where God changed the name of a person without effecting a major change in that person's life (e.g. Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, and Saul to Paul).
Is there a sufficient justification for rejecting biblical precedent?
What if Jesus is elevating Rock (Peter) to the vice-regency (vice-king/prime minister) of the eternal Davidic kingdom, of which Jesus is king?
In fact, this can be proven from Scripture. We know from the Old Testament that the position of vice-regent of the House of David existed, and that its authority was represented by an oversized key which the vice-regent wore around his neck.
Isaiah 22:22In Revelation 3:7, we see that Jesus is the eternal king of the house of David, or "the power behind the keys."I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.
Revelation 3:7In Matthew, we see Jesus, the eternal king of the House of David, giving the keys of the eternal Davidic kingdom (the key of the vice-regency) to Rock (Peter)."To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true [Jesus], who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open."
Matthew 16:19Jesus changes Simon's name to Rock when he elevates him to the position of vice-regent of the eternal Davidic kingdom (i.e., the head of Christ's Church, "the pillar and foundation of truth").I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Sorry for repeating the point I made earlier. Bump confusion...
Hey, nobody’s arguing with you. I doubt seriously that lives have ever been more changed than in that climactic and incredible space of a few weeks during which Peter and Jesus had this interchange.
Those disciples, witnesses to marvelous events but still not understanding, would watch their leader die a gruesome death, lie for three days dead in a tomb, and come back to life to once again associate fully with them. They did not merely believe, they KNEW what they had seen and were willing to die defending it.
As for Peter, Jesus gave him the “keys to the kingdom,” and it was just weeks later that Peter opened wide the doors to those who would enter when he repeated his confession, expounding upon it in his marvelous sermon on Pentecost, establishing the church.
Peter’s life changed forever? Absolutely. And a changed world. Would that today’s world could be so touched, so convinced.
I think our only disagreement is that, while we must all admire the faith and service of all those whom you mention, as the Father pointed out so vividly to Peter at the Transfiguration: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” Peter himself recounted those words in II Peter.
I believe that Peter would be appalled at the suggestion that the church was built on him rather than on the lordship of Jesus.
To elevate or to bow or to pray to Peter, or to any other human living or dead, is dangerous and borders on blasphemy. Judging from his writings, the apostle himself would reject such practices.
Peace.
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