Heaven: Close Encounters of the God Kind (excerpts & commentary)[Open]

Following are some brief excerpts from Bro Jesse's book. I've read a number of Heavenly Visitation narratives. They are all different in some respects. Some folks might think that they are so different that the individuals must be visiting a different place. I don't feel that way. There's usually some things that are essentially the same.

Virtually always, there's some aspect of the narrative that some group of Christians gets all up in arms about being unBiblical. I've never found any of the more convincing narratives that way, personally.

I have observed that there's virtually always some part of the narrative that folks FEEL IS UNBIBILICAL BECAUSE--THEIR assumptions and private interpretations were jangled. So, it's not the Scripture that is being contradicted but it's individual ASSUMPTIONS and extrapolations about Scripture that's being challenged.

One of the other most impressive narratives to me is that of ROLAND BUCK of the Buck knives family. He was A of G pastor of First Assembly in Boise, Idaho. His book: ANGELS ON ASSIGNMENT is available free for downloading at:

I post these excerpts for discussion, not contentiousness. I post it as an open thread instead of a Charismatic caucus thread because I believe that a more free wheeling discussion is likely to be more productive and interesting.

I post such particularly as an encouragement in these challenging, darkening times.

The book is available at the website. There is a package of DVD, book and audio CD's available. I suppose there are some few details in one media not in another. But on the whole, all 3 media types have essentially the identical content--at least 98% or so.

I encourage you to prayerfully consider buying one of the versions. I think it's worth it.

Probably the DVD video set is the most worth it. Jesse is a Cajun. He used to be a rock star. He's fairly funny and quite down to earth. That all comes across best in the video set.

The first part of his life is a narrative about his mother praying for a preacher. And God pointing out that Jesse was the one of the 3 sons and 1 daughter that was chosen of God to be a preacher. Mother was incredulous that God would pick Jesse but prayed accordingly.

Following were many years of Jesse running from God and engaging in all manner of drugs and sin as a rock star etc. and God 'dogging' him in the process.

His Heavenly visitation began after Jesse felt constrained to get up from a steak dinner at a nearby restaurant with a pastor who's church he was to speak at, IIRC . . . and just after the steaks arrived, Jesse got up and excused himself because he felt constrained in his spirit to go to his hotel room.

There, he knelt and noticed that the digital clock said one o-clock. He said "God, what's the matter?"

He felt sucked up out of his room . . . he didn't know at the time whether he was in his body or out of it. I think later he felt he was in his body. He heard a Whoosh.

He found himself traveling in an enclosed cable car type enclosure at a very fast speed.

"Then I looked up. There stood another being. I realized it was the blond-headed angel who had visited me in the bedroom that night in Jonesville. . . 'Where are we going?' "

"I felt the chariot slowing down; then it came to a stop. When the door opened, I experienced the shock of my life: I was in heaven!"

He recounts similar things all Heavenly visitors have said about the flowers etc. . . . such as colors unseen here; fragrance unknown here; flowers truning and following you as you walk by . . . etc.

He was still dressed in his jeans and a shirt but saw others dressed in robes and others dressed in gowns. He goes into a distinction--evidently Biblical--about robes of righteousness and I forget what the gowns were mentioned as in Scripture.

And, folks were eating fruit from trees to strengthen them and enable them to stand before The Throne--as Jesse himself was destined to do--though not really stand, much being mostly on his face like most people.

Evidently the folks with gowns believed in God and made it in but still had a lot to be taught about God that they didn't learn on earth. He refd Is 61:10,11 about the 2 types of garments.

He asserted that Abraham is the first one folks meet--not Peter--that all believers are Abraham's kids.

All the aborted babies and kids that died before the age of accountability were there. Evidently many more Chinese kids without parents than other races.

". . . I thought there would be scars in His hands and feet. But it wasn't like He had been cut and scarred. I coudl see the holes in his feet. They were so big--about the size of a nickel--that light was shining through them. . . ."

p89 "I said. "Jesus!" He said simply, "Do you like this place?" I said, "Yes, Sir."

'But they won't believe me,' I said. "They didn't believe it for centuries, but I came, and I'm coming again."

. . . "I said, 'They know that'" "'No, they don't know that. I brought you here so that you would go tell them I'm coming. Do you hear Me? I'm coming. Go tell them."

"'Our affliction is but for a moment. People have made it a lifetime. Change it back to a moment.'"

He said David was the only one he saw in Heaven with a crown besides Christ Jesus.

David p100: "I did write songs of my experiences, like a lot of other people do. But the better ones are when I allowed the lordship of God in me to come out more than the trouble that I spoke about."

" . . . I wish I had written more songs about God's answers than about my problems."

Jesse was given a tour of his house in Heaven. He was shocked to find it had high ceilings, moldings and furniture just like he likes here on earth. And he was surprised to see mountains and snow in Heaven though there was no cold.

"Jesse, the earth is God's creation. His taste there is His taste here. Every desire you could possibly think of has been met to your specification for your home, plus God put a few of His own. . . "

David explained. 'You have preached their sermons. God blesses them with knowing their messages are still reaching people."

"I had to keep eating more of that copper-colored type of fruit because I felt weak."

p 111 "I saw twenty four empty seats near the Throne. . . " "Jesse, we're servants here," David told me . . ."They're out in the city and in Paradise blessing and helping people. We help people here. Everyone serves. Somebody is always trying to do somethign for you. Someone will always ask, 'What can I do for you?'"

p128, 129 "I felt that He [Jesus] was saying our eyes should be on Him, Jesus, instead of on the great tribulation period."

"But as His Body, we are in disobedience by fighting each other. We're not coming together with the witness of Who He is. Satan's greatest ally is our division in the Body of Christ. I thinkn Jesus wants us, the Church, to be looking more at Who He is instead of focusing on our differences."

"If the Body of Christ, the Church, would begin to reveal Who Christ is, and lift Him--the Person of Jesus Christ--up for the world to see, people will be drawn to him. . . ."

I don't think there are any startling revelations about Heaven in this book. But it is an encouraging read.

It also includes a narrative about how he began worshipping as he was driving from one place in Louisiana to another--that took a minimum of an hour and a half or some such to drive.

His car filled up with a fog and he was lost in worship raising both hands . . . when he realized what he was doing and grabbed the steering wheel and pulled over to a pay phone, he was already at the destination and his wife noted on the phone call what time it was--he could not have traveled that distance by that time by car short of Holy Spirit moving him along supernaturally. He has proof of when he left etc. Fascinating case of such.

Dear Fanfan; Please read the following testimony of:

Warren Smith is a former New Age follower who at one time was deeply involved in the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. He is the author of these insightful books:

As a former New Age follower and devoted student of A Course in Miracles, I eventually discovered that the Course in Miracles was—in reality—the truth of the Bible turned upside down. Not having a true understanding of the Bible at the time of my involvement, I was led to believe that A Course in Miracles was “a gift from God” to help everyone understand the “real” meaning of the Bible and to help bring peace to the world. Little did I know that the New Age “Christ” and the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles were everything the real Jesus Christ warned us to watch out for. In Matthew 24 Jesus warned about false teachers, false teachings and the false “Christs” who would pretend to be He.

When I left the New Age “Christ” to follow the Bible’s Jesus Christ, I had come to understand that the “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles was a false “Christ,” and that his Course in Miracles was dangerously deceptive. Here are some quotes from the “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles:

“There is no sin. . . “ 9 [See note]
A “slain Christ has no meaning.”10
“The journey to the cross should be the last ‘useless journey.”11
“Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’”12
“The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol... It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray.”13
“God is in everything I see.”14
“The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself.”15
“The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power.”16
“The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.”17
Most Christians recognize that these teachings are the opposite of what the Bible teaches. In the Bible, Jesus Christ’s atoning death on the cross of Calvary was hardly a “useless journey.” His triumph on the cross provides salvation to all those who confess their sin, accept Him and follow Him as their Lord and Saviour. His victory on the cross rings throughout the New Testament. It has been gloriously sung about in beloved hymns through the ages and is at the heart of our Christian testimony.

I found the Jesus of the Bible to be wholly believable as He taught God’s truth and warned about the spiritual deception that would come in His name. The “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles reveals himself to be an imposter when he blasphemes the true Jesus Christ by saying that a “slain Christ has no meaning” and that we are all “God” and that we are all “Christ.” It was by reading the Bible’s true teachings of Jesus Christ that I came to understand how deceived I had been by A Course in Miracles and my other New Age teachings.

I was introduced to A Course in Miracles by Dr. Gerald Jampolsky’s book Love is Letting Go of Fear. Jampolsky declared in his easy-to-read book how the teachings of A Course in Miracles had changed his life. As an ambassador for A Course in Miracles over the years, Jampolsky has been featured not only in New Age circles but at least twice on Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power. While Schuller introduced Jampolsky and his “fabulous”18 Course in Miracles-based books to his worldwide television audience, it was Marianne Williamson’s appearance on a 1992 Oprah Winfrey Show that really shook the rafters.

On that program, Oprah enthusiastically endorsed Williamson’s book, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles. Oprah told her television audience that Williamson’s book about A Course in Miracles was one of her favorite books, and that she had already bought a thousand copies and would be handing them out to everyone in her studio audience. Oprah’s endorsement skyrocketed Williamson’s book about A Course in Miracles to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Ironically, all of this was happening after I had left the Course and the New Age. In fact, I was doing the final editing on my book The Light That Was Dark that warned about the dangers of the New Age—and in particular A Course in Miracles.

After being introduced to the world on Oprah, Marianne Williamson has continued to grow in popularity and, as previously mentioned, has become one of today’s foremost New Age leaders. Williamson credits Winfrey for bringing her book about A Course in Miracles before the world: “For that, my deepest thanks to Oprah Winfrey. Her enthusiasm and generosity have given the book, and me, an audience we would never otherwise have had.”19 In her 2004 book, The Gift of Change, Williamson wrote:

“Twenty years ago, I saw the guidance of the Course as key to changing one’s personal life; today, I see its guidance as key to changing the world. More than anything else, I see how deeply the two are connected.”20

Thus the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles are about to be taught by Marianne Williamson to millions of listeners on Oprah’s XM Satellite Radio program. Listeners are encouraged to buy A Course in Miracles for the year-long course. An audio version of A Course in Miracles recited by Richard (John Boy Walton) Thomas is also available on compact disc.

Popular author Wayne Dyer told his PBS television audience that the “brilliant writing” of A Course in Miracles would produce more peace in the world.21 Williamson’s New Age colleague, Neale Donald Walsch, said his “God” stated that “the era of the Single Saviour is over”22 and that he (“God”) was responsible for authoring the teachings of A Course in Miracles.23

Meanwhile, Gerald Jampolsky’s Course in Miracles-based book, Forgiveness, continues to be sold in Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral bookstore as Schuller prepares to host a January 17-19, 2008, “Rethink Conference” at his Crystal Cathedral.24

At this critical time in the history of the world, the New Gospel/New Spirituality is coming right at the world and the church with its New Age teachings and its New Age Peace Plan. But this New Age Peace Plan has at its deceptive core the bottom-line teaching from A Course in Miracles that “we are all one” because God is “in” everyone and everything. But the Bible is clear that we are not God (Ezekiel 28:2; Hosea 11:9). And per Galatians 3:26-28, our only oneness is in Jesus Christ—not in ourselves as “God” and “Christ.” What Oprah and Marianne Williamson and the world will learn one day is that humanity’s only real and lasting peace is with the true Jesus Christ who is described and quoted in the Holy Bible (Romans 5:1).

Oprah Winfrey’s misplaced faith in Marianne Williamson and the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles is a sure sign of the times. But an even surer sign of the times is that most Christians are not taking heed to what is happening in the world and in the church. We are not contending for the faith as the Bible admonishes us to do (Jude 3).

It is time for all of our Purpose-Driven and Emerging church pastors to address the real issue of the day. Our true Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is being reinvented, redefined, and blasphemed right in front of our eyes and hardly anyone seems to notice or care. If we want the world to know who Jesus Christ is, we need to also warn them about who He is not. There is a false New Age “Christ” making huge inroads into the world and into the church. The Apostle Paul said that “it is a shame” we have to even talk about these things, but talk about them we must (Ephesians 5:12-16).

If people want to follow Oprah Winfrey and the New Age “Christ” of A Course in Miracles they certainly have that right. But let them be warned that the New Age “Christ” they are following is not the same Jesus Christ who is so clearly and authoritatively presented in the pages of the Bible.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/smith-oprah.htm

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