bump for later
Anything from Hank Hanegraaff is questionable. IMHO, he stole Walter Martin’s ministry and does little but attack other Christians.
An interesting topic for Neurological Physiology NOT for theology.
Sorry. No one comes back from death. Death is final. If someone “comes back” he was NOT DEAD.
Really quite simple.
I’m guessing the guy that said...
“Hold ma beer. Watch this ya’ll.”
...was glad he got to finish his beer.
Sure, both can be right. Bad people could go where Wiese went, good people where Alexander went.
Not what I believe, really, but the two are not inherently contradictory.
How Should Christians Think? The $64,000 question. Start with Reason and Honesty. If you dare.
It appears that Dalrymple likes to tell God what he can and cannot do.
I don’t think you can be absolutely certain about any of them, but a lot of near death experiences seem to be real.
My take on it is that the person nearly died, or clinically speaking actually died, but that for whatever reason God decided it wasn’t time for him to die.
And I don’t believe that anyone actually goes literally to Heaven or Hell in such an experience, but that God may give them a true vision of Heaven or Hell, as a warning or caution, giving them a chance to return to life, repent their faults, and mend their lives.
Interesting.
But I think no one should tell them what to think. This is a personal experience either for the observer or one who experiences it.
Dr. Jeffrey Long’s Near-Death Experience Research a “Game Changer” for Science
The most comprehensive research into near-death experience deals a kill shot to skeptics and aims to change how science views the afterlife.
Science has studied the near-death experience for more than 20 years. Most research has concluded NDEs are real and unexplainable, but scientists have been slow to accept consciousness beyond death. A new scientific study by Jeffrey Long, M. D. may change that. The research compiled in his new book, Evidence of the Afterlife, represents the largest, most comprehensive study of near-death experience and according to the study’s author is, “a real game-changer”.
Dr. Long explains, “we looked at nine lines of evidence that indicate the reality of near-death experiences and their consistent message of an afterlife. With each of these lines of evidence we carefully reviewed all prior scholarly research on the subject and made our contributions with our original research… from my point of view, the scientific term is compelling, but you can put it another way — the nine lines of evidence that I present is proof of the reality of near-death experiences.”
The conclusions of Dr. Long’s research are paradigm smashing for near-death experience skeptics who’ve argued that limited brain functioning may explain NDEs. “What near-death experiencers see correlates to their time of cardiac arrest and it is almost uniformly accurate in every detail. That pretty much refutes the possibility that these could be illusionary fragments, or unreal memories associated with hypoxia, chemicals, REM intrusion, anything that could cause brain dysfunction”, Dr. Long stated.
“I looked at over 280 near-death experiences that had out-of-body observations of Earthly ongoing events… If near-death experiences were just fragments of memory, unrealistic remembrances of a time approaching unconsciousness or returning from unconsciousness, there is no chance that the observations would have a high percent of completely accurate observations. They’d be dream-like or hallucinations. But 98% of them were entirely realistic… In fact, these observations of Earthly ongoing events often include observations of things that would be impossible for them to be aware of with any sensory function from their physical body. For example, they can see the tops of buildings. They can see far away. In my study over 60 of these near-death experiencers later went back and independently attempted to verify what they saw in the out-of-body state. Every single one of these over 60 near-death experiencers that reported checking or verifying their own observations found that they were absolutely correct in every detail.”, Dr. Long said.
While some near-death experience researchers have been reluctant to make the leap from NDEs to proof of the afterlife, Dr. Long is convinced by his research findings, “I’ve gone over every skeptic argument I can get my hands on. At the end of the day, I have no doubt in my mind near-death experience is for real. It’s a profound and reassuring message that we all have an afterlife. Every single one of us. And it’s wonderful. It is probably the greatest thrill of my life to be able to carry forward that important message to the world. I wouldn’t do it if I weren’t absolutely convinced that it’s correct.”
The conclusions of this research will be controversial, but Dr. Long stands ready to take on the critics, “I would be delighted to debate any near-death experience skeptic, any time, any place, on any media, as long as they’re scholarly, well informed, and as long as it can be a very high-level, intellectual debate.”
Jeffrey Long, M.D., is a physician practicing the specialty of radiation oncology (use of radiation to treat cancer) in Houma, Louisiana. Dr. Long has served on the Board of Directors of IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies), and is actively involved in NDE research. His book, Evidence of the Afterlife (HarperCollins), was published in 2010.
From Dr. Long’s website: Does Near-Death Experience (NDE) Evidence Prove an Afterlife?
Consider the Evidence, and Determine YOUR Answer!
They're interesting accounts in some cases.
But really, it's not going to convince anyone who isn't a believer to accept Christ.
Remember what Abraham said to the rich man in hell. If his brothers wouldn't listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not believe even if someone was raised from the dead.
WE also have more sure word of the existence of heaven and hell than some people's alleged eyewitness accounts. It's called Scripture.
I question the wisdom in believing a person over Scripture.
I think people need to be wary of buying in to “extra-biblical” experiences and circumstances. What we need to know now, we find in the Bible. Beyond that, situations fall into the soothsayer category and, even though it’s interesting, it’s demonic.
Like this kid in the movie, I’m a P.K. I’d have come up with the same “report” he did just from having listened to my dad’s and uncles’ sermons and singing hymns. It’s pretty basic stuff — streets of gold, rivers, winged angels, Jesus with brown hair like the paintings, etc.
(I’d like to know if this kid saw my cats Homer, Duke, and Duchess.)
I have sought wisdom in this matter through reading Scripture and prayer, and asking for wisdom. The only New Testament near death experience is the Apostle Paul’s description, in II Corinthians 12:1-10, of one who went to heaven and returned, and was admonished not to reveal anything about heaven. That’s as far as I wish to carry the matter.
Bookmarked.
Familiar ground rationally discussed here. There are a couple of worthwhile personal experiences posted.
“Abraham rejoiced to see My day...God is God of the living, not of the dead”
The 3 children of Fatima were taken to see heaven and hell. I believe there were many other accounts among saints and holy people. They all attest to the happiness of heaven but also tell of hell much like Dante described.
The patients sometimes would describe what was going on to her and close to the end what they were seeing although they could not really describe it. One day she got called in on her day off. She had been working about an hour and another building called her and told her to get to her grandmothers room STAT. Her grandmother was in her last couple of hours and she was with her. In the final minutes she watched her grandmothers hand movements. She had been a piano and voice teacher and her hand movement were her directive ones.
In ICU she heard a monitor go off meaning someones heart wasn't beating. The nurses rushed in and check and asked her if she was OK. She said yea but that person across the rooms alarm went off. They told her that was yours no one is over there. The next thing in ICU she remember was fear and suddenly feeling the bed rocking as if it were rocking bed.
My dad tells me of something he saw after his dad had passed. He was in the Navy when word came and he went home on leave. WW2 had just ended. They released him on a hardship so he could care for his mother and two minor siblings.
He said he was awake laying in bed and his dad walked in the room and sat down on his bed and looked at him a minute then got up and left. He never said nothing. Dad wasn't one to make up stories or tall tales especially on something like this.
I believe near death experiences many times are what our spirit witnesses and not as such our physical being. For whatever reason it may not be time for the spirit to depart from the earthly body even if the earthly body is at death. GOD breathes life into us. It is His to give or takeaway, extend or cut short, for our own sake or the sake of others.