Posted on 06/10/2006 9:45:53 PM PDT by churchillbuff
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.
3 months after my father passed my mother, who had been pained by a sore foot for weeks, saw my father appear to her as she was sleeping and told her if she forgave him (for a wrong done 50 years ago) he would make the pain in her foot go away. She told him she forgave him and she woke up the next morning with her foot pain free.
Well, yes, but I was arguing the other side of the prospectus. If there was concrete proof in this world that the God of the Bible existed then it would diminish the worthiness of future believers who made the leap of faith. There would be no leap at all, merely the acknowledgement of the incontrovertable.
I think God would rather that we come to Him through a desire to seek Him rather than a compulsion to face Him. It is more to our credit if we believed without having tangible proof.
i am trying to follow you but it....
huh?
Ah! I understand perfectly. Very well put.
I have had an OBE when a friend of my was dying from cancer and watch him float in and out of the ceiling of his Room and told me it was ok I received a call in the morning he had died over night!
I have also talked to a Ghost who was dead for less than a week and at the time I did not know he was a Ghost!
This was around 11pm at night and I got call in the AM that he was found dead been there was almost a week!
Sounds like a classic Lazamataz utterance.
LOL!!!!
From THE DOORS and of course Riders on the Storm
THE GHOST SONG Lyrics
Awake.
Shake dreams from your hair
my pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
the day's divinity
First thing you see.
A vast radiant beach and cooled jeweled moon
Couples naked race down by it's quiet side
And we laugh like soft, mad children
Smug in the wooly cotton brains of infancy
The music and voices are all around us.
Choose they croon the Ancient Ones
the time has come again
choose now, they croon
beneath the moon
beside an ancient lake
Enter again the sweet forest
Enter the hot dream
Come with us
everything is broken up and dances.
Indians scattered,
On dawn's highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s,
Fragile eggshell mind
We have assembled inside,
This ancient and insane theater
To propagate our lust for our life,
And flee the swarming wisdom of the streets.
The barns have stormed
The windows kept,
And only one of all the rest
To dance and save us
From the divine mockery of words,
Music inflames temperament.
Ooh great creator of being
Grant us one more hour,
To perform our art
And perfect our lives.
We need great golden copulations,
When the true kings murders
Are allowed to roam free,
A thousand magicians arise in the land
Where are the feast we are promised?
One more thing
Thank you oh lord
For the white blind light
Thank you oh lord
For the white blind light
A city rises from the sea
I had a splitting headache
From which the future's made
That's pretty scary. Some of the NDE books report on hellish experiences, and I don't think we should ignore these reports. If Jesus had to die to save us, there has to be something - some place - from which we need saving.
"Yes, there is more."
Yep!
Hi Rest. How are you doing? I was talking about the verses that AAM posted in 133. Today, if someone was allowed to come back, would things be any different? I think not. I don't know if you believe in the rapture or not but I do. I wonder sometimes how our media will explain that away. You think it's already canned, just in case?:')
Because wanting something means willingness to pay the price for it, otherwise it's simply liking the idea of having something but only if it's handed over on a silver platter.
Every student likes the idea of getting straight-A's, but only those who put in the time to study actually *want* it.
The person who isn't willing to make the sacrifices in this life for the afterlife is no different from the kid who partied all night before final exam. Both will be denied what they claim they wanted because when they had chances to earn it they weren't willing to make the sacrifice.
Including the Creator itself?
Meaning in the thousand years of peace those who were worthy would be translated and other would just live out their normal lenght of time and die!
The Creator is not a created being. He names Himself as 'I Am' and to Moses, "I am that I Am.' Not 'Me from Him' or 'Me from Him And Her', just 'I Am'. Back in ancient times, names were referrals, as in 'Muir from The Woods' or 'the Muir of MacMuir' meaning Muir from a particular Mother and Father.
"Would it be Heaven for you, if you could never be with Peaches again?"
Of course it would be Heaven, without a dog, but with my Lord and all the redeemed, past, present, and future. You aren't trying to trivialize my faith in Jesus Christ? I hope and trust that you are not.
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