Posted on 09/26/2011 8:26:15 AM PDT by bkaycee
Another story related to me was almost the same scenario except the guy wound up kicking the end of the bed to pieces yelling "They're coming for me" - those were his last words.
There's something out there.
Jesus is coming. Look busy.
I definitely believe it, too! My Mom worked as a nurse and told us stories about dying patients that talked about their long-passed spouse coming for them. One older lady that was dying swore that her dead husband came, talked to her and promised he would be back for her in the evening. The woman was very excited since it had been years since she saw him. Needless to say, she passed that evening and Mom always felt comforted that the two were together again.
I just can’t get into the “turn or burn” message. I believe the message of Christ was the good news as hinted at in the OT, preached in the hew testament and, specifically, the Gospels.
My take on acceptance of Christ is: Dont’ do it because you fear what will happen otherwise. Do it because you desire an eternity in His presence. IOW, choose your husband because you love him and want to please him, not because you think he will beat you endlessly if you don’t. The latter is not based on love.
‘Course, I’m more into the concept of “anihilation” rather than eternal suffering after one is not found written in the book of life. I believe those who do not accept the attoning blood of our savior will be simply “ended” at the second death much as animals and insects are in this world. They will, of course, be “eternally ended”, never to awake again.
I’m not married to this belief about eternal damnation, but it is the best I can come up with based on the personality of God as I understand it coupled with what is written in His Word.
My wife’s sister, when she was about 5, woke up one morning and came to the kitchen, where the family was gathered, and asked “where is grandpa?” They told her that he lives in California and he was not there (they were in Chicago). She was sure that he went into her bedroom that night and had said goodbye to her. She was very insistant to the point that they called grandpa to show her he was there.
Turned out Grandma was going to call them to let them know that Grandpa had died that night.
Of all the “Wonders of the World”, life itself is the absolute grandest.
I like to think that he said good-bye. Okay... people can laugh but so many times... people at the end of their life will dream of a person (deceased) or “visit” with them before the end. My Mom was a very comforting person and wouldn’t disregard what people would say. One day, she heard a conversation going on in a room and a woman was talking/laughing/etc.. so she waited until later to get vitals. Mom asked her, “who was visiting with you?” She said, “My son, John... I haven’t seen him since he was very young”. Mom figured that maybe he flew from out of town etc.. Later, the woman died and the family came in to say good-bye. Mom approached them, offered her sympathies and asked one to let John know. The only “John” in the family had been the woman’s son (who died in Viet Nam).
There’s a book titled “Famous Last Words” I think you’ll find interesting. Also, do an on-line search on those words. I firmly believe there’s something after. I told one elderly lady that the reason people die in their sleep is because what they’re experiencing there is better than what they experience in real life and they decide to stay.
Wow, bkayce. I read John’s article back in the 1970s. I still have it my stacks of S&T, I think.
—Jesus is coming. Look busy.—
I confess that is one of my favorite bumper stickers. My absolute favorite is: The voices told me to stay home today and clean the guns.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
-from William Shakespeare’s As You Like It
Certainly, Jesus demonstrates His love for us in dying to save us. He is perfect Love and Mercy, and Perfect Justice. To show His love and mercy He perfectly satisfied God's Justice in our place.
I really liked it after reading it a year ago!
—People who no longer exist probably find it hard to engage in weeping and gnashing of teeth, whose worm never dies, suffering everlasting punishment.—
Well, I do believe that the punishment, death, is everlasting. But it brings up the concept of the passage of time in eternity. I like to say that “time” is a current that flows in an ocean called “eternity”.
I think the Mark verses are basically saying that their punishment is death and they STAY dead.
I have a Sunday school student, an adult, who believes just the way you do. We have been going through Revelation 19 and 20 and it’s been an ordeal with him. I mean, he can believe whatever he wants, but I don’t understand his coming to a Southern Baptist Sunday school and argue with everybody! Last time I quoted something I had read in J.V. McGee’s commentary: I’d rather live like eternal literal hell is real and die to find out I was wrong, than live like it is not real (or not literal, or not eternal) and then find out that I was wrong! He glared at me, but for the first time didn’t have anything to say.
Your student sounds a bit like me. 8->
I’ve ben a student of Revelation for a couple of decades now, though. There is a great site that covers how I feel about this to the point that I just post it here as how I interpret scripture regarding Hell:
http://www.jeremyandchristine.com/articles/eternal.php
His link to the interpretation of Lazarus and the Rich Man is also very good.
BTW, regarding this: “Id rather live like eternal literal hell is real and die to find out I was wrong...”
I’d rather live like Jesus died for my sins and I accept Him as my personal savior. The Hell thing becomes pretty irrelevant for me.
Regarding all scripture about eternity, I very much consider it the equivalent of trying to explain the color “red” to someone who only sees in black and white. It is a study in our willingness to apply strange phrases to our understanding of reality. That is why I use the river/ocean analogy. I also use a “slaughterhouse” analogy regarding the lake of fire. If the fire is never quenched, but it is ineternity - outside of “time” - then what does that really mean? And if it IS in time, then it is like a slaughterhouse that exists for a hundred years. If you say a steer was slaughtered in a slautherhouse that existed for 100 years, it does not mean the first steer was slaughtered for that long. The steer did “stay slaughtered” though, for at least that long. ;->
BTW, I’m in the land of a thousand “Babdis” churches myself. 8->
He stretched his arms a little then a little bit more.
Then He stretched even more till his arms reached both sides of the cross.
This is how he loves us.
Good Post! Thanks for sharing!
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