God has spoken the following to me, and I pass it on to you, "The punishment of America has been decreed. It cannot be turned back. Privation and hunger are determined. America the proud will be debased. And with the church which calls itself by My name, I am especially furious. The earthly church which has cast its lot with those who cried out for the crucifixion of My Son will be burned as stubble. This is only the first punishment. Repent not, and the trumpets of Revelation will sound." (December 29, 2006)
Is the near death experience real, and what value can be placed on the messages of near death experiencers?
Since the NDE cannot be studied effectively in the laboratory, no incontrovertible proof for the reality of the NDE is available. Students of the NDE are forced to rely on anecdotal evidence with all the attendant problems. If the anecdotal evidence is taken seriously, however, the materialist, reductionist explanations do not fit the evidence. Reportedly, people have NDEs while brain dead. (See the story of Pam as presented by Dr. Michael Sabom.) People blind since birth have had NDEs and have reportedly returned to describe the actions of doctors, nurses and rescuers in accurate visual detail, including colors. We are told that other near death experiencers have accurately reported the conversations of loved ones, even conversations occurring miles away from their body.
The doubters disbelieve primarily due to an anti-supernatural bias. They simply refuse to believe anything which contradicts their materialistic, reductionist point of view. Of course, NDE believers are also guided by their own set of biases, and an attitude of uncritical acceptance.
There very well may be hallucinatory aspects to the NDE. A very ill person may experience hallucinations before and after a true NDE. In other cases, pure hallucinations may be incorrectly reported as NDEs.
If the NDE is a true spiritual experience, is it a reliable source of information?
This is a good question, and it must be dealt with. My best answer is that the NDE is of only limited reliability, and can even be deceptive. Unfortunately, with the popularity of the NDE have come false claims by many with a new age agenda. People who have not had an NDE have written books and articles claiming to describe their near death experience. For instance, popular NDE author Betty Eadie refuses to release any medical records indicating when an NDE might have occurred. Her refusal bespeaks of a person who never had an NDE and who is a total fraud. Some of these false claimants, such as Eadie, apparently want to be viewed as prophets or new religious leaders. Also, NDE researcher and occultist Phyllis Atwater has pointed out that true NDErs have been forced by book publishers to sensationalize [and I would dare add, fictionalize] their accounts.
Alleged visionary experiences have been falsely labeled as NDEs. Many of these non-NDE visionary experiences are nothing but total fantasies, yet are given the same credence by NDE researchers as true NDEs. I have observed that NDE researchers are often guilty of sloppy research; not verifying medical records, accepting visionary experiences as NDEs.
New age leaning authors such as Raymond Moody have provided a highly distorted view of the NDE by leaving out any hellish accounts. Dr. Moody has also exaggerated the similarity of NDEs and has downplayed the wide differences, not only from individual to individual, but from culture to culture. For instance, non-Western NDEs tend to be quite crude compared to Western NDEs. For example, Thai NDE accounts have been published which involve other worldly beings with a grotesquely debased sense of morality. - examples.
It is essential that even true near death experiencers never be regarded as prophets or infallible sources of divine truth. They are not the bearers of special revelation as were the Biblical authors. At best, they can be compared to eyewitnesses who have caught a glimpse of something otherworldly. But eyewitnesses make mistakes. They can become confused on various points. Further, many near death experiencers claim to have had had access to the knowledge of the universe during their encounter with the divine. However, when they return, they must surrender this knowledge, and they are left with their limited, fallible memories. Like anyone else, near death experiencers are human. They must rely on their own earthly knowledge and experiences to help them interpret their NDE. Thus, NDE accounts are to be approached cautiously.
There are also some troubling considerations which simply cannot be ignored. And that is this: which spiritual powers are directing the near death experiences even of true NDErs? In his book, To Hell and Back, cardiologist Dr. Maurice Rawlings writes, "One day I performed CPR on a man who had been shot in the chest during a bank robbery. During CPR this man told me that he had an out-of-body experience, during this time he said he encountered the heavenly light, he was surprised at what surrounded him. There was no ridicule or rejection, the sordid parts of his life were not examined, and no mention was made of the couple he had killed three years before during a robbery."
Is it possible that a non-Christian might have a counterfeit NDE, an NDE under the influence of Satan posing as an "Angel of Light"? The answer may very well be, "Yes". Consider the following example:
In 1997, Heaven's Gate cult leader, Marshall Applewhite, led 38 black-Nike shod followers to take poison. He and his deluded followers committed suicide in the hope of joining an alien space ship aligned with the Hale-Bopp comet. CNN interviewed Applewhite's sister and filed the following news report:
But he left his family in 1972 at a time when he felt his life was falling apart. He had met the 44-year-old nurse who would change him forever -- Bonnie Lu Nettles.
As Applewhite has described events, he was at the hospital visiting a friend when he met Nettles. His sister tells a different story.
"He was living in Houston at the time, and he had some trouble with his heart and ended up in the hospital and, according to the nurses, had a near-death experience," she says. "And one of the nurses convinced him it that it was for a very special reason and that he could be used mightily in a group that she knew about."
If Marshall Applewhite truly did have a near death experience, he did not meet God.
Dr. Rawlings also writes concerning the near death experience of a particular cardiac arrest victim. The individual found himself floating above his body, and feeling perfect peace. However, before being resuscitated, the man's experience turned into a terrifying encounter with hell fire. Dr. Rawlings points out that he has encountered a number of such individuals, whose initial peaceful experiences turned into hellish nightmares.
Here is an important question: Are the non-Christians who report pleasant NDEs the victim of a ruse? Would their experiences with the beyond have changed for the worse had they not been resuscitated?
Dr. Rawlings' research focuses on those individuals who report NDEs immediately following resuscitation. He reports that half of such experiences are hellish. Most other NDE researchers are only collectors of stories, not having personally resuscitated cardiac arrest victims as Dr. Rawlings has done. Without interviewing survivors on the scene, such story collections represent a dangerously skewed sample. Dr. Rawlings has conducted follow-up interviews with hellish NDE survivors. He has found individuals who had reported vivid hellish experience immediately after resuscitation only to purge the experience from memory a few days later. This phenomenon explains why the NDE story collectors are getting skewed results. Unfortunately, such crucial details are left out of NDE books published by new age presses.
We must also address the problem of false predictions. Famous NDE author, Dannion Brinkley, claims that he was shown the future of world events during his NDE. These predictions were presented in a series of boxes. However, most of his predictions have proven to be totally false. For example, he states in his book Saved by the Light:
"these visions showed a world in horrible turmoil by the turn of the century, one that resulted in a new world order that was truly one of feudalism and strife. The voice that accompanied the visions told me that this would take place in the nineties and would be the beginning of an economic strife that would lead to the bankruptcy of America by the year 2000."
Obviously, this did not happen. The prediction may ultimately come true. Aspects of it are occurring right now under the despotic rule of George Bush and the neocons. But it did not occur by the year 2000.
Here is another example from Dannion Brinkley:
"The twelfth box addressed an important event in the distant future, the decade of the nineties when many of the great changes would take place. In this box I watched as a biological engineer from the Middle East found a way to alter DNA and create a biological virus that would be used in the manufacture of computer chips. Before the turn of the century, this man was among the richest in the world, so rich that he had a stranglehold on the world economy."
Again, another false prediction.
Dannion Brinkley's false predictions bring to mind the words of God spoken through Moses to the people of Israel:
"You may say to yourselves, "And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that [is] the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, [but] the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him." (Deut. 18:21-22)
I have found that non-Christian NDEs are often morally ambiguous. The "being of light" instructs the experiencer that life is a school, and that the experiencer must return to life because there is more to learn. Such an experiencer sees the events of his life during a life review. His sinful actions may cause embarrassment. However, the "being of light" is said to be non-judgmental. Sinful actions are treated as simply another learning opportunity. There is no call to repentance; no call to turn to Christ. Therefore, we see non-Christian NDErs or NDE enthusiasts such as the webmasters of beyondtheveil.net and nderf.org espousing a shameful doctrine of moral relativism. Are these things not reminiscent of the serpent's beguiling words to Eve in Genesis 3:5 that newfound knowledge would transform her into a god? Christian NDEs can also contain life reviews in which the experiencer learns from his life actions. Life is indeed a school. But the school ends in a test. Therefore, the Christian NDEr learns that repentance and faith in Christ is paramount while knowledge is secondary.
For those of us in Christ, our Father is God. (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6) But for those who reject Christ, their father is Satan (John 8:44) Considering that most people are outside of Christ, it would also be reasonable to approach non-Christian NDEs with suspicion due to the possibility of Satanic influence.
Yet, these considerations raise the vexing question: How can an NDE be satanic when the "Being of Light" radiates such unconditional love, and the experience seems to occur within the heavenly realm? The Apostle Paul answers this question in 2 Corinthians 11:14 where he says, "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
Satan was once Lucifer the archangel. He knows the ways of God. He can imitate God and feign love in such a way as to deceive the unregenerate. If a non-Christian undergoes an NDE, and takes away the message that repentance and faith in Christ is unessential to eternal life, then Satan has trapped that soul in the bondage of lies.
The Bible even tells us that Satan has access to Heaven, but that this access will end with the beginning of the Great Tribulation. The Apostle John wrote:
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."
"Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." (Revelation 12:7-12)
The proper conclusion is this: There is one true source of special revelation given to man, and that is the Bible. The NDE is fascinating in that it gives us a peek into the afterlife. But the NDE is not a reliable source of information. In fact, it may be borne of deception, and could lead to the eternal ruin of a soul. An NDE encounter of a true born again Christian can be trusted - as long as 1) it is a true NDE and not a questionable visionary encounter and 2) the details of the account have not been changed by new age publishers. An NDE which leads a non-Christian to Christ can also be given credence. All other NDEs must be approached with grave caution. Moreover, when NDEs contradict the Bible, it is essential to go with the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God, NDE accounts are not.
And, finally, it must always be kept in mind that the near death experience is only a near death experience, not a full death experience. Therefore, as pointed out by Dr. Rawlings, pleasant visions seen by non-Christians during a near death experience may give way to a totally different world should near death become true death.
So if you are not a Christian, what are you to do? First know this - "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) Second - Christ died for you sins. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) And third - "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:9-10)
The offer of salvation is made freely to all people. The Apostle John wrote, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17)
Luke 22:36 Then said He [the Lord Jesus] unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
The Lord so commanded. Therefore, do not argue. Every Christian man, and even woman, should own a gun and know how to use it. Gun control laws do not matter. In Christ's day, the Romans made it illegal for subject peoples to own swords. But, yet, Christ commanded His followers to be prepared for their own self-defense. And it is He Who must be obeyed, not man.
Are you a ready to fight for Christian Civilization?
