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HOUSMAIL HM115B 1
April 2004 NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES
Part 2 -- A Biblical View Jesus
left His Church a warning to be very cautious about too easily accepting the word
of preachers offering "signs and wonders" in support of their claims. (Matthew 24:23-24). Lack of Biblical concern
for THE TRUTH, and credulous acceptance of false teachers offering spectacular
but unbiblical "signs" can cause people to be led astray. The
Apostle Paul put it in even stronger terms. He warned that a beautiful outward
appearance is not enough to identify the true source of anything! Even Satan can
disguise himself to look like "an angel of light"! (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) And sadly, many are willing to be deceived! Why
does God allow such things to happen? Well Moses told us that over 3000 years
ago! "The LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you
love the LORD your God However
God does not leave us helpless! If we prayerfully search for the Divine Wisdom
(James 1:5-8) about
the REAL message of the Bible, there are many "built in" signals which
will enable the Bereans amongst us, (Acts 17:11) to identify the unbiblical errors found in the teaching of these
false prophets mentioned by Jesus. If you
have read the companion article to this, HM115A
"NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES Part 1 -- A Brief Review", you will recall
that this topic was provoked by a question from my 15 year old grandson, about
a "testimony" he had heard at his school, given by a speaker who described
his "experience" of a visit to "hell" and "heaven"
whilst allegedly dead, and his subsequent "resurrection" from the dead. And
you will also recall my fairly obvious scepticism about the Biblical validity
of that testimony! Since Friday, I have actually read the speaker’s "testimony"
for myself, as found on his Web Site. So this is now a firsthand assessment,
no longer based only on the second hand report from last Friday. My disbelief
remains intact! There were no surprises in the written "testimony".
It contained many of the common features of similar "near-death experiences".
(NDEs) It also contained the expected Biblical warning signs, by which those who
truly love God are able to recognise it for what it is. That
this preacher has had an "experience" of some sort, I do not question.
However the origin he claims for it, and the use he makes of it is quite another
matter! He says it was from God. But it can’t be measured against anything we
can find in the Bible anywhere! It contradicts the Bible at many important points.
And that means that we are entitled to reject it! In yesterday’s
Melbourne Herald Sun, there was a brief report of the sad case of a woman in USA
who has been charged with the murder of her two young sons. Defence counsel have
pleaded "not guilty" on the ground of insanity. Her lawyers have told
the court that she heard what she believed to be God’s voice telling her to kill
them. Of course
it is quite possible that this poor woman has heard a "voice". However
did the voice come from God? We don’t believe THAT for a moment do we? Why don’t
we believe it? (Even though the woman is reported to be a "deeply religious"
person?) The answer is quite simple -- There must be something wrong with her
"religion"! We know from the Bible that God doesn’t tell REAL Christians
to do things like that. And because of that we know that the voice she heard MUST
be from some other source! There are many possibilities for that. It might indeed
be as her lawyers claim. The "hearing of voices" is a common feature
of some mental illness and is a believable source. But from God? Never! It is
like that with "near-death experiences"! No matter what the credentials
of the preacher, all teaching is subject to comparison with the Scriptures to
test its validity. (1 Corinthians 14:32, WHAT
ARE SOME OF THE WARNING SIGNALS WE SHOULD LOOK FOR? However
for those do who want more, there are several other things in the "testimony"
which also sound loud warning bells! Each of these is a topic in its own right,
and in this short paper we can only point to them briefly, without a detailed
Bible discourse on each. You will be responsible for your own prayerful follow
up, until you confirm for yourself, beyond question, how and why they might lead
the elect astray. (Matthew 24:23-24) 1.
CONFUSION ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF GOD AND JESUS The
Bible is quite clear that God is NOT Jesus, and Jesus is NOT God! (Deuteronomy 6:4, 2.
CONFUSION ABOUT CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY Nowhere
in the Bible does it say that mortal men are born with "built in" immortality
through the possession of "immortal souls". Nowhere in the Bible does
it say that men are in a state of conscious existence, in the time between their
death and resurrection. Instead
the Bible is quite clear that the dead have no conscious existence of any kind. "For the living know that they shall die:
but the dead know not anything". (Ecclesiastes 9:5) "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest". (Ecclesiastes 9:10) Immortality
is not inherent but conditional! (Romans
2:6-10, Romans 6:23, MEN
ARE NOT "SENT BACK" FROM THE DEAD TO WARN OTHERS! In the
PARABLE of "The Rich Man And Lazarus", Jesus Himself says that it would
be pointless to raise anyone from the dead, in hope that such a resurrection will
persuade anyone to become a believer! The same holds true today! If we cannot
be convinced by what is already available to us in the Bible, then neither would
we be convinced by the miracle of a resurrection! HUMANS
WITH EYES THAT GLOW RED IN THE DARK! Yes!
It really is there in the written testimony! He actually asks us to believe that
"demons" in human form tried to attack him! They were recognisable as
demons because their eyes glowed red in the dark! Only someone totally ignorant
of Bible teaching about demons, would ever swallow THAT. It sounds much more like
what one might expect from a drug induced hallucination! Or perhaps the aftermath
of his NDE? CONCLUSION For
the reasons listed above, my personal conclusion is that the "testimony"
which led to the writing of this paper, is one of those counterfeit experiences
from the false prophets described by Jesus in Matthew
24:24. The man wasn’t really dead. It has all the marks
of a fairly "standard" NDE as reported by many others, Christians, and
pagans alike. The
warning signals described above all have their foundation in what the Apostles
Paul and Peter had in mind when they warned against the MYTHS which were already
creeping into the Church in their day! (1 Timothy 1:4, 1 Timothy
4:7, 2 Timothy 4:4, 2 Peter 1:16) It must
be admitted that they sound quite spectacular. But their appeal is more to gullible
people, ignorant of the Scriptures, too lazy to invest the time or effort to search
prayerfully for themselves, and instead are content to swallow their religion
"second hand" from hireling ear tickling preachers. Strange isn’t it,
how willing some people are to be deceived by an outward appearance of religion,
which lacks REAL life transforming power, (2 Timothy
3:5) and offers in its place an amazing variety of
spectacular sounding NON Biblical myths and/or false Gospels. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12,
2 Timothy 4:3) True
believers, will however, want more than anything else in this world,
(Luke 14:33) to
find and believe THE TRUTH which alone can inspire the love that leads to REAL
repentance, obedience, and eternal life. (John 8:31-32, John 14:15,
Romans 2:6-10) You
may be certain that anything which depends so heavily on things which are NOT
Biblically true, will eventually lead to other things which subtly contradict
the REAL teaching of Jesus about God’s standards for true righteousness and holiness.
e.g. The Sermon on the Mount. The
Serpents subtle lie persuaded Eve in the Garden of Eden. The same technique is
still leading people astray today! Allon |