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I've been reading quite a few accounts of near death experiences. Most, of course, come from "non-Christians", as only about 1% of all humanity is "truly saved" and worthy of going to heaven. The rest of humanity, poor souls will suffer for all eternity in the fires of hell (according to Fundamentalists, that is) But what is interesting is that 99% of all the non-Christians that relate accounts that pass muster with the scientific community that researches these kinds of things report experiences that are unimaginably beautiful and peaceful. I know the stock answer from Fundamentalists is "Well, satan can appear as an angel of light". I suppose the logic is that satan is powerful enough to capture these people's souls at the point of death and usher them into another realm that appears to be heaven, but is in reality someplace where he can work his deception on them. Pretty thin logic, is all that comes to my mind when I hear such nonsense.
Oddly enough, most of the hellish experiences reported come from Christian Fundamentalists. Now why is that, I wonder.
Last edited by thrillobyte; 05-14-2012 at 11:05 PM..
Oddly enough, most of the hellish experiences reported come from Christian Fundamentalists. Now why is that, I wonder.
I don't find that odd. Maybe fundamentalists are going to a type of hell when they die. I don't think everyone goes straight to heaven. Some people need further suffering because their hearts are hardened. People assume that Universalist Christians believe that all are going straight to heaven. I am not one who believes that. But I do think all WILL be saved in the ages to come.
I've been reading quite a few accounts of near death experiences. Most, of course, come from "non-Christians", as only about 1% of all humanity is "truly saved" and worthy of going to heaven. The rest of humanity, poor souls will suffer for all eternity in the fires of hell (according to Fundamentalists, that is) But what is interesting is that 99% of all the non-Christians that relate accounts that pass muster with the scientific community that researches these kinds of things report experiences that are unimaginably beautiful and peaceful. I know the stock answer from Fundamentalists is "Well, satan can appear as an angel of light". I suppose the logic is that satan is powerful enough to capture these people's souls at the point of death and usher them into another realm that appears to be heaven, but is in reality someplace where he can work his deception on them. Pretty thin logic, is all that comes to my mind when I hear such nonsense.
Oddly enough, most of the hellish experiences reported come from Christian Fundamentalists. Now why is that, I wonder.
I've been reading quite a few accounts of near death experiences. Most, of course, come from "non-Christians", as only about 1% of all humanity is "truly saved" and worthy of going to heaven. The rest of humanity, poor souls will suffer for all eternity in the fires of hell (according to Fundamentalists, that is)
I'm sorry, and how do you know that only 1% of humanity is truly saved!??? Do you have direct access to the over 7 billion human souls currently on the earth!? You realize that over 2 billion people in the world claim to be Christians right? Now, I realize that it's one thing to say you are a Christian, and another to be truly born-again, but I find it hard to believe that only 1 out of every 30 of those people claiming to be Christians have accepted Christ as their personal savior.
I'm sorry, and how do you know that only 1% of humanity is truly saved!??? Do you have direct access to the over 7 billion human souls currently on the earth!? You realize that over 2 billion people in the world claim to be Christians right? Now, I realize that it's one thing to say you are a Christian, and another to be truly born-again, but I find it hard to believe that only 1 out of every 30 of those people claiming to be Christians have accepted Christ as their personal savior.
Well, you said the keyword, Buckeye---"claim"---which is not the same as actually being and living as Christ wants us to. Remember Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven." So merely professing to be Christian means absolutely nothing. Look around you in a shopping mall on a busy day sometime. Statistically, I am saying that based on how I see people behaving in there I am being very generous with allotting 1%.
Also, my reference to humanity is not only to people living today, but to the roughly 100 billion people who have inhabited this planet since Adam and Eve. Surely you don't think a larger percentage of them even heard of Jesus Christ or Yahweh, much less followed the Law, do you?
Thank you much for those links, Whitewings. I'm going to check them out today. I've watched some of Pim van Lommel's videos on YouTube. He's a little too cerebral for me, but he has some interesting ideas.
I do not believe in Near Death Experiences, I think the belief that people were in the afterlife and came back is unscriptural.
NDE's are not suitable to support or to reject biblical doctrines
Nevertheless, sven, there are just too many of them to discount them rather offhandedly. I realize they fly in the face of what we've been taught from a biblical perspective. But since the Bible has been so corrupted and bas*ardized over the centuries it's likely that how we've been taught from it is 180 degrees from what the writers originally intended to teach us.
Many Christians will not read even one account for fear that it will upset their carefully---albeit fragile---constructed faith in Jesus. But these experiences must be addressed at some point because as more and more evidence mounts from millions of accounts that have been studied and verified by physicians that these people truly did "die", what has to be addressed is that their NDE's call into question the very foundations of what traditional religious leaders have been teaching the sheeple Christians all these centuries. To tell a Fundamentalist that millions of non-Christians shared the same peaceful, joyous experience of meeting God, feeling the overpowering effect of His love for them, having their life reviewed in a very non-judgmental manner and then sending them back with the message that "You are your brother's keeper and how you treat your fellow man will be the basis of how you are judged when your time comes"---well, this just terrifies the Fundamentalist Christian because they can start to feel their dogmatically-oriented carefully-constructed Christian belief system cracking into hundreds of pieces. Again, how would you explain these NDE's when there is absolutely no possibility that millions of people around the world over the last 100 years got together and colluded to make up nearly identical experiences?
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