Near Death Experiences

[*Light*]

DO NOT take this as dogmatic. This is just an experience I had several years back and wanted to share my thoughts on this subject. I engaged in a debate with Pastor Howard Storm via email regarding his experience with death and coming back from the "other side". This interested me because I was once pronounced clinically dead from cardiac arrest and had a supernatural experience of my own, like Howard Storm did. He has his own church and preaches on sin and Jesus; but somewhere during our conversation, he mentioned "reincarnation" as a fact, and that the angels taught him that doctrine. . . and I said, wait...hold up. I asked him to show me using the BIBLE where reincarnation is mentioned, and he mentioned something along the lines of John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated (cf Mal. 4:5; Matt. 11:14; Lk.1:17). I refuted him using simple exegesis and context  from other passages in the bible and he never replied back.

Now I am not dogmatic on this, but I believe that Paul did have a return from the dead experience (it is described by him at 2 Cor.12:1-10); whether this took place when he was stoned at Lystra (Acts 14:19) is not really possible to say given all of the things that Paul relates as having happened to him on other occasions (i.e., there are other possibilities: 1 Cor.4:8-13; 2 Cor.4:7-12; 6:3-10; 11:16-33; Phil.3:7-11), but it does seem more likely than not. What I always say about such things is this:  God does give all believers experiences which demonstrate His goodness, mercy and grace, and which reinforce the truth they learned from scripture. So if we have an experience, a dream or a miraculous occurrence or any other such thing, which encourages us as to the fact that the truth we have learned is the truth, then we rejoice in the truth we already believed and in the goodness of God who reminds us of that truth by the experience He gives us.  If, on the other, we have an experience, a dream or a miraculous occurrence or any other such thing, which does not accord with the truth we know and believe from the Bible, then either that experience is not from God or else we are not interpreting it correctly.

When I was clinically dead, I entered a tunnel that was surrounded  with a light that didn't look like any light here on Earth. As I walked down through the tunnel, I saw what appeared to be small lights in the distance, but they became larger as they came closer. They were huge orbs and I could feel a supernatural love emanating from them. Some of them were silver, and some were GOLD, and there was a bond I felt with them as we were ONE. They told me if I wanted to see them in "human form", and I said no. They led me to an area where there were trees that were greener than any trees here on Earth and there were otherworldly music playing non-stop. There were also flowers that almost seemed to be alive and were absolutely beautiful. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I'm a man and don't get excited easily; but when I saw this, lol! Can't really explain it accurately, LOL!!! Why I found this experience interesting was because one of my best friends (a Hebrew Scholar and Pastor) told me that his wife had an experience almost identical to mine, except she saw her relatives and could not tell what age they were for some reason.

The bible warns us that Satan and his emissaries can shapeshift and masquerade as ministers of God. (2 Cor. 11:14), and we are to test the spirits (1st John 4:1).

When it comes to other people's experience, well, if it is some times difficult to interpret our own, how are we supposed to rely on that of others? There are no more prophets today that I can think of.  Therefore while we can rejoice with other believers in the encouragement the Lord gives them, we are most definitely NOT to build doctrine or alter our understanding of the Bible in any way however small based upon these experiences of others. Take the one my friend reported to me: 

1) I did not see/hear/experience this; rather I heard it from friend. 

2) And he did not see/hear/experience this; rather he heard it from his friend. 

3) And he did not see/hear/experience this; rather he heard it from his wife. 

4) Finally, we have no idea what his wife really saw. We can only go by what she said.  All we can say is that we already knew that heaven is wonderful; if the third-hand details are correct we have no way of knowing, but we are certainly not going to accept them as if they are true because we don't know if this is what she saw, he said, he said, he said . . . etc.  And in any case, it's not specifically in the Bible. 

God Bless!

Edited February 17, 2018 by (Omega)
Additional Info