The story about a visit to heaven by this neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven, is now available at Amazon, and is also getting some positive publicity at various blogs I visit, one of them run by a Christian who should know better, but I've found for some time now that even people I do regard as true Christians in fact don't have a biblical perspetive on these things. If it's supernatural they buy it as if all supernatural experiences must be in tune with the Bible. What a recipe for deception! And Satan's hordes are having a field day with this stuff. Must be fun inventing "heaven" for the easily deceived.
I also got an email about this one from a friend who's heavy into the New Age and will hear nothing about the gospel from me. That alone ought to show that such experiences have nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It should be obvious enough anyway from the stories themselves to anyone who has a Biblical perspective on these things.
This particular story is written from the point of view of one who had believed the outrageous claims of materialist "science" that everything proceeds from the material so that such experiences are understood to be mere products of a disordered brain and the like.
I found the statement at this link to be an interesting clue:
Yahoo report on this story
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And a followup. Somebody posted a comment in relation to a report on this book about how a small child on leaving the gravesite of the grandmother who had doted on him suddenly looked up toward the sky and said "I'll miss you too." That's very touching and full of implications about what the child was supposedly responding to. Even the "Christians" at this website took it as the grandmother's saying goodbye from heaven.
Question: Does this story in any way suggest the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, or does it instead suggest universalism, that is, the belief that everybody goes to heaven?
The latter obviously. No mention was made of this family's beliefs if any, just this experience. This alone OUGHT to alert a Christian to the fact that this sort of thing is a deception for the purpose of detracting from the gospel of Christ. We have to assume the child heard SOMETHING in order to respond as he did, and if you believe the Bible you should know it could not have been his grandmother in heaven because we don't have communication with the dead, but demons may impersonate people and they are the ones who have the motive to detract from the gospel.
Wake up, Christians! The devils don't mind using a three-year-old to deceive sentimental souls who would not let themselves question such a supposedly tender moment.
The following is from the Amazon Eben Alexander page:
Anyway, maybe his story will persuade some of the "science"-bound to believe in the existence of an afterlife (not in the God of the Bible, of course, not in salvation from sin through faith in Christ's death on the cross in our place), just because he's a neurosurgeon I suppose, who's sort of in the science arena and may therefore be considered particularly credible for no good reason whatever. Just that he too was deceived by "science" so that makes him more credible? Something like that. So he might be believed by some who wouldn't listen to the Bible which is full of witness testimony to things miraculous and otherworldly but will listen to just anybody today with an experience.
In reality, there's no more evidence for such things from this story than there ever is, of course: You either believe this guy or you don't. That's the way it always is in the end. Unless you have such an experience yourself all you have is witness testimony. That's the way it is with the Bible and that's the way it is with ALL testimonies to anything you can't prove from material evidence or personally prove from yur own experience, such as a spiritual life apart from the body.
His experience clearly revealed that we are conscious in spite of our brain - that, in fact, consciousness is at the root of all existence.
His story offers a crucial key to the understanding of reality and human consciousness. It will have a major effect on how we view spirituality, soul and the non-material realm. In analyzing his experience, including the scientific possibilities and grand implications, he envisions a more complete reconciliation of modern science and spirituality as a natural product.
He has been blessed with a complete recovery, and has written a book about this most powerful, life-changing story. Simon & Schuster will publish his book, entitled "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife" on October 23, 2012.
Yes, we are conscious in spite of our brain. I've experienced that myself as a matter of fact although I wouldn't try to persuade someone else based on my experience. We are immortal souls. We will live forever.
But what you aren't going to find out from this kind of report is that there is such a place or state as Hell, which IS an afterlife after all, in which SOME will live forever if that can be called "living." These out-of-body experiences are designed to mislead you into believing EVERYBODY is going to have this very pleasant afterlife experience. That's obviously the purpose of them. No Hell, no worry, just look forward to intense beauty, color, interesting creatures, forever. THAT's the delusion in these things.
The whole point is to deny the testimony of the Bible, a testimony given to us to lead us to truth and save us from such deceptions by the demonic hordes. Keeping you away from THAT is their aim. God became a man in order to die to pay for our sins so we won't have to go to Hell? Na, there's no such thing as sin, no such thing as Hell, we like our own delusions better.
So are Hitler and Stalin and Jack the Ripper having a nice time in one of these otherworldly paradises do ya think?
But what you aren't going to find out from this kind of report is that there is such a place or state as Hell, which IS an afterlife after all, in which SOME will live forever if that can be called "living." These out-of-body experiences are designed to mislead you into believing EVERYBODY is going to have this very pleasant afterlife experience. That's obviously the purpose of them. No Hell, no worry, just look forward to intense beauty, color, interesting creatures, forever. THAT's the delusion in these things.
The whole point is to deny the testimony of the Bible, a testimony given to us to lead us to truth and save us from such deceptions by the demonic hordes. Keeping you away from THAT is their aim. God became a man in order to die to pay for our sins so we won't have to go to Hell? Na, there's no such thing as sin, no such thing as Hell, we like our own delusions better.
So are Hitler and Stalin and Jack the Ripper having a nice time in one of these otherworldly paradises do ya think?
Anyway, maybe his story will persuade some of the "science"-bound to believe in the existence of an afterlife (not in the God of the Bible, of course, not in salvation from sin through faith in Christ's death on the cross in our place), just because he's a neurosurgeon I suppose, who's sort of in the science arena and may therefore be considered particularly credible for no good reason whatever. Just that he too was deceived by "science" so that makes him more credible? Something like that. So he might be believed by some who wouldn't listen to the Bible which is full of witness testimony to things miraculous and otherworldly but will listen to just anybody today with an experience.
In reality, there's no more evidence for such things from this story than there ever is, of course: You either believe this guy or you don't. That's the way it always is in the end. Unless you have such an experience yourself all you have is witness testimony. That's the way it is with the Bible and that's the way it is with ALL testimonies to anything you can't prove from material evidence or personally prove from yur own experience, such as a spiritual life apart from the body.
I just happened to write about this at my evolution blog this morning, about how faith is based on witness testimony, in response to a post at EvC (Evolution versus Creation forum), as the poster tried to dismiss faith as having no rational grounds whatever. They simply define it out of existence.
But as I say at the other blog, faith is believing witnesses, and you believe on the basis of judging their testimony to be credible, and you don't believe if you don't think it credible -- or just because you are one of those who won't believe anything whatever unless you can see it and touch it and feel it for yourself (or so you think, since in reality everybody believes tons of stuff on witness testimony alone).
But as I say at the other blog, faith is believing witnesses, and you believe on the basis of judging their testimony to be credible, and you don't believe if you don't think it credible -- or just because you are one of those who won't believe anything whatever unless you can see it and touch it and feel it for yourself (or so you think, since in reality everybody believes tons of stuff on witness testimony alone).
I found the statement at this link to be an interesting clue:
He considered himself to be a "faithful Christian" although he never attended church (he doesn't identify the church he feels is his either) and he doesn't give one iota of evidence that he understands anything that has to do with being a Christian, and as far as this goes he believes nothing any more Christian after his experience than before it.Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief. I didn't begrudge those who wanted to believe that Jesus was more than simply a good man who had suffered at the hands of the world. I sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally. In fact, I envied such people the security that those beliefs no doubt provided. But as a scientist, I simply knew better than to believe them myself.
Yahoo report on this story
==============================
And a followup. Somebody posted a comment in relation to a report on this book about how a small child on leaving the gravesite of the grandmother who had doted on him suddenly looked up toward the sky and said "I'll miss you too." That's very touching and full of implications about what the child was supposedly responding to. Even the "Christians" at this website took it as the grandmother's saying goodbye from heaven.
Question: Does this story in any way suggest the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, or does it instead suggest universalism, that is, the belief that everybody goes to heaven?
The latter obviously. No mention was made of this family's beliefs if any, just this experience. This alone OUGHT to alert a Christian to the fact that this sort of thing is a deception for the purpose of detracting from the gospel of Christ. We have to assume the child heard SOMETHING in order to respond as he did, and if you believe the Bible you should know it could not have been his grandmother in heaven because we don't have communication with the dead, but demons may impersonate people and they are the ones who have the motive to detract from the gospel.
Wake up, Christians! The devils don't mind using a three-year-old to deceive sentimental souls who would not let themselves question such a supposedly tender moment.
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