Keep coming back to this. There's a podcast at You Tube run by a guy called Alex, haven't caught his last name, podcast titled Next Level SOUL. I've watched dozens of NDE accounts there and some other interviews on related matters. Research into psychic phenomena for instance, people who have had various kinds of experiences they call spiritual, involving spirit beings for instance.
I seem to be giving myself an education in the mentality of the fallen world these days. And It's with a much more intense understanding of what the fallen world means that I'm doing it too, since about a year ago I had some experiences that brought home to me in vivid intensivty what Hell is and what the fallen world is. Of course as a Christian I already believed in the reality of both but these encounters with my own sin nauture made them far more real than before. I shudder to think of anyone going to Hell now in a way I didn't before. And this world has simply not felt normal to me since then, it's felt like an alien place from which I will be hal[[ to be freed.
The world feels normal to most people, we think of it as our home, even Christians do for the most part, because we're so used to it. But nonChristians haven't a clue that it's not norml at all. Atheists who like to debate Christians blame the evils of this world on God because they assume this is the world He created. Even Christians don't have a clear idea that it's not at all the world He Creatured.
A few years ago I started thihnking of the physical world as a wreck left from the Flood. People so often say this world shows God's creative wordk and His love of Beauty. What a beautiful world. I have to admit that I've never thought of it as beautiful and I'm sure I'm far from tp[ical in this. People would no doubt be very offended at the idea. Maybe it's because I grew up on a desert that I see it as so much piled up dirt, tumbled down boulders, dry lumpy mounds called mountains. Anywhere the bare planet shows through I think it unbeautfiul, and began to see it as wrecked by the Flood when I was working on the evolution issues. TGrees and green things add a beauty that covers up the ugliness though. I find beauty in those things, in living things. And perhaps oddly in some of the works of humanity. Humanity adds a lot of our own ugliness to the planet but there is alwao beauttiful architecture here and there, charming cities, especially in Europe, etc.
But the fallennness of the world i s only hinted at in those physical things, it's most clearly shown in the human sin nature and in the diseases and sufferings and death and every other kind of evil we experience. God created none of that. That is all the result of the Fall, of our rebellion against God. NonChristian humanity hasn't a chred of an iota of a clue to any of that, and of course pooh pooh any such notions.
I shouldn't say God created none of that since of course nothing can happen without God, and I hope I don't confuse things too much by making this correction. All the evils of this fallen world are the result of the violation of His law and His nature so i nthat sense He created it all. The point is only that it is the consequence of human rebellion against God even though even that couldn't happen unless he willed it. And it all has to follow laws, laws that are built into the fabric of reality because it's all a reflection of the very nature of God Himself.
So hthe atheists can't understand the reality of all this, and this current crop of people who are into near death experiences and other manifestations of what they think of as spirituality can't get it either. Mediums who communicate with spirits,k who are really demons, must be because that's the only spirits besides angels I find in the Bible. I guiess there could be other kinds but they would all be fallen creatures in rebellion against God as demons are no matter what. God's angels aren't going to communicate with humanity execept to assist us toward life in Christ. And the spritc rcreatures these NDEDEs and other cpiritist phenomena demonstrate a=re far from any such intention, in fact they are pretty clearly determined to do their best to undermine everyhthing CHristian.
People on these shows, like Alex's podcast and the George Noory radio show Coast to Coast, so cherrfully discuss all these demonic phenomina as if it were all a wonderful spiritual advancement of th ehuman race and something to be promotoed, so blind are they to its reality. Since the Bible is the only source of knowledge of its reality that I know of, there doesn't seem to be much hope of dissuading them. They've already decided, on bethe basis of what these demonic spirits tell them, thjat the Bible is just one of many old attempts to teach us about the spirit world that is no longer to be taken too seriously unless of course we let the demons interpret it for us.
Oh not demons, they have no idea these are demons they are talking to and taking counsel from, they are "spirit gudes" and the like. Or "Ascended Masters" an so on. Superior beings who have only the best intentions forhumanity. Scary deception. Scary deception.
I know I'm making some errors, quit a few I'm afraid, I can feel my fingers misbehaving, I just hope it isn't too bad.
Services for he Blind is ordering me some gadgets that may help with all this but I won't know for a couple of months if they will make a big difference or not.
Besides all the people who believe the spirits and the feelings in their near death experiences, there are these researchers swho thing that the psychic powers and other paranormal powers they believe they can show to exist in some of us are good things. I was very happy to discover Watchman Nee's book on the Latent Powers of the Soul because I think that is what expelains all these things and they are not good things for humanity to try to develop. I think Nee must be right thaty they are the remnants of powers god originally gave Adam and Eve that they lost at the Fall. Well tghey didn't cpopoletely lose them. As Nee thinks of it, the Fall brought about the dath of the human spirit which was the faculty which communicated with God. Well that's pretty general theology, not just Nee's idea. Our spirit died, or at least was damanged. It's hard to know what really happened of course, but ever sinc3e the Fall we no longer have a sense of the presence of God as our original parrents did. That's why atheism is the defautlt menatlity of fallen humanity. Even if we retain some belief in God it's not with any real sense of His presence. So materialism reigns. Modern man thinks it's all a physical universe we live in. Evolution says we came up from a physical chemical origin and our consciousness is all a rather odd epiphenomenon dependent on that physical substreate we are in reality according to them. And since the physical world is all fallen humanity can apprehend with any certainty such ideas rule.
That's the result of the Fall itself, that physicality is all we can really apprehend. Our spirit died or became somehow unfunctional and we no longer have access to God. I am with those who interpret the Bible to reveal that we are a tripartite being, body, couls and spirit, the soul being tghe human personality that originally had access both to God and to the world through our physical senses, but at teh Fall lost the access to God and became the tool of the flesh as it is called, the flesh which communicates with te physical world. As Nee puts it together, humanity in our fallen state can communicate with the demonic world but not with God, and we still retain some scattered expressions of what he calles soul power, or the powers originally possessed by Adam and Eve that sincew the Fall have beomce buried in the flesh and inaccessible to most peop;le. Some here and there have such powers and there are practices that have been developed by many religions and occultic disciplines to develop those sould powers. Medictation is one of the methods used to develop the powers of the sould. The idea is to subdue the flesh or the blody and sllow the soul powers to come out. Some people who meditate a great deal have succeeded in releasing the soul powers and made contact with demon spirits and acquired telephathic abilities, psychic powers, clairvoyance or remote viewing allnd all that. Nee says that this is Satan's aim, to devlelop our soul powers in order to counterfiet the true spirituality of communicateion with God which was lost at the Fall and deceive humanity into accepting the counterfeit in place of communication with God. Since the Fall we have no ability whatever to apprehend God because our spirit is dead but the soul powers can mimic such spirfituality wenough to deceive us poor blinded creatureures.
Whren we believe in Christ's saacrifice on the cross to paty for our sins we are born again and that means our dead spirit omes back to life, is "quickened" in the word of the King Hames, we are regenerated and now again ahve the ability to communicate with God although we have to grow into it and will not fully powssess it in this life. But this is the ONLY way any human beings have access to God in this fallwn world. It all comes through faith in Christ whosse death on the cross payid for our complete restoration to our ori9ginal created state and even better than that. Without that faith humanity continues to stumble along blind to it all, mistaking the physical world for all there is or mistaking those soul powers for spiritualitiey. What is going on in NDEs is some kind of demonic deception intended to keep people from seeking the salvation of Christ. tehy teach a word of religion of good works, deny the reality of judgment for sin, deny sin altogether expcet for the ins of unkindness to our fellow man and that sort of thing, and people are buying it. It'sxz really horrifying to think of it.
Later thoughts:
I crings, I shudder, over the stories these peop,ple tell of their experiences on "the other side." That is of course because I know the Bible is the truth about all of it and they are falling for the lies the bible warns against. Experience is powerfully compelling of course, so much easier to go with something you've actually experienced than with revelation you get from a book. You've got spirit beings talking to you, telling you what seem to be profound truths or at least that's how they want you to take them, and the Bible jsn't as nice to you as they are either.
Jesus says, according to the Bible, "I am the way , the truth and the life, NOBODY COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME. At least some of these people have heard this, what do they do with it? Some aren't looking for God anyway, or they assume God is there somewhere but he isn't the focus of their experience. But others do have God in mind and think he is the object of their search or their experience but they think they've already found him through the experience itself. Some think they've heard his voice, even telling them what to do with their livews, and they want to obey that foice. Sad it is to realize that voice is really a demonic spirit impersonating God and that pleasing that spirit thinking you are pleasing God is going to have a terrifying outcome. Cringe and shudder.
How do they dismiss what jesus said? He didn't really say it? The Bible lied about it?
And Alex among others has this idea that Jesus went to India where he learned all the miracle stuff and I guess some of his teachings? Have they ever read the Bible? Really read it? Jesus is so perfectly the fulfillment of the Old Testament, so completely the Messianic goal of all of it, so Jewish, so Old gtestament, so NOT Hindu in any conceivable sense. What ARE they thinking?
Mediums, channelers who are just mediums. These are condemned in the Bible because they are demonic and lead people away from the Creator God and ultimately to Hell. How did so many get themselves decieved into this in our day?
This is all suposed to be so "advanced," so enlightened, so superior to mere religion and certainlyh to the Bible. Which is of course the idea the demons temselvselves want to convey. Doctrines of demons. Multiplicitous versions of doctrines of demons in these fake spiritualities. The fake spiritualitiy of the fallen human nature, the fallen nature in which the spirit that originally communicated with God is dead because of the original sin of Adam and Eve. As Watchman Nee wrote, the whole point of releasing the soul power that m,masquerades as spirituality is to counterfiet that spirituality and deceive people into thinking they are in touch with the highest power in the universe, when in reality they are blind to that power who is God because they don't have the spiritual faculty to apprehend Him. They are accepting the masquerades and impersonations and posturings of fallen spirits. Cringe and shudder.
Jesus Christ has all power over these demonic spirits, howeer, so if anybody does get an inkling that perhaps they are being misled, they can turn to Jesus and be saved from all of it. Call on His Name, that Name is powerful and demons have o obey commands from Him and made rightly in His Name.
First get saved, that is what mades it right to call on His Name although perhaps there are exceptions He might make. Getting saved howeverf means believing that He died on the cross to pay for your sins and to believe tghat would mean learning something about the gospel that identifies Him as the Messiah promised throughtout the Old TGestmanet. He is God incarnate, God the Son. Read one of the gospel accounts at least, or all four of them. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. God so loved the world that He gave His only egotten son that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Believe it and be saved and be rescued from this demonic bondage.
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Oh people people people. I just heard part of another Next Le el podcast. A medium who strongly believes that the people she wants to contact on the other side are really those actual people bewcause they have knowledge that only those people could have about their lives and their families and so on. Oh don't they know that demons can have such knowledge about the people they are impersonating? Just a huge deception and it's so sad to see human9ity bamboozled by demons, even fallen humanity who are still in their sins. Oh Lord save save save many of these poor deceived people. Please please please.
The Bible says there is only one life and then the judgment. People do not make contact with anyone in this life, they are held until the day of judgment, all a medium can ever contactg is a demonic impersonalition. The only exception I've ever heard of was the appearance of the actual porphet samuel up from the dead when King Saul asked the medium or witch of Endor to contact him. She was surprisedthat the real Samuel appeared, she knew she was a medium for demonic spirits. But today's mediums or some of them anyway are deceived too and think they are contacting the real people. Poh poor fallen humanity, what a bunch of sad dupes we are until Christ rescues us
The emphsis is on proving that this life isn't the end and that may partly explain the gullibility about the identity of the people on the other side. Clearly, ndes and all this other soul power stuff demonstrate that there's a lot more going on than the physicalist materialist mindset assumes, but the fact that the spiritual world is full of evil deceitful beings just never crosses anybody's mind. You have to be a Christ9ian to believe that perhaps. Or maybe some other religions have an inkling of it, I don't know, even though they have no ability to apprehend God as we do. Perhaps at least they spend enough time amont the demons to know that there is a lot of malevolence and deceit. But in the West, no, we're a bunch of gullible babies until Christ enlightens us.
Surely it is all so clearly incrfeasing in our time we can take it as a sign of Jesus' soon return, preceded by the rapture of the Church if the pre tr9ib s cenario is right, follo9wed by the seven year tribulation period. It's close, very close.
The enormous incrase in fake spirituality is certainly preparation for the end times global religion of the Antichrist. I ache for my beloved human race.
