Greetings, Mary:
Thank you for
responding. I agree with some of what you say but I
see twists that you haven't considered in certain
instances. For instance, the atheist who feared death
until after his NDE. He may not have related the whole
story because he may have met Jesus on the other side but
was still timid about revealing it and afraid to talk about
it publicly for fear of what his agnostic, atheist friends
might think, so he just told what he knew others could
accept without argument. On the positive side, his
experience may make him more open to learning about God and
may lead to his eventually becoming born-again.
I take all
these things into consideration because I know how people
are: They want to be accepted by their friends and not
lose them; they want to be believed, so they only tell what
they think people want to hear; etc. With time and
being around people they trust they may open up and tell
more.
I don't
dismiss all NDEs as some are prone to do. I have
learned so much just reading NDE experiences over the years
that has helped to broaden my understanding of why not
everyone comes back from the other side
saved/born-again. It's because God does not pre-empt
our learning experiences for this life. He doesn't
come out and tell people everything the first time they meet
Him. People who die without knowing about God may not
even see Him, or if they do, they see Him as a bright light,
but never see His face. He shows some people Hell, but
not everyone. He doesn't make everyone who crosses
over to the other side an immediate saint with perfect
knowledge about everything. He usually returns them
back to this life to learn more about Him and to learn how
to trust Him to grow their faith. This life is like a
school where we can learn about God, so why should He tell
NDErs everything? He doesn't have to. He just
returns them back to life to learn more. ;0
Remember, at
first God didn't show His face to Moses at Mt. Sinai, only
His back side. Why? Moses was a murderer whom
God, through trials and experiences was going to use to lead
His people to their promised land. He knew beforehand
who was up to the job and chose Moses, because of being a
Hebrew raised in Pharoah's courts, in spite of his having
murdered someone. However, because of God's
righteousness, He shielded His face so as not to have to
look at the sin in Moses's life. That's why we can now
approach God boldly through Jesus because Jesus took our
sins from us (and the punishment we deserved) so God doesn't
see them.
As they say,
it is not easy for two people to agree on everything.
I asked God in my teens for the answer to the issue of life
on other worlds and His Holy Spirit directed me to Psalm
33:6 and other verses that corroborate it. He opened
my eyes to read between the lines, so to speak an broadened
my understanding.
So what you
and I have are different tendencies and views based on our
backgrounds. My dad had his Doctor of Divinity degree
in theology, majoring in Eschatology (study of the end
times). My mother went to Bible college and joined my
dad as a missionary to the Philippine Islands for 12 years
where I was born. She was also the radio voice of the
Philippines to the nation of Indonesia. I married a
man whose parents were missionaries to China, Taiwan and the
Philippines where we met. I am heavily influenced in
theology and have attended church all my life. I even
played the organ and electronic keyboards for two churches
for 20 years so I have heard a lifetime of sermons since I
was born.
As I see it,
doubting most everything is too easy and something anyone
can do. Our God is infinite and is the very definition
of infinity. We could never learn everything there is
about Him and His creation in one lifetime. He is
incredibly diverse in His creativity. It is evident
everywhere on this planet. Why tie His hands with our
shallow thinking and lack of comprehension of His immensity
by believing He could only do that here and nowhere else in
His Creation? How big is our God? How does a
cosmos full of rocky, barren planets give God glory?
It doesn't. Yet I've met people who claim that's all
that's out there. Now our government is finally
admitting there is life 'out there' and some are still
having trouble believing it.
You say "no,
there does not have to be people dwelling in the heavens,"
but you aren't God and neither am I. God's word says
there is life elsewhere in His heavens so who are we to deny
His truth? That reminds me of what God told Job, "Why are you using your
ignorance to deny My providence? Now get ready to
fight. I am going to demand some answers from you
and you must reply!" Later He says to
Job, "Do you still
want to argue with the Almighty? Or will you
yield? Do you -- God's critic -- have the answer?"
Why give Satan
all the credit for God's creation by believing everything we
see that's ugly or scary is demonic? Yes, some aliens
are under Satan's influence, but not all. On our
planet whales, sharks, stingray, porcupine, snakes,
dinosaurs, spiders, etc., are ugly, harmful and scary but we
don't say they are demonic. They are just evidence of
God's diversity in His creation. Their seeming lack of
moral behavior was built into them for survival in a world
under a curse by God. All that and more could be true
of aliens - not all - but who knows how many?
What's hard is
to search between the lines for more meanings we could be
missing and to believe more easily instead of being so
negative all the time. When I have difficulty with
understanding, I ask God to help me find the truth in His
word and His Holy Spirit helps with that. Sometimes it
takes a while and much searching, but He rewards that.
Believing more easily has enabled me to be taken to Heaven
to meet Jesus face-to-face. So it has its rewards.
For instance,
I was told by a well known prophet online in 2006 that 2007
would be a year of an Open Heaven where God would take some
to visit with Him in Heaven. The only requirement was
that we raise our hands to God when we worship. "Lift up your hands in
the sanctuary and bless the Lord." Psalm
134:2 Instead of
being skeptical I thought, "Wow! A visit to
Heaven? All I have to do is lift my hands while
worshiping? I can do that." So I did.
I set aside 1/2 an hour to an hour each day for
worship. I turned on Christian worship music and
raised my hands while singing along. I did this
from about July of 2006 until early January 2007 when
all of a sudden, while I was lying on my bed looking up
at the ceiling fan, I could no longer see the ceiling
fan. Instead, I saw a King sitting on a simple,
wooden throne (like a wooden bench with a back to lean
on in one area of the bench) off in the distance,
wearing a super tall gold crown. I stared at Him
and He stared at me. I was fascinated by His super
tall crown and wondered how He could keep it on without
it falling off.
Apparently, the King could read my thoughts. He
stood up, took off the crown, placed it down, turned to
His left and started heading down some stairs. His
first words to me as He headed down the stairs were
"When I created the Earth." The next thing I knew
I was up there with Him in a room where He was showing
me things about creation. I remember standing in a
room holding a globe in my hands as I viewed it with
interest.
Through such experiences with Him and others, I received
a hug; He asked me to dance (slow dance without music)
with Him and so I did; when He hugged me He superimposed
the Bride of Christ over me as His way of showing me how
He can relate to each of us as His Bride - both
individually and corporately; He's taken me for a whirl
in a whirlwind; and for smooth rides where it felt like
I was soaring through the heavens with Him; He pursued
me as His bride by coming to my room with a heavenly
perfume and let it swirl around my nose while I was half
asleep; He came with the fragrance of fresh-baked oven
warm bread and as robust red wine. He's been so
sweet and wonderful. I didn't deserve any of it
but He honored my willingness to believe the prophet and
I am soooooo glad I did!
"There
is none like unto the God of Jeshurun
(Jerusalem), who rides upon the heaven, and in
His excellency [rides] on the
sky. The eternal God is your refuge and
underneath are His everlasting arms." - Deut. 33:26-28 -
I've written an autobiography of my life in which I tell
briefly about that and other experiences. It's
called "Clues From Heaven." I tell how as humans
we tend to be very skeptical and doubtful. God, no
doubt, gave us that capability to keep us from harm,
etc. However, there are times when Jesus would
rather we "be
not faithless but believing," especially
about things from His word.
So, I've learned not to be so skeptical about everything
and that to enter God's Kingdom we have to be like
little children who believe more easily about
things. This can be hard to do, like it was for
the disciple who had to touch Christ's wounds before he
would believe Jesus was really resurrected, even though
Jesus was standing there right smack in front of
him. That kind of doubting was just shameful and
pitiful!
I learned that if we look back at the things some,
because of their doubtful tendencies, called
"circumstances or coincidences" in our life, we can see
how God was actually moving in our life to bring us to a
better future than we would have had otherwise. "For I know my plans
for you, plans for good and not evil, to give you a
future and hope and bring you to an expected end."
So
yes, I've learned to try to be more open-minded and see
the issues of life from many different angles while
checking God's word for answers. Remember God took
a younger generation of Israelites to the Promised Land
because the older generation didn't believe Him
as they should and sinned against Him as a result.
He let them die in the wilderness. There is so
much more for us in this life if we would just draw
closer to God like little children and trust Him in all
things.
Here's a link to my webpage about my book:
If you view the 2 min. cinematic movie trailer, be sure
to enlarge your screen's viewing capability for more
realism. You'll be glad you did. :)