Are Near-Death Experiences Real?

 

Near-Death Experiences

In previous lessons, we have cited the people who were raised from the dead in The Bible. Nowhere in The Bible is there any account of anyone coming back and telling people what the afterlife was like.

Lazarus would be a prime example. He was dead, buried, and began the early stages of decaying. If anyone would have a story to tell, it would be him! Not a single word is written of what he saw while being dead.

It is popular today to hear many near-death experiences. And not just near-death, but those who claimed to have died. Books and movies have popularized the topic, and many believe that this shows there is an afterlife.

There are many possibilities for these stories. Since many people tell them, we can't just ignore them. There is speculation that they are caused by many things, including drugs that were given, brain reactions from trauma, lack of oxygen, or hallucinations. Some could be even be lying or encouraged to embellish a story.

For this discussion, we will not say that everyone is lying. Satan is able to bring deceptions on many levels, and an unconscious state can be very vulnerable. Even scientific and psychological experts do not agree on what is the cause of near-death experiences.

These experiences do not tell us anything about the afterlife. Let's be clear on that. Not a single word in The Bible mentions anything like these people claim to have experienced.

These experiences are also both good and bad. Many claim to have felt the fires of hell and have been afraid. Some say they saw Jesus, or a Jesus-like figure.

As Christians, we might be tempted to use these stories to give false hope. That somehow this proves there is life after death. Getting people to be saved through these near-death experiences is using false doctrine. So, how do we talk to people who think these visions of the afterlife are real?

First of all, the most telling aspect is that all of them do not agree on what they see. They even contradict each other. If these were true stories of saved and unsaved going through death and coming back, they would all need to agree on what it was like.

The Bible promises one New Earth and one New Jerusalem. There is only one way there, and that is through Jesus Christ. There are not multiple accounts in The Bible on how we get there. The saved are taken to heaven with Jesus when He returns.

A near-death experience is even mislabeled. There are those who want us to believe that they are actual death experiences. The Bible makes it clear that people are not aware of anything after death.

God does work through dreams and visions. Only messages that are consistent with The Bible and the teachings of Jesus are to be believed. The Bible is devoid of anyone dead seeing a dream or a vision.

Galatians 1:8 (NIV): "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!"

Matthew 10:16 (NIV): “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

John 3:13 (NIV): "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man"

Matthew 24:26-28 (NIV): “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man..."

Sabbath School Lesson 11: End-Time Deceptions

 On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope

Sabbath School Lesson 11

End-Time Deceptions

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Is Purgatory Real?

 The Saints in Purgatory

Are there really people who are not good enough, nor wicked enough, but are in some sort of limbo as to their final reward from Jesus?

We would then have to believe that there is some world or place where these people are being held. To what end? So they can make up their minds sitting around for hundreds of years? Can the living pray them into heaven?

Those last two questions should be quickl
y answered by Christians. We are given one life, then the judgement.

Hebrews 9:27–28 (NKJV): "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

There is absolutely not a single verse in The Bible that says anyone has a second chance after death. There is not a single verse in The Bible that says the living can pray a dead person into heaven. There is not one verse anywhere in The Bible that says we can suffer for our dead loved ones to get them saved.

It would take a very long time to list and quote every verse, however, that says the dead know nothing and the wicked are destroyed at the Second Coming.

The wicked, those who have rejected the salvation of Jesus, have only one reward waiting: Eternal death.

Unfortunately, there are those in high religious places that deceive many with these false teaching. Even asking for money to help the process along.

Every Christian who reads The Bible should be able to discern the truth on these matters.

You cannot buy your way into heaven.

You cannot buy a loved one into heaven.

You cannot pray a dead person into heaven.

You cannot do any deed to make a dead person worthy of heaven.

Once a person dies, there is nothing left for any human, dead or alive, to do for that dead person. Their fate rests with Jesus.

If we look back on the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus, even if you try and use that to come up with some type of pergatory, remember what Abraham said in that story: The fate of a person that dies is sealed. There is no second chance.