Science and Life After Death

The temporalness of this life is a daunting reality when contemplated.  Psalm 90:12:

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Consider some of these sobering thoughts:

• God spoke all that you see into existence out of that which is invisible with His words and He literally formed us from dirt.  Adam’s name means “Red Dirt.” 
• When a mother conceives, a life begins to form and the food that she eats—which is made out of dirt—as well as the liquids she consumes, etc. is the physical substance of the life forming within. 
• When a man dies, he fills up the hole he ate in the earth. 
• When one dies, nothing of this physical realm belongs to that one anymore.  His spouse is no longer his—his car, house, retirement fund, favorite chair; even his shoes are not his anymore. 
• James 4:14: “…For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”  Life is very short, like a vapor arising from boiling water.  Psalm 90:9: “…We spend our years as a tale that is told.”  Once upon a time lived you. 

If it were not for Jesus Christ, we are not looking at a very promising picture.  But, thanks be to God, for John 3:16 reads:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The born-again are promised everlasting life.  Consider Revelation 21:1-5:

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

Are you born again?  Would you like to trade in your boiling vapor for a glorious everlasting life?  Are you ready to be free of all your sin and shame?  Today can be the beginning of your forever.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Matthew 22:36-38:

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

GOD SAID, Luke 16:19-28:

19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man''s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham''s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father''s house:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

MAN SAID: When one is brain-dead, all thoughts, all knowing ends.  The thousands of out-of-body, post-death, or near-death experiences are simply hallucinations.  There is no afterlife. 

Now THE RECORD.  Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature article 716 that will once again prove the full inerrancy of God’s Holy Word found in the majority-text.  All of these beautiful features are archived here in text and streaming audio to edify the blood-bought and to convince the gainsayer.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.  Thank you for visiting today.  We rejoice in your presence.  May our God’s face shine upon you with Light and Truth. 

They always end up here: knock, knock, knocking at heaven’s door.  The marginalized and maligned Holy Bible stands secure as the world’s only bastion of truth, regardless of how hard the wrangling to escape the unescapable.  Consider a handful of examples:

• There was a beginning and all things are made out of words.
• There was light before the sun.
• There was water before the sun.   
• There was a place called Paradise. 
• There was one common mother, called mtDNA Eve.
• There was one common father, Y-chromosome Adam.     
• Adam’s rib was used in the creation of Eve. 
• The world was once vegetarian.
• Man was made out of dirt. 
• Noah and the flood—fish fossils are found on every mountain peak. 

And that’s just the first six chapters of the Bible. 

Today’s science comes knocking again.  The Word of God clearly teaches life after death and full cognizance after the brain is dead—and even after the brain has returned to the dust from which it was formed.  In Matthew 22:37, Jesus states:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Jesus speaks of the heart, the soul, and the mind, and the Scriptures declare that all three have cognitive abilities—and of course, saving the soul is the central purpose of God’s salvation. 

Genesis 6:5:

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Psalm 139:14:

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

Daniel 2:29:

As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.

Science now acknowledges the cognitive ability of the mind and heart and is just beginning to recognize the idea of the cognitive soul.  Before addressing recent information emerging about the cognitive soul, a few foundational paragraphs from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences and the Skeptics” follows:

They are called out-of-body or near-death experiences (NDE).  These events are often described as a person’s soul leaving his or her body on a death-bed, for instance, and the departing soul being able to view people and events in the room where the body remains.  After being resuscitated, the person recalls events they should not know.  These experiences often come with descriptions of the proverbial tunnel with a light at its end, or a feeling of peace and love, or an actual, visual heavenly experience.  Many individuals who have been pronounced dead and have come back to life recount events, images, and conversations they could not have known—even ones apart from the hospital environment itself. 

One particular out-of-body or NDE that has God’s critics concerned is that of Dr. Eben Alexander.  One of their own, one with extensive medical credentials, is off the reservation and is very vocal about it.  Dr. Alexander, in 2012, published a book that became a number one New York Times bestseller, titled Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.  When you review the doctor’s credentials, you can understand the concern of God’s detractors.  Dr. Alexander writes:

I’m a neurosurgeon. 

I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976 with a major in chemistry and earned my M.D. at Duke University Medical School in 1980.  During my eleven years of medical school and residency training at Duke as well as Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard, I focused on neuroendocrinology, the study of the interactions between the nervous system and the endocrine system—the series of glands that release the hormones that direct most of your body’s activities.  I also spent two of those eleven years investigating how blood vessels in one area of the brain react pathologically when there is bleeding into it from an aneurysm—a syndrome known as cerebral vasospasm. 

After completing a fellowship in cerebrovascular neurosurgery in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom, I spent fifteen years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School as an associate professor of surgery, with a specialization in neurosurgery.  During those years, I operated on countless patients, many of them with severe, life-threatening brain conditions. 

Most of my research work involved the development of advanced technical procedures like stereotactic radiosurgery, a technique that allows surgeons to precisely guide beams of radiation to specific targets deep in the brain without affecting adjacent areas.  I also helped develop magnetic resonance image-guided neurosurgical procedures instrumental in repairing hard-to-treat brain conditions like tumors and vascular disorders.  During those years, I also authored or coauthored more than 150 chapters and papers for peer-reviewed medical journals and presented my findings at more than two hundred medical conferences around the world. [End of quote]

“Life after death?  The God of the Bible?  Judgment Day?  If there is, we’ve got Hell to pay,” cried the skeptics!  The Darwinians needed a naturalistic explanation to dispatch these ideas. 

As with many, if not all, Dr. Alexander’s near-death experience changed his life entirely—from a skeptic to a very vocal believer—but it didn’t start that way.  Of himself, the doctor writes:

Quite simply, I’d never held myself open to the idea that there might be anything genuine to the idea that something of us survives the death of the body.  I was the quintessential good-natured, albeit skeptical, doctor.  And as such, I can tell you that most skeptics aren’t really skeptics at all.  To be truly skeptical, one must actually examine something and take it seriously.  And I, like many doctors, had never taken the time to explore NDEs.  I had simply “known” they were impossible. [End of quote]

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and feature writer for Scientific American, comments on Dr. Alexander’s experience in the April 2013 issue under the title, “Proof of Hallucination,” with the subhead, “Did a neurosurgeon go to heaven?”  According to Shermer, the following was posed to Dr. Alexander:

I asked him how, if his brain was really nonfunctional, he could have any memory of these experiences, given that memories are a product of neural activity?  He responded that he believes the mind can exist separately from the brain.  How, where, I inquired? [End of quote]

Why do they always end up here?  Why such mental gymnastics to discredit the obvious?

They always end up here, knocking on Heaven’s door—God’s Holy Word.  The world’s science, the world’s historians, archaeologists, psychologists, and philosophers finally end up here, but rarely is one admitted—because only those who humble their ears and approach in childlike faith can enter.  I Corinthians 1:18:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.

The tens of thousands of NDEs the world over testify of the other side that awaits all of us.  The Word of God clearly teaches a knowledge that transcends and operates outside the neurological network of the body, and that knowledge that transcends, we know as the soul.  It is man’s soul that Christ came to save (I Peter 1:9).

Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

A soul can bless, a soul can experience desire, love, bitterness, hatred, vexation, and more, and when one dies, the soul leaves the body.  Genesis 35:18, referring to death, says, “…and it came to pass, as her soul was in departing…”

The soul has knowledge that functions outside the body’s brain.  Many examples of this reality have been published in the Bible.  The example noted in the GodSaid section above, in Luke, chapter 16, defines this well.  In this chapter, the rich man dies and his body and his brain are buried in the grave, yet in Hell, he has eyes to see and the knowledge to translate what his eyes see.  The rich man has a tongue and experiences thirst, and complains of being in torment in the flames of Hell.  He knows Abraham and addresses him by name.  Abraham was dead to this world for approximately 2,000 years when Jesus Christ gives this account.  Abraham’s body and brain were buried in the cave of Machpelah and had returned to dust, yet he knows of the rich man’s situation and has a conversation with him. 

Again, Mr. Shermer writes:

I asked him how, if his brain was really nonfunctional, he could have any memory of these experiences, given that memories are a product of neural activity?  He responded that he believes the mind can exist separately from the brain.  How, where, I inquired? [End of quote]

The answer to Mr. Shermer’s question is that the soul has full knowledge outside the neurological network of the body and when the body dies, the soul goes on to its eternal destiny.  You and I choose whether that destiny is heaven or hell. 

They always end up here. [End of quotes]

The October 7, 2014 headline from the U.K. feature written by Adam Withnall reads, “Life after death?  Largest-ever study provides evidence that ‘out-of-body’ and ‘near-death’ experiences may be real.”   The subhead reads, “One man who was clinically dead—then brought back to life—accurately described what had been happening in the room.”  The feature, in its entirety, follows:

There is scientific evidence to suggest that life can continue after death, according to the largest-ever medical study carried out on the subject. 

A team based in the UK has spent the last four years seeking out cardiac arrest patients to analyse their experiences, and found that almost 40 percent of the survivors described having some form of “awareness” at a time when they were declared clinically dead.

Experts currently believe that the brain shuts down within 20 to 30 seconds of the heart stopping beating—and that it is not possible to be aware of anything at all once that has happened. 

But scientists in the new study said they heard compelling evidence that patients experienced real events for up to three minutes after this had happened—and could recall them accurately once they had been resuscitated. 

Dr. Sam Parnia, an assistant professor at the State University of New York and a former research fellow at the University of Southampton who led the research, said that he previously believed that patients who described near-death experiences were only relating hallucinatory events. 

One man, however, gave a “very credible” account of what was going on while doctors and nurses tried to bring him back to life—and says that he felt he was observing his resuscitation from the corner of the room. 

Speaking to The Telegraph about the evidence provided by a 57-year-old social worker in Southampton, Dr. Parnia said: “We know the brain can’t function when the heart has stopped beating.  But in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes.” 

“The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals.  So we could time how long the experience lasted for.” 

“He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened.” 

Dr. Parnia’s study involved 2,060 patients from 15 hospitals in the UK, US, and Austria, and has been published in the journal Resuscitation.

Of those who survived, 46 per cent experienced a broad range of mental recollections, nine per cent had experiences compatible with traditional definitions of a near-death experience, and two per cent exhibited full awareness with explicit recall of “seeing” and “hearing” events—or out-of-body experiences.  Dr. Parnia said that the findings of the study as a whole suggested that “the recalled experience surrounding death now merits further genuine investigation without prejudice.” 

Dr. Jerry Nolan, editor-in-chief of the journal which published the research, said: “The researchers are to be congratulated on the completion of a fascinating study that will open the door to more extensive research into what happens when we die.” [End of quote]

Dr. Nolan speaks of opening the door for more research concerning “what happens when we die.”  The answer to this quest is already recorded in the Word of God and the children of faith are already there—and have even entered through that door.  John 10:7-10:

7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

GOD SAID, Matthew 22:36-38:

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

GOD SAID, Luke 16:19-28:

19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man''s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham''s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father''s house:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

MAN SAID: When one is brain-dead, all thoughts, all knowing ends.  The thousands of out-of-body, post-death, or near-death experiences are simply hallucinations.  There is no afterlife. 

Now you have THE RECORD. 

 

 

 

References

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences and the Skeptics”

Withnall, A., “Life after death? Largest-ever study provides evidence that ''out of body'' and ''near-death'' experiences may be real”

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