Out-of-Body Experience

How much compromise will God tolerate? How much unrepented-of and unforsaken sin will He accept? Imagine for a moment that Sam dies and stands before God in judgment with just one unforsaken sin. Sam says to God, "I believed in Jesus. I went to church. I have just one unrepented-of sin. You wouldn’t send me to an eternal doom in the lake of fire for just one sin, would you?" Of course, today’s god of unconditional love would say, "I’m a loving God. How could I send you to your doom for just one unforsaken sin? Come on in!" Sally is next in line and she says to God, "I just have one more unforsaken sin than Sam. You couldn’t send me into eternal punishment for just one more sin than Sam, could you?" Of course, today’s god of unconditional love would say, "I’m a loving God. How could I send you to your doom for just one more sin than Sam? Come on in!" Derrick is next in the judgment line and he says to God, "I just have one more sin than Sally. You couldn’t send me into eternal punishment for just one more sin than Sally, could you?" Of course, today’s god of unconditional love would say, "I’m a loving God. How could I send you to your doom for just one more sin than Sally? Come on in!" If you follow this progression, the last personages to be reinstated would be Satan and the rest of the fallen angels, and there are groups of people who endorse such foolishness.

Man must know that God has zero tolerance for unforsaken sin. Consider the following passages. Ezekiel 18:20-32:

20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.

23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?

24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

25 Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

26 When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.

27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

28 Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

29 Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

II Timothy 2:19:

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Jesus speaks of leaven that causes the dough to rise in reference to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The Word of God in I Corinthians 5:6, speaking of allowing sin to dwell in the midst of the congregation reads, "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" In regard to mixing sin with righteousness, Revelation 3:15-16 reads:

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Finally, I John 3:7-8:

7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

God has zero tolerance for unrepented-of and unforsaken sin. There are no Christian halfway houses. The lukewarm, God spews out of His mouth. Surrender to Christ with your might. No other offering will do. If you haven’t been born-again, or if you once were and have fallen away, click on to "Further With Jesus" on this website to make things right today. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, II Corinthians 12:1-5:

1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.

GOD SAID, Acts 10:9-12:

9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:

10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,

11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:

12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

GOD SAID, Acts 22:17-18:

17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;

18 And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

MAN SAID: There is no soul or spirit. When you are dead, it’s over. There is no God. There is no judgment. There is no afterlife.

Now THE RECORD. In the past 50 years, mountains of anecdotal evidence and very well organized research concerning out-of-body experiences (OBE), or near-death experiences, have materialized. It is the position of much of academia that there is no soul or afterlife. Therefore, these back-from-the-dead testimonies and near-death experiences must be fabrications, wishful concoctions, or chemical imbalances causing hallucinations, or the like.

Out-of-body experiences are known in some circles as astral projection with astral meaning; belonging to the stars; starry. These definitions place those who have had such experiences somewhere in zoom- zoom land, but that perception is quietly dying. Modern science is beginning to understand that the Words of God concerning this issue are accurate. Those clamoring for proof should consider the fact that thousands of years before modern science begins to understand an issue, God declares it in His Word. This subject is just another proof that God is, that he authored the scriptures, and will hold all men accountable to them at a soon-coming judgment day.

Literally millions of people have experienced an OBE. According to a 1990 Gallup poll, 12% or approximately 30 million have reported some form of out-of-body experience, and that’s just in the United States. The ungodly prefer to relegate these phenomena to some natural chemical or electrical imbalance because otherwise, they’re much too uncomfortably close to God. Then, out goes their atheism, their evolution, their laissez-faire morality, and in comes God, accountability, and judgment day.

Out-of-body experiences are real and certainly described in the Word of God. Accounts of the spirits of those who were clinically dead hovering near the ceiling over their bodies and witnessing what was transpiring in the room abound. One particular account that comes to mind happened to a world famous minister, the late Kenneth Haigen, whose ministry continues to flourish. According to his account, as a teenager he had died in his grandmother’s lap. His spirit left his body and hovered near the ceiling. He witnessed what was transpiring in the room including his grandmother’s grief. At the time of this OBE, he perceived himself descending into hell. During this traumatic ordeal, brother Haigen repented of his sins, became a follower of Christ, and God raised him up. These types of accounts are much more common than one would expect.

The OBE phenomenon was covered in some detail in the July 2005 issue of Discover magazine under the title, "Extreme States." The following excerpts are from that article:

Morse’s 1994 report, commonly referred to as the Seattle study and published in Current Problems in Pediatrics, spanned a decade. During that period, he interviewed 160 children in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital in Seattle who had been revived from apparent death. Every one of these children had been without a pulse or sign of breathing longer than 30 seconds. Some had been in that state for as long as 45 minutes; the average apparent death lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. For a control group, he used hundreds of other children also in intensive care, also on the brink of death, but whose pulse and breathing hadn’t been interrupted for more than 30 seconds. That was the only difference. In other dimensions—age, sex, drugs administered, diseases suffered, and setting—the groups were the same. In setting, Morse not only included the intensive care unit itself but also scary procedures such as insertion of a breathing tube and mechanical ventilation. These are important additions because fear has long been considered a trigger for a near- death experience.

Morse graded his subjects’ experiences according to the Greyson scale, a 16-point questionnaire designed by University of Virginia psychiatrist Bruce Greyson that remains the benchmark for determining whether or not an anomalous experience should be considered a near-death experience. Using this test, Morse found that 23 out of 26 children who experienced apparent death—the cessation of heartbeat and breathing—reported a classic near-death experience, while none of the other 131 children in his control group reported anything of the kind.

Morse later videotaped the children recalling their experiences, which included such standard fare as long tunnels, giant rainbows, dead relatives, and deities of all sorts. But many descriptions—augmented by crayon drawings—included memories of the medical procedures performed and details about doctors and nurses whose only contact with the child occurred while the child was apparently dead.

Other scientists have duplicated Morse’s findings. Most recently, cardiologist Pim van Lommel, a researcher at Rijnstate Hospital in Arnhem, the Netherlands, conducted an eight-year study involving 344 cardiac-arrest patients who seemed to have died and were later revived. Out of that total, 282 had no memories, while 62 reported a classic near-death experience. Just as in Morse’s study, van Lommel examined the patients’ records for any factors traditionally used to explain near-death experiences—such as setting, drugs, or illness—and found no evidence of their influence. Apparent death was the only factor linked to near-death experiences. He also found that one person in his study had difficult-to-explain memories of events that happened in the hospital while he was presumed dead.

The article continues:

What researchers have studied is the effect of a near-death experience. Van Lommel conducted lengthy interviews and administered a battery of standard psychological tests to his study group of cardiac-arrest patients. The subset that had had a near-death experience reported more self- awareness, more social awareness, and more religious feelings than the others.

Van Lommel then repeated this process after a two-year interval and found the group with near-death experience still had complete memories of the event, while others’ recollections were strikingly less vivid. He found that the near-death experience group also had an increased belief in an afterlife and a decreased fear of death compared with the others. After eight years he again repeated the whole process and found those two-year effects significantly more pronounced. The near-death experience group was much more empathetic, emotionally vulnerable, and often showed evidence of increased intuitive awareness. They still showed no fear of death and held a strong belief in an afterlife.

Morse, too, did follow-up studies long after his original research. He also did a separate study involving elderly people who had a near-death experience in early childhood. "The results were the same for both groups," says Morse. "Nearly all of the people who had had a near- death experience—no matter if it was 10 years ago or 50—were still absolutely convinced their lives had meaning and that there was a universal, unifying thread of love which provided that meaning. Matched against a control group, they scored much higher on life-attitude tests, significantly lower on fear-of-death tests, gave more money to charity, and took fewer medications. There’s no other way to look at the data. These people were just transformed by the experience."

Morse has gone on to write three popular books about near-death experiences and the questions they raise about the nature of consciousness. His research caught the attention of Willoughby Britton, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Arizona who was interested in post-traumatic stress disorder. Britton knew that most people who have a close brush with death tend to have some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, while people who get that close and have a near- death experience have none. In other words, people who have a near-death experience have an atypical response to life-threatening trauma. No one knows why. [End of quote]

I should note that I am not suggesting that there is no connection between unenhanced out-of-body experiences and the body’s chemical makeup, but the results are spiritually spawned and not the other way around.

The article concludes, "None of this work is without controversy, but an increasing number of scientists now think that our brains are wired for mystical experiences." [End of quote]

God is a spirit. He created us by Christ Jesus to interface with Him in spiritual oneness. Eve and Adam embraced the second voice—Satan’s voice of unbelief and rebellion—and since then, all of creation groaneth and travaileth under the curse of sin and death. It should be no surprise that our beings have been wired to interface in the spirit realm. A wise man will interface with the spirit of God.

GOD SAID, II Corinthians 12:1-5:

1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.

GOD SAID, Acts 10:9-12:

9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:

10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,

11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:

12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

GOD SAID, Acts 22:17-18:

17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;

18 And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

MAN SAID:  There is no soul or spirit. When you are dead, it’s over. There is no God. There is no judgment. There is no afterlife.

Now you have THE RECORD.




References:

King James Bible

Kotler, S., "Extreme States," Discover, July 2005, pp60-67

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