Dead Men Talking About Life After Death

It’s a beautiful thing for the BORN-AGAIN  to lay on their beds at night and consider the marvelous goodness of God in their lives.  I often think back to the day God delivered my soul from Satan’s bondages.  Truly, I sat in darkness and saw a great Light.  Since then, the Holy Ghost journey has been absolutely magnificent.  The journey has not been without its perils, hard trials, and deep, deep sorrows, but Jesus Christ was true to His promise.  Hebrews 13:5:

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

The child of God has been instructed in I Thessalonians 5:18:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Give thanks in everything, especially the hard spots that drop you to your knees, for in the midst of that place is found the glorious handiwork of the God of our salvation.  He is an ever-present help in the times of trouble.  The hard spots are where the beauty of our salvation shine the brightest. 

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN-AGAIN—born a very literal second time, this time of the Spirit of God?  Don’t stand on the outside looking in any longer.  Today, everything will change for you in a most marvelous way.  Follow me in a simple prompt and today, in mere moments, all your sin and its shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  Follow me in a simple prompt and today, in mere moments, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken—ALL OF THEM!  Today will be the first day of your eternal life, your birthday.  Here’s the prompt.  Ready? Click onto “Further with Jesus”  for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  Are you still here?  Click now!  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Luke 16:22-25:

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.

GOD SAID, Genesis 35:18:

And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

GOD SAID, I Peter 1:6-9:

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

MAN SAID: When you’re dead, you’re dead and that’s it! There’s no knowledge, no pain, just oblivion.  That’s what my biology teacher said.  That’s true, ain’t it? 

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1049.  These powerful features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to aid in the redemption of the lost.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for visiting today.  May the beauty of salvation well up within you and overflow. 

Why do they always end up here?  To the children of faith, the answer is obvious.  Because God’s Word is the supernatural, inerrant truth, whatever it decides to speak of is always the truth and is regularly certified by credible third parties, or is in the process of certification.  In most cases, academia’s certification of the Word of God is inadvertent, as this feature will make clear.  By necessity, they always end up here.

Is there a life after death and is there some place called heaven? Does something so fantastical really exist?  Of course it does because the Bible tells me so!  That answer might sound infantile, but to be childlike, you know, is a requirement to gain eternal life.  Stay tuned.  Outside certification is on the way. 

Many features on GodSaidManSaid address the issue of life after death and heaven. The unquestionable authority on the afterlife is God, and He records the truths of this matter in His majority-text Holy Bible. 

The Word of God is so marvelous to love and enjoy.  In one single Book—just one Book—every question I’ll ever have concerning living an abundant, bondage-free life has been penned.  This Book even answers the question of how to live forever, and what to do when death comes knocking—and it will come knocking.  What a comfort it is!  HALLELUJAH!  That’s the really BIG stuff! 

I need to know it’s true, every jot and every tittle. Everything depends upon it.  It’s no surprise that when God puts forth on an issue, Satan’s champions challenge and ridicule, for this is the devil’s M.O. established in the Garden of Eden.  God said don’t eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or, “thou will surely die.”  Satan contradicted God and said, “Ye shall not surely die.”  The result is graveyards. 

GodSaidManSaid hosts over 1,000 features that certify the supernatural bonafides of the Bible, which prove beyond any reasonable doubt that God is and that He is its author.   A short list of examples follow:

💣 Until just recently, the Biblical idea of one original man and one original woman who are the parents of all humans on the earth was soundly rejected by the academics who embrace their little-g.o.d., evolution.  Their rejection has been rejected.  Microbiology has established by sound science that the world’s population is a product of one man they call Y-Chromosome Adam and one mother they call mtDNA Eve. The skeptics didn’t march all red-faced before the cameras and genuflect to the Holy Bible.  No, they proceeded on with their foolishness, tweaking their unbelief as they go.  Genesis 1:27:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  

💣 The Biblical idea that God performed the world’s first operation, administering the world’s first anesthetic in the process, to take one of Adam’s ribs to then create the first woman had Satan’s champions bent over with laughter.  The laughter has begun to subside.  The prime candidate for medical bone grafts is the rib, which, if removed properly, will regrow. 

In the last decade or so, neuroscientists were surprised by what they found in the female brain. They found something that shouldn’t be there—male DNA!  Scientists are still scratching their heads.  GodSaidManSaid suggests Adam’s rib and notes Genesis 3:16:

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Genesis 2:21-22:

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

💣 God said that due to the world’s great wickedness, He would destroy it with a global flood.  He instructed Noah to build an ark.  Can you imagine that academics would still debate the veracity of Noah’s flood when there are marine fossils on every mountain peak, over 500 ancient, societal accounts that report an event of similar Biblical description, and the whale and shark fossils that are found all over the earth on dry ground? Genesis 6:13:

And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Genesis 7:19-20:

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

💣 According to God’s Bible, all the people of the earth once spoke the same language.  After the flood, He instructed the people on the ark to spread out and populate the earth. Under Nimrod’s leadership, they decided to stick together and build a tower unto heaven.  The rebellious tower was built in the city of Babel.  God cast down the tower of Babel and confounded the languages of the people, and the work ceased.  As a result, the people separated by language and spread out to populate the earth, forming nations and nationalities according to their common language.  The skeptics howled at such supernatural absurdities, but not anymore.  The world did once speak one common language.  Genesis 11:6-9:

6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another''s speech.

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

💣 God said there were a group of wicked cities that He judged in the days of Abraham; the two most notable were Sodom and Gomorrah.  God rained brimstone and fire down upon them because of their great wickedness. Sodom was full of homosexuality, and its legacy is felt today in the term “sodomite,” referring to homosexuals.  Archaeologists have confirmed that the area where the Scriptures place Sodom and Gomorrah indeed experienced a fiery destruction—a destruction that even ancient historians record.  The Bible said brimstone and fire rained down from heaven, but the carnal academics dismissed the account as a fairy tale, but not anymore.  Genesis 19:24-25:

24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

We could go on to cite Joseph and the coat of many colors; Israel’s bondage in Egypt; Moses and the Red Sea Exodus; Joshua, who fit the Battle of Jericho; David and Goliath; Israel scattered to the four corners of the earth to be restored after thousands of years as a global nation in 1948 (even as God’s Word prophesied); and hundreds of Old Testament prophesies that foretold of the coming of a child born to a virgin, Jesus Christ the Messiah, destined to die upon the Cross for man’s sin and then to be resurrected by His Father on the third day; and so much more.  The Word of God is continually being certified by third-party attestation as Holy, inerrant Writ.  When it decides to address a matter, it is ALWAYS TRUE!

A few examples demonstrating life after death in the Scriptures would include names like Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Samuel, and Lazarus and the rich man.  When Jesus confounded the Sadducees, who claim there is no resurrection, He made this poignant point in Matthew 22:31-33:

31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,

32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

Is there a conscious existence after the grave? 

When Abraham, the father of the Hebrew children, died, he was buried in the cave of Machpelah, which rests today in the Israeli city of Hebron.  Inside that tomb, you’ll find the remains of Abraham and Sarah, along with some of the patriarchs, yet Jesus speaks of Abraham functioning in the service of God and gives this account nearly 2,000 years after Abraham’s death.  Luke 16:20-26:

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.

Note that this is not a parable, as some have suggested, for a parable does not use proper names.  In this account, we find full consciousness after death…after the physical brain is legally dead and decaying in the grave.  We find full self-awareness, sound reasoning abilities, and sensations of pain for the eternally-doomed rich man.

The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Undeniable Proof—Every Jot & Every Tittle (XX):”

Is there life after death? Does the mind function after an individual is declared “brain dead?”  The Bible certainly thinks so.  Luke 16:22-24 speaks of three men who had died.  Their entire bodies—brains, eyes, tongues, and all—were decaying in the grave, yet they fully existed in the spirit realm with bodies, minds and memories, eyes, tongues, and more.  Does neurological science now know that the mind exists outside of the brain? 

Dick Teresi has been the editor of Science Digest, Longevity, VQ, and Omni, and has written for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic as well as other publications.  You’ll find the following excerpts in his book The Undead:

Van Lommel’s study [on near-death experiences] was published in the British medical journal Lancet, a periodical not known for its paranormal bias. But based on his research, Van Lommel has come to the conclusion that the brain neither produces consciousness nor stores memories.  Think of a television set: when it is broken or damaged, programs may no longer come through it, but the source is not inside the set.  In the same way, consciousness may not be a product of the brain.  [End of quote]

Now, some scientists theorize that consciousness can exist outside the physical brain, a concept God’s Word declares from the very beginning—knowledge only the Maker could know.  Several years ago, Michael Shermer challenged neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander on his death and his subsequent return to life, as well as challenging Dr. Alexander’s assertion that he ascended to heaven.  Mr. Shermer now appears to be reconsidering his skepticism.  The following passage is from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Unashamed: The Beautiful Book and 6,000 Years:”   

It was once—and still is, to much extent—asserted in neuroscience that when an individual is braindead, all of that individual’s thoughts, and all of his knowing, ends.  But that dam of unbelief is beginning to crack.  Studies of thousands of near-death experiences, including that of those pronounced clinically dead and then revived, are causing a change of scientific minds.  Michael Shermer, of the camp of the ungodly, had this to say in Scientific American’s July 2017 issue under the title “Who are you?”

This idea [of part of the consciousness leaving the body after death to travel to a new plane] is not too far afield from a real theory called quantum consciousness, proffered by a wide range of people, from physicist Roger Penrose to physician Deepak Chopra.  Some versions hold that our mind is not strictly a product of our brain and that consciousness exists separately from material substance, so the death of your physical body is not the end of your conscious existence.  [End of quote]

Surely there is full consciousness after the grave, even one that can suffer eternal torment.  Today’s decisions dictate the outcome of your life—both in the present and eternally. [End of quotes]

There is consciousness on the other side of the grave and this consciousness has lips, hands, teeth, and feet.  Several more excerpts follow from Teresi’s book The Undead:

Plum [the neuroscientist responsible for the phrase “persistent vegetative state”] claims that “when the cognitive brain has departed, the person has departed.”  This might be a common belief among current MDs, but the location of the seat of “personhood” or “soul,” or “the self,” or whatever, has been debated without closure for thousands of years.  And there is ample evidence that the “person” is not contained wholly in the brain.

“Death is not a specific moment,” says Sam Parnia, a fellow in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center.  “It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, and the lungs stop working, and the brain ceases functioning—a medical condition termed cardiac arrest. During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present. 

“Subsequently,” he adds, “there is a period of time, lasting from a few seconds to an hour or more, when emergency medical efforts may succeed in restarting the heart and reversing the dying process.  The big question is: Can human consciousness continue when we’ve reached the point of death and all studies have shown that the brain stops functioning? We can’t explain how people have consciousness when the brain is flatlined.” [End of quotes]

Psychiatrist Bruce Greyson, whom for nearly half a century has interviewed people who have had conscious experiences after being purportedly “brain dead,” was interviewed by Alex Moshakis in an interview published by TheGuardian.com on March 7, 2021 under the title “What do near-death experiences mean, and why do they fascinate us?” 

Greyson had been hearing of events like these [descriptions of fantastical images running through a dying or dead brain] for years.  A month into his psychiatric training, in the 1960s, he had been “confronted by a patient who claimed to have left her body” while unconscious on a hospital bed, and who later provided an accurate description of events that had taken place “in a different room.”  This made no sense to him. “I was raised in a scientific household,” he says, over Zoom.  “My father was a chemist.  Growing up, the physical world was all there was.”  He felt certain someone had slipped the patient information.  He also thought, “what does that even mean, to leave your body?” 

I found myself in a meadow lit with this glorious, radiant light, like no light we’ve ever seen.

For years, he tried to put the account behind him, but repeatedly he faced heady stories of people experiencing other-worldly events, either when they had been pronounced clinically dead or thought they were close to it, before being wrestled back to life.  In the 1975 best-seller Life After Life, the psychiatrist Raymond Moody, once a colleague of Greyson’s, labelled these episodes “near-death experiences,” or NDEs, a term that stuck.  “It occurred to me for the first time that this wasn’t just one patient,” Greyson says.  “It was a common phenomenon.”  He became fascinated by the qualities of the episodes and the questions they raised, including perhaps the biggest of all: what actually happens when we die? “I plunged in,” he says. “And here I am, 50 years later, trying to understand.”

“To formalize NDE research in the 1980s, he developed a survey, the Greyson Scale, which has been translated into over 20 languages and is still in use.  (Questions include: Did you suddenly seem to understand everything?  Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe?)  And he has been published widely in respected medical journals.  But he can have quirky ideas.  In After, Greyson writes: “I take seriously the possibility that NDEs may be brought on by physical changes in the brain,” though he also accepts that the mind may be able to function “independent” of it.  There have been reports of people experiencing near-death episodes while their brains are inactive, he says, and “yet that’s when they say they have the most vivid experience of their lives.”  This doesn’t make sense to him.  Partway through our conversation, he asks: “Are these the final moments of consciousness?  Or the beginning moments of the afterlife?”

Greyson knows that events in near-death experiences are impossible to corroborate. “We can’t do research on a deity,” he says, drily.  But still, he finds it tough to dismiss wackier theories, even if the data isn’t there.  When I ask him what his current logical understanding is, he looks resigned.  “It seems most likely to me that the mind is somehow separate to the brain,” he says, “and, if that’s true, maybe it can function when the brain dies.” Then he adds, “But if the mind is not there in the brain, where is it? And what is it?”  [End of quotes]

Dr. Greyson is probably aware that what God’s Word calls the soul is the answer he is looking for.

Finally, from the Moshakis interview:

To Greyson, the impact near-death experiences have on people’s lives has been his most surprising discovery.  “I make a living by trying to help people change their lives,” he says. “It’s not easy to do.  But here I’ve found an experience that, sometimes in a matter of seconds, dramatically transforms people’s attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors.” Often, these changes persist over decades. In most instances, experiencers realize they are no longer afraid to die, which “has a profound impact on how they live their lives,” because “you lose your fear of life as well—you’re not afraid of taking chances.”  Greyson sometimes asks people to describe their partners before and after an event, “and they’ll say, ‘Yeah, this isn’t the person I married; this is someone different.”  He adds, “They see a purpose in life they didn’t see before.  I don’t know of anything else that powerful.” 

I am now convinced, after doing this for 40, 50 years, that there is more to life than just our physical bodies. [End of quote]

This final paragraph regarding consciousness after death—or better stated, the soul—is found in Marisa St. Clair’s book Near-Death Experiences:

Perhaps it is ironic that the medical profession has, inadvertently, succeeded where countless generations of priests have failed—they have produced evidence for the existence of the human soul.  The paraphernalia of modern technology, which was designed to keep the body alive at all costs, has revealed that we are not just bodies—we have non-physical, invisible selves that can separate and fly free. [End of quote]

There is a conscious soul that lives forever. Where that forever is, though, is in my hands.  The howl of the skeptics is fading quickly.

In the GodSaidManSaid feature “The Other Side of Life,” you’ll find the following:

 The tens of millions of NDEs the world over testify of the other side that awaits all of us.  The Word of God clearly teaches a knowledge, a consciousness, 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, pain, torment, 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…” I Kings 17:21-22:

21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.

22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

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 selection 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 rich man’s 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, yet he knows of the rich man’s situation and has a conversation with him.  [End of quote]

It is the soul that Jesus came to save, and it is the soul that lives on after the brain returns to dust, just as it is the soul that science calls “consciousness.” If you have yet to be BORN-AGAIN, you are in a very dangerous place.  I am not exaggerating this point.  Click onto “Further with Jesus” now and make your peace with God while there is still time for you.  Please keep in mind, salvation is a limited time offer. 

They always end up here.  But unfortunately for most, they can’t come in. The entrance to the secret place of Godly knowledge is only entered into on one’s knees.

I’ll leave you with this final note:  I believe it because the Bible tells me so.  Of course, that explanation sounds infantile, but be advised—only the children enter in.

GOD SAID, Luke 16:22-25:

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.

GOD SAID, Genesis 35:18:

And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

GOD SAID, I Peter 1:6-9:

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

MAN SAID: When you’re dead, you’re dead and that’s it! There’s no knowledge, no pain, just oblivion.  That’s what my biology teacher said.  That’s true, ain’t it? 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “The Other Side of Life”

GodSaidManSaid, “The Seven Greatest Mysteries for a Man to Know (Part 7: The Mystery of Life After Death)”

Moshakis, A., “What Do Near-Death Experiences Mean, and Why do They Fascinate Us?” TheGuardian.com, March 7, 2021

St. Clair, M., Near-Death Experiences, Amber Books, 2019

Teresi, D., The Undead, Pantheon Books, 2012

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