Hi Jane,

Don’t know if you are being serious, but everyone should know the seals are on a scroll and they are opened in sequence. The fifth seal cannot be opened before the first four seals are broken. The massive persecution of the fifth seal starts after the pale horse rides.

Hi Joe,

Yet itching ears are still hanging on the false prophets every word.

Hi Brian,

I do not believe claims that people went to heaven and came back nor do I believe the claims of those claiming to have gone to hell. None of the accounts even say anything similar or give a worthwhile salvation in Christ message like did Paul and John.

These cases are peer reviewed; well documented accounts. As Dr. Habermas has said; he now has the humanists squirming in their seats. (He has been debating the resurrection with them for decades.) They have nothing with which to “explain away” these cases. There is no physical; “rational” explanation. None. These people separate from their bodies. This is in accordance with scripture. Dr. Habermas draws the line at that point. (Verifiable; multiple witness; to “out-of-the-body” experiences. He will not touch “Heaven” accounts. They cannot be objectively verified. That brings me to my main point.

A video by a spinal surgeon (Mary Neal) caught my attention. She spent (about) thirty minutes trapped (in a kayak) under ten feet of raging water. Fine. She “separated” from her body. Okay. She spent time in Heaven. Hmmm. She mentioned–only twice–some vague “Christ.” My discernment “red-lined.” I fast forwarded through more of her presentations. No Gospel. Mostly New Age nonsense. I Googled “Christian critiques of Mary Neil.” They rounded out my suspicions. One pastor wrote a short (sixty page) rebuttal of most of her claims. I bought his Amazon e-book download. The following day; I came across Amazon reviews of his book. Mostly scathing; “blinded by the god of this world” people. One nurse titled her review “The Christian Taliban.” The rest of her review made my blood boil. The pastor burst her bubble, and she was furious. Let me paste it for you:

“Mr. [Pastor Robert] King is a very familiar sort. You know… those angry, hate-filled people who wave their flag of dogma with a frenzied desperation. I am not sure what drives these types, but they are obsessive. If, out of 4,200 religions in the world today, YOU are not a believer of MY religion, you are doomed to eternal torture and suffering at the hands of a “loving” deity.

Although, unlike many of these rabid fundamentalists, Mr. King is actually able to write cohesive sentences, his arguments are thin and lifeless. His assertions are based on ancient religious texts… books that were collected by agreement of a group of men who voted some books in and some books out. It astonishes me that people like Mr. King actually believe the things asserted in this book and have such a drive to attack stories like Dr. Neal’s.

I worked for many years in palliative medicine where I saw and heard enough of the kind of thing that happened to Dr. Neal that it is settled in my mind. There is no correct religion – as long as the faith is about love and service to others, we are living the best way we can. There is no judgement. There is no anger. Just love – THAT is what matters.

I had to take a long walk in the woods to clear the ugliness of this book from my mind. If you want a book that will reassure you, as a fundamentalist Christian, that YOU are embraced by God and that He will gleefully torture everyone who does not believe as you do, this book is for you. Enjoy! If you are a more sophisticated sort who isn’t one of those angry religious types, read something else. Mary’s book would be a good one. And Eben Alexander’s book. Or Ray Moody’s “Life After Life.” Don’t waste your time on this angry pedantry. Let King join his sort in Westborough Baptist and keep your own peaceful mind undisturbed.

Now, if there were only a way to get that time back that I wasted reading this diatribe of rage and negativity.” End of review.
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I could not let her venom go unchallenged, and wrote a reply. None of the pastor’s critics addressed any of the book’s biblical critiques. They all avoided it like the plague, and preferred to attack the messenger–but not his message. Their “god” “doesn’t judge,” and welcomes everyone….giving them a nice; innocuous; “life review.” Ommmmmm. Ommmmmm. Welcome; ascended master. Ommmmm. (I didn’t include the sarcasm.)

It took me hours of revisions before I felt I had a fair; biblical; personalized response. So far; no sign of it. It’s only been one day; but I won’t hold my breath.

In my review; I asked…Why did these intensely negative reviewers buy his book? The title clearly indicates that it’s a biblical critique of Mary Neal’s experience. It’s obvious they wouldn’t know the scripture from Charlie Brown. Perhaps they thought Pastor King would endorse their New Age drivel.]

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine…and will surround themselves with teachers…who will tickle their ears.”

Hi Brian,

That might cost you

A couple of thoughts about the frightening beliefs we see today.

1. All roads lead to God. Really? Think about that. When someone makes this statement, not only are THEY confused, but they are telling me that my God is confused. They are telling me that God created this universe and all that is in it, but is not powerful enough to put together one cohesive plan for my life/eternity. They are telling me that I can worship whatever/whomever I choose and that in the end I will spend eternity with God? Or maybe whatever god I worship? Does that mean there is more than one true God of the universe? Maybe several “one true Gods”? All roads cannot lead to the same God because all roads are not headed toward the same God. If all roads lead to Him then why wouldn’t I choose the path (religion) of least resistance? One that would condone all the desires of my sinful flesh? Again, you are telling me the God I am going to spend eternity with is not that powerful and unable to come up with a good plan. When it comes to where I spend eternity, I want a God that is powerful and not confused about his plan for me. I want a God that gives me clear instructions for how to reach Him. If I were asked what kind of attributes I would want my perfect god to have, why would I want anything other than those of the God of the Bible?

2. I am a good person and besides what kind of God would send a good person to hell? Oh my gosh! Really? My first question is, how would your good or anyone else’s good be measured? How good would you have to be? What if I am almost good enough? What is the minimum amount of good deeds I have to do to get in? What if one of the many paths to God says it’s ok to kill others that don’t believe the way I do? Is that counted against me or am I doing good? How could it be bad if MY road also leads to God? This is a nonsensical statement. We would either all have to go to heaven or none of us would because there would be no way to measure whether we were good enough. It would mean that my all powerful God left me no way of knowing how good I had to be. Even evil people can “be good” at times. Some very evil people have the means to do more good than many of us. How much evil can I do and still go to heaven? What is the good to evil ratio? The belief that you can be good enough to go to heaven insinuates that my God is a sadistic tormentor. He wants me to worry daily whether I have been good enough. What kind of God would send a good person to hell? Not any God I want in charge of my eternal fate because I don’t think I CAN be good enough and the thought of spending eternity with this kind of god is frightening. It’s like always trying to be good enough for your spouse for fear he/she is going to leave you. Or a child that feels they can never be good enough for their parents. Sooner or later both relationships will fail.