Posted by guestblogger, BroKen
Last night was All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. That must mean that today is All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day
.
Last night Zombies were all the rage in fun and fantasy, though there was a time (for some that time may not have passed) when fear of the living dead was quite real. In fact, that is where we get the custom of dressing up in costumes on Halloween. It was suppose to hide and protect the wearer from the spirits of the dead. But today is a celebration for those who have died and yet live on in Christ. From them we need not hide. We need no protection. We rejoice and celebrate because even though they are gone, they are not gone forever. We will see them again.
I have been fascinated, as perhaps you have, by accounts of people who have had what are called “Near-Death Experiences”. The first account I read was “Return from Tomorrow” by psychologist George Ritchie. Recently there was the account of a Baptist preacher who was left for dead for an hour and a half after a car wreck. His book, “90 Minutes in Heaven” describes his experience. Then, “Heaven is for Real” tells a toddler's account. His parents say he knows things that happened in the hospital and in their lives that he couldn't have come to know through ordinary means.
But perhaps the most fascinating of all is “Proof of Heaven” by neurosurgeon, Eben Alexander. In 2008 he contracted meningitis and was in a coma for several days. He says medical science confirms that what they believe to be the seat of consciousness in the brain was inactive, yet he remembers a fantastic journey in which he was given a
message.
Will I surprise you if I take exception to the title? What is “proof” anyway? If God wrote your name in clouds, you might immediately decide that friends were playing a trick on you with a skywriter. If not that, next week you might decide it was an optical illusion or some kind of dream. There is always an alternate explanation. Fact is, everything, even science, is based on faith. We trust that the laws of nature are consistent and universal... but they don't have to be!
Our faith in God and eternal life is not based on the accounts of neighbors or preachers or doctors, but on the Scriptures. Jesus told a story of two men who died. One wanted to return to warn his brothers of what was to come. The response is instructive. “Your brothers have Moses and the prophets,” he is told. “If they don't believe them, they won't believe even if one comes back from the dead.” The Scriptures are enough.
These near-death accounts are very interesting but we must be carefuL. Personally, I want to believe there is something to them. But if they are inconsistent with Scripture, we should reject them as we would a zombie. They aren't really life.
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