It is true Chrissy. You believe in the God of the Catholic Church...and that is the same God I believe in. And the Catholic Bible may have added a few books to it but God still says the same things in that Bible that He does in my non Catholic one. Jesus is the way God made for us to enter into Heaven and eternal life. I'm not going to argue with someone who won't even open a Bible to read what God says. You can't just make up whatever you want to believe about God Chrissy....that's exactly why we have so many different religions now.
Actually, the Apocrypha isn't just some extra books that are contained in the Catholic Bible but was rather removed from the KJV in the late 1800's. They are books that are either questionable as to their authorship or as in Maccabees 1 and 2, historical books which have little to do with the coming of Jesus Christ. Any serious Theologian will study them as he or she would the rest of the Bible.
Imagine Heaven by John Burke was not what I expected it to be in many ways. While I did enjoy most of the book I found in my opinion that the author did not write enough of the Near Death Experiences to let them speak for themselves as to the reality of Heaven...or Hell. I suppose I was expecting to read the person's whole experience instead of just bits and pieces of it. I liked where the author quoted the Scripture references about Heaven..and Hell that "matched" what the person having the NDE experienced. But then I did not like how the author went "off" into his own opinions to the point of almost obscuring the simple truths that the Scriptures and the person's NDE spoke all by itself. In my opinion I often found the author was trying to "sell" the reality of Heaven and Hell by adding a lot of worldly ideals to Heaven. This is not what the person having the NDE did...only something I found the author did. While I found the book interesting, I also found it was not what I expected and I would rather read the NDE's as a whole story instead of the bits and pieces the author included. That's why I am ordering a couple of books that tell the whole NDE of two of these people included in Imagine Heaven...four year old Colton Burpo's story and Akiana's story. @Bill Boggs You wanted to know what we thought...here's mine.
When I was a paramedic, I didn't usually get a chance to meet anyone afterwards but, when I started, I was in a fairly small town, where I would come across people from time to time. One patient we found in full arrest, with no pulse or breathing. I was pretty new as a paramedic and there was a crowd of people around, some offering advice or saying I don't know what, because I was doing my best to tune them out so that I could concentrate on what I was doing. The patient wasn't very old, in his late forties, I think. I don't remember all of the details because I have worked a lot of other full arrests since then, but we weren't able to revive him quickly. I was able to get a pulse back on the scene, however, although he remained unconscious throughout our transport, and we were assisting his breathing. He was resuscitated and, unlike some, he walked out of the hospital a couple of weeks later, and went back to work. I know he was still alive and doing well twenty years later. Most of those who we are able to resuscitate die later in the hospital, or don't survive long afterward. I would sometimes invite him to speak to my paramedic classes, not only because he was a success story, but because he was aware of what people were saying the whole time. He said his vision was a blur, and he couldn't make out anything he was seeing clearly but his ears were working and, more importantly, his brain was processing what he was hearing. I thought that was important for paramedic students because there is sometimes a tendency to assume that someone with no pulse or respirations is dead until we are able to bring him back to life but, of course, he wasn't dead. He wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't beating efficiently, but his brain was still working.
It has been a number of years since this was posted so I wondered if anyone new has had a NDE or OBE..I am fascinated by both. When I had open heart surgery to repair a mitral valve I was hoping for one but it did not happen.and I was sooooooooooo disappointed...
I don't know what happens at the moment of death,but something does.Hallucination, vision of heaven something. I was at my grandmothers bed when she passed. She contracted leukemia in her late eighties. I was sitting there next to her, holding her hand listening to ragged chokey breathing. Suddenly she sat upright, looking at something over my shoulder and said, "Charlie!"(grampas name),she smiled a look of pure joy on her face, like the years and pain just dropped away. She laid back and was gone.
I have nearly died a couple times in my life. The most important one was 2017 which changed me for forever. If your gasping for air and in CHF , BP so high taping the needles in spits them out....and you can't stay still.....whew no time for out of body experience. I could hear and see...but remember almost nothing....was told by others about what happened.
Ohhhh Thank you Peter.......gave me chills when I read your post!! My FIL right before he died had a huge grin on his face and raised his arm as if reaching for someone...this is per his wife and my late husband. Also reminds me of Steve Jobs saying "OH WOW, OH WOW..." as he was dying
I never had a NDE, but used to have plenty of out-of-body experiences. When I was twenty I began learning deep meditation. I should have had a teacher or mentor but I picked up odds and ends from books on my own. I learned breathing techniques and mental exercises to go into deep states of meditation. I did it all prone on a hard floor without even a pillow for my head. It got out of control.for me. Sometimes my breathing would stop for long periods and I'd have to mentally struggle to regain breathing and.feeling in my body. It was usually a fearful experience. I could easily go into a lighter stage of relaxation and have an out of body experience, my awareness out of my body rising and aware of things outside myself while my body had a sensation of growing heavier and sinking. I stopped it finally because I was getting no sense of calm that lasted, which was my goal - just these odd experiences. I don't think I was really leaving my body. Rather, I think it was all mental sensations.
I went from no drugs to several...I found out I am blocked up all over.... Aside from bronchitis I was never sick..to always having something nowadays. I have since aquired a rare auotmune disease...stuff like that. But hey , I am a survivor and am doing better
Thank you, Babs. I appreciate you remembering i did want to know what you, especialy, and others thought. Cheers mi lady.