Today is All Saints' Day. Since 835 AD, Christian churches have designated November 1 as “All Saints’ Day,” or "All Hallows Day." The day before was called "All Hallows Eve," or Halloween. On All Saints' Day the Church remembers the example of faith set by believers in Christ who have gone before us into God's presence during the past year.
During the past year I've had my share of loved ones leave this life, an older brother, a younger niece, an older cousin and a number of friends. It's always sobering to consider how long it will be before I join the procession of the saints who've gone before.
I've been reading John Burke's Imagine Heaven (subtitled, "Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You.") It is filled with hundreds of stories about personal experiences, as well as dozens of extensive studies about those whose bodies have briefly died but were brought back to life. It is enlightening. I recommend the book, but also warn readers to get ready for some jaw-dropping reports these "NDE people" give.
The list interviewed includes not just Christians, but Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and even a few atheists, all of whom give reports of what they recalled. Most surprising is how they nearly all agree on the basics: a Godly Presence, bright light, wondrous love, vivid colors and glorious feelings that they didn't want to leave. And yes, a large number also felt a darkness that they did not ever want face again.
One is tempted to say they created these experiences in their minds or made them up. But how can persons blind from birth describe vivid colors? Or those deaf from birth describe music? Or how could neurosurgeons explain how they still lived after being declared "brain dead"? Or how can those of non-Christian beliefs (or no belief at all) describe the same loving "God Presence" as the Bible gives us?
I am not abandoning the Gospel in this nor am I espousing something outside the Bible. Space precludes explaining much more, but reading of this has opened my eyes to the witness of not just a few, but thousands of people whose bodies have died briefly but their spirits have lived on. With all the many studies he quotes, author Burke couldn't have made it all up.
There is, I believe, a whole lot more to our existence than our mere four score years on earth.
Reading this has heightened my anticipation of the great reunion Jesus told us about in Matthew 25 and John in Revelation. It has reinforced to me again that people don't just disappear into the dust. We live on, and God has prepared a new place and a new life for all the Saints in eternity with Him.
But it only comes through faith in our one Lord Jesus.
Rev. Bob Tasler
www.bobtasler.com
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