I will try to answer your questions, briefly. I wasn't a Christian when I was taken up into Paradise. I had not in any way been pre-programed to believe in God or any of the teachings of the Bible. Nevertheless, the Lord God allowed me to see a lot of Paradise, when I was there. It is a beautiful place. Every blade of grass is perfectly formed. There are flowers every 10 to 12 feet, and they glow. The light comes up from the ground, even while they are growing in a well lit environment. This was one of the most remarkable things I did encounter, in regard to the biological basis of life. You could see the light, as it plused up the stems of tulip like flowers. Every leaf was perfectly formed, and the veins were also full of light. The light inside the veins circulated to the outer edge of each flower petal, and it passed from there into the air. The leaves were the same, in that regard, but there was mostly a greenish light that tended to bleed from the edges of the leaves. What a sight the flowers were, and the grass was a real healthy green. It was beautiful in every respect.
There were clouds, and also lots of angels singing. I noticed that I had an option to listen to all of it, or not. If I dropped my head, ever so slightly, all the praises and music would more or less just stop. On the other hand, if I raised my head up, then the heavenly music came back on. I could hear the heavenly hosts singing steadily, "Holy, Holy, Holy." "Holy, Holy, Holy." It was like hearing a gigantic choir, "He is Holy, Holy, Holy." It was very melodious. They would sing for all they were worth along a certain key, and then some voice would start at another note, and the whole sound of it would begin to shift over to the new note, and that key. Before too long, they would be moving from "Holy, Holy, Holy," to "Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him."
I wasn't a Christian, but I really liked to hear them praising God. It was like, any time you wanted to hear all the praises, all you needed to do was to lift your head a little, and you would hear it, full and clear.
After I returned to this earth in 1952, I did not really "get it," or hear about Jesus until 1957. That's when I first found out about His coming to this earth. It threw me for a loop, as it was so difficult to grasp, at first. I had been walking, at that point, for some five years with an angelic, spirit guide who had answered my every question as I was growing up. For me to get the answer to anything, all I had to do was pray, and he would "come on line" immediately, within my mind. I was very much acclimated to addressing him and sharing many things. I thought him to be God himself, for the most part, and I grew up walking and talking to him all the time. He would guide me out of trouble, and advise me on occassion after occassion, so when I heard about Jesus I prayed, asking if what I had heard about Jesus was true or not.
When I did, he immediately came back and said very clearly, "Yes. It is all true, and you would do well simply to 'follow in His steps.'
That was all I needed to hear. I immediately went back to the same church were 'the Lord had been preached,' and I went forwared and joined it. From that day on I was a Christian. I fully expected to have some kind of something happen in a really big way, upon being baptised. Unfortunately, that just didn't happen. For some reason, I dared not share any of my out-of-body experiences with any of them. I wanted to get into the ministry, but they would only look at me rather coldy, as if to say, "this guy will never do!" I didn't let that deter me, however, and I stayed close to the Lord while growing up in the church. In general, however, I was never satisfied with baptism in terms of there being no great big change in my life, after being baptised.
The only thing I could figure, after being baptised maybe eight or ten times, is that it was like a vacination that simply didn't take. In my mind, I believed that the time would come, when it would, so I persisted in going forward and being baptised on a rather frequent basis. Over the next fifteen years or so, I was baptised more than 40 times, as well as I can remember, and each time it was the same. Nothing changed, and I was the same person after going through everything!
It is now clear that I was just a baby Christian, and I was developing a "head knowledge" about God. I knew all the songs, and I had heard years and years of sermons. I had been baptised 40 times, and hardly missed one day of church. Every time the doors were open, I mean, I was there, but none of it changed much at all, or so I thought. Eventually, Billy Rose came to the church where I was. He was the head of the Baptist Sunday School board, and he had been told by God to go out and share a very specific message. They had even released him from his post at the Baptist Headquaters, with a list of churches where he was to go and speak, and the church where I was happened to be at the very top of the list. Anyway, I was sitting there just waiting for somebody to "fill me in!" In he came, and he told about God speaking to him, and all that. Then he told everyone, that if you've never encountered a type of hair-pin turn in your life, the chancers were right at 100%, according to him, that you had never actually asked Jesus "into your heart."
In other words, there are perhaps a zillion out there who "ain't got it right!" They "know about Jesus." The sing the songs. They "go to church." They pray and pray and pray, and cry out to the Lord - but it's one great big struggle after another. It's getting all dressed up and going in to the church, expecting to come out, like it was a car wash or something like that. And in reality, you are just being you and you have "a head full of Jesus," without ever truly asking Christ "into your heart."
What Billy Rose had to say is that the Baptist church was full of "want to be" Christians! There is no power, no strength, and no real basis of communion... strictly because there has never been a true "turn around" experience in your life! Put it another way, the world is jam packed full of "baby Christians!" I was a dedicated, full fledged, knock em down, faithfull, always there, really praising the Lord Christian, like all that, and Jesus was on the outside - and I was fully, on the inside!
Hello! Hello! Hello! Suddenly I knew why the "baptisms never took!" I was like, having my head and all my knowledge of Jesus and the Bible confirmed - while not ever actually asking Jesus to come into my heart! You could have knocked me over with a downy feather! When I finally "got it," Billy Rose was telling the whole church that he belived only about 2% of all those who were in the church were "truly Christians!" And I suddenly realized who I was, in those terms! I was "a believer!" But I truly wasn't "a receiver!"
Now I know! The world is full of "belivers," and very few persons actually receive Christ into their hearts, to become "receivers!" The Mormon and the Catholic churches in that regard, are just like the Baptists and all the rest! Alas! All the churches are filled with believer after believer, but there are very very few who have actually "laid down their own life," or "laid down their own will," so as to receive Jesus into the heart! In other words, all the churches are filled with baby Christians, and many of them think of themselves as being the best followers in the world! Surely God is going to bless me and bless me, they think. Surely I am in the right place doing all the right things! Surely, I am numbered among His Children - and perhaps that last part is the most true. They are "children," and strictly that.
When I got this little lesson inside of me, my life was changed, forever. In the first place, the power of God swept over me so hard, and so completely, that I was absolutely knocked out for amost an hour. During that time, I could see absolutely nothing! It was like, I had been struck totally blind, and I was crying my eyes out, all at the same time. In reality, the Lord was purging me of all my sins, I think, because I was never the same after that. I remember, after going forward, they took me into a counseling room back behind the sanctuary. I don't rembember walking back there, I just ended up there. The light in the room seemed so bright, I couldn't see a thing. I was weeping and telling them how long I had tried over the years to find what was missing, they could hardly hold me down. I remember telling them that if I had a church and I was "receiving new members," I would never take them into a room and just hang a bright light right over their heads where they couldn't see a thing!" That's what I felt like was going on. I was pouring my heart out to them, and they had about twenty counselors at the time, in this particular Chruch. Eventually, I burned them all out, and not one of them could "get through to me" or actually figure out what was going on.
Finally, a couple of them began to pray and ask the Lord what to do. As soo as they did that, then they got the idea to go back out to the sanctuary, and seek some help there. One of them went to the microphone and he said, "We have a very unusual case back in the counseling rooms, and if there's anybody in the Church this evening who has had any experience working with very strange cases in the counseling room, we would like to have your help." I was actually that far "out of it!"
For the most part, there were only the stragglers left, who had hoped to speak to Billy Rose. Unfortunately, he had left for his next church. He had given his whopper of a message on Sunday. I had prayed and prayed about it, and went back that Wednesday evening, this time planning to deliberately go forward one more time, and that's when it all happened. There was one fellow there however, who had such stayed around to speak to the pastor, and he happened to be a missionary on his way to China. He was actually brought up in a Pentacostal church, so he volunteered to try and help. So, they led him back to were I was, and he took one look at me and said, "Yes! I can tell you exactly what's going on with this man! He's got the Holy Spirit!"
Incredibly, in that they had never seen anything like it, in their Baptist church(!) they told him, "No. That's not it at all. We think that he's on drugs."
Anyway, when I finally "came to," I was in a room that was all closed off, and very, very dark. They had the door opened just a crack, and two men were standing there like guards! Two others were sitting next to me, one on each side of me, and they had my arms linked with theirs, so I would keep jumping up, they said, and they were praying like there was no tomarrow. I finally started to come back to my senses, and I began looking up to see how big that great light was that they had hanging over my head, and much to my surprise - there wasn't any!
After that, I continued attending at this same church for the next five years. I was never very well accepted. I mean, the main frame, heavy hitters more or less "nixed me out" and I wasn't accepted as "one of the boys," if you know what I mean. I nevertheless went out on visitation every Thursday night, and never missed a week doing that. Every time I went, I would lead some man and his wife to Christ, telling them all about having Christ in their heart, and not simply in their head. Many of them I would share some of the things I encounted when I was in Heaven. I sang in the choir, and considred myself a "back door greeter," in that, all the deadons and the other official greeters held their weekly positions, at the front door of the church! When they finally figured out that I was "stealing some of their glory," by being at the back door where the choir and many others went in, they even sent a couply of guys around to the back door, just to head me off there! In general, I was just standing there every Sunday, getting "all tanked up in the spirit," so I could bless each person as they entered the church. It was like sparks flying! I'd pray real hard, and then "give em a jolt of the Holy Spirit."
When they started sending guys around to the back door to head me off, I began standing at the rear edge of the building on the side walk. I was just standing there doing my thing, one fine day, when a taxi cab drove up and a man I had never seen before, jumped out. He had been excitedly waving to me, and the cab had pulled right up, not even thirty feet from where I stood and there it stopped.
He jumped out, walked right over to me, and he began to shake my hand like he was pumping an old well. "Hello," he said. "You're Bruce McKay. I know all about you, because I was here almost five years ago to this very day, when you went forward!" I was rather shocked, and I could think of was that the good old boys had sent someone by to dislodge me from the church, completely! Because of this, I actually didn't believe a thing he was saing. Nevertheless, he began to describe to me right where I was sitting, at the time when Billy Rose had come to speak. He told me how he was sitting just a few rows behind me, and he had been praying for me all during the service. That was a shock. When I didn't belive him, next he told me about the fact that I had not gone forward that same service. In fact, he said, the Lord had prompted him to come back on Wednesday night, and he had come, hoping to be able to speak with Billy Rose after the service.
"When you went forward," he said, "it made me very, very happy! But I could see there was going to be trouble, so I decided to hang around a little while, just to speak to you when you came back out from the conseling rooms. When you didn't come out, and didn't come out, I started to get very concerned." he said. "Finally, a couple of the men from the back came out and made an announcement, saying they needed some help with a special case. I raised up my hand, offering to help, and they led me back to the counseling rooms, and in one of them, there you sat! There was one man on your left, and another on your right and it took both of them, trying to hold you down. I took one look at you, and I shouted out, 'Yes! I can tell you what's going on with this man! He's got the Holy Spirit!' A few of them tried to tell me that they thought you were on drugs," he added, "but I told them that wasn't so."
When he asked how they had been treating me over the last five years, I began to grow even more sure that he was some kind of a plant, and just someone who was trying to pull some trick on me, being sent from "the guys at the front door."
"Well exactly who are you?" I asked. He waved to the cabbie, and told him to shut off his cab. There was a slight discussion, about keeping the fare meter running, and then he walked back over to where I was. "I am a missionary who God has sent to China," he replied. So I asked him how it was that he knew all this. He said he had initially came to hear Billy Rose, and then he had seen me sitting there. He said, the Lord had placed me on his heart, and so he had prayed for me - and he had even continued to pray for me after the service when Billy Rose spoke. So it made him super happy, when I did go forward on the eveing service, that following Wednesday.
I still didn't believe him. "Why didn't you wait for me and speak to me, after all that happened in the counseling rooms?" I asked. (Please, go to part II.)

(continued from part I)
That's when he told me that he was leaving for China the very next morning, and he still had some packing to do. So he had to leave right away.
I still didn't believe him. I continued to think he was someone that the church leaders had sent to pull somekind of a trick on me. So he began telling me about being a missionary in China. "You cannot begin to imagine how many people, in China, know all about you!" he said. He told me how he had gone to church after church, preaching the word, and then inviting everyone to "receive Christ into their heart!" He said, there were many times he had risked death, just to go somewhere and preach, and he always told them about the night that I went forward. "I told them all," he said, "about 'receiving' Christ and not just believing!" He also said that he had prayed for me, at leasat three times a day, over the past five years.
That, I didn't believe either. Everything kept piling up and piling up. "I did pray for you, every day!" he said. "I prayed in the morning, at noon, and at night, and that's the very reason I'm here right now!" Then he told me how he had not wanted to come back when the time came for his first two furlows.
"When my third year furlow came up, I wanted to come. But it just didn't happen. All the doors and windows seemed to suddenly close, and I couldn't make it. The first time it happened I ignored it. Then came my 4th year, and another new opportunity to come back home. I was actually expecting to go, and then all doors closed once more and I was unable to make it. When it happened that time, I began to become aware that it was God and that he was trying to tell me something.
When the fifth year came, I had everything ready, and I was really looking forward to coming home for a vist," he said. "Then, just as before, all the doors sarted closing once again. So I went and prayed to God, and He told me that I needed to come here and speak to you!" As he said that, he tapped me right on the chest! Nevertheless, I still din't believe him. "Why would God do something like that?" I asked.
"Well, I didn't know! He said. "All I know is that I was so surprised that he had kept me in China all that time, and I was going around telling everyone there about "receiving Jesus," just as you had done. I mean there are thousands upon thousands of persons over there who have heard the word of God, and they've "got it right!" he exclaimed. "So I told God, I've been praying for him (me) morning, noon and night, for all these years, so what is it that you want me to do?" He then said that God told him that if he would promise to come and speak to me and tell me what had happened to me on the night that Billy Rose came, then He (God) would surely let him go home. He decided. And as soon as he had made up his mind to come and speak to me, he said, all the doors suddenly opened right up and that's when he had finaly, excitedly, headed back to the United States.
None of this was true, I had decided, and it must have shown on my face. He looked at me, and then he stepped back a little, and he began looking up in the sky. I was wondering what he was going on, so I asked. He replied that he was simply praying, and asking God what he needed to tell me so that I would know that what he was telling me was all, the exact truth.
Suddenly, there came over him a real flash of joy, and he began to thank the Lord. At the same time, he put his arm around my shoulder and said to me, "let's walk over to this cab. I've got something to show you over there."
We walked over to the cab. The driver stepped out. "Who am I?" He asked the driver, and the driver said he surely didn't know. "You've never met me before today, is that right," he said, asking the driver to confirm it or not. The driver agreed it was true. He had never seen this may before that very day. "And exactly where did you pick me up?" he asked the driver. At that, the driver said "Why. . . at the airport."
"And what did I tell you when I got into your cab?"
"You told me to take you right over here to this church. You said that there was a man over here that you had to speak to, and that he would be outside the church, at the back of the building, right here, waiting for you."
"You see," he said, turning to me. "I didn't even go home when I landed at the airport. I promised God that I would come and see you, and that was the very first thing on my list of things to do when I landed, and so here I am. Now do you believe me?"
I looked intently at the driver. He shrugged a little, and wasn't much help. The missionary didn't miss it, when I did. "Oh! I know!" he suddenly said, beckoning the driver to open the trunk of the cab. "Look, look, look" he said, "here's all the evidence you need." And at that he pulled a suitcase out from among a bunch of them while saying, "And were did all this luggage come from?" The cab driver immediately said, "I picked all that up when I picked you up at the airport . . . and we drove straight from there after you got off your plane!" Then he briefly restated it, saying they had driven right to this very spot, where I had seen him waving from the window!
"And just look at these air line tags!" he shouted. I looked. Every one of them were stamped, and official. They were each from China. Then he began to reach for his coat, to pull the airline tickets out from the pocket! "I belive you!" I said. "I believe! But why in the world did the Lord send you here to tell me all this?
"After talking to you and seeing what has been going on in your life at this church, I know exactly why the Lord sent me to speak to you." he said. "He sent me to tell you, that you're attending a dead church."
Even that was very difficult for me to believe, but it began to rapidly began to sink in as they drove away. He wouldn't give me his name, or tell me where he attended chruch. All he would volunteer was that all of his family lived in New Port Richey, Florida. In any event, this was one of the most incredible things that I had every had happened to me, and within a few weeks time I started attending another church.
After I left, all those who I had left behind, those who I had initially visited, and then tried to bring along in the light of having some real "spiritual values," they all broke off from that church and started Idelwild Baptist, in Tampa, Florida. Years later, I walked into the santuary there, and was greeded by various individuals who knew me from "way back then." It was a real comfort. So, in reply to your question and your wanting to know "if I am now a Christian," the answer is, "absolutely, yes." And I would advise anyone who is attending any church to be ABSOLUTELY SURE they have received Christ into their heart, and that they are indeed working on a "heart level" and not a "head level," in terms of any of their day to day encounters and/or experiences.

Elijah, 10/29/03