Re: The Library in Heaven

Dear Rudenski,
Have read your fascinating NDE experience and thought you might be interested in the following Bible and scientific study I've done about this phenomena.
You may not like what you read but, of course, you're quite welcome to refute it (as is anyone else). May God bless you and yours as a result of that strange but enlightening experience.
Gee.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE?

For us, who are alive, the thought of death is usually a repulsive topic. Only a rare few people actually look forward to dying and that usually being due to deep Depression or the result of chronic and painful sickness.
But, just as we ought to understand how we are born and why we are here, there is no reason why we should not understand where we are going when we’ve run our earthly course.

Has anyone come back from the dead to explain what happened when they died? Some, who to all outward appearances have been declared dead, have been revived and later told of their ‘experience’ within the realms of ‘death’. Often, descriptions of ‘a tunnel of pure whiteness’ is claimed by survivors. Others claim to have had ‘out of body’ experiences where they have ‘seen’ themselves lying ‘dead’ in their bed, or wherever. Can such experiences be true? Have these people really died and come back to tell us what’s on ‘the other side’?

Let’s be sensible about these claims. We do not die immediately our heart stops beating or our breathing ceases for there is residual oxygen still within the billions of body cells to sustain some life activity. This activity lasts from a few minutes to many hours and the state may be described as fatally ‘comatose’. When the brain is deprived of fresh oxygen, it quickly degenerates after two minutes. Within three to five minutes, the brain is completely dead and cannot possibly be revived to function again. Despite this, hair, bone and nails continue to ‘live’ for some hours. It is because tissue does not die immediately the heart stops and breathing ceases, that organs can be removed for transplanting.

People who claim to have had ‘out of body’ death experiences usually report that they could see doctors, or others, frantically trying to revive their ‘lifeless’ body and, eventually, they return to that body and recover. Medical Science tells us that any such experience must take place within two to three minutes (as described above), that is, before brain death occurs. Clearly, then, the people who claim ‘out of body’ and ‘white tunnel’ visions of are not completely dead – certainly not while the brain is capable of functioning – and their stories are illusions only, regardless of their sincere conviction.

On the other hand, the Bible tells us that some dead people have come back to life! The most obvious example is Jesus, Himself, who had lain in a tomb for at least 30 hours. Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, had been dead for four days before being restored to life. There can be no doubt that after such long periods, these people were truly dead but there is no record that they had any ‘out of body’ or any other extraordinary experiences.
What happened when they died? Did they go anywhere?
What happens when WE die? Do we go anywhere?
Who can tell us?

Those who claim to have come back from the dead after entering into a white tunnel or some other phenomenon are, as medical Science had shown, under illusion. Once brain dead, no one can possibly think, reason or describe anything at all. Whatever experiences they had could only have occurred within two to three minutes after their so-called ‘death’, that is, after the heart stopped and breathing ceased, therefore, they were not truly dead at all. Such people can tell us nothing factual about death.

But, wait a minute, if the Bible describes that people have died and been revived, we need to know what happened to them? Let’s see what the Bible, the infallible word of God, tells us:-
(Please read and compare the words for yourself.)
Ecclesiastes 9:5 and 10 – “For the living know they shall die, but the dead know not anything….” “…for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave….”
Psalms 146:4 – “His breath goes forth; he returns to his earth and, in that very day, his thoughts perish.”
John 11:11 and 14 - “…Our friend, Lazarus, sleeps, but I go that I may awaken him out of that sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead.’”

When we die, it’s quite clear that it’s like being in a dreamless sleep in which we know nothing and sense nothing.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that, at death, we go straight to heaven or to hell.
And there is no lounging around on clouds playing harps, meeting Saint Peter or God ----- just black and empty nothingness in cold, damp soil or in an urn.

Is that all there is to life?
Of course not. We remain asleep, in the state called death, until the resurrection, i.e. being restored to life again.
Now why do we die just to be raised back to life?
Isn’t this merely reincarnation?
No. Resurrection, or being restored to life from death, is for a very specific purpose. In fact, resurrection is the theme of the entire Bible and of life itself. If there were no resurrection, our whole purpose of living would amount to nothing…zip!

In our lives, we each use our time to either accept, deny or ignore that we can earn eternal life through belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of Almighty God.

Humans are the only life form, on Earth, who possess the ability to make deliberate choices based on reason. Animals, the next highest in the intelligence chain, and despite the seeming cleverness of many of them, do not make choices based on reason – they all depend upon instinct. It is our exclusive capacity to choose, based on information and reason, that makes us unique among all species.

Therefore, by our choices throughout life, we determine what part we will play in the resurrection that takes place after death. There will be two resurrections – one for the righteous; one for the un-righteous. A thousand years separate the two.

Those who earn a place in the first resurrection are the ones who are given the gift of life eternal.
Those who earn a place in the second resurrection are the ones who will be totally obliterated.

For those readers who think, “Oh well, I don’t care if I’m totally obliterated,” there is another matter to consider: you will not be resurrected for nothing. There will be a final and terrible price to pay for your insolence and rejection of the only One who could have saved you from such a dreadful fate, i.e. Jesus the Christ. That is another story but, be assured, it’s one that you will not want to be a part of if you claim to have any reasonable intelligence or wisdom, at all!

This, briefly, explains what happens when we die and it also explains what happens after we die.
The outcome depends upon the choices you make before you die for, once dead, your fate is forever sealed.

You are urged to choose wisely now, starting today, since you can never know at what moment your heart will stop beating. May God’s Holy Spirit prompt you to think this matter through.
Amen.
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