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Hello Roland, The subject of near-death experiences (NDEs) is a very interesting and complex one. I believe in some cases the phenomenon is a real encounter with the spiritual world, and I would encourage everyone to study a wide variety of NDE testimonies and draw their own conclusions from the evidence. A great place to start is Near-Death.com, one of the biggest and best NDE sites on the internet. One of the first things that one realizes when studying near-death experiences is that different people report different stories and often come to contradictory conclusions about God, religion, and the afterlife based on their individual experiences. For example, some people come back from an NDE convinced that reincarnation is real, whereas others come back believing it is false. Not all theological doctrines can be decided based on NDEs. That is especially the case because many NDEs may be hallucinations or intense dreams people can have when hovering on the verge of death, racked with pain and pumped full of drugs in a hospital setting. But some NDEs are undoubtedly real spiritual experiences. For example, Pam Reynolds left her body and saw dead relatives during an operation on her brain in which all the blood had been drained out of the brain and her EEG was flat, indicating total unconsciousness (in fact she was considered officially brain dead at the time). Reynolds was able to give detailed descriptions of surgical instruments used on her during the operation, which she had never seen before and could not have known about. The only logical explanation is that her soul really detached from her body and she was able to view the operation using spiritual senses while her ordinary physical mind was unconscious. Read more about Pam Reynolds' NDE here. There are two things that the vast majority of near-death experiences seem to teach people about God and the afterlife. First, that there is a God of pure and unconditional love; and second, that hell is real but not eternal. Most people who have an NDE come back as believers in a benevolent Higher Power and life after death, and embrace the teaching of universal salvation -- specifically, a concept of reformative universalism, that the soul must only go through hell as a way to learn spiritual lessons and be purged of evil in order to enter heaven. Very few NDEs convince people that there is such a thing as eternal damnation. In fact, eternal damnation is probably the #1 traditional Christian doctrine that people reject after having an NDE. Some people have met Jesus in their near-death experience and been told or shown that nobody stays in hell forever, but all are saved in the end. Some people have died and gone to hell, cried out to God for mercy, and then been rescued from hell by Jesus in their NDE. One powerful testimony of this is the story of Rev. Howard Storm, who was an atheist who became a Christian minister after his amazing experience. Stories like this show that hell is not eternal, since people who go to hell are given the opportunity to escape, and do in fact leave when they are ready and God is ready to release them. This is consistent with the Apostle Peter's teaching in the Bible that Jesus "went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago" (1 Peter 3:19), so that they too could hear the Gospel and have a chance to repent and be released from their spiritual prison. As you mentioned, there are a few NDEs that promote the belief of never-ending torment in hell. These stories have been widely publicized because they are sensational and help the cause of fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist preachers. Mary Baxter's book is probably the best example of this. There are many problems with Baxter's story, however, which strongly suggest to me and many other people who have studied the NDE phenomenon that her experience was only a dream or hallucination rather than a real trip to hell and encounter with Jesus Christ. I would recommend reading the following article to consider some of the objections (and there are many) to Baxter's vision of a hell of eternal torture: A Critique of Mary Baxter's Hellish NDE and Her Book. One of the biggest problems with Mary Baxter's story is that it portrays Jesus as a powerless being, not the omnipotent and merciful God he really is, as the Bible describes. You said, "At one point in her journey through Hell with Jesus, a man in Hell begged Jesus to take him out of Hell. Jesus cried. Jesus wanted to take the man out of Hell, but He could not do it. It was too late. The man was in Hell forever." Well, if the Bible is to be believed and Jesus really is the Lord, then he has the power to take people out of hell if he is moved to do so. The concept of a forever crying Lord who looks upon a hell He Himself created with terrible sadness, yet never does anything to remedy the situation, is not the concept of God presented by the Bible. For one thing, Jesus says in the Bible that "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32), and we are told by the Apostle Paul that "every tongue [shall] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:11). Paul also informs us of the good news that "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Rom. 10:13). If the Bible is to be believed, then Mary Baxter could not really have seen a person calling out to Jesus begging to be released from hell, yet never to be released. That would contradict so many Bible passages. It also wouldn't make any sense, if God is omnipotent and benevolent. Only if God has limited power or else is a sadist, could Mary Baxter's vision be a true experience of the afterlife. As for the book by Maurice Rawlings containing NDE stories of hell, all I can say is that there are many people who have had NDEs, and yes, some people have seen hell during their experience. But the overwhelming majority have said they were told or shown during their NDE that people can and do escape from hell when they have paid the penalty for their sins and are ready to move on to higher levels of the spirit world. God determines when any soul is allowed to leave hell. You said that "One man who saw Hell saw people he used to know on Earth who were now in Hell. These people told him that there was no way out of Hell." My response is that just because some souls in hell believe they will never be released doesn't mean it's true. Hell is a state of despair and punishment, and in that state, people tend to have difficulty hoping for a better future. This can be true right here on earth for people whose lives are a living hell. One feature of many near-death experiences is that the visions people see of the afterlife tend to correlate with their own expectations or beliefs, or are designed to challenge them in some way in their life using imagery that would be strongly motivating to that particular individual. In other words, NDEs seem to be tailored to each person's spiritual understanding and needs, rather than a uniform presentation of absolute truth. This suggests that some NDE visions of hell could be primarily designed to frighten people into changing their lifestyle, to stop sinning and become more righteous in their behavior, and to develop a relationship with God. When people can only be moved to change their ways by seeing horrible visions of hell, perhaps that is why God gives some people those visions. We cannot draw theological conclusions from them, especially since most NDE testimonies speak of a God of infinite love and forgiveness rather than harsh judgment and punishment. Finally, I should say that there is always the possibility that some people who report near-death experiences are simply lying or embellishing what they really saw, to gain notoriety, sell books, or promote their preferred religious beliefs. Eternal hell is a popular belief that tends to sell well, because it is so scary and there are many fundamentalist Christians who want to believe in the traditional doctrine of damnation and try to prove this idea to others. And there is always the possibility that some NDEs are not real spiritual experiences at all, but merely dreams or hallucinations produced by the brain of very ill person. I am inclined to consider NDEs as more credible if the person was documented to be clinically dead when they had their experience, or if they reported seeing or hearing things that took place while they were known by doctors to have been unconscious (which would prove the soul was really out of the body). After reading hundreds of NDE stories, I have personally never come across one in which the person was told by Jesus Christ that hell is eternal torment, where there was conclusive evidence that the person was dead and therefore could not have been dreaming or hallucinating. For more about near-death experiences as this subject relates to hell and universal salvation, here are two articles worth reading:
Peace in Christ,
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Heavenly Father, please bless this ministry, lead multitudes to this website, and help them see the truth of Your love and forgiveness for all people through the power of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the whole world. Open their eyes to Your true nature, take away their fears, and fill their hearts with the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. |