IS IT HEAVEN OR HELL?
WATCHED A SCI-FI MOVIE LAST NIGHT CALLED "SHUFFLE". I laid down to sleep but kept thinking about the movie. It was a serious concept and a great love story.
The main character dies at the age of 92, after switching back and forth through many ages of his life to solve a mystery. So I was thinking about this character who dies at 92, and remembered that my own grandfather died at 93. Some of my other grandparents died younger. I suddenly realized that for me that age was only about thirty years away. And time goes by fast. Five years seems like a second. A decade seems like a minute.
When I think about all the years that have flown by in my life I realized that despite my love for God and my deep relationship with Him, I still retain a slight FEAR OF DEATH.
My younger sister seems to have more peace of mind, even shows eagerness about dying. Not only is she an eight year breast cancer survivor, but she lost her youngest of five sons in a canoe accident several years ago. She has said to me since then that she can hardly wait to get to Heaven to see her "Baby".
But I also know that my restlessness about the idea of "dying" comes more from the "fear of the unknown". I am sure that we as individuals don't end when our spirits leave our bodies. I am convinced of life after death.
Even the First Law of Thermodynamics insists that there is simply an exchange of energy. No energy can ever actually cease to exist. Our thoughts and minds consist of energetic particles apart from our physical brain structure. Brains are merely hardware or "wetware" as the case may be.
Working in a nursing home I have watched the death scenes of dying residents. They vary.
Having recently seen a radiant glow on the face of a dying patient, who would have seemed the most unlikely candidate to be a devout Christian, I believe that her countenance reflected Heaven's glory.
She was a former "stripper" and drug addict, who was also a cartoonist/artist. She uttered profanities constantly, begged everyone at the nursing home for alcoholic beverages, and carried her artwork, her Bible, and a book by Joyce Meyer around... despite the fact that she was mentally unable to read them. She no longer was able to do artwork, but loved looking at it.
She had told me several times, in her more lucid moments, that she was a "Christian". So at some point in her life, perhaps in the midst of her addictions, she had an encounter with the Messiah.
Even in her hampered mental state, with no short-term memory just like in the movie "50 First Dates" with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, she experienced each new day without memories.
This once-beautiful woman DID REMEMBER that she was a Christian, despite the
fact that she couldn't control her behaviors due to physical and mental conditions.
When I saw the bright glow on her face as she was dying, I KNEW SHE WAS ON HER WAY TO WHAT WE CALL "HEAVEN". She was reflecting the glow of her destination point.
But what is heaven like? Do we retain our individual personality? Or do we become members of a group-think hive-mind like the "Borg" in Star Trek shows and movies?
I highly doubt it. I believe our personalities survive in a "purified" form, especially for the citizens of the Upcoming City of New Jerusalem. One of the reasons I say that is because the Bible says:
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone. A new life has begun." II Corinthians 5:17 NLTThat purity of heart and mind comes about through Christianity's conversion process of heart, mind and spirit, and by the "Washing of the water of the Word" mentioned in Ephesians 5:26.
I have no doubt that Jesus Christ's finished work on Calvary and His Resurrection that first Easter morning has become our escape from TRUE Death. True death is a dismal existence, and much as people don't like to talk about "Hell" or even believe in such a concept the Bible does make reference to it. It is certainly far removed from the place of light, love and energy that we call "Heaven".
(The Second Death: Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:14, and Revelation 21:8)
Does "Heaven" differ from religion to religion as some philosophers and even psychologists imply? Is Heaven simply a "construct" of the mind based on our expectations of the after-life we have come to expect?
How do the 72 virgins promised to martyrs of one religion differ from the Nirvana state of pure bliss without form or even a sense of individuality, equate with the Heaven promised in the Old and New Testaments of the Hebrew-based Christian Bible?
First of all the "72 Virgins" would be waiting to be simply sexual objects, vessels to contain the lust of men who would force their sexual desires upon these virtual slaves by considering that the objects were lesser beings by virtue of their gender. Heaven would not be heaven at all if that were the case.
Second, Heaven would only be "a garden of Earthly delights", a faint glimmer of that celestial location's true potential reality.
Nirvana might sound inviting, but nothing else can compare to being in the Presence and Throne-room of our great God and Savior Yeshua Ha Machiach. (Revelation 15:2).
The hive-mind concept has more in common with the so called Nirvana state which is purported to be "a perfect state...an idyllic place where there is no suffering, desire, or SENSE of SELF".
But most hospice nurses will tell you: dying patients recognize individuals and distinct family members often waiting for us on "The other side". They often wait in welcome for those in transition to that other dimensional space.
Heaven is a place so pure that only the purest of heart and mind will dwell there. Otherwise how could it possibly be Heaven? All the angst and rage, greed and suffering of mankind would be there too. That is not my idea, nor the Bible's depiction of Heaven.
The Messiah arrived on Earth in the form of an innocent infant according to prophecies sprinkled all throughout the Hebrew writings. He became Emmanuel, God With Us, (Matthew 1:23), who cloaked His Spirit inside a human body, to experience the pain and joys of human suffering, and then to throw Himself willingly upon a painful cross, and trust that the other part of His Spirit-Being, "Yaweh", would raise Him back to life again. That is why we call Him a Triune Being. But He is also One God, at the same time. Yes it is a "mystery" but one His Spirit can help you to understand.
I John 5:7 states: For there are three who bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and THESE THREE ARE ONE.
In John 10:30 Jesus said, "I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE."
Philippians 5:2 says "But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."
Jesus Himself said, " I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father except by me". In other words, belief in Jesus/Yeshua as Savior/Messiah is the only way to traverse the Bridge between here and the Kingdom of Yaweh or Father God, as many like to call Him.
He also gave up His life willingly. No man and not even all the forces of Hell could have wrestled it from Him if He had not willingly given it as a gift to all mankind.
He stated clearly in John 10:18: No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again." referring to His LIFE.
If Jesus/Yeshua was able to trust God, the Father, who had to separate Himself from His Son for a short space of time as death was allowed to overcome Him momentarily, and then the Warrior God Mighty Yeshua forcibly rushed into Abraham's Bosom and Gehenna, to release the righteous captives who had died before His Human Birth...bypassed the touch of his disciples before appearing before the Father's Throne - surely we too will follow His example of chasing death into the Victory of Resurrection!
Colossians 2:15: "And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."
Yes. He did struggle with the idea of death, bearing the enormity of the sins of all humanity for all time...a terrible weight. Perhaps He also knew that He would be cut off from his Beloved Father for a short time, who was also an integral part of Him, (as the Trinity).
In the Garden of Gethsemane He sweated what the Bible describes as "great drops like blood" . So even Jesus leaving His physical body to die for all Mankind, subsequently defeating the forces of Hell and Death, even wrenching the keys of Hell and Death from that fallen, former angel, Pretender-to-the-Throne...(Lucifer), even Jesus struggled with His impending death.
And three days (our time) later, when Jesus/Yeshua was resurrected from the dead, the anointing for LIFE was so powerful, that some of the righteous who had died before, in Jerusalem, came back to life again!
Matthew 27:50-53 reads:
Jesus when He had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the ghost [spirit]. And behold the veil in the Temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. And the earth did quake and the rocks rent. And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept AROSE and CAME OUT OF THEIR GRAVES AFTER THE RESURRECTION,AND WENT INTO THE HOLY CITY..."
If the Heavenly Father can work so dynamically on behalf of Jesus, surely He has great plans for us!
The Living Bible says it this way:
"No eye has seen, nor ear has heard and no mind has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him." I Cor. 2:9
WAS IT A MORNING LIKE THIS?
Common use only; Educational purposes. Thank you Sandy Patty.
