Can stories of returning from Heaven be harmful to our faith?

[MorningGlory]

I simply don't believe any of the '90 Minutes in Heaven' type stories.  Some of them are total fabrications and, I believe, some of them are dreams experienced while semi-comatose.  The Bible is clear on this; "It's given onto man one time to die and then the Judgment'. What do y'all think?

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2015/September14/145.html

[missmuffet]

I do not believe any of the stories of near death experience.They can tell us what they saw but was it real?Satan is out there waiting to deceive.There are several medical reasons that would make someone hallucinate.

Remember the kid who claimed he had a near death experience and his dad wrote a book about it?He recently came back and said it was not the truth.

Edited September 14, 2015 by bopeep1909

[jmldn2]

While some of these stories may be fabrications, I would not venture to say they all are.  I see no reason why this experience could not occur.

[Ezra]

It it proves to naysayers that Heaven is real, then hopefully they should think seriously about their own eternal destiny.  At the same time, Christians should be highly skeptical.

[Willa]

They occur too often for all to be false.  I know one guy who saw himself in hell!  He definitely came came back a changed man.  They were more humble and serving where before they had considered themselves superior to other Christians. The testimony of one man was extremely scriptural and also well documented by medical records.  He had been pronounced dead and was so for many hours.  

[Openly Curious]

I simply don't believe any of the '90 Minutes in Heaven' type stories.  Some of them are total fabrications and, I believe, some of them are dreams experienced while semi-comatose.  The Bible is clear on this; "It's given onto man one time to die and then the Judgment'. What do y'all think?

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2015/September14/145.html

Anything that is foretold by anyone apart from what is recorded in the pages of God's Word is a lie and meant to deceive and lead away from the truth. even Christians.   If one pays close attention to these type of stories that are told you will find they do not coincide with what has already been foretold to us in the bible of what our eternal home will be like in prophecy.  Those who are foretelling the types of stories of heaven and hell do so by personal revelation apart from God's word.   If one does so their stories must match what God has chosen to give us in part in the bible.

[Guest shiloh357]

I simply don't believe any of the '90 Minutes in Heaven' type stories.  Some of them are total fabrications and, I believe, some of them are dreams experienced while semi-comatose.  The Bible is clear on this; "It's given onto man one time to die and then the Judgment'. What do y'all think?

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2015/September14/145.html

I agree.   If you really study and compare these claims of people who have been to heaven or some a vision where they are in God's presence with the biblical men like Ezekiel, Isaiah, John and Paul, what you notice is that being in the presence of God, always puts you flat on the ground, on your face.  When the presence of God filled the Temple, the priests could not stand up.

None of that is in these experiences of heaven and God's presence.   None of them should be believed.  "Heaven Is For Real" is a total fabrication.   Just hug close to the Bible and we won't be led astray by these movies.

what is so scary is that people will use movies like this as a filter through they read the Bible.  Movies like this end up shaping people's theology instead of the Scriptures.

[JohnD]

Acid test:

2 Corinthians 12:1–5 (AV)

¹It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

²I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

³And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

⁴How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

⁵Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.

People seeing light, Buddha, silver strands, a "Jesus" of their own ethnic persuasion, all indicate the alleged accounts are imaginary.  

A screen writer once wrote of a fictional character who came back from the dead that without common reference points, it was impossible to discuss what he had seen "on the other side."

This is probably what the Apostle Paul was driving at. And the person's ability to describe what they believe they saw is a dead give away that they imagined it or it was imposed upon them by spirit influence* or even peer pressure.

*Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, so we cannot be demon possessed, but we can be influenced by them if we allow it (typically by not testing the spirits as we are commanded to in 1 John 4:1). This can sometimes enter our thoughts as ideas we think we have when in fact it is the silent whisper of a familiar spirit.

Edited September 15, 2015 by JohnD

[Guest shiloh357]

Acid test:

2 Corinthians 12:1–5 (AV)

¹It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

²I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

³And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

⁴How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

⁵Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.

That is exactly correct.  

[thereselittleflower]

I simply don't believe any of the '90 Minutes in Heaven' type stories.  Some of them are total fabrications and, I believe, some of them are dreams experienced while semi-comatose.  The Bible is clear on this; "It's given onto man one time to die and then the Judgment'. What do y'all think?

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2015/September14/145.html

It all depends MorningGlory.

I believe some most certainly can be very dangerous.

I will share my own experience with such a story, which will remain unnamed because of what happened much later after God used it to deliver me from a very deep, dark depression which I have mentioned before.   I don't think I ever shared what happened next.  It is not something I share often.   I haven't shared it because there are those who simply will not believe, and others who will try to use it against me.  I feel I am taking a risk, but I feel the message is too important in relation to your question to not share.

Some may find this story hard to believe.  It did actually happen.

About 8 months into this very deep depression, which started as a post partum depression after my last child with me contemplating suicide every day, I came across a book written by a woman who claimed to have died by suicide, gone to hell, then to heaven, then came back.    I found I could relate to much of what she said in the first half of the book which was about her life leading up to her attempted suicide.  Then the last half of the book was all about her experience after this point.

This book will remain nameless.

There was a great deal of detail.  There were some very, very profound truths.  There were also things of a very questionable nature, as well as things that couldn't possibly be true if christianity is true.

When I finished reading the book, the one thing I came away from it with was this truth:  our actions send out ripples to all other lives we touch.  Suicide is an action which sends out nothing but ripples of harm   to those who our life touches.   Suicide also deprives everyone we would have touched of our ripples from that point on leaving emptiness where our ripples would have been. 

I put the book down, walked into the kitchen and suddenly a gentle voice in my thoughts said "Do you understand what you are considering?"  It was like someone slapping me across the face and waking me up.  And I said "No Lord!  I will never consider it again!"    And at that very moment I was instantly and completely delivered from my depression.

Now you would think if God used this book it would be safe. 

Not so.

But I had to learn this.  I had to learn that just because God uses  something or someone, that doesn't mean they are safe or that He approves - or that it's not of the devil.

 

So this book just "disappeared" on me.  I had no idea where it went to.

After some time, I wanted to reread something in this book.  But I couldn't find it.

Many months later it appeared one day on my table.  I thought 'how strange - I wonder who found it and put it there?'  So I picked it up and tried to find that spot in the book. I couldn't.   I put it down, and it 'disappeared' again.

Many months later the same thing happened.  It just reappeared. I was puzzled by this and a little suspicious now, but I decided to try to find that part in the book again.  I couldn't.   I put it down.   It 'disappeared' again.

This happened a third time.   This time I was bound and determined to find that spot in the book I wanted to find.   So I sat down late one evening when everyone else was in bed, and began to read from the beginning of her experience after she "died."

At this point in my life I had been moving more and more powerfully in the power of God in spiritual warfare.

 

Within a few minutes I began hearing animal sounds behind the TV across the room from me.    I understood what those sounds were and believed their purpose was to distract me, so I ignored them, put my trust in God and kept reading.  The presence of the Holy Spirit surrounded me.    

After a bit, the sounds intensified.  The presence of the Holy Spirit surrounded me and I felt no fear and continued to ignore them, and kept reading.  

Again, the sounds intensified.  The presence of the Holy Spirit grew stronger.  I kept reading.   

Suddenly the sounds were right behind my chair.   The presence of the Holy Spirit intensified again.  It like a storm around me and I was sitting in the center of perfect calm. I felt no fear.

I asked  "Lord, what exactly is going on here?"

The reply came  as a still small voice in my thoughts: "There is a demon attached to this book."

I asked "What do you want me to do?"

The reply came "Break it's power."
 

So I closed the book, made a fist, and said  "In the name of Jesus I break your power!" and I slammed my fist on the cover.

I saw a brief green flame shoot from the binding of the book.

The noises returned to behind the TV.

I asked God "Now what?"

"Burn it."

Next to the TV was our wood stove which had a hot fire in it.

Right next to the TV with the noises behind it.

 

I got up, marched over to the wood stove just a few feet from the TV, opened it up, and put the book in the middle of the fire, and closed the door.

The noises diminished.

 The door has a large glass panel so I could see what happened.

Nothing happened.

The book just sat there in the fire and did nothing.

After a few minutes i opened the door, took the book out and it was perfectly cold to the touch without a mark on it.

(I had heard of such things, but this was the first time this happened to me.)

 

I stirred the fire up even hotter.  I put the book back in and left the door slightly ajar and waited.

The noises diminished.

But nothing happened to the book.

 

After a few minutes I took it out again.  Now it was very slightly warm to the touch but not a mark on it anywhere.  

So this time, very determined to see this through,  I stirred up the fire again, opened the book and fanned out the pages and set it page edge down fanned out like that in the fire, and left the door ajar slightly and watched.

It took a few minutes but eventually the pages began to burn.  Very slowly at first, then when it finally caught fire, the noises behind the TV ceased.

 

God taught me some very valuable lessons that day.    God is not bound by our sensibilities; and even if He uses something, that doesn't mean what He used is of Him.

A book like that can lead people away from God.

 

 

Edited September 15, 2015 by thereselittleflower