What About Near Death Experiences? | Little Lessons with David Servant

[@drjohnschmuttermaier]

I myself have also had a NDE when I was just a baby. However, it wasn’t until many years later that I came to realise I had died and visited heaven. For many years after my NDE, I thought I had been dreaming and so I never told anyone about what I had experienced, including my parents. The fact that I can still remember the event quite vividly even to this day, at the age of 61, also underscores that it was not a dream. It wasn’t until another dramatic event happened in my life many years later when I was in my thirties that I rushed to my parents to confirm with them what had happened to me when I was a baby. Not only did they confirm it to me, they were both in shock when I told them about what had happened. My father immediately said with a look of horror on his face, ‘I thought I had killed you’. My mother also said, ‘how could you remember that, you were just a baby’. This is what I experienced. My father was in our back yard digging a post hole for a shed he was building. I was in nappies sitting on the ground near him when the crow bar he was using dislodged from the ground and hit me on the head. I immediately passed out but I remember waking up in the bathroom basin where my father had shaved my head and was examining the top of my head. My mother was there and was berating my father for not being more careful. They did not take me to the hospital, nor did they seek any help. They never had a phone in those days, and as I had regained consciousness they must have assumed I was ok. But that night, when I was lying in my bed, I died. I became aware that up I was walking in a city street. There were no people there, but I remember seeing that the buildings were brilliantly lit up. They were made of diamonds, rubies, pearls, garnets and many other colourful and precious stones, and the path I was on was paved in fine gold. The whole place was so beautiful I was in awe of it. Then, as I was walking along the street this ‘monk’ came along and took my hand and led me out of the city to a hilltop where he met with two other monks who were dressed the same as he was? I say they were monks because they were all very tall and slim and were dressed in long grey robes like what monks wear. As they were talking, I turned back to look at that wonderful city, and couldn’t take my eyes off it. Then the monk who had hold of my hand bent down and said to me, ‘John, there are a lot of things you have to do, it is not your time now. You have to go back’. Then just like that I awoke back in my bed. As I said, at the time I thought it was just a dream, until many years later I had another experience that confirmed to me it was not a dream. Before I tell you what happened, you need to understand how I was raised by my parents. They had had another child before me, my brother who passed away of a rare illness, when he was around 12 months old. My parents were catholic at the time and wanted the priest to baptise their son before he died, but the priest refused and said because he was born out of wedlock, he would not do it. After that experience with the priest both my parents left the church and despised all forms of religion. They did not raise me or my two siblings in any church nor did they allow their children to be influenced by any sort of religious teachings. Whenever the topic came up they told us it was all rubbish and not to get involved. Over the years, the only times I was inside a church was either for weddings or funerals. But after my NDE I had this overwhelming feeling that God was this old man who loved me deeply and I loved Him. That was all I knew about God. A feeling. Then after many years I had a born-again experience and started to go to church. At one of these services, the pastor was reading from the bible about Gods new city that would one day come down to earth. He described this city from the bible, and when I heard how it was made of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls and lots of other rare stones and the the streets were made of gold and that the city was lit up by Gods light, the hairs on my neck stood up. This was the first time I had heard about this city in the bible. All of a sudden it hit me, that was not a dream I had when I was a baby. That place was real! I knew then that I had to confirm what had happened to me as a child with my parents. As I said, my parents did confirm what had happened to me, and had never spoken of what had happened to me at that time long ago to anyone, including me! You can imagine the shame they would have been under had they told anyone how careless my father was that day and they could see that I was alright, at least in their eyes. But he was not to blame, as accidents happen. I was not dreaming, nor was I influenced by any form of religion or religious teaching and as such had never heard about Gods amazing city until I was in my thirties. Not until I was in church and heard the pastor describe this city from the bible. I had also never told anyone about what I had experienced until after it was confirmed to me many years later. You might ask, like my mother, how could I possibly remember that as I was just a baby at the time. But I do, and I have never forgotten it. That in itself is a miracle. So you see, NDEs do happen. Are they all true? I don’t know. But one thing I do know, is that my life since then has led me to have a personal relationship with Christ and to see many more miracles happen in my life as a result of Gods direct intervention.

[@johnfroelich8554]

Good commentary. Quite plausible...

[@theneverending9319]

Most near death experiences have wildly different imagery and contradict each other.

[@botlhalenxumalo280]

There is a Christian boy who has been to heaven and has been given messages and on one of his videos he talks about judgment immediately after he dies his name is corseia, he is south African. He is on youtube

[@theneverending9319]

That's unscriptural. Judgement occurs once not everything someone dies.

[@marcrivers1]

You don't know????? The bible says when you die you sleep in the grave until judgment.

[@youngknowledgeseeker]

I'm sorry I didn't actually watch the video, that is incredibly hypocritical of me to comment when I haven't actually watched. However I would have to say that the Bible overwhelmingly teaches the death is death and that the only way out of it is resurrection. Furthermore nobody is judged either to Hell or Heaven on Earth until after the resurrection. There are only like maybe let's say 5% or less of verses that may, keyword May, teach that there is some form of life, conscious life, after death and yet before Resurrection, with the rich man and Lazarus I believe being the only one that may teach that in that death there's a separation of good and bad. All this being said near death experiences are fascinating, and I hold no judgment as to what they really are, and I am open to being wrong about death only being death, but I can't deny that the overwhelming the grossly overwhelming majority of scripture does not support it. However only God knows, and if near death experiences are of God then they are a gift for those who receive them