After Death


Last night Jim and I went to see the new movie, After Death.  It is one I had really looked forward to seeing, however while Jim liked it - I found it to be rather boring.

BUT...I was fascinated by the fact that most (if not all) of the people the movie interviewed about their "after death experiences" each came back to write a book.

  • Don Piper - 90 Minutes in Heaven
  • Mary Neal - To Heaven and Back
  • John Burke - Imagine Heaven
  • Howard Storm - My Descent Into Death
  • Dean Braxton - In Heaven!:  Experiencing the Throne of God
  • Steve Kang - From Hell to Heaven:  Buddhism to Christianity through the Gospel of Jesus and a Near Death Experience
  • Anita Onarecker Wood - Divine Appointment:  Our Journey to the Bridge
  • Eva Piper - A Walk Through the Dark
These are people who, before dying, had not been writers.  However after experiencing what they did - they all felt the NEED to come back and write about it.  To tell people.  To warn people.

Some of their stories seemed "heavenly", while others recounted a more hellish experience.

And as I mulled that over in my head I remembered a story from the Bible told in Luke 16:19-31:

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what feel from the rich man's table.  Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

The time came hen the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side.  The rich man also died and was buried.  In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.  So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers.  Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

For me - that's the point.  In this movie, and in the books that those who have returned from the dead have written - the plea of the rich man is being fulfilled.  We are being told THERE IS LIFE AFTER DEATH - and Heaven and Hell exist.

What we do with that information is up to us...


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