Perhaps the closest we can get to knowing without actually dying is Near Death Experiences (NDEs). NDEs are not a novel phenomenon but have been recorded for thousands of years. They are also not always unverifiable.
I see NDE’s as something that happens to a
dying brain, not a
dead one.
These are not ADE’s, (After Death Experiences) so what is going on here, and who has a vested interest in suggesting that we don’t really die?
Are the spirits that visit people really the spirits of the dead? And are these NDE’s really a glimpse into the spiritual realm? They are also strangely religious to those of certain faiths and are often linked to their religious beliefs. If these experiences were from God, then the spirit realm is populated with all our dear dead loved ones....and some have been granted portals into that realm. If that is true then why was it included in God’s law that necromancy (supposed communication with the dead) was forbidden?
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.” (Deut 18:9-12 ESV)
Any form of divination was forbidden...so communication with the spirit realm was an “abomination” to God...why? Because these spirits impersonate the dead and at the most vulnerable time in a person’s life (near death) chemical reactions flood the brain and are easy targets for these so called NDE’s. The demons can have a field day....especially if the person has been taught that the human soul is immortal.....nowhere does the Bible teach that. It is the devil who lied and said “you surely will not die”.....so this is not from God, but an attempt by his enemy to promote his first lie.
What precedent do we have in the Bible to give us some idea about how dangerous this practice is?
When Saul had been abandoned by Jehovah for his disobedience, he consulted a spirit medium....called “the witch of Endor”.....but he had been the one under God’s command to rid the land of these practices. He sought out the only one who was left and he asked her to bring up the prophet Samuel.
Samuel had guided Saul in his early kingship but since his death, Saul had lost the plot and was floundering because God would not allow his living prophets to speak to him. So he sought out the one he had lost, but broke God’s law to do it. (1Sam 28:3-25)
Saul never saw what the spirit medium saw. She described him to Saul who was then convinced that it was Samuel. He needed it to be Samuel....But demons can impersonate the dead and can tell people everything they want to know, even details that no one else does....they have been around for thousands of years, observing everything, and they know us better than we know ourselves.
Obeying Jehovah in everything is key to protecting ourselves from satan’s deceptions. The lesson is there....
There have been instances where those who have had near-death experiences were able to know things they shouldn't have been able to know and it was corroborated by others. There are some well-documented cases, which I will not go into here.
Those ‘well documented cases’ are not what you think....there is no immortal soul taught anywhere in the Bible. It is a doctrine that was introduced later, and one already held by all false religions. Satan makes it appear to be true, but the Bible makes no mention of a soul departing from a body at death.
Adam was not “given” a soul at his creation...he “became” a soul when God started him breathing....
Souls die...they are entirely mortal. (Ezekiel 18:4) Animals are called “souls” and they die the same death that we do....all breathe the same air and all cease to breathe at death. (Eccl 3:19-20)
The “spirit” is not an entity, but the animating force that drives life...giving oxygen to every cell in the body. Once oxygen deprivation affects the brain a flood of chemicals brings on an altered state, but at that time the brain is still alive....the demons can have fun then, preying on the uniformed and the biblically uneducated.
It serves satan’s agenda...not God’s...who teaches resurrection....which is a return to life, not a continuation of it somewhere else. If you invent immortal souls, you have to invent places for them to go.....some have been very imaginative in this....but “the grave” (Sheol/hades) is a place where the dead “sleep”. (Eccl 9:5, 10; John 11: 11-14) Where was Lazarus before Jesus raised him? Where did Jesus say he was?
