Originally posted by Andrew Hamilton
[b]…Curious and not terribly trustworthy.
..…
Why not trustworthy? There are completely rational non-supernatural explanations for their experiences and there is no particular reason to believe they are lying. My brother claims to have had an out-of-body experience but doesn’t make the absurd claim that he REALLY was outside his body and ju ...[text shortened]... st) and I have absolutely no reason to distrust his claim to have had this experience. Have you?[/b]
======================================
Why not trustworthy? There are completely rational non-supernatural explanations for their experiences and there is no particular reason to believe they are lying.
=======================================[/b]
I do not deny that. The important thing for me is "How does it line up with what is taught in the Bible, God's revelation?"
Our spiritual enemy is very subtle. He can attempt to distract the Christian from Christ by pleasant things.
Such near death visions I would definitely place on the "back-burner". At most I might say to that person who had this experience -
"Hmmm. That is interesting. I don't deny it. Niether do I confirm it. I just find it interesting."
My caution would be up just because it tickles human curiosity. The word of God has told us what we need to know about living and dying. That is much more important to know.
===================================
My brother claims to have had an out-of-body experience but doesn’t make the absurd claim that he REALLY was outside his body and just excepts that it was just a hallucination and certainly doesn’t claim anything supernatural from it (which isn’t surprising given he is an atheist) and I have absolutely no reason to distrust his claim to have had this experience. Have you?
==========================================
Once again. I do not automatically discount the experience. Perhaps something para normal did take place. I do not discount such an experience out of hand.
My concern is "Okay, does this experience line up with what the Bible teaches. Or does this experience tend to cause us to discard the Bible and trust more in what this person has told us?"
Maybe, he did experience this or that. What is important to me is what the Bible teaches. If it agrees, it is at least not very harmful. If it does not agree but says something else, I don't trust it.
In the former case, it doesn't add much. In the latter case it may be harmful.
Paul warned the Christians about sensational visions of angels which visions could deceive:
"Let no one defraud you ... dwelling on things which he has seen vainly puffed up by his mind set on the flesh." (See Col. 2:18)
This may not be a purposeful defrauding. But an unintentional
distracting from Christ. That distraction being some kind of sensation vision or sensational experience which causes one to turn from Christ to the sensation.
The next passage speaks of the need of
..."holding the Head". The Head meaning Jesus Christ. We Christians need to hold fast to the Head, Jesus Christ. We need to be cautious about being distracted from Christ even by sensational and good things.
History is littered with accounts of people being distracted from Christ by supposedly "spiritual" visions or sensational para-normal experiences.
Whether they happened or not is secondary to me. Maybe something did happen. What is more important is "Does this encrease my trust in Jesus or distract me from that to something else? Does this tend to encrease my thirst for God? Or does it tend to be a sideshow, a curiosity, making me think about sensational experiences just for their own sake?"