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

[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

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.

So you don't believe God uses prophets today?

 

 

[MorningGlory]

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.

I think some of these people BELIEVE that they died and went to Heaven, it's simply not Biblical for the reason I quoted in the OP. 

[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

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.

 

 

I'm glad you posted that, therese.  I totally believe every word for I had a similar experience a few year years ago.  I still can't talk about it but it changed my life.  Thanks for sharing. 

[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.

So you don't believe God uses prophets today?

 

 

I believe God has gifted people he uses to expound the scriptures that we have been given in the 66 books of the canon.  I never said God does not have prophets today.  I even used the word foretelling that is future events.  But if one is foretelling their foretelling has to coincide with what the prophets has foretold to us in the word.  The prophets are subject to the prophets in the word.

[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

You are correct not to believe them - since most of  everything published by the world / news/ church/ widely is false and meant to deceive.   

But no,  it's not harmful to true faith in Yeshua Messiah.

Only, true faith in Yeshua Messiah is rare;  

so all the different stories and religions may be harmful to people because 

they(all the world and most religion) do all they can to keep people who want to seek the Kingdom of Heaven from finding it, just as Yeshua said.) 

And, perhaps, most people never even think of seeking God's Kingdom, either because 

they think they've already got it made (and they're wrong), or because they're 

happy or comfortable where they are ("woe to the comfortable") (not good)... 

Seek the Father Creator Yahweh.  Trust Him.  

Cry out to Him for His help to find and stay on the narrow way - the only way. 

He will help.  He is trustworthy and true and faithful.

 

John 16:13Amplified Bible (AMP)

13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future].

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

....

Yes; if people follow stories like these it's just too easy to fall away from Scripture and the true way to Heaven. 

[MorningGlory]

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.  

They're not all false, for sure.  But none of them are real.  If a person is truly dead, he/she is NOT coming back and that's Biblical. 

[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

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.

So you don't believe God uses prophets today?

 

 

I believe God has gifted people he uses to expound the scriptures that we have been given in the 66 books of the canon.  I never said God does not have prophets today.  I even used the word foretelling that is future events.  But if one is foretelling their foretelling has to coincide with what the prophets has foretold to us in the word.  The prophets are subject to the prophets in the word.

Yet there have been people who have foretold future events in warnings to believers, such as coming invasions and attacks, giving them time to leave.  Those who obeyed the warning survived.  Those who didn't were overrun, many killed, etc.

 

[missmuffet]

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.

Yes,and then people write books about their experience earning a bundle from the book.I know there have been people who have said they see Jesus and their family members who have gone to heaven but then they die.They are dead...period.

Edited September 15, 2015 by bopeep1909

[xyluz]

If it has happened to "mere" men in the past, then i see no reason why it cannot happen now.

Yes, maybe 90 percent will be false, but God cannot be restricted to our myopic believes...

If He wants to show a person a glimpse of heaven or hell, who are we to say no.

Although, i will not castigate anyone, except those that are obviously against the scripture, like Saying Jesus is actually a very muscular angel respected by other angels in Heaven... now that is just wrong!

Yet i will not blindly accept anything said by anybody.

So, i think we should keep an open mind...

Edited September 15, 2015 by xyluz

[missmuffet]

Lazarus was dead for three day.And he was really dead.Jesus brought him back to life for His glory.Do you think Lazarus went around saying "Oh boy do I have a story for you"?.