What's Heaven really like?

originally posted by: randyvs
Perhaps Heaven can be seen thru the eyes of a little girl.

With out faith, you can not communicate with God.

One detail that fascinates me about her paintings...

In the book, Heaven is for Real, of all the drawing renditions of Jesus, the only one that Colton agreed looked like the guy he saw in Heaven was the one painted by Akiane.

Read the book "Heaven is for Real" A little boy went to heaven during surgery. They kept showing him pictures asking if that's what Jesus looked like till it was so many they just started asking what was wrong with it. He looked at the painting where Jesus is looking strait at you and he said "Nothings wrong with that. That's the one!" Source

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

"...What I like the most about it is that there is no mention of Jesus. I have thought for a long time that a true Heaven would be wasted if it only had room for Christians."

A true heaven awaits the souls that have lived a virtuous life. Virtue is the enrichment of happiness. If we strive to enhance the measure of joy against misery, then God will be quite pleased.

originally posted by: Diderot
a reply to: TerryMcGuire

"...What I like the most about it is that there is no mention of Jesus. I have thought for a long time that a true Heaven would be wasted if it only had room for Christians."

A true heaven awaits the souls that have lived a virtuous life. Virtue is the enrichment of happiness. If we strive to enhance the measure of joy against misery, then God will be quite pleased.

So those people who sacrificed to teach the difference between good and bad don't deserve it?

Infact has anyone ever sat down and thought about the mechanics of a heaven. When you do that you tell me just how great it really would be.

Alot of darkness has be present for it to seem so grand. And we all know about things that look so good.

Hiya Murgatroid,

originally posted by: Murgatroid
Colton Burpo's case for example, he died and met his own unborn sister that he had never even been told about.

Colton Burpo was not 'dead' in any medical capacity and was in fact far from it.

I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't look into NDEs, you had piles of interesting information in your post. I do think it's a very chaotic area of study though and I don't put it past people to talk it up (not you in particular, the Burpos). I mean how do we explain people who see nothing? People who don't come back with any interesting information? That studies within hospitals don't produce consistent results?

Jury is still out for me.

a reply to: Murgatroid

Thank you Murg I love how you love our Lord!
I'll be reading that for sure.

In the eyes of everything the idea of heaven seems rediculous.

Brains, in particular children's, are like sponges. They will retain everything, even if its forgotten its still there. Something like a conversation in front of a very young child will stick. These memories can resurface through dreams, hypnosis, and NDE's, amongst other things. Its a complex subject but unless someone is raised in complete isolation from any human contact and then comes up with stuff they could not have possibly known, not overheard at any stage of their life, then I remain extremely sceptical, even suspicious.

People will do whatever it takes to delude themselves into thinking there is more after death. The most likely explanation is that when we die, we die. Our brain goes through a shutting down process which will have all sorts of effects on what is left of our consciousness, but once its completely shut down, there is nothing, oblivion. Anything else is likely just wishful thinking really, its the ego struggling to come to terms with mortality.

And this is where people and articles such as referenced in the OP come into play. They prey on these fears and make a living from it. Which is pretty disgusting really, even evil. Filling people with false hope in order to profit. Religion has done the same throughout the millennia, and this is the exact same scam at play.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I've always wondered what people in comas feel. Do they hear what is going on around them? Are they concious of who is in the room with them? So many questions.

I saw this very interesting article about vegetative states and consciousness a few days ago and it sort of fits in to the OP:
Vegetative patients may be more conscious of the world than we think

Severely brain-damaged patients in a persistent vegetative state may be capable of being consciously aware of the outside world, scientists said.
A relatively simple test based on measuring patterns of brainwaves has revealed that some unconscious patients in a vegetative state have a “robust” network of brain activity that allows conscious thoughts, they said.

The study, published in the online journal Plos Computational Biology, found that four of the 13 patients with persistent vegetative state had a “robust” network of brain activity that would allow conscious thoughts, which was confirmed when they were asked to imagine playing tennis when their brains were scanned using a magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) machine.

The brain networks in two brain damaged patients (left and middle), one of whom imagined playing tennis (middle), alongside a healthy adult (right)

As someone who has had a NDE, I know that there is something after we die, whatever you prefer to call it, there is an afterlife. Prior to my NDE I thought when we die, it would be much like before we were born, nothingness. I also didn't buy in to humans having souls. My NDE completely changed my beliefs on both the afterlife and souls.

You die and if your lucky enough you come back as jlos vibrator.

I assume heaven is as the Bible described. Made of gold and gems and awesome stuff like that. Oh and perfect. Besides that, who can say, really? Could this guy in the coma have been tripping out and seeing something due to the fact that he was in a coma? Well, I know my great aunt in mexico went into a coma a decade back ago or so, and when she woke up she mentioned that she heard what people had been saying to her the whole time and was lucid in that way. anything is possible though, so maybe those people did see it.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I want to believe in Heaven, more than anything, actually. I mean, it's comforting to think that there is an end goal to all of this. A reward, if you will. But, if I am to be honest with my inner cynic, I fear heaven is a man made concept borne out of the ultimate fear of the unknown that is death.

Don't get me wrong, I freely admit anything is possible. I would be so happy if at the time of my death, I find out my fears were totally unjustified, and there really is a place for me that is filled with unconditional love.

I envy those with blind faith, but this little bugger of a voice within myself will not allow me to entertain such thoughts without proof. I'd love to squash that voice into oblivion...alas he seems nearly indestructible thus far.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

Ive had my experience s, that make me know there is more, and reading storys like these make me want to find out. Make me want to know for sure, this world makes me tired.

Heaven couldn't be better, 72 virgins and all. Lol

a reply to: Artanis667

I also have no reference for the transitional period between death and the resurrection other than as the bible says "sleep" or "in the grave". It could go by in a flash or considering we also dream as we sleep, could be the temporary account of Heaven or at least what it is before the establishment of the Kingdom.

I guess it all depends upon what you and I have been taught and believe. I was taught that there is no transitional period between death and resurrection. The doctrine of Christ Jesus teaches that there is a hell and that there is a kingdom of heaven. In order to be in hell or heaven we would have to be judged and sentenced and in order to be judged we would have to be in a conscious state at death.

The reason that I believe this is true is that Jesus promised one of His companions that he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43)-- Paul explains that this paradise is in the third heaven and out of the our universe (2nd Corinthians 12:2-4) -- Then John tells us that a tree of life is in this Paradise which is in the third heaven (Revelation 2:7) -- And finally John reveals that these trees and water of life is none other than New Jerusalem (Revelation 22.2 -14)

Now by reading this from three Apostles, I understand that the companion of Jesus was conscious and passed from death into everlasting life simply because Jesus told him that this very day that we both die you will be in paradise with Me (meaning Jesus). In the KJV New Testament the word paradise is only used three times and I have showed all three. So in my understanding if God is no respecter of any one person then all people are treated the same and therefore all people are immediately judged, sentenced and receive their judgement of heaven or hell.

So I have come to believe that as the body, soul, dies that the spirit is then judged and if given everlasting life must live from the water and trees of life which is in the New Jerusalem. John tells us that the celestial spirit is then clothed with a celestial covering and each new citizen is given a white stone with a new name. The unsaved spirit will remain in hell till the last day and then destroyed in the ethereal fire.

The last day resurrection of the dead from the earth or grave is not the doctrine of Christ Jesus. This rabbinic understanding was the mindset of the Jews at this time and even the Apostles understood this to be true throughout most of the NT but Jesus eventually revealed His kingdom of heaven through John. There will be two gatherings in the future and Revelation does call them resurrections but they are not the same as the rabbinic last day resurrection. In fact the meaning of last day is understood by the doctrine of Jesus as meaning the end of this universe whereas the Jews believe this to be the new era of Jewish rule of the world with king Davids lineage.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
a reply to: Cobaltic1978

The guy wasn't dead.
Even though the monitors couldn't pick up brain activity,that does not mean there was activity on some as yet undetectable level.

I would call what he experienced a kind of out of body connection to the super consciousness that we all share.
Thats how he saw his dead sister.

Do we go go there to stay when we really die?

Heck,I hope so-it sounds sweet.
But I have my doubts.

In addition, even though he perceives that he was experiencing things the whole seven days, it is very possible that his hallucination took place the instant he went under or came back up and did not really have experiences the whole time down.

originally posted by: TechniXcality
a reply to: Cobaltic1978

Ive had my experience s, that make me know there is more, and reading storys like these make me want to find out. Make me want to know for sure, this world makes me tired.

As I said, we will get there soon enough, just don't be in a hurry.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I was never in Coma , or never knew anyone with an expierience like the person that seen above "life" Im not a beliver , but i am currently looking for a religion maybe. See whats true