Purgatory, Part 1

One of the things my NDE (near death experience) taught me was I never really resolved what I thought happened after death. Life is so busy and complicated I assumed I would deal with the nuances of the afterlife when it happened.

I also relied on my protestant Methodist upbringing to teach me certain things. So like most in my camp, I believed after death our souls went to heaven or hell. I wasn’t sure if the body followed, but apparently I did, because in church I said “I believe …in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting”. (Apostle’s Creed) I think this is a good and logical belief. But there must be more to it.

When we say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth”,  Does this mean “heaven” the dwelling place of God, or just the skies?

“And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried...
…
The ecumenical version of the creed offers “He descended to the dead”. This comes after “crucified, dead and buried”. Some versions come right out and say “He descended into hell”. Then “He ascended into heaven”.

So Christ died, went to “hell” or “to the dead” and then rose on the third day. He then ascended into heaven.

Clearly you would think we all know what we mean by heaven, hell, place of the dead, and so forth. But it does get confusing.

Hell is used in the Old Testament to translate the Hebrew word “sheol” which means the place of the dead without reference to happiness or the reverse. In other passages there is an idea of punishment. In the New Testament the word hell is used to translate “hades”, which is the same as sheol, and gehenna, the place of retribution for evil deeds”. It will depend on which translation you are reading. (Cruden’s)

The authorized version (KJV) uses “hell” where most of the revised versions retain the use of sheol, hades, gehenna, etc. to try and let the reader know exactly what word is used. Sheol is a Hebrew word, hades is a greek word.

The word purgatory is not in the Bible, per se. It comes from the Latin “purgare” to make clean, to purify. The Catholic Encyclopedia says “purgatory …is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God’s grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions”.

Most people, when asked, believe Roman Catholics believe in purgatory as a place or condition and Protestants do not. But what about Orthodox Christians, Latter Day Saints, Judaism and other religions. The discussion can get very interesting.

The Second Chance

I admit I am having some difficulty writing this chapter. I've started and stopped several times. Something about it doesn't feel exactly right yet. I'm trying to get my mind and my heart to work together.

The first thing I said to Micah when the respirator was removed was , "Micah it's wonderful. God gives everyone a second chance". And I was so thrilled and excited. I felt like I was walking on air. I wasn't talking about Him giving me a chance to come back to life. I was talking about Him giving everyone a second chance at ETERNAL LIFE.

Bad decisions made on earth carry over to heaven I always thought. Reject Christ here and you reject Him for eternity. But I witnessed Him give a man a second chance for heaven. And the man had already died. Be thinking about this while I collect my thoughts and memories and try to get this right. But doesn't this sound like the Jesus we have always known...One who trumps law with grace when we least expect it. One warning:  If you intentionally reject Christ here amidst the splendor of His earth, you will likely reject Him again amongst the splendor of His heaven.  (Read to the end to understand)

Heaven Part 2 (The Rest of the Story)

"Dear Lord, let me tell the truth here as I remember it, nothing more, nothing less."

Okay, I owe you another chapter on Purgatory, part 2. A chapter or two on heaven and at least one or two on hell. But let’s assume you can research that on your own for now. It’s time to tell you “what happened next”.

For those of you who previously started reading this as a blog, I apologize for holding you in semi-suspense for a couple months after the posting, “Heaven Part 1”.

Since then, I have tried to study hard and understand what I experienced. I have asked for help from others. I’m embarrassed to say a couple great men I counted on to help me never called me back. Some good and deeply spiritual people became uncomfortable with parts of my story. Obviously that had an effect on me.   If what I report seems contrary to Scripture, please believe Scripture.

I was sure I was either mistaken, or mad on morphine, when I tried to explain what happened next. Perhaps you remember.  I was in line…the man in front of me was receiving God’s grace…It was a beautiful experience…and then after a tremendously wonderful encounter with Christ that lasted a good long time, I found myself back in this world.  The next experience was a continuation of the first, but different.  Different enough that I have never been totally confident in sharing it.  If indeed I experienced two separate cardiac arrests, this would be the second.   In a place not here, I was told it was time to choose.   Choose what?  I didn't know.

Don’t think of this part as going on a trip, or moving to a different place (although it must have been) but I was told it was “their turn” to talk to me. I was given over to what were supposed to be “demons” (more nerdy than scary) who would invite me to stay with them in “hell”. I was told I had been given a cosmic “truth serum”, so I would not be able to lie. I would not be able to make excuses or rely on my religious history. I couldn't fake it.  I would have to choose. Did I want to be in heaven eternally, or not? Think about it.   I began thinking about some of the Christians I knew, and wasn't sure I wanted to spend eternity with them.  Have I truly chosen Christ? Heaven or hell…choose now. Just as those who had not surrendered to Christ on earth were given a last chance to believe and accept  Christ, so I was now being given a chance to defect.

This isn't what you were expecting was it?  Don't get nervous yet.

Of course the "hell" I'm describing is not the one we read about or think of in Scripture. That must be the hell after the final judgment. This hell was nothing more or less than every pleasure earth has to offer. Good weather, good food, good sex, good everything. It was whatever you craved, whatever you loved. Definitely not the lake of fire and continuous torment I expected. 

Standing in heaven's front yard in that line facing Christ, I was "not of the earth".   I was not carnal.  I had no love of anything except Jesus and His world without end.  I was absent from the body. Earthly desires were foreign or absent.

But on this journey/detour, I felt all the pull of earth and flesh again.  Of course I didn’t choose this option. But I do seriously remember thinking, “Maybe I’ll just ask Him (Christ) if I can stay here for a couple hundred years or so and then meet back in heaven?”  Don't laugh.  I was trying to figure out how to suggest this option until grace threw me a rope and pulled me back in .  Only the blood of Christ cures sin.  Carnality is tough to kill.  Even when you are dead.

So I woke up in the hospital, full of morphine and tubes.  The respirator kept me from speaking.  Was this a dream?    My dreams were in another area of the brain. I had two weeks worth of really strange ones.  (Perhaps I will write about my dreams one day.  If so, I will start with the one where Barbara shoots a guy in the forehead with a crossbow because he tries to board our boat uninvited.  We don't even own a boat.)

I was very excited about being in heaven. The “hell” part was also exciting but disturbing.   As I tried to tell my adventure, I became very confused.  Maybe I wasn’t supposed to tell this. Tomorrow (Sept.3, 2010) marks 9 months to the day.  I have told this part to only a few trusted souls.  I only tell  it now because I've come to understand my life  and therefore my ministry, is not for the masses, but for the few.   Perhaps there is someone who needs to hear this.  The masses will reject it anyway.  Then I remembered (while reciting the Apostle’s Creed), Presbyterians say, “He descended into hell, the third day he rose again from the dead”.

My wife was a Presbyterian, and I went to a Presbyterian Seminary for grad school, but I'm a Methodist, not a Presbyterian. We don’t say the creed that way.  Where did that come from?  In 56 years I had never wondered.

It’s part of the creed. Most Christians just don’t say it. “I believe that Jesus…descended into hell.” A Christianity Today article in 2000, “Did Jesus Really Descend to Hell?” tells of a Christian college where a series of messages on the Apostle’s Creed had to omit this item because none of the 12 professors of Bible and theology believed it. Actually, the statement is not found in the earliest form of the creed. Remember, “hell” is “hades”, the world of the departed. Suddenly, certain Scriptures I had read, but placed in the brain's parking lot, began to make sense:

Acts 2:31 (get your Bible out, don’t make me do all the work)
I Peter 3:19
Matt. 12:40
Ephesians 4:8-10
I Peter 4:6
Luke 16:19-31
Psalm 49
These scriptures make a case, not water tight, but solid, for an interface between living, dying, heaven and hell.   After His crucifixion, Jesus' body lay in the tomb three days.   His spirit was not idle.  He went to Hades and preached.   Is it that odd we would also make such a visit.  Remember, Jesus is Lord.  He is Lord of it all.  Even in hell they understand He holds the keys. I’m not trying to make a theological argument,   I’m trying to defend my own sanity.

Heaven, Part 2, started with rapture and glory and ended with a tour of a pre-millennial “hell” right out of Hollywood.  When our bodies die, our souls either "go to sleep" or "go to the place of the dead".   I wish the Scriptures were clearer.  My (unique) experience helps my understanding.  I believe we go the place of the dead.   There Jesus meets us and loves on us, inviting us to live eternally with Him.  We make a decision.  If that decision is made here on earth, I believe it is easier to confirm there.  Therefore, we should evangelize and make Christ known throughout the world.

But all that doesn't really matter.   It is what it is.   Maybe I missed something.   Maybe I took a wrong turn or wasn't listening.   Maybe when they said "turn right for harp lessons", I turned left and got lost in a rainbow.   Perhaps I was exploring the boundaries of grace and lost my way.  Surely, the Bible is enough.   Scripture points the way.  What Scripture?   All Scripture.  What we know about Christ is what we've been taught, and we should teach others.  Many in the world have not been taught.

So this is my experience.   I visited the front yard of heaven.   I witnessed grace and love beyond compare.  I was privileged to choose (not be forced) a life with God.   I considered the options.  I now can say with Paul, "O Death, where is your victory, O death, where is your sting?...the sting of death is sin".  I Cor. 15:55  

"Behold I tell you a mystery;  we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." I Cor. 15:51

Today I focus on living.  I still must die someday unless the Lord returns.  Will I get to choose again?   Probably.  Do I believe my experience is real, not just a morphine dream?  Absolutely. 

RULE 38-3

The 1968 Masters Tourney is not famous because Bob Goalby won. It is famous because Roberto De Vicenzo did not win...even though he tied for the lowest score. In haste he signed the score card handed to him by his playing partner for the final round, Tommy Aaron. He didn't check it. He didn't add it up. He was staring at the bogey 5 he made on eighteen. He was thinking "If I had just made par I would have won. But now I am tied with Goalby, and tomorrow we have to play an eighteen hole playoff'."

Not so fast!  Because of your mistake, you will not be playing in a playoff.   You finished second.

So what does the 1968 Masters tourney have to do with Dec. 3, 2009?   Aaron, by mistake, put down a par 4 for seventeen instead of a birdy 3. In fact, there would eventually be 3 mistakes on the card: the totals for the back nine (35 instead of 34) and the eighteen (66 instead of 65), and most important, the score on seventeen. Note:  The totals weren't on the card when Roberto signed it.

Rule 38-3 says

"No alteration of scores: No alteration may be made on a card after the competitor has returned it to the committee. If the competitor returns a score for any hole lower than he actually played, he shall be disqualified. A score higher than actually played must stand as returned."

The world via television watched him make a 3 on seventeen. But according to rule 38-3 he made a 4. According to rule 38-3 he finished second. Couldn't anyone on the committee change it? Couldn't someone find a way to overlook the rule in favor of what was right and fair? Not on that day.

Rule 38-3 prevailed. Even the great Bobby Jones, nearby in his cabin, very ill, was consulted and agreed the rule must prevail. By now it had become a big deal. Everyone knew. But earlier, at the table, the gentleman in charge of collecting the cards could have found Roberto (he had been led off for an interview) and simply said, "Roberto. You just signed your card with a wrong score. You need to erase that 4 and put down a 3. (Roberto didn't add up the scores. Most players didn't. They just checked their individual hole scores. The totals were written in by the official after the card was signed.) But he didn't do that. Instead, he ran to the tournament director to report a rule violation.  Today, things are different.   The Masters table is run more like  PGA event tables.   The players are forced to check their cards, confirm the numbers, and only sign when satisfied. 

Rule 38-3 prevailed.

Even today, as in the 2010 PGA, Dustin Johnson was given a stroke for grounding his club in a bunker that only appeared to be a bunker to someone on TV.  Arnold Palmer did it years before and was forgiven, but Johnson was not.   The stroke kept Johnson from going to a playoff for the win.  I watched it.   It never occurred to me his ball was in a bunker.   But rules are rules.

Some people live by rule 38-3, and relate to others with rule 38-3. Some of you are reading this, saying, Danny, let it go.   Rules are rules.   It must be this way.  OK.

But others, instead of throwing stones, throw in a new Titleist or Maxfli and say, "Hit a mulligan".

All I'm saying is the rules should have prevailed December 3, 2009. 

But instead I watched God giving out mulligans. Maybe it was a one day thing. I'm not trying to build a new theology of salvation (fancy word is soteriology) or enhance an old one. I believe the rules still stand. But I also believe if God wants to give a mulligan, that's His business not mine. Amazing grace!

So How Shall We Live

I would think if someone died, or came very close to death, they would return to the world with a new determination to live different.   They would not be consumed or even concerned with time management, paying bills, or daily concerns.  They would be "other" worldly.  They would be above natural law.  They would be totally consumed with the after life and spiritual matters.  At least that's what I thought.

And we are...until we have to manage time, pay a bill or concern ourselves with something so mundane and earthly as...you name it...anything we deal with daily.  So then, how should we live?

The world I came back to had not changed.   I had changed.  Most profoundly, I live without fear of death.  I live with a new love and appreciation for the moment, for the present.   Ironically I have self diagnosed early dementia.  My short term memory is virtually gone.   I keep a daily calendar not so much to remind me what to do today, but to remind me what I did yesterday.   Some days I am shocked and amazed at what I have forgotten.    I write everything down and then try to remember where I wrote it.

On a personal note, I am amazed at how easy I feel anger, resentment or anxiety over trivial matters.   These are emotions I thought would be banished forever.   I am definitely not perfected.  Almost every day I feel pain for something stupid I have done or almost done that day.  So I am not living in a utopia.  I am right here with you. 

At first, my experience brought me much closer to a "universalism"  position than I was comfortable with.   But I am comfortable.  (Read on, you will find my 3 answers to universalism, borrowed from Ben Johnson)   So, while I still feel an overwhelming desire to evangelize, share the gospel and love people for Christ, I no longer have a need to argue, fight or force people to accept my/His gospel.   I believe they have a Friend in their corner.  I live with the hope they will be given a last opportunity to accept or deny the gospel by One more capable than me as the Evangelist.

It answered my fears for the people in the world who never heard of Jesus?  Didn't you somehow secretly hope He would give them a break?

The love and grace of God should make us better missionaries and evangelists, not less.  So then, how should we live?   We should live with thankfulness for grace.   And we/you should:

1.  Accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
2.  Invite others in our circle of influence to know Him, too.
3.  Study our Bible and study with other Christians so we can know the truth of God's Word.
4.  Invite others in our circle of influence to know Him, too.
5.  Live as though today was your last day on earth.
6.  Invite others in your circle of influence to know Him, too.
7.  Let everyone you meet today know that you know God and have experienced His grace.
8.  Invite others in your circle.....you get the point.

There is an old saying,

"We are not ready to live until we are ready to die".

Likewise, we are not ready to die until we are satisfied we have given life our best.  So how should we then live?   Live as though today was your last day on earth.   Don't be sparing with "I love you", or "You are the best".   Imagine you are in heaven and yesterday was your last day on earth.   What did you forget to say or do?  

So shall you  live!