The Parallel Journey Unveils a Parallel Reality (cont'd from May 27 post)

Physically, I was still far from out of the woods at this point and would go through more trauma, including bouts with pneumonia, ”afib” (atrial fibrillation) and other issues.  I would be in critical care for a total of 4 weeks and rehab for another 3 weeks before being discharged.

So, what lessons and insights have I gained from the whole Parallel Journey experience?   Truly, there are many to share, but one stands out as the greatest.  If I forget all the rest, it will undoubtedly remain permanently impressed upon me. 

I will always remember the deeply moving scenes of souls represented by stubs mounted on pedestals and masses of specks stuck in the walls and lying like debris in the streets of history.  The “tour of the ages,” strategically placed like an exclamation point at the very end of my ordeal, clearly emphasized the focus of the journey.

As a result, I now have a new passion to warn those who will listen that a horrific future awaits them unless they find the way of escape and that their one way of escape is to come to know Jesus and trust Him to save them.  He is the One who has already served our sentence in full and the only One with the power to rescue us.  Otherwise, we are destined to a monotonous, maddening and agonizing nightmare without end.

Now, some of you probably have been thinking, “Was this an authentic view of Hell?”  Or, “Do you really believe an underground track car is the means by which people will be transported to Hell!”  And, “What about the presence of people and voices who were still very much alive and active in the world?”  Those are great questions and some of the many with which I’ve wrestled over the past months.  I’ll be addressing these in future segments.

First of all, in dealing with the question of reality I’ve come to the conviction that my experience was real and for a purpose.  By real, I mean this:  I was fully conscious of a coherent flow and logical sequence of events without interruption over a period that apparently spanned at least several days.  My mind and emotions were fully engaged, as well as my will, to pray and to make decisions and commitments.  I felt stress, fears and suffering frequently throughout the experience.  Not only that, but since then, my memory of the journey and its impact on my life have been as vivid and lasting as any experience I’ve ever had in life.

Let me state in another way:  The world of the spirit is real!  Dying of the body merely releases the spirit that continues to exist.

Although I believe the experience was prepared uniquely for me and in the details is unlike that of anyone else, I am equally convinced that it was not inconsistent with Biblical truth and principles.  Was I actually in Hell itself?  I don’t think so, but rather in a place, or state, where the spirit of a person becomes loosely bound to the body as it nears death.

Although not mentioned specifically in the Bible, it was thought by some Jews in Jesus’ day that a person’s spirit hovered near the body for three days after their death.  That is why some scholars believe that Jesus waited until the fourth day after Lazarus died to raise him from the dead to demonstrate His power over death beyond the time when the spirit might still be present.

In stories of people who have revived from death or near-death experiences, they often tell of having seen their bodies from the outside.  I can similarly confirm this phenomenon as I experienced it regularly during the Parallel Journey and which became more frequent at the end as my life hung in the balance.

To the atheist, agnostic and skeptic the evidence that physical death does not simply end it all should serve as an extremely powerful motivator for them to reconsider their denial of the spiritual realm.  For me, my own Parallel Journey provided convincing personal evidence of the parallel reality that exists in the spirit world.  But even more important for me is that I know the One who holds the keys to death and the spirit world.  Do you know Him?  Don’t become an eternal casualty like those I saw in my journey.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades”. -- Rev 1:17-18 (ESV)