What's your 'take' on folks that say they've gone to Heaven... or Hell for that matter... and returned to tell the story?
There's no arguing that people seem to be clamoring to hear and read their tales. I guess there's no way of really knowing if these folks are lying, were dreaming, having a God-given vision, or actually went.
How much does it matter? Scripture seems to be okay with us not knowing. God knows... I guess that's good enough for me.
2 Corinthians 12:2 - "I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don't know, God knows." (HCSB)
This particular book, with the name of it's authors, IS pretty ironic though. =)
*thanks to Margaret Feinberg for the photo
My take is that the emphasis must be on the first syllable of their last name, sounding similar phonetically to the beginning of the name "Sally," and that the middle syllable must take on a sort of "-er" sound, as in "dirt." If the pronunciation you are suggesting is, indeed, the correct one, then I feel sorry for their children because other kids can be mean, even if the teasing is nonsensical. But the kid did get to visit Heaven, so maybe the teasing wouldn't bother him. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, it is tough for me, generally, to consider things which are outside of my own experiences. It seems like an impossible thing to see Heaven, or any place that is not in our physical realm, and live to tell the tale, I guess. But what about Isaiah and his vision of the Throne; or John's visions and nerdy desire to measure everything; or Harry's time in that bright white place with Dumbledore after Lord V. hits him with the killing curse (fictional)? God does know and that's great, but we can at least know that this type of thing is possible, right? And think what people back then thought of those visions:
ReplyDelete"Look, all I'm sayin' is I wouldn't trust anyone named Isaiah to run my basketball team, let alone tell me what God looks like, ya know?" or,
"Dude, you're listening to that guy? His name is what I call my toilet."
Only God knows what I was trying to say. Sorry. Is there a danger to just believing that the kid isn't lying? And is it a decent read?