I Believe in Heaven , livre ebook

© 2013 by Cecil Murphey and Twila Belk. Cecil Murphey and Twila Belk are represented by The Knight Agency Inc., 570 East Avenue, Madison, GA 30650.
Published by Chosen Books 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 chosenbooks.com
Chosen Books is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Chosen edition published 2014
ISBN 978-1-4412-6849-5
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition originally created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation , copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Other versions used are:
KJV — King James Version. Authorized King James Version.
NIV —Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Contents
How to Read This Book
Introduction: What Is Heaven?
Part 1 S TORIES AND T ESTIMONIES OF H EAVEN
“Not on Our Guest List” (Marie C. Senter)
Priceless Memories (Stan Cottrell)
A Suicide: The Story of Tamara Laroux
Fear to Freedom: The Rosemary Trible Story
Hospice Deepened My Faith (Michael W. Elmore)
The Coma of Marietta Davis
Death Before Life After Life
Seven Days of Death
“I See Jesus” (Dr. Emmanuel Rudatsikira)
Maureen’s Meeting with Jesus (Don Buxcey)
Louis Tucker, a Catholic Priest
Angelic Trio (David Michael Smith)
A Christian Soldier’s Near-death Experience
The Strange Case of George de Benneville
The Hinge Point (Lonnie Honeycutt with Vicki H. Moss)
The Resurrection of Pastor Daniel Ekechukwu
Listen to the Thunder (Barbie Porter)
Close to Death: The Story of Carl G. Jung
“He Won’t Make It Through the Night” (Terry Leininger with Donna Frisinger)
Only Kidney Stones: The Story of Dean Braxton
A Soldier Named Er
Traditional Accounts of Heaven
The Account of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan
Beyond Human Imagination
Pope Gregory and Last Things
Movie Star Near-death Experiences
Mom’s Final Gift (Ann Van De Water)
Near-death Experiences from the Past
The Throne Room (Susan M. Watkins)
“I Get to Go Home Today”
He Died Three Times: The Kenneth Hagin Story
“I Am with You” (Susan Avery)
Swimming in the Crystal River (Barbara Wells)
The Life Beyond Death: The Story of Arthur Ford
Daddy Talked? (Susan Dollyhigh)
Holding Her Hand (Marilyn Wallberg)
Vision of the Heavenly Choir (Karen Whiting)
A Descent into Hell: The Story of Howard Storm
“Go Back and Be Happy”: The Story of Julie Papievis
The Face of Forever (Kristi M. Butler)
Seven Minutes (Jenny Farrell)
Proof of Heaven: The Story of Eben Alexander
Freddy Vest’s Amazing Trip
My Desperate Prayer (Loo-Gen Seah-McCrea)
What He Saw: The Story of Marvin Besteman
To Heaven and Back (Ann Knowles)
Touched by Gabriel (Marcia Gaddis)
A Visit to Hell: The Story of Ronald Reagan
My Mother’s Heavenly Visit (Marlene Kelly)
Garrett’s Secret (Christy Johnson)
Waiting Right Here: The Story of Barbara McVicker Dye
A Glimpse of Eternity (Diana Leagh Matthews)
Do Not Resuscitate (Susan K. Stewart)
John Bunyan’s Vision
I’ve Been There (Ed Long Jr. with Anna L. Russell)
Stoning Stephen (Ann Sullivan)
Stories from a Hospice Chaplain (Gary Roe)
Home (Karen Jordan)
Without Words
To Heaven and Back: The Story of Dr. Mary C. Neal
You’ll Never Go Alone (Ginger Garrett)
A Self-made Man (Scott Hutcheson with Penny Shreve)
Heaven Is for Real: The Story of Colton Burpo
Roll Call (Russell Tidd Sr. with Barbie Porter)
Reprise (Phil Leftwich)
It’s Not Time Yet (Marie Weaver)
The Little Boy Who Went to Heaven: The Story of Alex Malarkey
Not Yet (Louise Lankford-Dunlap)
The Day I Died (Pat Laye)
90 Minutes in Heaven: The Story of Don Piper
Part 2 Q UESTIONS A BOUT H EAVEN
What Does the Bible Mean by “Heaven”?
How Can We Explain Heaven?
What Is Paradise? Is It Different from Heaven?
What’s the Difference Between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven?
What Does the Bible Say About Death?
What Will We Do in Heaven?
When Do We Receive Our Rewards?
What Form Will the Rewards Take?
Will There Be Different Punishments in Hell?
Are There Different Levels of Heaven?
What Are the New Heavens and the New Earth?
Who Will Go to Heaven?
When We Die, Do We Immediately Go to Heaven?
What Happens to the Wicked?
What Is Hell?
Will There Be Time in Heaven?
Can Our Dead Loved Ones See Us Now?
Could We Be Happy in Heaven if Our Loved Ones Are in Hell?
Will We Have a Different Body in Heaven?
Will We Recognize Others in Heaven?
Do Babies Who Die Go to Heaven?
Will There Be Animals in Heaven?
Do Christians Believe in Reincarnation?
Will We Be Sexual Beings in Heaven?
What Are Near-death Experiences?
What Causes Near-death Experiences?
What Typically Happens in Near-death Experiences?
What About Those Who Say They Went to Hell?
Doesn’t the Bible Speak of “Once to Die”?
What Are the Aftereffects of Near-death Experiences?
What Are the Characteristics of Near-death Experiences?
What Is “Nearing Death Awareness”?
What Do Individuals Do as They Approach Death?
What Should We Consider When Communicating with the Dying?
Can a Deceased Loved One Actually Appear to a Person?
Last Words of the Famous and Infamous
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
H OW TO R EAD T HIS B OOK
Like our companion volume, I Believe in Healing, Twila Belk and I have arranged this book into two parts. Part 1 contains true accounts of individuals. We have accepted only stories that, in our opinion, have credibility to them. They are mostly first-person stories and are presented without explanation.
Part 1 focuses on four types of stories that point toward heaven. The first type are mostly first-person near-death experiences. The estimate from various sources is that as many as 11 million people have had near-death experiences.
The second type (though there are fewer of them) are stories of individuals who claim they died, went to heaven—literally—and God sent them back. The most obvious example is the apostle Paul, as recounted in the New Testament.
Don Piper’s story is also here. As far as we can tell, the publication of 90 Minutes in Heaven in 2004 piqued the interest of readers and started the trend toward heavenly experiences. Over the course of Don Piper’s travel and through other sources, we have found a number of accounts similar to that of Don and Paul.
The third type are stories of individuals who saw or sensed some spiritual presence near the times of their death. Obviously, these stories come from friends and family members who witnessed the experience.
The fourth type (and these are the most unusual) are stories of visions by various individuals. These visions, though prominent in the Bible, aren’t part of the experience of most believers today. We’ve recorded a few that came from reliable, trustworthy sources.
Each story tells of the dying person seeing angels, Jesus or some special person in their lives, who came to escort them to heaven. These experiences have provided immense peace for those who were at the scene.
Part 2 is what we call the “theological section” or apologia—that is, a defense of our title I Believe in Heaven. You could also call it the “reference section.” Here we bring up the most common questions about heaven and try to provide answers.
Among many of these issues, Christians are divided; so, in an effort to be fair, I’ve avoided making definitive statements on areas where there are differences. Instead, I’ve tried to be as faithful as possible in presenting the various positions on questions, such as:
• Where do we go when we die?
• Is there an intermediate state between death and the resurrection?
• Will we see our pets in heaven?
• Is hell a reality?
When I believe I can give a biblical response to the question with integrity, I do so. However, no matter how strongly some people feel about other issues, many of the common questions have no definitive answers from God’s sacred answer book—the Bible.
Ultimately, I remind myself and readers of the words of Moses:
The L ORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that [God] has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions (Deut. 29:29).
I Believe IN HEAVEN
R EAL S TORIES FROM THE B IBLE , H ISTORY, AND T ODAY
INTRODUCTION
What Is Heaven ?
C ECIL M URPHEY
Heaven is where God dwells.
Heaven refers to the perfect place where we will live in the presence of God throughout eternity. It is a place of absolute happiness and God wipes away all memories of our past imperfections.
Christianity defines our future in heaven as being in the presence of God, with dwelling places prepared for the faithful by Jesus, where we’ll live in eternal bliss beyond anything we can grasp in this life (see John 14:1-4).
Those allowed into heaven receive new or glorified bodies that don’t decay. Death will be gone.
PART 1

S TORIES AND T ESTIMONIES OF Heaven

“Not on Our Guest List”
(M ARIE C. S ENTER )
“Leukemia?” My fiancé glared at his doctor. “I’m getting married in six weeks and leukemia is not on the guest list.”
I reached for Elliott’s hand and our eyes locked in disbelief. We hadn’t anticipated that