In previous entries, I have written about the Near Death Experience. I have explained that it is no mere delusion, but it is subjective, taking place within the brains of the people who experience it. It is not, as some claim, an actual glimpse into heaven.
One conclusion is obvious from it, however. If the Near Death Experience is a glimpse into heaven, it is one that entirely contradicts the beliefs of fundamentalists and conservative Christians. Not everyone who has a Near Death Experience reports rocketing toward the light, or diving through the tunnel, or seeing departed family members, or having a life review. But one thing they all report is experiencing intense, unconditional love, usually in the form of a Being of Love, who accepts them without judgment. If they are encountering God, then God is love.
The people who have this experience may be Christians, or may not. They may not have even had previous religious beliefs. It doesn’t matter. They are swept into a universalistic salvation, to the brink of an afterlife from which they only reluctantly return to this vale of tears.
God, wouldn’t that be great? Of course, at first, we may resist this thought quite strongly. Shouldn’t people like Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, and Mao Zedong go to hell? But consider the fact that, if Adolf Hitler slipped through the tunnel and emerged into the light, he would not be Adolf Hitler anymore. Adolf Hitler is dead. Completely. If “he” is in heaven, then “he” isn’t “he” anymore. Of course, I would like to give dictators a taste of the torture that they gave to others. But if I were flying up toward the light, I would be having too good of a time to worry about that. Literally, why would I give a damn if a person who had been bad but has been transformed is there also? Oh, and pass the Guinness. (I am writing this on St. Patrick’s Day, although it will be posted later.)
This brings us precisely to the point about why fundamentalists reject the Near Death Experience. They simply cannot accept the idea of universalism. What kind of God would just invite every bum off of the street to come to a wedding feast? Oh, wait. I guess that would be Jesus, wouldn’t it, who told a parable that made exactly that point. Fundamentalists simply cannot accept that God is love and that Jesus forgives whomever he chooses, even if they would not permit Jesus to do so.
Near Death Experiences upset fundamentalists for the same reason that Catholics were upset about Protestantism during the Reformation—you mean, anybody can just walk into Heaven without permission from a priest who was certified by the pope? And today, fundamentalists insist that you cannot go to heaven unless you have your theology all figured out, you join a church, you tithe, and you give your allegiance to a smooth-tongued preacher. Fundamentalists have no choice but to claim that the Near Death Experience is a delusion produced by Satan. Fundamentalists are some of the most grim people I have ever met—they look forward to seeing everyone from every other viewpoint thrown into the Lake of Fire—and they are offended by the thought that God might forgive someone who has a different theological opinion.
To me, it would be a great relief to know that I do not have to have my theology all figured out to go to heaven. Of course, I am afraid that the Near Death Experience is a completely subjective thing that happens when we die.
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