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It helps that their version of heaven is all about fighting and partying. At least until Ragnarok where everything gets destroyed and remade.
Poe's Law: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."
There are around 236 accounts, I'll just include a couple of examples.
"THE FIENDS, THEY COME; OH! SAVE ME! THEY DRAG ME DOWN! LOST, LOST, LOST!"
The following incident is concerning a young lady, who, under deep conviction for sin, left a revival meeting to attend a dance which had been gotten up by a party of ungodly men, for the purpose of breaking up the meeting. She caught a severe cold at the dance and was soon on her death bed. In conversation with a minister, she said, "Mr. Rice, my mind was never clearer. I tell you all today that I do not wish to be a Christian. Don't want to go to heaven -- would not if I could. I would rather go to hell than heaven, they need not keep the gates closed." "But you don't want to go to hell, do you Jennie?" was asked. She replied, "No, Mr. Rice. O, that I had never been born. I am suffering now the agonies of the lost. If I could but get away from God; but no, I must always see Him and be looked upon by Him. How I hate Him -- I cannot help it. I drove His Spirit from my heart when He would have filled it with His love; and now I am left to my own evil nature -- given over to the devil for my eternal destruction. My agony is inexpressible! How will I endure the endless ages of eternity? O, that dreadful, unlimited, unfathomable eternity." When asked by Mr. Rice how she got into that despairing mood, she replied, "It was that fatal Friday evening last winter when I deliberately stayed away from the meeting to attend the dance. I felt so sad, for my heart was tender -- I could scarcely keep from weeping. I felt provoked to think that my last dance, as I felt it to be for some cause, should be spoiled. I endured it until I became angry, then with all my might I drove the influence of the Spirit away from me, and it was then that I had the feeling that Be had left me forever. I knew that I had done something terrible, but it was done. From that time I have had no desire to be a Christian, but have been sinking down into deeper darkness and more bitter despair. And now all around, and above and beneath me are impenetrable clouds of darkness. O, the terrible gloom; when will it cease?" She then sank away and lay like one dead a short time. But she raised her hand slightly, her lips quivering as if in the agonies of death, her eyes opened with a fixed and awful stare, and then gave such a despairing groan that sent the chill blood to every heart. "Oh, what horror," whispered the sufferer. Then turning to Mr. Rice, she said, "Go home now and return this evening. I don't want you to pray for me. I don't want to be tormented with the sound of prayer." About four o'clock she inquired the time, and upon being told exclaimed, "O, how slowly the hours wear away. This day seems an age to me. O, how will I endure eternity?" In about an hour she said, "How slowly the time drags. Why may I not cease to be?" About seven P. M. she sent for Mr. Rice. As he approached her bed Jennie said to him, "I want you to preach at my funeral. Warn all of my young friends against the ball-room. Remember everything I have said and use it." He replied, "How can I do this? Jennie, how I do wish you were a good Christian, and had a hope of eternal life."! 'Now, Mr. Rice, I don't want to hear anything about that. I do not want to be tormented with the thought. I am utterly hopeless; my time is growing short; my fate is eternally fixed/ I die without hope because I insulted the Holy Spirit so bitterly. He has justly left me alone to go down to eternal night. He could not have borne with me any longer and followed farther and retained His divine honor and dignity. I wait but a few moments, and as much as I dread it, I must quit these mortal shores. I would delay, I would linger -- but no! The fiends, they come; O save me! They drag me down! Lost! lost! lost!" she whispered as she struggled in the agonies of death. A moment more and she rallied and with glazed eyes she looked upon her weeping friends for the last time, then the lids sank partly down and pressed out a remaining tear as she whispered, "Bind me, ye chains of darkness! Oh! that I might cease to be, but still exist. The worm that never dies, the second death." The spirit fled, and Jennie Gordon lay a lifeless form of clay.
"OH, PAPA, WHAT A SWEET SIGHT! THE GOLDEN GATES ARE OPENED."
Through the kindness of L. B. Balliett, M. D., we furnish our readers with this touching incident: Lillian Lee, aged ten, when dying spoke to her father thus: "Oh! papa, what a sweet sight! The golden gates are opened and crowds of children come pouring out. Oh! such crowds. And they ran up to me and began to kiss me and call me by a new name. I can't remember what it was." She lay and looked upwards, her eyes dreaming. Her voice died into a whisper as she said, "Yes, yes, I come, I come!"
All of which we can verify independently, right? I mean, Lady Hope heard Darwin repent and discard his own theory on his deathbed. She wrote articles about it, so it must be true, yes?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
(December 6, 2014 at 3:36 pm)Huggy74 Wrote: There was a book published in 1898 called "Dying Testimonies of Saved and Unsaved" written by Solomon B. Shaw, in which he records the last words of the dying.
A book published in 1898? Really?
Is there any possibility that the author wanted to make a point, based on whatever views he held?
(December 6, 2014 at 3:36 pm)Huggy74 Wrote: There was a book published in 1898 called "Dying Testimonies of Saved and Unsaved" written by Solomon B. Shaw, in which he records the last words of the dying.
A book published in 1898? Really?
Is there any possibility that the author wanted to make a point, based on whatever views he held?
personal testimonies about eschatological issues are not to be believed. they are much like someone coming out of the dew-drop inn at 2 am and seeing something in the sky.
Atheist Credo: A universe by chance that also just happened to admit the observer by chance.
(December 6, 2014 at 7:38 pm)snowtracks Wrote: personal testimonies about eschatological issues are not to be believed. they are much like someone coming out of the dew-drop inn at 2 am and seeing something in the sky.
(December 6, 2014 at 6:51 pm)Stimbo Wrote: All of which we can verify independently, right? I mean, Lady Hope heard Darwin repent and discard his own theory on his deathbed. She wrote articles about it, so it must be true, yes?
Every account names it's source. In the case of the second account he names L. B. Balliett, M. D. as a source, Seeing how he is a doctor lends some credence to his testimony. As for verification, the book is from 1898....
But if you're looking for something more recent, here is a story from cbs and abc news.
The story, from November, is about a woman who stopped breathing for 3 hours had no pulse for 45 minutes.
A few quotes:
Quote: Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro had gone 45 minutes without a pulse when doctors called her family into the operating room and told them there was nothing more they could do.
A team of more than a dozen doctors and nurses had been working desperately to revive her. But now they'd lost hope that the 40-year-old Deerfield Beach woman, whose heart had given out without warning after a routine C-section at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, was going to make it.
Devastated, Graupera-Cassimiro's husband, mother and sister said goodbye to her just hours after they'd welcomed a healthy baby girl. The medical team stopped all lifesaving procedures. They watched a heart monitor, preparing to record a time of death.
And then the impossible happened: A blip of a heartbeat showed up. Then another, and another.
Quote:"There's very few things in medicine that I've seen, working in the trauma center myself and doing all the things that I do, that really were either unexplainable or miraculous," said Dr. Anthony Dardano, president of the hospital's medical staff. "And when I heard this story, that was the first thing that came to my mind."
Quote:During that time, she said she felt herself floating along a tunnel.
"I remember seeing a spiritual being who I believe was my dad," Graupera-Cassimiro said. "I remember the light behind him and many other spiritual beings."
But suddenly a "force" stopped her, and she said she knew she couldn't go any further.
Her heart started beating again on its own even though doctors hadn't touched her in several minutes, Chakurda said.
Quote:There's something to these near death experiences. Too many of them recall similar stories of being greeted by Family Members who have passed, and being told, that it's not their time. Keep the Faith!
"I don't know why I was given this opportunity," Graupera-Cassimiro said, "but I'm very grateful for it."
Quote:The family left the room with nurse Julie Ewing after saying their goodbyes. They held hands and prayed, Ewing on her knees.
Then another nurse, Claire Hansen, came out of the operating room.
"Keep praying," she said, "because her heart just started."
Screams filled the hallway as Graupera-Cassimiro's family took in the news. They jumped up and down and cried. Her sister ran into the operating room.
"It was a complete miracle of God. It was answered prayer," Ewing said Tuesday. "We all were there. We all witnessed it."
Quote:Amazingly, doctors say, Graupera-Cassimiro suffered no complications. No reduced brain function from the loss of circulation. No burns from the repeated shocks doctors delivered in hopes of restarting her heart.
No bruises, even, from the chest compressions they took turns giving her to keep her blood flowing
December 6, 2014 at 11:50 pm (This post was last modified: December 7, 2014 at 12:38 am by snowtracks.)
'bravado' (bring it on attitude) is not going to serve anyone well in that day. everyone, yes everyone, will have to stand before the moral ruler of the universe, Christ. some say that they are going ask question, not so. there is a scene in revelation where people only listen, they are free to ask questions, but when the books are opened, all questions have been answered, so no questions are asked.
Atheist Credo: A universe by chance that also just happened to admit the observer by chance.