Reviewed February 23, 2005.
Doubleday, New York, 2005. 148 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (MCN B STO).
Sonderbooks
Stand-out 2005 (#3, Christian Nonfiction)
Wow! What a beautiful book!
I usually avoid books about near-death experiences, or at least I’ve
never checked one out before. Those people are crackpots, aren’t
they?
The near-death experience described in this book is different from any
others I’d heard about. This man was an atheist and expected
death
to mean annihilation. Instead of a light and a tunnel, this man
was
dragged off to hell! He did rise above his body in the hospital
bed,
and he felt more alive than ever, but his wife couldn’t hear him or see
him. Then some voices told him to go with them, and he walked on
and
on and came to a place where demons began to torment him horribly.
Then he heard a voice telling him to pray to God. The voice came
again, and he tried to obey. The demons screamed at him.
Finally,
he remembered the song “Jesus Loves Me” from his childhood, and called
out
for Jesus to save him. Jesus answered his prayer. He came
and
healed him and enveloped him in love and took him to heaven.
In heaven, Jesus and the angels reviewed his life and showed him how he
had been grieving God, Jesus, and the heavenly beings. “The only
reason I could bear to proceed with the life review was because of
their love for me. No matter what we watched me do in life, they
communicated their love for me, even as they expressed their
disapproval of things I did.”
They also answered many of his questions about God. Most of it
follows basic Christian theology. Some examples:
“Those ruled by love go toward God, to heaven. Those ruled by
hate go to hell. Our lives are the judge. We create our own
fate
in the next life. What happens to people as they leave this world
and enter eternity is between them and God. If they hate God,
they
are drawn away from God.”
“No one ever born was good enough to go to heaven. God made us
incomplete so that we would become perfect through our love for
God. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t have any need for God.
We are not gods.
We have God in us and with us, but we are far from being God. God
knows our deficiency and has done something to bring us home to
perfection.”
“In our progression toward God we will meet the Divine Activity of God,
who is known to Christians as Jesus Christ. People who were not
Christians must know the Christ as well. No one approaches God
who does not know the mediator of God. The Christ is the creative
action by which the world was created. This personification of
God has been everywhere
throughout all time and space—creating, restoring, and sustaining us in
the
divine will. The Christ has been in our world and adopted our
human
nature to help return us to God. The Christ, in the man Jesus of
Nazareth,
lived, suffered, died, and was raised to new life to restore us to
God.
He has identified with us so that we can identify with him.”
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me.’ No one will go to God
except through the atonement of Christ, the love of Christ, and the way
of Christ. Jesus’ teachings and practice were inclusive of all
people. Humans
have tried to make him into an exclusive cult, but Jesus came for all
people,
and the Christ reaches to all people everywhere in all time, space,
heaven,
and hell. In my experience I was with him, and I will never be
apart
from him in this world or the next. During my time with Jesus, I
discovered he is my best friend.”
“Through Jesus’ brief life with us, we know that nothing can separate
us from the love of God. Nothing we do can separate us from God
unless we want this. No matter what we have said or done, God is
willing,
eager, and begging us to turn back to God. Even if we think we
have
nailed God to a tree, God looks into our eyes and says, ‘I forgive you
because
you do not know what you are doing.’”
Later, he asked which is the best religion. He was told, “The
religion that brings you closest to God.”
“There are good people in bad religions and there are bad people in
good religions. It is not so important which religion, but what
individuals do with the religion they have been given. Religions
are a vehicle
to take you to a destination. The purpose of religion is to help
you
have a personal relationship with God. God wants us to love him
with
all our being and to know the truth of God. If we find God in an
intimate, loving relationship, then we are going the right way.
Too often people find religion to be self-serving, interested in
perpetuating itself and
controlling people’s lives in order to be dominant. Religion is
only
a means to find God. Religion is not the destination. True
religion
is the love of God in every word, thought, and deed of the
person.
God loves all people and is pleased by religions that seek him in
spirit
and in truth.
“God abhors the misuse of religion that creates divisiveness between
people, that justifies violence, that promotes pride in
self-righteousness. God is far greater than any religion.
The Spirit of Christ speaks
to all people in all time to draw them to God.”
Another interesting teaching had to do with angels. I’d always
been taught that angels and humans are totally separate and different
creations. This man was told that there are many kinds of
angels. (The word ‘angel’ simply means ‘messenger.’) He
said that some people who have left
loved ones on earth choose to be one of their guardian angels for
awhile.
The reason I found this interesting is because of a story a friend has
told me. When she was driving and came close to a terrible
accident,
she had a strong impression that her dead mother had saved her. I
always thought it was probably an angel, but now I think that maybe we
were
both right!
Howard Storm was sent back to earth and given another chance at
life. He begged to be allowed to stay, but was told, “You have
many things to
learn in the world, and you still have your job to do, which is to take
care of the people God needs you to love.”
His life changed dramatically after this experience, and he ended up
going to seminary and becoming a pastor. The experience doesn’t
sound like a hallucination, but you can read the book and decide for
yourself.
After his near-death experience, Howard Storm heard many similar
stories, including negative experiences like his. Most people are
afraid to
talk about them, because no one wants to believe them.
After he came back to earth, Howard Storm seemed to be more able to see
angels and spirit beings. I enjoyed the story about the first
time he
went to church:
“The worship had just begun with the congregation singing the opening
hymn when we entered the sanctuary. A few feet inside, I saw on
the ceiling of the church hundreds of angels basking in praise of
God. They were a golden color and radiated golden light around
them. The unexpected sight of the angels unleashed powerful
emotions of awe of God from inside me. I did the only thing I
could do in that circumstance, which was to throw myself down on the
floor. Prostrate on the carpeted aisle, I thanked God and praised
God profusely.
“Regrettably, we were not in a Pentecostal church, where this might
have been acceptable behavior. My wife bent over me, concerned
that I had collapsed. The ushers rushed to her aid, asking if
they should call an ambulance. Then my wife realized that I was
in religious ecstasy and became furious with me because of the
commotion I was creating in the back of the church. She was
yelling in my ear, ‘Get up! Get
up! We will never come to church again!’ I was content to
lie
facedown on the floor and happily praise God. The ushers lifted
me
into the closest available pew, where I sat with my face in my hands
weeping
and thanking God and Jesus.
“Beverly kept repeating that she was terribly embarrassed and we would
never go to church again. I couldn’t stop the tears of joy.
Whenever the congregation stood up, said prayers, or sang, I just
cried.
Bent over in my pew, I was happier than I had been since the Near-Death
Experience two months before. After we left church, there was a
leaden
silence on the ride home. At home Beverly said, ‘I have never
been
so embarrassed in my life. We will never go to church
again.’
All week I begged her to give me another chance. I promised that
I
would not do it again. I would behave properly.”
“The next Sunday we went back to Christ Church, and over the weeks I
slowly resisted crying enough to sing the hymns and recite the
prayers. I
continued to see the angels and their beautiful radiance in the upper
portion
of the worship space every Sunday. I noticed that they were more
splendid
when the congregation sang and less radiant when things like
announcements
and collections happened. I had the impression that I was the
only
one who could see the angels.”
I found this to be a beautifully uplifting book. It reminded me
that the important things are to love God and love my neighbor.
And that God loves me more than I can possibly imagine.
Copyright © 2006 Sondra
Eklund. All rights reserved.
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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund 
