X This is a book, primarily referencing Catholic theology; the Catholic idea of salvation is the personal attainment of sanctifying grace (salvation), which is a person’s inclusion into Christ, now called the “body of Christ”. No NDE can make such an inclusion, it depends upon personal will, and is guaranteed by reception of the Catholic sacraments.
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Casual readers of NDE accounts are certainly aware of the light tunnel, and the friendly light beings. Further study of NDEs will reveal elements termed by the NDE patient as reincarnation and previous lives. We will now see that “previous lives” and “reincarnation” are mislabeled and mispresumed.
Correct terms and theology places them within the bounds of Catholic teaching, or at least possibility.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before
you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I
appointed you.”, (Jer 1:5).
Jeremiah 1:5 is enormous in the information which may be extracted from it. Prior to our human incarnation we had existence; we were a dimension of Christ. We were not a human person, but we were an individual discernible within Christ.Y As a Y NDE’s show the body of Christ in Heaven existing as individual members both prior to incarnation, and after salvation. These members of Christ seemingly exist as human persons, but anyone in Heaven actually exists as dimensions of the single person of Christ.
NDE’s show Christ in Heaven having individual points of awareness and will. These individuals would be called human or angelic persons, but they are actually the single person of Christ existing as human or angelic dimensions of Christ. Catholic theology does allow Christ to exist in Heaven in any configuration he desires.
John 3:13 tells of Jesus being the first to Heaven. Those members of Christ in Heaven incarnating prior to Jesus would presumably rejoin the body of Christ only after the coming of Jesus, such a Limbo of the Just occurs in 1Samuel, chapter 28. If some sort of cyclical big bang/big crunch of creation exists, it is possible that lives were lived and returned to Heaven before our current existing cycle of creation, at least one NDE speaks specifically of this ongoing cycle of creation.
John 3:13 is not really about order of inclusion into Heaven. A close reading of John 3:13, simply says that Jesus Christ alone, has attained Heaven. And so it is, we may attain Heaven only as a member of Jesus Christ, who is now the entire body of Christ. Later in this book, we will see that Pope Benedict XVI teaches that Jesus Christ himself is Heaven and the Resurrection.
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dimension of Christ, our individual life was under the stewardship of Christ, then later under the stewardship of our own person. It is this prior existence as dimensions of Christ that NDE patients term “previous lives”. A better term might be
“previous divine existence”. All persons were previously a dimension of Christ, (Trinitarian Christ, exerted through Jesus Christ). See appendix “Jesus Christ”, for a fuller explanation of the idea and person of Christ.
As a dimension of Christ how developed were we? Was Jeremiah fully able to understand his life and mission assigned, and consent to it? NDE private revelations say so, and Jeremiah 1:5 speaks of this. At a minimum Jeremiah 1:5 has the prophet existing within Christ as the human prophet he will be, but not yet detached from divinity, so as to enter into creation.Z
John 3:13 must also be understood within its context, Jesus was speaking to and of humans. Christ desired divine communion with all his creation as part of the original plan. The coming of Jesus Christ was not an emergency rescue operation after sin. Jesus came as planned but first had to remediate sin before communion with humanity. Christ came as human Jesus, not because of sin, but in spite of sin. God’s original plan for Jesus Christ, was to make union of humanity with its creator, the Son of God, and in spite of sin, this plan remains.
Angels, principalities, thrones and dominions of Heaven (Col 1:16), were likewise always intended for divine communion with Christ their maker. The angels and the Heavenly orders made communion with Christ directly, before the existence of the human Jesus. The proof of this communion is the existence of the devils. Christ attempted communion with the angels but not all made it.
Hell was not a punishment assigned to the bad angels, while the good angels remained as they were. Hell is the failed portion of Christ’s attempt to make communion with all the Heavenly orders.
Z Private revelations may become dogma as in the case of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The doctrine of Purgatory was given existence largely by private revelations. Scripture alludes to Purgatory only in 1Cor 3:15, and this passage alone is not enough to produce the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. Repeated post biblical private revelations of the saints concerning Purgatory, largely developed the doctrine of Purgatory. NDE
private revelations are now useful in rounding out the idea of individual 37
The existence of many individual members within the body of Christ in Heaven (before incarnation, or after reunion) is not a matter of a bank of souls. There is one person and one soul in Heaven, and it is the soul and person of Jesus Christ.
Certainly, when we rejoin the body of Christ in Heaven, we are fully mature and aware.AA When we rejoin Christ in Heaven, we are again a human-like dimension of the single person of Christ. These dimensions would be called people, but they are now individual members of the person of Christ. Christ may at his decision give creation again to any of his dimensions, either an initial incarnation or a repeated incarnation. NDE
visitors mistakenly use the term reincarnation for this idea, but this is not the migration of a human or animal soul among bodies, it is the incarnation of selected dimensions by Christ, and from Christ.
Prior to creation, everything and every person had existence internal to Christ. From Jeremiah 1:5, we learn that each individual internal to Christ was discernible as an individual dimension of Christ. We do not say that internal to Christ there are many individual human persons, because Christ is one person.
Each member of Christ has a distinct and discernible life within the larger life of Christ.BB This is what NDE patients are observing when they speak of previous lives.
existence prior to individual creation, as written of in Jeremiah 1:5.
AA Heaven is simply our perfected existence as a dimension of Christ, before or after our creation. Heaven is the person of Christ. In John 11:25 Jesus teaches that his own person is our resurrection, and our eternal life which we call Heaven.
BB The Catechism of the Catholic Church states explicitly that we become Christ in at least two paragraphs: (1) CCC 1213, “Through baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ.”; (2) CCC 795, “…Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not 38
Consider that the human Jesus had a human will and intellect; these were distinct from God the Father, but freely operated within the will and intellect of God the Father. Those in Heaven (before creation or after redemption) also have distinct wills and intellects that operate within the will of Christ.
Therefore, their acts chosen, constitute an individual life.
The book of Revelation reveals an entire active world of human and angelic individuals in Heaven. This active world of individual lives, all occurs within the single person and life of Christ. Such an active world is also possible within Christ prior to the creation of persons.
In thinking of Heaven as being the person of Christ, consider that all of creation existed first as thought and will internal to Christ. Every person, tree and atom were first a distinct thought of Christ.
Those humans and angels rejoining Christ, retain all their individual awareness and attributes, but are now individual members of the single divine person of Christ.
The purpose of all this creation and reunion is the spiritual advancement of each individual and ultimately of God.
Those making moral growth in our world, reunite with Christ only Christians, but Christ himself…he and we together are the whole man.”
The idea and term “Whole Christ”, occurs at least six times: CCC 795, 796, 797, 1136, 1187, 1188. Christ is now all who constitute the body of Christ: Jesus, Eucharistic bread and wine, humans, angels. Jesus often said,
“Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is upon you.” The kingdom of Heaven was Jesus Christ himself, who spoke the words.
From Mt 25:40 we learn that when we feed, clothe, or show any sort of kindness to the least of people, of the body of Christ, we do these things to Jesus, who is now the entire body of Christ. From Acts 9:4 we learn a similar lesson that any evil done to a member of the body of Christ is done to Jesus, who is now the entire body of Christ.
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bringing new dimensions of love and virtue . God who cannot
gain in virtue has found a way to do just that. Spiritual advancement is the reason any person is given created existence.CC
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Finally, there exists the possibility of past or parallel universes in which people live or lived prior lives. Some NDE’s do speak of such things.
The possibility of a Big Crunch goes along with the possibility of a Big Bang. A repeated Big Bang/Big Crunch, would mean a Big Creation Cycle, which some NDE’s do speak of, (see section on “NDE other worlds”). DD
CC An individual is detached from Christ, that is given created existence; free of sin, but stil not ful y developed. This new person must even take on a burden of original sin upon entering the realm of creation. This person is to overcome sin and imperfection, and rejoin the divinity of Christ, and this was to be done in this life. Upon divine reunion, he brings his perfections or at least spiritual growth to the entire body of Christ.
Everyone benefits in some way, even God himself.
DD A Big Crunch scenario would have created energy, matter and virtues regressing back to its original singularity, or infinite point of being. The Church accepts both the Big Bang and Big Crunch as possibilities; in the event of a Big Creation Cycle, the new creation would likely not be identical to the first creation cycle, and the human nature of the Son of God, might be some other human than a first century carpenter.
This idea, that our creation cycle may not be the center of the universe, so to speak, may be the 21st century version of Galileo’s idea that earth was not the center of the universe. Howard Storm’s video interview (not his book), speaks of the Holy Trinity of God being the absolute, but also of many other worlds with living moral beings, some of which accepted an incarnation of Christ, rather than crucify him when he came to make union with his creation.
Big Bangs, Crunches, and Cycles would all be the will of God of course.
From the viewpoint of the super dimension of eternity, the possibilities for time and sequence in creation are endless. Time, sequence and position are additions, and not fundamental, and Christ may use any combination.
The created nature of the Son of God (second person of the Trinity) is not necessarily limited to the human person of Jesus Christ. For example the Son 40
NDE patient Leonard was given to understand this expansion and contraction cycle during his NDE. Leonard’s story pushes the limits of Christian theology, but not God’s ability,
“One day we shall all be reunited again, and again we shall
'explode' and everything shall start again, this is an unending circle! True life, true reality is in the other world. I remember the light told me that there is more than one universe, there are billions of them, and earth is not the only planet we may choose to incarnate on. ”31
In her NDE, Betty Eadie met three men robed men, who said that they had been with her “for eternities”. Eternities are exactly what repeated creation cycles are.32
Leonard’s understanding is that creation alone, will contract back to its origin. This NDE says nothing about the revelations of God, (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) contracting back into the first revelation as Godhead, (see section on “God”).
In summary, NDE past lives would be drawn from three possible sources:
1. People who have lived only as Christ in Heaven, as internal dimensions of Christ, before being incarnated as human persons.
2. People who lived previously in the current creation cycle. Additionally, it is possible that there are of God also exists under the forms of bread and wine. When the Son of God extending his person into the human Jesus Christ, there did become two Son’s of God. Even if the Son of God took on a future Martian incarnation, there would still be only one Son of God, not two or three. Ultimately all of creation will be united with the Son of God, “so that God may be all in all.”, (1Cor 15:28). Lastly, the idea of past lives could ensure that all persons could experience many types of lives, which require many specifics of spiritual advancement: rich, poor; this fault, that fault; this religion, that religion and so on.
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people currently living in unknowable dimensions.
See also section on “NDE other worlds”.
3. People who have lived in past creation cycles. This would be a Big Bang/Big Crunch cycle proposed by science. With God as the prime mover of course.