5For literacy rates among Jews in antiquity, see Catherine Hezser, Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine (Turbingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2001)
6Wikipedia. Irenaeus pointed to Scripture as a proof of orthodox Christianity against heresies, classifying as Scripture not only the Old Testament, but most of the books now known as the New Testament, while excluding many works, a large number by Gnostics, who flourished in the 2nd century and claimed scriptural authority. Often times, Irenaeus, as a student of Polycarp, who was a direct disciple of the Apostle John, believed he was interpreting scriptures in the same hermeneutic as the Apostles. This connection to Christ was important to Irenaeus because both he and the Gnostics based their arguments on Scripture. Irenaeus argued since he could trace his authority to Christ and the Gnostics could not, his interpretation of Scripture was correct.
7St. Irenaeus 170 A.D. Against Heresies.
8Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. VI, 655-656; 132, Gnostic Gospels.
9Bible in the Church, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. See also, E. Christopher Reyes 2014. In His Name, Vol. IVC, Who wrote the Gospels? North America and International: Trafford Publishing. p.16.
10Bart D. Ehrman 2005. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: Harper Collins/HarperOne. p. 80.
11Wikipedia. Origen, or Origen Adamantius (c.185-c.254) was a scholar and theologian. According to tradition, he was an Egyptian who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School where Clement had taught. The patriarch of Alexandria at first supported Origen but later expelled him for being ordained without the patriarch’s permission. He relocated to Caesarea Maritima and died there after being tortured during a persecution. Using his knowledge of Hebrew, he produced a corrected Septuagint. He wrote commentaries on all the books of the Bible.
12Commentary on Matthew 15:14, as quoted in Bruce M. Metzgre 1968. “Explicit References in the Works of Origin to Variant Readings in New Testament Manuscripts,” in Biblical and Patristic Studies in Memory of Robert Pierce Casey, ed. J. Neville Birdsall and Robert W. Thompson. Freidburg: Herder. pp. 78-79.
13Richard Simon 1689. A Critical History of the Text of the New Testament. London: R. Taylor, pt. I. p. 65.
14Ibid. p. 31.
15Bart D. Ehrman 2005. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: Harper Collins. p. 89.
16Bart D. Ehrman 2005. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: Harper Collins. p. 7.
17Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. VI, p 543, Note: This 1546 Dogma of the Infallible Church was reaffirmed by the Sacred Vatican Council in 1870 C.E., and again by Pope Leo XIII, in his Encyclical Prov. Deus in 1893.
18Nilda P NDE, #2662, 04.05.11, NDERF.org
19Scott H NDE, #2698, 05.02.11, NDERF.org
20Diane G’s NDE, #175, 10.13.02, NDERF.org
21Anna Marie F’s NDE, #251, 04.02.03, NDERF.org
22Linda S probable NDE, #1011, 02.03.07, NDERF.org
23Paul Solomon 1984 lecture, The Physics of Light and Darkness. Excerpted from David Solomon’s Journal notes.
24Sheree F NDE, #3093, 07.28.12, NDERF.org
25Cara A NDE, #2433, 10.11.10, NDERF.org
26 Linda S probable NDE, #1011, 02.03.07, NDERF.org
27Amy C NDE, #2382, 10.09.10, NDERF.org
28Areliala’s NDE, #146, 07.07.02, NDERF.org
29John W. Price 2013. Revealing Heaven, The Christian Case for Near-Death Experiences. New York: HarperCollins. p. 140.
30Ibid. p.140.
31John W. Price 2013. Revealing Heaven, The Christian Case for Near-Death Experiences. New York: HarperCollins Ibid. p.141.
32Ibid. p. 141.
33Steve B’s NDE, #441, 07.24.04, NDERF.org
34Bette’s NDE, #59,12.03.00, NDERF.org
35Hamartia is also used in Christian theology because of its use in the Septuagint and New Testament. The Hebrew (chatá) and its Greek equivalent (àµaρtίa/hamartia) both mean “missing the mark” or “off the mark.
36Nancy H’s NDE, #368, 01.18.04, NDERF.org
37Mary E’s NDE, #311, 08.29.03, NDERF.org
38Mary R NDE, #1716, 10.12.08, NDERF.org
39Bolette L NDE, #3379, 06.20.13, NDERF.org
40Sylvia R NDE, #2079, 01.02.10, NDERF.org
41Robert L NDE, #2029, 12.06.09, NDERF.org
42Lisa A NDE, #1619, 03.01.11, NDERF.org
43Nicoles’ NDE, #330, 11.04.03, NDERF.org
44Lucia L NDE, #937, 09.07.06, NDERF.org
45Jean R NDE, # 2932, 01.18.12, NDERF.org
46Richard H’s NDE, #730, 12.25.05, NDERF.org
47Acts 17:22-23 “People of Athens, I see you are very religious. As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, “To an Unknown God.” You worship this God, but you don’t really know Him. So I want to tell you about Him.”
48Cynthia H NDE, #2626, 03.02.11, NDERF.org
49Amy C NDE, #2386, 10.09.10, NDERF.org
— 21 —
Pre-Existence
Angel with drawn sword banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. ~Jeremiah 1:5
Most Christian theologians today maintain the soul is created with the physical body at conception. Our personal consciousness did not precede it. However, dozens of Dead Saints dispute this. They claim to remember existing long before taking on a physical body, with some accounts claiming memories going back billions of years.
Many Bible passages may also be interpreted as evidence for pre-existence. This is true, especially in the light of irrefutable facts drawn from Church history with its voluminous detailed records of the many bitter theological disputes over doctrinal issues such as Pre-existence. My years of research into NDEs and related topics (seldom if ever taken into consideration by Churchmen) has convinced me pre-existence is not only possible, but also probable. Dead Saint Testimonies regarding memories experienced prior to physical birth, while not common, shine light on this very important doctrine:
Dawn was told gently, ‘You must go, my child.’ She had to leave Heaven and be born:
I remember being within a golden city full of the brightest white Light, and the Light was love, and I also was a part of that Light and Love, like a large ocean of Light and Love with countless others. Then I was pulled away and became separate. Example: ‘like the ocean, and then take a dropper and pull out of the ocean one single drop. I am still the ocean, but now a separate single drop. I was carried away by a compassionate father figure. I will be so bold and say [it was] Jesus Christ, and He was also Light and there is no physical form. I was held and carried away as if flying at great speed until we were into the heavenly stars, just as you see when you look up. I was then placed on top of a very small planet looking place, all that was there was this rocky dirt path that started from the very top and spiraled all the way around this planet till the bottom.
I became of physical form the moment I was placed there atop this path. I cried to Him as if He my father, ‘No! Please, I don’t want to leave!’ like a child when a parent drops a small child off somewhere (like school) and they desperately don’t want their parent to leave.
I was in a long white robe with a golden rope of some sort tied loosely around my waist. I also had a very large staff taller than myself. I definitely did not want to go. I was extremely crushed and broken hearted and pleaded I didn’t want to leave. The Light being Jesus was very bright and hovered way above me like a bright star. I remember my tears and sadness.
He said to me in a male voice telepathically, ‘You must go my child.’ He said it with all the love and c
ompassion in the universe.1
Barbara’s ADC (after-death communication) describes choices she needed to make to be born:
Beings without shape or form needed to discuss with me my future parents. I was given a choice of three. The first was a lovely older couple, without children, very good people. I immediately felt these were the ones but I guess they felt I had “my right” to CHOOSE so they told me about two other couples and I indicated ‘No, no, I want this couple. I knew my future father must be sickly and they needed a compassionate, mild child and I would be that for them—the best I could be.
I wanted to be this for them and not to send anyone else in my stead because they were such good people and I didn’t want another “being” to inflict any harm or hurt to them. Then came “the discussion” on what sex I was to be. I did NOT want to be a female. I wanted to be a male because I did not want to go through the loss of children who would die in childbirth or at an early age. I evidently went through such great sorrows regarding that. I was told I really had no choice in the matter because the being I had to help in this lifetime, which I agreed to help (evidently, I already knew this “person” and was in full agreement to go to Earth to “straighten out”), I loved very dearly.
This “person” was going to be a male. I agreed to my being a female with the promise I would never have children and go through what evidently I once did, and with the promise no matter how hard I tried to get pregnant, do NOT allow me to become so. Thus, it was totally agreed upon. I knew I had to find this MALE and help him get through life. (He must have been in a lot of trouble and they wanted him to redeem himself). I went to put my non-existent feet end into the tube at the right to get ready to go and then everything went black and I wasn’t “there” any longer.2
Anna’s NDE. She was excited to be human again:
I had a difficult birth with my first child —she was induced and the birth lasted almost two days. When I finally got into the delivery room, things started to go wrong. I heard them talking about tachycardia, and then something about my oxygen level and fetal problems. I wanted to stay and help, do what I could to make things go right with the birth, but I was suddenly out of my body and somewhere else.
It wasn’t a bad place, just filled with people in line and very dark. There was a clicking sound all around us. I asked what the sound was, and why we were in a line. The “person,” a Light in charge, told me we were in line to be born and this would show us what was coming and how it would all end. The clicking happened every time someone was born, and when it was our turn we would get a flash of our lives, and then live out our lives and then come back home. I was so excited. I was going to be a human. I was going to be real. I was going to get married and have a family and do all kinds of wonderful things!
Finally, it was my turn, and I stepped into the world, and I saw everything that was going to happen with me, the good and the bad, the child that was just being born, and the choice I could make about living and raising her or stopping now... and then the bad things were shown and I was asked to choose.
Of course, I’d been so excited to have a chance to choose life. Everyone agreed with that choice. I was shown the future lifetime, and I could see the end coming, but all I could think of was, when it ends, I want another chance, another go-around, because it was so wonderful. The clicking stopped. I was brought back to consciousness and so far, life has progressed pretty much as it was told to me.3
Lining Up to Be Born
David’s Dead Saint experience is unique because, as he is waiting in line, he hesitates, and someone else takes his place. He subsequently decides to enter a different womb:
And suddenly I could feel I was curled up in a fetal position and I could see a tunnel with a Light at the end. I somehow knew I was in a woman’s [birth canal], about to be born. I also somehow was told by the one watching me that I will forget everything and learn all over again, and there was no guarantee that I’ll be okay. I thought to myself, ‘This is what it must be like for angels who don’t have any experience. They’re like children and could easily be fooled, or hurt.’
So I refused. Suddenly another being took my place in the womb. Then I saw children laughing and playing, teenagers talking with each other, and young people going through experiences and learning from them, becoming old and calming down from their worries and finding peace, which made them happy. I said, ‘This is what I want. A life in a human body with the ability to taste, touch and feel, smell, and see, and especially the knowledge between good and bad, to live, and have an advantage over the other two states of being.’
Then I awoke in the hospital.4
God Prepares a Physical Body for Us
A curious topic brought up repeatedly by the Dead Saints describes our “Ancestors,” our parents, their parents, a family tree reaching far back in time, who provided the DNA that helped create the physical body we inhabit today. I believe this is why we see the importance in the Old and New Testaments devoted to the long lineage of Jesus, son of David.
The remarkable NDE of Laura below, in an epic discussion with Jesus Christ, further strengthens the importance of our genetic family tree going back through ancient history:
I died to the world but I had not lost consciousness for even a second. I was still “me” and still alive. Then I was with HIM [Jesus Christ] …enveloped in such a Great Light and love it defies description. And there, I rested in Joy, Bliss and Grace! He spoke to me telling me, it was not my time and I needed to return to my body, to complete my life’s Mission, but there was still more for me to understand.
The focus again fell on my infant son and hundreds, if not thousands, of my ancestors. I was aware of Light surrounding many of them—they stood out. I felt tremendous love from them. [I noticed] He said, ‘Your ancestors.’
‘All of these beings came together in your behalf to make you uniquely you.’ I realized in Earth words He was referring to my DNA.
‘You wanted to go to Earth to learn, to progress, and to contribute to Creation. All these spirits came together to help you do that!’
The focus then was back to my baby.
‘In All of Creation, He said, your infant son chose you to be his mother! None Other!’ Together, He said, “You made a Covenant to fill these roles in each other’s Earth Life. This Covenant is and was a very Sacred Covenant not to be taken LIGHTLY!’ Suddenly, I could not wait to return to Earth. It was not my time and I needed to return. From that instant I agreed to come back.5
The Importance of DNA
Scott’s Grandmother revealed during his NDE the importance of DNA not only in humans, but also in all life forms throughout the universe:
The universe was full, absolutely full of strings of Light and energy. They were pulsing. They were moving. We were in it, a part of it and it a part of us. DNA stretched for eons; memories, connected, intertwined, but all moving according to the Light. I could see molecules, atoms connecting, intersecting, building and becoming new life forms and consciousnesses. Galaxies, stars, fish, trees, air, water, and man are all patterned forms, built from all over the universe. Then we were back in the field, but it didn’t stop there. I looked at my grandmother and the Light. Everything opened up, illumination poured through me, out of me and in me. It can’t be changed, or threatened. It can’t be manipulated, or colored. There are no Illusions or fairy tales about it…
Each is at its own time, in its own evolution, doing its own reality, living its own consciousness. We are part of it and it a part of us. We truly have nothing to fear. We are really loved. There is a power so great, it can only be called God.6
Souls Created Billions of Years Ago?
The Big Bang theory confidently holds the Universe as being created some 13.66 billion years ago. When Tony experienced his NDE in a car accident, he tells of awaking to the memory of knowing God even prior to the Big Bang:
I felt the presence
of another person next to me. I was not disturbed by this, as I felt familiar with Him (God). I guess it was a “him.” This was not expressed either way. I remember turning to this person and trying to look into his eyes. I couldn’t really focus on his face, and it was almost painful to look. I turned back to the events that were happening. I was watching them load me into the ambulance. I was having a conversation and laughing with this person. I looked again at Him and I knew that I knew Him really well. I recognized I knew Him before I came in here, into this body. I felt happy being with Him. The more I looked at Him, the more I saw how long I knew Him.
I actually remembered knowing Him even before this universe was created. I could actually see this. I looked and looked and I couldn’t see any time I didn’t know Him, and I could see long before any of this stuff came into creation.
He called me by a different name I recognized. It wasn’t like a sound, but rather a feeling I recognized as me. I felt as though He was my oldest friend.7
(Note: Pre-existence, a state or condition PRIOR to manifestation, is an element common to many ancient esoteric traditions. It is extremely unlikely that many, or even any, Dead Saints were familiar with such a concept.)
An idea totally foreign to Christian theology, Dead Saint Chantel feels she was a co-creator with God when He created the Solar System (estimated 4.66 billion years ago by astronomers):
I realized then that I was dying. I watched as I expired my last breath…I found myself floating, like in a cloud…All of a sudden, I noticed movement to my left. It was a Light coming towards me. As I looked at it, I noticed that this Light was a being, a Being of Light! As this Being of Light was approaching me, I started experiencing all kinds of images in my mind. At first I thought he/she was communicating with me telepathically, but then I realized, all these images were memories, my memories. I was remembering who I really am. (It was like an amnesiac who regains his/her memory). I had total recall of who I really was.
The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife Page 35