Dying: a certainty

What happens when you die? What do you feel, hear, smell, taste, see....What do you experience?

Where do you go? Are you afraid to die? It's okay, even Jesus was afraid: Matthew 26:38, "My soul is

overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." He knew what was going to happen to Him. But He

looked beyond His circumstances as He served His Father to His death. He knew that He would be

exalted again. He knew that He would ascend into Heaven, to sit on the right hand of His Father, to

reign over His kingdom forever.

I recently read a book called "What's the big deal about other religions?" by John Ankerberg and Dillon

Burroughs. What really hits hard, is the following excerpt:

Dr. Maurice Rawlings was once an atheist who thought all religion was false. That all changed one day

when he was examining a man who was having chest pains. According to our interview, he shared,

"He was getting the pain while he was hooked to an EKG and if the EKG goes haywire, it's his heart. If

it doesn't, it's not. But while

we were examining him, he dropped dead instead.

"So I started to resuscitate him. Half the people that die unexpectedly will come back, if you know how

to do it, with bare hands. So I was working on this fellow, doing external heart massage, and mouth-tomouth

breathing, but he had a heart block. Sixty percent of our patients won't live until they get to

hospital because they get a rhythm disturbance and they die with heart stoppage before they get the

heart attack. That's what happened to him.

"So I had to pass a pacemaker wire down the collarbone vein into his heart while he was on the floor,

so he could overcome the heart block and respond to the resuscitation. Here I was, trying to do two

things at once. When I would reach for something, he would die once more. He would roll his eyes up,

sputter, turn blue, stop

breathing, his heart would stop beating, and he would die clinically once more. I'd reach over and start

him up again.

"It's clinical death. We are talking about something you can resuscitate. We're not talking about

biological death, which occur four minutes after the heartbeat ceases. The brain will die. Rigor mortis

sets in. That is biological death. It requires resurrection. We don't resurrect anybody. We resuscitate

them. "But this fellow kept saying something that I didn't expect. He said, 'Doctor, I'm in hell! I'm in

hell!' What do you do if you're the doctor? I told him to keep his hell to himself. I was busy saving his

life. I didn't want to be contaminated with spiritual things.

"Then the nurses wanted me to do something. What would you do? I'm a heart specialist, not a

minister. But finally I did something. It was a stupid thing. I said a prayer for him because he wanted

me to help keep him out of hell. He said, 'Every time you let go of me, I go back to hell.'

"So I said, 'Say this prayer after me, 'I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. If I die, please take me

to heaven. If I live, I'm yours. I'm on the hook forever.'' I remember that part because I don't say

prayers well. And he's been a strong Christian ever since. This little prayer, this amusing little prayer,

was a religious conversion experience for this man. After he said that prayer, he had subsequent

clinical deaths and he wasn't frightened anymore. He was quiet, peaceful. He was not afraid of dying

anymore. This fellow had a religious conversion experience right there in my office. But the thing that I

didn't count on was this amusing little prayer backfired and got to me, too. I became a Christian."

Dr. Rawlings went on to tell me that he started cataloging his patients' good and bad "at death"

experiences. Some 300 of his patients had hell experiences, and about 150 had heaven experiences.

What made the difference? Those who had entrusted themselves to Jesus and asked Him to forgive

their sins had heaven experiences. Those who hadn't - even those who attended church - found

themselves in hell. That was a very interesting interview. I'll always remember one statement Dr.

Rawlings made. He said, "As an atheist cardiologist, I began to see that the evidence showed me it

wasn't safe to die."

To quote Angus Buchan, a well-known evangelist, "Good people don't go to heaven, BELIEVERS do!"

Just think about the man on the cross next to Jesus who said, "Jesus, remember me when you come

into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

This man was saved only by

faith and the grace of God; he was a believer.

What about you? Do you know where you will go the moment you die? If you are uncertain, I would

encourage you to discover what God says about knowing for sure that He will take you to heaven,

where you will live with Him forever. Go up the mountain, where it is quiet and peaceful, spend some

time with Him through Bible-study, prayer and fasting, listen to Him and learn from Him. Believe in

Jesus Christ, and, by His grace, you will be saved.

May God bless you!