Heaven -- Christianity; Near-death experiences -- Religious aspects; Private revelations
The question has repeatedly been asked me, "Was this a real experience,
or merely a fanciful sketch?" What I have written above will as nearly
answer that question as it is possible for me to do. The preface and
early pages as given in the little volume are as nearly accurate as I
can make them; and anything that I might add on that point would simply
be superfluous. To me, at the time, it was as real as any experience
in this life could possibly be.
Questions have been asked respecting the comparative distances in
heaven and our powers of passing from one point to another; and the
question has even been asked if in the other life we developed wings
that aided us in passage, as the wings of a bird. These matter-of-fact
questions are sometimes quite difficult to answer, for my belief is,
that if I were really in the other life, as during this experience I
seemed to be, my thoughts would be so far above, so lifted beyond such
temporal matters, that I would be unable to answer such inquiries
satisfactorily on my return to this life. Looking back upon it now,
and trying to gather facts from the impressions that I then received, I
should say that none who have ever passed through mortal life would in
any way be changed from their present personal appearance, except to be
etherealized and glorified. When I seemed to stand in that wonderful
Temple filled with the Glory of God the Father, four angels with
uplifted trumpets stood beside the golden altar on the great platform
of pearl, and from their shoulders shadowy pinions enfolded them and
touched the floor upon which they stood. And when, in a moment of
bewildering emotion, I lifted my eyes to the erstwhile cloud-filled
dome, I saw about the hitherto invisible choir, the shadowy pinions of
which we so often read, half concealing the harps and instruments of
gold. Also, when at the close of that wonderful day when I had first
met the Savior, we heard the angel voices as we stood together in the
great flower-room, and, looking upward, saw the child faces in the
golden twilight above us, they, too, had delicate shadowy wings, half
concealing the baby forms. Except for this, I have no recollection of
having seen any of those glorious wings of which we so often read.
To me it seems that to the angels of God who have always lived in
heaven, these are given; but to those who have suffered and toiled and
borne the cross below, is given only the glorified form, such as our
Savior himself bore. We appear to our friends when we meet them over
there just as they saw us here, only purified and perfect. Still, we
had powers of locomotion given us that carried us from point to point
swiftly and securely, as though borne by a boat upon the waters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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