Heaven is Amazing!: A Composition of 34 Eyewitness Testimonies

By Dr. Jacques LaFrance

Heaven is amazing! is based on 34 eyewitness
testimonies, synthesized into a complete
whole. The consistency and variability of
the testimonies also demonstrate that these
testimonies have to be considered authentic.
No two people could hallucinate the same
thing. Along with the consistency, there are the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Dec 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640881624

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Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2018 by Dr. Jacques LaFrance

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Trilogy Christian Publishing Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, Ca 92780.

First Trilogy Christian Publishing hardcover edition November 2018

Trilogy Christian Publishing/ TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-64088-161-7

ISBN 978-1-64088-162-4 (ebook)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the One who made everything described here possible.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge those friends and family who reviewed this manuscript and offered helpful suggestions. These include Les Hilst, Jim Patton, Lou Pappas, Christine Detrick, and Nicole Rosser. I am indebted to Laurie Brumbaugh for her dedicated work in creating all of the illustrations in the book. This is in spite of the fact that she has never seen heaven herself. She has worked entirely from the descriptions others have given as recorded in this book. In addition, I wish to acknowledge and thank the First Presbyterian Church Tulsa for giving me the teaching opportunities that led to the inspiration for this book. And I wish to acknowledge the excellent work of the staff at Trilogy Christian Publishers, Inc.

Introduction

This book had its beginnings forty years ago when I first started collecting and reading books giving different people’s accounts of heaven. It took fruition in 2016 after I taught a class at church on different features of heaven and what different people said about them. The class was well received, so I decided to put it all in writing rather than carrying and quoting from the sixteen different books. That writing eventually turned into the first edition of this book. Many acknowledged that first edition was an excellent book everyone should read. Some even bought multiple copies to give away to family, friends, and clients. However, because it was self-published, there was no marketing of the book outside the author’s own acquaintances.

With this second edition I have added to the features discussed and added additional testimony for a total of thirty-four individual witnesses to heaven as contained in twenty-seven books, some of which cover things not mentioned in the first edition. One chapter gives the testimonies of eleven individuals who experienced hell.

It is not just a repetition of others’ stories of heaven. I have considered different features of heaven and extracted from the various books what those authors have said about those features. The composite descriptions of features of heaven from thirty-four accounts of heaven give a more complete picture of each feature of heaven than any one testimony gives. Not only can one see the similarities but also the variability that would be expected from different eyewitnesses of the same event. It is worth noting that everyone’s experience in heaven is very individualistic, just as our lives here on Earth are. God will bless each of us in unique ways appropriate to His individual plan for each of us.

As you read the different accounts of the same aspects of heaven, you will see differences. Don’t take this as one is right and another is wrong; heaven is not like Earth, and no one has seen all there is in heaven on any feature. Different experiences can both be true to the extent they are perceived by the recipient. The same situation occurs when several people are eyewitnesses to an event here. Though there is overall consistency, they do not all give the exact same report and there will be differences, such as perceiving the colors differently. God makes each person’s experience in heaven ideal for that person. The differences recorded merely show the diversity of heaven and its uniqueness for each person. The logic of heaven is not like the logic of Earth. These different accounts merely give you a sampling of what lies ahead for those you love or for you if you have Jesus in your heart, as Colton Burpo said. (Burpo, 57)

For those who doubt the veracity of any particular account they have read or heard about, this book, by bringing together multiple accounts of the same features, demonstrates that these experiences cannot be attributed to hallucinations or drugs, but must be considered authentic. Hallucinations occur in the brain so it is not possible for two people to hallucinate the same thing. One of the authors included, Eben Alexander, began as a skeptical neurosurgeon assuming all near death experiences were just functions of brain wave activity, until he had his own experience out of his body. But it is clear from this book that many people have seen essentially the same things in heaven. Furthermore, these testimonies are from different genders, different ages, different locations (from Australia to the Middle East), and different years, making it impossible for them to be contrived deceptions. So look forward to being treated to the most complete eyewitness testimony to what lies beyond the grave.

This book is written to bring more awareness to the wonderful life that lies ahead and hopefully to eliminate any fear of leaving this life. I personally have never seen heaven nor hell. I have never had a dream or vision of heaven or hell or Jesus. But the stories of those who have make it real to me. As I relate what others have seen and heard, I hope the reader too will anticipate being there. Heaven is not a by-and-by hope; Heaven is now and lasts forever. Heaven is all about relationships, first of all with the Father and the Son, but also about all other relationships with joy, hope, love, and peace. Hopefully you will begin to experience heaven in your life now as you have a relationship with God, Jesus, and His Kingdom, and experience their joy, peace, hope, and truth in your present life.

I hope, too, that it gives peace about loved ones who have gone ahead, knowing more about what they are experiencing. One friend after reading my first edition said his mother died about a month after he finished reading the book. At her memorial service, he told the attendees what she was experiencing based on what he had read in my book. He said it was a comfort to many there. Even now as you are living this life, you can anticipate your future in heaven, and you can enjoy a closer relationship with your Lord, seeing in more detail the extent of His love for you. My hope is that if you are soon to be going there, you will be blessed and encouraged so that as you sing When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder, Shall We Gather at the River, or Soon and Very Soon, you will have a better vision about what you are singing and it will be far more meaningful. On the other hand, if you are one who, at this time, cannot count your future in heaven as certain, I hope what I have described here will cause you to pause and consider where you are headed, and if it is not what you wish, you would make the necessary changes now while you have the opportunity.

We indeed serve a very, very good God, a master at creating. The amazing creation in which we are currently living is far surpassed by His creation of heaven. You are going to be awed as well as very abundantly blessed. God’s love has no bounds for those who have put their trust in Jesus and received His forgiveness and justification.

I have included references to the books to which I have referred throughout the text. I refer the reader to the book in the bibliography and give page numbers where the author’s discussion of this topic can be found. This is provided so you may go to the author’s description and read for yourself directly what he or she (hesh, see next paragraph) experienced, which I have only been able to share in part in this book.

Finally, I give here a comment on English grammar. In English, we have no gender-neutral third-person singular pronouns. Formerly, the masculine form was used both for reference to a masculine antecedent and also to someone whose gender is not identified. However, today that usage meets with disapproval. Many choose the ungrammatical third person plural to refer to a singular antecedent. The other choice is using the awkward phrasing he or she or him or her or his or hers. As another solution, I propose new gender-neutral third-person singular pronouns made of combinations of the masculine and feminine forms. The subjective case is hesh, the objective case is herm, the possessive case is either hisr or hisrs, corresponding to her or hers, and hermself for himself or herself. For example: Hesh hermself gave hisr book to herm; then the book was hisrs. I have seen other proposals that are so different from the usual that they are initially hard to understand and use. These forms are similar enough to the other singular forms that they are easily understood and used. I will use the grammatically acceptable he or she throughout this book, but I will also include my suggested gender-neutral third-person singular pronouns parenthetically in the hopes that they might be universally adopted and the ungrammatical use of the third person plural be dropped. You will see some places where the new forms would greatly simplify a paragraph.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Approaching Heaven

Chapter 2 First glimpses of Heaven

Chapter 3: Personal Appearances

Chapter 4: Heavenly Music

Chapter 5: The River of Life, Lake, and Sea

Chapter 6: Trees, Fruit, Flowers, Grass, Landscapes, and Sky

Chapter 7: Things, Work, and Recreation

Chapter 8: Meeting Jesus

Chapter 9: Meeting Family and Friends

Chapter 10: Seeing Saints of Old and Angels

Chapter 11: Children and Animals in Heaven

Chapter 12: Mansions in Heaven

Chapter 13: The Throne of God

Chapter 14: The Archives of Heaven, The Book of Life

Chapter 15: Libraries, Education, and Other Buildings

Chapter 16: Life in Heaven

Chapter 17: Life after Heaven

Chapter 18: Physics of Heaven

Chapter 19: Non-Heaven Experiences

Chapter 20: The Bad News

Chapter 21: Conclusions

Chapter 1:

Approaching Heaven

There are different stories of the first encounter with heaven. Some people describe traveling fast through space, as in a tunnel or on a beam of light. Others’ first experience is of being in the arms of Jesus. Some are met by friends who guide them. Others are guided by angels or even Jesus himself. Some pass through a fog or veil into the presence of heaven. And some are just suddenly there. In the next paragraphs, I will share some testimonies of each of these types of travels to heaven.

Friends and Guides

One of those who encountered friends who guided her to heaven was Mary Neal. She is an orthopedic surgeon living with her husband and children in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They became friends with a family running a canoe and kayak service in Idaho and were excellent kayakers themselves. The families went to Chile one winter for a white-water kayak trip. The trip did not turn out well. A lesser-experienced kayaker preceded Mary over a falls and got stuck between two rocks. Mary couldn’t stop or get around and went under the other kayak and got pinned under water. The force of the current prevented her from getting out of her kayak until she lost consciousness. She wrote of her experience dying while submerged in the river. When her spirit was released from her body and began to tumble from her submerged kayak, she felt a pop. She felt released from a shell, freeing her soul. When her soul rose from the water, she encountered a group of fifteen to twenty human spirits sent by God, who greeted her with the most overwhelming joy she had ever experienced and could ever imagine. She says it was an incredible joy. They were like a large welcoming committee. She likened it to the great cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 12:1. This welcoming committee was wildly cheering for her as she arrived.

She felt a kindred spirit with them and knew they were sent to guide her across the divide of time and dimension that separates our world from God’s. She also knew they were to protect her during her journey. (Neal, 68-69)

This was also the experience of Rebecca Springer, who suffered an extended painful illness. One night she had intense suffering and, in the morning, seemed to be standing on the floor by the bed in front of a stained-glass window in her house. She was aware of someone standing beside her. She saw it was her husband’s favorite brother, Frank, who had died many years ago. She cried out joyously to her brother-in-law and expressed how glad she was to see him. As he drew her toward the window, she looked back at the room she was about to leave forever she thought. She went with him through the window, out onto the veranda, and from there, in some mysterious way, down to the street. (Springer, 8-9)

Tunnel or Beam

Betty Eadie died from complications after a hysterectomy. At the moment of death, she felt a surge of energy. It was like the pop Mary Neal experienced as her spirit came free from her body. She stayed in her room, studied her body, realized her body was dead, wanted to tell someone, and experienced weightlessness and a freedom from pain. Then three guys in brown robes showed up who seemed to her to exhibit spirituality, knowledge, and wisdom. She left her room in a great whirling black mass. It was as if she was moving faster than the speed of light through a tunnel toward a pinpoint of light. The pinpoint light turned out to be the radiant brilliance of Jesus, as she landed in his presence. (Eadie, 29)

Dale Black stayed with his body at the hospital for a while and then he moved out of the room, down the hallway where the walls disappeared into a long corridor of light. He was out of his body, but he felt fully complete. He traveled at an incredible speed and began to anticipate something wondrous was coming. The light of the corridor was coming from a central source to which he was headed. It was the whitest light he had ever seen, but as he approached the central source, it became yellow-white and then golden. Unlike the sun’s light, this light was a living substance. As he got to the city he flew over a glorious meadow and trees. (Black, 156-159, 164)

He arrived in a meadow outside the city in view of the massive wall with a huge ornate gateway. These will be described later. Two angels, who were with him from the time he left his body, accompanied him. (Black, 16,17)

One of Dr. Maurice Rawlings’ patients, Mr. Ledford, died of heart failure. He remembers everything being black, and then seeing the hospital staff working on him. It seemed strange to him because he felt perfectly fine. He couldn’t see himself clearly and wasn’t sure that the body they were working on was his, so he moved to one side so he could see and verified that the body was indeed his.

He saw three or four people come in, including a boy in charge of oxygen. He thought the others must be nurses from another unit since he had not seen them before. Then everything seemed to be dimming out and going black again. He sensed he was moving through a long corridor. After a while, he became aware of a small pinpoint of light that looked like a bird. The pinpoint of light slowly became larger and larger until it looked like a flying white dove. It eventually became so big and bright that the whole area was lit with the brilliant, beautiful light. It surpassed anything he had ever seen before. (Rawlings, 76)

Immediate Arrival

Others just appear in the brilliance of heaven. Richard Eby died from a fall from a second story balcony railing that broke. He hit his head on pavement and it split open. He died instantly, but on the way to the hospital apparently his life functions resumed and the leisurely ambulance ride turned into a lights-flashing, siren-blaring, emergency run. He says one moment he was in Chicago and the next moment in heaven, one moment in miserable humidity and then next in the most beautiful wondrous world he had ever known. He was met with an overwhelming sense of peace and the sharpest mind he had ever had. (Eby, 202-203)

When Betty Malz (Betty Upchurch at the time) died from a ruptured appendix in the hospital, the transition was serene and peaceful, she said. She found herself walking up a green grassy hill. The grass was beautiful, the most vivid shade of green she had ever seen. (Malz, 84)

Don Piper specifically says that he never experienced any of these other arrival patterns; he was just suddenly enveloped by a brilliant light and found himself in heaven. He was filled with joy and saw a crowd of people, including some that he knew, but Jesus was not there. They rushed toward him smiling and praising God. (Piper, 21-22)

Immediate Arrival with Jesus

This is the case of Samaa Habib. She is a former Muslim in an unidentified Middle Eastern country suffering through an extended civil war. She was next to a fire extinguisher cabinet when a Jihadist’s bomb exploded in the cabinet and knocked her ten feet against a wall. She died immediately. When she opened her eyes, she saw a brilliant white light illuminating Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son of God. She said His face was brighter than the sun, and He was so glorious and transcendent that she was blinded with the brilliant light. His golden light was everywhere around her. She was in awe at His mighty presence and had a great fear of the Lord that made her speechless seeing His majesty and His indescribable beauty. She was totally consumed with praise, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

She fell facedown with the weight of His glory. She was prostrate at His feet. She said she was terrified and aware of her uncleanness. She was unable to stand in His presence.

Then Jesus touched her and told her not be afraid. He reminded her that His precious blood was shed for her and that He had washed her clean as white snow, making her holy and pure. It was all because of His love for her. (Habib, 177)

This is like John’s experience recorded in Revelation 1:17, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid’" [NIV]

Jesus came to Rhoda Jubilee Mitchell as she was lying facedown on her bed, completely overwhelmed by her troubles and feeling defeated. She had cried out to God, I can’t take it any more. Jesus came in response to her call. She said as Jesus took her out of her body, she was acutely aware of her surroundings. They ascended into the night sky, and she saw the celestial vista and Jesus’ and the Father’s communication. It revealed to her the majesty of God as Creator. (Roth, 44)

Later she says that, all of a sudden, we were in heaven, which she sensed was her home, as it loomed large in front of them. Jesus let her know immediately that she was there only for a visit and would not be allowed to stay. Then He set her down inside the walls. (Roth, 48)

Transporters

Some people report riding in some conveyance like a cable car without the cable. This is what Jesse Duplantis said on the tape recording of his experience. Kat Kerr reported this possibility also. (Kerr 2007, 33-34)

As reported in the chapter on the rivers, lakes, and seas in this book, Rebecca Springer saw sea-going conveyances bringing people from the other side. (Springer, 108)

Arrival in Clouds

Dale Reppert saw hazy, white light around the blurred individuals in his hospital room when a brilliant soft beam of white light arose from the horizon and formed a dome over him that extended infinitely in all directions. It took away his pain and