Betty Eadie’s “Embraced by the Light” (1992) purports to tell her experiences after clinically dying. Much Mormon and popular influence: Jesus is separate from Father, humans are not sinful by nature, tragedy does not really exist in world. Many Christians accept it uncritically. NDE is a recent phenomenon and has developed into a “religion of the resuscitated.” Most claim to have met ultimate reality face-to-face without the assistance of any religious institution, human mediation, or historical connection. They were There; now they Know; and we should listen, especially since the news they bring is so consoling. It is a belief in an enjoyable life after death with no fear of divine judgment, and dispenses with traditional dogmas of sin and the need for salvation, asserting instead that one must simply grow in knowledge and love, both vaguely defined. We are exhorted to grow in knowledge while, on the other hand, we are barred from specific doctrinal affirmations about God, such as there being a narrow road that leads to life and a broad road leading to destruction.
This approach to human consciousness conforms to New Age thinking. However, some NDEs have led people to faith in Christ, including some who have had visions of hell. It is better to trust the eternal certainties offered by the One who experienced death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to the place of unmatched authority. He alone has the last word on matters of life and death.
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“The idea of hell and judgment are nowhere to be found [in Betty Eadie’s bestseller, Embraced By The Light, on the N.Y. Times bestseller list for more than 40 weeks, including 5 weeks as #1]. In November 1973 Eadie allegedly died after undergoing a hysterectomy, and returned five hours later with the secrets of heaven revealed by Jesus. Eadie says that Jesus ‘never wanted to do or say anything that would offend me’ while she visited heaven. Indeed, Jesus seems to be relegated to the role of a happy tour guide in heaven, not the Savior of the world who died on the cross.”
Richard Abanes, in Christianity Today, March 7, 1994, p. 53]