{"id":87149,"date":"2026-11-05T22:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T03:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=87149"},"modified":"2026-11-05T22:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T03:20:38","slug":"is-god-dead-resplendent-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/11\/05\/is-god-dead-resplendent-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Is God Dead? Resplendent Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Having been thrown from a vehicle during an accident, Vicki suffered a basal skull fracture, a broken back, and a broken neck. Like so many others who have lived through a Near Death Experience (NDE), Vicki found herself hovering over the accident scene. Sometime later, noticing that although her \u201cbody\u201d had a natural form, it was made up of light, she found herself moving through a dark tube toward a single point of ever-brightening light. Having reached the end of the tube, Vicki arrived at a serene place of lush foliage and magnificent trees, and there found herself surrounded by people. More importantly, Vicki found this place to be bathed in a tremendous light. She later described the light as \u201csomething you could feel as well as see . . .. Everyone there was made of light. And I was made of light. What the light conveyed was love.\u201d Suddenly, she noticed a figure far brighter than all the rest, standing next to her, and she knew it was Jesus. Vicki would tell researchers, \u201cHe actually hugged me, and I was very close to him. He actually enveloped me with so much warmth and love . . . [and his eyes] were piercing eyes.\u201d Like so many other NDE reports, Vicki stood in amazement before the resplendent glory<\/em> of Jesus in a heavenly place. Even so, in a moment of profound irony, the beauty of heaven and the glory of Jesus were the first and only things she had ever seen. That is because Vicki has been totally blind from birth, not knowing even between day and night, dark and light. When asked if in her blindness, she saw<\/em> darkness, she quickly replied, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t see anything at all.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another case presented by NDE researcher John Burke, one individual proclaimed, \u201cJesus is our light. . .. He is brighter than the noonday sun, but you can still look at him in heaven.\u201d He would go on to say that while everyone in heaven is made of bright light, Jesus was the brightest of all people; \u201cincredibly beautiful and warm.\u201d Yet another reported, \u201cI was so consumed by His presence that I dropped to my knees and looked up at Him. He is so beautiful. All light, inside of Light.\u201d Indeed, over and again NDErs report seeing an incredibly bright light\u2014a light that is almost always associated with Jesus or God. According to Burke, well over half of all NDEs include encountering a brilliant and powerful light emanating from a Divine origin. With 25 million reported cases of NDEs, that means more than 13 million people have \u201cseen the light of Christ.\u201d Thirteen million<\/em> people! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What surely seems to the unbeliever as a staggering number of fanciful illusions, Christians hold the bright light of Christ as nothing less than orthodox doctrine brought directly forward from the Bible which proclaims \u201cGod dwells in unapproachable light\u201d (1 Tim 6:16). Make no mistake, Christians argue that there is the strongest corroboration found between what has been reported by 13 million NDErs concerning the bright light of Christ, and how the Bible depicts His glorious presence. The Bible, recording the heavenly experience of the apostle John, reads precisely as a modern-day NDE of the resplendent glory of Christ: \u201cThen I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and turning I saw. . . one like the son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around the chest. The hairs on his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like flames of fire . . . his voice was like the roar of many waters . . . and his face was like the sun shining in full strength<\/em>\u201d (Rev 1:12ff).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years earlier John had described Jesus as \u201cthe true light that gives light to everyone\u201d (John 1:9), and as \u201cthe light [that] shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it\u201d (John1:5). Jesus himself taught \u201cI am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness\u201d (John 8:12). Jesus, according to the Bible, is depicted as nothing less than the brilliant point of light in the midst of a dark world. For example, John writes, \u201cGod is light, and in him is no darkness at all . . . If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin\u201d (1 John 1:5-7). Speaking of what heaven will be like, Jesus says that \u201cnight will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light\u201d (Rev 22:5). The similarities between these biblical passages and what is reported in many NDEs are striking. After all, even the blind can clearly see it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these example passages only brush the surface of what the Bible has to say about Jesus as the light of the world, they should be sufficient to support the argument that NDEs corroborate and reaffirm what the Bible has long said about what happens to us when we die. But there is one more thing\u2014the Bible teaches that the most important thing in this life is love. Join us again next time as we continue to look at NDEs and their corroboration with the Bible\u2014this time concerning love. (If you would like more information on near death experiences, please visit the International Association for Near-Death Studies<\/em> at: IANDS.org). Until then, if over 13 million people have truly seen the resplendent glory of Christ, then is God dead<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gloria in excelsis Deo!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ty B. Kerley,<\/strong> DMin.<\/strong>, is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore, OK.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having been thrown from a vehicle during an accident, Vicki suffered a basal skull fracture, a broken back, and a broken neck. Like so many others who have lived through… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjVcLzA0XC9UeS1LZXJsZXkud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IklzIEdvZCBEZWFkPyBSZXNwbGVuZGVudCBHbG9yeSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.sOJ7RkGoKMi9RnOEKSxi3aRhr6GjF4Crs3d4B2FkZeMMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjVcLzA0XC9UeS1LZXJsZXkud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IklzIEdvZCBEZWFkPyBSZXNwbGVuZGVudCBHbG9yeSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.sOJ7RkGoKMi9RnOEKSxi3aRhr6GjF4Crs3d4B2FkZeMMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[17007,19051,16235,14215,19050,19049,19052,19048],"class_list":["post-87149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-apologetics","tag-bible","tag-christianity","tag-faith","tag-heaven","tag-jesus","tag-light-of-christ","tag-near-death-experience"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87151,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87149\/revisions\/87151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}