A few months ago, my brother-in-law’s mother died from a heart attack. She was an amazing woman, so I was quite saddened. One thing that still continues to bother me was that she was not a Catholic, but a Presbyterian. After her death, this thought caused me to cry myself to sleep. On one night, I had a very realistic dream.
I was still in my room, but I saw something standing in the corner. It was in the form of man, and he was beautiful and angelic, but his presence was not only threatening, but ominous. He taunted me and said that my brother-in-law’s mother was in Hell, burning for eternity. I told my mum about this dream, and she said it was satan playing with my emotions. She then warned me, “Do NOT listen to him!”. Fortunately, I never saw him again after this night, but it still bothers.
Do you think I really encountered the devil, or were my emotions playing tricks on me? What are your thoughts?
The devil is a liar for a start, so even if he was responsible for this “dream”, the last thing you need to do is take him at his word.
However, I will add the following account as part of my own experience. It’s personal revelation, so you can do what you like with it. Reject it if you wish.
I used to be Presbyterian myself. I’ve often mentioned “my old protestant pastor” on forum posts. The first pastor I had after becoming a Christian when I was about 28 turned out to be the wisest, most prophetic man I’ve met. And I say that even though I’ve now been a Catholic for about 15 or 16 years. In fact, he predicted I’d become Catholic. That was one of his accurate predictions - one of a number as it turned out.
While I met him in the Presbyterian Church, he was Methodist by training, so I misesd out on the hardline Calvinism which characterised some of the fundamentalist boys.
However one time we were talking in his office towards the end of his life, and he commented “I sometimes wonder if Protestants get into heaven.” This took me aback as you might gather, and he explained himself by pointing out he didn’t think God was as easy going about the continued division of His church as we are.
He also commented the Reformation was “easily the most violent episode in church history”. It far surpassed the Crusades in the body count.
I asked him that if he believed then why he was still a Protestant? He thought for a moment, and then said, “They (the Catholic Church) have done a lot of damage at times!” He didn’t say much more than that. But he was right of course.
But after he died, I had a couple of brief visions which involved him. In one he briefly appeared, and simply said, “We’re not in heaven. We’re all in Purgatory. Oh, we’re not suffering any pain, so you don’t have to worry about that! In fact, it’s pretty good around here.” Then he continued, “But we’re not in heaven.”
And then he disappeared.
Frankly I think was a real vision with a message to me.
So in my opinion, I think there’s a pretty good chance your brother-in-law’s mother is in Purgatory, assuming of course she was in fact a Christian, and not just “Presbyterian” in name only.
I would suspect therefore the devil is playing on your Catholic concerns about just where she might be. I bet you’ve been wondering about the issue even before the dream.
Anyway that’s what I think, assuming the dream wasn’t just of your own subconscious making.
:hug1:
