Pope Francis said even atheists are redeemed and “good atheists will meet us there…”.The pope didn’t mention anywhere that good atheists are saved nor will go to heaven!Please read very carefully all what he wrote in context.
Since we’re not supposed to include private revelation, then I don’t know how much the following will hold water, but I’ve often said before that the night he died, my father appeared in my room. He started with an apology for 20 years of deliberate cruelty, we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this terrifying scream and disappeared.
I think he’s in Hell, going by the scream. The fear and terror was so contagious that I started to scream, but then he just disappeared. This wasn’t an NDE incidentally - he was dead, full stop. In fact at one stage I blurted out, “What is this? A dream or something?”. He looked a bit bemused, and replied, “It’s not a dream. I died tonight.”
At another point he exclaimed “It wasn’t easy for me either, you know, and I didn’t have a chance to see anything like this!”
Most of the time he was looking over my head with one of two expressions - the first was one of awe. The second was when he would put his face behind his hands as though he couldn’t bear to watch what he was seeing. I think in the first instance he was seeing God or the heavenly court, and he was awed. In the second I think he was seeing episodes of his own behaviour that appalled him seen in the light of the Divine Presence. He couldn’t stand it.
What gets me about all these Protestant (and other) NDE’s (and don’t get me wrong - I think they occur) is that there is
not one word about facing a judgement. You get this Angela what’s her name in South America somewhere who alleges JPII is in hell, along with a host of others, but not once does she mention being judged herself. Apparently she’s as pure as the driven snow.
And I think the reality is that the judgement is pretty tough, even if we’ve been redeemed. We still have to go through it.
I’ll say it again, not once do these NDE’s mention facing a rigorous judgement, or being awed by the Judging Panel, or being appalled by their own behaviour at times.
Personally I don’t think that NDE’s get that far. So we don’t know the final outcome.
And for reasons of my own I don’t think Protestants get into heaven. That’s based on something my old
Protestant pastor said, and he was pretty clued up. I don’t think God tolerates the continued division of His Church
by men, when He set it up at such great cost by the crucifixion of His own Son
by men.
I think they go to Purgatory, even the very heavenly end of Purgatory, but they’ll have to wait for the church to formally reunify before they go the final step.
The words my old pastor used were “I sometimes wonder if Protestants get into heaven… I don’t think God accepts the division of His Church like we do…” I challenged him on that and replied, “If you think that, then why are you still a Protestant?”. He thought for a minute and said, “They (the Catholic Church) have done a lot of damage at times” (no argument there). So we left it at that.
But sometime after he died, he appeared briefly to me and simply said, “We’re not in heaven. We’re all in Purgatory. Oh, we not suffering any pain, so you don’t have to worry about that! In fact, it’s pretty good around here (and here he appeared rather impressed).” But then he continued, “But we’re not in heaven.”
Then he disappeared again.
Now that’s been part of my personal experience, and of course it’s just as subjective and suspect as someone else’s NDE. But due to that and other things, that’s why I don’t think Protestants get into heaven.
And not once in NDE’s do they mention a rigorous judgement, so complete that Christ promised we would answer for “every useless word”. So unless all these Protestants are holier than the saints, one would think they would have something to say about this aspect of their NDE’s if they get so far as the Pearly Gates.
and apply it to protestants who think this way about Catholics.
