Tough Question about Heaven and Hell

[StrawberryJam]

I’ve written on this site a number of times that the my father appeared “spirituallly” in my room the night he died. He started with an apology, we argued and conversed, and he then disappeared, but not before giving a terrifying scream at something that he could obviously see coming for him (but I couldn’t see it - just him).

However during the conversation he made a comment, “I always was doomed! I didn’t really have any choice!” I argued back, saying that “couldn’t be right!” He replied, “Oh, it’s right all right. You can see that from here.” Yet later he admitted he was deliberately cruel, saying “I was WILLING”. I think he was very willing personally.

Now he was Catholic but lost his faith. He had two sisters who kept their faith, they both died within the last five years. When they did, I had a sense of peace, as though they were trying to communicate something. I get this sense when some people I know die. When my old Protestant pastor died, I had this sense of peace for a good half an hour.

So I don’t know the answer. They obviously would have known of his fate once they themselves had passed throught to eternal life. Yet I never mentioned the episode with my father to them, as for one thing my family was a bit estranged from our relatives (more a case of avoidance than emotion), and secondly I didn’t particularly want to tell them that I was pretty certain their brother was in hell.

So how they could be “at peace” whilst knowing, and possibly even able to see, his fate, I do not know. I even suspect that damned souls become quite hideous in appearance as well.

I can only assume, as my father himself said, “Oh, it’s right all right. You can see that from here!”

Have you talked to a priest about this? If you did, has he said anything about this to clarify what this could mean?

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Have you talked to a priest about this? If you did, has he said anything about this to clarify what this could mean?

I’ve talked to my original Presbyterian pastor (still the wisest man I’ve met. He was actually Methodist by training), my Catholic psychiatrist (for depression - I only see him a couple of times a year now) and mentioned it to a couple of the priests who have been at our parish.

The original pastor initially thought I was being deceived. I remember his first comment when I told him was “I’d have been a lot happier if you hadn’t told me that”. However he changed his mind when I told him of one of my father’s specific predictions that I’d “meet a pastor. You’ll think he’s great, but all he’ll do is discourage you even more!” About 12 years later I sat in the pastor’s office to hear him say, “I owe you an apology. You needed encouragement, but all I’ve done is to discourage you even more.” I then pointed out that he had repeated my father’s specific prediction almost word for word. He was rather shaken, and said “You really did see your father that night!”

The psychiatrist’s comment was “I’ve been thinking about what you said about your father, and I think you did see your father that night.”

The priests so far haven’t said much, but then I’m not as close to them as I was to my old Protestant pastor. They’re too busy, and for reasons of my own, I’m a bit wary.

I’ve also had some “uncanny coincidences” around the issue. The man who turned up four days later to tell me he’d died was my mother’s brother, one of my uncles. He stated that it was messy as the body wasn’t found for four days. I still remember counting back four days, turning towards the bedroom and thinking, “What the hell was that the other night?” I was an atheist at the time.

A couple of years ago I was arguing with atheists on a Google forum. The particular topic was “Near Death Experiences” (NDE’s), the business of floating out of the body, the bright light etc. Getting nowhere with them, I prayed I might meet someone who’d had an NDE.

A couple of days later I was sitting in a Maxi Taxi in a suburb called Boondall. Onto the screen came a Maxi job for a place called Brighton, a few kilometres away. I procrastinated for a few minutes thinking someone closer would handle it, but when it stayed there I put in for it and got the job. When I arrived at an aged care complex called Eventide, there was a single bloke there, about my own age, who had not wanted a Maxi. I only got the job due to a glitch or operator error. However we’d only been travelling a few minutes when it turned out he’d had an NDE. He’d been technically dead for 10 minutes following surgery. Due to health complications, he was now in the aged care centre, even though he’d have been only 55 at the time.

However it turned out he’d been at the same High School as the eldest son of the very same uncle who turned up to tell me my father had died. My uncle’s family had grown up in Brighton and clearly this bloke hadn’t moved far from his original home.

There was another incident, of a similar sort.

It happened all right. Exactly what interpretation I am supposed to put on “I always was doomed! I didn’t have any choice!” and “Oh, it’s right, all right. You can see that from here!”, I do not know.

Nor do I know why I had this experience, and the great majority of people don’t. However I know this much - my father also predicted two nuclear wars, one limited, the other all-out. And a few other encouraging events. So far they haven’t happened, but his prediction about the pastor was spot-on.

What price his other predictions? Was he sent to warn me?

I don’t know. My psychiatrist thinks I’d be better using that as the basis for fiction, since people sometimes take more notice of fictional ideas than they do of weird factual events.