What Does Jesus Wear in Heaven??

Can Christians Take Trips to Heaven? Episode 337 of the Holy Nope was outlandish to say the least.

Listen to this. Let's talk about what Jesus wears when he is in heaven. My name is Dakota Lee. I have a gift to see into the spiritual world beyond and I have been visiting heaven. God's.

Been letting me since I was 12 years old. Now people have been giving their testimonies of going to heaven or to hell for a long time. The movie Heaven is for Real helped to popularize the idea that at near-death experiences especially Christians might have the chance to be heaven's tourist.

Some commenters on this episode even said that while they don't believe this silly goose they are inclined to believe stories of near-death experiences. Now there is no doubt that people have come up with stories like these in order to sell their books and movies and whatever but what we want to consider in the next few minutes is the question should we believe any of these kinds of testimonies?

Is there any support for this we can gather from the scriptures that tells us trips to heaven is possible for the Christian? I'd like to address first near-death experiences and those of you who are inclined to believe such tales.

Is your inclination to believe these stories supported by scripture or a movie you saw or something else? Trivia time. How many biblical authors had visions of heaven? That's right. You guessed it. Four biblical authors had visions of heaven.

Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, and John. Now only Isaiah and Ezekiel and John wrote anything about what they saw and Paul was reluctant to bring it up at all saying he was not permitted to talk about it. Here's the thing.

None of these people had these visions during near-death experiences. Not only that but the experiences themselves that is between biblical authors and modern tourists are strikingly different. People who die, go to heaven, and come back are not claiming to have a vision.

They are claiming actually to be there and then to be sent back. That is not what happened to Isaiah, Ezekiel, John, or Paul. Something else we must take note of is that what Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John describe is so dissimilar to the modern reports we hear about.

They say.

Nothing about playing with animals. I'm sitting between the father and Jesus and a giraffe comes over and licks my face. I love it. A big gorilla. The gorilla that I saw before was pushing the swing one day when I was in heaven with the father and Jesus and I'm thinking boy this swing is really going good.

Some angel must be pushing it and I turn around and look and it's a gorilla. That's funny.

I love it. Christmastown. Jesus's favorite place to go in heaven would be Christmastown.

Or Jesus wearing a cowboy hat. When Jesus is in heaven he often wears his hair back in a low ponytail and yes he'll wear sandals, he'll often be barefoot, and he'll wear very loose fitting clothing. I've seen him in an actual tunic plenty of times.

But he will dress sometimes for the occasion. This one time just because he wanted to make me laugh he appeared to me in a cowboy hat.

The Glory of God in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John

Rather what they all describe in one way or another is God's glory and their own feelings of unholiness in his presence. Isaiah cries out woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the lord of hosts.

Ezekiel fell on his face and John fell at the feet of the lord as if he were dead. Clearly a different kind of story than the ones we hear about today. Other people in scripture who died and came back tell us nothing of their heavenly visit.

Lazarus was rotting in a tomb for four days. Elijah brought the widow's son back to life. No testimonies of visiting heaven. Scripture actually discourages us from seeking knowledge of the afterlife from sources outside itself.

The Law Against Mediums and Spiritists

The law given to the nation of Israel says there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire. One who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

For whoever does these things is detestable to the lord, and because of these detestable things the lord your god will drive them out before you. It is clear from this passage that attempts to gain access to the place beyond the grave is considered as wicked as child sacrifice.

Don't do it. One important text to look at is Jesus' words in John 3 .13. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus about entrance into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus' teaching comes from heaven but he is confused by it.

He asks in verse 9, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

So the theme of this conversation is the origin of Jesus' teaching. It comes from heaven. Enoch and Elijah were taken up to heaven but they did not return with teaching from heaven or about heaven. When Jesus says next in verse 13, no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the son of man, his meaning is clear.

To quote John Gill, there never has been nor was nor could be any mere man that could go up to heaven and return and instruct men in heavenly things but he that came down from heaven, Jesus alone, because he is God's son, the Christ.

Understanding John 3 .13 raises our skepticism about those who claim to have been to heaven or have been visiting heaven since they were 12 years old, whether at near-death experiences or in a supposed vision or the visits to heaven in the spirit and coming back to tell all of us what they saw and heard and did.

It triggers our discernment meter because Jesus makes it very clear that experiential teaching about heaven from one who has been there is reserved for him alone. Taking this into account with the rest of the biblical data, I think we can safely conclude not only that this video is looney tunes but that all such tales are coming from an untrustworthy source outside of the Bible that we may freely disregard.

And in light of the biblical witness on this subject, I would just plead with this creator and others who claim to have had these experiences or those who claim to have them regularly or those who promote these kinds of stories just to remember Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 4 .6 not to go beyond what is written because that is a holy nope.