Belief In Biblical End-Times Stifling Climate Change Action In U.S.

The United States has failed to take action to mitigate climate change thanks in part to the large number of religious Americans who believe in biblical end-times…

Derren Brown Documentary: ‘Miracles For Sale’ (Updated)

Derren Brown teaches an ordinary British citizen how to adopt the guise of a pastor and miracle worker. After six months of learning the trade, “Pastor James Collins” sets sail for America. With a camera crew documenting all aspects of the adventure, Paster James performs faith healing miracles live in Texas…

1972 Best Documentary: ‘Marjoe’ (Updated)

This post includes the 1972 Oscar winning film, Marjoe. Marjoe Gortner was the first Evangelical preacher to blow the whistle on his profession. In this award-winning documentary Marjoe reveals age-old tricks of the trade and exposed some of the entertainment aspects of the popular movement that have made it big business… From the beginning, his preaching skills were meticulously cultivated. Before he learned to say “Mamma” or “Poppa,” he was taught to sing “Hallelujah!” When he was nine months old his mother taught him the right way to shout “Glory!” into the microphone. At three, he could preach the gospel from memory, and he received drama coaching and instruction in every performing art from saxophone playing to baton twirling. On Halloween, 1948, at the age of four, Marjoe was officially ordained and thrust into a wildly successful career as the Shirley Temple of America’s Bible Belt, the sprawling non-geographic community of strict adherents to the Christian scriptures. In the following decade he preached to packed tents and houses coast to coast, as enthusiastic audiences flocked to see the Miracle Child who allegedly received sermons from the Lord in his sleep…

Jesus (Updated)

This page includes Jesus-related links to news articles, special reports, books, movies, videos, modern Jesus scholarship, The Sayings Gospel Q, and more…

Dr. Eben Alexander: The Easter Question

Dr. Eben Alexander writes:

“More than ever since my near death experience, I consider myself a Christian — though one who knows that God loves all of His children, including those whose faith is expressed in traditions different from my own… Any pastor will tell you that the single concept that separates the wheat (that is, the real believers) from the chaff (those who are Christians only in name), is whether a person accepts that what Christian tradition says happened on Easter Morning really happened. The entire force of the Christian message can be pushed into that moment when the rock of the cave rolled aside and Jesus — the same and yet not the same Jesus whom his mother had watched die on the cross just two days before — stepped out once more into common daylight. That he had, in fact, overcome death.

“Now, I can tell you that if someone had asked me, in the days before my NDE, what I thought of this story, I would have said that it was lovely. But it remained just that — a story. To say that the physical body of a man who had been brutally tortured and killed could simply get up and return to the world a few days later is to contradict every fact we know about the universe. It wasn’t simply an unscientific idea. It was a downright anti-scientific one.

“But it is an idea that I now believe. Not in a lip-service way. Not in a dress-up-it’s-Easter kind of way. I believe it with all my heart, and all my soul…”

Was Mother Teresa’s Humanitarian Image ‘A Myth’?

A collection of reports that accuse Mother Teresa of failing to be the humanitarian saint she was widely perceived to be. The allegations include accepting money from corrupt sources, keeping secret bank accounts, misusing millions of dollars in donations (money that could have been used to alleviate poverty or improve the conditions of her hospices was used, instead, to open new convents, increase missionary work, and fund other Vatican projects), refusing to help the needy when they approached the sisters at the wrong time according to the prescribed schedule, discouraging sisters from seeking medical training to deal with the illnesses they encountered (with the justification that God empowers the weak and ignorant), the imposition of “unjust” punishments on sisters (such as being transferred away from their friends), and keeping sisters in check by prohibiting the reading of secular books and newspapers, and emphasizing obedience over independent thinking and problem-solving… This post also includes Time Magazine’s August 2007 article on “Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith.”

Germany’s Great Church Sell-Off

Dwindling church attendance and dire financial straits are forcing the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany to sell off church buildings en masse. Some are demolished, while others are turned into restaurants or indoor rock climbing centers…

David Sunfellow: ‘How Near-Death Experiences Are Changing The World’ (Updated)

On January 27th and March 16th of 2012, David Sunfellow gave two talks in Sedona entitled “How Near-Death Experiences Are Changing The World”. The following two-hour, two-part video is a summary of the information that David shared during these presentations…

Mary Breastfeeding Jesus: Christmas’ Missing Icon

With all the familiar scenes associated with the holy family today — creches and church pageants, postage stamps and holiday cards — we are missing an obvious element of the mother-child connection that modern Christians are apparently happy to do without: a breast-feeding infant. Jesus certainly wasn’t a bottle baby. So what happened to Mary’s breasts? It’s a centuries-old story, but one that has a relatively brief answer: namely, the rise of the printing press in 15th-century Europe…

All About Emanuel Swedenborg

All about Emanuel Swedenborg. “People who have had near-death experiences peek through the door of the after-life, but Swedenborg explored the whole house.” — Kenneth Ring, founder of International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS)

Quick List of Prominent Near-Death Experiencers (Updated)

A quick list of prominent near-death experiencers, including links to their websites, Facebook & Google+ pages, Twitter feeds, and related resources…

New Movie: ‘Hellbound?’ (Updated)

Horrific depictions of hell have gripped humanity for centuries. And rightly so. Throughout history, people of all faiths have agonized over why God allows so much evil in the world. Their only comfort has been the hope that somehow, someday, God will make things right. Evildoers may get away with murder in this life. But in the life to come, there’ll be hell to pay. But the traditional view of hell also presents us with a dilemma: Of course we all want to see the scales of justice balanced. But if God is our pure, all-loving Creator, can he really allow (presumably) billions of people to suffer in hell for eternity? Evil is evil, but doesn’t the traditional view of hell tip the scales too far the other way? To many people, it seems like we can have a good God or we can have the traditional view of hell, but we can’t have both… Hellbound? is a feature-length documentary that asks why we are so bound to the idea of hell and what our view of hell reveals about how we perceive God, the Bible and, ultimately, ourselves…

Ancient Papyrus Fragment Suggests Jesus Was Married

A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’ ” The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”

Living in the Kingdom: Our Visit with Mother Antonia

Greg Mackie writes: “On August 21, Patricia and I had the great honor of visiting Mother Antonia, the ‘prison angel of Tijuana.’ It was a beautiful experience. As we saw how totally devoted Mother Antonia and the sisters who serve with her were to their mission of serving ‘the least of these,’ we felt like we were in the presence of people who, to a much greater degree than most, were really living in the Kingdom…”

What If Jesus Had Been A Republican?

1. When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at his home. 2. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5. When Jesus saw this he grew angry, “Why did you wreck my roof? Do you have any idea how much that cost to install? Do you know how many tables and chairs I had to make in my carpentry shop to pay for that roof? The reeds alone cost five talents. I had them carted in from Bethany.” 6. The disciples had never seen Jesus so angry about his possessions…

Amy C’s Near-Death Experience

EXCERPT: “I came to understand that most of us have lived much, MUCH longer than we could even fathom. That our lives that feel so very long are infinitesimal when placed in the Whole picture… which for that matter, cannot even be framed. I was shown how every single individual through their own free will chooses paths that MATHEMATICALLY take them to the circumstances of their next existence or life. That NOTHING at all sits in accident or chaos. That every single aspect of our lives are ruled by NATURAL Laws that we placed ourSELVES in! That in a sense, we create our own worlds. I was shown how one can never assume either, that if someone lives a life of suffering that this is because of “evil” deeds. Many may CHOOSE a life of suffering because of what it Awakens in them.. or to help another, etc.. We can NEVER EVER assume that we can be accurate in guessing why each Being lives the life they live. I cannot describe the relief… the refreshing, peaceful balm this Knowledge was for me. To finally gather this Truth that I’d yearned for all of my life… That all IS Good! That there IS sense and beauty all around. That no one is just “free-falling” as it had seemed before! That God doesn’t just get to toy with us as He pleases with random ideas of tests, including rewards and punishments that just depend upon His current mood or mindset. While in this experience, out in the vast expanse of stars and planets, moons, and Knowledge, I Knew complete Trust for what felt like the first time. This was bliss for me. I had lived in fear and distrust and panic for 30 consecutive years…”

Is Jesus Reaching Out To Muslims Through Their Dreams? (Updated)

Is Jesus Christ reaching out to Muslims through their dreams and encouraging them to embrace his teachings? This is exactly the phenomenon that some former Islamic adherents claim they have personally experienced. Numerous stories about Muslims, among others, who see the Christian savior in their dreams and convert as a result are streaming out of the Middle East…

Andy Paquette: 20 Year History of Precognitive Dreams

Andy Paquette, author of, “Dreamer: 20 Years of Psychic Dreams and How They Changed My Life”, discusses his psychic and precognitive experiences…

New Evidence Supports John The Baptist Bones Theory

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that mysterious remains found in an ancient reliquary in a 5th century monastery in Bulgaria belong to St John the Baptist. While these findings do not offer conclusive evidence, they also don’t refute the theory first proffered by the Bulgarian archaeologists who found the remains while excavating under an ancient church on the island…

Ossuary of James: Shanks Believes ‘Brother of Jesus’ Inscription Is Authentic

In all the hubbub and flurry of the verdict last March in the “forgery case of the century,” one question — the central question — seems to have gotten lost: Is the ossuary inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” genuine or not? There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the inscription on the James Ossuary. Whether it refers to Jesus of Nazareth remains a question…

The Three Faces Of God

The following post comes from an online discussion that took place on NHNE’s Near-Death Experience Network. It was part of a lively discussion that was triggered by Robert Perry’s essay “Loving Personhood Or Liberation From Personhood?” EXCERPT: “The evidence is overwhelming that while non-dual perspectives are vital, essential, and foundational — and that they need to be incorporated into our spiritual path and philosophy if we are going to be truly healthy — they are also limited — and primitive. Moreover, there is a very real danger of people having 1st-person God experiences and getting into serious trouble. The trouble they can get into is that after experiencing themselves to be God, they dismiss all need to develop their personalities, work on shadow issues, or cultivate healthy relationships in the world. They do this because they focus on only one aspect of their nature and misunderstand the purpose of life. They see clearly that the created universe is a dream, but mistakenly believe there is no reason for them to stay engaged here. What’s actually happening is that we’ve dreamed the world into existence for a purpose. That purpose, which is described in different ways by different sources, usually revolves around God becoming incarnate in the created universe through us. Or, said another way, you and I being called to manifest heaven on earth. What I find really interesting about all of this, is that ALL THREE FACES of God are abundantly represented in near-death experiences, while classic Advaita Vedanta experiences focus primarily on the 1st-person face of God. That’s the rub. In order to be healthy (living lives that are aligned with the intentions of life and the universe), we need all three. This is one reason why I believe that near-death experiences are more current, inspired, full-blown representatives of where humankind is headed than older, more foundational, and less evolved classic enlightenment experiences…”

The Purpose of Life, Jesus & NDEs (Updated)

I would like to list a few things that I believe are true that, as far as I can tell, are not only NOT common knowledge, but also have the potential to upend some deeply engrained ways of viewing the spiritual path, spiritual experiences, and, ultimately, the purpose of life…

Jesus of Siberia (Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop)

Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop, born January 14, 1961 in Krasnodar, Russian, is known by his followers as Vissarion, or Jesus of Siberia. He founded and heads a religious movement known as the Church of the Last Testament with its head church in the Siberian Taiga in the Minusinsk Depression east of Abakan, in the southern Siberia Kuraginsk district of Krasnoyarsk territory. He has around 4,000 followers (called Vissarionites) in around thirty villages in the immediate vicinity of his base at Sun City and approximately 10,000 followers around the world. Vissarion claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus. He teaches reincarnation, veganism, and the impending end of the world, or at least of civilization as we know it…

Underground Gay Group Emerges At Evangelical Christian College

On the same day President Obama became the first U.S. president to come out in support of same-sex marriage, a group of students announced the presence of the “Biola Queer Underground” at this small evangelical university, touching off a highly-charged debate about Christianity and homosexuality…

Robert Perry: ‘Loving Personhood Or Liberation From Personhood?’

Robert Perry writes: “In recent months, I have been watching video testimonies of two very different kinds. One kind is of people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs). The other kind is of people who claim to have awakened, become enlightened, basically within the context of the Advaita Vedanta tradition (nondualistic Hinduism). The weird thing is that, while both are essentially accounts of spiritual awakenings, they are really quite different…”

‘Jesus Tomb’ Controversy Rages As Archaeologists Explore Another 2,000-Year-Old Tomb

Archaeologists working in Jerusalem claim that a discovery they made inside a burial tomb, dating back to the time of Jesus Christ, could shed new light on the origins of Christianity. Biblical historian James Tabor, professor and chair of religious studies at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, is working with the team, led by controversial filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici. Using a camera mounted on a robotic arm, the team found a 2,000-year-old engraving, which they claim depicts Jesus’ resurrection, on an ossuary — a limestone burial box that contains human bones — in a first-century tomb. Their exploration of ancient life in the holy land is told in a new documentary for the Discovery Channel called “The Resurrection Tomb Mystery”…

Was Jesus Happy? Americans Say Yes; South Koreans Say No

Christianity is the dominant religion in both South Korea and the United States. But a new study finds that believers in these two cultures view the central figure of their religion quite differently. It’s possible that these different views of Jesus arise from different conceptions of Christianity. South Korean culture is traditionally family-focused, with an emphasis on forgoing one’s own needs for the needs of relatives. That could result in an emphasis on Jesus’ sacrifices. Cultural factors determine an “ideal” personality, Eggleston told LiveScience, and that ideal could then be transferred onto Jesus, who was, after all, supposed to be the perfect model of humanity. It’s also possible that Americans simply view themselves as happier than South Koreans, so they project their own happiness onto Jesus…

Jesus On Pinterest

Several collections of Jesus images on Pinterest…

Jerusalem District Court Issues Verdict On ‘Ossuary Of James’

After a trial of more than five years with 138 witnesses, more than 400 exhibits and a trial transcript of 12,000 pages, Judge Aharon Farkash of the Jerusalem District Court has cleared the defendants of all forgery charges. His opinion in the case, handed down on March 14, is 474 pages long. The most famous of the objects charged to be forgeries is an inscription on an ossuary or bone box that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” It received its first publication in BAR — on October 21, 2002. The next day it was on the front page of almost every newspaper in the world, including the New York Times and Washington Post…

History Channel: The Real Face Of Jesus? (Updated)

From 2010: “The Real Face of Jesus?” follows a team of graphic experts as they use cutting-edge 3D software to bring a holy relic known as the Shroud of Turin to life. Many believe Jesus Christ was buried in this ancient linen cloth, which bears traces of blood and the faint, ghostly image of a man. With the help of modern technology, the History Channel seeks to unlock the secrets of one of the world’s most scrutinized and controversial artifacts…

Stephen Colbert: ‘If This Is Going To Be A Christian Nation…’

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.” — Stephen Colbert

Bill Maher: The Hypocrisy Of Christians

Bill Maher on the hypocrisy of Christians…

NDE: Interview With 11-Year Old Colton Burpo (Heaven Is For Real) (Updated)

A burst appendix nearly cost 4-year-old Colton Burpo his life in 2003. Afterwards he began telling his parents about a very vivid trip to heaven, including sitting in Jesus’ lap, watching his parents while he lay seemingly near death, and meeting his great-grandfather. But most poignantly, Colton described meeting a sibling in heaven — even though he had no way of knowing that his mother had miscarried two years before he was born, since his parents had never told him. Colton’s father, Todd Burpo, began telling of his son’s heaven-sent visions from the pulpit of the Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Neb., where he serves as pastor. Word of mouth spread, and the family landed a book deal. The book — “Heaven Is for Real,” written by Todd with co-writer Lynn Vincent — has become a best-seller, with some 1.5 million copies in print since its release in November. Here’s an interview with Colton (and Colton’s parents) who appeared on The Today Show with Matt Lauer…

Reflections On The Shroud Of Turin

The Shroud has been a fascination of mine for over thirty years. For all those years, my pattern has been that I spend a few years checking in on the Shroud only occasionally, and then I feel drawn back into greater contact. It’s as if a magnetic force pulls me back to it. The nature of that force is no mystery. I want contact with the historical Jesus, the real Jesus that actually lived on earth. I want to reach back, past the myths and legends, the creeds and icons, and touch the real figure, the actual man. That, of course, is why I study New Testament scholars. And yet those scholars are using delicate and subjective intellectual tools to reach from the gospel records back to the time of Jesus some 40 to 70 years earlier, a time shrouded in mist, to make their best educated guesses about what actually took place there. It’s as if they are trying to shine a flashlight into that mist, trying to penetrate a fog that will never fully lift. If we are talking about contact with the actual man, the Shroud is on a completely different level. If it is authentic, then we are talking about a cloth that actually wrapped Jesus’ body, that contains his blood (which turns out to be Type-AB), that has dirt from his feet and dust from the stone slab on which he was laid, and that has a one-of-a-kind image of his body and his timeless, regal face. If the Shroud is authentic, it contains a record of everything that physically happened to Jesus from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, imprinted on the cloth by his own body. If we are talking about contact with Jesus, there is nothing that comes close to the Shroud…

New Scientific Study Indicates Shroud Of Turin Is Authentic

Italian scientists have conducted a series of advanced experiments which, they claim, show that one of Christianity’s most prized but mysterious relics — the Turin Shroud — is not a medieval forgery but could be the authentic burial robe of Christ…

One Of The First Public Talks Given By NDEr Howard Storm

Edward A. Riess recorded the following talk by Howard Storm which reportedly took place in the fall of 1987. It is one of the first public talks given by Howard in which he describes his now famous near-death experience. Special thanks to Ed for providing this important audio recording…

Documentary: Bible-Believing Christians Explore NDEs

A documentary examining the near-death experience from a mainstream Christian perspective. Along with featuring interviews with such notable NDE researchers as Raymond Moody, Kenneth Ring, and Melvin Morse, this documentary also describes some of the most remarkable NDEs on record…

The Near-Death Of A Child

In March of 1990, while vacationing in Florida, our family was involved in a serious car accident: a head-on collision with a drunk driver. After the impact, my husband was pinned inside the wreckage and writhing in pain beside me. As I turned and looked into the back of the car, I could see Rose Marie was not seriously hurt. But, to my horror, Kayla was no where to be seen. Her side of the car had been obliterated by the crash. I thought at first that she might be tangled within the wreckage, but seconds later discovered she had been thrown out of the seat and into the hatchback of the car. A bystander hurried to our aid, wrapped Rose Marie in a jacket, and carried her to a bench some yards from the car so that I could attend to Kayla. Kayla’s eyes were closed, her face was an ashen white, and her body was still and motionless. I was sure she had died. To spare my husband from this knowledge, I gathered Kayla’s limp body in my arms, lifted her out of the car, and stepped a short distance away. The moments that followed are forever imprinted on my memory…

Joseph Shore: My NDE & Meeting Jesus

He said, “JOE, JOE….” I immediately popped out of the body and hovered about two feet above my sleeping body. Into this London Hotel room came the most amazing Being I have ever been in the presence of. This was a man made all out of white and golden Light. He was shaped as a man, but white and gold Light pulsated from Him in dashes, as thought he were wearing a million Christmas Tree Lights. A soon as I saw Him, I knew many things about Him. I knew this was Jesus. I knew that he knew everything about me and was all powerful. There is no way to describe the Power that emanated from this Man of Light. Three angels appeared with Him and stayed in the back of the room. They were oval shaped beings and clearly under subjection to the Man of Light. He spoke to me sharply. His Love was not sentimental. It was strong and objective. He said…

NDE: Howard Storm Describes His Encounter With Jesus

In this moving interview, former atheist Howard Storm describes his encounter with Jesus during his near-death experience. Must watch…

NHNE Jesus

Interested in learning more about Jesus through the eyes of modern Jesus scholarship and other cutting-edge explorations? Now there’s a page for that on Google+…

Kathy, Martin, Lisa Share Their NDEs On ‘I Survived…’

A woman dies when a charging bull causes her horse to rear, throwing her head first onto concrete. A teenager commits suicide overdosing on prescription pills. On Christmas Eve a young mother has a heart attack and dies. Watch Kathy, Martin, and Lisa share their NDE’s on “I Survived… Beyond and Back”…

Book: “Who On Earth Was Jesus?”

From the Publisher: “The first fully comprehensive account of the debate between modern scholars on the Jesus of history before he became the Christ of faith. David Boulton surveys all the major schools of historical Jesus scholarship in turn: the liberal Jesus Seminar, the conservative ‘New Questers’ and the radical skeptics, covering over 30 experts. He lays out the sources, biblical, ‘heretical’ and secular, taking in the most recent discoveries and explaining where historians agree and disagree in recovering a credible portrait of the man behind ‘the greatest story ever told’.”

Quote: Stephen Colbert

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.” — Stephen Colbert

The Dead Sea Scrolls Now Online

The Dead Sea Scrolls are now available online. The project, which is a partnership between Google and Israeli antiquities authorities at the Israel Museum, launched Monday…

Lighter Side: A Brown-Skinned Anti-War Socialist…

Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free health care…

BBC Documentary: ‘The Lost Gospels’

The Lost Gospels, presented by Anglican priest Pete Owen Jones, is a fascinating exploration into the huge number of ancient Christian texts that didn’t make it into the New Testament. Shocking and challenging, these were works in that presented a Jesus who didn’t die, who took revenge on his enemies and who kissed Mary Magdalene on the mouth. This Jesus is unrecognizable from that found in the traditional books of the New Testament…

70 Metal Books Discovered In Jordanian Cave Could Change Biblical History (Updated – They’re Fakes)

They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born. A group of 70 or so “books”, each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007…

Movie: ‘Of Gods And Men’

In the 1990s, Algeria was gripped by a gruesome, protracted civil war between the government — which declared martial law after annulling elections it appeared to have lost — and a ruthless Islamist insurgency. The country foundered in a state of terror, with beheadings, throat-slashings and large-scale massacres an almost daily feature of life. These grim circumstances provide the setting for “Of Gods and Men,” a beautiful, somber and rigorously intelligent new film by the French director Xavier Beauvois…

‘The Book Of Mormon’ Wins Big At Tony Awards

“The Book of Mormon,’’ a taboo-toppling yet essentially sweet-natured musical about a pair of Mormon missionaries in Uganda, racked up nine Tony Awards last night, including one for best musical…