In the afterlife, we will know with utter certainty that He was precisely Who He said He was.

No matter what someone believes, he or she must encounter Him.

There is no other way to the final place of “rest”; there is no paradise without Him; those who don’t know Him here will encounter Him in the hereafter.

We know this not only from the Bible but due to what so many near-death experiencers – Christian or non-Christian -- have said.

Yes, there are some who don’t see Him. Yes, there are Hindus and Buddhists who see Buddha or their “gods.”

Is this Heaven allowing the environment to conform to beliefs, forging it in a familiar way (or is such a vision a deception)? 

We attempt to discern. We know only that even atheists have seen Jesus.

The Lord told one man that he should never worry if people doubted his story or could not understand what he was telling them because “one day everyone will come to see for themselves what you have seen.”

Said a woman from Seattle: "It was the most unconditional love I have ever felt, and as I saw His arms open to receive me I went to him and received his complete embrace. I felt His enormous Spirit and knew that I had always been a part of Him, that in reality I had never been away from Him. I knew that He was aware of all my sins and faults, but that they didn't matter right now. He just wanted to hold me and share His love with me, and I wanted to share mine with Him. There was no questioning who He was. I knew that he was my Savior, and friend, and God. He was Jesus Christ, who had always loved me.”

“Everything that I had been told [by angels] was consistent with the Bible and particularly with the Gospel stories of Jesus Christ,” added that art professor I have quoted, who said that after his experience “I would read a passage from the Bible and shout to my family, ‘This is exactly what they were teaching me!’ I thought I had discovered the greatest book in the world. Every word spoke to me on a deep personal level. The Bible resonated with the truth as I had been given it. Through His brief life with us, we know nothing can separate us from the Love of God. Nothing we do can separate us from God unless we want this. No matter what we have said or done, God is willing, eager, and begging us to turn back to God. Even if we think we have nailed God to a tree, God looks into our eyes and says, ‘I forgive you because you do not know what you are doing.’”

Thus, yearn for God. Want Him more than anything. Dedicate your life to making others feel good. That will get you there.

A heart of love is the Heart of God.

The greatest emotion, far and away, is joy – not fear, not judgment.

The vast majority completely lose their fear of death.

They look forward to it. No matter what they have done, or how they feel about themselves, Jesus is there to love them.

 “It is not a radiance which dazzles, but a soft whiteness and an infused radiance which, without wearying the eyes, causes them the greatest delight,” wrote the great mystic, St. Teresa of Avila, “nor are they wearied by the brightness which they see in seeing this Divine beauty. So different from any earthly light is the brightness and light now revealed to the eyes that, by comparison with it, the brightness of our sun seems quite dim and we should never want to open our eyes again for the purpose of seeing it. It is as if we were to look at a very clear stream, in a bed of crystals, reflecting the sun’s rays. It is a light which never gives place to night, and being always light, is disturbed by nothing.”

This is Jesus. He is there just as He said: the Light of the world – and of eternity. He’s at the right Hand of the Father. He is the master not just of our world, but of others.

“I was eight years old when I almost drowned in a swimming pool,” said another. “I remember a deep black void. Then suddenly there was a bright light and I felt a strong sense of peace.”

“Seeing the light made me fearless,” testified a woman who saw the light while in a state of depression. “In fact, I was filled with the most incredible peace I have ever known. Whoever was speaking to me knew what all my problems and fears were. All of my burdens slipped away. Suddenly the light went through me. It didn’t reflect off of me or anything like that. It went straight through me. As it did, I was filled with unconditional love which was so complete and powerful that I would need to invent new words to describe it.”

“I stared in astonishment as the brightness increased, coming from nowhere, seeming to shine everywhere at once,” said Dr. Ritchie, the psychiatrist.

Like a comet. But:

“It was impossibly bright.”

“Like a million welders’ lamps all blazing at once.”

“The Light was brighter than hundreds of suns,” said another.

That you hear often!