The Important Thing is How you Finish the Race

One of the big water hazards Christians have to avoid in the game of life is the belief that anyone who has a supernatural experience is as reliable as Yeshua on all points. This is not true. People who relate credible encounters with God in one form or another may be right about some things and tragically wrong about others because pride leads them to anoint themselves beyond the limits God prescribes.

Often, we treat people who have had supernatural experiences the way Catholics treat their usually-counterfeit relics. Okay, let’s assume you really do have John the Baptist’s toenail, and it’s not a toenail from a crooked priest who wanted to create a tourist attraction. It’s still just a toenail. You’re not supposed to assume it will cure all your diseases, fill you with revelation, and bring you salvation. If a person has an impressive supernatural experience, you’re not supposed to worship that person and go to him for answers on every religious topic.

Lazarus was a rotten corpse when Yeshua resurrected him, but we have no record of people going to him for miracles and correction. It looks like he knew his place.

Yesterday, I saw a couple of wonderful videos featuring a man who said he had died and returned, and he said things that made me feel assured that his experience and the lessons he learned were real. On the other hand, he has a blog, and on that blog, he pushes the antisemitic, incorrect Khazar theory, which was designed to convince Christians of three things: 1) most Jews have no genetic relationship to the Jews of the Bible, 2) we have replaced the Jews in every way, and 3) Jews are not entitled to possess Israel. These are dangerous antisemitic notions.

I’m not sure why we would want Israel anyway. No oil, no water, poor soil, hot summers, biting flies…give me Switzerland instead. Give me the alps. Give me California or Hawaii. Give me New Zealand. Be serious. I want a place that was built for pleasant living. If I want to worship in Jerusalem once in a while, I’ll get on a plane.

The man’s name is Howard Pittman. He said he died from a burst aneurysm and came back to life while doctors worked on him. He said he went to God’s throne room to plead for his life, and God let him live, but God also told him the good deeds he had done all his life were abomination. Pittman said he cited his good deeds, including taking in 32 children and pastoring a church, as evidence God should spare him, and God rebuked him instead.

It is worth noting that he didn’t say God told him he was damned. That’s a different subject.

Basically, he went to heaven. During the 15 minutes he was out of his body, 2000 people died on Earth. This is a credible figure that agrees roughly with statistics. He says 50 of those people went into the throne room before him and received salvation, and the rest did not enter the throne room and went to hell.

If the numbers he cited are right, then at the time of his visit, something like 7% of Christians were being saved, and the rest were damned. You have to assume only about a third of the 2000 people who died were Christians, so you can’t work with the whole 2000. To me, 7% is a relief. I would have expected fewer. I’m sure it would be fewer today; his experience took place almost half a century ago.

He said God told him he had done his works for himself. He also said God sent him back for a three-year ministry. He said God told him not to recruit people or locate people to talk to on his own, and he said that if he tried to find listeners without God’s help, he would be blocked.

He said God told him the baptism with the Holy Spirit was essential, and that shocked him, because he was a Baptist, and Baptists are generally hostile to the Holy Spirit.

He said God showed him that Satan had succeeded in taking control of the church, globally. He said Satan had done this by convincing people that righteousness was simply doing whatever they thought best. This agrees with the Bible. One of the most negative things the Bible says about people is that they did what seemed right in their own eyes. It’s not a compliment.

You can see this in the gay-friendly churches and the whimpering, approval-seeking ministries, like that of Joel Osteen, a useless and embarrassing jackass. “I don’t want to judge nobody. Just keep sending me money.”

His testimony is scary, and I think it is true. But I know how people are, so I decided to go to his website and check him out. There I saw the essay which appears to deny the Jewish claim to Israel.

He did not make the express claim that they are not entitled, but that seems to be the insinuation. He said Askenazi Jews are really the descendants of Khazars who converted, and he seemed to think that only blood descendants of Abraham could inherit Israel. The Khazars were people who lived in an area that was partly in Europe and partly in Asia.

Pittman was wrong for a lot of reasons. First of all, something like half of the Jews in Israel have no connection to Europe. They were driven out of the Middle East and Africa, as well as some other places, and they are unquestionably descended from the Jews (Hebrews, if you want to be picky) of ancient Israel. Many are descended from Jews who never left Israel. Second, conversion is valid, just like adoption. Third, even if Khazars became Jews, they would certainly have interbred with Jews descended from Abraham, and the fair thing would be to assume all are, for purposes of ties to Israel. Fourth, Jews are descended from Jacob, not Abraham, who gave rise to other groups through disobedience to God. Fifth, Ashkenazi Jews have at least some DNA consistent with descent from Jacob.

Pittman used an etymology to prove that “Hebrew” means “descendant of Abraham,” and for all I know, that is true, but if it is, it’s a misnomer. The Bible clearly shows that not all descendants of Abraham are Hebrews.

Looking at the web, I see there is a lot of confusion as to where “Hebrew” came from and who it accurately describes, but in any case, Jewish identity passed through Jacob, not Abraham.

Pittman misused the Bible to “prove” that Ashkenazi Jews can’t be Hebrews because “Ashkenaz” is the name of a Biblical Gentile. However, he failed to point out that the general region of Germany was named for Ashkenaz, and “Ashkenazi Jew” was just a way of describing Jews from that area. It was never intended to describe descent.

Pittman used the nutty pseudo-history of Arthur Koestler, a French Jew, to back up his Khazar notions. The whole Khazar theory comes from Koestler, who naively thought he could end antisemitism by proving European Jews were not related to the Jews who had the Romans murder Yeshua. Koestler made the whole story up, and people who hate Jews now use it as grist for their mill.

Modern testing has shown that Ashkenazi Jews are not related to Khazars, but facts don’t stop people who think conclusions as premises.

Pittman quoted the famous “synagogue of Satan” quotation from Yeshua, which was intended to say that Jews who rejected him were spiritually not Jews. It was not intended to say they were not Jews in any sense.

In John 8:37, Yeshua said he knew his fellow Jews were Abraham’s biological descendants. When he said they were not Abraham’s children, he meant they didn’t behave like Abraham.

You have to be dishonest, misinformed, or stupid to think Yeshua was saying the Jews of his time were not Jews at all. He was one of them. If they weren’t Jewish, neither is he, so he isn’t the Messiah or God.

It’s hypocritical of Pittman to use this quotation to invalidate Jewish claims, because he is the same man who said Satan ruled the worldwide church, which is true. Generally, the church is the church of Satan, and Pittman acknowledged it, but somehow he thought many Christians still belonged to God, and he appeared to believe Christians would inherit Israel.

My best guess is that this man truly visited heaven, and I think God told him some valuable things, but like every other person who has claimed to have such a visit, he was not instantly perfected or turned into an infallible source of spiritual knowledge. I think he became conceited, or perhaps he already was, and he convinced himself he was something he was not.

As things stand, it may be that an experience that should have been a blessing to many people has had a much greater impact as a tool for persecuting Jews. Or maybe Pittman was deceived about everything, and I just can’t see it yet.

He says he was in heaven for 15 minutes, yet somehow that was enough for him to become the source of all divine knowledge. He should have known better.

You have to be very careful about putting too much faith in men who experience supernatural events. They don’t receive omniscience and perfect character. Their purpose is not to become your lifelong teachers. They exist to connect you with the real teacher, the Holy Spirit. Once they succeed at that, they are your brothers, not your masters.