Should I believe this guy?

Question

There was a Baptist Minister who came to my church claiming to have died when he had a massive heart atack 20 years ago. He went on to say he saw Heaven and told my church( the congregation what it was like). He said there was no gender or time in Heaven or age because those things don't exist anymore. HIs name was Howard Pittman. I did a google search on him and it showed his name and talked about his near death experience. He also told my pastor that only about 5% of Christians are going to Heaven because too many people play church and don't really love God like they claim. Should I believe him? I am really confused now.

I myself haven't paid him anything but I'm not sure how much the church paid him. I know he did sell his house and all of his possessions to follow God after it happened

Answer 1

What do you mean by "believe". He may genuinely, 100% believe this experience happened to him. In his very soul he might be sure he went to heaven.

Doesn't mean it happened. It means he THINKS it happened. Nobody has ever come back from the dead. There have been people who were clinically dead for a very short while that were brought back, but there "death" is ambiguous. There's a world of difference between a battery that still has charge that can be jumped, and a battery that's been soaked in water and will never charge anything again.

He did not die and see heaven. He has no inside information on who gets to be with God and who doesn't. He has absolutely nothing to say about who plays Church, what constitutes playing Church, any of that.

He may believe it all happened, in which case he's dead wrong. Or he may be faking it, in which case he's a liar. In the end it doesn't matter, because none of it is real or applies to you.

Answer 2

In all Near Death Experiences I have studies the person never made it all the way in to heaven or hell.

So I don't know. What he described is all assumed knowledge anyhow, and anyone can assume that is the way eternal life would be. Timeless..

Let’s just say what he said is no more true or false than anything else in religion. It’s something that could be possible, might not be… It’s another faith thing.

This is much like parables. Many people don’t realize that a parable is a tale told to make a point or it has a moral to it. Most if not all the stories Jesus told in the bibles were parables and not necessarily actual happenings. Tall tales made to prove a philosophical point, by which the point is more important than the story.

So perhaps he could have embellished it a bit, or he could be right on the money, but as far as about the two dozen or so cases I have studied in my years as Minister I have never talked to anyone who made it to either place all the way in….

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

The guy's a fraud. People who have "near death experiences" have not been dead, not even close. It takes a long time for someone to go through the entire process of dying, which includes rigor mortis. That overzealous Minister was merely successfully resuscitated. He had a very close call, but he was never actually dead. What he thought he saw was simply the normal hallucinations due to hypoxia that people always experience when their heart stops beating. Like most Christians, the guy's a solipsist and imagines his own subjective experience actually is reality.

As far as I'm concerned, 0% of Christians are going to Heaven, because God, Heaven, Satan and Hell -- the whole works -- is completely imaginary. Haven't you figured out that the real purpose of religion is to seperate the money from the suckers? The biggest hypocrites of all are the ones who bless you as they take your money.

Answer 4

I think that I remember hearing about him. I know that other people have claimed to have had similar experiences.

What are you confused about? Even if he is telling the truth, or maybe not, how does this affect your life in any way?

I guess that I don't understand why you are worried about it.

If he is lying, God will judge him someday. If you are worried about getting into Heaven, then read the Bible and try to obey Jesus the best that you can. Howard Pittman cannot get you into Heaven, and he cannot keep you out. Only Jesus can do that.

Answer 5

Should you base your beliefs on what one man says? Just because someone says he died and went to heaven for a few minutes doesn't mean it really happened.

A 'faith healer' came to our church once and did this thing where he sat a person in a chair and showed the congregation how one leg was shorter than the other. He went on and on about how this causes so many problems, like back problems, and internal organ problems, etc etc etc. He then made the sign of the cross over the person and pulled their legs so they were the same length.

It was SO OBVIOUSLY a carnival trick. Yet everyone in the church fell for it. I stood in the back and watched this guy strutting back and forth, going on and on about how God had given him this 'gift.' And I thought: even in a church full of 'godly' people you can see the biggest liars.

Maybe that's the easiest place to find them.

Answer 6

Sounds like he had a NDE. It causes all sorts of weird activity in the brain which give rise to some very vivid sensations and dreams. He is interpreting those dreams within the framework of his preconceptions.


If he really died, what is he doing walking around? Is he a zombie?

He did not die, he just came close. If he did not really die, and I would assume that his god should be able to tell the difference, then what was he doing in heaven?

Answer 7

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Lewis Carroll

Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it.
Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held.
Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books.
Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin.
Believe nothing just because someone else believes it.
Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true

Read
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/56.php
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/57.php
About aneristic VS eristic VS pure Chaos

The Bardo Thodol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) it suggests that at the moment of death one sees what one expects to happen at death but it's an illusion. The real after life begins once you let go of all expectations (about three days +/-). From that I conclude that most NDE's are wishful thinking or apprehension. The medical profession seems to agree on that point, not the real afterlife.


Ewige Blumenkraft und ewige Schlangenkraft

Answer 8

I think this is a very personal question to answer. I personally believe that no one is able to see heaven and be able to come back and tell about it, but that's just me. He may have hallucinated during his 'near death experience' and thought he was in heaven. Just my opinion.
How could anyone ever really know? Also, how the heck could he EVER know what 'percentage' of people will go to heaven. That's pretty messed up. Is he part of that 5%! LOL.

Answer 9

Numbers dont really matter. His opinion dosnt matter. You and your relationship with God matters. Who cares if he almost died, here's what does matter: Is God the one you thank for the little things in your life? Ive noticed this: The more thoughtfully you treat others, the more you tell him he's in charge, and the more you acknowledge that HE does the little coincidences in your life, not "good luck", the more you will come to know him, the better you feel and the more likely your getting in the gates : ) and who exactly told him 5%? how does he know who's acting or not!

Answer 10

Did you ever have a dream ?
Was it real ?
A near death experience is like a dream .
Its a chemical reaction to the lack of oxygen which causes the brain to hallucinate .
The Answer is NO you should not believe him .Get a book on Near -death experiences and see the variety of different stories .