Deathbed scenes of the wicked?

Question

I have heard stories of infidels who had frightning deathbeds, such as seeing fire, or demons around their bed waiting to take them to Hell. Also, some have regretted rejecting Jesus and felt hopeless. Why is it that real deathbed scenes aren't like this. My father rebuffed my efforts to proselytize during his life, yet died peacefully. Does this mean there is no Hell after all?

Answer 1

Both my parents were long term fundamentalist Pentecostals and, by the time they were on their own deathbeds, they cared nothing for religion. I'm not saying they rejected their faith, only that they were so deeply involved in the process of their own dying, they preferred peace and quiet to prayer and weeping relatives. I've watched half a dozen relatives pass away and all had peacefully accepted the inevitability of their own mortality. None were in distress and none wished anything to do with religion in their final moments. I think, in the final analysis, death is a biological phenomenon and religion is a social convention. The two have very little to do with each other.

I also think that the process of dying takes much longer than most people realize. What is commonly called the Near Death Experience is actually just the process of becoming unconscious. People who are resuscitated after an NDE were never actually dead. They may have knocked on death's door, but they never crossed the threshold. The metabolic energy which powers our muscles is the same energy which powers our brains -- namely, ATP and oxygen. Within minutes after clinical death, the body begins to stiffen as rigor mortis sets in. Rigor is caused by the uncontrolled decomposition of the body's ATP into ADP. It may take several days for the body to relax, but when finally does, the last of its ATP is gone. Passing through rigor mortis is the final step in the long process of becoming truly dead.

Because there is such a long interval between the beginning of the process and its conclusion, deathbed scenes have nothing whatever to do with actually being dead. The vivid hallucinations experienced by those at the beginning of the process are meaningless when compared to the final outcome. Whether or not Hell exists cannot be determined by the subjective perceptual experiences of those who have never really been dead.

Answer 2

The stories you hear about people seeing fire, demons, etc., and regretting rejecting Jesus are the results of two things:
1) Most of those stories were made up by Christians to tell each other so they can pat themselves on the back and feel superior.
2) Sometimes, in death, people become delusional.

I have also heard stories about believers rejecting God on their deathbeds because they realize that a "loving" God should have no reason whatsoever to put them through the type of agony they're going through. So would any believer say that that's proof that there's no God? Of course not. The "change of mind" on the deathbed is only treated as significant by believers when it *benefits* them. If it's one of their own changing their minds...well, that's not talked about.

Any change of mind on the part of a human on their deathbed is not proof that their original beliefs were wrong by any stretch of the imagination. That goes for both atheists and believers.

Answer 3

How do you determine if a person is saved? Only God has that power. As a hospice worker I can tell you that I've been with Christian and non-Christian folks as they died, and they all died peacefully. Mr Shaw obviously witnessed something else, but I don't buy it. Even on one's deathbed, there can be conversion to faith. We have no way of knowing what a dying person is thinking at those last minutes. Personally I need to hear a lot more stories such as the one of which you speak, to convince me that this happens to "unsaved" people.

Answer 4

Interestingly enough it is documented that when Lenin was dying there were terrible howls heard by his staff coming from his room, none dared to enter the room and when they did he was dead and his face was contorted in pain or maybe in horror, and yet Stalin seems to have died without any reported incidents but then would anyone dare report it ?

Answer 5

It has nothing to do with that. Some people feel truly guilty about their life of sin, and panic when the end is near, or some people have suppressed their conscious, or they don't feel sorry and simply die. Only God can righteously judge them.

Answer 6

he died peacefully because he Thought he knew where
he was going which was no where. satan does this lie
with people. teasing others into not accepting while
tormenting others with hell's reality.

i hope your saved. don't wait for the death bed as one
never knows when!

Answer 7

Sunbed scenes of the wicked would be more interesting

Answer 8

The funny thing is that people in the Muslim world have similar near death experiences, accept they are visited by Allah imploring them to turn to Him. Other cultures have near death experiences where they see their ancestors telling them to worship other Gods.

The truth is that near death visions and experiences are just physical reactions, that are influenced by synapses in the brain.

Answer 9

some paths rely on fear for conversion; stories of that sort help scare others.

to me, if someone needs to stoop to such tactics, that is a major red flag that their path is solely about control and manipulation.

Answer 10

I was told by my stepmother ( a State Registered Nurse) that dying atheists suffer hellish deaths in the hospitals where she worked.