What does the Bible say about Astral Projection?

Question: "What does the Bible say about an out of body experience / astral projection?"

Answer:Information about the "out-of-body” experience is both vast and subjective. According to Wikipedia, one out of ten people claims to have had an out-of-body experience (OBE), and there are many different types of the experiences claimed. They range from involuntary out-of-body experiences or near-death experiences that happen after or during a trauma or accident, to what is called “astral projection" in which a person voluntarily tries to leave his/her body behind and ascend to a spiritual plane where he/she believes he/she will find truth and clarity.

A few famous Christians have had what might be called, in today’s world, an out-of-body experience, most notably the Apostle Paul. He says in2 Corinthians 12:1-4, "I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." In the verses preceding this passage, Paul lists his "boasts" or the things that, if he were counting on works and good deeds to secure his salvation, would get him into heaven. Though he seems to be referring to a third party, scholars agree that he is speaking of himself in the third person. Therefore, he is including this apparent out-of-body experience in his list of boasts. The point he is making is that any revelation that comes from outside the Bible (extra-biblical revelation) is not a reliable source, and as Paul says, "There is nothing to be gained by it." This does not mean that his out-of-body experience wasn't real, only that he is not relying on it to give him truth or really to benefit himself or other people in any way.

An involuntary out-of-body experience or a near-death experience, like the Apostle Paul's, should be treated in the same way as a dream in the life of a Christian—an unexplained phenomenon that may make a good story, but does not give us truth. The only place we find absolute truth is in the Word of God. All other sources are merely subjective human accounts or interpretations based on what we can discover with our finite minds. The book of Revelation, or John's vision, is an exception to this, as are the prophecies or visions of the Old Testament prophets. In each of those cases, the prophets were told that this was a revelation from the Lord, and they should share what they had seen because it was directly from the mouth of God.

A voluntary out-of-body experience, or an “astral projection,” is a different story. A person trying to achieve an out-of-body experience in order to connect with spirits or the spirit world is practicing the occult. There are two forms of this. The first is called the “phasing” model, in which the person tries to find new spiritual truth by accessing a part of the mind that is "shut off" during everyday life. This practice is connected to Buddhism or postmodernism and the belief that enlightenment is achieved from looking within oneself. The other form, called the “mystical” model, is when the person tries to exit the body entirely, his/her spirit traveling to another plane that is not connected to the physical world at all.

The Bible explicitly warns against occult practice, or sorcery, inGalatians 5:19-20, saying that those who practice it will not inherit God's kingdom. God's commands are always for our good, and He commands us to stay far away from occult practices because there is great potential, when trying to access the spiritual world, of opening oneself up to demons who can tell us lies about God and confuse our minds. InJob 4:12-21, Eliphaz describes being visited by a lying spirit in a vision that tells him God does not regard humans and that He doesn't care for us, which is false! The phasing model is also futile, according to Scripture.Jeremiah 17:9says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?" and1 Corinthians 2:1-5says, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." It is futile to search for infinite wisdom inside the finite mind of man.

One concrete example of this comes from the popular book90 Minutes in Heavenby Pastor Don Piper. Piper describes what is, in essence, an out-of-body experience he had after a severe car accident, during which he believes he died and went to heaven for ninety minutes. Whether or not Piper did actually see heaven or spend time there is debatable, and in the end nobody but God knows. However, there is a serious problem, theologically speaking, with the conclusion Pastor Piper draws from his experience. He tells the reader that, now that he has "been to heaven," he can speak comfort to grieving people at funerals "with more authority" than he could previously. Piper's motives are correct: he wants to give people hope. However, it is dead wrong to say that his own subjective experience will give him more authority to administer the hope of heaven than the perfect truth of Scripture would do.

In conclusion, whatever sort of out-of-body experience we are talking about, the main point to remember is that an out-of-body experience will give us neither truth nor knowledge. If an involuntary out-of-body experience occurs in the life of a Christian, the best approach would be to consider it in the same category as a dream—interesting, perhaps, but not a source of truth. Christians are to find truth only in the words of God, as Jesus prays inJohn 17:17, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth."Recommended Resources:The Truth Behind Ghosts, Mediums, and Psychic Phenomena by Ron RhodesandLogos Bible Software.

While he is not the author of every article on GotQuestions.org, for citation purposes, you may reference our CEO, S. Michael Houdmann.

Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/out-of-body-experience.html#ixzz2z6c3jyJP

Who was King Solomon?

WHO WAS THE LEGENDARY KING SOLOMON?

King Solomon

King Solomon has fascinated historians, scholars and treasure hunters for centuries.

Some have been drawn to his poetry, others to his tales of wisdom - and many to the tales of his phenomenal wealth.

Although the only accounts of him come from the Bible, many historians believe he was a real and immensely powerful figure.

The son of King David - of the David and Goliath story - and Queen Bathsheba, he was the third King of Israel and ruled for 40 years, between 965BC and 925BC.

During his reign, Israel was at the heart of a prosperous and stable empire.

He rebuilt Jerusalem, creating magnificent palaces and fortresses, and also built the first temple to store the Ark of the Covenant.

His life was extravagant. The Book of Kings reveals he had 700 wives, including the daughter of a pharoah and 300 concubines. 

The Old Testament also reveals how he was visited by the Queen of Sheba, who was so impressed by his wealth that she arrived on camel with spices, gifts and tons of gold.

According to Bible, he was a prolific writer, composing 1,005 songs and 3,000 proverbs.

Many are still in use, with the expression 'pride comes before a fall' based on one of his sayings.

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According to biblical text, the Ark holds the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses by God. This image (ca. 1725-1727) shows the Ark of the Covenant and is by Giovanni Battista Pittoni

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Indiana Jones, right, carries away the glistening Ark of the Covenant in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark by Steven Spielberg

The Copper Scroll, which dates back around 1,900 years, shows several ‘striking parallels’ with the newly translated treatise, Professor Davila said.

The treatise says that the treasures from Solomon's Temple were recorded ‘on a tablet of bronze,’ a metal like the Copper Scroll.

The Copper scroll also discusses the location of hidden treasure, although not from Solomon's Temple. Professor Davila said this might reveal a tradition of inscribing lists of treasures on metal.

The oldest confirmed example of the treatise, which survives to present day, is from a book published in Amsterdam in 1648 called ‘Emek Halachah.’

However, Professor Davila is the first to translate the text into English.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2536549/King-Solomons-treasures-revealed-Newly-translated-Hebrew-text-lists-legendary-riches-including-Ark-Covenant.html#ixzz2yd0HC6wG

Alien deception.. Part of the End Times?

 "Could an alien deception be part of the end times?"We know that the events surrounding the end times, as described in the Bible, will include a powerful deception (Matthew 24:24). Recently, interest has been rising in the theory that this deception will include alien beings from another planet. Odd as it may seem, this theory is entirely plausible from a Christian perspective. Although the Bible gives us no word about whether or not aliens exist—there is no inclusion of them in the creation account in Genesis, and no mention of them elsewhere—the Bible does tell us about visitors from another world—the spiritual world.

Since the beginning, instances of demons (fallen angels) visiting the earth have been witnessed and recorded. We know from Eve’s encounter with Satan that demons are interested in monitoring (and altering) the progress of humanity. They want to be involved, with the goal of drawing humanity away from the worship of God and turning mankind’s attention instead to them. Another notable instance of their interaction with us is found inGenesis 6:4with the arrival of the "sons of God." The Genesis account states that these powerful beings had sexual intercourse with women and produced a super race of beings known as the Nephilim. This sounds like the stuff of science fiction, yet it is right there in the Bible. There are striking similarities between this account and the accounts of other ancient cultures. The writings of the ancient Sumerians, for example (who were the first to produce a written language) mention the presence of the “Anunnaki” who were deities that came from heaven to dwell on earth with men. It is also interesting to note that the Sumerians’ gods often came to them in the form of snakes.

These accounts, seen alongside the amazing things created by ancient man, make it possible to theorize that demons, in the form of beings from another world, came to earth, bringing spectacular wisdom and knowledge to men, and “intermarrying” with their daughters in an attempt to draw men away from God. We already see from Eve’s experience with the serpent that demons will use the temptation of superior wisdom to ensnare man and that man is very susceptible to it.

Could the end times include a similar alien deception? The Bible doesn’t directly address the issue, but it is certainly plausible, for a variety of reasons. First, the Bible tells us that the world will unite under the power of the Antichrist. In order to achieve an agreement between all the world’s religions, it would make sense for the “uniter” to come from an entirely new source—an extraterrestrial source. It is hard to imagine one religion becoming head of all the others, unless new, unearthly knowledge were the source of the appeal and power of the new “religion.” This would be in keeping with past deceptions and would be a very effective way to deceive a large number of people.

As it was in the days of Noah...

Genesis 6 gives the sad account of the state of humanity prior to the  flood during the days of Noah.Genesis 6:5 states, “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” The level of sin and corruption among the human population was staggering: people thought about doing evil “all the time.” For the strong and healthy individual, an evil lifestyle would have ramifications evidenced by disease and death.

In addition, “The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose” (Genesis 6:2). In the Hebrew language, these “sons of God” were “bene elohim.” This term is usually applied to angels (see Job 1:6). Genesis seems to be stating that, somehow, there was a physical union between angels and human women. The unnatural offspring of this union were the “Nephilim” (Genesis 6:4).

The word nephilim is directly transliterated from the Hebrew. The ancient root of the word implies a “fall.” Whatever the word actually means (in some versions of the Bible it is translated as “giants”), Scripture describes the Nephilim as “the heroes of old, men of renown.” Some theologians believe that God could simply not allow this corrupt offspring to exist on the earth, and that was part of the reason for the flood, and that is EXACTLY what I think! What can be understood without question is that the world that was then, the world of Noah, was incredibly corrupt and perverted.

What is the Book of Judith?

Well,  it's Catholic, of course!  The Book of Judith is part of the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical scripture and appears in the Old Testament of Catholic Bibles. The nation of Israel treated the Apocryphal books with respect, but never accepted them as true books of the Hebrew Bible. The early Christian church debated the status of them, but not too many early Christians believed they belonged in the canon of Scripture.

The Book of Judith, believed to be written in the late second century or early first century B.C., recounts the story of God providing a woman, Judith, to deliver the Jewish people in a time of great need and despair. In the story Judith lives in the town of Bethulia. She is a beautiful and wise widow who becomes incensed with her town elders when they “test” God rather than trust Him and they decide to capitulate to King Nebuchadnezzar’s top general, Holofernes, to surrender if God does not save them in five days.

Judith feels that giving God such a deadline is arrogant and inappropriate in the extreme. She tells the elders she has a plan, but must leave the city for it to be successful. She refuses to tell any details, leaves with her slave woman, and goes to  Holofernes’s camp pretending she is providing him help to defeat her fellow Jews.

Holofernes is caught up by her beauty and takes her into his camp and company. Her voluptuousness and wiles attract him, and lust blinds him to her deceit. Judith manages to get Holofernes alone in his tent when he is excessively drunk. (funny how often this happens back in the day)  When he passes out, she beheads him, steals back to Bethulia, displays the result of her intrigue, and becomes the town’s heroine.

They think this book was first written in Hebrew, but it's not for sure.

Like other books in the Apocrypha, there are things that are a bit off, like the claim that Nebuchadnezzar ruled over the Assyrian Empire from Nineveh. He actually ruled over Babylonia. Plus, Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar, had destroyed Nineveh years earlier, making this story’s history suspect. A lot of people view this account as a variation of the Exodus story, where faith in God and reliance on Him for deliverance from fear and protection from harm and evil is what believers must always do.

Resources: The Canon of Scripture by F.F. Bruce and Logos Bible Software.