by Marinus Jan Marijs
The idea of a day of judgement can already be found in the Egyptian mythology in which Osiris was the judge of those who arrived in the underworld. The idea of a judgement day, is also found within Christianity, and is by some explained as being a fixed day in the future. According to this believe the deceased wouldn’t have any conscious existence between the moment of deceasing and the final judgement day. In Luke.16:19-31 one finds an immediate judgment instead of a judgement at the end of time.
New King James Version (NKJV)
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell[a] from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
Luke 16:19-31
Out of the body experiences indicate that after death one is fully conscious in one of several super sensible worlds. Still there is a certain resemblance between the concept of a “judgement day” and seeing a life review, by which one feels what one has done wrong or right in one’s life.
”A life review is a phenomenon widely reported as occurring during near-death experiences, in which a person rapidly sees much or the totality of his or her life history in chronological sequence and in extreme detail. It is often referred to by people having experienced this phenomenon as having their life “flash before their eyes”. The life review is discussed in some detail by near-death experience scholars such as Raymond Moody, Kenneth Ring, and Barbara Rommer. A reformatory purpose seems commonly implicit in accounts, though not necessarily for earthly purpose, since return from a near-death experience may reportedly entail individual choice. While experiencers, who number up to eight million in the United States alone,[1] sometimes report that reviews took place in the company of otherworldly beings who shared the observation, they also say they felt unjudged during the process, leaving themselves their own strongest critics. Although rare, there are also a few accounts of life reviews or similar experiences without a near-death experience, such as during the simpler out-of-body experience or when under circumstances of intense threat or duress”. (Wikipedia)
Kenneth Ring wrote:
” That 55% of accident victims who had a close call with death reported a life review, which had such a rapidity that the review seems instantaneous. These flashbacks may be presented by a being of light. And the process seems to be a kind of stocktaking as the individual is trying to decide whether to die or return to live “.
(Kenneth Ring: Life after Death: A scientific Investigation of the Near Death experience, 1980”)
The experience of a “life review” can be seen as a day of judgment, be it not a specific day that is universally the same for everybody. This is a phase in a developmental process. This life review is sometimes accompanied by a deep insight in relation to purpose and pattern, of what took has happened in your life. One can see the purpose of one’s life, and one can see that the events that happened during one’s life are not coincidental, but seem to follow an underlying orderly pattern.
Brjoellov, Karl Pavlovitsj (1799-1852)
