Nine Days in Heaven: A True Story (2 page)
O
UR FIRST CHILD DIED SUDDENLY WHEN HE WAS FOUR MONTHS
old. We hoped the pain of that event would be swept away with the birth of our second baby seventeen months later, but this little one, a girl, was stillborn at full term.
So we felt the full force of the lot that befalls those who lose a child. The shock. The tears. The pain. The numbness. The questions. The turmoil. The fear. Each seemed to take its turn in never-ending waves.
Family and friends were wonderful as they gathered around us. One of these friends was a lady a few years older than us. Her name was Elva. Elva sidled up to Nolene and myself one day and gave us a brown paper parcel. In it was an old copy of the book
Scenes Beyond the Grave
by John Loughran Scott that recounts the vision of Marietta Davis. She thought it would help.
It did. It was as though we were transported from our tired earth to a place way up there. A place of liberation and understanding where we could see just as God sees. A place from where we could approach our lives with a new conviction that God was in control, that all was well with our two children, and that we could trust God with our tomorrows.
I wondered why the whole world didn’t know about this book. But even as I wondered, I knew the reason. The difficult language, unusual even for that time, made it almost unreadable. You could follow the story if you worked at it, but many parts were incomprehensible without a dictionary in your hand. I wondered why someone had not rewritten it in a way it could be understood.
For years I took it with me to read on holidays. Each time I did, I thought that one day, when work was quiet, I might rewrite it myself. It never did get quiet, so I began anyway, hoping to complete it in one year.
It took three, working first with a dictionary and thesaurus, and then with a red pen on progressive rewrites. My wife, Nolene, seeing my frustrations, joined me. A lover of crosswords and word games and a voracious reader, she was invaluable.
In my opinion, the whole world should read this story. Some find it strange and hard to believe. Thousands have been inspired and challenged. But everyone should read it—and with an open mind. As the original publisher raved in the conservative language of 150 years ago, “to read it is to be benefited.”
—D
ENNIS
P
RINCE
M
ARIETTA
D
AVIS WAS BORN IN
1823,
IN
B
ERLIN
, N
EW
Y
ORK
, where she lived with her mother and two sisters. At twenty-five years of age she experienced a vision that made her the talking point of her community and a legend for generations to come.
Her story was put into print, and the original publisher observed cautiously, “Edition after edition has been published and passed silently into the hands of the reading public.” And so the remarkable story became widely known.
A hundred years later the book was still in print, but the difficult language led to a decline in its popularity. It was wordy, complex, and flowery—far more so than the language of the time. Modern readers balked at words like
fain
,
preponderating
,
effulgence
,
habiliments
,
dissever
,
behooves
, and
vouchsafed
and phrases such as “a sable veil of nether night” and “indulgence of propensities and reversion of the movement of destructive tendency.” Only the most tenacious readers made it to the end, and most of them missed many gems that were hidden in the difficult words and phrases.
This book is an attempt to capture the original story in the language of today. In making this rewrite, every effort has been made to preserve the original intent of the story. The reader will find some sections a little formal, a hangover from the original language that was difficult to erase completely without compromising the integrity of the original. In spite of this, the story retains its interest and fascination.
The following background has been summarized from the supporting testimonials of the original publisher, family, attending physician, Marietta’s pastor, and other ministers of the day. These testimonials appear in close to their original form at the end of this book.
Background to the Story
A religious revival in their hometown had impacted the lives of Marietta’s mother and sisters but had left Marietta unaffected. Although she had thought about the issues involved, she was not a religious person and was not interested in discussing these things.
Seven months after the revival Marietta suddenly and unexpectedly fell into a trance, which, remarkably, lasted nine days. During this time her family and their doctors were unable to rouse her. When she finally regained consciousness, she had full control of her faculties and described with almost supernatural perception how angels had conducted her spirit to heaven and hell. She described extraordinary scenes from these places in graphic detail.
Marietta made it plain that her vision was given for a specific reason. She had been instructed to tell the world so that men and women could prepare for the next life.
Marietta died seven months after the vision—at the time and in the manner she predicted.
Visions and Trances in the Bible
I was…praying, and
in a trance I saw a vision
.
—T
HE APOSTLE
P
ETER
,
A
CTS
11:5,
EMPHASIS ADDED
When I…was praying,
I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking
.
—T
HE APOSTLE
P
AUL
,
A
CTS
22:17–18,
EMPHASIS ADDED
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
—T
HE APOSTLE
J
OHN
,
R
EVELATION
4:1
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.
—T
HE APOSTLE
P
AUL
,
SPEAKING OF HIMSELF
, 2 C
ORINTHIANS
12:2–4
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
—A
CTS
2:17
W
HAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?
”
The thought exploded in my mind as I reeled at the sight of the vast, bottomless deep beneath me.
“Am I dreaming? Am I dead? Am I alive?” A thousand questions raced through my mind as strange unidentifiable objects floated around me. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, but it was like a wild dream, with no familiar point of reference to which I could anchor my sanity.
“Help me! Help me!” My cry erupted from my deepest being as I gazed in despair at the endless, trackless space around me and struggled in vain to return to the security of my country, my home, and my family.
A brilliant light appeared far above me. Like a giant star, its shaft of light thrust back the gloom as it steadily descended. My whole being was bathed in a glorious glow.
Gingerly I moved closer as it resolved itself into the most magnificent being I had ever seen. On her head was a crown of clustered jewels of light. In her left hand she held a simple cross. A saber of light was grasped in her right hand, and as she advanced toward me, light streamed from it and touched me.
Instantly a whole new world of sensations filled my being. Fears and uncertainties were swept away, and I was filled with an overpowering desire to go with her. Yet, paralyzed with awe and wonder, I could only stand and stare. Oddly, all my mind could think of was,
“What is her name?”
But as I stood there gaping, she spoke.
“So, Marietta! You would like to know who I am?” She smiled. “I am the Angel of Peace.
1
I have been sent to show you what happens to humans when they leave this world. If you would like to know the answer to this question, follow me.”
My mind was racing. How did I get myself into this? What had I done to bring me to this alien place?
For a long time before this I had wrestled with the great questions of life. A few things had become clearer as I had tossed them over and over in my mind, and I had reached a number of simple conclusions. These were: chasing money and fine things can never make you happy; relationships can let you down (no one is perfect); and many religious traditions are unreliable.
2
As I had looked around me, I could plainly see that many people were unhappy and were craving peace. I had thought long and questioned hard, trying to learn about the human soul and why it behaves as it does. The more I had thought about these things, the more I realized that I could not find the answers by myself. I passionately wanted answers, especially to the biggest question of all: “What happens to us when we die?” But I was unable to reach any satisfying conclusions. So it was, in the midst of this turmoil, that I found myself here on this strangest of strange days.
W
HILE LABORING TO DETERMINE
THE NATURE AND TENDENCY OF
THE HUMAN SOUL…MY VISION
CLOSED TO THE OUTER WORLD
.
