Nine Days in Heaven: A True Story (8 page)
In this way I saw each little child unfold like petals of a flower from beauty to beauty. All above them was glory. All around them was loveliness. All within them was the melody of unfolding life, unfolding love, unfolding knowledge of heaven, adoration of the Savior, and the inspiration of eternal joy.
At this point my guide spoke to me and turned me away from this scene. “Marietta, you have now seen the wonders of the first and most simple stage of paradise, where the infants are taught.” She looked at me solemnly. “But before you can go any further, there is a sobering lesson you have to receive.”
S
HE TOUCHED MY FOREHEAD, AND IMMEDIATELY THE BRIGHTNESS
and glory vanished, and I began to descend. I found myself passing through a low and gloomy subterranean vault, surrounded by thick folds of darkness. A feeling of supernatural dread came over me, and I began to shake spasmodically. A terrible conflict rose up within me and filled my being. I was startled and confused, and my thoughts shattered into utter chaos.
As I fell further, I heard a distant roar. It sounded as if an ocean was pouring down some rocky cataract. I flailed about, trying in vain to grab something to slow my fall, which was taking me toward the awful abyss below.
At this moment a blue sulfurous flash lit up the darkness. As it disappeared, I stared in disbelief as grim specters floated around me, enveloped by fires of evil. Gone were the holiness and peace that had surrounded the dwellers in paradise. The change was so sudden and dreadful that I could not think clearly. My mind was flooded with horror and despair. I was terror-struck! I turned to my guide for help, but she was gone!
S
O SUDDEN HAD BEEN THE CHANGE
AND SO DREADFUL ITS EFFECTS UPON ME
,
THAT NO THOUGHT BUT THAT OF HORROR
AND DESPAIR HAD ENTERED MY MIND
.
Alone and in that dreadful place there are no means by which I can give even a faint idea of the agony of that moment. At first I thought I would pray, but as I began, my whole life flashed before me in an instant,
1
and I realized I was utterly unworthy of God’s favor. I cried out, “Oh! If I could have only one hour back on earth—for a time, just a brief time—to make myself fit for heaven!”
2
Like a monster my conscience struck back at me. “You had your chance!
3
In your time on earth you turned your back on the provision God made for your sins. You completely rejected it! Do you think now in this place of darkness and woe that your plea could possibly succeed?”
To add to my misery, all my previous doubts and skepticism then rose up like animals, glaring at me and encircling me in condemning mockery. All of my life’s thoughts reared up with them. Not one of my secrets was hidden—they were all there. Even the ones I had forgotten stood plainly before me.
At first they came one at a time, but then they all combined and took on my own character. I was facing myself! To escape them was to run from myself. To annihilate them would have blotted out my own existence.
I was stunned as the words of the Savior echoed through my mind, “Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.”
4
I reeled back in turmoil, longing to escape and return to my body, but another scene appeared before me—the most terrible scene of all. It was a clear and dramatic vision of my crucified Redeemer. As it appeared, all the misconceptions I’d ever had about Jesus passed before my mind in the form of pictures.
In one picture I saw those thoughts in which I had viewed Jesus as only a man. In another were my beliefs about the “doctrine” of special forgiveness for a limited number of people who were “chosen.”
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Along with this I saw the tears I had once shed when I believed I was doomed to an endless punishment because I thought this had been predestined for me.
Then in another picture was the idea I had once entertained that eternal salvation would be given out freely to everybody—without any need for moral change and without a personal and loving faith in the Savior’s death for our sins. And in still another I saw my ideas about obtaining salvation simply through living a good life.
6
These separate pictures blended into one spinning mass around me. In it were ten thousand confused images of everything I had ever learned or imagined about Christ, heaven, hell, religion, or eternal life. All my ideas of the Redeemer were related to one another, yet they conflicted in so many ways. I was completely bewildered by it all.
I saw in each image a distorted view of the Savior. But none of them, either singly or together, showed Him as He really is. None of them showed His divine glory, His honor, His majesty, His perfection. None of them demonstrated His exalting and redeeming power. I, Marietta Davis, was simply not able to see Him in His true character, as Prince and Savior.
Totally overwhelmed, I was ready to give up all hope of ever escaping that place. I concluded this warped view of the Savior would be my last—a sight that would fill my cup of woe to the brim. I had already drunk from it, and it would last me for all eternity. But then I saw Him—suddenly, unexpectedly—in the midst of a cloud, stretching His arms toward me. He spoke with a voice of love, inviting me, even as burdened and as faulty as I was, “Come to Me.”
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What a contrast it was! That glorious Being, surrounded by radiance as bright as the sun and circled by a revolving halo of light. I could clearly see His relationship to the universe of light where the angels live. I could also see the awful disparity between my own corrupt nature and that wonderful place of light and life, harmony and love. So I saw Him, the Holy One. Him in the brightness of His glory, the one I had rejected so many times in my madness, in my foolishness, in my skepticism.
I gazed at Him and realized how desperately I wanted to break away from the tormenting mental forces that surrounded me. I wanted to go to paradise and live there in its beauty, peace, and joy. But there was such a gulf between that holy place and my impure, fallen mind that I could not do it, and all my doubts overwhelmed me once again.
Support From
the Word of God
1.
“
…my whole life flashed before me…
”
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
—M
ATTHEW
12:36
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
—R
OMANS
14:12
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
—H
EBREWS
4:13
2.
Compare the reaction of the rich man in Luke 16:19–31.
3.
“
…you had your chance.
” Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “…man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”
4.
“But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Matt. 12:36).
5.
Calvinism emphasizes scriptures about the sovereignty of God in saving us—as opposed to scriptures that emphasize our free will to choose how we respond to God.
6.
“
…obtaining salvation simply through living a good life.
” The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8 –9:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
7.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
W
ITH THIS, A GLOOMY BLACK VEIL OF NIGHT ROSE UP FROM
below. My doubts formed a cloud that shut out the glory from above and plunged me into a vortex of gloom. I fell rapidly, and the surrounding darkness opened to receive me.
Eventually, in the furthest depths I saw a vast unending plain that appeared to be covered with sparkling vegetation. Glowing objects, like waving trees with thick foliage and flowers and fruits of crystal and gold, could be seen in every direction.
Crowds of spirits appeared beneath the foliage, moving restlessly from place to place. They wore luminous cloaks, with crowns or tiaras on their heads. Some wore jewelry that seemed to be made of clusters of precious gems, wreaths of golden coins, and cloth made of gold and silver. Others wore towering helmets or golden headbands filled with large feathers that waved and glistened, while every object gave off a pale, phosphorescent light. The whole scene seemed to be artificial, like gaudy, tinselly playacting.
The clothes worn by the busy crowds matched their headwear. Every kind of lavish garment could be seen. Kings and queens appeared, dressed in the gorgeous robes of coronation. There were groups of the nobility (men and women) also decorated with the clothes seen in the pageantry of kings’ courts.
Vast groups of people dressed in fine clothes passed by, and behind them I saw tribal people wearing barbaric ornaments of all kinds. Some wore the ordinary clothes of the day, while others were dressed in ancient costumes. In spite of this variety of dress style, every class of spirits acted with the same pomp and pride and restlessly moving, dazzling brilliance.
Then I heard their voices: bursts of laughter, shouts of revelry, lighthearted amusement, and witty ridicule. There were obscenities, horrible curses, and polished sarcasm. Mixed with these were degrading propositions and backbiting, hollow compliments, and pretended congratulations. The sparkling brilliance of it all disturbed and bewildered me.
I moved forward slowly and warily, as if I were treading on scorpions in the middle of red-hot coals. The trees that waved about me were fiery blasts, and their blossoms were the sparkle of relentless flames.
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Each object caused me agony as I approached it.
The phosphorescent glare surrounding each object burned my eyes. The fruit scorched my hand as I picked it and seared my lips as I tried to eat. The gathered flowers gave off a burning gas with a stinking, noxious odor that caused excruciating pain in my nostrils. The fiery atoms of the atmosphere burned as they wafted past me, and the air that moved them was laden with disappointment and misery.
