Hi KathleenP...
I certainly understand your concern. Yet, I suppose that someone else could say the exact same thing about people who are so quick to embrace something without faithfully testing the claims (rather than a quick consideration of apparent "fruit").
The point that I was trying to make is that there are MANY people who have made claims of visiting either Heaven or Hell...or both. Of course, all of them have described Heaven as a wonderful place and Hell as a terrible place. Yet the only thing that seems to be common in most of their stories is that their stories all seem to contradict one another. Dr. Richard Eby (a doctor who died after falling from his balcony) spoke of both Heaven and Hell in a way that contradicts Bill Wiese. Mary Baxter (in her book [i]A Divine Revelation of Hell[/i]) claimed to have visited Hell on several occasions, and her stories are also in direct contradiction with the claims made by Wiese. Many other people have claimed conflicting tales of visiting Eternity and then returning. Some of them are OBVIOUSLY false (like Jesse Duplantis's ridiculous "Close Encounters of the God Kind," in which he claims that he has Gucci furniture in his eternal mansion, a picture of Mary and baby Jesus in his heavenly bathroom, the souls of unborn and aborted babies asking God that they can be born on Earth and gothic-clad angels playing heavy metal rock-n-roll before the throne of God).
Now, nearly all of these tales (about trips to Heaven or Hell) all seem to "inspire" fruit where people consider life after death. Yet some of them are false. So, are they truly bearing godly [i]fruit[/i]? If so, is this even the type of fruit that would cause a person to remain in Christ Jesus? Remember, the rich man begged Abraham to send a person from Heaven or Hell back to life in order to warn his brothers. Abraham's reply? No, because, "[i] If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead[/i]" (Luke 16:31). Paul spoke about a man (possibly himself) who was caught up into the third heavens and saw things "[i]which it is not lawful for a man to utter[/i]" (II Corinthians 12:1-4).
Sister, I am NOT saying that Bill Wiese is being untruthful in his claims. I am only beginning to look through his book and audio/video testimony in order to "test" his claims. The one problem that I already can see is that many of his claims cannot be verified by the Word of God. Yes, we know that Hell is a very real and very terrible place. Yet, Bill Wiese goes into specifics that are NOT included in the Word of God. Thus, many of the claims within his book cannot be tested by the Word of God because those claims are extra-Biblical. This is true of nearly every other claim made by people who tell stories about trips to Heaven and/or Hell.
Yes, many Christians can be "far too quick to judge." But is this what we are doing? Perhaps we are not quick enough to TEST. Paul encouraged us to do this in I Thessalonians 5:21. While we aren't necessarily to judge the heart of the man or his motives, we can test the claims. This is quite different from "fruit inspecting." I've noticed that some people are far too quick to also point out "good fruit." In spiritual terms, I have known some people who have a difficult time telling the difference between a cherry and a crab apple. Worse, there are "fruit" that appears lovely at the time but can be poisonous (or even deadly) if consumed.
A former professor of mine wrote a book that examines many of the claims made by people who speak about visiting Eternity and returning (along with other widely publicized claims of the supernatural). Dr. Bill Alnor wrote [i]Heaven Can't Wait[/i]. Dr. Alnor, who served as a pastor of a Calvary Chapel for several years, shows how many of these claims strongly contradict one another. In fact, he even shows how some of the people actually contradict themselves with each subsequent telling of their story.
In regard to the purpose of this thread: My wife was assigned to read [i]23 Minutes in Hell[/i] by the owner of a Christian school where she works as a teacher. When my wife met with the owner, she explained her hesitation about embracing many of the specific claims found within the book. My wife explained her view that Hell can only be described as a terrifying, eternal place reserved for people who do not know the Lord, and that this is already clear in the Word of God. My wife further said that she didn't really need a book to describe the precise details of a place that she already knows is horrible from the Word of God. The owner kindly agreed.
Anyway, I hope that you don't view this thread or the underlying question as an affront upon Bill Wiese. I don't know the man (or much about him) to even want to do that. Rather, my wife and I were inquisitive about this man's specific claims, and what others think about so many often-conflicting tales of visits to Hell (or Heaven). Since we had not read the book at the time, we weren't sure what to think. We have since read through the book and have already found some issues with certain specific claims. This wasn't meant to cast a reflection upon Bill Wiese at all, but just as a request for advice from anyone who might have been more familiar with the man's claims and had tested them by the Word of God.
As I said before, many of his specific claims cannot be verified by the Word (since the Word does not go into nearly as much detail about the layout of Hell as Wiese does). After my wife has (and to a lesser extent, I have) looked through the book, we do have some concerns with certain specific claims, which could potentially call into question the entire account.
