Thank you for this posting. It must be so wonderful to have that experience.
Maybe you have a little Jonah in you. Some trepidation about revealing this teaching , just as Jonah was afraid to go preach to Nineveh. Perhaps your sepsis attack was your "in the belly of the whale" moment:) And as the people of Nineveh repented and believed in God, I can say that I personally am better for watching this story.
BTW Matthew 6: 24 to 30 (or so) (no sparrow falls to the ground) was the reading I chose for my wedding day 40 years ago. It has served as my touchstone through all that time, 9 kids and 4 grandkids. And it is still as meaningful today as back then.
I'm so very moved by your description of your encounter with Jesus Christ. It is so fully authentic!
So grateful. I'm following you for a few years now and I'm thinking: was there a deeper reason for it? Did I, in my supernatural consciousness already know about your encounter? I will return to your eloquent words again and again. Like I repeatedly look at MLK's last speech. Remember what he said, face to face with death? Mine eyes have SEEN the glory of the coming of the Lord! May we all SEE one day. MLK's last speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwi9eqSFnm8
Thank you for sharing the thing you feared the most. I am a student of A Course in Miracles. Everything you shared tracks with the Course which defines miracle as a shift in perception. I am currently listening to an audible book by Marianne Williamson Mystic Jesus. It does sound the same Jesus you described.
Your experience is not unique. Many Muslims have also come to Christ because of “visions and dreams”. The rise of Messianic Jews in the 70’s was, I believe, the answer to the prayer of the apostle Paul, ““Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”
Thank you for sharing this experience. Everything you say about it makes sense to me. When I was a university student a (very!) long time ago, I wrote a dissertation on the origins of Christianity as part of my degree. I chose this topic because of a peculiar experience I had as a child, and also because I was interested in the pagan roots of Christianity. By the time I had finished writing however, I had learned just how deeply embedded in Judaism Christianity is, to the extent that in my view, without Judaism Christianity will die, like a plant cut off from its roots. What I see happening in the world today seems to me to be a concerted effort to destroy both precisely to stop what you describe here from happening.
You explain it so well in the way you write, and I do think you are right when you say we are no longer in human history. This time makes me think of verses in Revelation, Ch.20 v.1-3, when the dragon is cast into the bottomless pit, "that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Maybe this is the little season, the final flick of the dragon's tail.
Whatever happens, I am sure that it will be alright in the end. It is my deepest instinct and my strongest gut feeling, no matter how dark it gets. We will be okay.
You saw what you saw. Not a problem. I would flesh out what you have said that Jesus said by adding, Jesus's death and sacrifice of his life were evidence of his amazing love, not separate from it. I have dreamed about him since I was a little girl. I dreamed what I dreamed.
Thank you for being brave and sharing from your heart. Your experience resonates with what I experienced many years ago that I relate in abbreviation:
I was kneeling in prayer when I felt myself sinking down. I found myself seated on a gray stone bench in a gray stone cell. In the stone wall ahead of me was a rectangular opening through which I viewed beyond and it was gray--drab, lifeless, ugly--dead!
Suddenly I felt myself shift to the right, but I hadn't moved! or changed position. I don't know how I knew but I realized that the image of God with which I and every human being is created was gone! I was not the same person I had been on earth. It is God's image that makes it possible for us to have loving relationships with other people and, most importantly, with God. It was gone.
Ecclesiastes says God sends the rain on the just and the unjust. All of us experience God's presence in the wonders of creation, in the love of family and friends, in His enablement of our education, possessions, reputation, profession, and the list could go on and on. Even those who curse God and deny His existence and holiness continue to enjoy His goodness to them without seeming retaliation for their resistance to the Giver.
When I recognized His absence via His image removed, it struck me with overwhelming despair like I've never known in all my life. I knew I could not return and redo my life, I could never play 'fast and loose' with Him, I could never seek forgiveness for my sins because it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance, and He was gone. When I looked down the corridor of eternity, I knew there would never be the quenching of my thirst, the comfort of a pause in torment. I would never hear His voice again nor feel His love for me. Words will not describe the loss I felt: it was HELL!
To this day I cannot shake that experience from my memory and it compels me to warn people about the dangers of not truly knowing and loving God. Both the Old and New Testaments say over and over that the true test of loving God is by keeping His commandments which equals real obedience to God.
Jesus said of Himself, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." The book of Hebrews shows how the prescribed worship for the Hebrew people was fulfilled by Jesus step by step.
You do not have to become 'Christian,' dear Naomi. You are a completed Jew. Stripped of all the rules and polity, Jesus said worship of God is "in spirit and in truth." It is knowing God through Jesus in an intimate, personal relationship more real than anything we have on earth. It is loving others as He loves us and being His hands and feet to minister to them.
He is charting your course. It is unique to you and Him. How blessed you are!
"The Thing I Feared Most" Absolutely beautiful. I am a Christian and you have nothing to fear. You are one of God's chosen people. I am not one of God's chosen people that is why I had to ask God to come in to my life through his Son, Jesus. As a Jew, Dr. Wolf you are already there, so to speak. You have always been there from the beginning of time. May God bless you and keep you in great health and may he bless your work. My respect for you grows and grows every time I read your words and listen to the wisdom God has blessed you with. Forever your friend and always in your service. God has a plan and a purpose for all of us. Part of God's plan for me is to support you. I have never had an experience like the one you have described but he has blessed me with some sort of foresight that I just do not understand. It is not something that I can just call up and it's there. It comes to me in different ways, mostly when I do not expect it. It is not foresight about big events or great things, just little hints that come to me seemingly at random, at least to me. Nothing is random when it comes to God for he has blessed us all in unique ways known only to God.
Wow, there is a whole lot of God is there. You provoke so many thoughts about very important things. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
"Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you-- Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" (John 5:45-47)
"I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen." (Romans 9:1-5)
"What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Rom. 9:30-10:4)
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" (John 14:6 NKJ)
"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith." Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them." Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree "), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians3:10-14)
Wonderful! I would add that many past life experiences have been verified...For example, the little boy who remembered being a pilot killed in WW2, and many details, including his air crew and even the names of some of their wives...all verified by Pentagon records...
Thank you for this posting. It must be so wonderful to have that experience.
Maybe you have a little Jonah in you. Some trepidation about revealing this teaching , just as Jonah was afraid to go preach to Nineveh. Perhaps your sepsis attack was your "in the belly of the whale" moment:) And as the people of Nineveh repented and believed in God, I can say that I personally am better for watching this story.
BTW Matthew 6: 24 to 30 (or so) (no sparrow falls to the ground) was the reading I chose for my wedding day 40 years ago. It has served as my touchstone through all that time, 9 kids and 4 grandkids. And it is still as meaningful today as back then.
God Bless you Dr. Wolf.
I'm so very moved by your description of your encounter with Jesus Christ. It is so fully authentic!
So grateful. I'm following you for a few years now and I'm thinking: was there a deeper reason for it? Did I, in my supernatural consciousness already know about your encounter? I will return to your eloquent words again and again. Like I repeatedly look at MLK's last speech. Remember what he said, face to face with death? Mine eyes have SEEN the glory of the coming of the Lord! May we all SEE one day. MLK's last speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwi9eqSFnm8
I appreciate you and your absolute honesty and willingness to be vulnerable. What could be better!
Thank you for sharing the thing you feared the most. I am a student of A Course in Miracles. Everything you shared tracks with the Course which defines miracle as a shift in perception. I am currently listening to an audible book by Marianne Williamson Mystic Jesus. It does sound the same Jesus you described.
Your experience is not unique. Many Muslims have also come to Christ because of “visions and dreams”. The rise of Messianic Jews in the 70’s was, I believe, the answer to the prayer of the apostle Paul, ““Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”
Romans 10:1 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.10.1.NIV
Thank you for sharing this experience. Everything you say about it makes sense to me. When I was a university student a (very!) long time ago, I wrote a dissertation on the origins of Christianity as part of my degree. I chose this topic because of a peculiar experience I had as a child, and also because I was interested in the pagan roots of Christianity. By the time I had finished writing however, I had learned just how deeply embedded in Judaism Christianity is, to the extent that in my view, without Judaism Christianity will die, like a plant cut off from its roots. What I see happening in the world today seems to me to be a concerted effort to destroy both precisely to stop what you describe here from happening.
You explain it so well in the way you write, and I do think you are right when you say we are no longer in human history. This time makes me think of verses in Revelation, Ch.20 v.1-3, when the dragon is cast into the bottomless pit, "that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Maybe this is the little season, the final flick of the dragon's tail.
Whatever happens, I am sure that it will be alright in the end. It is my deepest instinct and my strongest gut feeling, no matter how dark it gets. We will be okay.
You saw what you saw. Not a problem. I would flesh out what you have said that Jesus said by adding, Jesus's death and sacrifice of his life were evidence of his amazing love, not separate from it. I have dreamed about him since I was a little girl. I dreamed what I dreamed.
Thank you for being brave and sharing from your heart. Your experience resonates with what I experienced many years ago that I relate in abbreviation:
I was kneeling in prayer when I felt myself sinking down. I found myself seated on a gray stone bench in a gray stone cell. In the stone wall ahead of me was a rectangular opening through which I viewed beyond and it was gray--drab, lifeless, ugly--dead!
Suddenly I felt myself shift to the right, but I hadn't moved! or changed position. I don't know how I knew but I realized that the image of God with which I and every human being is created was gone! I was not the same person I had been on earth. It is God's image that makes it possible for us to have loving relationships with other people and, most importantly, with God. It was gone.
Ecclesiastes says God sends the rain on the just and the unjust. All of us experience God's presence in the wonders of creation, in the love of family and friends, in His enablement of our education, possessions, reputation, profession, and the list could go on and on. Even those who curse God and deny His existence and holiness continue to enjoy His goodness to them without seeming retaliation for their resistance to the Giver.
When I recognized His absence via His image removed, it struck me with overwhelming despair like I've never known in all my life. I knew I could not return and redo my life, I could never play 'fast and loose' with Him, I could never seek forgiveness for my sins because it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance, and He was gone. When I looked down the corridor of eternity, I knew there would never be the quenching of my thirst, the comfort of a pause in torment. I would never hear His voice again nor feel His love for me. Words will not describe the loss I felt: it was HELL!
To this day I cannot shake that experience from my memory and it compels me to warn people about the dangers of not truly knowing and loving God. Both the Old and New Testaments say over and over that the true test of loving God is by keeping His commandments which equals real obedience to God.
Jesus said of Himself, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." The book of Hebrews shows how the prescribed worship for the Hebrew people was fulfilled by Jesus step by step.
You do not have to become 'Christian,' dear Naomi. You are a completed Jew. Stripped of all the rules and polity, Jesus said worship of God is "in spirit and in truth." It is knowing God through Jesus in an intimate, personal relationship more real than anything we have on earth. It is loving others as He loves us and being His hands and feet to minister to them.
He is charting your course. It is unique to you and Him. How blessed you are!
I'm still trying to determine what it was you feared writing here, Dr. Wolf.
I think you've said enough to both your Jewish and Gentile readers that both groups might be pleased without either group being offended.
Thankyou Naomi. I watched twice. You confirmed how i feel. Jesus lead by example
Possibly my favorite among your many wonderful and insightful posts.
Thank you for your bravery. Light's blessing to you. You give us all the gift of courage.
What a blessing that your experience has provided me. So happy that you found the courage to share it. God blesses you, Naomi Wolf.
"The Thing I Feared Most" Absolutely beautiful. I am a Christian and you have nothing to fear. You are one of God's chosen people. I am not one of God's chosen people that is why I had to ask God to come in to my life through his Son, Jesus. As a Jew, Dr. Wolf you are already there, so to speak. You have always been there from the beginning of time. May God bless you and keep you in great health and may he bless your work. My respect for you grows and grows every time I read your words and listen to the wisdom God has blessed you with. Forever your friend and always in your service. God has a plan and a purpose for all of us. Part of God's plan for me is to support you. I have never had an experience like the one you have described but he has blessed me with some sort of foresight that I just do not understand. It is not something that I can just call up and it's there. It comes to me in different ways, mostly when I do not expect it. It is not foresight about big events or great things, just little hints that come to me seemingly at random, at least to me. Nothing is random when it comes to God for he has blessed us all in unique ways known only to God.
Wow, there is a whole lot of God is there. You provoke so many thoughts about very important things. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
"Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you-- Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" (John 5:45-47)
"I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen." (Romans 9:1-5)
"What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Rom. 9:30-10:4)
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" (John 14:6 NKJ)
"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith." Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them." Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree "), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians3:10-14)
Naomi: This was so wonderful. It will change the world, is what I say.
Starting with me. Love to you. SaraCarter
Wonderful! I would add that many past life experiences have been verified...For example, the little boy who remembered being a pilot killed in WW2, and many details, including his air crew and even the names of some of their wives...all verified by Pentagon records...