My CMS The View from a New City

Here is something worth watching. Not the answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBCevwUTj-w

I have not had a near death experience. But watching many of them on the internet has reinforced in me the following theological thesis: Faith, hope and charity is…I have faith that God is powerful enough to fulfill His promises. I hope that I will qualify for his blessings. I feel that the people I know will also qualify for his blessings and should be treated as if they will. This thesis came to me as I watched a steady stream of people walk past my New York City apartment twenty-four hours a day and I realized they had all shouted for joy when they first learned that earth life was in the offing even though very few of them now know anything about that moment and its plan as they walk along the street below my window.

This understanding of faith, hope and charity is very far from the “I’m saved and your damned” theology of some religious people. It is also the opposite of the Nietzschean philosophy that only the “superman” counts for anything. All other humans are only the mush out of which the “Uebermensch” rises.

We just read chapter 5 of the Book of Helaman in the Book of Mormon. I was bothered by the instantaneous conversion and marvelous blessing of those who a minute ago were intent on killing Nephi and Lehi. This is similar to the circumstances surrounding Alma the Younger’s conversion. Thinking about it, However, I came to realize that this is a feature of many of the modern near death experiences. Bad people find themselves in a bad place until they decide to call upon Jesus. Then they are instantaneously caught up to a state of light and love.

Whatever the theology of these cases, and their divergence from the average case of lifelong progress of those who are actively pursuing truth, I have to admit that it is a thing. A thing in the real world, and not a failing in the Book of Mormon.