Life After Death > One man's journey to Heaven and back

 

Ex-Atheist Artist Nearly Dies, Recalls Jesus Saving Him From Hell—And Returns to Paint Pictures of the Lord

Courtesy of Howard Storm

By Louise Chambers

10/20/2022Updated:10/23/2022

A former atheist attests to how his belief system was shaken to the core when he experienced meeting Jesus during a near-death experience. He recalled his savior transporting him from a hellish realm to the kingdom of Heaven for a glimpse of what could be earned in life. It was here that he also realized the grave error of his old ways.

Howard Storm, now 75, admits that he had an obsession with success in his earlier years. Raised in a suburb of Boston, he attended school in California before taking a job as an art professor at North Kentucky University in 1972. He became a renowned painter and sculptor, and that pursuit consumed him. Today, Storm is a retired ordained minister and lives in Fort Thomas.

“I Was My Own God”

“I was an atheist. I thought that lives were short and sweet and then you die, so the whole point was to be as successful as possible,” he told The Epoch Times. “I was an alpha male ... I was totally self-absorbed. I considered myself to be a good person because I didn’t flagrantly break the law, rob, steal, or murder anybody. I was my own God.”

But on June 1, 1985, at the age of 38, a brush with death changed Storm’s outlook on life completely.

A painting by Howard Storm; (Inset) Howard Storm in his early life and more recently. Courtesy of Howard Storm

He said, “I was taking a group of art students, along with my wife, on a three week tour of Europe. We spent our last week in Paris. The last day ... I exhausted the students, taking them to galleries and museums and some archaeological sites.

“At the hotel ... I collapsed to the floor with the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. My wife called the hotel desk, they called the emergency services, and a doctor came in quite promptly. With a great deal of effort, he got me off the floor and examined me ... I had to have surgery immediately, or I would die.”

Storm had suffered a perforation of the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine where gastric acids enter the digestive system, and was at risk of having sepsis. The cause of this was never determined, but Storm believes his life of excess—alcohol, overeating, and stress—was to blame.

He was rushed to a Paris hospital. Storm has since conferred with doctors in the United States who suspect that he had only two or three hours to live. Yet he survived ten hours; it was a Saturday, and there were no surgeons on the ward. He had to wait in agonizing pain.

Between Life and Death

“I spent hours begging for drugs,” he recalled. “About once an hour, the nurse would come in and ask me how I was doing, and I would say, ‘I’m dying, I need morphine.’ She'd say she was sorry but no—no doctor, no orders.”

Struggling to breathe, Storm felt he was nearing the end. Tearfully, he and his wife said their goodbyes, before Storm lost consciousness.

“I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but the next thing I knew I was sitting next to the bed and I felt wonderful,” he recalled. “I felt better than I ever felt in my whole life. I was overjoyed, amazed, thrilled, excited. ... The next thing I noticed was that my senses were heightened. I could see better, hear better, taste better, feel better—much better than I ever had before.”

Storm performed a “reality check” on his body, feeling his way from his feet to his head. He felt “real.” He tried to communicate with his wife and ward mate; despite raising his voice and even yelling, they stared right through him. Next came a troubling vision: a lifeless body in the bed beside him.

“The sheet went up over the shoulders, the neck, and the head was turned away from me. I bent over and looked at the face of the body, and to my complete horror and surprise it looked like me,” he said.

The horror continued when Storm realized he was not alone in this realm of what he found out was the afterlife.

The Hell Realm

“I heard people calling me outside the room,” he said in a video testimony. “There was a group of people in the dark hallway, back in the shadows, maybe eight ... They said, ‘We know all about you, we’ve been waiting for you for a very long time, and it’s time for you to come with us.’”

Storm wanted to believe these were medics, but as he followed the group into a dark abyss their professional demeanor changed, their numbers increased, and their words became cruel, blasphemous, and mocking. Storm became scared and lost.

He said, “I’m going back!” But the figures wouldn’t have it, and they beat him into a crumpled heap on the floor. He found himself in a hellish place, and Storm was compelled to call out to Jesus, despite his atheism. He remembered the format from Sunday school as a child.

A painting by Howard Storm depicts the strange figures who tormented him in a hellish realm during his near-death experience. Courtesy of Howard Storm

“The prayer was very simple: Jesus, please save me. My prayer was from the heart, out of pure desperation, and it was simple and direct,” Storm told The Epoch Times.

In answer to this, a man in a white robe appeared, causing the cursing figures to retreat. The robed figure had “a beard and long hair,” Storm recalled. He was “very well-built, very athletic” and “exceedingly gentle and kind.” This was Jesus. He led Storm to a safer place, bathed in a comforting light.

A Glimpse of Heaven

“He gave me a tour of Heaven but I was never admitted, I was strictly a tourist,” Storm said. “He said, ‘You don’t have the character to fit into heaven, and that’s why life is the way it is.’

“When I asked Jesus, ‘Am I going to go back into the pain?’ He said, ‘Yes, but you will learn from that. You will suffer a lot.’ He wanted me to fulfill the purpose with which I was brought into this world in the first place: to be a loving, kind person.”

Storm woke up, certain in the knowledge that Heaven is vast and ruled by God’s love, and all that is good, and ever will be, is already there. But he had not yet earned his place with his savior.

Of course, you cannot earn your way to Heaven, Jesus has already paid the price for your tuition.

Google AI Overview > The phrase "be worthy of your calling" in the Bible, often found in Ephesians 4:1, emphasizes living in a manner that reflects and honors the purpose and plan God has for a person's life. It's a call to live according to God's will and to show gratitude for the blessings received, including salvation.

What would have happened if he had died at that moment? Would he have ended up in a Heaven that he wasn't ready for? Are you worthy of your calling?

A painting by Howard Storm depicts a path with a divine destination. Courtesy of Howard Storm

An hour later, Storm was on the operating table. Upon his return to the United States, he was readmitted to the hospital for two months, with complications, before being sent home for a months-long recuperation.

Weak and bed-bound, he had time to contemplate his spiritual experience.

“The only thing I could do was read,” he said. “I got my wife to get me a book on Buddhism, and on Hinduism, and I had a Bible. I came to the conclusion that the Bible was much closer to what I'd experienced than the other books, so I decided that I was going the way of Christianity.”

When Storm was strong enough to walk, he took an old colleague up on an invitation to join her at a local church. Storm attended with his wife, and quickly felt at home in the company of others seeking God. Yet finding his own spiritual path was easier than convincing his friends and colleagues in the art world.

Conviction

“Everybody made fun of me and told me I needed to see a psychiatrist,” he said. “All my friends, all the other university professors were atheists. One of our favorite topics was making fun of people that were religious, as they were the equivalent of adults who believed in fairy tales.”

To be loving toward those who attack you and do not share your same values is a life-long journey, he added, but Heaven is the final destination.

“We’re just really raw amateurs at love,” he said. “When we go to Heaven, as we become perfect, are holy, sanctified, fully and wholly in love, we are given responsibilities. In time, we may be ruling and working in cooperation with God over other systems: people, maybe some cities, maybe some countries, maybe some worlds.”

A depiction of Jesus by Howard Storm Courtesy of Howard Storm

The year after having his near-death experience, Storm returned to the university. In 1989 he left to attend seminary, eventually becoming an ordained minister. His longest service was 14 years at Zion United Church of Christ in Norwood, Ohio.

His work, he said, even involved exorcising “demonic entities,” counseling people following “demonic attacks,” and championing the power of prayer. “It’s got to be sincere, it’s got to be from the heart, it’s got to be forceful,” he said.

A heavenly landscape painting by Howard Storm. Courtesy of Howard Storm

Now retired, Storm works with a village mission in San Victor, Belize. He has written four books based on his experiences: “My Descent into Death” (2005), “Befriend God: Life with Jesus” (2019), “Lessons Learned: A Spiritual Journey” (2014), and “It’s All Love” (2014).

He has rendered several oil paintings about his experience, including portraits of Jesus. But capturing the luminous eyes of the Lord escaped him. “They are radiance, coming from His love and light, and I haven’t figured out how to depict them,” he said.

Today, Storm’s doctrine is simple. He echoes the words of his savior: “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter

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27 Minutes with the Extraordinary Arkiane

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My Encounter With God: Akiane Kramarik

By Bob Jones 

REVWords

October 2, 2021

Akiane Kramarik’s atheist parents were surprised when their three-year-old began to describe dreams and visions from God. This inexplicable direction in their daughter’s life, combined with a remarkable talent in art and poetry, inspired her family to re-examine their own lives.

An Encounter With God

“My life began in an unusual way,” says Akiane, 17, who spent her early years in rural Illinois. By unusual, she refers to her underwater birth in “a shack” on the edge of a cornfield. “Our family had no money, no friends, no relatives, no television or radio. Our life was quite simple — long walks in nature, open conversations, and hands on explorations of knowledge,” she says.

Her mother, Forelli, is a Lithuanian immigrant educator. Akiane’s father, Mark, is a chef from Chicago with a Catholic background. In her early family life, there was no prayer, no discussions of God, and no visits to church.

Yet in the atheistic environment her parents created – free from media influences or even outside babysitters – Akiane suddenly began to talk about God.

The Face of Jesus

She spoke of colorful dreams and visions about heaven, Jesus, and God’s amazing love. Her stunned parents realized her intense focus on God could not have been inspired by anything in the world they created for her. Indeed, Akiane seemed to be having supernatural encounters with the living God.

“Most of my spiritual experiences I kept secret, so as not to overwhelm my parents,” she says. “When I was four years old, suddenly I started experiencing vivid impressions about different dimensions and a great desire to express them through art,” she says.

At eight-years-old, Akiane decided she wanted to paint the face of Jesus, based on the visions she received.

A Discovery of God

Akiane’s painting of Jesus was a painstaking effort. “The ‘Prince of Peace’ took me 40 hours to paint and another 20 hours of working with model sketching,” Akiane says. She deftly works with light and shadows to create powerful impressions. “The light side of his face represents the truth, the dark side represents suffering,” she notes.

Akiane’s discovery of God seems remarkably personal. “Since nobody told me who God was, I found God myself. He’s been there for me through the years.  I don’t belong to any denomination or religion. I belong to God.”

To eliminate any confusion, however, Jesus is first in her mind.  “He is the only way to God — the only way to heaven and joy,” she states. “My personal views on Jesus have only matured and deepened since age 4.  As I grow I see how vast and unlimited His love is.”

Jesus’ Glory

“Jesus remains my highest authority, love, and God. I pray every day that people will one day follow Jesus, His teachings and feel His love.”

“I alone know how important Jesus is for me. Instead of writing it is best for me to express (this) through my personal connection — art. I portray Jesus how I see him, as human and as divine.

“My art is only a representation of what I see — Jesus’ glory is beyond any description!”

video 26:47

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Arkiane's Paintings Of and From Heaven - Astonishing Story

video 8:09

EX-TERRORIST LEADS INDONESIA’S CHRISTIAN CONVERT MOVEMENT

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife reporting from Jakarta.

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – The married-father-of-three has come a long way since he nearly blew up a Protestant church in Jakarta. Author Ahmad Quraisy, which isn’t his family name, was a commander of the feared Islamic State of Indonesia (NII), an Indonesian militant group. But the former Islamic terrorist now leads an underground movement in Indonesia converting Muslims to Christianity or, in his words, “personal faith in Christ.”

Quraisy, a 48-year-old humble man, told BosNewsLife that his movement has grown into some 7,000 members. “All of them are former Muslims. They meet in house churches across the country,” he revealed in an extensive interview. A BosNewsLife reporter met Quraisy, accompanied by his wife and an interpreter, in a secure separate room at a Jakarta restaurant. Leaving Islam remains a high-risk undertaking in what is the world’s largest Muslim nation. “But it was worth all the hardships we endured,” Quraisy stressed.

BosNewsLife agreed to cite only the publicly available name he uses in his self-published books due to security concerns. His remarkable journey to embracing the Christian faith began in the late 1990s. “I had become radicalized after the economic crisis. As a young commanding officer of the NII, I blamed Christians. One day, I took a bag with a time bomb to a Protestant church in the Indonesian capital. I was ready to set it off and kill many people. But then I heard the pastor telling the faithful that they should love their enemies and those who persecute them,” he recalled.

“I never saw that Christian love before in my life. I became convinced that I should not carry out my destructive plan.” He declines to say the exact name of the Church to avoid more repercussions from NII or other Muslim hardlines. “After I returned the bag with the bomb, the NII leadership got furious. I was put one month in detention.”

STRANGE VISIONS

Soon after his decision not to kill Christians, he started to see visions from the Lord, he explained. “It was in early 2000 that I met Jesus Christ in a miraculous way for the first time. Eventually, in 2001, I became a Christian.”

Quraisy believes Christ healed him from illness through visions and miracles. “I was suffering from typhus that knocked me down for a long time. One day I saw a person in white robes and glowing light saying: ‘Get up and get healed.’ I did not know it was Jesus, who healed me. But according to my old Islamic belief, a person can have a spiritual being as a teacher that accompanies you everywhere.”

He said Jesus Christ returned five months later. “He touched my head. I was shaking and became hot in my whole body. I still didn’t realize that this spiritual being was Jesus.” Quraisy claimed that demons left his home. “The next morning after He appeared to me, neighbors said they saw a being looking like a dragon wrecking in the courtyard of my house. Next week my neighbors saw hairy men in hunting apparel there. A week later, they saw a being appearing as a tiger.”

After what he called “black magic” left his life, he started “searching for the Light.” Quraisy opened a Bible that he borrowed from a Christian neighbor. “When I started to understand it, a great wind came into my room, and there was a bright light,” he remembered. “It was amazing because all the doors and windows were shut.

I was fully awake and sober when someone came, touched me, and brought me to another place. I later understood it was the work of Jesus Christ. He took me to a dessert that looked like a kingdom. A fellow with a big red eye and a sword was guarding that.”

He said the strange guard appearing in his vision led him into a “very bright” noisy place. “When I knocked on the door, someone opened. When I asked whether I could come in, that person said I had to wait while he looked up my name in a big book.”

The news wasn’t right. “The person told me that my name was not in the book. And then the guard with the red-eye brought me into a long dark alley. He said: ‘This is the place where you belong.’ It was a place full of torture.”

EXPERIENCING HELL

Quraisy said it was hell. “Because of Islam, I understood that in hell, people are burned alive. In this vision, I saw people being burned all the time.”

The vision, he expressed, also showed him a chained Islamic leader facing torture. But there were also religious Christians who had not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior enduring hardships, Quraisy stressed. “I decided to go back to the bright room.” He suggested that the room symbolized Heaven. “The person who was standing in front of the bright room said it was not yet my time. But he added: “One day, you will be able to enter.”

In too many churches there is not enough emphasis on the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our personal lives. We must each accept Him completely as Lord before we are ready to spend Eternity with Him. IMHO.

The visions, Bible studies, and talks with Christians eventually made him think that Christ had been looking for him. He said he accepted Him as Lord and Savior in 2001. “It was an answer to my prayers,” said his wife. She was a Muslim who had already become a Christian. “My husband didn’t know. I had been praying for him in secret,” she told BosNewsLife. “I was praying that one day he would find Christ too.”

But then the problems began. They were removed from the mansion of Quraisy’s father. “He was outraged that I had left Islam and had become a Christian,” the author recalled.

Quraisy and his young wife and two small children were forced to live on the streets. “Two months, we lived in a bus station, because we had nowhere to go.” But fellow believers learned about their predicament. To them, Quraisy had become like the Biblical Paul, who first persecuted the Church before becoming an apostle. “But to my family, I was a traitor. They took away everything. But I told my father: ‘I don’t need your inheritance. I only need Christ.”

FACING TEMPTATIONS

That’s easier said than done, he admitted. “Sometimes, I was thinking of going back to Islam.” But, he said, he withstood these temptations. The couple tried to work hard to make a living. “My wife worked in an Indian restaurant. I took up all kinds of odd jobs. It was a huge difference in my previous life as an NII officer. At that time, we were rich and had nothing to worry about. Now we had to think about how to feed ourselves and our two children who were just three and four years old.”

They eventually moved to a small room with a filthy floor. “We lived on handouts from neighbors and friends from whom we received food and other supplies.” But Christ remained faithful, he noted. And what started as a seemingly hopeless undertaking, grew into a blessed work supported by thousands of former Muslims, Quraisy told BosNewsLife.

“In 2012 my then small group wanted to preach the Gospel. We went to pray to the Lord. Soon after, we began publishing my books and other materials. We decided to extend the movement and include discipleship training.”

With his success came church career opportunities. “I was even offered to have a congregation with a house and a car. But I turned the offer down. Because I want to focus on reaching the Muslim community for Christ.”

He said virtually all of his 7,000 members working underground are former Muslims. “They are all Christ-followers. We communicate through social media when organizing events in our many house churches. The smallest house church has about 20 members; the biggest contains hundreds of people of the same village.”

With his movement continuing to grow, he hopes one day to have one “large congregation full of people with a Muslim background.” High on his wishlist is a training center specialized in Bible study and discipleship. “This way they can go back and help their families and friends grow in the faith.”

There is more to this fascinating story. Please go to BosNewsLife to read the rest.