Can A Person In Comatose State Be Saved?
Question: I believe a person can be saved in a comatose state even when they are brain dead, for if the ventilator is still working, their soul and spirit can hear. And I have seen it done and have gotten God's revelation that they were given a chance in that state. What is your take on it?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus name! I agree that a person even before death at the last moment of his/her life can be saved, this we have seen it described in the incident of the two robbers who were crucified on the left and the right side of Jesus. During that time when it all started, both the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing saying, "He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'" (Matt 27:43-44). This was a prophetic event which displayed two sinners at the side of Jesus for whom Jesus was actually dying in order to rescue them from eternal death (Mark 15:27-28). But something miraculous happened in front of Jesus at that time, even as one was continuing to blaspheme Jesus, the other criminal on the other side was deeply convicted of his own sin by the Holy Spirit and therefore suddenly a change happened within him that made him accept Jesus as His Messiah in his heart (John 16:8-11). Suddenly he asked the other thief on the other side, "Don't you even fear God when you are dying? We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn't done one thing wrong."
Then turning to Jesus in repentance he asked, ""Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom." Jesus replied back saying, "“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-42, 43). So I believe that when a person is conscious and have the ability to think and make a choice as one of the robber did, Jesus is always ready to welcome even the vile of the worst of sinners, in to His kingdom by saving them through His blood shed for them (Heb 9:14).
It is said in the Bible, "Rachel was dying. As she took her last breath, she named her son Benoni [Son of My Sorrow], but his father named him Benjamin [Son of My Right Hand]." (Gen 35:18, GWT). But in this instance, Rachel though she was dying, yet it was in her last breath that she named her son...she was conscious enough to utter that word in her mouth.
God says that "human beings, life breath is in their nostrils...." (Isa 2:22, ISV).
As the New Testament reveals, "...when Jesus had cried-out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit." (Matt 27:50), which means once Jesus gave up the last life breath, he died and therefore from that time on was officially declared dead (John 19:30, 34).
The Bible reveals, "None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked." (Eccl 8:8, NLT).
So Biblically we can see, that a person dies only when he gives up his last breath which is not in his control, except for Jesus who had voluntarily choice either to give up His last breath in to the hands of His Heavenly Father or retain his life because He held the power over death and life in His own hands as the only begotten sinless Son of God and perfect man (John 10:17-18; 19:30; Luke 23:46; 1 Pet 2:22; Pro 18:21). For example, "...Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age." (Gen. 25:8, cf. Gen. 49:33; Job 27:3; Luke 23:46; Mark 15:37).
We know from the Scripture that when a person dies, there is a separation of the spirit/soul from that person's body (Jam 2:26; Heb 4:12). Man being a tripatriate being (I Thess. 5:23b), will leave the body when he gives up the last breath which is the spirit. So for a saved person, they will be carried by the angels to heaven where the Lord is present in His Presence (Luke 16:22; 2 Cor 5:8). But for a unsaved person who dies, they will be buried by people, and their spirit/soul will be immediately placed by God in torment of Hades (Luke 16:23). Hades is the temporary place where the spirit/soul of wicked dead reside, and are punished and kept in imprisonment until the final judgment of God which is appointed and named as 'White Throne Judgment' happen at the end of the present earth in which it will be burnt to become a vapor (Rev 20:11-15; 2 Peter 3:12).
Coma, from the Greek word "koma," meaning deep sleep, is a state of extreme unresponsiveness, in which an individual exhibits no voluntary movement or behavior. Furthermore, in a deep coma, even painful stimuli (actions which, when performed on a healthy individual, result in reactions) are unable to affect any response, and normal reflexes may be lost. A person in a state of coma is described as being comatose. Some patients are able to emerge from a coma. In others, the coma may progress to a persistent vegetative state in which the functions of the brainstem and circulation remain relatively intact or may be supported with assistive technologies. Patients in irreversible coma may meet the criteria of brain death.
Doctors who ask the stories of people who were in coma, always consider it as hallucination, which means an experience involving the apparent perception of something not present.
The Bible is clear about how to receive salvation that Jesus gives, "8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”" (Rom 10:8-13).
To call on the name of Jesus, we need to be conscious in our body, further the word which is in our heart need to be confessed with our mouth. Believing is a conscious decision, it cannot happen in a brain dead comatose when somebody is unconscious. The person in coma may even be able to see the spiritual reality of their soul/spirit for the first time in their entire life during coma, during which if by God's mercy and grace they were sustained to live in the body further and come to consciousness to make them even realize their former state of unbelief which due to revelation of the reality of God makes them seek God when they become conscious enough to know that they are unsaved and they need salvation, but yet still only as they come back to consciousness, and then confess with their mouth Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God has raised Jesus for their justification from sin, self and Satan's accusation, they will be saved (Rom 10:9).
Bible does not guarantee a salvation during brain dead comatose. If they go in to vegetative state or brain death for them to only sustain with assistive technology, only the doctors with conscience or God showing mercy to revive him back in to consciousness can only surely help at those times, so that if they come to consciousness and hear the gospel to choose salvation which then can only save such a person, or else they will die in their sins and will go in to condemnation (John 8:24), as it has been revealed that it is appointed for man once to live and after that the judgment of God will follow their lives (Heb 9:27). The doctors are as much responsible for the life of human beings as like a preacher who preaches the gospel to get the sinners saved to eternal life (Luke 5:31; Mark 6:11).
What if they were able to hear what someone is saying during coma, but were never able to open their eyes or give any response, or that their normal reflexes were lost? In such a scenario if someone have really come with a burden for this man to get saved and preaches the gospel to him even without a response from him, and prays for his healing (Rom 10:14), I agree that there is that one last chance for him to get saved before he dies or if God shows mercy for him to come back to responsiveness of organs to live a life for the Glory of God. The word of God which comes through the gospel has the power to quicken a dead heart with the life of God from heaven when it is believed (Rom 10:16-17). But this scenario is an exception because the person in this type of light coma had consciousness enough to hear the gospel, but had no way to express to the outside world of what he was able to see with his heart and soul. The long suffering of the Lord is salvation, so no man should delay to receive the gospel by believing it. Tomorrow may become too late for that person to receive salvation, as many people who die in sudden accidents leave their body even before they could think or realize what was happening to them? That is why to the rich foolish man who felt that he had no need for God and made comfort and money as his god while he was alive and well on earth, God asked him, "What will you do if you soul is required of your today? Whose will those earthly goods be which you have provided for yourself?" (Luke 12:13-21).
Condemnation of God is nothing but the light of Jesus has already come in to the world, but men love the darkness of Satan rather than light, because their deed are evil which makes them remain in darkness rather than in light (John 3:19). Like cockroaches they scurry for cover and run to remain in darkness, rather than remain in the light of God through which Jesus cleanses people from their sins and justifies them (1 John 1:7, 9).
Why should a man wait for the time of death to be saved, when God Himself tells all humans to remember their Creator in the days of their youth before the difficult days [of their life of comatose] come (Eccl 12:1)? Further God says, "In the acceptable time [when you are alive and well] I have heard you, and in the day [when life exists] I have pleaded you to take a good choice to be saved." (2 Cor 6:2, Paraphrased).
God desires all humans to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4), but that does not mean that God will force himself against a human will or override the will of humans to save them.
Even when Jesus saw the faith of the friends who had broken through the roof to bring their suffering friend who was paralytic, Jesus said to the paralytic man "Son, your sins are forgiven you," because he was conscious at that time and put his faith in Jesus to become a child of God, so his sins were forgiven and then he was healed by Jesus to shows that He has the power on earth to forgive sins too as the God of all mankind who is worthy of all worship, adoration and honor (Mark 2:2-12).
First type : I do not believe that when a person is brain dead, he can be saved. Second Type: But if a person is conscious enough to be aware of the surrounding to hear the gospel, and can consciously take a decision for Christ even without the ability to be physically responsive to express his belief of heart, then he can be saved. You might have seen coma person of the second type which I have spoken and hence your revelation might be right in this regard, but not for the first type as I have explained above.
Much Blessings....
Answer: Greetings in Jesus name! I agree that a person even before death at the last moment of his/her life can be saved, this we have seen it described in the incident of the two robbers who were crucified on the left and the right side of Jesus. During that time when it all started, both the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing saying, "He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'" (Matt 27:43-44). This was a prophetic event which displayed two sinners at the side of Jesus for whom Jesus was actually dying in order to rescue them from eternal death (Mark 15:27-28). But something miraculous happened in front of Jesus at that time, even as one was continuing to blaspheme Jesus, the other criminal on the other side was deeply convicted of his own sin by the Holy Spirit and therefore suddenly a change happened within him that made him accept Jesus as His Messiah in his heart (John 16:8-11). Suddenly he asked the other thief on the other side, "Don't you even fear God when you are dying? We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn't done one thing wrong."
Then turning to Jesus in repentance he asked, ""Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom." Jesus replied back saying, "“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-42, 43). So I believe that when a person is conscious and have the ability to think and make a choice as one of the robber did, Jesus is always ready to welcome even the vile of the worst of sinners, in to His kingdom by saving them through His blood shed for them (Heb 9:14).
It is said in the Bible, "Rachel was dying. As she took her last breath, she named her son Benoni [Son of My Sorrow], but his father named him Benjamin [Son of My Right Hand]." (Gen 35:18, GWT). But in this instance, Rachel though she was dying, yet it was in her last breath that she named her son...she was conscious enough to utter that word in her mouth.
God says that "human beings, life breath is in their nostrils...." (Isa 2:22, ISV).
As the New Testament reveals, "...when Jesus had cried-out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit." (Matt 27:50), which means once Jesus gave up the last life breath, he died and therefore from that time on was officially declared dead (John 19:30, 34).
The Bible reveals, "None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked." (Eccl 8:8, NLT).
So Biblically we can see, that a person dies only when he gives up his last breath which is not in his control, except for Jesus who had voluntarily choice either to give up His last breath in to the hands of His Heavenly Father or retain his life because He held the power over death and life in His own hands as the only begotten sinless Son of God and perfect man (John 10:17-18; 19:30; Luke 23:46; 1 Pet 2:22; Pro 18:21). For example, "...Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age." (Gen. 25:8, cf. Gen. 49:33; Job 27:3; Luke 23:46; Mark 15:37).
We know from the Scripture that when a person dies, there is a separation of the spirit/soul from that person's body (Jam 2:26; Heb 4:12). Man being a tripatriate being (I Thess. 5:23b), will leave the body when he gives up the last breath which is the spirit. So for a saved person, they will be carried by the angels to heaven where the Lord is present in His Presence (Luke 16:22; 2 Cor 5:8). But for a unsaved person who dies, they will be buried by people, and their spirit/soul will be immediately placed by God in torment of Hades (Luke 16:23). Hades is the temporary place where the spirit/soul of wicked dead reside, and are punished and kept in imprisonment until the final judgment of God which is appointed and named as 'White Throne Judgment' happen at the end of the present earth in which it will be burnt to become a vapor (Rev 20:11-15; 2 Peter 3:12).
Coma, from the Greek word "koma," meaning deep sleep, is a state of extreme unresponsiveness, in which an individual exhibits no voluntary movement or behavior. Furthermore, in a deep coma, even painful stimuli (actions which, when performed on a healthy individual, result in reactions) are unable to affect any response, and normal reflexes may be lost. A person in a state of coma is described as being comatose. Some patients are able to emerge from a coma. In others, the coma may progress to a persistent vegetative state in which the functions of the brainstem and circulation remain relatively intact or may be supported with assistive technologies. Patients in irreversible coma may meet the criteria of brain death.
Doctors who ask the stories of people who were in coma, always consider it as hallucination, which means an experience involving the apparent perception of something not present.
The Bible is clear about how to receive salvation that Jesus gives, "8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”" (Rom 10:8-13).
To call on the name of Jesus, we need to be conscious in our body, further the word which is in our heart need to be confessed with our mouth. Believing is a conscious decision, it cannot happen in a brain dead comatose when somebody is unconscious. The person in coma may even be able to see the spiritual reality of their soul/spirit for the first time in their entire life during coma, during which if by God's mercy and grace they were sustained to live in the body further and come to consciousness to make them even realize their former state of unbelief which due to revelation of the reality of God makes them seek God when they become conscious enough to know that they are unsaved and they need salvation, but yet still only as they come back to consciousness, and then confess with their mouth Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God has raised Jesus for their justification from sin, self and Satan's accusation, they will be saved (Rom 10:9).
Bible does not guarantee a salvation during brain dead comatose. If they go in to vegetative state or brain death for them to only sustain with assistive technology, only the doctors with conscience or God showing mercy to revive him back in to consciousness can only surely help at those times, so that if they come to consciousness and hear the gospel to choose salvation which then can only save such a person, or else they will die in their sins and will go in to condemnation (John 8:24), as it has been revealed that it is appointed for man once to live and after that the judgment of God will follow their lives (Heb 9:27). The doctors are as much responsible for the life of human beings as like a preacher who preaches the gospel to get the sinners saved to eternal life (Luke 5:31; Mark 6:11).
What if they were able to hear what someone is saying during coma, but were never able to open their eyes or give any response, or that their normal reflexes were lost? In such a scenario if someone have really come with a burden for this man to get saved and preaches the gospel to him even without a response from him, and prays for his healing (Rom 10:14), I agree that there is that one last chance for him to get saved before he dies or if God shows mercy for him to come back to responsiveness of organs to live a life for the Glory of God. The word of God which comes through the gospel has the power to quicken a dead heart with the life of God from heaven when it is believed (Rom 10:16-17). But this scenario is an exception because the person in this type of light coma had consciousness enough to hear the gospel, but had no way to express to the outside world of what he was able to see with his heart and soul. The long suffering of the Lord is salvation, so no man should delay to receive the gospel by believing it. Tomorrow may become too late for that person to receive salvation, as many people who die in sudden accidents leave their body even before they could think or realize what was happening to them? That is why to the rich foolish man who felt that he had no need for God and made comfort and money as his god while he was alive and well on earth, God asked him, "What will you do if you soul is required of your today? Whose will those earthly goods be which you have provided for yourself?" (Luke 12:13-21).
Condemnation of God is nothing but the light of Jesus has already come in to the world, but men love the darkness of Satan rather than light, because their deed are evil which makes them remain in darkness rather than in light (John 3:19). Like cockroaches they scurry for cover and run to remain in darkness, rather than remain in the light of God through which Jesus cleanses people from their sins and justifies them (1 John 1:7, 9).
Why should a man wait for the time of death to be saved, when God Himself tells all humans to remember their Creator in the days of their youth before the difficult days [of their life of comatose] come (Eccl 12:1)? Further God says, "In the acceptable time [when you are alive and well] I have heard you, and in the day [when life exists] I have pleaded you to take a good choice to be saved." (2 Cor 6:2, Paraphrased).
God desires all humans to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4), but that does not mean that God will force himself against a human will or override the will of humans to save them.
Even when Jesus saw the faith of the friends who had broken through the roof to bring their suffering friend who was paralytic, Jesus said to the paralytic man "Son, your sins are forgiven you," because he was conscious at that time and put his faith in Jesus to become a child of God, so his sins were forgiven and then he was healed by Jesus to shows that He has the power on earth to forgive sins too as the God of all mankind who is worthy of all worship, adoration and honor (Mark 2:2-12).
First type : I do not believe that when a person is brain dead, he can be saved. Second Type: But if a person is conscious enough to be aware of the surrounding to hear the gospel, and can consciously take a decision for Christ even without the ability to be physically responsive to express his belief of heart, then he can be saved. You might have seen coma person of the second type which I have spoken and hence your revelation might be right in this regard, but not for the first type as I have explained above.
Much Blessings....
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