Another Hollywood favorite and icon has passed away. This time it is Olivia Newton-John, and it makes me terribly sad.
When she first sprang on the scene, way back in the 70s, she was a real heartthrob to many a young man, as she got their attention with her looks and songs like “If you love me let me know,” “Let me be there,” and “Have you never been mellow?”
Later, she really struck paydirt in both song and cinema, when she starred the hit movie Grease alongside John Travolta.
She always seemed like such a sweet, kind, lovable human being, and had the womanly beauty that went along with such qualities that did not taint her.
Some women who are physically attractive seem to know it, which in turn tends to blow the cover off, in a negative way, who they really are just below all the makeup, lipstick, and human skin.
Such was not the case with Olivia; she always projected a genuineness and humility with her outward appearance.
That said, though, my sadness comes after reading a story about her thoughts about death and the afterlife.
Olivia had endured years of battling breast cancer that ultimately spread to other parts of her body and subsequently took her life.
When asked about her thoughts about death and the afterlife, she responded like too many lost people who are caught up in paganistic or animistic folk ideas, all of which are contrary to what Jesus taught in the Bible.
She said, “I mean—we all know we’re going to die…I think we spend much of our lives in denial of it.”
Both statements are absolutely true. We know we’re going to die, but we’re in denial of it, or simply do all we can to ignore it.
But, then she says,
“What I feel about it is extremely personal, so I find it hard to put into words. I believe that we are all part of one thing. I’ve had experiences with — how can I put it? — spirits or spirit life or felt the spirit world or have heard things that I believe there is something that happens. It’s almost like we are parts of the a big computer and we go back to the main battery. I don’t have a definite definition of what it is. Some people call it ‘heaven.’ Some call it ‘the universe.’ I just think there is a great knowingness out there that we become part of.”
What? Spirits? Spirit life? Spirit world? Going back to the “main battery” is “heaven”?
This is nothing more than New Age-type gibberish that one might find in a Hindu or Buddhism setting where the guru or teacher talks of denying oneself in order to be absorbed into the master Self or Nirvana.
But, that is not what Jesus taught.
Jesus said that in order for a person to enter the kingdom of God—not some impersonal thing out there in the “universe”—that person had to be “born again,” or literally “born from above” (Jn 3:3).
And that if a person was not born again—which means born by God through a regenerative act by the Holy Spirit, whereby a person is forgiven of his/her sins and then becomes a new, living creature, rather than one who is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1-2)—then that person cannot or will not enter the kingdom of God!
In fact, Jesus was so adamant on the subject that he emphasized it three times to a highly religious man by the name of Nicodemus, “You must be born again“; and don’t be amazed at what you just heard (Jn 3:7).
Then Olivia goes on to talk about near death experiences, but fails to mention anything about Jesus, much less the occult connection associated with NDE’s when there is no biblical basis for them.
Finally, she says all the beliefs about the afterlife amount to an amalgam of conflicting ideas that “all seem to have the same ending.”
Really? That’s not what Jesus said.
She says, “Either we come back as something else or we go to heaven or we join others in the spirit world. But most humans want to believe that we go on. I don’t know if that is so. I hope that I can let people know when it happens if it is.”
Here we have another pagan concept, i.e. reincarnation, mixed with an admission of agnosticism. She doesn’t know.
But, once again, Jesus said a person could know, as well as did his disciples.
The writer of Hebrews, probably the apostle Paul, stated, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27), that negates the idea of reincarnation.
John the apostle wrote, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:13).
Yet, none of this appears anywhere in Olivia’s testimony, which, once again, makes me sad.
Why? Because Olivia is not only not a part of the human family on earth, she’s not a resident in the kingdom of God either.
Worse yet, she left behind some final words that telegraphed just where she was headed—and is now there.
And where is that? Jesus said, “whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because [she] has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn 3:18).
Condemnation takes place in hell, and from there, the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-ff).
At this moment I could not be distraught, if I tried, by writing those words.
As much as I would like to think that Olivia Newton-John is “resting in peace,” by her own testimony, it is evident that she is not.
God have mercy.
