If there’s even a shadow of a chance that this is true,……. I had better find out. there is nothing more important.
John Burke, Imagine Heaven
John Burke is a pastor who has studied theology and near death experiences, and he has come to the conclusion that “the core elements of the NDE are a gift from God to color in the picture that was created by Jesus and the prophets.” I happen to agree. When it comes to something that we definitely can’t be wrong about,,, it is eternity.
Eternity is a big problem for every single one of us. It makes every other problem we have seem like a tiny, trivial preoccupation. If there is something we have to get right it’s our understanding and our approach to solving the problem of eternity.
Where we spend eternity and what we do in eternity. The good news is that we have a choice. It is our choice and we are free to pursue eternital life with Jesus in heaven, or we are free to reject it. That within itself, is a very powerful and practical idea. Ideas have value only when they are cultivated, nurtured and acted upon. That is when they bring energy and power to our lives.
Overwhelming Fear
I wrote my latest book, Challenge Your Fear, Empower Your Spirit because of what I have experienced in the Covid pandemic over the past two to three years. I’m not talking about casual fear, I’m talking about sheer terror. I have seen people isolated and afraid to go outside their homes for a period of months. When I was working in the emergency room at the height of the Covid pandemic, I witnessed doctors washing their hands so rigorously and so often that they were red and chafed by the end of the shift. I saw patients scream out, “Oh my God !!! Thank you !!”, after getting a negative Covid test or quite the opposite, bursting out in tears and sobbing on receiving the news that they were positive for the disease.
The amount of fear and terror I have witnessed over the past few years was striking. After doing some research and looking into some statistics, it is clear that half the population is dealing with some kind of angst, fear or anxiety. What is really eye opening is that these statisitics were derived from studies done before the start of the Covid pandemic.
“’New survey results show Americans’ anxiety levels experienced a sharp increase in the past year, with almost 40% of respondents saying they felt more anxious than they did a year ago.’
That’s a pretty big spike–following on the heels of a 36% jump between 2016 and 2017–and it means this year’s national, averaged “anxiety score” has tipped over halfway on a 100-point scale: it’s now sitting at 51, with a five-point increase since 2017.
‘This poll shows US adults are increasingly anxious particularly about health, safety, and finances,’ says American Psychiatry Association president Anita Everett, whose organization sponsored the survey.
That increased stress and anxiety can significantly impact many aspects of people’s lives, including their mental health, and it can affect families.”[1]
[1] https://sciencealert.com/americans are in the midst of an anxiety epidemic stress increase
Thankfully, the Covid pandemic has winded down, but our level of fear and anxiety is still very high.
- 75 percent of Americans experienced moderate to high stress levels in the past month
- Stress is the number one health concern of high school students
- 80 percent of people feel stress at work
Going through the pandemic as a physician and studying behavior and anxiety levels made me realize that the fear of death is a major driver of habits, values and behavior. I just didn’t realize it played such a major role in the lives of my patients and my own extended family.
Many people, myself included, will tell you, “nah, I’m not afraid of dying” but the reality is that even people with great faith have a fear of death. Psychiatrist Ervin D Yalom an expert on the psychology of death and dying said, “despite the staunchest most venerable defenses, we can never completely subdue death anxiety.” If we are given a diagnosis of terminal cancer or for that matter, Covid, I believe our world view and how we view death has an impact on our behavior and instills fear in any and everyone. Although those with a material or atheistic worldview, take the position that once we die, that is it, it’s over and there is no hope.
Our View of Death and Dying
People who don’t believe in God think that when we die, we just end up going to the place we were before we were born. In other words, to a place of blackness where we aren’t conscious at all so we won’t be suffering and there is nothing. It’s over. Here are some quotes from several atheists describing what they believe happens when we die. Please pardon the rough language,
I have always felt that when I die, I am dead and gone, my conscious life will end, my interactions with others will end, and I will be simply GONE. I don’t know what causes consciousness (call it spirit, call it soul, I don’t mean to pick sides with my words), but I expect that it will end. My afterlife will be in the memories of those I knew, those who loved me, those who carry me on in their hearts. I, myself, cease to exist.
This gives me a beautiful, shockingly beautiful sense of the Now. Being in the present, the here and now, is the ultimate reward of life. I am constantly gobsmacked by the minutiae of life; I stand in awe of the things around me right fucking now. There’s no reward, no judgment, no heaven, no hell. I live right fucking now.
Here’s another,
I think that when I die I’ll cease to exist, and in some ways I’m happy about that. Life is hard work. Life is good, worthy work that I’m proud of and that makes me feel good, for the most part, but even though I’ll probably be sad to die (and I’d hate to think I was about to die any time soon), I’m still glad, in principle, that some day life will cease, and my burdens will dissolve with my joys. I don’t want to live forever.
And another,
I think the fact that you have to ask this question at all says a lot about how the fear of death is inextricably tied to a belief in higher powers in the minds of theists. To one such as I, who shares Kevin’s views, the answer is rather obvious and intuitive. Nothing is going to happen to him when he dies, because there won’t be a ‘him’ for anything to happen to.
https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2010/05/what-do-atheists-think-of-death/187003/
It is interesting that non-believers or agnostics believe that Christians or people from other faiths concocted the ideas behind religion to make themselves “feel better” about dying.There are two problems here. What if these people quoted above are wrong?
I remember reading an article outlining a debate between Pastor Rick Warren and best selling author and staunch atheist Sam Harris, Rick has a closing line that is pretty powerful,
WARREN: You’re more spiritual than you think. You just don’t want a boss. You don’t want a God who tells you what to do.
HARRIS: I don’t want to pretend to be certain about anything I’m not certain about.
Rick, last thoughts?
WARREN: I believe in both faith and reason. The more we learn about God, the more we understand how magnificent this universe is. There is no contradiction to it. When I look at history, I would disagree with Sam: Christianity has done far more good than bad. Altruism comes out of knowing there is more than this life, that there is a sovereign God, that I am not God. We’re both betting. He’s betting his life that he’s right. I’m betting my life that Jesus was not a liar. When we die, if he’s right, I’ve lost nothing. If I’m right, he’s lost everything. I’m not willing to make that gamble.
https://www.newsweek.com/newsweek-poll-90-believe-god-97611
That is the gist of it. What are we betting our lives on at this moment? What if we bet wrong ?
Everyone loves being right. If I die and go to a big black nothing, there will be no one there to say, “see, I told you.” But if Sam Harris and other atheists are wrong, they will have to stand before Jesus and give an account of their lives. That is why I love studying NDEs. They give you the answers to the test, before you take the test. Remember one of the most common questions NDErs say are asked of them, “what do you have to show me that you have done with your life? ”
The second problem is that it doesn’t matter what you believe or purport to believe, EVERYONE has death anxiety. Christians, Atheists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, we all have death anxiety.
There is one group of people who don’t have death anxiety. One. The people who have undergone an NDE. Simply put, they aren’t afraid of dying, because of their experience.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002216781989210
The one thing that I do want to mention is that we really aren’t “betting” if we choose to believe Jesus. There is plenty of evidence to support the existence of Jesus and the historicity of the resurrection. It isn’t a fable or a myth.
Also, if the bible was a myth or a fable, why do we keep finding archaelogical evidence that confirm events described in the Old and New Testament ?
The Value Of Near Death Experiences
So this comes back to the basic question. Why study the Near Death Experience ? Well, I think there are two major reasons that I have outlined in my books.
Near Death Experiences have all the components of a topic that gets our attention and has an impact. Whenever we come across some news item or a new idea or something that we see on a post on Instagram or Facebook, the posts that get our attention have one of three things in common. Here is an excerpt from my latest book, Challenge Your Fear, Empower Your Spirit,
We know that there are many distractions in the world today with social media, four hundred channels of television, and now Netflix and streaming video. We also know that there are three ways to get someone’s attention:
- Something unique
- Something valuable
- A threat
Something new or unique will grab your attention. We’re also more likely to pay attention to an idea if we perceive it to have value for ourselves or our families. The last quality or attribute of an idea that can arouse our curiosity is when something is a threat or could be seen as dangerous. Our self-preservation instincts kick in and tell us to pay attention because there could be danger ahead.
If we stop to think about Near Death Experiences, they are unique, valuable and if we are paying attention, they are serving as a warning.
I believe that Near Death Experiences are powerful sources of unique spiritual guidance, insight and enlightenment that we can’t find anywhere else other than the bible.
But the bible itself is our authority while living out our lives on this planet. Pastor Voddie Baucham sums up why we should use the bible as our authority in a beautiful way,
“I choose to believe the bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents, written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses that report to us supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.”
For me personally, another reason I choose to believe the bible is that Jesus quoted it often and he essentially spoke the New Testament into existence. From my own experience there is truth and supernatural power in the words of Jesus.
The Power of a Life Review
I want to share one near death experience that I used in my first book, Brave the Wave. The details regarding this one vignette was like a rock in my shoe and in my spirit because it really opened my eyes when it came to my interactions with my family and with other people at work or at church. It also served to reinforce the principles of loving and serving others espoused by Christ.
One of the most interesting accounts of an NDE was given by a person named Tom in Dr. Kenneth Ring’s book Lessons from the Light.
As a youth, Tom had an uncontrollable temper, and one day, as he explained to us, it really got him into trouble. He had been driving his hotrod pickup truck through town when a pedestrian darted out and almost collided with Tom. Tom, rather than being relieved that no accident had occurred, found himself incensed that this man had almost damaged his beautiful truck, of which he was inordinately proud. Angry words were exchanged, soon followed by blows, and Tom eventually pummeled his victim into unconsciousness and left him lying in the middle of the street.[i]
Here’s where it gets interesting, as Tom has a “life review” during his NDE:
Years later, during his NDE, Tom was forced [notice here he didn’t have much of a choice] to relive the scene, and like others we have talked about, he found himself doing so from a dual perspective. One part of himself, he said, seemed to be high up in a building overlooking the street, from which perch he simply witnessed, like an elevated spectator, the fight taking place below. But another part of Tom was actually involved in the fight again. However, this time, in the life review, he found himself in the place of the other party and experienced each distinct blow he had inflicted on this man—thirty-two in all, he said—before collapsing unconscious on the pavement.
This is the part that had an impact on me, reported in Tom’s words:
I also experienced seeing my own fist coming directly into my face. And I felt the indignation, the rage, the embarrassment, the frustration, the physical pain. I felt my teeth going through my lower lip—in other words, I was in that man’s eyes. I was in that man’s body. I experienced everything of that interrelationship between Tom and that man that day. I experienced unbelievable things about that man that are of a very personal, confidential, and private nature.
This is a graphic example, but there are numerous accounts of reliving situations where the NDEr could feel the pain they caused others, or—thankfully—the love they freely gave to others.
This may be a good time to reflect on times we inflicted pain on others, or when we freely gave love to others. It makes me stop and think a little more when I get into an argument with those closest to me or say sarcastic or mean things to those I love the most.
NDEs teach us very important lessons. Every interaction matters. Every smile we show to others matters. Every smirk or snide remark we give to someone matters. Every kind word or kind deed done out of a loving heart matters. When we understand these truths, it has an impact on our interactions. Do we all become saints suddenly? Do we become Mother Theresa overnight? No. In Evidence of the Afterlife, Dr. Long tells us of studies showing that “it takes as long as seven years or more for a person who has a near-death experience to fully integrate into their life the changes that resulted from the experience.”[ii] If the people who almost died take seven years to fully change, don’t expect major changes in your life in a few days. It takes time, discipline, and effort.
[i] Ring, Lessons from the Light, 157.
[ii] Long, Evidence from the Afterlife, 177.
NDEs Support Biblical Truth
Reading and going over this NDE and studying some of the other experiences give more power and impact to the words of Jesus,
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:12 NLT
Our interactions with others and what we do with our talents and gifts when it comes to our purpose is what we will be asked about when we stand before Jesus.
To me, the analogy is similar to walking into a university classroom and you didn’t know there was a test coming. You have no idea what the material is about. It is almost like a foreign language when you look at the test. From my own experience going through college and medical school, that was one of my biggest fears, not being prepared for the test.
How do we prepare ? How do we acquire wisdom, knowledge and enlightenment ? Well we start with the bible. The bible is our authority for how to live out our lives here on earth because it is God’s Word.
Jesus said,
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.
(John 15:1-8 NLT)
Jesus also said,
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.
John 6:63 NLT
When we study the bible and the words of Jesus, we are engaging in spiritual habits and strengthening and enlightening our spirits. These activities give us strength, power and help us to move from fear and anxiety to boldness, competence and confidence.
When we study Near Death Experiences, we are reminded of what is truly valuable in this life and how we should interact with our families and those who we love most.
NDEs serve as an adjunct for spiritual guidance and help us to focus on what is important. Notice that when people undergo an NDE, the experience is sort of a course correction. It is kind of a spiritual reassignment that is supernatural in origin and power. NDEs tell us that we all have an assignment of love and an assignment of energy.
Kenneth Ring has argued that you don’t need to die to get the benefit of the NDE, and I agree whole heartedly. Studying the bible first, and then studying unique and powerful NDE testimonies have done a great deal to change the course of my own life in a way that is much more beneficial and fruitful for myself and for my family. I truly believe if you start to look into these unique and powerful experiences, it will change your life too.
The books that had the most impact on me are these,
I do want to mention one thing about Howard Storm’s book, My Descent Into Death. He describes a hellish experience that is quite captivating but at the same time very disturbing. He describes some of the things that happened to him during his descent into hell and how he was attacked by evil beings. It is a very powerful account.
Howard is still in therapy regarding his hellish experience. He quit his job as a university professor to become a pastor. This is an example of the power of NDEs. They change lives.
Here is another post outlining the value of NDEs in giving us guidance for purpose and meaning in our lives.
Why Study Near Death Experiences? They Shine Light on Purpose and Meaning
Some skeptics dismiss near death experiences as mere dreams or the product of a brain deprived of oxygen. Have you ever heard of anyone going to psychological therapy for over a decade because of a dream? Me neither. Spend time in the Word and do some research into Near Death Experiences and the wisdom and guidance they offer. You won’t regret it.
I do need your help though, if you are a fellow Christian believer and would like to help spread this message, please take the time to leave a review on one of my books. This is the only written review I have for my Challenge Your Fear book that has been on sale for 1 year.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 12, 2022
It is clear from the moment of the introduction that Challenge Your Fear Empower Your Spirit was written by a Christian for Christians, and there is plenty of helpful tips that do not involve faith.
One thing I have learned is that this is a huge war we are in as Christians. We are going to face ridicule, rejection and criticism, just like Jesus did. But we need to stick together and help each other.
What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! For a great reward awaits you in heaven.
(Luke 6:22- 23 NLT)
I’m not asking for money, I just ask that if you buy one of my books, please take 30 seconds of your time to leave a written review that can help to counter some of the anger and hatred that comes when anyone mentions Jesus.
Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated !!