What happens when we die?
It’s the perennial human question. It haunts and humbles, fascinates and frightens. Should the prospect of death strike fear, elicit yawns, or cause us to rejoice?
Our interest in death has also generated a fascination with “Near Death Experiences” (NDEs) or reports of people who die and then “return,” usually within a few minutes. Christians are no exception, lured by books in the Christian market that fuel this fascination and seem to prove that “heaven is for real.”
Netflix jumped on board this year with its docuseries, “Surviving Death,” a hodgepodge of postmodern nonsense that presumes to give credible information about the afterlife, all based mainly on NDEs and the paranormal.
Also, on January 4 the website Buzzfeed published a story called “People Who Were Declared Dead And Then Resuscitated Are Revealing What Death Is Actually Like.” The “People Who Were Declared Dead” article came from a Reddit user who “asked people who were pronounced dead and resuscitated, what did you go through mentally while being pronounced dead?” Buzzfeed snatched 17 of the “top rated” responses for its piece.
Out of the 17, five types of experiences characterized them all. People reported that they felt like they were dreaming; or that they seemed to be hovering and watching medical personnel work to revive them; or they felt peace or a lack of worry and usually saw a passage or a door; or that they experienced nothing at all; or that they felt like they had just been sleeping,
So, even though none of these describe what the Bible depicts as heaven or hell, are these credible accounts of the journey to the other side?
Some Christian apologists—theologians who specialize in defending the Christian faith—argue that we should take NDEs seriously and that those experiences even provide evidence of the afterlife. For example, J.P. Moreland, in his book The Soul, writes that the Bible “does not rule out the reality of NDEs,” and that there are “many, many credible NDE accounts,” and he cites two to back it up.
I would agree. But I would also add that the reality of NDEs is not the issue. The issue is whether NDEs give credible information about what happens when a person dies and enters the afterlife. And Christians should be especially cautious about embracing NDEs as providing credible information about the afterlife.
Here’s why:
- We know less about death than we do about dying.
See, it’s one thing to resuscitate someone, but quite another to bring someone back from the dead. How do I know that? Because every person who was ever resuscitated will eventually die. Again. (See my blog about Bethel Church’s prayers for Olive’s resurrection).
The fact is, the person who has a NDE is offering a report about dying, but not about death. So, perhaps, some information can be gleaned about the experience of dying. But even that, as the stories indicate, would be somewhat suspect due to the inconsistency in their experiences.
And we have significant gaps in our knowledge of death and dying. For instance, what does the brain do at death? Or the body? And medical science can confirm a person is dying or clinically dead. But medical science cannot confirm that a person has entered the afterlife.
The only absolute about death is the sheer and unmistakable finality of it. And the Bible acknowledges that death is final. Once a person has actually died, outside of a miracle of God, that person will not be resuscitated (2 Sam. 12:22-23, Heb. 9:27).
But instead, that same person, if in Christ, can anticipate resurrection.
As knowledgeable as medical science is, it is not all-knowing. And as skilled as medical professionals are, they are not all-powerful. Medical science frequently defeats dying, but medical science has not conquered death.
- Personal experience is never a measure of truth.
This is really the rub. Who do we trust when we try to understand death? We live in an age that elevates experience to the level of authority. Even Christians do it. We tend to be more concerned about the way God makes us feel than what God says we should do.
But human experience is notoriously unreliable as a gauge for truth and reality. Instead, we need an external source for truth by which we can judge the credibility of our emotions and experiences.
That’s where the Bible comes in. For instance, your experience of salvation is credible not because it makes you feel good, although that might be the case. But its credibility is anchored in what the Scripture says about salvation, regardless of how you feel (1 John 5:13).
And heaven and hell are real, not because someone thinks they experienced it in a moment of dying, but because the Bible says both are actual destinations in the afterlife.
On the other hand, Moreland and other theologians are correct that NDEs validate a very important component of biblical truth—we have a soul. It is possible to be clinically, physically dead and yet still be alive. But we did not learn that from NDEs. We have already learned it from the Bible (2 Cor. 4:16).
- One Person has been there and come back.
One Person has actually died and come back to tell us about it. He has the power of life, has raised others to life (John 11:43-44, Luke 7:11-17), and what He says is the key to understanding life and death.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was preceded by His actual death. His resurrection from the dead validates all else that He taught. No one resuscitated Him. He was actually dead, actually buried, and actually raised from the dead to life again (1 Cor. 15:3-5).
So, no matter the validity of NDEs, it is Jesus’ personal experience that informs us about heaven. And it was Jesus who described heaven as a personal place. So personal, in fact, that He will be sure that all who have trusted Him as their Savoir will spend eternity there with Him. So personal, in fact, that He is preparing a place for all who trust Him, a place that we can be with Him. Not for a few minutes, but for eternity. And a place so personal, in fact, that He plans to shepherd you there Himself (John 14:1-6).
Because, according to the Bible, for all those have trusted Christ as Savior and Lord, there will be no guessing, no extra evidence needed. Because when you die, and you are really dead, for the first time in your life, you’ll start to really live (John 11:25-26).