{"id":10019,"date":"2024-04-17T09:59:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T13:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=10019"},"modified":"2024-04-17T09:59:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T13:59:19","slug":"christian-expert-on-near-death-experiences-shares-what-they-all-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/04\/christian-expert-on-near-death-experiences-shares-what-they-all-have-in-common.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Expert on Near-Death Experiences Shares What They All Have in Common"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For over 30 years, John Burke has studied thousands of near-death experiences and found a striking commonality among them all: every person, regardless of their religious background, experiences God of the Bible. Burke told The Christian Post, \u201cI interviewed 70 people on every continent and found that they all encountered the same God; it didn\u2019t matter their culture, ethnicity, or religious background. God is the God of all nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke, who with his wife, Kathy, founded Gateway Church, a multisite church based in Austin, Texas, recounts some of these stories in his book, Imagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God\u2019s Revelation and the Love You\u2019ve Always Wanted<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0from that of a Hindu engineer who encounters a \u201cbrilliant god of lightning\u201d to a nurse in Brownsville who is told by Jesus Himself to spread the message of love and redemption. These stories, Burke said, are part of his broader argument that NDEs are God\u2019s \u201cnew global apologetic,\u201d intended to affirm His existence, the reality of the afterlife and His desire for a relationship with every person.<\/p>\n

Burke said, \u201cThey all say, \u2018I never wanted to leave His presence, and of all the beauty I experienced, all of these great reunions with people I love who\u2019ve gone on before me, nothing could compare to just being in this presence.\u201d He clarified that while every individual encounters the God of the Bible during an NDE, he is not suggesting they will end up in Heaven. Burke said he doesn\u2019t believe these people are experiencing an \u201centrance into eternity\u201d or a \u201ctunnel of death\u201d; rather, they\u2019re encountering \u201csomething in between.\u201d \u201cThis can confuse some Christians,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I like to remind them that the Apostle Paul was not a believer in Jesus; he was arresting Christians and having them jailed and killed when the same God of brilliant light appeared to him on the Damascus Road in\u00a0Acts 9<\/a>. When Paul asks, \u2018Who are you, Lord?\u2019 He says, \u2018I\u2019m Jesus.\u2019 But Jesus didn\u2019t tell him what to do, and He didn\u2019t explain the message of the Gospel to him.<\/p>\n