{"id":13382,"date":"2025-07-03T10:47:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T14:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=13382"},"modified":"2025-07-03T10:47:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T14:47:35","slug":"ex-skeptic-discovers-evidence-for-jesus-nde-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/07\/ex-skeptic-discovers-evidence-for-jesus-nde-encounters.html","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Skeptic Discovers Evidence For Jesus, NDE Encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Burke, a pastor and author who has studied and examined more than 1,000 accounts of near-death experiences, wasn\u2019t always a believer in the supernatural.<\/p>\n

Burke is the author of \u201cImagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God\u2019s Revelation, and the Love You\u2019ve Always Wanted<\/a>,\u201d but he was once an agnostic, skeptical of faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up studying engineering and working as an engineer,\u201d he told Jen Lilley and Billy Hallowell on the \u201cInto the Supernatural Podcast.\u201d<\/a> \u201cSo my mind has always worked like that. Like, skeptical \u2014 \u2018How do you know? Is there any evidence? Why does that make sense?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke continued, \u201cAnd nobody could really answer my question. So I just decided: \u2018Jesus is probably a good man who turned legend and God, you just can\u2019t know. There\u2019s no evidence.’\u201d<\/p>\n

But when Burke\u2019s dad was dying of cancer decades ago, he started learning about near-death experiences (NDEs) \u2014 scenarios in which people clinically die and have no heartbeat or brain activity yet report consciousness. He first encountered the issue when his father was reading a book about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw this book on his bedside table, and I pick it up, and I just am curious,\u201d he said. \u201cI start reading it and I couldn\u2019t put it down. And, at the end, I said, \u2018Oh my gosh, like, this might be the evidence I\u2019ve been looking for.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The book helped open up his mind, leading him to read and study the Bible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a year or so, for other reasons, actually for fulfilled prophecy in history that I didn\u2019t know was there either, I came to faith in Christ,\u201d Burke said, noting he felt driven to keep studying Scripture and learning:<\/p>\n