It\u2019s usual for people who have a near-death experience to say they \u201csaw the light\u201d or \u201csaw heaven\u201d after their experience. Well, one pastor has studied over 1,000 accounts of near-death experiences with a mission to help people understand these allegations. John Burke, author of the bestselling book, \u201cImagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God\u2019s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You,\u201d recently told \u201cThe Pure Flix Podcast\u201d he\u2019s a firm believer of evidence and reason and believes accounts of near-death experiences are authentic. Burke says he wrote \u201cImagine Heaven\u201d to explore the parallels and similarities in near-death experiences across the globe.<\/p>\n
Burke also said that people who go through these experiences often have a hard time putting what they\u2019ve experienced into words. They can\u2019t explain something that exceeds our current world, all while being restricted to the experiences and semantics of this realm. He compared our present existence to a flat, two-dimensional, black-and-white photo. According to Burke, people who have a near-death experience are \u201cripped off that two-dimensional plane and brought out into three dimensions of color.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unexpectedly, these individuals try to explain the new dimension to people who have only experienced the two-dimensional realm, which has its difficulties. Burke says they always interpret their experiences in their worldview, which is crucial because not every interpretation will align with the Bible. However, he adds that the similarities all point to the God of the Bible and no one else. Burke thinks that near-death experiences are a gift from God in a world when modern medical resuscitation can allow people to come back from the brink of death. He adds that\u2019s it fresh evidence that God is real.<\/p>\n
According to Burke, hundreds of scholarly articles have been written about near-death experiences in medical journals. During the experiments for these articles, researchers recorded all the observations among people with near-death events who claim to have outside their bodies. There was also a control group that didn\u2019t claim to have a near-death experience and imagined what might have been happened in the room of their resuscitation.<\/p>\n
Astoundingly, the control group got almost none of them right. The control group got 10 to 15 percent of their proclamations correct. In comparison, the near-death experience group was reportedly 92 percent right, with an additional six percent being at least somewhat accurate with their details. In \u201cImagine Heaven,\u201d Burke also discusses three people who are blind. Despite never seeing beauty with their own eyes, they observed incredible sights during near-death experiences. Burke says the ultimate goal of \u201cImagine Heaven\u201d is to guide people towards Christ.<\/p>\n
Seeing heaven after a near-death experience isn\u2019t a new concept. The 2014 film \u201cHeaven Is for Real\u201d is based on the story of Colton Burpo, who had a near-death experience at 4-years-old. When he emerged from emergency surgery, he told his parents that he had gone to heaven and back. Of course, his parents had a hard time believing him. It can be challenging for those who haven\u2019t experienced that second realm to believe someone who says they\u2019ve been to heaven. Still, Burke\u2019s book, \u201cImagine Heaven,\u201d hopes to break down that barrier and show that there may be some validity to the stories of seeing heaven. Watch Pastor Burke’s interview on \u201cThe Pure Flix Podcast\u201d below:<\/p>\n
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