{"id":8597,"date":"2023-12-12T12:41:39","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T17:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=8597"},"modified":"2023-12-12T12:41:39","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T17:41:39","slug":"pastor-believes-near-death-experiences-authenticate-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/pastor-believes-near-death-experiences-authenticate-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Believes Near-Death Experiences Authenticate the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4636\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2018\/05\/alabama-teen-walks-god-near-death-experience_credit-lightstock-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Author and pastor John Burke is detailing his examinations of over 1,000 near-death experiences in his new book, <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Imagine-God-Heaven-Near-Death-Experiences\/dp\/1496479904\/ref=asc_df_1496479904\/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=680464580282&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=3382121497446278039&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9004198&amp;hvtargid=pla-2230430713835&amp;psc=1&amp;mcid=e1ac9629669d3068b2e2fac03178bba0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Imagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God\u2019s Revelation, and the Love You\u2019ve Always Wanted<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Burke was formerly an agnostic who was intrigued by stories of near-death experiences. \u201cSo, hearing these experiences as an engineer got me thinking, \u2018Maybe this is evidence,\u2019 and then it got me into the scriptures and then I started to see the evidence, and I came to faith,\u201d he told\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.faithwire.com\/2023\/12\/01\/pastor-who-has-studied-1000-near-death-experiences-reveals-why-he-believes-claims-of-visiting-heaven-help-prove-the-bible\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">CBN<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. He described near-death experiences as \u201cIt\u2019s when someone clinically dies \u2026 their heart stops, they have no brain waves. And yet either modern medicine or miracle brings them back \u2026 minutes later, sometimes it\u2019s hours. And when they come back, they talk about experiencing the life to come, and they talk about how it\u2019s more real than anything they\u2019ve ever experienced in this world.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0His book focuses on interviews with people across the world who have had these experiences. He admitted the difficulties people face when trying to describe their experiences. \u201cThe way I like to describe it is: imagine if all of our existence is being lived on a flat black and white painting on the wall of your home. Death means separation. Your soul separates from your body. So, imagine at death, you peel off that two-dimensional black-and-white painting, you come out here into a three-dimensional world of color, and then imagine getting pressed back in and you have to describe three dimensions of color in two-dimensional black and white terms.\u201d He believes that describing these events will help non-believers come to faith.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Burke also appeared in the Christian documentary, \u201c<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pluggedin.com\/movie-reviews\/after-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">After Death<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u201d which was released in October to share stories of near-death experiences. The film went on to be\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sound-freedom-after-death-box-office-1841039\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the highest grossing documentary<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0since 2019. It focused on near-death experiences detailed in books like\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">90 Minutes in Heaven<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Imagine Heaven<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, and\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">To Heaven and Back<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Of course, near-death experiences do have their difficulties to prove. A\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2216268120\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">study<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0in May found that there was an\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2023\/05\/have-scientists-discovered-whats-behind-near-death-experiences.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">uptick in gamma activities<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0during acute asphyxia and cardiac arrest. The effect in dying patients seemed similar to that of having dreams. There is also the difficulty of faked near-death experiences, such as in the very public retraction of\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven.<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/answersingenesis.org\/suffering\/near-death-experiences-and-christian\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Answers in Genesis<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0has concluded that while near-death experiences are hard to prove, the need for Christ is not. \u201cWhether any particular near-death experience is a reliable experience from God can be challenging to discover. However, one thing remains true of everyone: we will all die. And there is only one rescue from a just and eternal judgment: repenting and believing the good news of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author and pastor John Burke is detailing his examinations of over 1,000 near-death experiences in his new book, Imagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God\u2019s Revelation, and the Love You\u2019ve Always Wanted. Burke was formerly an agnostic who was intrigued by stories of near-death experiences. \u201cSo, hearing these experiences as an engineer got me&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":4636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pastor Believes Near-Death Experiences Authenticate the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Burke is detailing his examinations of over 1,000 near-death experiences in his new book.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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