Thursday, November 2, 2017

The Near Death Phenomenon

Every so often we hear about NDE’s (near death experiences). I typically avoid discussing these types of things, as they are really more or less subjective experiences.  It is often up to the person listening to decide whether the account is believable or not. I haven't had one myself, and there also isn’t usually much in the way of physical evidence - other than the fact that there may be some medical records that corroborate the person actually died. In fact, a good many people who were brought back to life after some type of medical event report seeing or feeling nothing when they were gone. As we are entering the twenty-first century, we have medical advances such that people can (and are) often resuscitated shortly after they flat-line. An interesting thing has occurred in light of this.  Namely, that as modern medicine has become more proficient in bringing people back from death, accounts of NDE’s have also gone up proportionately.  Ask any hospice nurse and they will say the same thing: there is something more than just this material world. 

Does this mean we can trust all of these stories? Hard to say. There are different versions of what happens after death corresponding to the different religions in the world.  There are also different versions of the NDE that people give, describing what happens to them after their death and resuscitation. There are also different motives that may exist. For example, whenever I read about someone who had one of these experiences, I often look back just to see if it is hinging on a book deal or movie rights.  If John Doe is charging fifty dollars per book, then in my opinion a financial motive could be driving things.  But what about all the people who come forward in spite of skepticism from critics?  What about those brave folks who seem to have no other motive than to give an account of what they saw and heard? 

There are some interesting things to remember here.  The number and frequency of these occurrences seem to indicate to a certain degree that there is something out there, whether or not people choose to believe it. Additionally, there is the interesting point that not all of these NDE experiences are pleasant. Imagine waking up from a heart attack and being surrounded by the same type of hell-like fire and sulfur that the Bible described two-thousand years ago.  These stories are still happening today.  And finally, the astounding number of people (even from different religions and cultures) that report seeing Jesus after they died.  Let’s face it – this phenomena is either happening, or it isn’t. There is either a percentage of these experiences that are legitimate, or it is just random neuron-firing in people's brains as they depart. Some belief systems will explain away all of this by making statements such as “remember, these people weren’t really dead… they came back”, or “it is all a product of the chemicals inside the brain during the death process.” These statements may both be accurate, we won’t know until it is our time.  But what if all three of these positions could be true at the same time?  That they came back, there was a chemical release, and there is an afterlife.  Are these three ideas really mutually exclusive? 

But an interesting thing happens when we actually stop and listen to some of these stories. The people are either exquisite actors, ravenous liars, or simply put ... they are telling the truth.  They may be so convincing because they really did see what they saw.  As I said before, near death experiences are far more difficult to discuss because they don’t provide a central document or book from which to make arguments in the same way the Bible does.  But I don't believe that these occurrences contradict Scripture either. 


It is true that these accounts are subjective. A person either gives their testimony and we believe it, or we don’t. But it's interesting how much persecution some of these people endure for the sake of telling their story.  It's intriguing how these testimonies often end up matching exactly what the Bible says about a celestial heaven or hell. Even more intriguing to me, is the number of these experiences that describe a meeting with Jesus himself. 

I had mentioned previously that I've never had an NDE myself.  But my aunt had a daughter, Shelly, who was mentally handicapped due to a lack of oxygen at birth.  Life was hard for Shelly.  Besides having trouble communicating, she also had serious health issues which required spending lots of time in hospitals.  During the span of her life, even though she couldn't communicate verbally, she would use sign language and touch to express her emotions.  For years, off and on, she would sign the numbers "8/98", always with a big smile on her face.  No one knew what this meant.  But in retrospect, I believe Shelly did.  You see, she died in August of 1998 at the age of 16.   

I think it is safe to make the assumption that there is something else out there.  A spiritual world entirely different than this one.  A place where God comes to meet us where we are at, and requires from us only that we accept Him and become born again.  His free gift to us, if we choose to accept it.   

I don't think we can discount all of these stories.  They are like eye-witness testimonies from people who were there.  It's probably better to listen, than to ignore them.  Shelly would have wanted us to listen.  



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