With medical advances, there are intriguing cases of people apparently being brought back from physical death and subsequently recounting a near-death experience (NDE). I am cautious about accepting the truth and reality of NDEs, especially because some people have confessed to making up NDEs. More importantly, not all NDEs have been positive experiences; some have been deeply disturbing. Scientific American interestingly states that “religious people don’t seem to be more inclined toward NDEs” and admits here that NDEs offer “some of the deepest mysteries of existence.” I would not use NDEs as a part of apologetics.

J.P. Moreland provides an excellent footnote (#1) on NDEs in chapter 8 of his book Scientism & Secularism. I agree with him on the need for caution with NDEs when he writes, “I do not accept all the interpretations of what we should believe wordtheologically from near-death experiences (NDEs). For excellent defenses of the reality of near-death experiences, see Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife (New York: HarperOne, 2010); Long and Perry, God and the Afterlife (New York: HarperCollins, 2016); J. Steve Miller, Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven (Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek, 2012); John Burke, Imagine Heaven (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2015). I do not accept all the interpretations of what we should believe theologically from near-death experiences (NDEs), but these incidents seem real even if people report some of the implications of and experiences during the NDE due to prior, distorting intellectual beliefs. Further, as Burke points out, the “life-reviews” in NDEs are not the two judgments in the Bible (the bema seat and the great white throne judgments), so the life-review is something earlier than these judgments. It could easily be the case that God presents His loving and merciful side to NDEers for his own reasons. But, interestingly, there are also a significant number of hellish NDEs that clearly indicate God is also a Being who judges.”“

I leave you with this testimony . . .