Imagine all the love you have experienced in your entire life, from your parents, spouses, friends, family, and then multiply it by a thousand.
That's the kind of love people who have had near-death experiences experience. They report being in the presence of God.
John Burke, the Texas-based best-selling author of “Imagine Heaven” and now the next book, “Imagine the God of Heaven,” writes vividly on the subject.
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Along with his wife, Kathy, of Gateway Church in Austin, he is also president of the nonprofit Gateway Leadership Initiative (GLI). He and his family live in Austin.
In an interview, Burke said he spoke to 70 “different people for 'Imagine the God of Heaven,' from every continent, from every religious background. And yes, they encountered this God of light and love, but many of them They also found him as Jesus.”
Near-death experiences are “often life-transforming experiences, many of which occur under extreme physiological conditions such as trauma, cessation of brain activity, deep general anesthesia, or cardiac arrest.” (iStock)
NDEs, as they are known, are a scientifically recognized phenomenon that occurs when people are clinically dead.
They are “intensely vivid and often life-changing experiences, many of which occur under extreme physiological conditions such as trauma, cessation of brain activity, deep general anesthesia or cardiac arrest in which no consciousness or sensory experiences should be possible under the conditions.” prevailing”. points of view in neuroscience,” according to the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia.
Some people even describe scenes they could not have seen except supernaturally.
People often have visions of themselves; They see their bodies when paramedics try to revive them, or doctors while they operate on them, or even their relatives in waiting rooms.
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Some even describe scenes they could not have seen except supernaturally.
Burke, who spoke at length on the “Lighthouse Faith” podcast, interviewed a woman named Mary who died in childbirth.
Burke said, “She leaves her body… and is in the presence of God. She feels this incredible forgiveness and love, and He tells her, 'Your son is going to live.'”
“Imagine the God of Heaven” by John Burke is now available in paperback. Burke said he had always been skeptical when it came to religion. He was not an atheist, but he had doubts. However, he said people who had no Christian training or understanding have reported seeing things that are only described in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, particularly Revelation 21. (Amazon)
Burke said Mary is told she must return.
“As she comes back into her body, she goes through the ceiling and goes over the top of the ceiling fan… She's resuscitated and she's trying to tell the doctors and nurses about this amazing experience she had. They all think she's just hallucinating.” .Psychotic.”
Medical staff reportedly said Mary had no heartbeat or brain waves.
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“Imagine the God of heaven”
Then a curious nurse grabbed an orderly and a ladder and looked.
“Sure enough,” Burke said, “there is a red sticker that Mary somehow saw on the top of the ceiling fan.”
Pastor and author John Burke's new book is “Imagine the God of Heaven.” (John Burke)
One of the first documented NDEs is the case of Dr. George Ritchie. In December 1943, Ritchie was a 20-year-old Army soldier and died of pneumonia.
Nine minutes later, he came back to life and was profoundly changed.
He later became a doctor of psychiatry and wrote books on the NDE phenomenon. In a late 1990s interview with Joan Rivers, Ritchie spoke about what he found, about incredible light and love, and about being in the presence of what he believed was God in Jesus Christ.
Since then, science has researched and studied NDEs. A 2019 study found that one in 10 people reportedly suffers from an NDE, according to the European Academy of Neurology. And Dr. Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia has studied more than 1,000 cases.
Burke said there is overwhelming evidence that what people experience is actually in the Bible.
He retired in 2015 but still consults with other UVA researchers who continue to work in the field.
Burke said he believes science is limited to understanding the metaphysical aspects of NDEs.
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And that there is overwhelming evidence that what people experience is actually in the Bible.
“Christians don't realize how many of these things are tied to what the Bible says.”
Light and love are the two attributes of God in the Bible. They are also the two commonalities that people describe in NDEs.
- Light: “And Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
- Love: “For God is love” (I John 4:8).
Burke said he had always been skeptical when it came to religion.
He was not an atheist, but he had serious doubts.
However, he said people who had no Christian background or understanding have reported seeing things that are only described in the Judeo-Christian scriptures, particularly Revelation 21.
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Burke said he interviewed an Indian named Santosh, a manufacturing engineer who “coded.” When his heart stopped, medical staff could not get him beating again.
For three days, Santosh was on artificial life support. He later described being “taken by this God of light that was personal, that he knew was protecting him and took him to this place,” Burke said.
In Revelation 21, the apostle John described being taken up in spirit to heaven, to a very high mountain. He is contemplating the Holy City.
The vast majority of people who have had an NDE say they don't want to return to their lives on Earth, Burke said, that this incredible love that exists there is all they have been looking for in life. (iStock)
“And he took me in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its splendor like a fine jewel, like jasper, clear as the glass, had a great and high wall, with twelve doors, and at the doors twelve angels, and on the doors were written the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel” (Revelation 21:10-12).
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Burke said, “And this same city is what Santosh describes, this Hindu man who has never read the Bible. He said that this is where everyone should be, that he just knew it intuitively. And he said it was beautiful and these, these big , he called them mansions or buildings of other mundane building materials and he was a manufacturing engineer so he would notice that.
“He called them mansions or buildings of other mundane building materials. And he was a manufacturing engineer. So he would notice that.”
Burke said he was surprised when Santosh said there were doors, 12 of them, and angels guarding the doors.
The vast majority of people who have had an NDE say that they do not want to return to their lives on Earth and that this incredible love that exists there is everything they have been looking for in life.
Lauren Green, Fox News Channel's chief religion correspondent, spoke with Texas-based author, pastor and speaker John Burke. (FoxNews)
Ritchie, who died of cancer in 2007 at age 84, also spoke of this love and much more. She said that there were several different levels to this afterlife.
There were not just two: heaven or hell. And that our lives on Earth determine where we go and who we see when we die.
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But one of the most important points he made to Joan Rivers was this: “Life really is forever. We don't die. Death is just a door we pass through.”
And that raises a question for Burke.
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Are these people who have NDEs meant to help humanity find God?
Only heaven knows for sure.
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