“Only Mostly Dead”

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

     I've heard many stories of people dying, going to heaven, and coming back only to tell their story or write a book, etc.  I know the Hebrew writer said we are to die once, but also, I may be understanding this wrong, but didn't Paul say in 2 Cor 12 that he couldn't even speak of the things he saw?  If not, please help me understand this "to heaven and back" stuff and if Scripture tells us if this is possible.

Sincerely,
Feet On The Ground

Dear Feet On The Ground,

We have absolutely no idea why people have “near-death experiences”, but it isn’t heaven they are seeing.  It is a clinical reality that people resuscitated from near death do, on occasion, report having experienced something.  Here is what the Bible tells us (two of which you have already mentioned):

1. Like you said, Heb. 9:27 makes it clear that we only die once.  People who are “clinically” dead and then resuscitated have not actually died… they just got so close to death that modern medical tools and procedures couldn’t register that they still had life in them.  When people actually die, they don’t come back to tell us about it.
2. The apostle Paul, who did visit Paradise, made it clear that God didn’t want the details of his experience related to all mankind (2 Cor 12:4).
3. Lastly, Jas 2:26 says that when our spirit leaves our body, that is when we die.  As we have already stated, once you die, there is no coming back.  The entire argument for near-death experiences is that the person’s spirit leaves their body and then comes back.  The Bible makes it clear that when your spirit leaves your body, you are dead, and there is no coming back.

The people who have these experiences probably sincerely believe them and believe they went to heaven.  Whatever it was that they experienced (hallucination, effects of extreme shock, etc.), near-death experiences aren’t a window into heaven.

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