Near Death Experiences Are Not The Truth Of Scripture – Raymond Moody And Dr. Eben Alexander Are Not Final Authorities

    PITTSBURGH, PA, July 18, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- According to a piece published on CTVNews, one in 10 people have undergone a near-death experience (NDE). As the article stated, "The findings were presented at the fifth European Academy of Neurology Congress by researchers hailing from Danish specialty hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and the Center for Stroke Research in Berlin, and the Norwegian University of Technology in Trondheim, Norway."

From the perspective of many respected researchers, the near death experience is real. The stories related by those who have experienced an NDE vary greatly with God's word. Therein lies the danger says Dan Corner, Director of Evangelical Outreach. He recently had this to say regarding the near death experience:

Can they be trusted in explaining what happens after death? For the purpose of this article, a near death experience is an experience that people might have after their heart stops beating, and, from their perspective, they leave their own physical body and sometimes observe it. Most of the messages concerning the afterlife of these NDE's do not line up with the truth of Scripture, and are, therefore, spiritually dangerous.

Following are some of the conflicting messages about the afterlife that people have reported: some go through a tunnel and see a bright light at the end, while others see blackness and fire; many agnostics, atheists and other Biblically unsaved people report entering a place of joy, peace and love, some even where God told them it did not matter what they did or how they lived on earth; some atheists become believers, while others claim to be changed, more loving, etc., yet without the necessary commitment to the Lord Jesus and his word in order to even enter heaven; some claim to now be able to communicate with the dead since they are back in their body. (Communication with the dead is an abomination and strictly forbidden by God in Deut. 18:10-12. In reality, it is demons, posing as your deceased loved ones, to lure you away from God- the dead cannot hear you.); finally, others give the impression of a pre-existence before their birth, thus reinforcing the false teachings of reincarnation and Hinduism.

The feelings and emotions that stem from these NDE's are often so intense and sensational that it is very difficult, almost impossible, to persuade people who have these experiences to even question or analyze them in the light of scripture. The feelings are so real and powerful that they automatically assume that the message of their experience concerning the afterlife must be from God; the issue, however, is not whether or not an experience actually took place, but what is the source of the experience (or dream or miracle or vision)? Just because one experiences a feeling of peace or bliss, does not mean that feeling came from God. The devil can and does duplicate peace; this is what he does in transcendental meditation and in Catholicism after one receives the Eucharist (communion wafer).

Evil can have a beautiful side. We must be alert to the devil's schemes; one of his schemes is to hide evil behind a beautiful façade or a blissful feeling of peace and well-being. If someone desires to poison you, the best way to take you off your guard is to disguise and sweeten the poison.

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5:14).

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).

Test everything. Hold on to the good (1 Thess. 5:21).

It is also to be noted, by the way, that not only are there conflicting messages about the afterlife from all these different NDE, but there are also many conflicting messages about salvation from Mormonism, Catholicism, Seventh Day Adventism and Islam, all of which claim and report visions. Since the messages from these experiences, visions, miracles, etc., contradict one another, we know that God is not the only source of them because God is not a god of confusion.

Since Near Death Experiences contradict one another, how do you know which ones should be discarded? The all-important question regarding any life after death experience is: Does it contradict the unchanging and eternal message of the Holy Scriptures? If it does, then the spiritual source of the miraculous or supernatural behind the life after death experience was not the same source that gave us the Bible. It is also important to know that the Bible teaches there are two sources of miracles - God and the devil! Since the devil is always trying to mislead us in one fashion or another, and he can use very convincing ploys, we must be very guarded. He has and currently is deceiving billions about the spiritual.

The biblical evidence shows near death experiences are a popular and effective way the devil has been deceiving people about life after death. Many Near Death Experience people have a very pleasant experience despite being dead in their sins and spiritually lost; such proves that NDEs are not reliable concerning the afterlife since the Scriptures do not testify to a universal salvation for everyone (meaning not everyone goes to heaven); in fact, Jesus taught most will go to hell.

Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He (Jesus) said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. (Luke 13:22-24) The narrow door is heaven. (See also Mt. 7:13-14.)

By the way, reincarnation is refuted by Hebrews 9:27, which declares plainly "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment."

Also, please know that after physical death there is no mention in the Bible of anyone going through a dark tunnel with a bright light on the other side with a sensation of great peace and love in the presence of such light, as in NDEs.

What is most dangerous about these experiences is if you think you have what you need to go to heaven, you will not look any further; we are to seek God (a continuous tense in the Greek) - keep seeking God in order to find him. God is Truth. He cannot be separated from the truth of his word. When it is written that the truth will set you free, that verse (Jn. 8:31), unbeknownst to most people, means freedom from the slavery of sin caused by the sinful nature (Gal. 5:19-21; Col. 3:5). If your NDE, dream, vision, etc., is from God, then it will draw you to the message of the Bible, which screams out that we must repent (Lk. 13:3,5; Acts 17:30; 2 Pet. 3:9), put to death our sinful nature (Gal. 5:24), and follow and obey Jesus and his word (the Bible) to the very end of our life for salvation (Jn. 10:27; Heb. 5:9; Lk. 8:21; Mt. 10:22; Heb. 3:14; Rev. 2:10,11; Gal. 6:8,9). If, however, the message of your NDE does not lead you to obey God in such a way, then your experience is not from God who gave us the Bible, but from our deceitful enemy the devil.

Dan Corner, a former pastor and ex-Catholic, is the author of a number of books including 'The Believer's Conditional Security: Eternal Security Refuted', 'The Myth of Eternal Security' and 'Is this the Mary of the Bible?'.

Dan is available for media interviews, including debates, and can be reached using the information below or by email at [email protected], by phone at 724-632-3210 or by mail at PO Box 265, Washington, PA, 15301. His websites are https://www.evangelicaloutreach.org (EOMIN.org) and http://www/AlcanceEvangelistico.org (DBN-MIN.net) and http://www.EternalLifeBlog.com.

After graduating from college, Dan Corner got saved by reading the Bible. For over four decades, he has diligently served the Lord Jesus. Dan Corner's pastoral, apologetic, counter cult and street evangelism experiences have equipped him to contend for the faith and win souls to Jesus from many backgrounds.

He is an ordained minister and director of Evangelical Outreach who pastored for almost seven years and has authored hundreds of Christian articles, answered thousands of emails and letters and has written several books of vital importance in our day.

# # #