AFTER DEATH Guest Expert on What Scripture Says About Near-Death Experiences

Published: April 12, 2024

AFTER DEATH Guest Expert on What Scripture Says About Near-Death Experiences

By Movieguide® Contributor

This week on Shannon Bream’s ‘Livin’ the Bream’ podcast, she interviewed John Burke, pastor and author of “Imagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Revelation, and the Love You’ve Always Wanted.”

“I actually saw a book that someone had given [my father], and it was the very first research on near-death experiences,” Burke said of how he started researching the topic. “I studied mainly people who have clinically died. Their heart stopped beating, they have no brain waves and yet they come back talking about a life more real than this one, in a place more beautiful than this one, and, in many cases, in the presence of this God of light and love who is personal.”

“And anyway, I picked this up, and I start reading it. And I was an agnostic at the time, you know, thought Jesus was a legend, and there probably is no God because nobody had answers for me, and I am very analytical. I want to know,” he said.

As he read the book, he realized the research could be evidence. But he needed more information before he could be convinced.

“I was still skeptical, but it opened my mind, and I started studying the Bible. I started studying other religions,” he explained. “I was trying to figure it all out, and anyway, yeah, over time, I did. I went from a career in engineering into ministry, but over the last 35 years, I’ve studied well over a thousand of these near-death experiences, and my curiosity has always been around showing how the commonalities of these experiences align with what God’s been revealing through the scriptures all along.”

Burke believes that after death, people have a spiritual body.

“While they’re out of their body, they say when they die, they leave their body, but they still have a spiritual body, just like Paul talked about, which, by the way, I think Paul might have had a near-death experience in Acts chapter 14. He was stoned to death in Lystra, dragged out of the city and left for dead,” he told Bream. “And then he gets back up, and he says in 2 Corinthians 12, 14 years ago, ‘Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know, because we still have a spiritual body. I was taken up to heaven and shown and heard and shown things inexpressible.’

“And so when people are out of their body, initially they can see and hear things that they shouldn’t have been able to because, again, they have no brainwaves. Where is it recording? If we’re just, if all our memories are just, you know, physical,” he said.

The author told of one woman who could see above her body when she clinically died in childbirth. She saw a red sticker on the ceiling fan, which could only be seen from above. She said God told her to go back and be with her son. Then, she returned to her body, came back to life and told of what she saw, to others’ astonishment.

To Burke and other researchers, experiences like this are evidence.

Near-death research is explored in the 2023 documentary AFTER DEATH, in which Burke provided expert commentary. Part of Movieguide®’s review of the doc reads:

AFTER DEATH is a documentary exploring the nature of Near Death Experiences. In the movie, scientific experts and researchers discuss the subject. One scientist who conducted a comprehensive study of many NDEs found that people had experiences where they accurately could describe events in operating rooms and other places, even though they were unconscious. Researchers also confirm that the experiences are often very similar. Finally, multiple people tell their stories about experiencing the afterlife, including visiting Heaven and Hell, meeting dead relatives, and even talking to Jesus. The filmmakers use special effects to punctuate their stories.

AFTER DEATH is a fascinating, inspiring look into the nature of thousands of near death experiences. It explores the scientific evidence, the encounters people have had, and how the experiences affected them and their lives afterwards. AFTER DEATH has wonderful special effects that help make it a cinematic experience. Best of all, however, it has a strong Christian worldview promoting hope, love, purpose, meaning, and life. It encourages viewers to stop and consider Eternity. It also tells viewers, “What we say and do really matters.”

Dr. Janice Holden, president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, has conducted significant studies that prove there is life after death.

She “did a study and found that of all the observations they make, 92% are completely accurate. Another 6%, most of their observations were accurate. Only 2% were inaccurate. Turned out to be one NDE patient. And so you’re talking incredible, verifiable observations. That’s what, for me, grounded this in our reality,” Burke said.

A relative of Bream’s read Burke’s book as she neared death. As a Christian, it gave her excitement about what to expect after she died. Bream feels the same way.

“This book has given me a hope and joy about knowing my life here on earth is going to be over,” she told Burke. “But there is something else that I firmly believe in and know that I’m going to spend eternity with God. I mean, that’s really powerful that you can put into books that kind of hope for people.”

Per The Christian Post, the book features 70 interviews with people who’ve had a near-death experience, but he’s studied over 1,000 experiences over 35 years.