By Reese Currie, Compass Distributors
Everyone with access to the popular media has probably heard reports that people have seen the afterlife and have returned. The most common experience involves walking toward a very bright light and sometimes feeling a sense of love from the light. A small minority of those who have such experiences have a frightening experience of darkness and being briefly tormented by demons before coming back to life. Some report having spoken to angels or dead relatives and being told it "isn't their time yet."
The question is, are these temporary experiences really valid? Do they really represent an afterlife experience, or are they dreams or delusions brought on by the near-death physical condition?
The short answer is that temporary afterlife experiences could be valid, but all experiences we have must be validated against Scripture.
Opponents of the validity of temporary afterlife experiences, such as "soul-sleep" advocates like the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventists, are quick to point out that the Bible offers many examples of people who had died and were raised from the dead but reported no afterlife experience. Therefore, they claim, no experience took place.
Perhaps the most generally known example of Jesus raising someone from the dead was the case in which Lazarus was raised after four days of death (John 11:17). In the entire account, John 11 and 12, there is no mention, nor even a hint, of Lazarus relating any sort of afterlife experience.
We do know, however, that Lazarus himself was a witness of Christ, to the point that the chief priests wanted him dead. "Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus." (John 12:9-11)
Acts 20:7-12 gives the entire account of Paul raising a young man named Eutychus back from the dead. Eutychus fell asleep during one of Paul's sermons, and fell out of a window to his death! "Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, 'Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.' Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted."
Once again, no temporary afterlife experience was mentioned in the Bible text.
While this might seem like convincing evidence, it is not conclusive, because there is Scriptural evidence not only that afterlife experiences are possible, but that there is Scriptural evidence that one of these experiences happened and was reported, but was not recorded in Scripture.
One is found in Luke 16, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Here is the story as Jesus related it in Luke 16:19-31.
"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.' Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"
Note in the latter verses that Jesus teaches the possibility that a person could return from the dead and preach to others about what death is like! Therefore, it simply must be possible for people to return from the dead and give a report.
Does the fact that Lazarus and Eutychus did not report afterlife experiences in the Bible prove that they did not take place, or even that they were not reported? Jesus is another Person who died and three days later was raised from the dead, and Jesus gave absolutely no report of an afterlife experience, at least none that was recorded in the Gospels.
However, we know from Scripture that such an event did take place and was reported to at least the apostle Peter. In 1 Peter 3:18-20, we read, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water."
That is a difficult passage of Scripture that has yielded over 90 interpretations among Christian scholars since the second century. However, the majority of these interpretations involve Jesus' descent into Hades while He was dead following His crucifixion. However, no note of this afterlife experience was made in the Gospels. Since Jesus' own afterlife experience was omitted from the Gospels, it cannot be argued that the afterlife experience of Lazarus in the Gospels and Eutychus in Acts was not simply omitted for unknown reasons.
Many people who have what they believe is an afterlife experience become staunch universalists, claiming that there is good in all religions and that all people will go to heaven, with or without saving faith in Jesus Christ. This is not valid, as it is contrary to the Bible: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" (John 14:6)
That does not necessarily mean that the experience itself is invalid; it could be that the person's interpretation of the experience is invalid. We know that God can plant valid seeds with people that the devil can quickly take away due to the person's lack of understanding. In Matthew 13:19, Jesus states plainly, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside."
Others report that they have been tormented by demons. This is a common misconception; people think that the devil and his demons are in charge of hell. That is not the case; God made hell specifically for the torment of the devil and his allies, not for them to rule over people.
There are three words typically translated "hell" in the Bible, that identify two kinds of "hell", a temporary hell that exists at the present time, and an eternal hell that follows the judgment. The temporary "hell" is translated from the Greek word Hades. One other word is used to describe the temporary hell, Tartarus, which Strong's Concordance defines as the deepest depth of Hades. Finally, the permanent hell is Gehenna, the lake of fire found in Revelation 20.
The devil and his demons are not in charge of either the temporary hell nor the permanent one. Of the temporary hell (Tartarus particularly), 2 Peter 2:4 says "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment..." Of the permanent hell, Revelation 20:10 says "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."
Beyond that, people are never spoken of as going to the same part of Hades as the angels that sinned; that is, people are never spoken of going to Tartarus. There is really nothing in the Bible to suggest that demons ever get a chance to enjoy torturing humans in the afterlife; these false notions were leaked into the early Catholic church from other religions.
So, what are we to do if we have an experience that contradicts Scripture? First, we must make sure that the experience itself contradicts Scripture, not just our interpretation of the experience. Can our interpretation of an experience be corrected to agree with Scripture? If not, and the experience really does contradict Scripture, we are forced to realize that the experience was invalid.
Peter witnessed the transfiguration of Christ while with Him on a high mountain. Of this amazing experience, he wrote, "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed..." (1 Peter 1:16-19a)
For Peter, then, the prophetic word was validated by the experience he had, and we should expect no less from our experiences. Had the experience invalidated Scripture, it would have been an invalid experience.
Some reports of afterlife experiences are probably deliberately made up in an attempt to get attention; some experiences may be the result of sickness-induced dementia; other experiences are probably valid. Whenever God gives us an experience of any kind, we know that it can be reconciled with His Holy Word. If an experience cannot be reconciled with the Word, then there is no reason to believe the experience over the witness already given by the Holy Spirit through the Bible writers.
Are Near-Death Experiences Valid? Copyright © 1998 by Compass Distributors All Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: New King James Version (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson & Sons Inc.), 1982