Last time, we touched upon the frequently reported phenomenon known as terminal lucidity. As the name implies, terminal lucidity occurs in patients who have long since becomecatatonic due to disease or trauma affecting brain function. Many patients, it continues to be reported, experience brief moments of clarity of thought and communicate with incredible coherence to those around them, not long before dying. Deathbed visions are another end-of-life phenomenoninwhichpatientshave and act upon visions of people not physically present. Over and again, hospice caregivers report patients experiencing deathbed visions, which are confirmed by multiple studies from around the world, indicating that about 40 percent of families report a loved one as having had an end-of-life experience.
Scientific explanations are less than helpful at explaining the phenomena, obviously, because there is no survival benefit afforded the species by dying with a vision of one’s mother as opposed to dying in an unconscious state of being. On naturalism,thelatterwouldseemto be optimal. But that is not what is oftenreported.Andwhatisreported is nothing short of astounding, even coming from the tiny little West Texas town of Coleman.
In June of 2021, Billy McCorkle was diagnosed with cancer; on the 20th day of February 2023, he passed away. Judy McCorkle, his wife of 48 years, would recall that some days earlier, he had said that he hated leaving her, and she had told him that when he got ready, she would be okay and that he could go on to heaven. A few days later, growing weaker and weaker, no one was sure if he would pass away that night or not. As Judy and her granddaughter sat vigil over him in their bedroom, Billy kept looking at the window. Eventually, in a calm voice, he said, “Mama’s here,” and then he said, “Daddy.” Billy never said another word but continued to fixate on the bedroom window. Soon hisbreathingbecamemoreshallow, and the decision was made to call the hospice nurse. When the nurse arrived, she noticed he was looking intently at the window. She said she had often seen patients have these experiences and that he was definitelylookingatsomeone.When she asked him who he was looking at, he did not answer but just kept looking at the window. The nurse reported that his vital signs were good, telling the family to call her back if things changed, which they soon did.
As time drew ever closer, Judy would say that she was holding Billy’s hand when, at once, “his eyes got big, and he looked to be in awe. I don’t know what he saw, but he lookedupinawe,andIsaid,‘Youcan go on with your Mama and Daddy; I’ll be fine; you can go on.’ And he took his hand out of my hand and reached up, and he passed away.” At first, she thought he was reaching up to his Mother and Daddy, but the expression of awe on his face and the look in his eye told a different story. Those in the room are convinced that on that Monday morning in February, inescapably struck with holy and reverent awe and a sense of incredible, joyful peace, Billy Roy McCorkle took his hand out of his wife’s hand and took hold of the hand of Jesus.
Undoubtedly, the unbeliever will cry foul; after all, we are talking about Jesus Christ. Scientists argue that there are only two possible causes of what Billy experienced. First, it could be physiological changes occurring just before death, such as oxygen deprivation, that could cause end-of-life hallucinations. Second, critics point out that there may be a psychological origin that serves to ease the fear of death or may act as a type of wish fulfillment that drives end-oflife experiences. However, both of these explanations face significant challenges. Hallucinations are specific mental events in which people recognize that what they are experiencing is not real. For instance, without exception, Navy Seals experiencing hell week hallucinate. Nevertheless, they know that what they are experiencing is, in fact, a hallucination and is not real. End-of-life visions are something altogether different. Since patients can often coherently relay who and what they are seeing, they seem not to be hallucinating but genuinely interacting with the people they envision. Additionally, no evolutionary benefit can be realized in any altered state that eases or reduces the fear of death. The mantra of the evolutionists, survival of the fittest, calls for a person to fight for survival to the bitter end. In Darwinian thought, anything that takes the survival instinct away is not an evolutionary advance but a hindrance to the species.
However, there is a third possibility. Maybe, just maybe, endof- life patients experience precisely what their brains seem to perceive and what we cannot now see: something just beyond the veil. Perhaps it is that we now “see through a glass darkly.” Maybe it is very much true that Billy Roy McCorkle now fully knows and is fully known (1 Cor 13:12) and dwells with God in “unapproachablelight”(1Tim6:16).
If God is dead, why do so many people, overwrought with adoration and awe, still see Him and reach for him? It is perhaps the single most important question that every human being has to answer: Is God Dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.