Having been thrown from a vehicle during an accident, Vicki suffered a basal skull fracture, a brokenback,and a broken neck. Like so many others who have lived through a Near Death Experience (NDE), Vicki found herself hovering over the accident scene. Sometime later, noticing thatalthoughher“body”hadanatural form, it was made up of light, she found herself moving through a dark tube toward a single point of ever-brightening light. Having reached the end of the tube, Vicki arrived at a serene place of lush foliage andmagnificenttrees,andthere found herself surrounded by people. More importantly, Vicki found this place to be bathed in a tremendous light. She later described the light as “something you could feel as well as see . . .. Everyone there was made of light. And I was made of light. What the light conveyed was love.” Suddenly, she noticed a figure far brighter than all the rest, standing next to her, and she knew it was Jesus. Vicki would tell researchers, “He actually hugged me, and I was very close to him. He actually envelopedmewithsomuchwarmth and love . . . [and his eyes] were piercing eyes.” Like so many other NDE reports, Vicki stood in amazement before the resplendent glory of Jesus in a heavenly place. Even so, in a moment of profound irony, the beauty of heaven and the glory of Jesus were the first and only things she had ever seen. That is because Vicki has been totally blind from birth, not knowing even between dayandnight,darkandlight.When asked if in her blindness, she saw darkness, she quickly replied, “No, I don’t see anything at all.”
In another case presented by NDE researcher John Burke, one individual proclaimed, “Jesus is our light. . .. He is brighter than the noonday sun, but you can still look at him in heaven.” He would go on to say that while everyone in heaven is made of bright light, Jesus was the brightest of all people; “incredibly beautiful and warm.” Yet another reported, “I was so consumed by His presence that I dropped to my knees and looked up at Him. He is so beautiful. All light, inside of Light.” Indeed, over and again NDErs report seeing an incredibly bright light—a light that is almost always associated with Jesus or God. According to Burke, well over half of all NDEs include encountering a brilliant and powerful light emanating from a Divine origin. With 25 million reported cases of NDEs, that means more than 13 million people have “seen the light of Christ.” Thirteen million people!
What surely seems to the unbeliever as a staggering number of fanciful illusions, Christians hold the bright light of Christ as nothing less than orthodox doctrine brought directly forward from the Bible which proclaims “God dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim 6:16). Make no mistake, Christians argue that there is the strongest corroboration found between what has been reported by 13 million NDErs concerning the bright light of Christ, and how the Bible depicts His glorious presence. The Bible, recording the heavenly experience of the apostle John, reads precisely as a modern-day NDE of the resplendent glory of Christ: “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and turning I saw. . . one like the son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around the chest. The hairs on his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like flames of fire . . . his voice was like the roar of many waters . . . and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Rev 1:12ff).
Years earlier John had described Jesus as “the true light that gives light to everyone” (John 1:9), and as “the light [that] shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John1:5). Jesus himself taught “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness” (John 8:12). Jesus, according to the Bible, is depicted as nothing less than the brilliant point of light in the midst of a dark world. For example, John writes, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all . . . If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). Speaking of what heaven will be like, Jesus says that “night will be no more. They will need no lightoflamporsun,fortheLordGod will be their light” (Rev 22:5). The similarities between these biblical passages and what is reported in many NDEs are striking. After all, even the blind can clearly see it!
While these example passages only brush the surface of what the Bible has to say about Jesus as the light of the world, they should be sufficient to support the argument that NDEs corroborate and reaffirm what the Bible has long said about what happens to us when we die. But there is one more thing—the Bible teaches that the most important thing in this life is love. Join us again next time as we continue to look at NDEs and their corroboration with the Bible—this time concerning love. (To learn more about NDEs, please visit the Near-Death Research Foundation website at www.nderf.org). Until then, if over 13 million people have truly seen the resplendent glory of Christ, then 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.