Pathway to Victory

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Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

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Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

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Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm.

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Glad to study God's Word with you every day.

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This Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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With so many people claiming today to have had near-death experiences, it begs the question that we're going to answer today as we continue our series "A Place Called Heaven."

And the question is simply this: Are there people alive today who have already visited heaven?

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Many of today's best religious books feature sensational accounts of people who died, went to heaven, and then came back to share what they'd seen. Do these astonishing stories provide reliable information about our eternal home?

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress considers whether some people living today have already visited heaven. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.

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Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. This month I'm presenting what I believe may be the most important teaching series of the entire year. Decades of personal study have culminated in a practical study I've called A Place Called Heaven.

Now, it's possible you own my book by that same title, but today, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'd like to send you the popular gift book that I've written just for you. It's called Encouragement from a Place Called Heaven. This is a book of encouragement for anyone going through a time of loss. Whether it's the death of a loved one, or perhaps recovering from a difficult surgery, or maybe going through stressful times, heaven is our greatest hope.

It's not a figment of your imagination. It's not a mere state of mind. Heaven is a real place that's prepared by our Heavenly Father. And my book will help you revel in this fact and it will help you keep looking up no matter what challenges come your way. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, be sure to request my book.

I'll say more about my book and other resources after my message. But right now we're ready to begin today's study in Hebrews, chapter nine. Perhaps you've read the sensational stories about people who have stepped temporarily into glory. Well, today we're going to answer the relevant question: Have some people already visited heaven?

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God is calling me. Those were among the last words of famed evangelist D.L. Moody when he died in his home in Northfield, Massachusetts, on December 22, 1899. Now, the fact that D.L. Moody died is really not noteworthy. We all die, don't we? But what made his death especially interesting was the experience he had as he was dying. According to an article in the New York Times, Moody said, "I see earth receding. Heaven is opening. God is calling me." Did D.L. Moody have what we commonly call today a near-death experience? Well, his great-nephew Raymond Moody certainly thought so. Raymond Moody is the father of the current near-death experience craze that has been sweeping our world for the last 40 years. It all started with Raymond Moody's 1975 bestseller, *Life After Life*, in which Moody recounted many instances of people who either came close to death or died and came back again to relate what they had seen on the other side.

Of course, there's a great difference between the experiences Raymond Moody recounts in his book and the experience of his great uncle. Unlike those today, D.L. Moody actually died. He didn't come close to dying; he actually died. But even more significantly, unlike those who claim to have had such an experience today, D.L. Moody never came back to life after he died. He never came back with a message about what awaits us on the other side. With so many people claiming today to have had near-death experiences, it begs the question that we're going to answer today as we continue our series, *A Place Called Heaven*. And the question is simply this: Are there people alive today who have already visited heaven? And we're going to answer that question today.

First of all, though, we need to define what a near-death experience is. According to the International Association for Near Death Studies, can you believe such a group exists? But they do. According to the International Association for Near Death Studies, the definition of a near-death experience is, quote, "a profound psychological event that may occur to a person close to death, or if not near death, in a situation of physical and emotional crisis." It includes transcendental and mystical elements. Those who study near-death experiences agree that there are some common components of these near-death experiences. Let me list several of them for you: the sensation of floating upward and viewing the scene around one's dead body; traveling through a tunnel or a dark space toward a light; time spent in a beautiful otherworldly realm; meeting God, Jesus, and/or angels; encountering deceased loved ones, relatives, and friends; the story of one's life passing in review as if watching a movie; the sensation of overwhelming peace and love; though some have reported experiencing terrifying scenes of demons and distress; approaching a barrier of some sort signaling the point of no return; and finally, being called back and reluctantly agreeing to return to one's body and life.

Many people claim to have had this kind of experience. Are they real? Well, whether valid or not, near-death experiences are becoming increasingly popular, and those who haven't had them, many wish they would have them. What is it about an NDE, a near-death experience, that is so appealing to people? I think there are two reasons we find these accounts so interesting, and we buy books by the millions from people who claim to have had such experiences. The first reason is our natural curiosity about the unknown. We all want to know about what we don't know about, and the fact is there is a dark curtain that separates this life from the next life. We're curious about what awaits us in eternity, aren't we?

Don Piper's 2004 book *90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Life and Death* really created a resurgence of interest in NDEs. Now, his book in 2004 was followed by Bill Wiese's account *23 Minutes in Hell: One Man's Story About What He Saw, Heard, and Felt in a Place of Torment*. It's a pretty interesting title, isn't it? People bought that book by the millions as well. And on and on it went. But none of these books has come close to the popularity of the 2010 book *Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back*. The book was written by Todd Burpo about his son Colton's experience. Colton Burpo was four years old when he died during emergency surgery. He came back to life after a three-minute supposed trip to heaven. During that three-minute trip to heaven, four-year-old Colton Burpo told about seeing his sister, whom his mother miscarried, and about whom his parents had told him nothing. He saw his great-grandfather, whom he had never met. He also saw John the Baptist, Jesus, God the Father, who, by the way, had two wings, and the Holy Spirit, who apparently is bluish in color and transparent. The book has sold over 10 million copies and continues to sell.

That book was followed by another book entitled *The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A True Story*. It was written by Kevin and Alex Malarkey. I like to pronounce it Malarkey. And it turned out to be Malarkey. Because after writing the book about his experience to heaven, after he supposedly died and came back, Alex Malarkey wrote a letter confessing it was all a fraud and that he had never had such an experience at all. The publisher had to pull the books from bookshelves. The fact is, we all have a natural curiosity about the unknown. The second reason I think these books and accounts are popular is because of our longing for heaven. All of us desire to be in that place called heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "God has set eternity in our hearts." We want to know what God has prepared for us. But the real question is, where do we look for reliable information?

I just mentioned Alex Malarkey's fraudulent book in his letter of apology. I want you to listen to what he said. He said, "When I made the claims I did in my book, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. I want the whole world to know that the Bible is sufficient." The Bible is sufficient because the Bible is true. And that's why any experience we have or others claim to have must be measured against the truthfulness, the standard of God's word. In 1 John 4:1, the apostle says, "Beloved, 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." I don't care who claims to have an experience. I don't care how much of a Christian they are. Every experience has to be tested against the word of God.

Think about the apostle Paul. He had all of the credentials in the world. But Acts 17:11 says, "After the Bereans listened to the Apostle Paul, they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." We need to examine every experience by the truth of God's word. And that leads to the question: well, are near-death experiences biblical? How do we know these experiences are simply not explained by the release of chemicals in the brain to provide comfort when people are going through stressful situations? Certain drugs have been known to alter brain chemistry and give the impression of an out-of-body experience. On the other hand, if somebody comes to faith in Christ as a result of one of these experiences, or somebody makes a life-changing decision for good to reprioritize his life, who are we to discount such an experience? Again, it comes back to what does the Bible say?

And so today, for the few minutes we have left, what I would like to do is to give you seven principles for evaluating near-death experiences, whether it's yours or someone you know. Seven principles for evaluating near-death experiences. Principle number one: Remember, near death is not death. Near death is not death. You die once, and then the judgment. Hebrews 9:27 says, "Each person is destined to die once, and after that comes judgment." Now I can hear you all in your mind shouting back at me. Well, Pastor, that's not true. What about Lazarus? What about Jairus' daughter? What about the son of the widow of Zarephath? There are all kinds of accounts in the Bible of people who died and God brought them back to life again, and they apparently died again a second time. How do you explain those things?

Well, we have a word to explain, to define those instances. The word is miracles. We call it a miracle. When God raised somebody from the dead, we call them miracles, not usuals. Because the fact is, they're miracles. Because they are the exception to the rule, not the rule. And as we're going to see in just a moment, in every one of those cases of God bringing back somebody from the dead, not in one of those cases did the person tell about what he saw on the other side. Not one time. The fact is, nearly dead is not dead. The only people who get to go to heaven and actually see what is there are those who have actually died.

Let me illustrate that for you this way. Let's say you live here in Dallas. You have some friends who live in San Antonio, and they've always wanted to come visit Dallas, but they've never made it to Dallas before. They call you up one day and they say, "We're finally going to come visit Dallas this weekend, and we're going to be so busy with our family, we don't have time to see you. But could you make some suggestions about what we ought to see when we come to Dallas?" So you give them a list of things to see. The weekend passes, and Monday morning, you call them and you say, "Hey, how was your trip to Dallas this weekend?" They say, "Oh, it was fabulous. We went to Reunion Tower. We always wanted to go there. And we rode the escalator all the way to the top floor, the sixth floor. And we ate at that restaurant, a Pizza Hut on top of the Reunion Tower. It was delicious." You're thinking, Pizza Hut, six stories? And then they said, "Not only that, we went down to Clyde Warren Park. Now, we were surprised to see oil derricks right there in the middle of Clyde Warren Park, but we figured, hey, that's Texas." But the highlight of the trip was when we went to Thanksgiving Square. And right in the middle of Thanksgiving Square, what we had always wanted to see: Big Tex. Man, that was so impressive. Big Tex. You're thinking, what's going on here?

So you ask the question, "Are you sure you came to Dallas?" And your friend says, "Well, not exactly. We made it all the way to Waxahachie, and then our car broke down. We didn't quite make it there, but we had a near Dallas experience." Came close, but we didn't make it. No. The only people who can tell you accurately about what's in the city of Dallas are people who have been to Dallas or they've consulted a reliable book about Dallas. And it's the same thing with heaven. The only people who can really tell you what's in heaven with accuracy are people who have visited there. And that means you have to be dead. You have to be dead to visit heaven. The only people who can tell you about heaven are people who have been there or people who have read the book. Near death is not death.

And that leads to a second principle: Remember, the Bible is sufficient. All of these books about near-death experiences, even the ones written by Christians, have the basic underlying presupposition that the Bible is not sufficient to tell us what we need to know about heaven. There is more information we need to really make us appreciate and long for heaven. But remember what Alex Malarkey said in his confession letter. He said, "The Bible is sufficient." Turn over to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, for just a moment. Paul was writing to these Thessalonian Christians. They expected Jesus to come back in their lifetime. He had delayed his coming, and now these Christians were seeing their loved ones die, and they were distressed. "What's going to happen to our loved ones who have died before the Lord returns? Are they going to miss out on heaven?" Paul gave them some great words of reassurance. He said in verse 13 of chapter 4, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep." In the Bible, when a Christian dies, he is described as being asleep, not that he is engaged in soul sleep. Asleep refers to the physical body. It is laid to rest. Our spirit goes immediately to be with the Lord, but our body is put at rest until the resurrection. He said, "We don't want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." Your loved ones are going to awaken for this. "We say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep." And then he goes on to describe the rapture of the Church when we will meet Christ in the air.

In other words, Paul said, "You want comfort about your loved ones who are dead? Here is what you need to know. Here is all that you need to know." You know, I have preached hundreds and hundreds—I'm sure it's maybe over a thousand—memorial services in my lifetime. I always read from this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4. I read from Revelation 21:4. "On that day God will wipe away all the tears from their eyes, and there shall no longer be any death or mourning or crying or pain, for the first things have passed away." As I've read those verses, I've looked into the eyes of the family seated on those first two rows, and I've seen these words from God's Word bring comfort to them, to bring them great peace, even though they've lost the person closest to them. Never once have I felt that those words were insufficient. Never have I felt the need to go somewhere else to find words of comfort. The Bible is sufficient. Everything we need to know about our eternal home is contained in this book.

Number three: Adding to or taking away from the Bible is condemned by God. Whenever we start talking about revelation that comes from a near-death experience, we need to remember the stern words found in Revelation 22:18 and 19. Remember, the book of the Revelation was penned by the apostle John when he was on the island of Patmos. Some people say, "Well, there was a near-death experience." No, he wasn't anywhere close to death. He was doing just fine when God allowed him to peer down the corridors of the future to see what awaited believers. And yet God was very clear in telling John, "Some things you can write down, some things you're not to write down at all." But listen to the closing words of Revelation 22: "I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in the book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in the book." That's a pretty harsh warning. Everything you need to know, God says, about your future is found in the book of the Revelation and elsewhere. Don't add to it. And I'm afraid many of these books, perhaps written by well-intentioned Christians, are coming close, if not crossing the line of violating God's warning. I mean, let's be clear. Do we really believe Colton Burpo's account of God the Father having two wings? Do we really believe the Holy Spirit is blue in color? It is a very serious thing to add to anything that is written in God's Word.

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As Christians, we need to exercise spiritual discernment whenever these sensational cases come to our attention. We can't allow our biblical understanding of Heaven to get hijacked by these far-fetched stories. I'm going to continue this study on tomorrow's Pathway to Victory, and I hope you'll join us then.

As I mentioned earlier, I've written a parallel book on this topic just for you. My book is called *Encouragement from a Place Called Heaven*. Heaven is not a fictional place or a state of mind. It's real. And when we truly embrace the reality of our forever home, it puts our daily suffering into perspective. You see, I've designed this book to help you celebrate what God has prepared for you as a means for coping with any kind of loss you might be feeling right now.

And once you're done reading *Encouragement from a Place Called Heaven*, I suspect you'll want to pass it along to a friend as well. A padded hardcover copy is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Along those lines, let me thank you for your generous support. Indeed, your contribution entitles you to request my book.

But here's the best part. Your financial investment is directly channeled into reaching men and women all across the world with the Truth about Heaven. In the process, we'll see hundreds and even thousands of listeners enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and you can play a significant role in leading men and women to a saving faith in Christ by giving generously to Pathway to Victory.

Here's David to tell you more.

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When you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, you're invited to request a copy of the book from Dr. Jeffress, *Encouragement from a Place Called Heaven*. Ask for your copy when you call 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org.

Another convenient way to give is to text PTV to 78800, and when you give $75 or more, you'll also receive both the CD and DVD teaching sets for *A Place Called Heaven*. Plus, we'll also include a copy of the original best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress titled *A Place Called Heaven*. Request the complete package of Heaven resources when you call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org.

A lot of listeners prefer to contact us by mail. If that sounds like you, write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us again next time when Dr. Jeffress continues to answer the question, "Have some people already visited Heaven?" That's Thursday here on Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Alaska's pristine wilderness showcases God's glory like nowhere else on earth, and you're invited to experience it firsthand on the Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.

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