See this previous post: http://ljtsg.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-reflection-on-near-death-experience.html
Well, some of my evangelical brothers have latched on to another tale of a near-death experience. In fact, my favorite one, the story of Eben Alexander III a non-believing neurosurgeon who came to a deep faith in God and the afterlife after a NDE. I read his book, and it is good. Many of his musings on God and the afterlife mirror some of my own. It is the best book on this particular subject I've encountered, it is called PROOF OF HEAVEN. At some of the more evangelical/fundamentalist Facebook pages they are posting links to his story.
Like the earlier post, I have to bring up the fact that Alexander's experience and the conclusions he draws from those experience fly in the face of strict orthodox Christianity, particularly of the evangelical variety. It speaks more to beliefs in purgatory, or those who think there will be a 'final test' of people after death, which will give them the chance to repent and return to God. This seems to fly in the face of the predominant view among evangelicals that one has to make a commitment to Jesus Christ here and now if one wants to be saved. In fact, most evangelicals I've met believe that if you are not absolutely certain right here right now that you are saved and will be going to heaven because of the sacrifice of Christ, without any doubt in your heart, you are not truly saved and will not be going to heaven.
In point of fact the vast majority of NDEs are about heaven, and a person's religious affiliation has little to do with whether they encounter Heaven or Hell. Only about 15% of NDEs include some "hellish" experience, and of those many describe going to Heaven afterwards, again indicating a kind of 'final test' theology of the afterlife.
It seems to me that evangelicals are trapped here. They cannot point to NDEs they agree with doctrinally, and reject those that they disagree with. For any evidentiary weight one has should carry over to the other, unless you can give some non-circular reason that isn't ad hoc as to why one has precedence. Further, one cannot take one part of an NDE that one thinks is real and reject the rest unless one has some consistent process by which one does this. If a Christian wants to take an experience of Heaven as PROOF that Heaven exists, it seems that same Christian is committed to accepting the doctrine of purgatory if that same experience points to the existence of that kind of place. My attitude towards NDEs remains what it was before: NDEs are an interesting experience that one should consider seriously but skeptically. They should be looked at the same way one looks at mystical experience. They point to SOME truth, but what that truth is isn't clear. I think that to the degree they shape one's conception of the afterlife, they cannot but shape that conception in an unorthodox direction.
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