Science, the Soul, and Near Death Experiences, a Christian Analysis - a lecture by Dr. Michael Sadom Wednesday October 16 at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, put on by Areopagus Forums.
1. The Near Death Experience (NDE).
Raymond Moody’s Life After Life was the first book on the subject. Wasn’t scientific. Sadom set out to study scientifically. First study had 131 documented cases. Several NDE reported unique details/events – visual details, proving the mind/soul is separate from the brain. Nothing in science or medicine or psychology can explain.
Three types of NDE’s…
A. Autoscopic / out of body
B. transcendental. Can be verified. Like going down a tunnel.
C. combined
Second study in Atlanta had 160 more patients, including Pam Reynolds. She had an aneurism the Emory doctors didn’t want to operate on. Went to Arizona. Under anesthesia, lowered body temp to 60 degrees. Had blood drained from head, flatlined, no brain activity. Immediately after waking up she described witnessing the surgery, and several medical devices used, including a bone saw.
2. Neuroscience: what does it say about NDE?
Death is official defined as the brain ceasing to function. Within 20-30 seconds after cardiac arrest, brain cells go into a energy saving mode. Even with a flat EKG it still takes up to 60 minutes for the brain to die. CPR can indeed prolong life, and even bring a patient back to life. Neutron activity is reversible. If not reversed > biological death. No one knows when death becomes irreversible. There is a lot of brain activity during death – seizures, etc.
Andrew Newberg’s book Neurotheology: The Metaphysical Mind, Probing the Biology of… – not helpful. JP Moreland’s The Soul is better, agrees with Newberg.
3. Biblical Context
Groothuis book “Deceived by the Light” takes aim at Heaven tourism books. Death is an irreversible event in the midst of the process of dying.
Genesis 35:18
2 Samuel 14:14
Job 14:11-12
Ecclesiastes 12:6-7
2 Samuel 12:23
Job 16:22
Matthew 10:28
Psalm 23:4 walk through the valley of the shadow of death…death is a process.
Hebrews 9:27 it is appointed man once to die.
John MacArthur: those in the Bible who were raised from the dead never reported back what they saw, or gave sparse details. Instead they were fixated on God’s glory.
2 Corinthians 12:2-4 Peter was caught up into heaven but did not know if he was still inside his body or if he was out of his body. He heard inexpressible things, that no one is permitted to tell.
The soul leaves the body before biological death. Many experts agree the soul can leave the body during life. No biblical experts disagree. Sproul: even when the body dies there is no interruption of life – consciousness continues. No one is more alert / awake than when he is passing from life to the afterlife. NDE perceptions are “realer then real” according to considerable research into NDE experiences / memories more clear than perceived perceptions.
4. Evangelical Church – Spiritual Danger
NDE is not a trip to heaven (or hell) says Sadom, but can be an encouraging, general not specific experience, pointing to the existence of God. The danger: heavenly tourism books are all teeming with flawed / false / fanciful notions of heaven.
Don Piper’s 90 Minutes in Heaven was the first heaven tourism book, sold 8 million copies. Publicized as “a true story” and “not opinion” piper is an ordained minister who went on a publicity tour to promote the book – where his claims conclicted with his own book. 90 Minutes was ghost-written by Cecil Murphy, a Christian who helped write other Christian books like Franklin Graham’s Rebel With a Cause. Piper was adamant that he died and went to heaven, though medical reports showed no evidence of a fatal injury. The only eyewitness accounts contradicted Piper’s story in the book. The book contradicts the Bible – yet 90 Minutes is lauded in Christian Community.
The Lutheran Church and the Southern Baptist Convention both rejected heavenly tourism books. In 1918 Piper published a second book, that was inexplicably endorsed by a Christian philosopher, saing it should be “required reading” and should be “used as a seminary text.”
5. Danger From Outside the Church
Ephesians 6:12 NDE doesn’t show us a vast spiritual dimension (heaven or hell) but instead just a glimpse into an unknown reality, a general revelation of God. Angels are mentioned in 34 of the 66 books of the Bible, and are “in the room with us tonight” according to Sabom. Angels are intelligent (I Peter 1:12) and do God’s will (Isaiah 14: 12-15). Angels escort the dead to heaven (I Timothy). Satan can mascerade as an angel of light.
Non-Christians have their opinions, denouncing Sabom’s book. To rebut a non-Christian attack on his book, Sabom recruited Brooks Alexander, a Berkeley law school dropout who started the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. No one knows how demons work, but all humans are at the whim of demons.
Strieber’s book Communion: A True Story confuses the issues – are demons actually aliens? The Omega Project is better. Sabon is friends with this author. The Croatian Center for Applied Research has identified the Satanic Syndrome, a sub-personality directly related to and found in individuals who’ve practiced the occult.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. While NDE’s aren’t trips to heaven or hell, research shows that Christians have pleasant NDE and non-Christians have unpleasant experiences. Sabom put stock into NDE accounts of operating room descriptions (which can be verified) but not those describing angels, etc – because Sabom is interested in what can be proved. Transcendental testimony can still be powerful, and by inference the unproven is true as well.
Without the Word of God we don’t have a road map to determine good from evil. Satan is free to deceive. Sabom: in conclusion, this journey has shown me the need to draw close to God’s word.
Matthew 24:24
I john 4:4
John 16:33
In response to questions: AJ Air was an atheist who had a NDE and afterwards became a changed person. Tony Flue had a NDE and wrote the book There is No God (with a big X through the no in the title). NDE’s have a profound impact on those who’ve had them.
Astroprojection: practicers of the occult claim to have voluntary near death experiences. The Monroe Institute in Alabama teaches how to have a NDE – “probably just a spiritual experience” said Sabom. Seeking after such experiences is condemned in the Bible…it’s a fuzzy line.
People I knew at the lecture: Kevin and his wife, from our former Sunday School class. Also the graphic designer and his wife, and MC’s grandmother Gigi Gilbert and her new husband.
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