Letters From Grandpa #501

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 501

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will be about the book The Case For Heaven by Lee Strobel. Lee was once an atheist and an award winning legal editor for the Chicago Tribune. After seriously investigating the claims of Christ for two years, however, he became a Christian in 1981. The story of his amazing conversion was depicted in an award winning motion picture in 2017. Today Lee is an award winning author of more than 40 books in defense of the Christian faith. Many of his books present evidence for his faith and are titled The Case for Christ . . . a Creator . . . Christmas . . . Easter . . . Faith . . . Hope . . . Miracles . . . Etc. Cold Case Detective J. Warner Wallace wrote: “I wish Lee Strobel had been my partner as a detective because – as always – he leaves no stone unturned.”

Out of the abundant evidence in his book about heaven, this letter will narrow our focus to evidence for the afterlife gleaned from the examination of near death experiences. There is much evidence on this subject. In 1975, for example, Dr. Raymond Moody wrote a book about it. Dr. Moody is a physician with doctorates in both philosophy and psychology. In fact, he is credited with coining the expression “near-death experience.” His book has sold 13 million copies and has been translated into a dozen different languages. The interviews Moody did with 150 people who experienced NDEs inspired Kenneth Ring, a long time professor at the University of Connecticut, to found The Journal of Near-Death Studies and to devote his life to research on the subject.

Of course researchers have discovered fraudulent claims. In 2010, for example, a young man named Alex Malarkey wrote a book entitled The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven. Alex was critically injured in a car wreck and his book sold more than a million copies. Sadly, Malarkey later confessed: “I did not die. I did not go to heaven.” His book was a scam to draw attention to himself and to make money. To avoid this problem, researchers, like John Burke, have chosen to interview people without a profit motivation. Burke interviewed over a thousand people with NDE’s and chose “Stories from people who lack a profit motive. These are orthopedic surgeons, oncologists, bank presidents, cardiologist, commercial airline pilots, professors, and neurosurgeons. They don’t need money.”

Yes! There is much evidence that life continues outside of the body. Researcher Kimberly Clark Sharp, for example, investigated the testimony of a heart attack patient named Maria. Maria claimed that while she was unconscious she drifted outside of the hospital and saw a tennis shoe on the hospital’s third story window ledge. Maria said it was a “Man’s shoe, left-footed, dark blue, with a wear mark over the little toe and a shoelace tucked under the heel.” Discovering the shoe exactly as Maria described adds credence to her testimony. Another researcher named Janice Holden studied 93 NDE patients and found that 92% of their observations turned out to be completely accurate.

Then there is the case of a seven year old girl named Katie who was found floating face down in a swimming pool. She was comatose, suffered brain swelling, and had no measurable brain activity. She was 20 minutes without a heart beat. She was hooked up to an artificial lung and 3 days later woke up with a clear mind. The doctors interrogated her and discovered that even though she was unconscious, she knew what book her father was reading, that her brother was pushing a toy soldier in a jeep, and that her mother was cooking roast chicken for supper. At the hospital she even drew a picture of the emergency room with everything in its place.

• Other researchers, J.P. Moreland and Gary Habermas, have more amazing stories. One woman with no brain waves was declared dead but regained consciousness while they were moving her
• to the morgue. She accurately described what the doctors did to her and even repeated a joke they told.
• Another young woman said she left her body in one hospital room and went into another room in time to hear her brother-in-law say he was going to wait and see if she “kicked the bucket.”
• Another dying patient named Elanor began calling out the names of deceased relatives she was meeting. She shocked her family by calling the name of her cousin Ruth who had just died without her knowledge.
• Another girl had a NDE and claimed meet her brother in the afterlife. Her parents were shocked because this boy died before she was born and they had never mentioned him to her.
• A similar experience was reported by a five year old Dutch girl who contracted meningitis and fell into a coma. In her NDE she met a girl named Rietje who claimed to be her sister. The parents confirmed that years before Rietje had indeed died but they decided not to tell her siblings about it until they were old enough to understand.

God knows our frame and remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:14). God does not expect us to believe anything without evidence. The case of Gideon illustrates this truth. God called him to lead an army and liberate Israel from the Midianites. Gideon answered: “But Lord. How shall I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” (Judges 6:15). The following verses reveal that God gave layer upon layer of evidence until Gideon was completely convinced. The fact that Gideon did defeat the Midianites is an even greater confirmation.

The Scriptures warn us: “Dear friends, 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.” (1 John 4:1) God expects us to be skeptical and to demand evidence. Apologist Frank Turek asks this probing question to unbelievers: “If you knew the Bible was true, would you become a Christian?” Sadly, many would not! Would you?

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce