Insight from: GotQuestions.Org
A near-death experience (NDE) is an incident in which a person who is at the brink of death is revived and, upon recovery, reports a spiritual experience during the time he or she was unconscious and near death. The memories are often vivid and involve an out-of-body experience, a meeting with dead family members, seeing a white light, or some sort of vision of heaven or hell. There is no specific scriptural support for near-death experiences.
Some people use 2 Corinthians 12:2–4 as a biblical proof text for near-death experiences.
However, applying Paul’s experience to the modern concept of an NDE is taking liberty with the passage. There’s nothing in the text to say that Paul was near death (or actually dead) when he found himself in heaven. Paul is simply relating a vision that God gave him of heaven. Assuming this was a near-death experience goes beyond what the Scripture says.
That being said, it is not impossible for God to give someone near death a vision of heaven. If God wants to relate some information to a person suffering trauma, that’s His prerogative. If He chooses to allow a nearly dead person to see some relatives in heaven, He certainly can do that. However, with the completion of the biblical canon, we should not expect visions to be normative for Christians.
We need to be extremely careful how we validate our experiences. The most important test of any experience is comparing it with the Bible. Satan is always ready to deceive and twist people’s thinking. “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). The unchanging Word of God must take precedence over anyone’s experiences, no matter how “real” they seem.
It would be too strong to state that all near-death experiences are faked (emphasis mine), imagined, or satanic, but there are still serious concerns, biblically, about their validity. Again, any description of a near-death experience should be held up against the truth of Scripture. If such an experience comes from God, it will line up with what He has already revealed in His Word and will ultimately bring Him glory in the name of Jesus Christ.
SURE YOU DID (Wink-Wink)
I have always approached claims of Near Death Experience’s with skepticism. The majority of them are blatantly un-Biblical to anyone who is discerning and rooted in Scriptural truth. The audio of these testimonies presented here meet the criteria, I believe, given above from Got Questions dot Org. Aside from the fact that virtually all have published books documenting their accounts of Heaven, the ones presented here all have narratives that give glory to Jesus and strongly present the truth of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. And these books and videos are indeed a practical way to spread the Good News to the unbelieving world, in my opinion. I only use the audio from their videos here because of limitations on my site hosting account.
DETECTING A COUNTERFEIT
The government authorities (Secret Service) who track down counterfeit currency find the counterfeit bills after having been trained to scrutinized the real thing right down to the smallest detail.
The counterfeit claims of visiting Heaven during a NDE are easy to spot as well if you have studied the Bible diligently after coming to faith in Christ. Typically there is no mention of Jesus at all in the fake testimonies and if there is it is completely contrary to the truth of Him presented in Holy Scripture.
Like GT.Org says above, Satan can masquerade as an angel of light to deceive those who are not born-again by the Holy Spirit. He is a deceiver seeking who he can destroy. So extreme caution and prayer is needed to “discern the spirits”. [1 Corinthians 12:10]
The first of these audio testimonies is in the audio list on the right-hand side of the Front Page and is an hour and a half in duration. It is the very detailed and inspiring testimony of Captain Dale Black, a commercial airline pilot.
I recommend it highly.