“The most real thing that’s ever happened to me”

Over the next while, at intervals, I’m going to extract some marked passages from John Burke, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015).  I hope that you’ll enjoy them as I have.

If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. . . .  Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither.”  (C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, cited at 30)

Experiencing Heaven is the most real thing that’s ever happened to me.  I did not want to come back.  If you’ve been there, you don’t want to be here.  (Don Piper, “Foreword,” 13)

I stared in astonishment as the brightness increased, coming from nowhere, seeming to shine everywhere at once. . . .  It was impossibly bright: it was like a million welders’ lamps all blazing at once.  And right in the middle of my amazement came a prosaic thought, probably born of some biology lecture back at the university:  “I’m glad I don’t have physical eyes at this moment,” I thought.  “This light would destroy the retina in a tenth of a second.”

No, I corrected myself, not the light.

He.

He would be too bright to look at.  For now I saw that it was not light but a Man who had entered the room, or rather, a Man made out of light. . . .

The instant I perceived Him, a command formed itself in my mind.  “Stand up!”  The words came from inside me, yet they had an authority my mere thoughts had never had.  I got to my feet, and as I did came the stupendous certainty: You are in the presence of the Son of God.  (Dr. George Ritchie, cited at 22-23)

I have no idea what the next life will be like.  Whatever I saw was only — from the doorway, so to speak.  But it was enough to convince me totally of two things from that moment on.  One, that our consciousness does not cease with physical death — that it becomes in fact keener and more aware than ever.  And two, that how we spend our time on earth, the kind of relationships that we build, is vastly, infinitely more important than we can know.  (Dr. George Ritchie, cited at 24-25)