Answer
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. In that passage, Paul writes,
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.
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. Also, when Paul returned from his journey to paradise, he was silent about what he heard: “No one is permitted to tell” of those things, he said (2 Corinthians 12:4). Has God changed His rule today, and now people are permitted to tell?
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, 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 ultimately bring Him glory in the name of Jesus Christ.
