What Do They Reveal About God and Heaven?
(Plus Interview with Steve Miller)
Exploring the evidence, eternity, and the hope we have in Jesus
Everyone will one day ask themselves these questions:.
What happens when we die? Is there really something beyond this life? What will it be like to stand before God?
Most of us don’t wake up thinking about death. We have groceries to buy, emails to answer, children to call, work to finish. Life has a way of keeping eternity just far enough away that we don’t have to look at it too closely.
But eventually, death touches someone we love. And suddenly, the questions we avoided become impossible to ignore.
That is part of what made my conversation with J. Steve Miller so compelling.
Steve is a professor and researcher who teaches about religion, death, dying, and the afterlife. What makes his story especially interesting is that he describes himself as naturally skeptical. He didn’t begin researching near-death experiences because he was looking for confirmation of what he already believed. He began because he wanted to know what the evidence actually showed.
Years ago, after being asked to read Heaven Is for Real, Steve started looking more deeply into the research surrounding near-death experiences. What surprised him was how much of that research appeared in medical and academic journals rather than simply in Christian books or personal testimonies.
He kept reading.
And reading.
And what began as skepticism became serious investigation.
NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES
A near-death experience, Steve explained, is different from a deathbed experience. A person who has a near-death experience faces clinical death and is later resuscitated. A deathbed experience happens as someone is approaching their final moments on this earth.
Then there is something called terminal lucidity—when someone whose brain has been severely damaged or whose mind has been clouded by illness suddenly becomes remarkably alert and lucid shortly before death.
Steve told story after story of people whose experiences challenged simple explanations.
Some reported seeing deceased loved ones. Others described encounters with a being of light. Some spoke of Jesus. And across different cultures and worldviews, researchers have found surprising similarities in what people report.
MORE REAL THAN LIFE
One detail stayed with me: people often describe these experiences as extraordinarily real—sometimes more real than ordinary life.
That is difficult to dismiss.
But I think these stories matter for another reason.
They remind us that eternity is not merely an abstract theological idea. It is where every one of us is headed.
Jesus once asked, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
The question lands differently when we slow down long enough to hear it. We can spend our lives building careers, accumulating possessions, chasing recognition, and worrying about things that will eventually disappear. Yet Jesus keeps bringing us back to the soul.
What happens to the soul?
Where will we be when this life is over?
NO FEAR IN DEATH
Steve said one reason he no longer fears death is that his study of the evidence has strengthened his confidence in Jesus. And that brought our conversation exactly where it needed to go—not simply toward fascinating stories about the afterlife, but toward Christ.
Because Christianity does not ask us to earn our way into heaven. Our conversation turned to Romans 3 and 4, where Paul doesn’t flatter us: We are not good enough. We cannot manufacture our own righteousness.
Our hope is found in the righteousness God gives through faith in Jesus Christ.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul writes, “and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23–24)
THE UNDESERVED GIFT OF SALVATION
The question of eternity ultimately isn’t about whether we have lived a flawless life. None of us has. It is about what we will do with Jesus.
Near-death experiences and deathbed experiences may raise profound questions. They may give us glimpses that make us wonder what lies beyond the veil. They may challenge assumptions about consciousness, death, and the limits of what we can explain.
But they do not replace Scripture. In fact, according to Steve’s extensive research and knowledge, these experiences affirm Scripture. They cause us to look again at the One Scripture points us toward.
Jesus.
The One who said He is the resurrection and the life. The One who died and rose again. The One who promised eternal life to those who believe in Him.
Perhaps that is why conversations about death can actually become conversations about hope.
Not because death is something to romanticize. Steve rightly said we should have a healthy respect for it. Death is real. It is final from the standpoint of this earthly life. But for those who belong to Christ, death does not get the final word.
So perhaps the question isn’t only, “What happens when we die?”
Perhaps the better question is, “Am I ready?”
And if that question makes your heart uneasy, don’t run from it.
Seek.
Open the New Testament. Read the words of Jesus. Read Romans 3 and 4. Ask the hard questions. Bring your doubts into the light.
Jesus said, “Seek, and you will find.”
There is grace for the searching heart.
And there is hope beyond the grave.
That is what I took away from my conversation with Steve Miller. Not simply a fascination with near-death experiences, but a renewed reminder that eternity is real, our time here is brief, and Jesus has made a way for us to be with God forever.
That is a story worth living for now. And a hope worth carrying all the way home.
Want to hear the full conversation? Listen to or watch my interview with J. Steve Miller on God-Sized Stories with Patricia Holbrook. We go much deeper into near-death experiences, deathbed experiences, terminal lucidity, the evidence surrounding them, and what these extraordinary stories may teach us about God, eternity, and the hope we have in Jesus. to enter the giveaway for a copy of Dave’s book through the link below.
FIND OUT MORE:
- Purchase the book: Near-Death Experiences
- Learn more also about A Window to Heaven by Diane M. Komp
- Watch the interview below and ENTER THE GIVEAWAY from the form at the end of this post.
